October 28, 2007 Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost
Sermon Title: “How (Not) To Pray”
Series: None
Text: Luke 18:9-14
Dr. Steve Jackson
Delivered on October 28, 2007
“He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.” Luke 18:9
How (Not) To Pray
Today’s message, taken from the parable we just read from Jesus, is titled “How (Not) To Pray.” I suppose it’s kind of weird to talk about how not to pray, versus how to pray, especially in this age where “how to” books like “Prayer for Dummies” abound. But as I read over the parable that’s basically what it is about – how not to pray. In researching how not to pray I ran across a website[i] that pointed out several ways not to pray that aren’t mentioned in this parable, but I thought you would enjoy them anyway. The guy who came up with the list gave each one of the pray-ers a name too. For instance there is:
THE GOSSIP: Who prays, “Lord, please forgive
Pam [not present] for her sexual lust towards George [who is present].”
THE
THEOLOGIAN: This person
feels led to lecture God on various points of theology, as if God needs to be
told or reminded. The Theologian gives you the distinct impression that he/she
is praying to ideas rather than God; or perhaps trying to impress the rest of
us. “Lord, you are the Triune, Immutable,
Omniscient, Omnipotent, Revelatory, First Principle, Ground of Being…etc.”
THE
OPPORTUNIST: The opportunist is someone
who would never get a word in edgewise in a normal conversation—usually because
what they want to say is inherently boring or unedifying. For these folks prayer
is an opportunity to “seize the floor” and speechify at great length without
fear of rebuttal or interruption unless something really awful is said; and perhaps not even then, as social
convention says it is very rude to interrupt while someone is praying. “Lord, I just want to pray for my stamp
collection. I know nobody here cares about it, but I know you do. As for the
manager at the stamp shop that wants to charge me too much for that
display-book, I pray you would soften his heart to give me a discount. And Lord
those stamps I need in the 40's collection, you know those rare pieces that I
missed on eBay last month... [on and on and on].”
THE LECTURER:
Similar to THE OPPORTUNIST, but here the motive is to harangue someone else—or the group as a whole—by sermonizing. Also known as THE SERMON PRAY-ER.
“O God, forgive those among us who do not understand the need to... [fill in the blanks]. And Lord, forgive the congregation for their continued failure to tithe. For 'The tithe is the Lord's', and 'Test me in this' saith the Lord... [and on and on]”
THE CALL DOWN
FIRE PRAY-ER: This person basically
just wants to God to smite somebody. “Lord,
that lady who gestured rudely to me in my car today, I pray that you would blast
her with your scorching judgment. Teach
her not to treat your children that way, with a scathing rebuke from on high.
Amen.”
The ‘CRUTCH
WORD’ PRAY-ER: This person makes
overuse of a particular word or phrase like “Father,” or “Lord God.” “Lord God, we just really, Lord God, really,
just, Lord God ...Father, we ask you, Father, to just, Father, really just, O
Father... etc…”
THE ‘KING
JAMES ONLY’ PRAY-ER:
This person believes that, “If King James English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me.” To them prayer seems more "holy" if spoken in a 400-year-old dialect, as if God can only hear and understand King James English. “We beseech Thee, in Thine heavenly tabernacles, O Lord. Ye who forgiveth us in the bowels of iniquity…”
PRAY-ER
WITHOUT CEASING:
You probably
already know what this one is all about. Also known as THE ETERNAL PRAY-ER, or
THE PRAY-ER THAT NEVER ENDS. These folks should never be asked to pray
before a meal. “Lord, we pray for the
believers in
FORGETFUL PRAY-ER: This person, when asked to pray for a certain purpose, prays about everything but that. For instance when asked to bless a meal they say, “Lord, bless Joey in his job search, and grandma Higgins as she visits her daughter Louise, and the building fund at the church, and... and... and... Amen!” (Never gets around to the food.)
THE
ANNOUNCEMENT PRAY-ER:
“Dear Lord, please be with next Sunday's
potluck, which will be at Amy and Arthur's home on
Those were fun weren’t they? Truth is, I’ve probably been guilty of them all at one point or another as I’ve prayed. I have a feeling too, that after you hearing them the next time you pray in public, or you listen to someone pray, you’re going to think about this list and be worried or be trying to classify the pray-er! :-)
But let’s turn our attention to today’s text and see what Jesus says about how not to pray. We’re going to look at three mistakes the Pharisee makes in the way he prays and the correct way to pray illustrated by the Tax Collector. Let’s begin by working through the parable verse by verse.
He also told this parable to some who
trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with
contempt:
The word “also” here links this parable with the one we studied last week, the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. That parable, you will remember was about how to pray, and we said it teaches us to pray persistently, even when God’s answer seems slow, or doesn’t seem to come at all. With this opening sentence, also like last week’s text, Luke tells us exactly what the parable is about. The parable is a teaching about those who think themselves righteous while regarding others with contempt.
Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a
Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
In this verse
notice two things: They went “up” to pray which you had to do because
The Pharisee, standing by himself, was
praying thus, ‘God, I thank you I am not like other people; thieves, rogues,
adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a
tenth of all my income.”
