Sermon 6/13/04
A Warm Welcome - Luke 7:36-8:3
(view lectionary notes for this text)
This passage from Luke probably sounds familiar to you - at least I hope it does. It was not too long ago, just before Easter, that we read of a Mary, sister of Lazarus and Martha, who anointed Jesus' feet, a scene recorded in the gospel of John. If you remember, Mary took a whole pound of extremely expensive perfume and poured it on Jesus' feet, and wiped his feet clean with her hair. Judas complained about her extravagance, but Jesus defended Mary, saying she was preparing him for his eventual death and burial.
But today's story, from Luke's gospel, is a bit different, a different take on this event of anointing, a different moment for Jesus to teach his hearers, and to teach us in the process. This scene takes place much earlier in Jesus ministry. Instead of enjoying a meal with his friends and followers at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, here we find Jesus eating at the home of a Pharisee named Simon who had invited Jesus to dinner. Sometime during this encounter, a woman, who had heard that Jesus was in town, came with an alabaster jar of ointment. She is described as a 'sinner', though we don't get a description of her sins. This unnamed woman doesn't use costly perfume - money and greed are not here the issues as they were when Mary anointed Jesus. Instead, this woman begins weeping, and bathes Jesus' feet with her tears, drying them with her own hair. Simon, watching this exchange, conjectures that if Jesus were really a prophet he would have known that a sinner was anointing him in this way and put a stop to her display.
Simon is upset and confused because the woman is 'a sinner'. We are not told what her sins are, why Simon so easily labels her this way. Only that she has earned herself this designation that Simon, as a religious sort, is able to elude. Jesus, perceiving Simon's disdain for his allowance of the woman's actions, tells a little parable. Two debtors find their debts forgiven, one who owed a small sum, and one who owed a large sum. Who will love the creditor more, Jesus asks? Simon responds that of course, the one who has had the larger debt forgiven will fear the greatest relief.
Then Jesus changes gear, and addresses the issue of hospitality. Hospitality - welcoming the stranger - was extremely important in Jesus' time: there were rules and customs to follow that indicated how to welcome a stranger or a guest into the home - and Simon, a religious leader, probably followed the rules to a 'T'.
But Jesus indicates that this woman, this sinner welcomes him in a different, more thorough, more heartfelt, more welcoming way. Jesus draws a sharp contrast between the Simon and the woman, a contrast that is already evident. The woman and the Pharisee probably could not be more different already: in terms of wealth, in social status, in community standing. But Jesus points out a different kind of contrast. He says, "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. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love." Like the debtors in Jesus' parable, the woman has shown more love because of her understanding of the forgiveness of her sins.
The difference that Jesus highlights is that although Simon is right, as in correct, in his behavior, it is the woman labeled the 'sinner' who is right, as in righteous, upright, right with God. She has hit on the spirit of hospitality, where Simon only got the facts straight. Jesus reminds us that the woman, full of sins, is still the one who feels the greatest sense of God's forgiving grace. Why is this so, even though she sins? Because, despite her sins, at the core of her life, her actions, her service to Christ outweighed the commandments she was failing to obey. Simon, of course, is not excluded from God's grace - none of us are. But he won't be able to understand it or appreciate it in the same way as this woman who has cared for Jesus - grace won't make sense to him - he's too worried about following the rules of correct behavior to notice the forgiving grace God is extending. He can only exclaim, after all Jesus says to him, "who is this who even forgives sins?"
Too often, in our quest to be faithful Christians, we sometimes miss the forest for the trees, so to speak. We strive to live rightly, as God calls us to do. But we come to hold the details, the facts, the individual acts of 'good living', above the spirit with which Christ wants us to live into them. We get worried about the deeds of the 'sinners' we see misbehaving around us, doing things we would never dream of doing, knowing ourselves how wrong such immoral behavior is. But in all of our diligence for rightness, we forget that Jesus tells us, as he told the woman, that it is our faith in God, not our works, not our obedience to the law, the brings us salvation. If we look back at the reading for today, we will note: it was not the woman's actions of welcoming Jesus that prompted Jesus to forgive her sins. Instead, it was the woman's faith that brought her forgiveness, and her sense of forgiveness that inspired her service-giving actions of hospitality.
We must ask ourselves, how do we welcome Christ into our lives? By the book, or by the leading of our hearts and souls? And, related to that, how do we view our own selves who welcome him? As Simon? As the woman? As a faithful religious person? As a failing sinner? As one who must be forgiven much or little? Let us not get weighed down by the letter of the law, by dotting Is and crossing Ts. The commandments, the laws, the guidelines of the scriptures, of society, of our lives, are there to protect us, urge us in the right direction, and by all means, we ought not to seek to abandon them. But they are not the heart of the message - they are not in themselves going to create the love that God seeks us to have for our Creator and for our neighbors.
Instead, we are called to live by faith and grace, rejoicing in the fact that though we have much to be forgiven of us, we have much love to receive from God who redeems us. Armed with this love, confident in God's grace, we can be unburdened enough from our failures, unburdened from our double bind of sinfulness and correctness, and start turning our attention toward love of neighbor, even as the woman showered Jesus with her love for him.
My mother shared with me an email she received with this "Affirmation for Today", by an unknown author. In part it reads, "Today I will find the grace to let go of resentments of others and self-condemnation over past mistakes. Today I will not try to change, or improve, anybody but me. Today I will act toward others as though this will be my last day on earth. Today I will be unafraid. I will enjoy what is beautiful, and I will believe that as I give to the world, the world will give to me." As children of God, we can trust that we can find our grace, freely offered, by God who loves us so much. Full of faith, full of grace, we can begin to give - give to God, give to our church, give to our families, give to our neighbors, rejoicing in the love of God that knows no bounds.
So let us learn to practice our hospitality. As a congregation we are always struggling to welcome visitors, to welcome new people into our midst, and to make them feel at home. We declare that we have "open hearts, open minds, and open doors", a slogan of the United Methodist Church. We strive to show our love to those who are seeking places to worship God. But our welcoming must begin by welcoming the living Christ into our lives, and letting him abide there, letting his grace pervade our hearts and souls. And like the woman, we must realize that sometimes, to welcome and show hospitality, we must get up from our own homes, and go out to where there are needs to be met and service to be shared. A warm welcome indeed. Amen.