Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Luke 18:9-14

30^th in Ord. (C-5) Is our heart calm or agitated?

Have you ever taken a walk around a small mountain lake? Don’t you just love seeing the reflections of the mountains, the trees, the houses on the surface of the waters when they are calm, and there is no breeze or wind to make the waters agitated or troubled?

It makes us think about the condition of our hearts before God. When we are as calm as the waters on a lake, then God can answer our pleas by painting scenes on the canvas of our calm heart. When we come to God in an agitated state, no matter what the cause, God cannot paint until that agitation is dissipated. When we are calmed, then God’s work can begin.

This shows the difference between the ways the Pharisee and the publican prayed. If the surface of the lake is our heart, on which of these 2 hearts could God paint a picture?

I believe that after reading the parable, we need the “gift of humility.” When we are humble while speaking with God and in doing what we do, then God can do great things with us, and justifies us. When we compare ourselves in disrespectful ways, we agitate our hearts, we trouble the waters such that God can’t do God’s work in and through us.

We need humility to realize that God has to be in control. We must learn to “pray as if everything depends upon us, and to work as if everything depends upon God.” Real humility is the ability to recognize the call to pray like the publican and to act as if we were brushes in the hands of the master painter, God. This is being the instrument of God.

So, what does Jesus want to say to us? He wants us to do as Micah asks: “Act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with our God,” in prayer and in life. This is the gift of humility before God. It is how God finds calm waters on which to paint.

I believe the Pharisee was a good man, but he lacked some things. By exulting himself in prayer, he lacked humility. By disrespecting the publican, he acted unjustly, and by condemning sinners, he put himself in God’s place, which is a form of idolatry.

The Pharisee obeyed the letter of the Law: he tithed and fasted more than prescribed. Then, why did Jesus disdain him? Because he showed no love or compassion. The waters of his soul were troubled, and he didn’t know it. God could not paint on the canvas of his heart.

For Jesus, the church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. We must learn from the publican: 1^st, act justly at home, at work, in church, and outside in our hoods. To act justly is to treat the other, creation and ourselves as gifts from God. This is Biblical justice; this is right relationship. This calms the waters of our hearts.

2^nd, learn to love tenderly, not manipulating or possessing, and not only erotically. When we’re in pain and still love, we love as Jesus loved. Can we love the undesirables? If not, our waters are agitated.

And 3^rd, learn to walk humbly, not humiliated, with God. Knowing we’re not worthy is being humble. Considering ourselves less than bugs is to deny that all God created is good! It doesn’t mean we’re inferior or superior; it means the waters are calm; God can paint over them.

Doing all this prepares our hearts to be ones that truly pray. Coming to creation with humility, gently loving in justice, shows God that we “pray as if everything depends upon us, and that we work as if everything depends upon God using us.” God does not find calmer waters than these. Let God, our master painter, paint the picture that tells the world how much God loves us, just the way we are, no more, no less!