I’ve said that line more than once. And when I do, I’m always comparing myself to something much worse than what I am experiencing, have done, will do, have to contend with, you name it. And thanking God that I didn’t have to deal with “that”, whatever “that” might be. I confess to feeling a sense of pride. I believe that I am on safe ground when I say that I’m not alone.
There has been at least one individual in history who has shared my plight – the one in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18. The Pharisee goes to the temple to pray, tells God how great he is and looks over to the tax collector and says, “thank you for not making me like him.” In other words, “there but for the grace of God go I…”
“Comparison is the thief of joy1.” Teddy Roosevelt said that. It took a bit of a google search to find out to whom it is attributed but it is quoted a lot and many articles begin it with it. I don’t know if the Pharisee was feeling particularly joyful or if he was actually complaining as he compared himself to others…I tithe EVERYTHING, I fast TWICE a week…and I am NOT a sinner, like HIM.
And the Pharisee is very aware that he ranks high above the tax collector. After all, the Pharisee is standing IN the temple and the tax collector can’t even cross the threshold. But what we don’t get to know about is how joyous the Pharisee feels in his self-proclaimed righteousness.
The reality is that as humans we are hard-wired to compare ourselves to others. Facebook and just about every other social media outlet bear this out. We get the “photo-shopped” version of other people’s lives that seem to be going so much better than our own, are filled with fun when ours is not, whose kids are doing so much better than ours, whose jobs are fabulous when ours are drudgery and on and on.
And the comparison thief has done its job. We’re left without joy and filled with despair. OR the opposite happens, “but for the grace of God go I…”
Oh snap! Not a trendy saying but the sound of the parable’s trap. It gets us coming and going. We draw lines of comparison and find God on the other side. Every. Single. Time. When the truth is that God wants to us to be on God’s side. And not the other way around.
And the way that God wants us to be on God’s side is to trust in God’s ENDLESS grace and mercy rather than in our limited view of the comparative world. The good news is that God ranks no one. God makes no one stand outside of the temple. God says to everyone, you are enough, come inside.
And leave the human ranking system at the curb. Because what God gives us is justification, not righteousness. Love, not hate. Mercy, not judgment. Faith, not fear.
God already knows the hateful and dark thoughts that we hold inside and reaches right past them to touch our very hearts with God’s love. It is God who redeems, not our own actions. There is nothing that we can do to make God love us more or less. God just loves. That makes all the difference in your life, in my life, in our lives together as church in this place and at this time. And say, “There because of the grace of God go I.”
1http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/comparing