Last Sunday we learned of Jesus’ intention
that we have life. He was coming into the city when a man who had died was
being carried out. This man was his widowed mother’s only son. When Jesus saw her
he was moved with compassion and love for the woman.
What we may have
missed is no one asked Jesus to intervene. No one asked Jesus to perform
another miracle for this grieving widow. Instead, Jesus acts on his own.
With a desire in his
heart that this life lost be now restored, Jesus acts. He stops the procession,
touches the bier and says to the dead son, “Young man, I say to you rise.” And
he does. His life is restored. The young man sat up and began to speak and
Jesus gave him back to his mother.
Without being asked,
Jesus acted.
In this morning’s
Gospel a woman wanders in off the street where Jesus is dining with one of the
Pharisees. She comes into the dining room, uninvited, speaks to no one, and
without being asked, she acts too.
She learned Jesus was eating there and she walked
right in to do one thing. She came that she might serve Jesus. She showed him
compassion and she brought her tears. She brought her kisses and the one thing
of value in her life, a fancy jar of costly ointment.
Instead of asking for
something from Jesus, she was determined to do something for Jesus to show her
love. She stepped out of her place in her community and for her efforts she was
roundly criticized.
You may remember a
story I have told of Anne Marbury. She was born in England in 1591. Anne was
the daughter of an Anglican minister. She was surrounded at home, at school,
and at church by scriptural teachings and theological thinking. At the age of
21, Anne married a neighbor, William Hutchinson.
Eventually Anne left
the Anglican Church and with her husband became a Puritan. She was not a casual
church goer. Anne studied scripture and nurtured a vibrant inner spiritual
life.
The Puritans were soon
harassed and persecuted for their faith during this period of history in
England. The Anglican Church dominated life during that time.
So at age 43, William
and Anne and their children sailed for New England in search of religious
freedom. They settled in the Puritan Colony of Massachusetts Bay. Anne began
holding a weekly Bible study for women in their home. Soon another meeting was
added that included men.
The leaders of the
colony became afraid of Anne’s influence with the people. They accused her of
heresy. One leader said this of Anne, “She is a woman of ready wit and bold
spirit who brought over with her two dangerous errors.”
The first error the
leader described was her notion that the Holy Spirit resides within us. Her
second error was the notion that we are justified by faith and not by works.
As heirs of the
Protestant Reformation we believe with Anne that we are justified, not by
works, but by grace through faith for Christ’s sake. We also believe that the
Holy Spirit does live within us. To the leaders of the Puritan Colony these
ideas from Anne were blasphemy and a heresy. She was eventually excommunicated
from the church. The charge that led to
Anne’s excommunication from the Puritans reads in part, “You have stepped out
of your place...”
Anne stepped out of
her place! She stepped out of her place because of her convictions. For many
years historians described her as an American Jezebel. In the modern word Anne
would be the patron saint of those with the bumper sticker that reads, “Well
behaved woman seldom make history!”
It is clear that she was
not a jezebel of any sort. Anne was a woman passionate about her religious
convictions. But in the eyes of the status quo, she had stepped out of her
place.
Our woman of the city,
the one who attends to Jesus while he is dining, is a story of another woman
stepping out of her usual place.
Luke gives us the
details. Jesus is dining with this fellow whose name is Simon. When our woman
of the city steps out of her appointed place, Simon loses it. He challenges
Jesus wondering how he can allow this woman to behave this way. He begins to
doubt that Jesus is a prophet. His thinking is that Jesus should have known
what sort of woman this was and stopped her from washing and anointing his
feet. Simon cannot imagine what Jesus must have been thinking.
Or perhaps Simon
understood all too well. Perhaps he wanted to prove all along when he invited
Jesus to dine with him Jesus was no prophet. Perhaps this was unfolding exactly
as Simon hoped so he could discredit what people were saying about Jesus.
For his part, Jesus
knows what Simon is up to. He knows what is in Simon’s heart. His action proves
who he has become. Simon is out of touch, a non-believer, and obviously not in
love with Jesus. He need not tell Jesus who this woman is. Jesus knows this
woman and he knows the true Simon for what he is. Jesus knows what is in their
hearts.
He then fully exposes
Simon’s weakness in a parable about a creditor who has two folks who owe him
money. One owed the creditor a large sum of money and the other much less.
Neither could repay their debt. The creditor, filled with compassion, forgave
the debt for both men.
Jesus asks Simon,
which of these two men will have the greatest love for the creditor? Simon
answers correctly, “I suppose the one for whom he forgave the greater debt.”
Jesus agrees.
Then he exposes Simon
and makes his point. The woman who had entered Simon’s house had shown Jesus
greater love than Simon. Simon gave Jesus no water for his feet, no kiss, and
he did not anoint his head with oil.
“Therefore, I tell you,” Jesus says, “her sins, which are many, have
been forgiven; she has shown great love.”
This woman’s faith
comes from her trust in Jesus and she lived that faith when she stepped out of
her place by committing herself and everything she has entirely to Jesus.
The lesson Simon
missed is that those of us who invite Jesus into our lives should also be
prepared to step out of our usual place and to give to Jesus from our heart,
from our love, everything we have. When we invite Jesus into our lives we
should be prepared to step out and show compassion and love to all people, in
all circumstances, in the entire world. We should be prepared to live and love as
Jesus did.
Timothy George, Dean
of Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham Alabama has said, “Love is the one
thing we can experience in time that will remain in eternity.”
What then is Christ
calling us to do? To be forgiving, yes. To be loving, yes. To be faithful and
step out of our comfort to follow Jesus, again we must say, yes.
Who then is Christ
calling us to be? Why, disciples, disciples whose love will remain in eternity.
Like this woman, out of love and compassion, our call is to step out of our
usual place and to self-initiate a life of love.
Often, it seems, we
recognize an opportunity to self-initiate, to step out of our usual place, only
in retrospect. Time passes and our mind does that “mess with us” thing. We hear
ourselves thinking, I could have been friendlier to that person who seems dirty
and disheveled and unworthy. I could have shared my money with those in greater
need. I could have spoken up for my friend. I could have reminded my friend, my
spouse, my partner, my child, my parent, that we are all children of God, and
that God loves us and is present to us no matter what.
Perhaps the real test
is to discover beforehand what we love, who we love, and what our life reveals
about what is in our heart. Are we more like Simon or that brave woman?
I know many of you have already stepped out and away from the
usual. It is obvious you help others and one another. You work to promote
justice for all people. You perform acts of kindness. You share the love of
this gospel. You love as God loved you, filled with the Holy Spirit, offering
to God with compassion your lives before you ask for anything in return.
Have you therefore stepped
so far from the face of the earth and our worldly ways that you have fallen
right into the Kingdom of God? Have you stepped out with Jesus to that same
rare air of devotion to the greater good, to commitment to faithful service, to
a love in which your faith in Jesus Christ saves both us and the world?
In so many ways we have. We have stepped out
because God’s love calls us to do the right thing, even when it may cost us
personally. We are called, not to sainthood, but to step out for the sake of
love, knowing that God steps out with us, guarding, guiding, protecting,
encouraging us every step of the way...and forgiving us when we fail.
Dearest sisters and
brother’s in Christ accept again this morning God’s invitation. Come again to
God’s banquet. Step out of your place. Bring all that you have. Give all that
you have. Show greater love.
For when we do, when
we step out with God’s love in our hearts, Jesus says of us: “Daughter, son,
your sins are forgiven, your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
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