Pharisee or Publican

Two men went up to the temple to pray,

one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

                                                                                                  Luke 18:10

Pharisee or Publican                                                                           Erling Shultz, October 2019

be leery the trap that Jesus sets,

      the lure to mirror prayer one or prayer two;

   to identify with one,

      will make you the other

be suspicious this tactic of bait and switch,

      ‘come choose this, then I’ll give you that’;

   the nature of either-or pointing finger

      aims back to original sender

consider wisely before categorizing

   the Pharisee and/or the Publican

      as either good or either bad;

contemplate deeply upon your choosing

   for what it might declare

      of your own designation

what’s the aim of religious law,

   if not for order and connection?

what’s the point of beating breast,

   if it does not affect our life’s choices?

is it wrong to know our rating

   in our quest for deeper relations?

could you, in all honesty and humility,

   fully name yourself saint or sinner?

this is not, I think, about a Pharisee or Publican,

   but those who gather round;

         with varied status, motives, and inclinations;

      the feet, the cross, the body of Christ;

   to courageously make the next needed step

      to be closer in

         and nearer out