Some years ago the mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, appointed a committee of five clergy to investigate alleged corruption in the police department.  A city council member objected.  "What the hell do they know about crime?" he asked.  "They believe everyone's a good guy, like the Lord says!"

    Was the Cleveland councilman right?  Does the Lord say everyone's a good guy?  More specifically, is the Church a kind of club made up of "good guys" and "good gals?"  Is that the image we Christians project to the world?

    Tell me, what's your image of the church HERE?  Is THIS church to you - Is any church--a kind of "league of the DECENT?"  --An association of the most RESPECTABLE, the most MORAL, folks in town?  Did Jesus COME TO EARTH, and LIVE and DIE to establish a society of the VIRTUOUS?" --  ABSOLUTELY NOT!   He once cried, "Those who are well don't NEED a physician, but those who are sick!. . . .I have come to call not the righteous but sinners!"

    Just what is the church, anyhow? --CERTAINLY no 'LEAGUE OF THE DECENT!"  Instead, it's an INFIRMARY for the NEEDY! --A fellowship of those who recognize they're far from perfect--and who utterly DEPEND on God's mercy in Christ alone for salvation!  Dietrich Bonhöffer, German pastor, theologian, and martyr, executed by the Nazis, once declared aptly, "The Church is the community of guilt confessors."
           
    Doesn't Jesus' famous PARABLE in our Second Lesson for today, from Luke, chapter 18, make this crystal clear?  You know the parable by heart.  Two men go up to Jerusalem's Temple to pray.  Their backgrounds could hardly contrast more!  ONE man, you see, is a Pharisee--a member of the very strictest sect of Judaism at that time. He is STEEPED in the language, the elaborate rituals, and minute laws (the many DO's and DON'T do's) of his faith.  But the OTHER man's a tax collector--the MOST DESPISED occupation in Jewish society.  Tax collectors, you see, were ipso facto UNKOSHER!  Ritually UNCLEAN!  Not only did they collaborate openly with GENTILES -- the hated Roman rulers of Palestine -- but they took MONEY from OTHER Jews--and often CHARGED FAR MORE than required. They were NOTORIOUSLY CORRUPT and open to BRIBES!

    Friends, as you and I look for a moment at these two men, the Pharisee and the tax collector, please ask with me this question:  'HOW CAN THIS CONGREGATION HERE, BE A TRUE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST, INSTEAD OF A "LEAGUE OF THE DECENT?"

    FIRST, if you want to be a true church, then DON'T KID YOURSELVES INTO THINKING WE'RE BETTER THAN WE ARE!

      Just picture this particular Pharisee -- in all honesty, we should remember that not ALL Pharisees were haughty and proud like him, but SOME were -- picture him, dressed in his long robe, climbing the Temple Hill, his head held proudly above the common folks all around him.  He's religious and he knows it!  He puts on a SHOW, standing up in a central place, where all can see and hear him.

    And just listen to the Pharisee's PRAYER:  "GOD I THANK YOU THAT I'M NOT LIKE OTHER PEOPLE:  THIEVES, ROGUES, ADULTERERS, AND ESPECIALLY LIKE THAT TAX COLLECTOR OVER THERE!"  "Why, I FAST TWICE A WEEK!  AND I GIVE YOU A TENTH OF ALL MY INCOME!"

    On and on the Pharisee goes, listing all the virtues for which he thinks God should PRAISE and ADMIRE him.

    "HOW REPULSIVE!" you and I say.  But, honestly, are YOU and I all that much different from this Pharisee?  THINK about it!  Why is our society so FASCINATED by the scandals and weaknesses and peccadilloes of the rich and famous?  Stand at any supermarket check-out counter and glance at the headlines on any of the tabloids.  And you'll quickly conclude that folks today are OBSESSED with the intimate details of the most private affairs and sins and temptations of the British royal family, of members of CONGRESS, of the leading Hollywood stars, and of television personalities and athletes.

    How can the tabloids GET AWAY it?  Get away with publishing things that MAY be true enough, but surely often are HALF true and, sometimes, blatantly UNtrue? --Because the public DEMANDS it.  WHY?  -- Isn't it because, deep down inside, so many of us are GLAD to see someone FAMOUS, BROUGHT DOWN?  "I  MAY NOT BE A GREAT ACTOR and movie PRODUCER," we tend to say, "WHO LIVES IN A MALIBU OR BEVERLY HILLS MANSION, BUT AT LEAST I'M NO DRUG ADDICT, like Michael Jackson!"

    But let's get a closer to home.  Have you ever, on a Sunday morning, driven out of your driveway or parking space in time to make 8:30 or 10:30 a.m. worship, and glanced at your next-door neighbors, who never enter a church -- not even at Christmas or Easter -- and deep down inside, said to yourself, "My, I'm glad our family's better than they!"?

    Scottish poet Robbie Burns went to worship in the Auld Kirk of Ayr, one Sunday, and took his seat behind a proud, aristocratic woman, perhaps a member of the Scottish nobility.   Her head was high, her nose in the air.  But then Burns--and perhaps others in the pew with him--looked closely, and noticed, sitting on the tip of the woman's huge hat, a tiny LOUSE!  Quickly, he jotted down his famous "To a Louse"--a poem that concludes--and I can't do justice to Burns's wonderful Lowlands Scots dialect:


    Friends, oh would some power the giftie give us to see ourselves as GOD see us! --As flawed, self-centered creatures, every one of us, CONSTANTLY in need of God's pardon and guidance!  Yes, if you want to be a true church here, instead of a "LEAGUE OF THE DECENT," then we shouldn't KID ourselves into thinking we're BETTER than we are!

