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"WHO'S THE GOOD GUY?!"If I were to choose a hymn to go with the Scripture today - Luke18:9-14. in which the hated tax collector is shown mercy and the selfrighteousness religious leader is sent away without any, I would chooseAmazing Grace.Growing up as we do in a tit for tat world, where the good shouldbe rewarded and the bad should be condemned, we just don't understandthe way God does things. God saves those we would damn, and setsfree those we would capture. God restores those whom we might leavebroken. While we set about to be righteous and look down upon thosewho have not climbed to our heights, God is busy blessing the unrighteous,and calling our self righteousness into question. God's Grace IS amazingand downright disgusting - depending upon where we placedourselves in the Scripture. God's Mercy is unfathomable exceptperhaps to those who need it most.The wretched tax collector who collected from his fellow Jewswhat taxes Rome required and a lot more that he could get away with tokeep for himself, finally had his guilt catch up with him, confessed that hewas a wretched sinner - in contrast to a former member of our churchwho would not come to church if we sang Amazing Grace. "I amNOT a wretch!" He would vehemently declare - and he wasn't, he wasa very good guy, but his name did rhyme with Warlock - which I believe isa male witch! (I threw that in, just so you'd know how seasonally relevantI am!) "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved aWRETCH like me!"God seems a little prejudiced toward the sinner if the truth betold! In so many of the parables, the supposed "bad guy" is the good guyand the bad guy - the good - thus the sermon title, WHO'S THE GOODGUY?!Today's Scripture Lesson from the Lectionary usually results in uslooking down our noses (we Christians are VERY good at that!) - lookingdown our noses at the self-righteous Pharisee which puts us in the exactcategory we seek to disavow! Oh, ow!Is it possible only to be deemed "good" by being bad? Are wemissing a real opportunity here to live it up? What IS going on with thisScripture?We're not the only ones to wonder. The early disciples who firstheard the words couldn't believe what they were hearing. For them, it isutterly unseemly, almost laughable to think someone who does what thetax collector does would even dare to PRAY for mercy. They found itscandalous that grace is offered to such a scoundrel so easily. Wherewere the works of absolution? Where were the terrible nights of anguishthat prove his remorse is not short-lived? Where were the years of goingabout righting wrongs, returning the extra fees collected that made himrich while he watched his neighbors struggle to survive?What we have to come to is the truth that mercy is at God'sdiscretion, forgiveness is available to all who ask for it and righteousnessis a gift, not an accomplishment.We are imbued with what the theologians call work righteousness.The Apostle Paul tried to warn us to clue us in: "For by grace are wesaved though faith, not works, lest any person should boast." And,he asks a good question, "Shall we sin that grace may abound?!"Now THERE'S an idea! But we won't be practicing THAT any time soon.Essentially, this parable is about judging - or rather, not judging.Let's not cast aspersions on what God wants to do in the forgiving business.We may need some of that blanket forgiveness ourselves at some futuredate.But in the meantime, our job as Christians is not to judge but tojoin those who are recipients of God's Grace - to invite them to join us.They don't need our judgement - they don't need to see us looking downour noses at them - as all the "righteous" people of Jesus time looked atthe tax collector.A few years ago, I decided to be in my office five days a week,not six as I had done for thirty years. Still, I wanted to be of service onthat extra day I now had off - so I went to a Rotary Club - in Ft. Lauderdale,near my home. The president was very welcoming, but I can't say theclub was. They had some get togethers, but no projects where you coulddo what Rotarians do - not in the weeks that I was there. It was a prettyritzy club, meeting in a ritzy environment and I didn't see why I should beexcluded..I had a ritzy house and a ritzy car and I could afford the ritzypriced breakfast. . The fact was it was not about me at all. They werehaving such a good time with the people they already knew and liked, thatalthough I was there, I was there and not there. They didn't see me andfind me wanting, they didn't find me at all - they didn't see me at all. I wasnot a member of their club. I continued to attend for several weekswhen that fact became painfully obvious.I went to the district meeting of Rotary which members of Rotaryclubs all over the district attended. Unfortunately, no one from my RotaryClub of Miami Beach was there so I sat down with my Rotary friendsfrom my "extra