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OUR ATTITUDE BEFORE GOD · Padre Alberto (Father Albert)

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  There was a gentleman that was not too regular coming to church
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  and actually had been absent for several months.
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  And when he found the priest outside, he said, well, Father,
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  I got to be honest with you, you haven't seen me around very
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  much. The priest said, yes, I noticed,
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  he says. I got to tell you why.
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  I said, I don't like to come to this church too much because
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  there's a bunch of hypocrites here.
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  And the priest looked at the man and said, well, you know, don't
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  let that keep you away because we always have room for one
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  more. And there was the farmer that
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  entered the local church, and he spoke to the church secretary
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  with his own farmer lingo. You know, he said, I'd like to
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  speak to the hedgehog who runs this joint.
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  The secretary was taken aback. She said, You mean the priest of
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  our church? You mean our pastor?
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  We call him the Reverend Father, or you can call him pastor, or
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  you can simply call him Reverend, but we certainly do
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  not call him the head hog. The farmer said.
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  Well, you know, all I wanted to do was give him a $25,000
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  donation check for the church immediately.
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  The secretary said, oh Deary, please take a seat.
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  Our hed hog will be with you immediately.
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  What is our attitude before God? How do we express ourselves?
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  What words do we use when we pray and how do we pray?
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  And I love this parable, this very simple parable, because it
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  gives us two different attitudes, right?
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  Jesus is giving us the two attitudes, the one who comes
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  telling God how wonderful he is, how he does everything right.
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  It reminds me of years and years and years of hearing confessions
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  and, you know, having people sit in front of me and tell me the
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  sins of their entire neighborhood and all their
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  family, but they would never get to them.
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  And the one thing people would always say when they don't know
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  what to say, you know, they say, well, you know, father, I don't
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  know, I don't know why I'm here because I haven't killed anyone.
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  It's like we always try to make ourselves look good, which it's
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  kind of interesting because Jesus uses this as an example.
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  Here's the guy that was a law abiding Pharisee.
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  He wanted to do everything right.
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  And so he uses his time of prayers.
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  We just tell God, you know, how wonderful he is.
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  And then you've got the attitude of the other, you know, tax
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  collectors were considered kind of public sinners, you know,
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  delinquents, corrupt. And so here you have the guy
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  who's saying, I'm sorry, he's beating his chest.
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  He's asking for God's mercy. So the question ultimately is,
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  what is our attitude before God? And it's not so easy to respond
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  to that if you think about it. But the meaning of this parable
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  truly, truly, truly has to do with righteousness.
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  We want to be righteous. We want to be right with God.
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  But I don't think we realize that we're only right with God
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  because of God's mercy, because of God's grace.
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  One of the great things the Protestant Reformation left us
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  was justification by grace. It's Jesus who died on the cross
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  who saves us. We do not save ourselves by the
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  things we do. Certainly good works are
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  important, don't get me wrong. And as Anglicans, we have this
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  faith and works of the Catholic tradition.
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  We didn't abandoned that. But justification by faith is
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  truly, truly right theologically, right biblically
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  right, because we're not saved by the things we do.
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  We are saved by God's grace and God's mercy.
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  And so it was that tax collector who got it right.
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  He went there to say, Lord, I'm a Sinner, I need you.
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  What is our attitude before God now?
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  While it's true that salvation is not earned by our works and
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  it's only God's grace, humility doesn't begin on the outside.
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  Humility begins on the inside. And I know that we live in a
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  world where there's a lot more arrogance than there is
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  humility, but I want to say to you that as Christians, we
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  should not give in to that trend.
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  How many likes you have or how many followers you have does not
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  make you better. Being recognized or popular
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  doesn't make you better. Fame is certainly not a whole
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  lot. I've always told people that
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  it's way overrated and actually famous.
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  A lot like the like the foam in the ocean, it goes up and it
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  goes down rather quickly. I need to tell you that I think
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  Jesus is calling us today to look at our hearts.
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  You know how you go to the cardiologist or you go to your
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  doctor and they give you your blood work?
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  I'm always fascinated by that. I got mine the other day, always
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  fascinated by it. You never know where the
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  cholesterol is going to end up. You know, my doctor suggested to
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  me a long time ago that I give up eating steak and I said to
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  him, doctor, that's not going to happen.
