First Reading:
15We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. 17But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. 19For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; 20and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
Second Reading:
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.
41A 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.
Since we are remembering and celebrating Graduates today, I thought
I'd start with one of my memories from high school… Some of my
favorite moments happened during the winter… Every Saturday,
for as many Saturdays as I possibly could, I'd get up way before dawn
and head out to the local grocery store parking lot where the ski bus
picked up me and thirty or forty of my closest friends. It took about
three-and-a-half hours to reach the ski slopes from where I
lived… All day long I'd be out on the mountain it didn't matter
if it was snowing or sunny or even if it was raining, I'd squeeze in
as many runs as I could and only when it was clear that couldn't
possibly ski one more run and still be on time, I'd head for the bus
for the three-and-a-half hour ride home. You can imagine seven hours
every weekend with the same group of friends stuck on a bus, we had an
amazing range of conversations, we told bad jokes, we spent a lot of
time listening to our walkmen (for those of you who are too young to
remember walkmen, that's a portable tape player… and soon the
graduating classes will be too young to even remember tapes…)
but one of the things that was a mainstay on the bus rides was to play
games of some sort… Sometimes it would be as simple as card
games… sometimes we'd have contests or play truth or
dare… and sometimes we'd play this game called Would You
Rather?
I'm sure some of you have played it before, it's been
around a long time… but for those of you who haven't, basically
the game goes like this: you're presented two options, and you have to
choose one of them and you follow it up by answering the
question why?
It's an ingenious game because it's so simple and
yet it gives window into our priority and value systems…
sometimes the questions were surface type of questions… things
like: Would you rather drink Coke or Pepsi? Would you rather live the
life of a cat or a dog? Would you rather be able to fly or be able to
turn invisible… Sometimes the questions were about eating gross
things or doing stupid things… after all many of the people who
played the game on the bus were high school guys… there were
all sorts of hypothetical questions and sometimes they started to
touch on things that actually had some depth and meaning for how we
would like to live our lives… things like: Would you rather be
happy and poor or miserable and rich? Would you rather be well
respected by everyone except yourself, or have self-respect and not be
liked by anyone else? Would You Rather act the wrong way and still
believe that you're right, or act the right way but believe that
you're wrong?
And as I thought about it, this week, that last question is probably a
big part of why I remembered the game Would You Rather
when I
read this week's scripture passage, because at least in one sense
those two choices paint the picture of the people Jesus interacted
with in this story from Luke's gospel. On the one hand, we have
someone who fervently believes that he's right, that's Simon the
Pharisee. There's no doubt that he knew the law and knew it well. As
a Pharisee it was his job to be an expert on everything that had to do
with God, including what God would have people do… And then on
the other hand, we have someone who knows that somewhere along the
line, she's been in the wrong… The only thing the text tells us
about this woman is that she's a sinner. Whatever her sin was, it
must have been at least somewhat public. After all, Simon knew, Jesus
knew, and by her own behavior it seems pretty clear that she knew too.
So of the two people, we have one who's confident he's right and the
other who knows that she's been in the wrong… But starting in
verse 44 Jesus brings up the contrast in their behavior in the area of
showing hospitality and love for Jesus by the way they welcomed
him… because when it came to their welcome of Jesus, Simon and
the woman had entirely different modes of operation… He didn't
give water for washing, he didn't give a kiss of welcome and he didn't
give oil for anointing. She, on the other hand gave the water of her
own tears. She didn't stop kissing his feet, and she brought her own
oil into someone else's house to be sure that he would be
anointed… Simon was cautious; showing little care and little
love but the woman was extravagant showing great care and much
love… Now Jesus didn't explicitly condemn what Simon did but he
did lift up the woman as an example of what Simon perhaps should have
done. Technically, Simon may not have been breaking the law as it
related to hospitality, but Jesus pointed out to him that he was
missing the spirit of the law that instructed him to show love and
compassion… and at the same time, although the woman had broken
the law… that's what Simon meant when he called her
a sinner,
she was now going above and beyond everything that
was expected in order to show her love and appreciation for
Jesus…
If this lesson was only about the practice of hospitality, perhaps it
would be enough to say Give extravagant welcome, no matter who you
may be and no matter what your station in life.