The Pharisee was
an “insider” in the church who paraded to the
But the tax collector, standing far off,
would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God,
be merciful to me, a sinner!’
The contrast between the tax collector and the Pharisee couldn’t be more stark. The Pharisee was smug, sanctimonious, and confident; the tax collector was anxious, insecure and timid. The “saint” paraded to the temple, while the sinner “stood at a distance,” his physical separation from the temple and others highlighting his spiritual alienation. The righteous man stood up, the sinful man looked down. The Pharisee prayed loudly “about himself;” the tax collector could barely pray at all. The Pharisee puffed out his chest in pride; the publican beat his breast in sorrow.
Jesus concludes
his parable, “I tell you, this [the
tax collector] man went down to his home
justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled,
but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
As in so many of Jesus’ stories that go against the grain of conventional wisdom, the parable culminates with a reversal: the respectable, reputable believer—so competent and accomplished, the one who had done everything right—was rejected, whereas the secular sinner—disreputable, inadequate, and incompetent— “went home justified before God.”
This story with its great reversal would have shocked its original hearers. We need to recover that surprise. Perhaps we can by listening to the story updated into a more modern day scenario by Will Willimon.
“Two people were in church on Sunday. One, a lifetime member of the church, frequent teacher of the Bible, member of the Board, prayed, ‘God, I thank you that my parents brought me to church, taught me the Bible as a youth, planted in my heart a love of and a strong commitment to your will. I give 10 percent off the top, volunteer each month with Habitat for Humanity, and tutor underprivileged children at an inner-city school, and never drink to excess.’ Another man seated near the rear of the church, only muttered, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” That’s all he could say. You see, when his liquor store went broke, after his marriage dissolved, just before that unfortunate scrape with the law and the jail time, he had begun coming to church. He hadn’t joined the church yet; he didn’t really feel welcome or comfortable there. He didn’t even know how to pray. He could only mutter those seven words, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.”
These two persons then went to their homes after church. Frankly, the Bible-believing Christian, member of the board didn’t get much out of the service. Something was missing. Nothing in the service touched his heart. He already knew the scripture for the day. Old hat. The music was the “same old same old.” The preacher was dry and conventional. Oh well, perhaps next Sunday.
The other man stayed seated in his pew long after the benediction, crying, overcome with joy, or grief, he knew not which. He could not explain what had happened to him during the service. All he could say to anyone who would listen was, “God loves me.”
Sort of gets you, doesn’t it? It’s like someone I read this week said, “Before we thank God that we are not like this Pharisee (thus copying the Pharisee's prideful behavior), we should remember that Pharisees make good church elders, stewards, or deacons. They’re the ones who do the work of the church. They’re the ones who provide the financial support. Pharisees were devoted to God and righteousness, and most of their faults were the result of trying too hard to be holy. Their zeal may have been misguided, but at least they had some zeal to please God, right?
That said, let’s look a few mistakes the Pharisee made in an effort to learn how not to pray.
Mistake #1 – CONFIDENCE in own
Righteousness
The first big mistake the Pharisee made was his confidence in his own righteousness. Simply put, God is not impressed by our boasting. The Pharisee uses the first-person pronoun “I” four times in rapid succession in his short two-sentence prayer–– “I…, I…, I…, I….” Do you know people who talk like that? Their favorite subject is themselves. No matter what you’ve done or seen or experienced, they have a story to top it.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t have confidence in ourselves, it’s overconfidence in our righteousness that is deadly. This guy is way over the top in spiritual confidence. Did you notice that he never even asks God for anything in his prayer? It includes no supplication. He has everything he needs; me, myself, and I. He exceeds the standard at every point. He is better than other people. What more could he ask of God than the high standing that he already enjoys? His prideful attitude, of course, is the problem. He has created a universe that revolves around himself. His overblown sense of self separates him, not only from other people, but from God. He needs a wake-up call doesn’t he?
His prayer—if it can be called that—is largely an advertisement for himself. He's selling himself to God. Little wonder that Luke describes him in the way he does, In fact, a more literal translation of what Luke says here would be to say, “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.” That's a very apt description, isn't it? He prayed with himself because he was full of himself.
There’s a story
about the famous actor Gregory Peck who was once standing in line with a
friend, waiting for a table in a crowded
Peck’s attitude is 180 degrees different from G. Gordon Liddy. You may remember the name—Liddy was one of the Watergate conspirators who served time in prison for his part in the break-in. When he was released from prison he wrote a book (like they all do, it seems). In that book he wrote: “In prison I found all I need and all I ever shall need. I am a man of great faith, and my faith is in George Gordon Liddy. I have never failed me.” Sad, isn’t it? Don’t make the Pharisee’s mistake of having too much confidence in your own righteousness.
