10/23/2022 - Sunday Morning Liturgy

Proper 25: 20th Sunday after Pentecost Katelyn Printz helps us to see the Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector in Luke 18 differently than many of us have often been taught. The Pharisee is often seen as a caricature of spiritual ostentation, a symbol of how elitism can manifest in an utter lack of humility. To view the story this way, though, is to deny the Pharisee any semblance of humanity. Instead, Katelyn helps us to see that both the Pharisee and the tax collector are grappling with a very similar internal struggle: feeling as though God is absent or has forgotten them. These two figures represent two very different ways of grappling with this dark feeling, but the Parable reminds us that the Kingdom of God is among us and the presence of God is around us always. Despite how we may feel at any given moment, God is never absent.