And that would be
a valid point… but there's more to the lesson than how Simon
and the woman were supposed to treat Jesus. Perhaps the larger lesson
from this passage is how Jesus would treat the two of them… In
verse 41 Jesus began to ask Simon a question. Imagine a creditor
with two debtors,
he said, one who owed 500 denarii and one who
owed fifty…
(keep in mind that a denarii was worth a day's
wages for a common worker so we're talking about a year and a half of
working every single day just to pay off the debt for the first one.)
Jesus continued, which debtor would love the creditor more?
Simon answered, I suppose the one with the bigger debt.
Now,
in the story, by implication, the one with the bigger debt is the
woman. And Jesus lets that be the explanation of why she is so
persistent in her care and welcome: because she appreciates Jesus
greatly and she knows that there's much to be forgiven so there's much
to be thankful for. But also, in the story, by implication, the one
with the smaller debt is Simon… And in all of this, what Simon
seems to be missing is that even the debtor with the smaller debt
couldn't pay it on his own… even the debtor with the smaller
debt receives a gift from the creditor. As a Pharisee, Simon's
understanding was that someone who follows God gains their own
salvation by keeping the law, and by distancing themselves from people
who don't keep the law… so he was quick to judge the woman, and
quick to write Jesus off when Jesus didn't judge the woman. But in
this passage Jesus is trying to change Simon's mind about how God
works… by Jesus' actions we see that God isn't about separation
and condemnation for the sinner-woman like Simon expected and thought
it should be… but instead God is about giving extravagant mercy
even to people who are sinners and that God is about graciously
accepting the acts of gratitude that are offered in thanksgiving.
You see, in this story Luke highlights the interconnectedness of God's grace and our gratitude; that the depth of our gratitude is proportional to our recognition that we need God's grace, and all of us do. But still I wonder whether we would rather be in Simon's shoes or the woman's shoes… We don't get to know where Simon ended up on his journey… I can't help but hope that he understood Jesus' lesson on grace, but in the snapshot we have of him from this passage he was clueless of his need for Jesus, he showed little love and he was content to judge and condemn, content to believe that he actually was better than everyone else… But for the woman I imagine it took a significant amount of discomfort, courage and conviction to disrupt the party with her unusual behavior… She overcame whatever sense of shame she may have been feeling because the promise of grace which drew her to Jesus was stronger than the fear that pushed her away… she knew was in need, she wasn't afraid to ask, and it led her to a renewed life.
You know, last week we presented an anthem here at church that we had commissioned for Sue and Diane as a thank you for being the choir director and accompanist for over twenty years here at the United Parish… It was a lot of fun and I'm grateful to the people who worked so hard to make it happen and to everyone who was in on the secret and didn't let it slip… during practice, Matt was our fearless leader and I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this story, I didn't ask him…
There were a few of us who were having trouble with part of the song
and so we asked to focus on it for a few minutes and practice it till
we got it right. So Matt had us start sing through it… and
part way through he said wait, stop…
and he told us a
story about the choirs he works with at school. He said one of the
great things about teaching high schoolers is that they always sing
with gusto. If they're going to sing, they're going to sing out. If
they get it wrong you're going to know it… And then he
encouraged us… he said that's what I want you to do…
sing out. If you sing out and it's not right, I can help you…
but if you don't sing out, I can't hear you.
And as I thought
about it this week, I realized that if you apply that principle to
life, it sounds an awful lot like what the reformer Martin Luther
said… we will commit sins while we are here, for this life
is not a place where justice resides…
but …God
does not save those who are only imaginary sinners… [so live,
and by living] be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your
trust in Christ be stronger,
Because Jesus is the one who can make
a difference, he's the one who will make a difference and he's the one
who has made a difference. He is worth all of our praise and
adoration… our capacity to show love and gratitude is connected
to our ability to receive grace and forgiveness and I tell you
what… I for one would rather recognize my need for Jesus, love
much and be forgiven much than pretend that there is no need for
forgiveness. Because in the end, what we're able to do is to do our
best and trust in the steadfast grace of God. Thanks be to God.
Amen.
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on Graduation Sunday, June 13, 2010.
© 2010 Daniel Holland