day" club. "Sorry," one of them said, "this area isreserved from members of our Club." I went to another table, but Inever went back to THEIR club.Years ago, this church made a decision not to be a Club. It decidedto be welcoming to everyone despite the fact that some of the memberswanted the leadership and membership to be essentially white, anglosaxon,country club people. Those same members, di not want Blacks,Latins, gays or children in the church - i.e. children not white and anglosaxon.The Chairman of the Board, a young man, Doug Bischoff wasadamant that the church should be open and welcoming to all. I rememberhim saying, "It's o.k. for my country club to be a country club, butit's not o.k. for my church to be a country club."Up until that effort began, people in the community believed thatthis church was for the rich only. In fact an outstandingly talented flautistwho played here with the Symphony of the Americas lived in Miami Beachas a child, told of playing jacks on the front steps of the church, wonderingif she would "ever be rich enough to be allowed to go in."It was a club and a clique-y one at that. The problem is, and whatwe are being asked to see is that without meaning to be, we are still TheClub in our own way - we are the Pharisee judging anyone who is differentfrom ourselves.Years ago I read this in the Saturday Review. It shows the dangerin insisting that everyone be just like ourselves.In cobra country, a mongoose was born one day who didn'twant to fight cobras or anything else. The word spread frommongoose to mongoose that there was a mongoose who didn't wantto fight cobras. If he didn't want to fight anything else, it was hisown business, but it was the duty of every mongoose to kill cobrasor be killed by cobras."Why?" asked the peacelike mongoose, and the word wentaround that the strange new mongoose was not only pro-cobra andanti-mongoose but intellectually curious and against the ideals andtraditions of mongooism. "He is crazy" cried the youngmongoose's father. "He is sick," said his mother. He is a coward,"shouted his brothers. "He is a mongoosexual, whispered hissisters.Strangers who had never laid eyes on the peacelikemongoose remembered that they had seen him crawling on hisstomach, or trying on cobra hoods, or plotting the violent overthrowof Mongoosia. "I am trying to use reason and intelligence," saidthe strange new mongoose. "Reason is sex-sevenths of treason,said one of his neighbors. "Intelligence is what the enemy uses, "said another.Finally, the rumor spread that the mongoose had venom inhis sting, like a cobra, and he was tried, convicted by a show ofpaws and condemned to banishment.Moral, Ashes to ashes and clay to clay. If the enemy doesn'tget you your own folks may - those in "The Club" that seek to keepeveryone else out.So here we are on a Sunday - confident in our spirituality, enjoyingthe fellowship of the church - meaning enjoying all the people we alreadyknow and love - and, unfortunately - not seeing, not welcoming thenewcomer, the stranger, the person not yet a part of that fellowship, theperson who is different from us - not like us - but hurting for a word ofwelcome.When we hear about the Pharisee, let us be totally aware of howvery much in danger we are of becoming the very thing we look down ournose at, because of the subtleties by which we can get into that realitybefore we even realize it.It isn't that we're bad or mean, we're simply caught up in theenjoyment of being together with people we know and love. Yet thechurch exists not for the people in it, but for the people not in it yet. That'swhere our focus should be on Saturday morning when we have theopportunity to invite people to come with us on Sunday, and Sunday afterchurch where we can seek out the stranger and the guest.Every member and friend of the church - every regular attendershould be what we call in church growth parlance - a new person spotter- who then becomes a new-person welcomer - otherwise we have heardthe parable but missed the very point that Jesus wanted to make by tellingit.We are not the important, VIP, "Country Club" people - we arethe servants of God intent upon widening the circle of God's House toinclude others than ourselves.We are not to be the Pharissee, who felt that he was better thanothers, nor do we want to be. He went home not right with God. "Peoplewho make themselves important will be made humble, but thosewho make themselves humble will be made important.""There were some people who thought they were very goodand looked down on everyone else. Jesus used this story to teachthem." Once to every man and nations comes the moment to decide, ifwe will learn the lesson or not. WHO'S THE GOOD GUY?!Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)October 28, 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 18:9-14May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.http://feeds.feedburner.com/MiamiBeachCommunityChurch