“God, have mercy on me a sinner.” A sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost 2025

A sermon preached on the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost at the student service for the St. Thomas Aquinas Episcopal Campus Ministry at West Virginia UniversityFocus Texts: Luke 18:9-14There are basically two kinds of people: those who know they’re dead and those who don’t. Today’s parable shows us this dichotomy illustrated by the Pharisee, a man who does not know he is dead, and the tax collector, a man who knows that he is. Many will assume that Jesus came to make the bad good and the good better when, in fact, Jesus came to bring the (spiritually) dead to life (bringing the physically dead to life comes later!)Bottom line: we can’t impress God. We can either do what is required of us—and essentially acknowledge that we’ve done nothing but what we were supposed to do in the first place—or acknowledge our failings. That’s it. There’s nothing we can bring to God that will fill him with awe. All we can do is bring empty hands ready to receive grace, broken hearts ready to be mended, and trust in God’s promisesFor centuries, saints and sinners (they’re the same, by the way) have been spiritually nourished by a prayer based on the words of the tax collector: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Said repeatedly, slowly, and deliberately, this prayer can have a powerful affect on our lives. It draws us deeper into the presence of God, calling to the forefront of our minds our deep need for God’s mercy, filling us with gratitude for his boundless grace