Let’s go on a journey. Let’s travel the best part of 2000 miles south east ; the best part of 2000 years back in time. Let’s travel to back to the small Roman province of Judea in the first century AD.

Let’s imagine ourselves belonging to the crowds of ordinary people who turn up in synagogues on dusty roadsides and grassy plains to listen to the teachings of this new rabbi Jesus from Nazareth. Few of us are especially rich or educated. We are men and women who work hard to make our living. Some of us fish, some get by working on the land, others are traders, carpenters - artisans. Life is not easy. We live in a land under occupation and the Roman occupiers are milking us dry. Taxes on fishing rights. Taxes on land. Taxes on crops. Taxes on sales. Taxes on the goods we make. We have to pay for the privilege of being occupied.

Not everyone is hard up, however. Some unprincipled scum have noticed a chance to make a quick buck out of this occupation. Motivated by pure greed and selfishness they have agreed to administer the tax system for the occupiers. Betraying their own countrymen, they make sure that the tax is collected in - and as a reward are allowed, by the authorities, to charge high excess fees for their own pocket. Dishonest. Greedy. Uninterested in the laws of God - they live in luxury feeding off the misery of their own fellow countrymen. They are the lowest of the low. Friendless. Untouchable.

But we - we are ordinary men and women who work hard to make our living. We attend public worship on Sabbath and try our best to follow God’s law - but we don’t quite come up to the standards of the Pharisees. Now they are people worthy of respect. There are groups of them in most towns and villages and they are really keen believers in God. They make every effort to please God to know all the scriptures and all the law of God and to follow it absolutely all of it. Giving one tenth of absolutely everything - even of the pickings of rosemary leaves from the back garden - to God’s work. Regularly fasting and praying and studying scripture - they give over their whole lives to loving and serving God.

So when someone mentions the words ‘tax collector’ to us we know to boo. Godless unprincipled scum. And when someone mentions the word, ‘Pharisee’ - if we don’t quite cheer - we certainly think, ‘I wish I had your faith; I wish I could follow God with your enthusiasm.’

You see to understand what Jesus is saying in our gospel reading today - to grasp His point - we need to remember that to His first listeners ‘tax collectors’ were traitors who betrayed God and His people - and Pharisees were those who stood up for God and His law.

And if you ask Jesus’ hearers the question ‘how can a person get close to God?’ well there is a clear recipe. If you want to get close to God then being a bit like a Pharisee - fasting, praying, giving, studying scripture - is a very good start. And joining the ranks of tax collectors - well that would be a very bad start. Pharisees please God. Tax collectors do not.

And this question, ‘how can a person get close to God?’ lies behind the parable Jesus tells in today’s reading. ‘Two men’ says Jesus, ‘go up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.’ Now it’s no surprise that the Pharisee is at the temple praying. Regular prayer is at the heart of his life. And if getting close to God is your aim then you can’t do better than start with regular prayer.

This Pharisee knows all about prayer so surely he is close to God. He’s comfortable with prayer and confident in religious buildings. He strides to the front and he stands before God. Stands before God. Apparently the word for stands in the original text carries with it something of the meaning of having arrived of achievement; like the person who after hours of painful struggle and toil stands atop Everest. They stand on top. They have arrived. They have made it. They have achieved.

This Pharisee feels he has made it. He’s way up in the thin air of spiritual achievement far above others close to God. And struggle and sacrifice it has certainly cost. He fasts twice a week. He gives a tenth of all he owns. Things he doesn’t forget to remind God in his prayer. No you can’t fault this Pharisee for commitment or effort. And if that is how love of God is measured then this must be a man who loves God and is close to Him. How do you get close to God? Well surely you couldn’t do better than being a bit like this Pharisee fasting, praying, giving, studying scripture. After much effort this Pharisee feels that he has made it. He stands way up at the top of the mountain where the air is pure and thin and he looks down far far below at all those struggling in the polluted rubbish-strewn foothills of failure. Those who never even made it as far as base camp.

Looking down at these struggling figures he inhales the pure air of godliness and says, ‘God I thank You that I am not like other people robbers, rogues, adulterers or even like this tax collector.’ But there is a problem with being a Pharisee. You see deep inside I think that Pharisees are tired. Tired of the effort. Tired of constantly toiling up the mountain to get near to God. Tired of constantly working to earn God’s approval. Tired of constantly working to keep up the appearance of holiness.

My parents were missionaries in Africa. I grew up in a Christian home. I went to Sunday School. I knew my bible stories. I was good at arguing and debating with friends at school about the Christian faith. Yes I loved arguing. I loved talking about God. When I was 18 I went off to University. I joined the Christian Union. I diligently read my bible and prayed every day and tithed my grant. I looked on the partying drinking wild-living student crowd from the outside with some discomfort and alarm. I gave myself to ever more enthusiastic argument and debate. I became the Christian Union leader in our Hall of Residence. I read my bible even more diligently.

