I lived for a portion of my childhood in Bath, Maine. There are many notable things about this small city on the Kennebec River, but is perhaps best known for its ships. In the late 1800s and early 1900s it was full of shipyards that built all kinds of wooden sailing vessels. Now it has just one shipyard, Bath Iron Works, which is a huge facility that builds destroyers and frigates for the US Navy. Much of the work is done outside, and it was great fun to watch the pieces of the ship come together like a giant puzzle. Thousands of people work at Bath Iron Works in three shifts around the clock. In fact, after the state government BIW is the largest employer in the state of Maine. The difference from the state offices is that almost all the BIW employees work in Bath, and there is really only one major road in and out of town. This meant that everyone in town’s schedule revolved around the shift changes. You generally didn’t want to be anywhere near the gates of the yard at 3:30 in the afternoon because the flood of people and cars. You could wait a while. The bottleneck of traffic was at its worst at the on ramp to Route 1 and the bridge over the Kennebec River. When I was a child it was only a two-lane bridge, so everyone coming from BIW and town had to merge with the traffic already on the bridge to go north. Mainers generally pride themselves on being a friendly bunch, and it was interesting to note what happened when the traffic from BIW joined the bridge. Very quickly a civilized system of alternating would emerge. A car on the bridge would go, then one from the ramp, then one from the bridge, and so on. It was as though everyone had just agreed that this was in everyone’s best interest. It was. It kept the traffic moving. No one got aggravated and everyone got where they were going in a reasonable amount of time.

But in the summer months when the traffic volume increased with all the visiting tourists — many of whom didn’t hold to the belief “wouldn’t it be nice if we just alternated?” — competition reigned, horns blared, and the traffic would be backed up for miles at 3:30 in the afternoon. Some of this was just due to an increase in the sheer volume of cars on the road, but I can’t help but think it still would have gone better if everyone had just taken a deep breath and alternated. In fact, I often think about that tidy, kind system whenever I am in merging traffic. Wouldn’t this all go better if we just alternated? Why do we get so stressed out and turn it into a competition over who gets there ten seconds sooner?

I think the kingdom of God is meant to be one of cooperation and understanding. I don’t think competition and greed or self-centeredness are supposed to be our governing principles. I think the kingdom of God looks more like everyone taking turns and being friendly than a place of blaring horns and frustration. I don’t think our faith life is meant to be a competition. Why then does it so often feel like one?

We have scripture passages like the epistle from 2 Timothy: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” If it is a race and a fight at the end of which we receive a crown, it can be very easy to believe that our life as Christians is meant to be a competition. Races and crowns make it sound much more like the World Cup or Formula One than some cooperative, friendly endeavor.

If we read 2 Timothy as making it about a competition with each other then I think we are mistaken. The fight and the race discussed there were not against fellow Christians, they were against the forces of evil. We do have to fight as Christians. We have to fight against all the forces in this world, all the temptations that lead us away from following Jesus. That is the important fight — and it is real. A quick glance at a few television advertisements or a few magazine covers will easily remind us that the world is full of temptations to spend more, be lazy, be gluttonous, choose brief enjoyment over taking care of ourselves. A brief glance at the news headlines is all we need to remind ourselves that evil is real and at work in the world. There are far too many people who see violence and terror as the only way to advance their own selfish agendas.

I am not sure a simple reinterpretation of 2 Timothy is all it would take to keep us from being competitive with each other. I wish it did! But it turns out we are human and competition seems to be a natural part of who we are. We seem to believe that there is not enough love or wealth or accolades in this world to go around. We feel we must be in competition with each other for anything good. This is one of the reasons why I love today’s gospel passage. “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ The tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, `God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 18:10-14). I love this passage because it describes humanity so well!

We all like to think we are like the tax collector, willing to admit when we have gone astray, humble and contrite, seeking mercy for our sins. Hopefully most of the time we are like the tax collector, a paragon of humility, seeking only to follow the Lord and do right. Three cheers and a pat on the back for all the times we have been like the tax collector!

But what about the times we are like the Pharisee? What about the times in which we are guilty of comparing ourselves to others? What about the times in which we fall prey to believing that life is a competition, and we must do better than those around us? It is much harder to admit the times when we have gotten on our high horses and been self-centered like the Pharisee. It is harder to admit how much time we spend comparing ourselves to our neighbors. Who has a nicer car or a nicer house? Who has lost weight or gained weight? Who gives more or less than we do? Whose church has more people or more going on? Which cities have more or fewer problems than we do? We all do it. That is why this gospel story is so true, because the Pharisee perfectly encapsulates the human experience. We have all had our moments of comparing ourselves to others, of trying to figure out how it is that we are better or worse off in any number of categories than those around us. We all have our Pharisee moments. The difficulty is not in having “Pharisee moments,” the difficulty is when we let the Pharisee’s beliefs become our foundational beliefs. The difficulty is when we allow our desire for attention and to be “the best” to get the better of us. We may begin to believe that life really is a competition. When we make our decisions based on what will make ourselves look good rather than what is best for all involved, we fail.

The biggest issue here is what the Pharisee’s belief says about God. If what the Pharisee says is true, then God is capricious and vain. The Pharisee’s view is a theology of scarcity. It promotes the belief that God would not or cannot love both a Pharisee and a tax collector that God somehow loves us more when we are superior to our neighbors. No, that is not our God. Our God is a God of abundance and authenticity. Our God is a God who loves each and every one of us — for we are his beloved children. God’s love for us is not based on our appearance or our mere acts of piety. God cares about what is in our hearts. God cares that we are grounded in love and not motivated by a selfish desire to do more or have more, but by a love of neighbor that seeks to promote the flourishing of all God’s children.

We as Christians are called to ground our lives in love: love of God, love of neighbor, love of self. We are called to be co-creators with God, to participate in building the kingdom of God. We are called to build a kingdom built on trust, cooperation, and sharing — not a kingdom based on competition or a theology of scarcity. While we have our moments of being like the Pharisee, and while our world is full of temptations to go astray, it is also a world that is full of abundant blessings. Our perception makes all the difference. If we look for the blessings, if we look for the acts grounded in love, we will find them.

That is our choice today. Are we going to be a people of scarcity, competing with each other to impress God? Or are we going to be a people of abundance? Are we going to be people who feel in their hearts the deep, abiding, abundant love of God? Can we be a people who go out and share that love in the world?

There is our choice: competition or love? Let us choose love. God always does. Amen.