Soul Sister Time

              Did you hear the one about when the tax collector and the Pharisee prayed at the temple?   It may sound like a joke, but there is nothing funny about it.   In this story both did some heartfelt praying, but one went home justified and the other when home further away from God than he was when he came.   The story is recorded in Luke 18:9-14. 9  To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10  “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11  The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’   13  “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast ...