Passing the buck

Readings for Sunday 27th October 2013 Proper 24 of Year C the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost. Joel 2:23-32 and Psalm 65 [or[Sirach 35:12-17 or Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22] ]and Psalm 84:1-7
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Luke 18:9-14
(Reading in the Australian version of the Revised Common Lectionary use Luke 18:15-30 this week)
The standard  ploy when we don't want to look at ourselves
is to try and hide and deflect attention away to others.
This goes right back to the Garden of Eden
God asks Adam (Genesis 3:11): "Why did you do
what I told you not to do? " and Adam says,
"Eve made me do it!"
When God asks Eve, she says "The serpent made me do it!"
Like everything in the Creation stories
it is talking about what human beings are like
-We pass the buck-

Luke editorialises on this parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector
"He told  this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt" ((Luke 18:11)
The Pharisee we are told stands praying
giving thanks that he is good:
Jesus told the parable "to those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous!"

We might ask...if I am righteous on my own account
then what need do I have of God
(plenty of people in today's world say "None!"
And the next question we need to ask is
"Is this what I am like?"
This is not the Christian position
but it is often the way we speak and behave
as though we have made the grade
and we are pretty good

It is of course not true!

So if we ask the second question:
Who says you are perfect...
then we hide and point the finger elsewhere...
I actually  am good because I am not like that guy over there!

We should be outraged to be scandalised by this sort of analysis!

There are many things we could say:
We so often judge people harshly for the very things they represent that are like us.
We are critical of the people who can accurately assess us,
 a sort of process of discrediting the reliable witness

We may think this is the stuff of politics
It also seems like the stuff of human rerlationships

There is the other figure....who simply says
"God be merciful to me a sinner!"
Neither saying he is fixed and nearly perfect
or not as bad someone else.

This week
Where do I fail to properly scrutinise myself and present myself honestly to God?
Where am I guilty of judgmentalism