A certain young woman was nervous about meeting her boyfriend's parents for the first time. As she checked her appearance one last time, she noticed that her shoes looked dingy, so she gave them a fast swipe with the paper towel she had used to blot the bacon she had for breakfast. When she arrived at the impressive home, she was greeted by the parents and their much-beloved, but rotten-tempered poodle. The dog got a whiff of the bacon grease on the young woman's shoes and followed her around all evening. At the end of the evening, the pleased parents remarked, "Cleo really likes you, dear, and she is an excellent judge of character. We are delighted to welcome you into our little family."
There is an interesting comparison that can be drawn between this story and the story of the weeping woman that we heard in our Gospel reading this morning. Both sought acceptance-the young woman from her boyfriend's parents, and the weeping woman from both Jesus and the society of that time. The Pharisees saw the weeping woman only for what she was to them on the outside-a woman of ill repute. On the other hand, Jesus saw her as a repentant sinner who had hope and faith in Him.
Simon was offended by the woman's behaviour at the dinner table. In those days, women did not eat in the same room as the men, and they certainly did not let their hair down. Simon did not see Jesus as a prophet because Jesus did not profess to know the woman's heart. Jesus proved that He was indeed a prophet because he knew what was in Simon's heart. In Christ's time, women were often regarded by society as outcasts or oppressed. They were not invited to banquets; however, outsiders could hover around during banquets, hear conversations and speak to the guest of honour. Christ calls us to attend to the hungry, the poor, the oppressed and the outcast in society because of His love and compassion. He also issues this call because He is the "shadow person"-the uninvited poor person who shows up unexpectedly at our tables, our churches and in society.
The Pharisees kept the word of the law to a T. They made sure that every I was dotted and every T was crossed. They took a literal view of the law and their society-much like fundamentalist, Bible-thumping preachers take a literal view of the Bible today. In the time of the Pharisees, a guest in their home was treated with respect, dignity and hospitality. Simon the Pharisee broke this tradition when he refused to welcome Jesus with a kiss or wash his feet. By not showing the proper hospitality, Simon in effect snubbed Jesus and his teachings. Sinfulness is more than deeds. It also involves our inner attitudes, desires, motivations, and so on. Simon is a good example. He can learn about the depth of God's forgiveness and the powerful effects through the experience of the woman.
The story of the weeping woman appears in all four Gospels. The main objection raised in the other three Gospels was the use of expensive ointment. The objection here in Luke's Gospel is the woman's reputation as a sinner and Jesus' failure in the eyes of the Pharisees to rebuke her behaviour. On the contrary-He knew the sins of both the woman AND Simon the Pharisee. Most people would not see beyond Simon's veil of respectability, but Jesus did. Jesus had the ability to look into the hearts and souls of the people He met with...and He can look into our hearts and souls today. Christ calls us not to be like the Pharisees. We must never call anyone hopeless (including ourselves), but rather to have hope and give hope.
The Pharisees thought they were "holier than thou". Today, many followers of Jesus have switched to the mentality of the Pharisees. They believe only persons of the highest quality and most sanctified holiness are welcome at the Lord's Table. The Pharisees believed they had earned the right to associate together to celebrate their status and goodness. If anyone had the right to belong to an exclusive dinner party, they had. Not so, said Jesus. He said that his dinner party is different. So long as we come openly with faith and repentance as did the woman, we are welcome. We are accepted by Him. He wants to include us among his friends. He will forgive us if we are willing to give up our phoniness, to lay it straight, to come clean, admitting our wrongs.
The woman was ready, willing and able to follow Jesus and his teachings, much like the women who followed Jesus in the last verses of this morning's Gospel reading. Her heightened sense of self-effacement was reflected in her willingness to serve Jesus. She put her trust in the forgiveness of Jesus. She believed in Jesus for the forgiveness of her sins and for her ultimate salvation. She was justified by faith, not by following the law. God's goodness was greater than her sins. Nothing is too bad for God to forgive. We can't earn forgiveness by our own deeds. Forgiveness is a gift from God-a gift given out of pure generosity and out of everlasting mercy.
The church is in the forgiveness business, not the morality business. When we fight over social issues, we would do well to remember today's Gospel reading. Simon was shocked by Jesus' siding with sinners, and some people in the church are also shocked. We forget why we are in the Church. What brought us here in the first place? The church is a good place for decent people, but perhaps here-in the church-our decency will become more than cultured good manners and middle-class notions of what is acceptable and proper. Maybe here our decency will become love and our love will burn with passion, which will express itself in compassion for those around us in the church, outside the church, and outside our proper social network. The church is called to be an accepting community.
The greatest need some people have is acceptance. I know, because it took a LONG time for me to feel accepted after my family moved to Liverpool in 1973---and being bullied did not help the situation. I have found since then that then that any time I enter a new group or situation, it takes me a long time to be accepted. Acceptance has been known to change people. The woman was changed when she was accepted and forgiven by Jesus. She knew she needed God's forgiveness for the way she had been living if the rest of her life was to have meaning-Simon did not. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. The gift of God's forgiveness is a new life that we must live and use in the service of God and our fellow human beings.
Jesus used the story of the two debtors to make a point. The one who is forgiven a great debt is likely to be more grateful than a person who is forgiven a lesser debt. That gratitude is likely to inspire affection, loyalty-even love. The woman is grateful, having been forgiven much. Simon is ungrateful, having been forgiven less. Simon worked so hard to obey God's law that he did not see himself as a sinner. He could see the gap between himself and the woman, but he could not see the gap between him and God. He had a "holier than thou" attitude, just like many people in our churches today. They would do well to remember Christ's admonition not to speak of the speck in their neighbour's eye when there is a plank in their own.
