The Corner of Fourth and Walnut
October 28, 2007: 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Sirach 35:12-14,16-18 II Timothy 4:6-8,16-18 Luke 18:9-14
To the church in the diaspora[1]
& to the church of the unchurched[2]
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke.
Glory to you, Lord.
Jesus aimed this parable at those who were self-righteous and looked down on everybody else. "Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee got up to pray and spoke to God saying, 'Oh God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men -- greedy, dishonest, adulterous -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on all my income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.' I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
Introduction
Feasting on Luke’s parables
These past Sundays we have been feasting on the best of the New Testament parables which are found only in St. Luke: the Parable of the Rich Fool and His Bursting Bins(18th Sunday), the Parable of the Prodigal Son (24th Sunday), the Parable of the Poor Lazarus at the Rich Man’s Gate (26th Sunday). On this 30th Sunday we are treated again to another great parable found only in Luke: the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (i.e. sinner). That parable indicts those who look down on everyone else, and it encourages those who think they are sinners.
Tax collectors i.e., sinners
When the Romans occupied the land of Jesus they hired Jews to collect taxes from fellow Jews. Those hirelings were obviously unpopular. They were traitors. Furthermore, they were often extortionists. As usual, the Living Bible translation of the New Testament presents a descriptive and free-styling version of this passage: “Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a proud self-righteous Pharisee and the other a cheating tax collector “ ( Lk 18:9-14).
In the New Testament tax collectors (traitors and extortionists that they were) are always mentioned in the same breath with sinners. One day the Pharisees complained to Jesus’ disciples saying, “How come your master eats with tax collectors and sinners?” (Mt 9: 11). They complained on another occasion saying, “Look at this man Jesus. He is a glutton and wine-drinker, and he is a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Lk 7: 34). Jesus also mentioned the two in the same breath but in a startlingly different way, when he berated the chief priests and Jewish elders saying, “I tell you that tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you people. John the Baptist came preaching and they listened to him, but you fellows did not” (Mt 21:31-32).
Contrasting strokes
Today’s parable is a picture painted with contrasting strokes. When the parable begins, the sun is rising, and the two are leaving home to go up to the temple to pray. In that sacred place the Pharisee gets up to pray and thanks God he’s “not like the rest of men.” But the tax collector goes down to pray; he bends low to the ground where humility gets its humus. The Pharisee defines himself by what he does: “I do my tithing. I do my fasting. I do my Schema prayer three times a day.” But the tax collector defines himself by who he is: “I am a sinner.” The Pharisee confesses other men’s sins (“They are greedy, dishonest and adulterous”). But the tax collector confesses his own sins (“Oh, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner”). In his heart of hearts the strutting Pharisee is really sad, while the confessing tax collector is really glad. When the sun is setting and the two are returning home, the tax collector has been set right with God, but the Pharisee has not.
Self righteousness: a holy feeling
Luke says “Jesus aimed this parable at those who were self-righteous and looked down on everybody else” (Lk 18:9). Self- righteousness is a holy feeling of not being like the rest of men -- greedy, dishonest and adulterous. As a holy feeling self righteousness wears the mantle of God around its shoulders, and with that mantle wrapped around one’s self there’s no limit to what can be perpetrated in the name of God. At the end of the day, self righteousness is the feeling we accord ourselves when we don’t feel good about ourselves. It’s a kind of compensation.
The Nazis’ self righteousness which kills
After their sound defeat in World War I many Germans didn’t feel very good about themselves. They blamed everybody else but themselves. The German Nazis chose to blame especially the Jews. They thanked God they were not like those Jews – greedy, dishonest and immoral. Then they pursued and persecuted them with a vengeance. On the night of Nov. 9, 1938 that holy feeling of self righteousness sent the Nazis rampaging throughout all of Germany and in one night destroyed 7000 Jewish businesses and burned down 191 synagogues without batting an eyelash. What an ocean of self righteousness it took to accomplish such remarkable statistics just in one night! Nov. 9, 1938, goes down in history as the Krystallnacht, The Night of the Shattered Glass. It goes down in history as the moment the Holocaust began. By the time the Nazis’ holy feeling of self righteousness had expended itself the most heinous crime in recorded history had been committed: six millions Jews had been incinerated in the crematoria of Dachau, Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
The Islamists’ self righteousness which kills
Of the three great monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) Islam is the youngest. It is founded on the Koran as the scripture revealed to the Prophet Mohammed (570-632). In the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries Islam became the very center of the universe eclipsing Europe in the fields of mathematics, physics, architecture, medicine, chemistry, poetry and spirituality. But for the last two centuries, Islam has been on the losing side of history because of all the modernization and secularization closing in on it. Many Muslims dismiss modernization and secularization out of hand as evil. Left behind by history, many Islamists respond by blaming everybody else but themselves. Andrew Sullivan writes, “Much of the Arab world has withdrawn into a fortress of intolerance and self-righteousness.”
