© Noriko Cooper
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 25
Year C
I have been doing an evening beach Eucharist for 16 years, and one busy Sunday years ago, I couldn’t find a place to park my truck. Consequently, I parked at a friend’s house that overlooks the ocean and walked a block or so to do the service. I carted all my things down, including a table, the skimboard I use for the altar and my bag filled with everything I needed for the Holy Eucharist.
After the service, an individual needed to speak with me, so my friend brought the table and skimboard back to my truck for me. It was right about dusk as I finished talking and started walking back to my truck. I approached a couple walking their dog, and they seemed to be talking about something, then the gentlemen pointed at me. As I passed them, I said, “Hope you have a nice evening.” They looked at me intensely and said, “What are you, lost?” I responded, “No, I am fine.”
It took me a moment, but I realized why they wondered if I was lost. What they saw was a man with shorts, a T-shirt, sandals and a black bag with a large bottle of inexpensive wine sticking out of the top, walking down a street lined with million-dollar homes. They thought I was a transient! They made a quick judgement based on my appearance. Funny yet frightening, it taught me once again how faulty human perceptions and quick judgment trick us and get in the way of knowing God.
Jesus teaches us how easy is it to compare ourselves to others, yet how dangerous it is even more so than easy. We so often get in our own way. The Pharisee was grateful, yes, but grateful for what? Not God’s mercy, but for himself. His love of self and his judgment of others was leading him away from the God to whom he was praying. How often do we deceive ourselves in the same way as the Pharisee? We are called to be our own best friend, not our own worst enemy. Yet, the enemy of self-love and judgment of others, who keeps us from God, is more often not outside of ourselves, but within us. Will we follow Christ as the way? Or will we stay in our own way? Christ leads us to life and truth, but he allows you to choose which way. Are you your own worst enemy or your own best friend?
-The Rev. James S. Spencer is rector of St. Peter the Fisherman Episcopal Church in New Smyrna Beach.