This is part one. Tomorrow part two. But for the moment... the pharisee. That's the easy bit when you reflect on this passage in Luke. Or at least it seems to be: an overstriving holiness doesn't get you anywhere in the corridors of heaven; a holier then thou attitude doesn't make any headway in creating just relationships based on compassion; self-righteous and religion were made for each other, faith is a different matter.
The caricature of the Pharisee is just that. It's over emphasising what Pharisees were: holy, generous, zealous, serious about their religion. But perhaps this is the very thing Jesus is getting at: it's all about religion and not about relationships or justice. It's about imagining following God is a measuring test about how far up the scale you are in holiness or righteousness (but everyone forgets there's a wee area of the scale painted in red close to the top that reads: danger area: self-righteousness).
Sometimes you acn overstrive to become holy and the caricature of the Pharisee was doing exactly that so that living by the rules became an end in itself. Religion became an end in itself. When we get so caught up in being The Church, keep the religion going rather than using the religion as a means to justice, right relationships, environmental integrity then we've lost the point of who we are. Keeping the church going is no good to man, woman or beast if it doesn’t continually lead to a better world. We forget that we are but nothing other than a means, a conduit to provide a better way of living together in community with neighbour. The Church has no purpose in itself. It is always a self-emptying means towards establishing justice for others.
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