A great part of Islam, consciously or subconsciously, thanks Allah for not being like those Western infidels: greedy, dishonest and immoral. A holy feeling of self-righteousness clothes all Islamist suicide bombers with divine authority to commit the most heinous crimes in the name of Allah. Without any doubt, bin Laden is first and foremost a religious man. On 9/11 that religious man through his missionaries (his suicide bombers) brought down three thousand innocent infidels and two towering trophies in the name of Allah, Most Kind and Most Merciful.
The Rev. Phelp’s self righteousness which kills
Extreme Islamists don’t have a monopoly on self righteousness, but the Rev. Fred Phelps, it would seem, does. He has so much of it it’s hard to believe there’s any left for anyone else. He and his followers picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard (a gay student from Wyoming College) beaten to a pulp by two skinheads who tied him to a wooden fence out in the country and left him there to die in his blood and tears on October 12, 1998. At the funeral they carried signs that read, “God hates fags and buries them in hell.”
He and his group never tire of thanking God that they are not like the rest of men, greedy, dishonest and immoral, as homosexuals are. The Reverend and his Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, announced plans to erect a monument in a city park in Casper City where Shepard grew up, and where he learned it was OK to be gay. The monument would be made of marble or granite. It would stand five to six feet in height with a heavy bronze plaque bearing the face of the slain young man and an inscription reading, “MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, In Defiance of God’s Warning: Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination. Leviticus 18:22.” So read a letter from the Westboro Baptist Church signed by Phelps and sent to the City of Casper.
Behold the Reverend and his bunch confessing this kid’s peccadilloes instead of confessing their own mountainous sin of self righteousness. Imagine all the teachings of Christ and all his parables that they had to ignore in order to get to the point where they could rejoice in putting someone in hell!
The unself righteousness which gives life
The Bible tells Phelps and his followers that, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination” (Leviticus 18:22). For the Bible Tells Me So is a documentary that was shown at the Sundance Film Festival 2007. It explores the issue of religion and homosexuality through personal interviews with five families whose spiritual lives collided with their real lives when they learned a loved one was gay. In an interview Director Daniel Karslake was asked what inspired him to make this film. He replied that about six or seven years ago, he was a religions producer for a show on PBS and did a number of shows on homosexuality and religion. When he started meeting very well-known and well-respected theologians, he asked them about the issue of homosexuality and the Bible. He was very surprised to hear that they had a view very different from the self righteous view of religious stars like Jerry Falwell. Karslake was very attracted to the unself righteous message of these very reputable theologians. In the interview he continued,
So I started keeping track of that. And then also, as I produced for PBS, I did a story about this woman at Harvard, an African-American, with this great life story -- tragic upbringing, but she pulled through and was doing great things with her life. She was a theologian, and she was also a lesbian, and I thought it was important for people to see that. And the day after that aired, I got an email from this kid -- a gay kid in Iowa -- that said: "Last week I bought the gun. Yesterday I wrote the note. But last night I happened to turn on your show, and just knowing that someday I might be able to go back into my church, I threw the gun into the river. My mom never has to know."And I got a number of emails like that over the next few years similar to this, but this was the first that really knocked my socks off!
An unself righteous Gospel (a Gospel which is truly Good News) made the gay kid throw his gun into the river, and that story knocked the socks off Karslake’s feet!
Merton’s joyful unself righteousness
Thomas Merton is the most celebrated Roman Catholic monk of the 20th century. Born in 1915 in France, he grew up in France, England, and the United States and studied at Cambridge and Columbia. In his younger years he lived the life of a real rounder before converting to Catholicism. In 1941 he became a Trappist monk and wrote countless books. Best known are his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948), and two volumes on Trappist way of life: The Waters of Siloe (1949) and The Sign of Jonas (1953). Before, during and after Vatican II some of us were reading his books and quoting him.
Trappist monks were always known as a very special breed apart -- “not like the rest of men.” They took a strict vow never to speak except to God and their spiritual directors. They rose daily at 2 AM to chant the Office of Matins. They never left their monastery except to visit a doctor or for hospitalization.
In his book Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander Merton writes about a rare visit to Louisville, Kentucky, for a doctor’s appointment. He was standing on the corner of Fourth and Walnut in the center of a shopping district. Suddenly he was filled with great compassion for all the weary human beings passing before him. At that moment he found himself calling into question not his vocation as a Trappist monk but the illusion that he and his fellow monks were a breed apart and “not like the rest of men.” At that moment he felt freed from any gloomy need to look down on others. At that moment he found himself joyfully crying quietly aloud within himself, “Thank God! Thank God! I’m like the rest of men.”
Conclusion
Go and stand on Fourth and Walnut
To this day on the corner of Fourth and Walnut in Louisville, Kentucky, you will find a plaque commemorating that powerful moment of revelation for Merton. Every Mass has its dismissal. Ite Missa est! Go the Mass is ended! Go and stand on the corner of Fourth and Walnut with Merton and the tax collector and be consoled.
[1] Diaspora is a Greek word meaning dispersion. Originally it referred to the settling of scattered colonies of Jews outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile. It’s now come to mean the migration or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral home or parish!
[2] By “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!
