Nineteenth Sunday After Trinity
“all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.””
Summary
For many of us God is an emergency service that we only contact when we are in dire need. This is true for the people in Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22. The land is suffering from severe drought and famine. Earlier in Jeremiah the well-off and the comfortable are criticised for carrying on without a thought for the impact of their actions on the poor but in this reading all the people are united in their suffering. Finally, they understand that they are ALL dependent on God, that they cannot be saved by their own efforts.
It is this acknowledgment of need and dependency that Jesus praises in the tax-collector in Luke 18:9-14. He knows that he is a sinner, he knows that he cannot remove his faults and weaknesses on his own. The pharisee, in contrast, is criticised. The pharisee is not a bad man. By most people’s standards he is a far better man than the tax-collector. He is giving away a tenth of his income in charity whereas the tax-collector was fleecing people for his own profit. Why, then, does God not justify him? It is not because his sins are worse than the tax-collector’s nor is it because God is any less ready to forgive his sins, it is because he doesn’t think he needs it. He thinks that his own actions have already justified him. God is ready to justify him – he is just not ready to ask or to receive.
The pharisee’s belief that his own actions make him perfect separates him from others, he judges them for not achieving what he has achieved. In just the same way, the well-off in Jeremiah had previously separated themselves from the less fortunate. If we have all, in St Paul’s words, fallen short of the glory of God, there is really no point trying to prove that some have fallen shorter than others. Religion is not a self-improvement programme. It is a relationship with God that draws into a relationship with others. We are all united in our radical dependency on God. The tax-collector comes to God pleading for help because he knows that he cannot save himself. In the words of Pope Francis, “blessing does not require moral perfection to be received”, it is given “to those who ask for he
FIRST READING
Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22
“Although our iniquities testify against us,
act, O Lord, for your name’s sake;
our rebellions indeed are many,
and we have sinned against you.
O hope of Israel,
its savior in time of trouble,
why should you be like a stranger in the land,
like a traveler turning aside for the night?
Why should you be like someone confused,
like a mighty warrior who cannot give help?
Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us,
and we are called by your name;
do not forsake us!
Thus says the Lord concerning this people:
Truly they have loved to wander;
they have not restrained their feet;
therefore the Lord does not accept them;
now he will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins.
Have you completely rejected Judah?
Does your heart loathe Zion?
Why have you struck us down
so that there is no healing for us?
We look for peace but find no good,
for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.
We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord,
the iniquity of our ancestors,
for we have sinned against you.
Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake;
do not dishonor your glorious throne;
remember and do not break your covenant with us.
Can any idols of the nations bring rain,
or can the heavens give showers?
Is it not you, O Lord our God?
We set our hope on you,
for it is you who do all this.
GOSPEL
Luke 18.9-14
“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 lift up his eyes 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.”
