October 28, 2007

A Tale of Two Pray-ers

What would life be like if you knew that you only had a few months or days to live. What would you do? What are the things that would become important to you? Who are the people in your life that you would reach out to. There is still so much in life to say and to do, there are so many people in my life that I have not reached out to – that I couldn’t imagine where to begin.
Randy Pausch, is a professor at Carnegie-Mellon University, who will die in a few months of pancreatic cancer. He was featured on Oprah last week giving what he called “his last lecture to his students” – encouraging them to define their dreams and to pursue them. From what I understand, there is a tradition among professor to give a lecture as if you know that it will be you last day on earth. He was keenly aware that he was living his last days. Wo don’t like to think of our death, we don’t like to be faced with the fact that we are mortal, finite beings. And that all that we have done in the world, no matter what it is, will come to an end. As Professor Pausch begins his lecture – he says that the elephant in the room, is that this is real for me, I will be dying soon.
The Timothy scripture that you just heard, could probably be classified as Paul’s last letter – words of advice to the one person who he knew would carry on his life’s work. Basically his advice was to fight the good fight of faith, to run the race of life and to keep the faith no matter what.
I learned a lot about Paul and his faith and have developed a lot of respect for him. In 2000 the Women’s division asked me to write the school of Christian missin youth study on the book of Corinth. In my preparation for writing I took a tour of Greece and Rome following in the footsteps of Rome. On that trip I realized, that as we read the scriptures, even though Paul is very graphic about his troubles- It doesn’t register just how hard his life was. But in actually seeing the places where he preached, you begin to see that he was thrown out of every place that he preached. Even though his message sounds very convincing to us on paper –he made a lot of enemies in reality. Even though he was a roman citizen, it was the roman government that eventually killed him for being a nuisance to society.
It is not certain if this letter to Timothy was written by Paul himself, or a student of Paul’s. But it definitely is a good by letter. It speaks of the last time that Paul was imprisoned, and he realizes that most of the other students that he had trained to evangelize, had by now abandoned Paul and went on with their lives. We know that he has been imprisoned, he (or someone for him) speaks of his impending death. But scripture never records that he was actually killed. Which is probably why most of us have heard Paul’s teachings in some form or another, but his suffering is not real. We don’t think about that moment that comes for him, and for all of us , when we become keenly aware that life is a finite thing – that runs out and ends. A colleague had a friend who died after a long fight with cancer – one of her last realization in life was that it all mattered – everything that she experienced in her life, good and bad was important. As Paul is reflecting on his life, he becomes keenly aware of all of the suffering. He sees all of the people that he touched in his ministry. Many who are no where to be found in his hour of need. He also realizes that no matter how many people who have come into his life have gone away – that the spirit of Christ was with him in the beginning and had never left him. And that was all that he needed. Continually he reminds those who read his final words – that Christ is all that matters in the journey of life. He tells us to fight the good fight, run the race of life, and keep the faith no matter what. Because in the end – Christ loves you enough to do the same for you.
One of the things that is common knowledge about Paul was that before Christ converted him, that he was in training to be a Pharisee- an upstanding jewish man who went the extra mile to uphold the jewish faith. A Pharisee took vows to tithe as much of 30% of his income to help others, to pray, to study scripture, to live a righteous life. Jesus didn’t always appreciate the Pharisee lifestyle, but this is the type of person that we would welcome as part of our church.
One of the common prayers that they prayed to God – was a celebration that they were living a blessed life and that they were fortunate to do everything right. This was seen as a sign of God’s blessing. This was even the prayer that Paul prays in his last letter. That in the midst of all of his suffering, and all of the people that he knew that were misrepresenting the gospel – that he was thankful that he had always done what was right and remained faithful to Christ.
Jesus tells the story of a Pharisee who came into the temple praying – god I thank you that I am not like other people, thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like a tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of all of my income. He was celebrating the fact that not only did he do what he was supposed to as a Pharisee, that he was able to go above and beyond the call of duty. God bless his soul – how many of us could say the same in our journey to the ultimate cross?
