A minister slips into church early to pray before a church board meeting: no, a Presbyterian minister, maybe one serving  two churches. Feeling tired and  frustrated, he prays that in comparison to others, it could be worse. Most church goers know we should have the humility of the publican. At the times of prayers of confession, we may feel more like the Pharisee. self-righteous people unwittingly, unknowingly put themselves sin the position of the publican. I have heard people say that they don't share in the prayer of confession because it doesn't apply to them. Whenever we hear a sermon really going at a sin and folks say to the minister, you really let them have it, we are in Pharisee territory. We have pews in church so the self-righteous have something to hold on to so that they don't ascend at that moment. It is difficult for community when we  view others with contempt when we are judging others harshly. Of course, the moment we go, whew, I'm glad I'm not like the Pharisee, then the trap is sprung shut on us. This story cannot be read as denigrating the good acts of the Pharisee who walks the talk. This is an an admirable religious person, no hypocrite.

 

An old story tells of a student wanted to know the way of God. The master poured the cup full and it spilled on to the saucer. Was it a sign of my cup runneth over? No, you have no room in yourself for God.Think of the publican as say, a meth dealer, or a corrupt official, who has cheated on a spouse, been negligent toward the children, but who has now broken under the pressure. Or consider the recent great  NYT piece on a woman, Annie, 85,  who haunted the old Fulton Fish Market in New York. She was a foul-mouthed older woman who ran errands for the market, cleaned offices, and laundered the fishing clothes for the workers.  and hid the money in her clothes. At one point, she had been a beauty that turned heads, and her old pictured was featured at one of the docks. At home, she was a grandma. She gave away all of the money she made at the fish market. She supported a ballet school in LA. She got a car for a grandchild and sent the other through college in new Hampshire. She almost single-handedly supplied the clothes need for the Catholic worker house. The publican is a recipient of Joel's vision. 

 

Joel wrote to people who felt like the world seemed stacked against them, when everything from nature to politics to religion seemed to be going wrong.Joel's vision of the Spirit being poured out speaks of offering access to God in a more direct way. In Joel images of nature drying up and in abundance vie for pwoer. Old and young, men and women have the Pharisee and the publican residing within. We've all done things of which we are proud and justifiably so and done things of which we are ashamed and justifiably so. That kind of access is scary, as it illumines parts of ourselves we would rather remain hidden. Pride is an obstacle to getting involved with God. So is the confidence that we can handle anything all on our own.Humility seems to be a vehicle for prayer. It's a rare posture for most of us, appearing without our masks and justifications and rationalizations. Maybe it's related to being cast down by something that most predictably draws us to prayer. God's not as lucky to have us, as we are to have a generous, open-hearted God who loves us: Pharisee or publican.