Honest To God

"Honest To God"
Luke 18:9-14

Muhammad Ali, when in the prime of his boxing career got on an airplane.  He was instructed by the stewardess to buckle his seat belt.  “Superman don’t need no seatbelt,” Ali told her.
“Superman don’t need no airplane, neither,” the stewardess said back.  Ali buckled his seatbelt.

Our ego is an amazing part of us.  It is the psychological and emotional part of us that meets the world head on.  It’s the part of us that has to make its way in the world as it is.

I've been reading a lot lately about what are called ego defense mechanisms.  They are tactics we use to defend our fragile egos.  If we feel we are being attacked, personally, and we don't want to hear what the other person is telling us; or, what they are telling us is hitting home and it's painful, then we launch into an ego defense position.  We defend ourselves.  We try to keep ourselves from feeling what we are feeling.  So there's this part of our psyche that steps in and puts a buffer between our self--our ego--and that which is trying to cause our ego pain.

Ego defense mechanisms have been defined as the lies we tell ourselves to shield or protect ourselves from pain.  Maybe we've heard messages like, "You are worthless."  Or, "You will never amount to anything."  Or, "You are unloveable."  Those are very painful words to hear, time and time again.  Some people give in, and live into those kinds of words.  They believe what they're told and become what others say they are.  Other people recoil at such words.  They launch back at the speaker of such words, refusing to feel the sting those words carry.  That is partly what our ego defense mechanism does.  So in some ways, it's a healthy mechanism.

But it can be a detrimental tactic if we protect ourselves from painful words spoken that we might need to hear.  Like if your spouse says something like, "You aren't as loving towards me as you used to be."  Your first reaction--your FIRST reaction--on some level is to hear those words and feel the sting of their truth.  But rather than embracing that pain, and accepting the truth of that statement, your second reaction would be to go into ego defense mode.  By trying to rebut those words, you really aren't trying to convince your spouse of your loving ways.  You're trying to convince yourself and protect yourself from a painful truth about yourself.  Our egos don't like to take in that there just might be something wrong with us, and that we aren't the great person we are trying to project to the world.

Truth hurts.  Truth causes pain.  Ego defense is a protection against the truth, but mostly against the pain of the truth.

(Does that make sense?)

OK.  Besides ego defense, there is ego inflation.  Ego inflation is a way of building ourselves up in the face of low self-esteem and insecurity.  Ego inflation is defined as the lies we tell ourselves to shield or protect ourselves from our sense of inadequacy.

A Texas man, bragging about the bigness of everything in Texas, was surprised when a Kansan agreed with him.  The man from Kansas said, "Yes, that's right, everything is big in Texas.  Why, I once knew a Texan who was so big they couldn't find a coffin big enough to bury him in when he died."
"So, what did they do?" asked the Texan.
"Well," said the Kansan, "they just let the air out of him, and buried him in a shoe box."

That's what ego inflation does.  It's when a person feels as big as a shoebox, but is always puffing themselves up in front of others, so they can appear bigger, better, more wonderful than they really feel.  Narcissists actually fit in this category.  Narcissists actually have a really low self image, and over-compensate with a lot of self-inflation.

There was a well-known Christian businessman who was visiting a church.  He was asked to say a few words, in terms of witness, to the congregation.  Unfortunately, the man got carried away and went on to tell the congregation about all the wonderful things he had done for the Lord:  "I have a large house, a fine family, a successful business, and a great reputation.  I have enough money to do whatever I want.  I'm able to support a number of Christian ministries very generously.  There are many organizations that want me on their boards.  I have great health and almost unlimited opportunities.  I can't think of anything else that God could give me in this life."
At that point a voice from the back shouted, "How about a good dose of humility?"

That's what we're looking at in Jesus' parable about the tax man and the Pharisee.  It's about prayer, in a round about way.  The parable about the widow and judge that we looked at last week was also about prayer.  About hanging in there in the long haul with prayer and God.  As we ended up last week, we saw that the parable was not just about prayer, but about a dogged faith in God that never gives up on God.

This next parable, that we're looking at this morning uses prayer as a vehicle to get at another important matter concerning we humans.  Note the opening line, like last week’s parable, telling us the purpose of the parable, even before the story is told:  "Jesus told this next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people."  Last weeks parable was directed to the disciples.  This weeks parable has an entirely different audience.  Or does it?  Could it still be the disciples?  Or the Pharisees?  Or anyone in the crowd that day?  Even us.

The opening statement doesn't say anything about prayer, or that what Jesus is about to say has anything to do with prayer.  But prayer figures in, as we shall see, as we get to the heart of this parable.

What this parable is about, as Luke has set it up for us, is facing the truth about ourselves.  Stripped of our ego defenses and our ego inflation, who are we?  Because a lot of what's behind ego defenses and ego inflations is fear--fear that others will see us for who and what we really are.  (As if they can't see that already.)

What happens when we are willing to loosen our grip on our defenses and inflations?   We defend and inflate ourselves in so many ways, both little and large, we don't even see it anymore.  How can we see, then?  And once seeing, embrace what we see?  Let go, and be seen.  Let go, and be real about who and what we are.  Let go, and not fearfully hide behind defenses and inflations, even if what will be seen isn’t that great.

