Some phrases you may have heard this week:
Chancellor George Osborne has unveiled the biggest UK spending cuts for decades, with welfare, councils and police budgets all hit.
The pension age will rise sooner than expected, some incapacity benefits will be time limited and other money clawed back through changes to tax credits and housing benefit.
A new bank levy will also be brought in - with full details due on Thursday.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said poorer families with children will be the "biggest losers" of the cuts.
But Mr Clegg told the Guardian newspaper that the IFS's definition of fairness was "complete nonsense".
The Chancellor George Osborne has defended the government's spending cuts saying it will put the economy on a stable footing.
He said his plans, which some groups have accused of going too far and others say they don't go far enough, are flexible….
And so the reports have gone on…
Then there are some you may not have heard:
John Sentamu the Archbishop of York has written for both the Yorkshire Post and The Sun Newspaper saying:
"I think we would all accept that this is a difficult time for our country economically. There are difficult choices to be made, and real debates to be had about what is the best way forward. Debate, discussion and compromise can all be positive when those involved are conducting themselves in the right spirit. However we need to ensure that no-one is left behind.
The promotion of social justice should be a primary moral imperative for any government.....
And in a speech made on Tuesday Alison Tomlin (our President of Conference) said:
“Brief conversations with colleagues highlight the fears that they have for the work going on in the communities they serve. The people whose compassion and hard work have created and sustained each of these projects will not be sleeping well tonight. And they will rightly be wondering about the meaning of the phrase 'Big Society'.”
She concluded: “John Wesley, and the Methodist Church he founded, believe it is inconceivable to follow Christ and not have the welfare of the poor and the vulnerable close to your heart, and we are proud to stand beside others who share those concerns today.”
But you can breathe easier because I am not about to launch into a party political broadcast...
Instead I am going to ask you to consider this week’s events in the light of the two Scriptures we have just heard. You might also ask what this has to do with a sermon series on the work of the Holy Spirit, but I hope that too will become clear:
First the Gospel reading, the Pharisee and the tax collector:
It's difficult to avoid interpreting the parable in straightforward, even simplistic terms, in part because the dramatic action of this parable is so very predictable even to those with only limited knowledge of the story of Jesus' life.
The Pharisee is cast as the bad guy, and the tax collector as the redeemed good guy….
We hear the Pharisees words “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector….”
…and we might find ourselves tempted to pray “…thank you God that I am not like that hypocritical Pharisee…”
But just hold on a moment, is he a hypocrite? It may help to note that, in fact, everything the Pharisee says is true. He has set himself apart from others by his faithful adherence to the law. He is, by the standards both Luke and Jesus seem to employ, righteous! Suddenly our villain is looking less villainous!
He has however missed the point, he has forgotten the source of his blessing, and is being self congratulatory, in seeing his goodness as coming from himself he fails to recognise the grace of God at work in his life, and in doing so he separates himself from others, essentially saying; “I am good, and they are bad…”
The tax collector on the other hand knows the depths of his depravity and throws himself upon God’s mercy.
The setting for this parable, the Temple only highlights the plight of the tax collector as an outcast, and a sinner, and the Pharisee as righteous insider, and yet it is the outcast, the outsider who leaves justified by God. The outcast is drawn in by a God who longs to be gracious to him.
Here then is a lesson for us, as soon as we fall prey to the temptation to divide humanity into any kind of groups, we have aligned ourselves squarely with the Pharisee. Whether our division is between righteous and sinners, as with the Pharisee, or even between the self-righteous and the humble, as with Luke, we are doomed. Anytime you draw a line between who's "in" and who's "out," this parable asserts, you will find God on the other side. Read this way, the parable ultimately escapes even its narrative setting and reveals that it is not about self-righteousness and humility any more than it is about a pious Pharisee and desperate tax collector. Rather, this parable is about God: God who alone can judge the human heart; God who determines to justify the ungodly.
So how do we respond?
On to our Old Testament reading:
Filled with Messianic overtones this reading is the one read by Jesus himself in the Synagogue in Nazareth, and Luke tells us that it caused a great disturbance among the people who were hearing it. Why? Well not because of the words themselves, but because of Jesus interpretation of them. Sitting down to teach he said:
“Isn’t it a fact that there were many widows in Israel at the time of Elijah during those three and a half years of drought when famine devastated the land, but the only widow to whom Elijah was sent was in Sarepta in Sidon? And there were many lepers in Israel at the time of the prophet Elisha but the only one cleansed was Naaman the Syrian."
God he is saying is a God who longs to embrace the outsiders, there are no barriers to his grace, and I (Jesus) have come to ensure that they are broken down.
Later he tells his disciples that they share in his mission, they too are called to follow him, to take the message of God’s grace to the outsider and the outcast. It follows then that if we are his disciples that we are called to share in this mission too…
So no matter what our opinions of the Spending Review last week we must acknowledge that there will be those who will be badly affected, those who will struggle to cope, and those who will loose their jobs…
Our response then must be a response of grace, grace towards those who will suffer, and grace towards those we see as the cause of that suffering ( no matter what their political affiliation), and grace towards one another, for it is inevitable that we will hold different opinions!
So let us return to the parable briefly; we must come before God, not as the Pharisee, nor as the tax collector, but as those who have been called and set apart by God, knowing our need of God, and his grace made available to us through the sacrifice and resurrection of his Son.
Hear some of those words from Isaiah again personalised for us, as members of his church;
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on us,
because the LORD has anointed us
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent us to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
And (together)we will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendour.
I’ll repeat Alison Tomlin’s assertion:
“John Wesley, and the Methodist Church he founded, believe it is inconceivable to 
follow Christ and not have the welfare of the poor and the vulnerable close to your heart, and we are proud to stand beside others who share those concerns today.”
Exactly how this will work out remains to be seen, but we must be ready to listen and to respond.
With grateful thanks to the folk at Working Preacher whose resources I have drawn on for this sermon.
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