Mistake #2 – He played the COMPARISON Game
If the first big mistake the Pharisee made was his confidence in his own righteousness, the second mistake he made in praying was he played the comparison game. The Pharisee errs by comparing himself to other people while praying to God. You heard him, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even this tax collector.” Why did the Pharisee feel compelled to do this? Why do we? Why is it that we constantly measure our worth, our value, everything about who we are by comparing ourselves to others? We do you know. We use a wide variety of things to compare ourselves with others—intelligence (grades, SAT scores, degrees), where you went to school (or if you went to school), your annual income, trophy wives (I’ve got one of those) fitness, (“I'm in shape, you're a slob”), politics (“My vote is enlightened, yours is ideological”), your job, and even your zip code. Somehow we’ve decided the most reliable index of self worth is to compare yourself with someone else.
You know, there’s a famous verse in the Bible that says whenever two or more are gathered in His name, Christ is in their midst (Matt. 18:20). But I’ve noticed something else. I’ve noticed that whenever two or more are gathered, even in His name, it won’t be long before they’re all comparing themselves to one another and arguing about “who is the greatest.” In fact, the Bible records several instances of Jesus disciples arguing about this very thing. They even argued about it at the Lord’s Last Supper (Luke 22:24-27) when Jesus was trying to teach them about being humble and a servant of all.
The truth is, God will not judge me according to my superiority or inferiority over anyone else. No preacher. No church. No ministry. Jesus has a work for me to do (and a different one for you). Something he hasn’t given to anyone else to do. He’s also given us the grace to do it. The question is, will I accept my giftedness and my calling, and the grace to do it, or will I spend my time comparing my life with others, ranking myself above or below everyone I meet.
And—I love this—notice that the Pharisee, in assessing his own character, compares himself only to the worst elements of his society, and then pronounces himself excellent by comparison. You’ve got to hand it to him, that’s a pretty smart move. If you’re going to compare yourself with others make sure you pick the dregs of society so you’ll always look better, brighter, smarter, right? Actually, when picking a standard by which to measure ourselves, we need to look higher—a lot higher. In fact, the only faithful standard is Jesus. Why? Because God’s plan is to conform us to the image of Christ. Besides, if we compare ourselves to Jesus, our sin will be obvious and we won’t be nearly as tempted to the kind of pride that taints this Pharisee.
Playing the comparison game is foolish, there is always somebody a little higher up on the ladder of life, always someone “better” than you, and there’s always somebody below you on the ladder, someone to look down on. The real question is, how are you doing today concerning God’s plan for you and compared to Jesus—and that is always a humbling thought.
Mistake #3 – CONTEMPT for others
The final mistake the Pharisee made in his prayer that I want to point out is related to comparing ourselves with others, and that is the Pharisee’s contempt for others. Again, he says, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even this tax collector.” Let’s be honest, shall we? I’ll admit it. Contempt for others and the desire to run others down lurks in my heart; and it comes bubbling up all too easily and all too frequently. It often catches me off-guard in those mindless moments when I suddenly become aware that I’m plotting evil against someone for some past hurt. Why is it we have to tear others down in order to elevate ourselves?
The truth is, pride destroys our capacity to love. Meanwhile Jesus made it abundantly clear that the essence of the spiritual life is to love God and others (Matt. 22:37-39). Pride causes us to exclude rather than to embrace. It divides the world up into “us” and “them,” and “we” and “they.” Fact is, pride lies at the root of most of the “isms” of the world including racism, sexism, communism, intellectualism, etc…
The Pharisee went above and beyond the legal requirement of the law in at least two areas, fasting and tithing. But he failed to come away from his prayer justified before God because he failed at the most fundamental level: to love God and others. He did not recognize his need for God’s help. He did not embrace sinners, he held them in contempt, practically spitting out their names, including at least one person by name within the sound of his voice (“…this tax collector”).
Three mistakes—three ways not to pray: with confidence in your own righteousness, by comparing yourselves to others, and while holding others in contempt.
The Answer: Have a HUMBLE HEART
So what’s the answer? What is the right way to pray? The answer is demonstrated by the tax collector and comes as the punch line in the parable. The way to counter all three of these mistakes is to have a humble heart because “…all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Being humble isn’t about convincing ourselves or others that we are unattractive or incompetent. True humility is what John Ortberg calls accepting our “appropriate smallness[ii]” and living the kind of life Dietrich Bonhoeffer called one of “active helpfulness.[iii]” We learn to be humble by serving others. Humility is worked into our lives as we serve.
I love the story
about Booker T. Washington.
The next morning
the embarrassed woman went to see Mr.
In this life and in the life to come, “those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Try it, you’ll see.
And so…last week we learned to pray persistently from the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. This week we learn our attitude and demeanor are also important when we pray. We are to pray humbly to God. By contrasting the two characters in today’s parable as polar opposites, Jesus sets in bold relief two ways of being religious, one of which is death-dealing, the other of which is life-giving. The question is, which one will you choose? Personally, I like the little seven word prayer the tax collector uttered: “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.” Today if you come to Christ humbly, empty handed, unsteady, unsure, then his story may be yours. Don’t trouble yourself about what you ought to do for God. Let God do for you what only he can. Let’s pray.