In today’s reading from Luke I was really struck by the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Both are praying and the Pharisee lifts his eyes up to God and gives thanks for not being like other people, listing all the good things he has done for God. The tax collector looks to the ground and recognises only his sins.

I don’t think we see either of those behaviours in Heathfield Benefice! Not directly anyway. We don’t see people beating their breasts as sinners and we don’t see people standing in church looking self-satisfied either. But all of us these days seem to be checking and double checking what we have done and what we have still to do. Most of us have lost our old routines of going out to get things done, there aren’t the usual reminders from people and places around us, so we sit and check through the day when we have a moment and tick off the jobs and remind ourselves what there is to do.

This certainly applies to me. I have compartments in my life for different types of work, and family and home, for sheep care and shopping, for gardening and washing, and of course for ‘church’. They all become checklists of things done and things still to do, so it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking, yes, the church checklist is completed for the day! How crazy is that? There is no checklist for God, everything is for God, every job, every moment of gazing into my coffee, all for Him.

So the Pharisee story struck home. It doesn’t matter what I have done for ‘church’, there is no sense in listing our good deeds. What matters is that before God we are naked, stripped and vulnerable like the tax collector. God sees through the trappings of our lives, the endless activities and cares. He hears our prayers and stands alongside us in the minutiae of the everyday, waiting for our call, waiting to see if we are ready to follow Him.

Unlike the belief of the Pharisee, we are just like other people, other people of every race, colour, gender, height , age and appearance. We all have a need for God’s love, for his mercy, his forgiveness. Whatever we do that is bad or good, we cannot reach him through these things, but through his grace.