2 Tim. 4: 6-8, 16-18                                                                                                   Rev. Dr. Galen E. Russell III

Luke 18: 9-14                                                                                                                                 October 26, 2025

“He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.”

Prayer: O God, with your help, please stir our hearts to trust you, to seek your grace and mercy, and to love you more than life itself. Amen.

We all know what dopamine is, right? It’s that wonderful neurotransmitter and hormone that our brain makes when we experience joy.  It’s known as the “feel-good” hormone. It gives you a sense of pleasure. It also can motivate you to do something when you’re feeling pleasure.

I read that dopamine is part of our reward system. As humans, our brains are hard-wired to seek out behaviors that release dopamine as a reward. So, when you’re doing something pleasurable, your brain releases a large amount of dopamine. And your blood vessels widen. You feel good, and you seek more of that feeling. And most of the time, that’s all pretty good. It’s natural to have that good feeling. And we want more of it.

But, dopamine flows from the brain for the not-so-good things, that we like, too. And we seek more of those experiences, as well. This is why junk food and sugar, drugs and alcohol, and gambling and some other things are so addictive. They trigger the release of dopamine in your brain, which gives you the feeling that you’re on top of the world, and you want to repeat that experience. Have more of it. It’s the dopamine bump.

Even being smug and self-righteous, feeling superior and know-it-all can produce bigtime quantities of dopamine. Feeling smug is pleasurable, especially when I compare myself to someone else, and I think I come out on top. Feeling superior is a feeling that I want to repeat especially when I compete with others, and I feel like I’m better than someone else. Making my self-righteousness justifiable when I trust in my own understanding and rely on my own insight. That’s a dopamine bump as well.

 And I think if the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable was a real person, his brain would be producing lots of dopamine. Because he is comparing himself to the tax collector and feels that he is better than that tax collector. The Pharisee seems to be in competition with the tax collector in terms of doing the right things and justifying his righteousness. Mr. Goodie-two-shoes Pharisee is a self-righteous exceptionalist and supremacist.

I think that helps explain a little more of what we’ve witnessed during these last two decades or so. The cultural trend, led by some of our political and religious leaders, is that we are addicted to our own exceptionalism. Some people need to feel good about themselves and supreme by acting all superior over others. My Facebook feed has posts and re-posts that slam one side or the other make people feel powerful. Tweets and retweets often have fake news that put others down.

Preacher Nadia Bolz Weber wrote that “Our drug of choice right now is knowing who we’re better than” (Our drug of choice right now is knowing who we’re better than retrieved October 24, 2025.) Which feels good, in a weird, perverse way. Because the dopamine flows.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to get a cup of coffee, and I pulled out a mug from the cupboard in the workroom. It happened to be the mug I got at my 20th class high school reunion, way back in 1998. And for that brief moment I reminisced about my reunion, back then, about how I noticed my classmates, for many of them, their bodies changed over the years. And I thought to myself, “Oh thank you, Lord, that I’m not like any of them!” HAH!



And to be honest, I felt smug. But then I quickly realized that it’s just not true. I have no room to talk. I’ve changed, too, in different ways. I have no hair now, for one. For two, [grab your stomach] oh… it’s catching up with me. And, of course, for three, my ticker is not as good.

But here’s the thing. Comparing myself to others took away the joy of that reunion. It robbed me of seeing the beauty of who my classmates are as people. And in light of today’s scripture, it taught me that exceptionalism and supremacy that come by way of comparison are thieves. They steal goodness and joy. Which I mentioned before. Where’s the joy when the Pharisee is so consumed with trusting his own self-righteousness that the tax collector is regarded with contempt?

Where’s the joy when Democrats and Republicans compete against each other to the point of hating each other? Where’s the beauty when people regard other different people as the enemy? Healthy competition is a one thing. But, unhealthy competition can cause us to lose our humanity.

Where’s the strength and integrity of spirit when political leaders and religious leaders think that their only perspectives are correct, and everyone else has to be wrong? Where’s the art of compromise, for the good of the whole? I mean I like to think that I have thought things through. I want to trust that I’m rational. I want my political beliefs to be right. I want to trust my theology. That my way of thinking is good. That I’m justifiably righteous.

 However, all of us could, and perhaps all of us should, understand that no one is totally justifiably righteous. Only God is totally justifiably righteous. All of us, for whatever reason, have to approach God, maybe from far off like the tax collector, bow our heads before God, beat our breast and pray, “God, please be merciful to me, a sinner!” And Jesus asks, “Who went back home in a right relationship with God?”

This past Wednesday night at our Bible Study class, I was speaking about how God’s grace is inclusive, that the prophet Amos declared that, even in all it’s sinfulness, God still had a plan to restore Judah and Israel. Jesus came to teach that. To show that and to make that happen. That the overarching message of the Bible story, from the front cover to the back cover, is that God is in relationship with humanity, and out of deep grace and love, God wants to bring us, humanity, even in our sinfulness, back into a fully restored relationship. Back into a right relationship with God.

And one of our participants said to me something like, “Galen you’re the only pastor I know who believes in the love and grace of God that is inclusive and unconditional, where 95% of other Christian pastors don’t preach what you preach.” I was stunned. I asked, “Do you think it’s really that high?” 95%? I mean, am I among the few pastors who believes this?

But, you know, I don’t believe I have it totally right. Maybe God is trying to break down my way of thinking. Trying to get me closer to what God wants. Trying to help me and all of us realize that human understandings of righteousness are the opposite of God’s understanding.  To help us all realize that God doesn’t love us more when we get things right, nor does God love us less when we get things wrong.

We might think that we have to be exceptional. To be superior. To be extraordinary. To do all the right things. To be a marvelous specimen Christian who fasts and tithes, lead Faith Formation, coordinates potlucks, goes on mission trips, sings in the choir, and does it all. We imagine that God is on our side and not on the side of others. We might think that our faith journey’s goal is to get to that kind of mountaintop experience. And we get our dopamine fix when we do all that. 

But we don’t have to do or be any of those things.   In fact, instead of God being on our side, is God deliberately shifting us away from our side? Wiping out our old prejudices, in order to keep helping us learn God’s ways?

Perhaps. Perhaps not. But, I think God wants us to work at faithfulness. For the every day journey. God wants to be with us in each moment. God wants to have our hearts. We are encouraged to be humble when we don’t measure up, and thankful when we do. And the Lord will stand by us and give us strength. May it be so. Amen.