{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"The Parables of Jesus: The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector","description":"The Parables of Jesus: The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector - Pastor Hannah Witte - a2vc.org. Like us on fb.com\/vineyardannarboror watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - vimeo.com\/annarborvineyard  Summary: Pastor Hannah continues our fall journey through Jesus\u2019 harder parables by inviting the church to \u201crest our whole weight on God\u201d and to take Jesus at his word. Teaching from Luke 18:9\u201314, she frames the parable for a mixed crowd\u2014newcomers and long-timers alike\u2014reminding us that we are becoming a people transformed by Jesus, learning to belong across differences with joy, freedom, and boundless generosity. In this story, a respected Pharisee and a despised tax collector both come to pray; one trusts his resume, the other pleads for mercy. Jesus\u2019 punchline overturns expectations: it is the humbled tax collector\u2014not the exemplary religious figure\u2014who goes home justified. To hear the scandal of the story, Pastor Hannah explains who Pharisees and tax collectors were in their world: the admired guardians of religious life versus the socially ostracized collaborators with Rome. She names the pain of spiritual contempt in the Pharisee\u2019s prayer (\u201cGod, I thank you that I am not like\u2026\u201d) and gently asks us to notice who fills that blank in our own hearts\u2014an enemy, a political group, a person who has harmed us. Holding together truth and mercy, she recalls Saul\u2019s transformation into Paul as proof that even oppressors are not beyond God\u2019s interrupting grace. God hates evil, not people; the kingdom exposes pride and exalts humility. Pastor Hannah\u2019s invitation is simple and searching: trade merit for mercy. Like the tax collector, we come home to God not by performance or pedigree but by asking, \u201cGod, have mercy on me, a sinner.\u201d She offers concrete responses\u2014receive prayer, come to the Table, and even let communion become a two-fold prayer: mercy for ourselves as we take the bread, mercy for those in our \u201cblank\u201d as we drink the cup. In God\u2019s economy there is no earning\u2014only giving and receiving\u2014and those who humble themselves will be lifted up. ","author_name":"Ann Arbor Community Church Sermon Podcast","author_url":"https:\/\/a2communitychurch.org","html":"