Get Low

Big man talkin' to God one day
Big man announces he's gonna pray
Ten percent to charity
Member of the Laity
First name basis with the Son of God
All the angels should applaud.

Thank you God, I'm not like them
These lesser people these homeless men
Filthy sinners, prostitutes
Drug addicted destitutes
Unlike them I'm living right
I'm sure to see your glorious light.

In an alley down the street
A man sits on the cold concrete
Needle tracks are in his arm
Passer bys all wish him harm
Convicted twice on major crimes
His life a cesspool filled with slime.

He turns his eyes up to the skies
A quiet prayer before he dies
Lord I'm scum I've done things wrong
I've sinned against you all along
I wish that I could make things right
Before I enter that cold night.

Jesus said be careful when
We criticize all other men
Higher class society
Is not the same as piety. 

                 - Mark Niemann-Ross

“Get Low”
Luke 18:9-14
Rev. David Hutchinson's sermon
Sunday, October 24, 2010

    I think there is a connection between how we see ourselves and how we see God.
    The scripture reading for today, got me thinking about the connection.
        I know a lot about myself.
        But that doesn’t mean I see myself honestly.
And it doesn’t mean that others see me, the way I see myself.
    Sometimes I feel righteous, other times I feel miserable.   
            When I feel righteous, I imagine a God of justice.       
            When I feel miserable I – hope – God is merciful.
    In this morning’s scripture reading two men see themselves very differently.
    And they see God very differently.
    The two men are a Pharisee and a tax collector.
        One sees himself as righteous
        The other sees himself as a sinner.
            And let’s assume for now, that their self image is more or less correct.
    A pious person, stands next to a low down sinner.
        And they see God differently.
            The pious man gives God credit for the good in his life.
            And the low down man asks God for mercy.
                A God of blessing and a God of mercy…
    According to a new book called “America’s Four Gods”, the way Americans view God falls into four categories: authoritative, benevolent, critical, and distant.
In the book, two Baylor University professors break down our belief in God into these categories, and connect the type of God a person believes in - - with demographic data. So the type of person you are, according to them, really does effect how you understand God to be.  
It seems to me that one way to interpret that data is this:
    If we want a more accurate picture of God we need to listen to one another.
    To really know all of the aspects of God we need to know one another.
Or to put it another way, we can learn about God from people who are not like us.
Imagine if the Pharisee in the scripture reading for today had believed that!
    Imagine what a pious man could learn…
        …from a sinner!
    AND…if we follow that logic out a bit more…imagine…
        …THAT…we might even be able to learn something important…
        …from the pious man.
            Are his motives - - - as bad as we first assume?
    Imagine what we could learn…
Imagine what we could learn from others - if that was our goal!
A lot of times it’s NOT our goal – at least I don’t think so.
And I think that one thing people really FEAR about Christians is that it is rarely if ever the main goal. The fear is that there is always another goal, which includes something like selling Jesus to them, sort of like used car. Or getting them to say some special words, whether they believe them or not.
A story about Donald Miller’s Sunday School class brings this point home for me. In his book Blue Like Jazz, Miller describes the class:
When I was in Sunday School as a kid, he writes, my teacher put a big poster on the wall that was shaped - - in a circle - - like a target. She had us write NAMES on little pieces of paper. The names were supposed to be people we knew who were NOT Christian. She said the GOAL was to move the names from the OUTER ring to the CENTER of the circle. This outer ring of the target was supposed to represent their distance from knowing Jesus. Move them in. That was the goal.
Miller said that as a kid he thought, “well it’s nice to have a goal”
BUT he didn’t know anyone who was not Christian.
SO, he made up names: Thad Thatcher; William Wonka
The teacher didn’t believe him and he was insulted.
BUT nevertheless the class was VERY excited the next week because:
    Both had become Christian in one week…through…
        …a dramatic conversion experience…
        …that involved the dismantling of a large satanic cult…
        …and an underground drug ring.
            Levitation was also involved.
Obviously this example is ridiculous…
The point is - that I think a lot of people expect this sort of thing from Christians.
Or they fear it.
And I think the thing the fear is about - is the GOAL.
What is our goal?
What is the goal of the Pharisee in the story Jesus told?
     Is it really to say thank you to God, for blessings?
    Thank you that I am not like…the person who…
What is to goal of the prayer?
I have prayed it.
Haven’t we all…in one way or another?
When we see a tragedy on TV and we think…thank God it wasn’t me.
