Saturday, November 05, 2011

 

Stories For The Way There Luke 18 9-14 

I was finishing up my sermon on the Pharisee and the Publican for tomorrow morning when I found myself thinking back to one of my favorite youtube clips ever from about two years ago. I'm a fan of the blind boys for a lot of reasons, I just happen to think that if you looked up "cool" in the dictionary you should see their picture as far as I'm concerned.
But beyond that I was thinking about the "prayer that arrived" in Jesus story from Luke 18 ( Read it HERE)
The thing is Eugene Peterson is right in calling this story "The Two Sinners" ( Tell It Slant) We really fall to the way-too-common virus of self righteousness when we lose our place. The advantage for the tax collector is he knew something to be true of himself that is true of all of us.
Back to my beloved blind boys video...Lou Reed is never likely going to win a "dove " award for his contributions to the world of Christian Music. In an interview for an upcoming concert in Australia ( HERE) the venerable founding member of the boys, Jimmy Carter drops this little explanation about such an unlikely duet as Lou and the Blind Boys. " Anytime that you are with someone who has a little gospel in them, he's alright by me ...he must have some in him cause he wrote this song. " (Paraphrase)
In Jesus' story one of two men found his proper place, and went down to his house justified.

"Jesus , help me find my proper place" indeed.