And yet for some reason, Jesus was not impressed with is prayer at all.
Another man comes into the room – a tax collecter. Now you have to understand that a tax collector is not quite the same as an IRS agent in today’s world. We might resent an IRS agent – but at least we know that person is working for the government – and in some convulated way – might actually be on our side. In Jesus’ time if a begger received money from a tax collector, he or she would give it back. Because a tax collector was thought of as a traiter – someone who chose Rome over his own nation of Isreal. They were thought of as thieves who robbed money from their own people- because they often pocketed money after they paid the assessment to the Roman state.
But anyway, this tax collector also walks into the temple and prays God be merciful to me a sinner. A Very simple but heartfelt prayer.
There is a saying that there are two types of people who pray – those who pray because it is the right thing to do and those who pray because their life depends on it. Which type of prayer are you?
I want us to take a test- everyone get a pen and keep score o you bulletin. This test is to see if you have gained enough points to get into heaven. You don’t need to keep exact score – you can estimate if you would like.
If you have been baptized, you get 25 points. Now give yourself 2 points for everytime you have ever been to a church service in your life – just guess-. Give yourself an extra point if you made a prayer request when you came to church. Give yourself 5 point for each bible verse that you have ever remembered. 10 points for doing a personal devotion for 10 days in a row.
Now you also get points for deeds of kindness. An act of kindness for a neighbor is worth 10 points. If you have ever volunteered at a hospital you get 1 point for each hour worked. If you have never cheated on a test you get 1 point per test. If you have had to turn the other cheek instead of seeing revenge – you get 20 points each time. If you have ever gave someone your coat when they were cold – yo get 25 points. For giving all of your possession to the poor you get 10,00 points. But if all that you had to give away from the start was less than $100 – it is only worth 5 points. If you have ever been on a church mission trip you get 1000 points.
Now you also have to deduct points for incorrect attitudes.
If you have ever gone to church – you get two points for each service. But if you were thinking of something else during the sermon – then you lose 4 points for each service. If you made fun of the pastors clothes or hair- then you lose 2 more points. If you have ever said something unkind or mean then you lose 10 points for each time. If you have ever done something that you knew was wrong then you lose 1000 points for each time. If you have had an argument with a family member – any family member – then you lose 150 points for each time. If you have ever forgot to water your plants – them you lose 100 points for each time.
Now there is a chance to win extra bonus points. If you have are willing to give a million $ toward upkeep of the church – you get a million points. Or if you prefer to donate $3 millions to mission work of the church you get 3 million points.
You need 3 million points in order to get into heaven. Did anyone come even close? I usually give this test to my confirmation classes. It is much more fun to give to youth because they aren’t so stuck on being righteous, and are more willing to admit when they have done things wrong. So they see their point disappearing pretty fast.
The point of the exercise is to realize that no matter who much we do right, no matter how much money we give to god (that doesn’t mean don’t give), no matter how much many good things we do for others, no matter how much we pray – It is not enough to be right with God. never a time in your life when you will have a right to say- I am justified – I am okay. You can’t earn grace from God Grace is a gift that is freely given.
Two men walked into the temple to pray. One of them prayed about all of the things he had done for God – one asked for God to have mercy on him as a sinner. Jesus says that only one of them left truly forgiven, and justified, made right with God. That was the one whose life depended on his prayer. Because no matter how much we do right – we are all sinners. We all depend on God’s grace to live. After that lesson, our temptation would be to pray a prayer thanking God that we are not like to Pharisee. We thank God That we are righteous enough to admit that we are sinners and in need of God’s mercy. And yet, if we pray like that we have lost the point of god’s grace in our lives. I want us to end by praying a prayer that I always pray in my deepest times of fear, my deepest times of questioning, the times when I need god the most, the times when my life depends on prayer. It is the Jesus prayer – Lord Jesus, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Amen.