July 21, 2023

 

We Are All Pharisees

 

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector.’

– Luke 18:11

 

How many times have we read the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector and condemned the Pharisee for thinking his sins weren’t as bad as the tax collector’s sins? How many times have we been the Pharisee by justifying our own sins while soundly condemning the sins of others?

 

Ouch. Most of us live pretty good lives, at least according to ourselves. We try to be good people. We don’t go around shooting people or robbing others or blatantly telling lies. We help those we think need it. We pray sometimes. We may even read the Bible. But we still don’t get it.

 

I’m struggling now to show grace and mercy to someone who is committing adultery. I see the heartbreak he has inflicted on his wife and children. It drags on and on as he tries to discover what will make him “happy.” I honestly would like to throttle him. I suspect God would like to throttle me sometimes too.

 

No. I haven’t committed adultery. But I have judged the sins of another. I have condemned what is not mine to condemn. I have failed to show love and grace, mercy even, as I have held onto my anger. My sins are great.

 

The hard truth is that we are all Pharisees. Pastor Adam Hamilton described himself as a recovering Pharisee who sometimes falls off the wagon. That is true of all of us. We are quick to point fingers, gossip, and condemn the sins of someone else all the while justifying our own sins.

 

I am not excusing his actions. But I also refuse to excuse my own. I pray that God will open both of our hearts so that we may be healed. That’s where he’ll find “happy.” That’s where I will find it too.

January 20, 2022

 

Pharisee or Sinner?

 

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. – 2 Chronicles 7:14

 

How many times have we seen this verse on social media? People begging for Christians to bow down and pray for God to heal our land from this awful disease called Covid. People asking God to restore Himself to leadership in this land. People demanding that God restore Donald Trump to the presidency. People living in comfort crying out for God to increase their prosperity.

 

The one thing we haven’t seen a lot of are those same people admitting their own sins. They’re too busy pointing their fingers at the sins of others to acknowledge that maybe they should change their own hardened hearts before they demand the same of others.

 

If Christians truly lived as Jesus lived, our country wouldn’t need social media posts demanding our will from God. We’d be too busy praying and serving, extending kindness and grace and a helping hand. But that might cause us to get our own hands dirty. It might make us admit we’re wrong in our judgements of people we do not know.

 

In Luke 18, Jesus told a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector both going to the temple to pray. The Pharisee was thanking God that he wasn’t like other sinners. He was praising himself for fasting and tithing. The tax collector would not even lift his eyes to heaven as he begged God for mercy on himself, a sinner.

 

Which are you? Are you the Pharisee who is so busy praising himself that he has forgotten how to humble himself before God? Or are you the sinner who names himself as such as he bows before God Almighty? Reread 2 Chronicles 7:14. Are you the haughty Pharisee or the humble sinner? Your words and actions reveal your answer.

August 1, 2018

Are You a Pharisee?

The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” – Mark 2:24

Our pastor recently explained that the Pharisees weren’t priests. They were lay people. Folks like you and me. They were doing all they could to keep the Jews, Jews by forcing them to follow man-made rules.

The Pharisees fought hard for what they believed was right. But were they right? They were so focused on their rules, and their power, that they missed the Messiah. Do we miss Him too?

I am reminded immediately of sweet friends who have turned radical in this hurtful political climate. They are conservatives – which is fine – who believe that only they are right and everyone else is “dumb,” “an idiot,” “un-American,” and on and on. In their hearts they think their beliefs justify their commentary.

Newsflash: Jesus isn’t a Republican or a Democrat. Both parties get some things biblically correct and some things biblically wrong. That’s a sad truth that neither side wants to admit.

The Pharisees hated Jesus because they couldn’t control Him. Jesus was the authority and He spoke like it. He came and undermined their laws. He told them things not everyone wanted to hear.

Have you ever been the lone voice against the crowd? It’s not a fun place, is it? Unfortunately, right doesn’t always get recognized. The crowd gets so focused on what they want to believe that they miss the message right in front of them.

Some of the most hateful people I know are active in their churches. They are loud vocalists on Facebook, sharing derogatory story after derogatory story. They aren’t interested in truth. Facts mean nothing to them. If someone says something they agree with, they share it.

