He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
(Luke 18:9-14)
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It seems to me that one of the problems with Thanksgiving is that it can give us the impression that saying “thank you” is the only thing we have to do for people. It's kind of like the idea that saying “I'm sorry” fixes everything. It's a good start, but somehow both thankfulness and apologies need to go beyond mere words. There's a story that makes the rounds – I've been told that it's true – about a missionary who had come home for a furlough. One of the things he did when he was back home was accept speaking engagements in churches, and the churches that asked him to speak would give him a donation of some sort for his missionary work when he was finished. Sort of like Dr. Paul Thistle, who you might remember visited with us back in June while he was home from Zimbabwe. Well, this particular missionary was home, and he received an invitation from a church to join them and to speak at both their morning and evening services. It was quite a trip – the church was about a three hour drive from where he lived – but the missionary happily accepted the invitation. So, on the appropriate Sunday morning he woke up early, got himself dressed and made the three hour trip. He preached at the morning service, did a lunch and a sort of question and answer session afterward, stayed in town and went back to preach at the evening service. It was a long day. After the evening service the person who had invited him approached him, thanked him for coming and handed him an envelope, which he assumed was a donation for his mission. He packed up, got in his car and made the three hour drive home. It worked out to about a 17 hour day for the missionary, not to mention the time he had spent beforehand preparing for the two services. When he got home he was getting ready for bed when he remembered the envelope that he had stuck in his jacket pocket. He took it out and opened it, and took out what was inside. He looked at it. It was a piece of paper: a hand drawn fake cheque, on which someone had written in the “Amount” line - “A Million Thanks.” That was it. A fake cheque with “A Million Thanks” scrawled across it. Nothing more. That story – which, as I said, I've been told is true (and I know some congregations who might actually do that!) - raises a question for me that seems particularly relevant a week after Thanksgiving: are there times when thank are not enough?
Jesus would have understood that question. In the parable we just read, Jesus offered a warning about giving thanks. Two men went to the temple to pray. The first was a very good man. He was a Pharisee, which meant that he kept the rules. He was respected and honoured by all; he was a pillar of the community. This good man is praying, and he gives thanks to God: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” This, indeed, was a very good man who did a lot of very good things. He did the things good religious folk are supposed to do, and given this man's obvious goodness, Jesus said the strangest thing. He said that this prayer of thanksgiving was worthless. The whole thing was a farce. Jesus said it wasn't enough. “Thanks for your thanks – but no thanks.” That was the message from Jesus. What was wrong? The man did pray, after all. He took the time to go to the temple and express his gratitude to God. And what he said wasn't wrong. There were a lot of robbers and evildoers and adulterers out there. There were a lot of people who couldn't be trusted. There were a lot who weren't interested in God. But this Pharisee was interested in God. He was faithful in his own way. He never lied, he fasted and he tithed a tenth of everything he had to God. If he were alive today we might even name a church after him. So, why were his thanks not enough? And does this serve as a warning to us that sometimes our thanks might not be enough?
In order to really understand this parable you have to consider who it was addressed to. Jesus told this parable to “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous.” The Pharisee in the parable was priding himself on his own virtue; he was sure of how good he was, convinced of his own righteousness. Now, to be honest, this Pharisee did have a lot going for him. To be honest, in a lot of ways he was a much better and more faithful man than I am. Surely that virtue has to count for something. But perhaps sometimes we think too much of our own goodness. I’ve known people who do a good job of seeming pious – they do all the good religious stuff just like the Pharisee in the parable – but they’re also some of the meanest and nastiest people you’ll ever meet. They never forget a single mistake or forgive a single slight – but they’re in church every week and they’re often among the biggest givers! They’re like the Pharisee in the parable. They’re convinced of their own goodness. They know everything and more importantly they know that they know everything. But somehow they’ve forgotten that their righteousness is a gift from God – nothing more, nothing less. The thanks that the Pharisee offered was the kind of righteousness that says “thanks, but I’m so good that I really didn’t need the help.” He thanked God, but he made sure that he did it in a way that would let God know that he could have done it all on his own.
To push that opening verse a little farther, Jesus told the parable “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.” When our thanks erects barriers between ourselves and our neighbours, then our thanks are not enough. In Jesus’ time, the pious men in the Jewish community (or, at least, those who wanted the world to think that they were pious) would say this prayer: “O God, I thank you that I am not a dog, a Gentile or a woman.” Jesus was speaking to those who would have said a prayer like this – to pious people who not only trusted in themselves but looked down on others with contempt. There’s a story about a Sunday School teacher who was teaching this parable to her students. She told the children that the Pharisee was a bad man, and that the tax collector was a good man. When she finished her lesson she said, “now boy and girls, let’s pray and thank God that we’re nothing like that mean old Pharisee.” She had missed the point completely. If our saying “thank you” is really a ruse that allows us to say “I’m better than the rest of you!” then our thanks is not enough.
I trust we all understand the mistake that the Pharisee made, and that we’re here today for the right reason. We’re not here to proclaim our goodness to each other; we’re not here to show the world what good “church people” we are; and, in fact, we’re not even here because we’re good. We’re here to sing, to listen, to pray and to ponder the mystery of God together until somehow we really know deep in ourselves that we don’t depend on ourselves or our own goodness but rather on God and on divine grace. Only then are we really able to give thanks – not for what we do or for what we are, but for who God is and for what God has done for us.
Jesus ended the parable by talking about that tax collector who went to the temple to pray: “the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” The Pharisee thanked God for making him so good; the tax collector thanked God for mercy and forgiveness, and, in response, Jesus said of the tax collector that “this man went down to his home justified rather than the other …” You see, it’s not about what we’ve accomplished – it about what God has done. Somehow, the Pharisee had got it into his head that he was a winner because of all the good and pious things he had done. But I liked the words of John Madden. John Madden knew what winning was all about as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders team that won Super Bowl XI. That man, who knew how to win, said “Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble.” You see, patting ourselves on the back for how often we come to church or for how much money we give to the church or for how many committees we serve on or how much work we do misses the point. We’re just not that good – and so we do need God’s forgiveness. So thank God yes – by all means – but for the right reasons. Thanks God for mercy and forgiveness and compassion and grace poured out in abundance. Only when we’ve learned that these are the things for which we should be thankful is our thanks really going to be enough.
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