30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 25), Year C

Why have you struck us down
     so that there is no healing for us?
We look for peace but find no good,
     for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.
~Jeremiah 14:19b,c

At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them!
~2 Timothy 4:16
 
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!’ I tell you, this 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.”
~Luke 18:13-14
 
In these interesting times it is not easy to span the differences among us that are so glaring and seem so weighty. Team tax collector, team Pharisee. We know which one we are on and we know who is on the other side as well. We have little doubt of the damage the other side is causing and little time to look in the mirror when so much is on the line. And that, it turns out, is what is so tricky about this familiar story Jesus tells in Luke’s gospel. In the parable Jesus blurs the lines with a truth that is sharp and unsettling. He seems to reward reflection and humility and question conventional wisdom and the sluggish assumptions it welcomes.
 
What might there be here for those of us whose politics are clearly married with our faith? We may imagine ourselves the tax (or toll) collector in the story, but our lives likely track more closely with the Pharisee’s. Is there an invitation here for us that might help find peace, a time of healing in a moment of terror and no good?
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22 † Psalm 84:1-7 † 2 Timothy 4:6-18 † Luke 18:9-14
 
About the Art: Anonymous. Seven Sins to Be Avoided in Life, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55752 [retrieved October 13, 2025]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SEVEN_SINS_TO_BE_AVOIDED_IN_LIFE.jpg.

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