Why? They are fearful of what they might lose. Just like the Pharisees, they have an agenda and it’s not following Jesus. He’s just an excuse. Unfortunately, His beliefs and theirs aren’t always compatible. That’s true of both sides of the political debate. We are all so busy being right that we miss Jesus.

As much as we love Jesus, we don’t always want to do what He says. We don’t want to love our enemies and we surely don’t want to do good to them. We want our neighbors to only be Americans who look just like us. We want to keep our money for ourselves or, at least, only use it to help people like us. We want freedom but we define it in different ways. We aren’t willing to compromise, to listen to the other side, to even consider that maybe we don’t have it all right.

And we wonder why our kids are killing each other. We wonder why God doesn’t seem to be around. We demand He be put back in our schools and government even though the first place He needs to be invited back into is our homes and our hearts.

I don’t know your political beliefs. I don’t even care what they are. When I try to determine what is right or wrong, I seek truth from God’s Word. That’s not an excuse to shift words and pull things out of context to justify my beliefs. It’s an effort to really hear what He says. Honestly, I don’t always like what He says but that’s what true faith is all about. It’s putting what God says above what I think.

The next time you’re tempted to turn belligerent or get angry because someone disagrees with you, take a deep breath and consider their words and yours. We don’t have to agree in order to be kind. And sometimes we aren’t as right about what God says as we want to believe.  

July 25, 2018

Do You Reflect Your Faith?

They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. – Titus 1:16

How do people know you are a Christian? Is it because you attend church most Sundays? Is it because you wear a cross around your neck? Is it because you quote a book you rarely read?

Maybe you’re someone who loudly proclaims your faith. You’re quick to tell others how to live, to pass judgement “based” on the Bible, and to hold others up to impossible standards.

Or maybe you just love people. Maybe you do all you can to help others without stopping to consider if they are worthy or not. Maybe you give sacrificially. Maybe you offer kind words or encouragement and quickly share all that Jesus has done for you. Maybe, just maybe, there’s a joy about you that makes others want what you have.

Here’s the thing: It doesn’t matter how often you are in church if people don’t see evidence of faith in your life. It doesn’t matter if you tithe if you never reach out beyond yourself to help someone in need. And it doesn’t matter how quick you are to quote the Bible if you don’t hold yourself up to its standards.

A deacon who hates people of other races is just as lost as the drug addict who thinks there’s no other way. A church elder who condemns anyone who disagrees with his politics is just as lost as a woman with loose morals. And a pastor who gropes women and tells lewd jokes is just as lost as the young man who thinks his wild ways are acceptable behavior.

We’re all pretty good at “making” the Bible say what we want it to say. We take what feels right and good and turn the words to our benefit. We ignore grace and mercy for anyone who isn’t like us. We define our neighbor as fellow Americans and forget that Jesus told us to include all nations.

We judge without ceasing, thinking that it is somehow our right to do so. We love those of our choosing, forgetting that we’re to love God first and others – all others – as ourselves. We help based on our standards of worthy, with those like us being those who are worthy.

We welcome everyone who wants to work. We suffer through service, unwilling to give up control of how we want things done. We look down on people who aren’t willing to perform tasks the way we think it should be done and we wonder why volunteers are so hard to find.

We grumble if someone kneels at the altar as we sing the last song on Sunday. We’re hungry and we’ve sat on that pew or in that chair long enough. We aren’t concerned with someone who is hurting. We’re only concerned with ourselves.

Should I go on? Do I need to go on? People should know we are Christians because we love others and carry a joy about us no matter our circumstances. Unfortunately, we’re too busy pointing fingers at others to see ourselves as we really are.

As the saying goes, we are the only Bible some people will ever read. Are they reading about Jesus as He truly is? Or are they seeing a Pharisee masquerading as a believer?

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Jesus Welcomes Sinners

"When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is -- that she is a sinner.'" -- Luke 7:39

Thank you, Lord, that you are far more welcoming than many of the pious who inhabit the churches around us. Thank you that you are quick to recognize a repentant heart and extend a welcoming hand to your people. May your words convict those who judge others more harshly than themselves. And may we show your mercy and kindness to those who judge us unfairly.