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Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22 and Psalm 84:1-7 • 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 • Luke 18:9-14

I love how this gospel parable was portrayed in the 1973 movie Godspell, which was filmed in New York City, with the Pharisee saying his part in a dramatic way … ‘Oh God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector [sniff, sniff …]. I fast twice a week [&] I give a tenth of all my income.’ You notice that even though tax collectors are often seen as bad guys in the gospels – in this parable Jesus is saying that we should be like the tax collector. Jesus often seems to enjoy turning our perceptions upside down. Although he was fully Jewish himself, he certainly liked to target those who were overly focused on the minutiae of Jewish law -- like those 613 mitzvot that grew out of the ten commandments.
And let’s look at this tithing business again. As Dean Ansley Tucker retires, I’m thinking about one of her ongoing themes that tithing is really not fair. Tithing is not equal for everybody. It can be too much of a burden for people with low incomes, and too light a thing to request from the rich. Tithing when you make $20K a year will cut into your basic expenses. Tithing when you make $100K a year still leaves you $90K to live on. Heck, with that much income – you could even rent a small apartment in Victoria! Did you see how the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, plans to fire 75% of Twitter employees once he takes over? So that’s about 5600 people losing their jobs from a man of unimaginable wealth. Speaking of which, we also recently heard from the richest family in Canada, the Westons, who own Loblaws and Superstore and others. Galen Weston had the unmitigated gall to proudly announce that they’d be freezing prices on their yellow no-name Superstore brands until January – which is such a ridiculously small step in response to a huge problem. Besides the extreme corporate greed displayed here, we have him clearly seeing his customers as dumb beyond words.
While writing this sermon my nephew messaged me with an old classic painting of Jesus, but wearing blue sunglasses, holding a bottle of beer and smoking a big joint. The caption says: “Jesus wants to remind you that if you don’t sin, he died for nothing.” So here we have one more reason to set aside another flawed theological theory: substitionary atonement. We can say that Jesus died for several reasons. For example, we could say that his level of compassion for all -- was too demanding. Or that he was continually undermining the leaders of his own Jewish faith – like in today’s gospel. Or that the Roman Empire, which crucified thousands of people, was happy to add him to the mix of dangerous troublemakers. But it’s surely wrong to portray God as an abusive and grudge-bearing Father who could not forgive us without requiring his son to go through a brutally violent death. But Jesus was the Chosen One, right?
Also while writing this sermon, I got an email message from Dick’s Sporting Goods in Las Vegas of all places, saying: You have been chosen! Aargh - scary! Why did a Las Vegas gun and sporting store choose me?! It was a distracting week overall – with insurance people wanting me to pay 50% of the repair for that treefall damage on my roof last May; and it took a few stressful days of work to get that reduced to 5%.
So I feel for this tax collector in our gospel dealing with stressful money situations. Despite working in such a hated profession, he obviously had an admirable level of humility before God. Just like in the first reading from Isaiah when we hear the great prophet saying: “We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord, the iniquity of our ancestors, for we have sinned against you.” In the modern Canadian Anglican church we don’t talk much about sin; although we could certainly resonate with the “iniquity of our ancestors” given the residential schools. And as a Baby Boomer I often feel some kind of guilt about the cost of housing, and other things. How is it that when I was 20 years old, our first half-duplex house cost $16,000. … whereas now they’re at least half a million?
Our psalm verses today also have some compelling imagery. ‘My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord … Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself … at your altars, … my God.” Have you seen the sculpted robin’s nest high up on one of our Victoria cathedral pillars? I loved hearing the story of how a robin nested there during the cathedral’s construction … so they held off finishing that area until the baby robins emerged and learned to fly away. But they sculpted the mother robin on the nest out of the same cement mixture as the pillars, to honour God’s feathered creatures and remind us that the Creator can be seen through Creation.
And lastly, we have a heroic epistle reading for our ongoing reflection. In this passage Paul feels that his death is imminent – that he’s being poured out like a libation, and the time of his departure is near. “I have fought the good fight,” he says, “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Notice he does not say that he won the race – he just finished it. No need to compete – just to complete! At verse 16 he briefly laments that no one came to support him at his first defense – perhaps an earlier trial he had undergone, at which all of his followers had apparently deserted him. Understandable to be disappointed, but also understandable that his followers may have feared that showing support for this prisoner would be too risky for them. But Paul is forgiving – ‘May it not be counted against them’ he says. He’d felt the strong presence of the Lord standing by and giving him strength in his earlier trial. “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack” Paul concludes, “and save me for his heavenly kingdom.” Hopefully we too can feel the presence of God or of God’s angels and saints in stressful times – in times of trial and defeat and abandonment. And as we continue our earthly journey, may we feel this confidence, as well as the blessing of God’s grace and healing love, when happier times flourish unexpectedly around us, Amen.