What Pastor Jon Preached on Sunday, June 13th, 2010

Third Sunday after Pentecost
(Lectionary 11)
2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15 • Psalm 32 • Galatians 2:15-21 • Luke 7:36-8:3

³⁶One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. ³⁷And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. ³⁸She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. ³⁹Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.” ⁴⁰Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “Speak.” ⁴¹“A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴²When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” ⁴³Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” ⁴⁴Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. ⁴⁵You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. ⁴⁷Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” ⁴⁸Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” ⁴⁹But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” ⁵⁰And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, ²as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, ³and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.

The Gospel of Luke has a special resonance for us. Luke wrote his account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus knowing that his hearers would be, well, a lot like us. Luke targets his narrative to speak to socially elite folk who are on the verge of joining the Jesus movement. Over and over again, more than other Gospel writers, Luke brings up stories focusing on the socially marginalized, and emphasizes Jesus’ repeated disdain for wealth that is not used in service of advancing the building of the kingdom of God.

We are not all that unlike Luke’s intended audience. Even though we all may not live in the community immediately surrounding United Lutheran, we cannot deny that the place this church sits in lies in one of the most affluent suburbs of the Chicago area. In a broader sense, nationally, we live in a very priviledged country compared to many nations: eighty percent of the world lives on less than $10 a day. (http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats)

Luke indeed has a special resonance for us. One of the other distinguishing characteristics of the Gospel of Luke is food: all of Luke’s twenty-four chapters use a story or image or teaching that involves food, table fellowship or hospitality—except one. In Luke, who we eat with and who we don’t speaks volumes about our discipleship to Jesus. It’s important we understand these aspects of Luke’s Gospel that make it speak directly to us, especially now as we enter into the time after Pentecost when we’ll be hearing the Word given to us from Luke for many months.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus has begun his public ministry, and he is at the early part of his ministry, beginning to build momentum for building his kingdom: by healing the sick, raising the dead, forgiving sinners, feeding the hungry, welcoming the poor. This kingdom is what Jesus ultimately dies for.

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus clearly wants to identify the elite hearers of this story—us—with a particular character—Simon the Pharisee. In this scene Jesus is invited to a situation with food involved (of course!) at a banquet with Simon. All of a sudden, a woman, likely a prostitute or adulteress, interrupts their fine dining experience and thrusts herself at Jesus’ feet. Simon’s response is the response we would probably give: “If Jesus knew what he was doing, he would not be touching this woman! She’s broken the law.” (Cf. 7:39)

We all have those people who make us uncomfortable like this woman—people who make our skin crawl when they walk in the room, whom we don’t like, who we don’t deem respectable people, who are our enemies. Who are those people for us, I wonder? They are family, neighbors, co-workers, classmates, and, maybe even someone here in the pews today…

Jesus appears not to offer a way out to Simon, or to us, for our rude welcome to uninvited sinners. As Jesus tries to teach Simon a lesson about his rudeness, he talks to him, but while he talks to him, he looks right at the forgiven woman as he speaks: “Do you see this woman?” he says, “I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair…Therefore, I tell you her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love.” Jesus looks this woman directly in the eye—which in itself is Jesus’ affirmation of this woman who seeks his blessing. Simon looked away from her. We look away from her. But Jesus’ eyes remain fixed on the eyes of this confessing, contrite, poor woman, inviting her to relationship and new life.

Jesus’ promise and affirmation is not just for this woman, however. When the eyes of Jesus look into our eyes, we recognize we are sinners too. We are that woman. Jesus has not just come for her; he’s come to forgive us. Jesus contrasts his welcome from the welcome of Simon, and with his eyes, switches his role from guest of Simon to host of this outcast, and of all present, who as his guest receive the promise of his merciful gaze.

Jesus undoubtedly plants a seed in Simon, and in us, challenging us to forgive one another, saying “The one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” (7:47) Our temptation is to want to forgive someone else all at once. Thankfully, though, Jesus’ forgiveness is not this one-time event. Jesus’ forgiveness doesn’t happen in an instant. For this woman, she has already been forgiven, before she even comes to Jesus. Bowing at his feet is her response to what she’s received. She will still be living with consequences. Tiger Woods will continue to wrestle with the consequences of his affairs, even after admitting them. The pitcher for the Detroit Tigers—who came so close to a perfect game recently—will have to continue living with the call of an umpire that cost him perfection.

Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Cantebury, writes about forgiveness: “So to live a ‘forgiven’ life is not simply to live in a happy consciousness of having been absolved. Forgiveness is precisely the deep and abiding sense of what relation—with God, [or Creation] or with other human beings—can and should be; and so [forgiveness] is itself a stimulus, an irritant, necessarily provoking protest at impoverished versions of social and personal relations.” Jesus forgiveness is indeed a continual process of reconciliation, healing, and mending us together.

It’s also important for us to understand that the forgiveness Jesus offers is not a psychological forgiveness of our conscience. Jesus’ forgiveness restores us to full communion…full relationship with God, with Creation and with all peoples. It’s about restoring us to right relationship and just relationship with one another. Jesus comes to reside in the midst of the tensions and uneasiness we find between ourselves and the unwelcome but fellow guests of Christ among us. He comes to enliven the imaginations of Simon, and of us, to look with his eyes; to see those whom we may not wish to be at his table.

Forgiveness indeed is not a one-time event; indeed for Christians it is a way of life that draws us into relational communion with God and each other. As forgiven people, in whom Christ is alive and in whom Christ has reconciled us to all things,

· we can we become willing to speak truthfully, appropriately and patiently when conflicts arise

· we can acknowledge both when we are angry and resentful and try to overcome them

· we can summon care for the stranger, the “other”, and see them as Jesus sees them: as a child of God

· we can make a commitment to struggle to change what causes and perpetuates our conflicts

· and we can continue to daily and weekly return to our baptism, to the source of our forgiving way of life, Christ, showered down upon us in the power of the Holy Spirit. In those waters we turn to confess our yearning for the possibility of reconciliation.

Why become a community at United Lutheran that practices the forgiving love of Jesus? Because Jesus’ eyes have first forgiven us!. And, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity. By its very nature, hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power.” Love is the way we build community. We forgive because through love we build the kingdom of God; through love we share the love given to us by Christ and through love we are ourselves transformed in from strangers to friends; from enemies to brothers and sisters. This is the lifelong task for all of us.

At Jesus’ table, where his main course is always forgiveness, where bread is broken and wine is poured for us, Jesus takes his place as the host, and we are all his guests: crabby Pharisees, Simons, sinful women forgiven, the social elite, and all the rest. We are brought into communion with his eyes, not privately, but publicly, and collectively. Jesus’ table provides us with a feast of Jesus’ own love. Jesus’ communion table builds United Lutheran Church into a commune-ity of Christ’s living reconciliation. This is the setting where we are continually called as his disciples, to go out and be his eyes in the world, to invite all to his table, and to share his forgiveness and justice as our way of life. Amen.