22 Pentecost, Year C

"DOES GOD HAVE 'CALLER I.D.'?"
Proper 25: Jeremiah 14: 1 – 10, 19 – 22; Psalm 84; II Timothy 4: 6 – 8, 16 – 18; Luke 18: 9 – 14
Given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL

Does God have “Caller ID”?

Think about the uses for that wonderful device, “Caller ID”…. many of us are so used to using it these days, we don’t give it much thought as we look at the display to see who’s on the other end.

But it’s quite useful: for example, we can tell if the person on the other end is known to us, but who has a reputation for engaging a conversation partner in long, drawn-out, one-way conversations. “Caller ID” would be particularly helpful in that particular situation if we’re on the way out the door, for example, and simply don’t have the time to get involved in a long conversation.

Or, we can tell when we see those telltale words “out-of-area” or “private number” or “restricted number” that the party on the other end will most likely simply be trying to sell us something, often even using a tape recorded message (aren’t those the worst of this sort of marketing?) to promote a product.

Does God have “Caller ID”? And, if so, what might He use it for?

I think the answer to the question, “Does God have ‘Caller ID’?” is “yes”. After all, we begin the Holy Communion service with this prayer (often called the “Collect for Purity”)[1], which says (in part), “Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid….” So, we are saying in this prayer that we are worshipping a God who knows all things, a God who is omniscient.

This collect is quite consistent with the witness of Holy Scripture. For there, we read the following, “... for the Lord searches every mind, and understands every plan and thought.” (I Chronicles 28: 9) (NRSV).[2]

If only the Pharisee had remembered that portion of Scripture, “for the Lord searches every mind, and understands every plan and thought”. Perhaps that unnamed Pharisee wouldn’t have stood apart from everyone else in the Temple, praying to himself!

Let’s stop there for a minute…. “Praying to himself”….If the phrase in verse 11 is translated that way,[3] that means – if we return to our concept of “Caller ID”, that God has seen not only the identity of the caller, but God has also seen the caller’s intent, and has, in effect, hung up on him….No doubt, the Pharisee is so self-consumed with selling himself and his pious deeds that he can’t even hear the dial tone coming back at him from the phone that is dead on the other end (if we may continue the illustration we began with).

But even if the translation of verse 11 should more properly be rendered “the Pharisee stood by himself” (as the NRSV does), or “the Pharisee prayed about himself” (as the NIV does in its main reading), the bottom line is that God’s ear is deaf to the Pharisee’s prayer, for our Lord concludes this Parable by making it clear that “I tell you, this man (the tax collector) went down to his home justified, rather than the other (the Pharisee).

Where did the Pharisee go wrong?

Right from the beginning, apparently: Notice that the Pharisee begins his prayer with an address to the Almighty, simply saying, “God, I thank you that….” The Pharisee addresses the deity with a form of address that many devout Jews might have found to be offensive. The Pharisee seems presumptuous in his relationship with God, especially when we look at the tax collector’s address, for the tax collector says, “Lord”, thereby acknowledging God’s power over his life.

But the Pharisee doesn’t stop there….For though he relates the facts of his religious observance (his fasting and his giving practices), he seems to do so not with his eye on God, but on the others who are also in the Temple for prayer, including the tax collector.

The Pharisee’s focus is reminiscent of Jesus’ comments to the Pharisees in Luke 16: 15, where we hear Jesus say, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God.” (NRSV)

And so, in this parable, we return to some themes that Jesus has been hammering at for awhile now: 1) self-justification; and 2) self-aggrandizement, done in view of others.

But God knows the heart, as today’s parable and Jesus’ comments from two chapters earlier makes clear.

What are we to make of today’s parable? After all, we have before us two clear-cut characters, one a proud and arrogant man, and the other a humble man who is weighed down with the burden of his sins.

The Pharisee, by virtue of his own boasting, has placed himself on God’s “Do Not Call” list. God apparently wants nothing to do with his “sell job”, his one-way conversation that intrudes on God’s sovereignty and power.

By contrast, the tax collector’s role as a social outcast in the Jewish society of 2,000 years ago and his status as sinner are suddenly and dramatically reversed.[4] For God, who knows our identity even as we come to Him in prayer, also knows our intent in praying, and is always willing to hear our prayers, provided they are born of proper motivation.

That seems to be Jesus’ message.

And what about our own attitudes toward God?

As I consider that question, I begin to realize that, many times, we are combinations of the Pharisee and the tax collector….we can easily shift from tax collector to Pharisee, moving from repentant sinner to boastful sinner.

Why might that be so?

The answer might be because we each know the facts of our own lives (just as the Pharisee and the tax collector knew the facts of their own lives – one was regular in fasting and in giving, and the other was deeply aware of the fact of sin in his life), we each know our own experience as the central reality of our existence in this life. We think we are the center of our own lives, and often, the immediacy of our own life’s experiences can easily become the source of authority for all that we do, including our relating to God.

But we are called to allow God to become the center of our lives. If the Pharisee had done that, he would have seen the shallowness of his own boasting, his own looking around at others, to see that the sin of pride is just as bad in God’s eyes as the sins he enumerates in others (thieves, rogues, adulterers, tax collectors).

For in allowing God to take center stage, we then begin to see things as He sees them (which is one of the main reasons for prayer).

To allow us to see things as God sees them, we need His help to see the pernicious and sneaky side of sin, especially the sin of pride.

As the Collect for Purity continues, saying, “(Lord) Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy hole Name; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”


[1] Book of Common Prayer, 1979, page 323
[2] See also Romans 8: 27, where St. Paul expresses a similar idea.
[3] As some translations do, including the New International Version (NIV) in an alternative reading.
[4] Abrupt and shocking reversal of roles is a theme found throughout Luke’s Gospel account. Luke seems to pay a good bit of attention in his writing to Jesus’ teachings that reverse the roles of the outcast (Samaritans, prostitutes and tax collectors, e.g.), the poor, the sick, and those imprisoned (see Luke 4: 18 – 19).