Sunday, June 16, 2013

Fourth Sunday After Pentecost

by Jason Smith

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This week as I was thinking about times I have experienced forgiveness in my life, time and time again I came back to stories of being forgiven by my parents as a child. No doubt all of us in this room have done something that needed a little bit of grace on the part of our parents—because everyone makes mistakes, but as children, some of the things we do early on, help us to realize that we are in so much need of forgiveness.

Like the time I was picked up from school in the third grade and my mom and I stopped to get a coke at a fast food restaurant. And of course as we were coming home for some reason I decided to put the paper half-filled coke cup with the lid and the straw, ice and all in my piano bag for safe-keeping. The next morning my mom held this wet, dripping bag up and said, “Is this yours, Jason?” and then made me go sheet by sheet in my piano books and dry all of the sticky wet pages. Maybe this is why I detest sheet music so much.

Or like the time I was at the park a few blocks away from home and while running around the grass stepped in something some dogs had left behind. As I tracked it inside the house, I figured I needed to do the good thing and clean the soles really well, so I opened the silverware drawer…

I opened the silverware drawer and decided that a salad fork and a butter knife fit really nicely in the grooves of my Nikes. Dad was the one to find out what I was doing and I remember a blood curdling reaction: WHAT! ARE! YOU! DOING! Scalding hot water. The laundry room sink. Brushes. Old rags. I pretty sure I spent the better part of an hour cleaning that soiled silverware and after it was shiny and dry, I’m pretty they just threw it away.

We learn early on in our lives, that we are in so much need of forgiveness.

But the careless innocent mistakes of our childhood contrast to the pain of the world we enter. As we grow up and become adults we learn that God’s forgiveness, is even more necessary in our lives, as we enter a reality full of broken relationships, a reality that is fragmented, beleaguered by sin.

In our Gospel lesson this morning, we heard about the woman who approaches Jesus and interrupts his meal with Simon the Pharisee’. We don’t know very much about this woman who visits Jesus, we don’t know her name nor do we know her motivations for her actions. This woman was certainly not invited to the meal, we know this from the Simon the Pharisee’s reaction to her presence but we also know this because throughout the Mediterranean world of the first century, men did not eat with women in the same room or even at the same time. This story one of the most scandalous most shocking stories we read about in the gospels, because men and women are in the same room during a meal.

It is also scandalous for what takes place at the meal. Turn with me again in your Bibles to the text on page 840 and read with me what happens, because the episode would have been perceived by those present and by individuals heading this story as very very inappropriate. Verse 37 begins with,

³⁷And a woman in the city, who was a sinner,

So like I said we don’t have any information about this woman in Luke other than this short part of this verse. But perhaps there should be quotation marks surrounding “in the city.” The Woman’s Bible Commentary says that this verse probably indicates that she was a woman of ill repute, or a prostitute, or a woman with a questionable sexual history. So of all people, this would not have been an individual that someone who was called a prophet would be hanging out with.

This woman was someone who was pushed aside, woman who was pushed outside society, ostracized, pushed away from the mainstream. This woman was very likely shamed in public, and marginalized.

Continuing with the verse,

³⁷And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that [Jesus] was eating in the the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment.

We don’t know what kind of ointment or perfume and maybe it doesn’t really matter. The writer of Luke is considered to be the best writer of the Gospels, and throughout history, Luke has been called the most beautiful book ever written, so there must be a reason we don’t know what was in the jar. If we look at other accounts of this incident, in Matthew, Mark, and John, the story is very very different. But Matthew and John name fragrance as Nard. But I really think that the fragrance is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter what it is—because of what. Comes. Next. In verse 38,

³⁸She stood behind [Jesus] at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair.

Weeping. Jesus visits Simon the Pharisee for dinner and as he is sitting down, the woman appears behind him. She had apparently planned to just pour alabaster on Jesus, but just as she interrupted the dinner, she was interrupted herself by an intense emotional reaction. And she spontaneously begins to cry.

She is absolutely overcome with emotion. Overcome with thinking about her life. Overcome with being in the presence of this prophet who has evicted demons, who has healed those with skin diseases, embraced a faithful centurion and given a widow hope. And upon witnessing this person, she weeps.

Continuing with verse 38,

Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.

Why did she choose his feet? Again, we don’t know. As we know, dining was done while individuals were in a reclined position, and as we read the verse we understand that this woman approaches him from behind. So there’s no real good reason she chooses to anoint his feet with the ointment. We have no record in the Hebrew Bible. There is also not a good reason she anoints and kisses his feet. Throughout this episode, there is the potential for interpreting sexual symbolism into this passage. But I think that the writer of Luke really wants to convey how far outside the norms of society and culture that this woman is willing to venture to connect with Jesus on an intimate level.

This is exactly the reason why the Pharisee reacts the way he does. “Do you have any idea who this woman is?” said the Pharisee. And Jesus of course, as always, has a perplexing parable to shine light or complicate a question.