I remember this summer coming back from the all church retreat on the Oregon coast. It had been a wonderful time, but many of us were in a bit of a hurry to get back because there was a memorial service that day. Parry Ankerson had died recently of cancer. And as I though about Parry I thought, how sad and tragic. And my heart went out to his family. And I thought, thank God I’m still alive. And then, I hope I don’t get cancer……
As we drove back from the beach, from the retreat to his memorial service, we encountered a stalled line of cars. Obviously there had been an accident. I immediately thought…I hope no one from the retreat was hurt. And I walked down to the front of the line of cars to see what was involved. I didn’t recognize anyone. And the accident was not all that serious. We would probably make it back to Portland in time. Thank you God that I’m not like that person in the car wreck….
Is the prayer of the Pharisee sounding more familiar?
And what’s the goal of that kind of prayer?
To express relief…?
To acknowledge fear?
    Maybe the Pharisee was fearful about the dangers of life, and relieved that he had some sort of security…not such a bad thing…it seems to me.
    But the thing is, Jesus points our attention in another direction.
Jesus points in the direction of the sinner.
    And I think the reason has something to do with the GOAL of the sinner’s prayer.
        That prayer is honest.
        It acknowledges the worst and doesn’t try to escape it.
        Instead of relief that life IS OK…it acknowledges what is not OK.
           And in that context…it is a prayer for mercy.
Maybe what Jesus is trying to get us to see has something to do with mercy.
Mercy is for the tough times.
Mercy is for the honest times.
When we’re OK and relieved we don’t need it as much.
    Then it’s like we already have it. Good.
But what about when we feel we don’t have mercy. Or we need it?
    Then…we STILL have it…says Jesus.
And THAT realization…can release us to a more honest way of living and praying.
    When we have been blessed, good. Be thankful.
    But when we feel low down…be honest.
        Get vulnerable.
        Get humble.
        Get low. 
            Because God’s mercy is great.
            God’s grace…is amazing!
I told the members of the band about my sermon at a rehearsal. I told them the title was “Get Low” after a recent movie about confession and forgiveness. In the movie a hermit has a cloudy past that haunts him. He decides he wants to have his funeral before he dies, and he wants to confess his sins at the gathering. It is an amazing movie about confession and forgiveness from a man who feels low down. 
Anyway, I said the sermon was sort of about what we can all learn from a sinner.
What does it mean to get low?
Kind of a journey into the sinful side of life…
Of course one of the band members volunteered to do some research!
    A little mission work if you will…
The point is…it’s not about glorying in sinfulness.
It’s about getting honest in our prayer life.
And it’s about remembering that blessing and mercy go together. 
    This message seems to fit with Jazz Sunday. The history of jazz music and its relationship to the church and to American piety is…a little like the scripture reading. It’s like the church has been more like the Pharisee, and Jazz music is more like the sinner beating his chest and crying for mercy. And the problem has been that the church has sometimes wanted to exclude the honest cries for mercy. Maybe because they were to low down.
    Duke Ellington is a great example of this.
    Ellington didn’t’ propose bringing what he sometimes called his “noise” within consecrated spaces. He didn’t knock on the church’s door. Deep down he was a really modest human being. Representatives of the church had invited him to perform his music under the awe inspiring Gothic arches.
    But still, some people expressed trepidation.
    If you want to read more about it, there is a book called:
Duke Ellington, A Spiritual Biography, by Janna Tull Steed.
    In the book she tells the story of the tensions around these initial invitations.
    She points out that Ellington’s bassist recalled an old Webster’s dictionary definition of jazz, quote: “a low type of music that brings out the worst emotions of mankind”. Endquote.
    But isn’t that what the cross of Christ is all about?
    Entering into the worst and redeeming it…
    Being honest about what is low…and finding a road to mercy…and grace…
    Do our prayers - lead us to a more grace filled way of life?
An atheist named Matt Casper wrote a book with a Christian named Jim. Jim hired Casper to go to church for a year. All he wanted was his honest feedback. His idea was: pay him, and ask him how we could improve.
After a year, Casper says this about the Christianity, when asked by Jim, “What do you think of Christianity?”:
“I don’t think I can answer that question because Christianity takes so many forms. It’s like asking me, “What do you think about people named Dave?” Each denomination, each church, basically has a version of Christianity.
As far as the teachings of Jesus go, I love them. Absolutely love them. I also love the teachings of Buddah, Socrates, Teddy Roosevelt, Noam Chomsky.
The question is this:
What does the way Christianity is practiced today have to do with a man who walked the earth two thousand years ago?”
That’s where Casper leaves us…with that question:
To what Christian practice….do our prayers lead?
Are we led to receive one another?
Or are we led to reject one another?
Are we led into honesty when we are feeling low down?
And are we led to lives filled with God’s amazing mercy and grace?