Jesus tells of a Pharisee who has the habit of going up “to the Temple area to pray.” He feels at home there but will not extend that feeling to another who has joined him. For, while there, the Pharisee’s prayer habit is to insult and ostracize those he judges as not belonging there with him, “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity – greedy, dishonest, adulterous.”
The Pharisee’s prayer habit separates him from his human family. His is a prayer of Chosen People, people who decide who belong and who do not. Do our habits help us reach out to those who have been told they do not belong? How do our hearts reach out to Indigenous people filled with the pain of not belonging, who have been separated from their home? How do our hearts reach out to individuals who are homeless and wonder if they will ever belong again? How do our habits help us reach out to Pharisaical friends who deny home and belonging to others? Each of us in being human yearns to belong. What are the habits we cherish to encourage our belonging? Whatever our many habits, they are habits of the heart, habits of the home. We cherish the intimacy of home. We become who we are called to be in the love shared in our home. We know ourselves as one with this place. We are one with all who share this hearth with us. I know this world that holds me; I belong to this kitchen, this apple tree in my back yard, with these flowers, these evergreens. I am connected in my very being with the nearby hill that always catches the first snow, the prairie that spreads out beyond my home, the mountains that hold the sun for me every morning before they give her warmth to me. I belong here, in this space, with the people of this place, who love the same seasons and streets and shops as I do. When I am away, I miss home; the children, the door post with all the pencil lines marking their growth, the floor boards that creak, the stoop worn of cement where we have for so long stepped year after year. As we are committed to this yard and these neighbors, so too we can be committed to this earth and to all neighbors – all with whom I share this home and who sustain me. We are attached; physically, emotionally, spiritually – to this family, to all families, to the family of humanity. We are wise to consider our habits and their impact on us. Especially our habits of home. We are, in this place of the U.S., impacted by Pharisaical habits, not of the heart, nor of the home. We are impacted by habits of a tribe. A tribe of Pharisees who, one by one, pray selfishly as does the Pharisee in the Gospel story. It is a selfish tribe that feels very much at home here but will not extend that feeling of home to others who have joined them here. It is a tribe that insults and ostracizes those they judge as not belonging here with them, for ‘they’ are “other,” “greedy, dishonest, adulterous.” Are we a Pharisee? Are we someone not at home with being human, not at home with belonging, especially with one who is “other?” Pharisees, glad they are “not like the rest of humanity,” are susceptible to making themselves each a tribe of one. We might find hope in white evangelicals being Pharisaical and thus not knowing or wanting real unity, Their infighting may mean they never wage a worse civil war than they are presently waging. We can be devoted to active habits of communion, communal habits that always create peace, among “the rest of humanity,” including with evangelical Pharisees. In our humility and longing let us create habits of the heart, habits of the home.
Socrates said, “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” “In building the new we know we cannot change the future that is ahead of us but we can change our habits and when we change our habits, we change the future that is ahead of us.”
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, we live in union with all
Question: What are my prayer habits and my social habits that help create home?
October 23, 2022 Gospel Luke 18:9-14 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time