That Makes Me A Pharisee

Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else. Luke 18:9 (NLT)

The story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector starts off with our text for today. Jesus told it to get the attention of people who thought they were better than someone else. And of course, we as Christians know this is wrong and we should never do it.

So we don’t. Right? Wrong. I can tell you I do it. I don’t want to do it but the thoughts pop into my head. It’s not usually around someone’s job or affluence, it doesn’t involve race or ethnic origin, where they grew up or how educated they are. What do I judge? Christians.

I hold Christians to a higher standard than I hold anyone else. I don’t tout my religious accomplishments like the Pharisee in the story because I know that doesn’t matter in the big scheme of things….that’s not my measuring stick. What I do wonder is how if you are a Christian you (pick something and put it in here). For example, how can you be so legalistic when it’s all about grace? How can you not want to be involved in ministry when we are called to serve? How can you not understand……? Stuff like that. I tend to think Christians should know better.

And that makes me just like the Pharisee in the story.

You see, whether you are judging people for their profession, their race, their job, their income, or their walk with God, it’s wrong. God calls us to love each other unconditionally just as he did. He calls us to show up in people’s lives where ever that may be. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a preconceived notion about someone and after I talked to them found out I was completely wrong. Shame on me.

Now, I will take my Pharisaical self and plead like the tax collector did in the story “O Lord, have mercy on me, for I am a sinner.”

Embracing Inconvenience

The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Galatians 3:11 (MSG)

I was asked to consult on a project for six months. Honestly, I didn't want to go because it would throw my schedule all out of whack. The hours would be long and it was going to be a lot of work. But, I had asked God to put me where he wanted and even though I tried not to go, I ended up on the project.

A couple of months in, I was tired and things had gotten a little crazy because of events beyond my control in my personal life. I was telling God "It's OK, I only have four more months." That was my conversation with him one night as I feel asleep.

The next day at work I had two conversations with people about God and how great he is. When I laid down that night and was talking to God about my day I said, "God, we only have four more months to work here. What do you want to do?"

What had changed? What changed was my attitude. Instead of trying to get through this assignment from God, I began to embrace it and welcome it as His. What would happen if instead of seeing things from our 'inconvenience' perspective, we looked at our situations from God's perspective? How would our attitudes change? If we embraced where God put us and saw our situations as something he arranged, suddenly the way we saw life would be so very exciting. Maybe one of our New Year's goals should be to be less me-focused and more God-sighted.

At the right time, I, the Lord, will make it happen. Isaiah 60:22 (NLT)