Not like the rest

The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself,
‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity —
greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’

Today’s Gospel of course.

I just want to point out that there’s more than one way to Pharisee. Lots, in fact.

First off, I find Jesus’ positioning here quite ingenious. Well, he is Alpha and Omega, so no surprise there.

But consider:

Whenever Jesus tells a parable, we’re somehow moved to identify with one of the characters, aren’t we? Whether we are “supposed” to or not, we do.

But what happens when we do that here?

If we say, “Oh, I’m like the tax collector” – well, then we’re immediately ….the Pharisee.

If we say, “I’m obviously the Pharisee” – well, we are, and in a meta kind of way. We’re sort of pridefully pointing out our pride.

Maybe one way to understand this is to look, not just at the matter of pride, but of points of reference. Yes, pride is the sin here, but what’s also at work is comparison.

What is the Pharisee’s point of reference in understanding himself? Others.

What is the tax collector’s? God. God alone.

There are, then, lots of ways to live our spiritual lives in comparison to others. We can look to others with envy or discomfort. Or we can even sit up there in front, holding ourselves up as somehow unique for other reasons that on the surface, can seem, well, humble.

Y’all, I’m such a mess!

You can’t take me anywhere!

I never did fit in with those other church people, you know…

It just seems to me that whenever we suggest that our self-proclaimed weirdness, our quirkiness, our tattoos, our use of language, our family size, our role as employed outside the home or working within it, our pop culture choices, our political views, and even – yes – even our self-identified sinfulness – makes us “different” from those others, and worth some kind of special attention, no matter how “humbly” it’s articulated, what I hear, every time, is simply:

O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest….