As
I said last week, we are in Ordinary Time – the long green Season after
Pentecost. This is the season of
discipleship. This is the time when we
don’t have a specific focus like Christmas, Lent or Easter, but when we have a
much broader focus that is the life, ministry and mystery of Christ. This is when we get down to the nitty gritty
of the Great Commission: “make disciples of all nations and teach them.”
One
of the ways we learn to be disciples is through our study of Scripture. The Collect for Proper 28 (which is still 22
weeks away) reads in part, “Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be
written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and
inwardly digest them.” This could be the
Collect for the whole of Ordinary Time.
You
may recall that I asked you to listen for connections between the Old Testament
lesson and the Gospel. Last week was
fairly obvious with both Elijah and Jesus raising a widow’s son to life. The connection there is that the New
Testament has deep roots in the Old. We
not only hear similar stories, but we are reminded of Jesus’ prophetic
ministry. In listening for connections,
hopefully we become better learners, better students, better disciples.
Where
are the connections today? How does a
story of greed, rape, premeditated murder and holy retribution even remotely
connect with a story of repentance, love, forgiveness and salvation? And if you’re having a hard time seeing the
connection, that’s okay – discipleship and learning aren’t always easy.
So
what’s going on in these stories? The
first lesson is pulled from the familiar story of David and Bathsheba. After raping her and getting her pregnant,
David tries to cover up his actions.
When that doesn’t work, he has Bathsheba’s husband killed. God gets wind of David’s behavior and is
rather . . . displeased. So he sends
Nathan to confront him, telling a story of a poor man and his pet lamb.
The
gospel lesson should be equally familiar.
Jesus attends a dinner, is confronted with a sinful woman who washes his
feet with her tears and hair, and then anoints them with oil. Simon, a Pharisee, is outraged at this
behavior and Jesus tells a story of two men having their debts forgiven.
The
connection here is not sexual sins, even though David certainly committed them
and the woman in the gospel was most likely a prostitute. Nor is the connection that of God playing a
game of “Gotcha!” with two clever stories.
The connection between these two stories is the behavior of God’s people
and how we treat others.
David
is God’s anointed. Through most of his
reign he was honorable, heroic and successful in battle; his unwillingness to
commit regicide while Saul was still king is a perfect example. David was also, as attested to elsewhere, a
man after God's own heart. Over time,
however, David, if not corrupted by his position and power, at least developed
a bad case of tunnel vision. He knew
what was right, holy and honorable before God, and he knew what behaviors
crossed the line. But as God’s chosen
and favored man, he could easily justify his actions because, hey, God chose
him to be king.
David
got to a place where he was so sure of his righteousness that he was willing to
enforce an exorbitant repayment amount as well as indicating he would favor the
death penalty for a non-capital offense.
But because of those blinders and his righteous self-assuredness, he
couldn’t see that he was the guilty man.
He couldn’t see, or didn’t care, how his actions harmed those around
him. All he knew was that he was a
righteous man, chosen by God.
In
today’s gospel we have the story of another righteous man, Simon the
Pharisee. Simon hosts a dinner and
invites Jesus to attend. I’ve always
thought this was more about Simon than it was about Jesus – as in, “Look how
impressive my guest list is; I must be very important.”
Regardless,
Simon invites Jesus to dinner. While
there, a sinful woman suddenly appears.
We don’t know much about this woman or her sin, but more often than not,
whenever a woman is accused of being a sinful sinner, the accusers are most
often talking about sex.
This
most-likely prostitute shows up uninvited to the dinner and washes Jesus’ feet
with her tears, drying them with her hair and anointing them with oil. Simon is outraged at both her actions and
that she’s even there in the first place.
He’ll probably have to purify the whole house, since he’s a righteous
man, chosen by God.
Jesus,
like Nathan before him, tells a story.
“Which one of the debtors will love the creditor more?” Simon replies, “I suppose the one who had the
larger debt.” Jesus then turns and
forgives the woman of her sin.
But
Simon doesn’t get it. Like David before
him, he is blinded by his own righteous self-assuredness. He is so convinced of his position that he
will never exhibit an overwhelming expression of love like the woman
displayed. His self-assessment as a
righteous and morally superior person tells him he is in less need of
forgiveness. And the result is his lack
of love.
Which
one are we? Are we David: willing to condemn anyone who doesn’t live up
to our moral code, but just as willing to justify our sins away because we were
handpicked by God?
Are
we Simon: self-assuredly righteous and
morally superior to the point of thinking we have less of which to be forgiven
and, therefore, unwilling to express love to those who don’t measure up?
The
connection between these two stories is clear:
As people of God, how do we treat others? If we think we are more special than other
people, we run the risk of not only mistreating them, but of thinking we have
fewer sins of which to be forgiven.
And
as we see with David and Simon, both views are wrong.
Amen.
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