    And, SECONDLY, we should ADMIT OUR NEED FOR GOD'S FORGIVENESS!  Of course, liturgically, in EVERY Sunday service, in keeping with nearly 500 years of Presbyterian and Reformed practice, you and I do just this.  Yes, early in our worship together, each Sunday, we bow in our unison Prayer of Confession.  But how sincere are we?

    Just look at the sincerity of the tax collector here in our lesson.  In contrast to the Pharisee, he modestly stands far off from the crowd, where no one will see him.  Luke tells us he doesn't even dare lift up his eyes in prayer, but beats on his breast and cries, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"

    Yes, here he is, a tax collector!  UNCLEAN in the eyes of the devout.  A CHEAT.  A SCOUNDREL.  But unlike the Pharisee, he REALIZES his guilt.  And all he can do is pray, "God be merciful to me!"

    That's hard for you and me to do, isn't it?  Our pride stands in the way.  And pride's the WORST SIN OF ALL!  Remember the story of Jesus and the woman caught in the act of adultery, whom the scribes and Pharisees brought before him?  They were FURIOUS!  Their faces twisted in RAGE, the scribes and Pharisees picked up STONES to THROW at her.  "THE LAW OF MOSES," they cried, "REQUIRES AN ADULTERESS TO BE STONED TO DEATH!   WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT THIS, JESUS?"

    But our Lord didn't answer.  He just stooped down and began to write on the ground with his finger.  The scribes and Pharisees GREW RESTLESS.  And the poor woman TREMBLED before them.  They asked Jesus again, 'WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT HER?"

    Finally, Jesus stood up and replied, "LET ANYONE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN BE THE FIRST TO THROW A STONE AT HER!"

    DEAD SILENCE reigned.  The scribes and Pharisees stood there awkwardly, shame-faced. And then, one-by-one, they dropped their stones, and stole away.  Finally, only the woman and Jesus were left.  And he forgave her and sent her on her way.  "Go and sin no more," he said. 

    You see, Jesus knew that the scribes and Pharisees were guilty of a sin far worse than the woman's adultery:  the sin of PRIDE!  Pride turns us into judges of other folks.  Pride makes us set ourselves up as God!  Yes, if you would, indeed, be a true CHURCH, instead of a "league of the decent," it requires admitting our need for FORGIVENESS!

    AND ONE FINAL THING IS NECESSARY:  TO LIVE OUR FAITH, RATHER THAN TO BOAST OF IT!  To live it by serving others--and by pointing them to the mercy and love and free forgiveness Christ offers us ALL by his CROSS!

    Consider AGAIN the PHARISEE here in our lesson.  Talk about a professional DO-GOODER!  His whole attitude seems to be, "God's SO LUCKY to have someone who serves God as FAITHFULLY as I!"

    The late Arthur Link, biographer of Woodrow Wilson, gives us a remarkable statement this great man once made.  It was the year 1905. And Wilson, president at that time of Princeton University, preached the baccalaureate sermon in the University Chapel.  A son of the manse, an elder in the church, as well as a noble statesman, Wilson knew as well as anyone else what real Christianity was all about.  And in that baccalaureate sermon, on that June day in Princeton, as he looked out at the young graduates of the Class of 1905, he declared, "Character is a by-product, and a man who devotes himself to it is a selfish prig!"

    I LIKE that! --"Character is a by-product!"  With all due apologies to William Bennett, who, a few years ago, wrote the best-selling BOOK of Virtues-and who, incidentally, some years later, LOST OVER A MILLION DOLLARS IN GAMBLING DEBTS -- you and I can fall FAR SHORT of Christ's will, if we devote ourselves to BEING virtuous as an end in itself!  Yes, if we concentrate our efforts on proving how MORAL we are, how much GOOD we can do for God, we become SELF-CENTERED.  And that's as true for congregations as it is for individuals.  Because churches AS WELL AS individual Christians can become so hung-up on boasting of their good deeds that they can come to believe God can't do without them!

    Shouldn't we, instead, strive unceasingly and humbly to obey Christ's law of LOVE--ACTIVE love for GOD and for our NEIGHBORS--and let our character and our reputation take care of themselves?

    What about YOU?  HAVE you joined the "LEAGUE OF THE DECENT?"   Or the true CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST?

Prayers:
    Gracious Lord, what do you require of us "but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with you, our God?"
    By your Holy Spirit, make us ever honest with ourselves and with you..   Deliver us from preoccupation with our own virtue, that we may know and accept the pardon and the new life that you so mercifully offer us in Jesus Christ.  Especially free us from concern for ourselves, that we may be TOTALLY concerned for others, and  serve them, sharing with them the good news of your grace.  Thus make our congregation here--and ALL parts of your great Church universal --real COMMUNITIES OF LOVE, instead of "LEAGUES OF THE DECENT."
    Hear now our prayers for peace, justice, and freedom in this world--especially in the Middle East.  May the Prince of Peace reign in hearts and lives and nations.
    Hear our prayers for those in this sanctuary today who hurt in any way, that they may know the Savior's healing grace.  Hear our petitions for our brothers and sisters who are sick, that they may know your deliverance and wholeness.
    Finally, accept our thanks for all who have gone before us in faith, whose lives have demonstrated to us, and to a needy world, the gracious love and mercy of Jesus Christ.  Keep us in fellowship with them until we, too, enter your perfect presence for all eternity.  For we make these petitions in the strong name of Christ our Lord.  AMEN.