Love follows forgiveness. When Jesus told the woman, "Your sins are forgiven", he did so on God's authority. He also told the community that she should be restored to the community the same way healed lepers would be restored when the priest declared them clean. In announcing her forgiveness, Jesus performs the priestly function of restoring her to the community. Christ gave her hope that her life could be restored, that she could become whole once again. The woman's faith opened the door to forgiveness and salvation. Jesus offers the same forgiveness to all of us. Our faith saves us and gives us peace. When we ask for forgiveness, Jesus forgives us because He loves us .
The story speaks to all of us, but to two groups of people in particular:
1. Those who, like Simon, tend to brand other people as hopeless, even though we are all created in God's image.
2. People who, like the woman, brand themselves as hopeless.
When I was doing the research for this homily, I was reminded of two stories I once read. The first one involved an address former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill gave at the Harrow School for boys-his alma mater. His words were simple, moving, and unforgettable: "Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, give in. Never give in. Never give in. Never give in."
The second story involved a speech given by Pastor Robert H. Schuller, founder of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California and the Hour of Power television ministry. He was speaking to a group of farmers who had fallen on tough times, and he was trying to offer them hope and encouragement. At one point, he made a statement that he later said was put into his mouth by God. That statement was "Tough times never last, but tough people do". These two stories reflect what must have been the woman's attitude. She did not give up, and she never lost hope-in fact, she found it in the saving power and grace of Jesus, just as we can find hope in the saving power and grace of Jesus today.
Our lives are filled with mixed messages from hyperspace, telephone calls filled with hopelessness, and hearts of loneliness. We often wallow in despair and feel we have no choice but to sin, to lie, to cheat, deceive, or compromise our faith for money. Our lives are busy, frequently too busy for family, for friends, for love. We are too busy for ourselves. It is true that we ride the tide of life-bending to stay on the top of the rising crest of the wave, but soon we realize , once that crest descends, that we are riding on the false promises of the world and we are without love. We need love, but we also need hope, and we must be careful never to brand ourselves as hopeless, or to assume that our situation is hopeless.
Grace is unconditional love, a giving without expecting any particular kind of response, and forgiving again and again. It involves setting aside the reward system we attach to right and wrong, and setting aside our standards of righteousness themselves. God reaches out to meet us in all versions of this story. In doing so, He reaches out to us through 5 sources:
1. Struggle. Struggle is good for the soul because it forces us to give up ideas, preconceived notions or prejudices we have had and ask God for new ideas
2. Jesus, the receiver of the woman's gift. He is the receiver of our praise and worship.
3. Those who object to the woman's gift-namely, the Pharisees. Through them, we meet a God who knows and demands of us right and wrong. This makes us uncomfortable, because His light shows us the darkness of our own lives.
4. The disciples, whose compassion the poor was and is an essential part of God's nature.
5. The woman herself. She shows us giving that is not measured but boundless, not reasoned but spontaneous, not cautious but abandoned. Communion models the God we meet in the woman-meeting, caring, feeding and calling us to model nurturing each other.
Which of the characters in this story do we identify with? That question is not easy for us to answer. We want to identify with the woman, but we may find ourselves behaving more like the Pharisees. The woman has the power and freedom-she can do what she wants to do from the bottom of her heart, and she doesn't worry about what people think or the propriety of her actions. This story shows the need for inclusiveness. Embracing the less important is crucial. We can't be condescending. We must remember that with all our shortcomings and failures, there is a love great enough to accept us.
Credentials do not matter when it comes to sharing the Lord's Table-no one is worthy, no one is good enough. In the words of the Prayer of Humble Access in the Holy Eucharist liturgy in the Book of Common Prayer, "We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table". Notorious sinners may be closer to God because they are less likely to hide from God and truth behind a veil of self-righteousness and silly credentials. Everyone is united to the Lord's Table. It doesn't matter who they are. The source of our lives, the basis for our invitation into God's presence, is God's loving grace and forgiveness-nothing else. Relying on anything else leads to losing it all. God's love for us is absolute, total, unconditional and free. We live by grace and forgiveness. Faith in God brings salvation-not our works or our obedience to the law of the Old Testament. The point of both the Gospel and the Letter to the Galatians is that faith depends on God's compassionate love, not on how righteous we may strive to be.
Climbing to heaven on one's own ladder is an illusion. Remember what happened to the people who tried to build the Tower of Babel. We must not judge others by applying the Word to others, but not to ourselves. When we become intolerant and unloving, we act as if we are forgiven little. We need to apply the Word to our own lives before we get into trouble-in other words, before we sin. A person who has done his or her best and seen others walk off with what he or she wanted, who has planned and missed, aspired and failed, but can still walk through life with an unenvious and forgiving heart, being happy in his or her own best self, is a person who has won a great victory. He/she is a slave to no one, and life is his or her ally, not an enemy.
Jesus wants to give life to those on the fringes of society and those who suffer the consequences of the choices they made-especially bad choices. Jesus helps us to see that they need our help and care. Life's experiences can change the way we see things. The way we see things can help us to see God's way of viewing things. Jesus helps us to see that those who may be greater sinners need our love to be given equally as those with less sin. We need to see beyond the sin to the love that we are able to give people who enter our experiences. When we hurt the people we love, either physically or emotionally, we are sorry to the point of tears, just like the woman. She was sorry to the point of tears. Sin hurts, grieves and offends God-the one we love with our whole being. We experience the mercy of God in Christ when we stumble and fall into sin.
God's grace is much bigger than we will ever understand, and God's love reaches out to the very ends of the earth. That includes people and nations that we have written off. God has not written them off. His grace is bigger than anything we could imagine. Forgiveness is a gift of God's grace, paid for by Jesus Christ.
