Luke 18:9-14
A few years ago Canon Pratt was on sabbatical and Fr. Don Davidson from St. George's of Forest Hill was looking after our Wednesday morning Eucharists. He asked me to read the Gospel on one particular day, and I read what we have read today, the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee. I began very confidently (and a little excited, reading the Gospel and all), but I soon found my voice cracking as I read the tax collector's words. In that moment everything seemed to come together, and the words of the Jesus Prayer became new and particularly penetrating for me: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
I don't think we're called to wallow in guilt and self-pity all the time, but neither are we called to gloat and feel self-satisfied. So often we seem to forget that being Christian means living life forgiven, which is not the same thing as living life perfectly. No matter how hard we might try, we will end up falling short of the mark from time to time, and in need of forgiveness.
We live in an age when even within the Church, Christians are finding it hard to agree on various issues. (A quick look at Church history will remind us that such conflict is pretty much par for the course, but it always seems to catch people by surprise.) How different might our level of discourse be if we each exhibited the humility of the tax collector in today's story?
- Matthew Kieswetter
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