But I was uncomfortable. Inside I was uncomfortable. At church – at CU meetings I seemed to be surrounded by people who loved the God they worshipped who in prayer talked to a God who for all my diligent bible reading and prayer I could only talk about. For all my efforts God seemed far away.

There’s a problem with being a Pharisee. You get tired. Tired of toiling to get close to God. Tired of pretending that you are close to God when in fact He seems far far away. The air is thin and God is not there. The only consolation is to look down at those you imagine haven’t made it as far as you and presume to judge their failure.

Of course the Pharisee is not the only one at prayer that day. Jesus tells us that a tax collector comes to the temple too. Dishonest. Selfish. Unprincipled. Godless. Untouchable. He is one of those struggling through the polluted rubbish-strewn foothills of failure. And he knows it. There’s no striding to the front for this tax collector. He has come into the house of God’s presence and how deeply he feels his unworthiness. He can only stand at a distance, we are told. He dare not even look up to heaven, but beats his breast and says, ‘God have mercy on me a sinner.’ You see he knows he has done wrong. He doesn’t need anyone else to tell him. He knows that he’s failed God. And he sits down amidst the rubbish and mess of his life and he simply says, ‘God I am a long long way from You and I need Your help.’

And now comes Jesus’ surprise - the surprise for all those hearers who respect Pharisees and know that tax collectors are godless.

'I tell you’ he says ‘that this man - the tax collector - not the Pharisee went home justified before God.’ Well what on earth does the tax collector do right and what on earth does this devout godly Pharisee do wrong?

Well the Pharisee makes the mistake of thinking that getting close to God is all about his efforts. If he achieves closeness to God it will be because of what he has done what he has brought. He hopes to earn and to deserve God’s favour. But the tax collector has hit upon a truth that runs throughout the bible.‘ God is close to those whose hearts are breaking,’ says Psalm 34, ‘He saves those who are crushed in spirit.’ With broken heart and crushed spirit he tells God that he does not deserve His favour and can never earn it. And the result? The Father heart of God reaches out and draws close to His crushed and broken child. He is the one who goes home justified before God.

I was telling you a little of my story. We left it at the point where I was diligent and argumentative but aware that I was far from God. Desperately trying to present a successful Christian face to the world but inside conscious of emptiness. There’s lots more to this story but we’ll jump to the holidays between my first and second year at University. In order to impress God I have volunteered for a mission in Europe. You find me late one night sitting on a Belgian pavement sobbing and sobbing. Telling God that for all my diligence I have not loved Him and I have not loved others. Telling Him that I have failed and that I’m empty inside. And I become aware of two things at once.

First: I am utterly unworthy unqualified and incapable of earning God’s favour by my own efforts. And second: that I am of infinite worth. Of infinite worth because I am His child bought at a immeasurable cost. Loved so much that He chose to pay the price of my sin and failure with the very precious blood of His Son Jesus Christ. God is my Father and He loves me because He loves me. He cannot love me any more what ever I do and He cannot love me any less whatever I do. And all those people I pass everyday in the street each one struggling with their own messes and failures God’s Father heart goes out to them too. He longs to draw close to them too. What a story I had to proclaim as I went out on mission that summer.

As you sit here this morning do you identify with the Pharisee? You’ve worked so hard over years to follow and serve God but now you’re tired. And if you’re honest there are moments when for all your toiling God actually seems very far away. Then I think God wants you to know this morning: He doesn’t love you because you read your bible often; He doesn’t love you because you’re diligent with prayer; He doesn’t love you because you give generously - wonderful though all those things are. No He loves you because you are His precious precious child bought at enormous cost.

Or do you, as you sit here this morning, identify with the tax collector? If you’re honest you feel like you have made a bit of mess. You’re only too conscious of failure in your life. You look around you in church and everyone else seems to have their lives sorted but well you haven’t and God seems very far away. Then I think God wants you to know this: He is close to those whose hearts are breaking and He saves those who are crushed in Spirit.

He did not send His Son for people whose lives are sorted - no He sent Him to gather in the broken and the outcast and the untouchables. His Church is just the place for everyone who says, ‘God I’m a long way from You and I need Your help.’ For it is just when we are still far off that God longs to come to meet us in His Son and bring us home. Soon we will say the following words together, ‘We do not presume to come to this Your table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness but in Your manifold and great mercies.’

Maybe as you come up for communion today as you approach this His table You are conscious of failure and mess. Maybe for You it’s been a matter of private struggle and private failure - or maybe for you it’s been all too public and painful - but whatever the case know this: God longs to draw close to those whose hearts are breaking.

As you come up thank Him that His love for us depends nothing on our efforts and achievements on our righteousness and everything on His grace - His manifold and great mercies.