3rd Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 6
Lectionary 11
Luke 7:36-8:3
"are forgiven"
"One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house, and took his place at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now 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 sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner." And Jesus answering said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." And he answered, "What is it, Teacher?" "A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he forgave them both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answered, "The one, I suppose, to whom he forgave more." And he said to him, "You have judged rightly." Then 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 wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss 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 are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little." And he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this, who even forgives sins?" And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means." Luke 7:36-8:3, RSV.
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
The following is an adaptation from the Augsburg Sermon Series of a sermon given by Vernon Schreiber.
"At the beginning of this service, we began with the invocation, saying, "We begin In the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit." Through this act we called upon the name of Christ for his presence to be with us this morning, because he said, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I shall be also." Christ has been with us through our confession, the absolution, the hymns of praise and now as we settle back to hear his word proclaimed in this sermon. But don’t get too comfortable because His word can challenge you, can confront you, can upset you as well as comfort you, console you and bring you peace.
I would like you to imagine Christ is present here please focus on the top step of the chancel, focus with all your psychic energy, focus there and imagine that you begin to see the form of a man, a man in dazzling white, a man who becomes clearer with each passing second. The image remains clouded, but there you can see an image of Christ. Christ is truly present with us this morning.
As you focus on that image, I would like to tell you that something very peculiar is taking place in the back of the church, don’t turn around, focus on Christ, a lady is entering the church. She is wearing rags, she is slipping in as quietly as possible so no one will notice. Her appearance tells us she is poor, she walks with a cane and is visibly tired after climbing the stairs. She shakes as she sits. Her clothing wreaks of dirt and grime. She is from as we would say the wrong side of the tracks.
Continue to focus on Christ standing at the top of the chancel steps. The woman looks to the front and sees image of Christ. She sees Christ as she does rises from her seat and begins a slow walk to the front.
You want to stay focused on Christ, but you cannot, you turn you look you see this woman approach Christ. You gasp. You wonder how she could dare approach him in such rags, with such a miserable life.
She sees your stares, she can almost read your mind as she continues her slow walk to the steps of the chancel.
Many of you are thinking, how did she get in here. Where did you come from? How can we let a woman like that in our church?
She knows what you are thinking but still she comes. As she approaches closer to the steps her pace quickens.
You focus again on Christ. What will be His reaction to this woman? How will He respond?
She reaches Christ, falls on her knees at his feet, lying upon those steps. Tears are running from her eyes . She lifts her head, and smiles at Him. Her tears are making drops of water on his feet. She uses her hair to wipe them away. She stays there at His feet, crying joyous tears. She doesn’t move, she doesn’t seem afraid of Him. She seems perfectly, comfortable, perfectly at peace.
Focus an on Christ.
Christ lifts His head and looks at you. His smile turns to a frown.
He address us saying: "I have been present with you since the invocation. My spirit has been here with you and I have felt your worship. You have been polite but you have not rejoiced in your hearts at my presence with you. As I became clearer, as you focused on me, I felt a strange fear, as if you didn’t know how to be at peace in my presence. I saw the shock, the wonderment in your minds as the woman came forward. She came out of love, out of a joyous heart because she had heard me preach the good news and had to come and find me to share her joy, to share her love, to express her thankfulness at being released from sin and beginning a new life with me. This woman has great love. "I tell you, her sins, which are many are forgiven, for she loved much."
As you focus on the image of Christ with the woman lying at his feet it begins to fade. It blurs, it becomes fainter and fainter. It is gone. You are left with a strange feeling in your heart. You wonder, you think, could it happen? and if it did, how would I react? How do I feel in the presence of Christ? How do I feel about that woman? Can I rejoice and feel happy because Christ is my Lord?
That little adventure in our imagination sets the tone for this sermon.
For this sermon speaks about those two word that Jesus uttered, "are forgiven". Because this text for all its themes and ideas is about one thing forgiveness. Jesus forgave the woman of her sins. Jesus forgives us of our sins. We forgive those around us for their sins that impacts our lives.
"are forgiven". The words were spoken by Jesus that changed the women’s life, that changes our lives. We live in the power and the hope of being forgiven of our sins. We live in the assurance that forgiveness come from Christ. We live in the reality that we sin each day and need the power of Jesus forgiving hand in our life daily. That is why Lutheran belief that daily we need to return to the waters of Baptism. We need to be drown to the old self and raised up a new each day.
Someone once said, ’I want a religion that can speak to me when I have been a real stinker."
Jesus speaks to us daily in our sinful state and declares that our sins "are forgiven".
When our sins are forgiven, we need to try and not sin again. For forgiveness does not mean we can carry on the way we did before. But forgiveness gives us the power and the strength to try and not commit that same sin again. We need to be sorry for our sins and at the same remember that Jesus holds no memory of those forgiven sins.
Forgiveness gives us the power to change.
It is like the two little boys in the following story:
Two little boys were playing together one afternoon. They had not been playing long when the larger boy took advantage of his weaker playmate. Georgie, the smaller one, too proud to complain, withdrew some distance and sat by himself, manfully winking back the ready tears.
After a short time, the larger boy grew tired of his solitary play and called, "Say, Georgie, come back. I’m sorry."
Georgie, warned by previous experience, did not respond to the invitation at once.
"Yes," he replied cautiously, "but what kind of sorry? The kind so you won’t do it again?"
"but what kind of sorry? The kind so you won’t do it again?" What kind of sorry are you? When you are forgiven by Christ are you that kind of sorry that you won’t do it again? We need to have that kind of attitude of not wanting to sin again, but at the same time knowing that if we fail, we will be forgiven again and again.
And we need to remember that Christ when he forgives our sins, he does not remember them. For true forgiveness means that the sins are forgotten. The person is given a clean slate.
In Hebrews 10: 16, it says, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”
17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their misdeeds no more.”
18* Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
For us that quality of forgivenesss can be difficult. We tend to hold grudges, we tend not to forget as we forgive,
A story from the life of Thomas Edison show what true forgiveness is really like.
Thomas A. Edison was working on a crazy contraption called a "light bulb" and it took a whole team of men 24 straight hours to put just one together. The story goes that when Edison was finished with one light bulb, he gave it to a young boy helper, who nervously carried it up the stairs. Step by step he cautiously watched his hands, obviously frightened of dropping such a priceless piece of work. You’ve probably guessed what happened by now; the poor young fellow dropped the bulb at the top of the stairs. It took the entire team of men twenty-four more hours to make another bulb. Finally, tired and ready for a break, Edison was ready to have his bulb carried up the stairs. He gave it to the same young boy who dropped the first one. That’s true forgiveness. 1
The young boy’s "sin" was forgiven and forgotten. That is what Christ does for us, forgives and forgets.
A closing story sums up the idea of this sermon, forgiveness.
"A man in retirement decided to visit as many cemeteries as possible to see the uniqueness of the tombstones. After his travel, he put together a slide show of the many unique tombstones he found. At each show, someone would ask what was the most impressive one. He always saved the answer to last. He would have the lights turned completely off, he would dramatically build the audience curiosity then he would show the slide. It was a very simple tombstone barely a foot tall.
On it the inscription said one word:
"Forgiven"
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale June 11, 2007
1 James Newton, Uncommon Friends. Contributed by: Joel Smith on SermonCentral
