Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22; Luke 18:9-14
Jeremiah is
worried. God’s people have wandered away from God; they have not been faithful;
they have sinned. And Jeremiah is trying to trust in God; he remembers that God
has never left them, and he pleads for God to not leave them.
As God’s people,
we are broken. It seems impossible to be fully faithful, fully obedient to the commandments.
Jesus highlights this brokenness with yet another parable. A Pharisee – who knows
the commandments well and tries hard to follow them – is praying. He thanks God
he is more faithful and obedient than the tax collector he notices nearby.
The tax
collector the Pharisee has just mentioned is praying, too. He knows he is a
sinner, a particularly awful sinner in the eyes of the Jewish people. Being a
tax collector in Israel means forcing your own people to pay taxes to the Roman
invaders. Imagine, for example, a Ukrainian being forced to collect taxes for Russia.
The Jewish tax
collector has likely been forced to collect taxes because he has no other way
to feed his family. He would rather do anything else, but he has no choice. Beyond
any other personal failings, he understands that he is sinning against God and
against his people.
The Pharisee
points his finger at the tax collector, indicating the tax collector is beneath
him, not only in society, but also in God’s eyes. We, too, point fingers. All
the time!
We point fingers
in political ads. We point fingers in commercials for competing products. We
point fingers at people who are different from us, different skin color,
different faith, different ethnicity, different ways of expressing their
sexuality. Even at people who are younger or older than we are, and their
different music and dance.
As I spent the
week with this parable, I saw my own finger pointing at all sorts of things, most
of it harmless. McDonald’s has better iced coffee than Wendy’s. It’s better to
be a Lutheran than any other denomination of Christian.
And this: I was
raised to believe I am Swedish, although the language wasn’t art of my
heritage, or any of the customs. I attended Augustana College in Rock Island,
Ill, where I learned that Augustana in Sioux Falls was founded after a
disagreement between the Swedes and Norwegians, and I was proud to be a Swede.
I submitted a
DNA sample to Ancestry.com a few years ago, and it confirmed that I had
Scandinavian heritage, with a sprinkling of other regions. They recently updated
the data, and I learned that I am significantly more Norwegian than Swedish.
Say what? Now, I can’t point fingers at Norwegians, because I am one of them!
Most of the
time, however, our finger-pointing comes with a more negative intent. Our
brokenness causes us to see differences between ourselves and others, especially
those differences that make us feel better, more important, more perfect than
those at the end of our pointed fingers. Our brokenness causes separation among
us. Sometimes, these separations cause pain for those at whom we point, and within
ourselves.
So, what should
we do now? Confession is good for the soul. And confession leads us to realize how
much we need God’s forgiveness and compassion, as Jeremiah assures us.
And there’s something
else we can do. At the Conference on Ministry last week, Pastor Katie Carroll
shared what it is like to be companions with others. So often, too often, the
historical pattern has been that people from wealthy countries have explored
and then invaded and taken over a place where indigenous people have lived for
centuries. Where they haven’t killed or dislocated the original inhabitants,
they have insisted that the local people become like the invaders.
That is
invasion, domination. A different model is companionship, in which we become
partners with the local people, learning from them, and recognizing them as
equal to us. The best way to do that is to remember to see Jesus in them, and
to be Jesus for them.
This week, I
encourage you to pay attention to how often you point a finger at someone or
something. Confess it, ask for forgiveness, and know that you have been
forgiven. That’s what God’s grace is.
Amen
