Are You A Pharisee?
I spent Labor Day Weekend with my family, as we do most years.  We made the rounds to see grandparents, grandchildren and everyone in between.  Hurricane Katrina was on the minds of everyone, and everyone had opinions.  My daughter's neighbor was housing an evacuee from the New Orleans area.  He was quoted as having said, "Most of those people could have walked out of their (the Superdome area) in 6 or 8 hours, that's what we did."  A brother-in-law said, "Why do people even live in an area below sea level?"  And still others said, "Well, they are just waiting on another handout."  You see, six days after devastating disaster, and we are suddenly experts on everyone else's problems. The major news networks are feeding us with the blame game coverage.  It's their own fault, the govenor's fault, FEMA's to blame or the President.
Sunday morning, however, I was reminded of another person, from a different time.  You see, he wasn't in the middle of a hurricane disaster.  He was standing in the temple, observing the actions of another man.  Was he in the battle of this man's life?  No.  Was he willing to lift this man up and help him on his journey?  No.  He was just thankful that he wasn't like him.  Do you remember the story?
    To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men- robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' 
    "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'   
Luke 18:9-13 NIV
The Sunday morning class teacher just mentioned this story in passing.  It wasn't the topic of his class, however I reminded me of the discussion from the day before.  While no one was thanking God that they weren't like the evacuees stranded in different places, some of them weren't showing very much mercy either.  As I've gone through this week, I've tried to be more merciful.  I've tried to give hope instead of more despair.  I've tried to watch my words.  I've said a few more prayers; some for the hurricane victims, some for me.