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  Just put the dosage up. Whatever it is you give me to
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  keep it down, put it up. What I'm trying to say to you is
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  we need to look at our hearts spiritually.
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  How we doing when we go before God, are our hearts open?
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  Are we, are we, are we sincere in our prayer?
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  Do we recognize how much we need God?
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  Because there are a lot of things that distract us, but
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  what we need most is God. What our world needs most is
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  God. Humility starts on the inside.
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  And God, by the way, I have something to tell you.
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  God sees our hearts. God has that spiritual MRI.
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  He's got that spiritual X-ray. He can see and God judges the
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  sincerity and the the true piety that is in our hearts.
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  That's why I love this very simple gospel.
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  What is the Pharisees prayer? The Pharisees prayer is look at
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  me, I'm doing so well. What is the tax collector's
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  prayer? It's the prayer of humility.
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  I need you, God. He opened his heart to God's
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  mercy, to God's grace, and he received it.
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  And that's why Jesus gives kind of a very direct kind of answer.
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  Do you see that? He said this man went down.
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  The reason it says went down is because, remember, the temple
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  was up. He went down home.
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  Justified. At the very core of Christianity
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  is this thing called humility. And today the Pope said some
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  very powerful words. Pope Leo, the Bishop of Rome,
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  said that, you know, we should work for a more humble church,
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  that the church would be more humble.
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  Now, when people hear that, the first thing they hear about is
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  or are they going to give away, you know, all the art in the
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  Vatican, you know, the riches of the Vatican and has nothing to
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  do with things. It has to do with our
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  disposition to be open to each other, to the world.
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  It has to do with our disposition to be of service to
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  those in greatest need among us. The arrogant cannot see the
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  poor. The arrogant cannot see the
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  suffering of immigrants. The arrogant cannot see the
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  people need health care. The arrogant can't see that
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  there are people who are hungry in the world.
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  You cannot be a Christian and be that arrogant.
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  Don't tell that you're a great Christian and a follower of
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  Jesus if you ignore those who suffer.
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  When you have a humble heart, you are aware of their suffering
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  of people. I can't come to this altar today
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  here to worship and not think about Jamaica right now with
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  that storm coming by because there's a storm.
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  And then my little part of Cuba on the east, which isn't so
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  little, was the original capital, by the way, before,
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  before there was Havana, there was Santiago de Cuba, but that's
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  for another time. The whole eastern part of Cuba,
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  which the houses are already destroyed because of the
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  communism and the stupidity that they perpetuate there, that is
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  going to get A5. What do they call it, 5 category
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  5 storm? Oh my God, they already look
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  like they're in a Category 5 storm right now.
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  Forget about Haiti and everyone else who may be vulnerable.
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  What I'm trying to say to you is we as Christians cannot come
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  here together for worship and ignore the cry of the poor,
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  those who are suffering, those who are in need, because then
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  we're not followers of Jesus Christ.
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  We're following some stupid ideology.
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  And I don't care if your ideologies on the right or on
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  the left or up here, down there. The gospel has nothing to do
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  with any of that. It doesn't have anything to do
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  with any of that. Please feel free to be a
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  Republican, a Democrat, an Independent, a non affiliate in
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  this church. We have everyone and everyone's
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  equally welcome. But you know what?
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  We don't have people who are indifferent to the needs of
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  those who are suffering. Because the fact is, as
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  followers of Jesus Christ, we cannot afford that spiritually.
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  Our hearts cannot afford that kind of indifference.
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  And I'm telling you, you got the two attitudes.
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  You got the guy that was full of himself telling God how great he
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  was. You know, the Muhammad Ali of
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  the gospel, I'm the greatest. And then you've got the other
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  guy who knows he's a Sinner and recognizes I need God.
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  We got to look at our hearts. How are our hearts doing?
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  What are our attitudes before God and before this world we
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  live in? Can we afford to be indifferent
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  to the suffering around us? And we say that we are truly
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  following Jesus Christ if we are indifferent to those suffering
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  among us. Can we say, Lord, have mercy,
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  have mercy on me, a Sinner, have mercy on this world, have mercy
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  on us all, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
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  Holy Spirit, Amen.