Three ladies picked up their menus at the restaurant.  Each put on a pair of glasses.  "Of course, I really need mine only for close reading," said the first.
"I only wear mine when the light is poor," explained the second.
The third woman was much franker.  "I rarely wear mine," she said, "except when I want to see."

That's what we need to decide.  When are we going to put on the "glasses" Christ is offering in this parable, and put them on so we can really see, all the time, the truth about ourselves?

So, the Pharisee.  Ego defense or ego inflation?

First, let's look at his posture.  He stood.  Let's look at some others who approached God in prayer and how they reacted.  Moses, at the burning bush, covered his face.  Ezekiel, praying in personal grief before God, fell on his face.  In Isaiah's vision of the throne of God, the flying creatures with six wings covered their faces with two of the wings so they wouldn't look at God.  And Isaiah fell on his face.  When he was praying for Jonathan, David bowed while he prayed.

In all these instances people either took a posture of respect or deference or fear or grief before God.  But in the Pharisee's prayer there is no posture showing any of those qualities before God.

In a conversation I had with Eugene Peterson one time, he was telling me about a civic meeting he attended.  They noticed he was there, and decided with a minister present, they should start the meeting with prayer.  The one in charge said, "Say a little prayer, Pastor."
Eugene, who can be fairly fiery, responded in his gravely voice to the man, "There are no little prayers.  In prayer we are ushered into the very presence of God, which is a fearful thing, as if we were standing in the very presence of lion."  And I think Eugene said he refused to pray, because the man had no idea what prayer was.

Our posture needs to reflect what we believe to be true about God.  The Pharisee's posture betrayed what he thought about God.  The Pharisee is doing a lot of ego inflation, standing before God, showing no deference or respect towards God.

Jesus' parable goes on to say that the Pharisee prayed "to himself."  He didn't pray to God.  The Pharisee's posture matched his words.

When we're doing a lot of ego defending, or ego inflating, who are we talking to, really?  We may think we're trying to make our case before someone else, either defending or inflating.  We may assume it's the other person we're trying to convince.  But in reality, we're talking to ourselves, aren't we?  We're trying to make our case to ourselves, and make our selves believe it.

Bill Moyers was President Lyndon Johnson's press secretary.  Moyers was a Baptist minister at one point in his career.  So he was asked by President Johnson to say a prayer at a dinner.  Moyers began praying quietly.  President Johnson became irritated and interrupted Moyers, saying, "Pray louder!"
Moyers looked up and replied, "Sorry, Mr. President, but I wasn't addressing you."

We need to remember who it is we're addressing when we're locking ourselves into our ego defensiveness and our ego inflations.  When it comes down to it, it certainly isn't others, and it certainly isn't even God.  It is ourselves we are trying to convince.  Thus, the Pharisee, praying to himself.

The other character in this parable is the tax collector.  A guy who was a Jew, but had sold out to the Roman government, taking the job of collecting taxes from his own people for the Romans.  Hated turn coat.  Spit on.  Despised.

He's there in the temple praying as well.  Ego defending or ego inflating?

Check out his posture and words.  He's sitting in a corner.  Covering his face.  Not even feeling worthy to look up toward heaven.  If he wanted to look up to heaven, then what did his posture say about where he was directing his prayer?  Not to himself, but to God.  His is a prayer and posture of deference and fear and grief before God.

He simply says, "God, give mercy.  Forgive me, a sinner."  That's what most translations have.  The CEV has the tax collector say, "God, have pity on me! I am such a sinner."  That is closer to it.  What the tax man literally says is, "God have pity on me, the sinner."  That is, not just one sinner among many, but at the head of the class of all sinners.

No ego defense.  No ego inflation.  Just pure self confrontation with the reality of who and what he is before God.  No comparison with others, which is the Pharisee's tactic of self inflation.

There was a man who commuted to work on the train every day.  On one part of the trip, going through the countryside, there was a farmhouse.  The farmhouse, in it's whitewashed exterior seemed almost to glow.  But that first Winter of the man's commuting, it had snowed.  He looked out the window as the train passed the farmhouse.  This time the farmhouse looked drab, and dirty, and almost gray.  It looked that way, because he could compare it to the purity and whiteness of the fallen snow.

When we compare ourselves to ourselves (or to others) we get a very different picture than when we compare ourselves to the amazing purity and person of God.

And that's where prayer enters into this parable.  Because the parable isn't about prayer.  It's about honesty with ourselves.  It's about giving up the posturing.  It's about confronting all the ego defenses we spew out, and the ego magnifications we inflict upon others and ourselves.

The only way to confront ourselves with our selves, according to Jesus, is by prayer.  It was the tax collector who “was pleasing to God,” said Jesus.  This is one of the qualities of prayer that people least understand.  Prayer isn’t something we speak to others or to ourselves.  Prayer is a face-off with God and with the self.  Prayer isn’t an oration; it’s a confrontation.  As Eugene Peterson said, “There are no small prayers.”  As the tax collector found out, prayer is the only thing that can cut through and counteract all the work we do at ego defense systems and ego inflations.  Prayer is the only way through all that to the truth about who and what we are—and therefore into the pleasing presence of God.

Jesus said at the end of this parable, “If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face; but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”  Humility, Jesus humility, radical humility, is to be in prayer, to strip ourselves naked of all our self-delusional language before God, and thereby experience God’s true and “pleasing” mercy.