Two debtors. One owes 50 and another 500. The master chooses to cancel the debts to both of them so which one of them do you think LOVES him more? Simon says, “I reckon, I assume, I suppose the one that had the greater debt?” Jesus says you have judged rightly and then asks something that is very important in this passage. Jesus turns to the woman, Looks at Simon, and asks the obviously rhetorical question: Do you see this woman? Well I mean she came right in and …

No! Do you see this woman?! Yes she’s right behind you with…

No!! Do you see this woman, Simon? Because if you saw this woman, if you saw this woman, you would see her great love. And obviously Simon did not see the woman because he did not copy the great love she showed. Kissing and Annointing Jesus’ feet. This woman who had been pushed to the edge of society asserts herself and in a reverse way with this powerful and culturally inappropriate act reclaims her dignity. She asserts her own human agency, chooses to fall down at the feet of Jesus with a compelling act of humility. And Simon fails to see that.

But now we get to the difficult part of the text. Read with me in verse 47. 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.” In our translations, the NRSV chooses hence, but other translations use “for she has shown great love,” or “because she has shown great love.” Those have a little different connotation. “for she has shown great love,” or “because she has shown great love.”

So ponder this, do you think that she demonstrates this act of love in order to receive forgiveness or do you think that she is responding to her forgiveness with an act of love? Is the love necessary for forgiveness or does the forgiveness precede the love? How you answer this question will say a lot about your theology. No I take that back, how you answer this question says everything about your theology.

But I believe that both grace and gratitude are linked inexorably together. The point is not whether this process begins with divine forgiveness or human love. I think that Luke believes that both God and humanity are together in a process of reconciliation. We are called to interact in an intimate, close, relationship with God, by which we ask forgiveness for our sins and demonstrate our love. For each of us is isolated with our sin. Each of us stands at the sidelines of our own realities, alone with our sin. Alone with our shame. Sometimes we are pushed past this line, and sometimes we push ourselves. But it is from this vantage point that we can see our salvation. For the perspectives we glean from this process of humbling ourselves, of falling down before God, of stripping ourselves to the bare bones of our dignity, tears rolling down our cheeks, and demonstrating our great love, the perspectives we glean from engaging in this process surely bring us closer to God.

And if we are on the other side of the line, and we see our brother or sister struggling with their pain, agonizing with something that is hurting deep in the corridors of their hearts, we need not be like Simon. We need to take time to see that person. Do you see this woman? Do you see her great love? Do you see her?

For we learned early on in our lives, that we are in so much need of forgiveness.

Growing up in inner-city Minneapolis, Oshea Israel was regularly a part of gang activity and drugs. While he was at a party one night, Sixteen year old Oshea shot and killed Laramium Byrd. Oshea would later be convicted of second-degree murder and serve a 25 year sentence.

Laramium’s mother Mary was destroyed as she attended her son’s funeral, and went to every day of Oshea’s trial hoping he would receive a life sentence. After the trial, Mary created “From Death to Life” an organization that helped parents deal with their children’s murder and promoted healing. Years later, as a part of her healing process, Mary decided to ask for a meeting with her son’s killer, Oshea at prison and after repeated requests Oshea agreed.[1]

Despite her reservations, and the fear of confronting her son’s murderer, she visited the prison where Oshea was staying and sat down for a face to face conversation. Inside, the room must have soaked with tension, as Mary shared about her son, describing his childhood, and how much pain she went through when Oshea took him away. Oshea shared how for the first time he saw the humanity in the person he had killed.

As they rose to depart from this meeting, Mary broke down in tears. Reaching out to hold this woman, a stranger, Oshea held her in his arms, embracing her while she wept. In that moment, Mary describes that all of the animosity, the anger, and hate she had for this man who had murdered her son, it all seemed to vanish. In this one moment, she had forgiven Oshea.

But their relationship did not end with this one encounter. Throughout the years, both Oshea and Mary stayed in touch. When Oshea served his sentence and was released after 18 years, Mary asked Oshea to move in next door to her in Minneapolis. The two continue their strong relationship, Mary as a surrogate mother, and Oshea as a surrogate son. The forgiveness present in this story is overwhelming, so overwhelming.

We are called to make ourselves vulnerable, We are called to participate in this process of forgiveness by beginning with ourselves, and looking inward. And as the tears trickle down, and we break down at the feet of Jesus, we realize that in even our most vulnerable state, as sinners, we are welcomed by God.

O God, Heal the cuts that are deep inside ourselves. Help us to leap over the margins that isolate us from You and from our communities of support. In this silence. In this moment. Listen to the sound of our cries, hear our voices, as we approach the feet of Jesus. Each of us as sinners, breaks down to receive healing in our lives, to receive restored relationships.

O God as sinners, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Bulletin