Today we hear Jesus tell a really important story.

A story that probably made the folks around him very angry. You see it was the Pharisees who had the corner on the market when it came to righteousness and justification. The Pharisees were intended to be the MOST righteous famous for their righteousness in fact. They were societys favorite. The shiny blessed ones. And yet here comes Jesus brave enough bold enough to tell this reallyrather insulting story about a Pharisee. We find Jesus again doing what he does turning things upside down. Lifting up things (and people) which have been cast down. Jesus, the prophet, chooses here to value the person who society would completely disregard. This Pharisee is great and mighty. You can hear it in his prayer, cant you? He is confident. He is wealthy. He and his life are secure. He is honored everywhere he goes and he has the best of everything.often because others want to earn their way into his good races. He wore traditional robes that marked him as a person of honor. A special cap for his head to show his respect to God and his robe had fringe on it to remind him of Gods law. He walks proudly into the temple. Head held high. Sure of his steps. And he prays. Loudly. Because he is entitled to. He has special privileges, after all special access to God. And so he feels entitled to pray and loudly at that to interrupt other peoples prayers. But this Pharisee has made a fundamental, strategic error. What do you think it is?

He has misplaced his trust. AND he has incorrectly defined righteousness. He is wrong about what righteousness is and where it comes from. Lets take a careful listen to his prayer. God

I thank you that I am not like other people

And then listen to how he talks about other people thieves, rogues, adulterers or even THIS tax collector. WOW! During his prayer he audibly puts down the tax collector. Can you imagine? I think its really rather incredible. But then, think, too. Where is the emphasis in his prayer? Its on the I. Me. God I thank you that I.wow. Did God even have anything to do with it? He has misplaced his trust. He has bought into what everyone else told him. That he is righteous? That who he is and what he does makes him righteous? And worse! That who the tax collector is and what he does makes him UNrighteous. Not so. Firstlets think about righteousness. Paul says something about that in the epistle for today, doesnt he? Paul links his righteousness with his longing for the appearance of Jesus.

AND maybe more importantly for us he links OUR righteousness with OUR longing for Jesus. Paul is telling us, here, that righteousness is born of a relationship with Jesus. Of a longing for Jesus to be with Jesus to see Jesus to follow Jesus. It is about a relationship with God. And this relationship, according to Paul, is a passionate one. Nowhere in Pauls language to we find a picture of a casual relationship with God. A here and there a now but not later. Paul is talking about passion. And longing. And love. And sacrifice. Paul longs to see Jesus to serve Jesus to be with Jesus. It is a deep, deep longing for shared time, for shared relationship, for understanding. And for Paul this is where righteousness comes from Christ leads us to it. It is of Gods making not our own. It is this longing that leads us in the right direction. It is this sense of relationship this sense of dependence on God, that reminds us, too, that we cannot trust in ourselves. The Pharisee has misplaced his trust by thinking that his righteousness is something he can make. Something he does for himself for which God will reward him. No. We must take part in the living out of righteousness but it is a process we are led to and into and through by God. With God. For God. If we trust in ourselves we fool ourselves into believing we dont need God. And not only are we wrong we deny ourselves the opportunity to really be with God as we are intended to be.

Leaning into this relationship with God through prayer and study through silence or music or service or whatever it is that brings you CLOSEST to God leaning into that relationship offers us the opportunity to learn to trust in God. To trust in Gods love for us just as we are. And to trust in the life God is leading us into who God is calling us to be. So how do you meet God? How do you pray? How do you feel when you pray? Do you long for God? To you long for the appearance of Christ? To see him and follow him? Lets look at the tax collector for a moment. Tax collectors were social outcasts. They were Jews who had sold out become traitors and collected money for the empire. They were just about as low on the social spectrum as you can get. So he has been rejected. Left out. He is anything but honored. And in everyone elses eyes he is far from righteous. And he knows it. He knows it because people tell him all the time. They tell him how worthless he is. And what a traitor he is. And they dont say it nicely. He knows he is unpopular. But what he also knows is that he is dependent on God. That he is in need of Gods mercy. And love. And help. And care. He shows humility not because its a show but because he has put his trust in God even though others would say he is a lost cause.

Even though others think what he does is despicable. He is faithful. He asks for mercy.

And Jesus came to raise him up. Jesus came to raise him and Paul and everyone else who cries out in love who puts their trust in God who knows they are dependent on Gods mercy. In this story Jesus raises him up. And calls us to true righteousness. To the righteousness that happens to us when we long to follow Christ. Because in our longing, God comes to meet us. In our longing God shows us the way. In our longing God offers us new life a prayerful life. A life of service. A life of love. A life that is full and blessed, and abounding in joy. Our good works, our desire to change the world, to be good people these things we do to honor God to follow Christ We are led into them when we learn to trust in God. When we learn to surrender as Alan likes to say. When we learn to give over our pride and our desire to make ourselves righteous. When we choose to follow. When we feel that deep longing Paul talks about. Ask God today to renew your longing. To be so present in your life and your mind and your heart that you find yourself reaching out for more

Looking on the horizon and longing, aching, for the appearance of Christ who is our way, truth, and life. Amen.