Proper 25 Yr C If we aren’t all in this together, we aren’t in it at all. October 27 , 2013

Today’s parable convicts me. It convicts me because I, just like the Pharisee, have prayed the prayer of Thank God it’s them and not me. It convicts me, because of how many times I’ve  encountered someone and instead of responding in love, I’ve responded in fear. Someone homeless or mentally ill or intoxicated or in distress, or smelly or different or or or… How many times have I avoided these people and rationalized my actions by thinking, “well I give money to charities that care for people like them, I’m a good person, I’ve done enough? Truth be told, while I feel ashamed about this behavior, I can easily cover it with false righteousness.
It convicts me because I’m reminded that my actions are not that of a humble, God loving, God trusting person, but rather the actions of an uptight, rigid, going to always play by the rules of society—ignoring the cost-- person. In other words, it convicts me because it makes me way too much like the Pharisee and not nearly enough like the tax collector.
Did you notice how the Pharisee isn’t so much praying to God as he is lecturing? But in his efforts to point out how different---how much better—he is than the tax collector he forgets (or more likely he never knew) that it isn’t an either or proposition. He forgets that we are indeed our brother’s and sister’s keeper. If one of us has fallen, we’ve all fallen. If one of us is hungry, we’re all hungry, if one of us is abused, we’re all abused. If one of us is lost than none of us is truly found. He forgets that the way of Jesus is not the way of us against them it’s the way of and for us all.
If we aren’t all in this together, we aren’t in it at all.
At first glance, the Pharisee seems to be the insider in this story, the tax collector the outcast. But alas, it’s the Pharisee who is outside, it’s the Pharisee who’s lost, it’s the Pharisee who needs redemption.
Now that’s not to say that the tax collector is Mr. Good Neighbor. Remember, he is an agent for the occupying force of the day, the Roman Empire. He is no prize.
Yet he, at the end of parable goes away justified—forgiven, healed and renewed---while the Pharisee? Well the Pharisee has some learnin’ to do!
He needs to learn about community.
He needs to learn that this temple he worked so diligently to protect by following every Rabbinic code to a “t” was simply an edifice, a building, an empty structure, without the heartfelt prayers of its people.
Without its community.
Any community of faith more concerned with who is in and who is out misses the entire point.
All that we are and all that we have is through God’s abundant and indescribable mercy and grace.
The tax collector “got it.” The Pharisee did not.
Here’s what the Pharisee missed:
We’re all in this together. If the tax collector is standing outside the temple gates while you’re safely ensconced inside, then your work isn’t finished.
Until every single person who wants to be in the loving embrace of God is safely in that embrace, than none of us are.
We’re all in this together.
If our sister or brother is ill, outcast, lost or lonely than we are.
We’re all in this together.
And when I say all, I mean all:
Not just you and me, here today.
Not just those among us who aren’t with us today.
Not just the great cloud of witnesses who built this place and whose honor and legacy we strive to uphold.
Everyone.
As we hear the laments of our neighbors, as we hear the cries of anguish coming from those we do not know.
As we witness the persecution of the dispossessed the down trodden and the hated
We must do our level best to say…if you’re not ok, then I’m not ok.
It’s all about community.
When we act for all instead of for us, we’ll be exalted,  justified, and saved. Not for who we are or who we aren’t, but for what we do and for whom we do it.
Legacy is what our stewardship campaign has been all about. This week we are asking you to prayerfully consider what you’ll pledge to this place in 2014. How much money you’ll give, how much time you will commit and how you will offer your talents to us.
We’re embarking on a multi year campaign of changing the way we do business. We’re committed to lessening our reliance on the endowment and earning more of our spending money. We’re going to fundraise, we’re going to look at different ways these buildings can be an asset rather than a liability, and we’ll work  toward a goal of being self-supporting through our own efforts as opposed to on the backs of those who have come before.
We’re going to take the legacy of the joyful souls who endowed our parish with their treasure as well as their time and talents and create our own legacy to leave our children.
To do this work, we must balance our budget but, and hear me clearly, our legacy, as long as I have any say in it WILL NOT be about money. It will be about SERVICE. Service to each other, service to our neighborhood, service to our world, service to our past, service to our present, service to our future and above all else, service to God.
These gorgeous buildings weren’t built to insulate us from the needs of the world, these buildings were built to nourish, strengthen and embolden us to confront the needs of this world, and to bring all who desire it, the healing and life giving Love of God, one loving act at a time.
 That’s the legacy of Christ, that’s the legacy of God and here’s praying that it will be the legacy of US.
As you pull out your pledge cards this week please give of yourselves, not just of your wallet.
Give of your hope, not your despair.
Give of your faith, not your fear.
Give of your abundance not your scarcity.
Give of your trust, love and faith in the God who gives us all that we are and all that we have.
Give of your treasure, give of your time, give of your talent.
Give.
Amen.