June 13, 2010
 
Scripture:         Luke 7:36-8:3
 
Sermon:           “Bad Reputation”
 
            Turning our hearts and minds now to the word of God, let us read together the scripture lesson for the day.  Turn with me to the Gospel According to Luke, chapter 7 where we will read together verse 36 through verse 3 in chapter 8.  You can find that easily on page 89 of the New Testament in the pew Bible.
            As we begin I want you to go back home in your imagination for just a moment.  Some of you would have liked to stay home in bed on a Sunday morning.  But, I want you to just use your imagination.  Go back to your home, sit on the living room sofa.  Prop your feet up on the coffee table and grab the remote control.  Relax.  This is your space.
            Suddenly, and without invitation, the doorbell rings.  You get up and look out the window to see who it is at your door.  You’re a little perturbed because you’ve found your comfort spot where the world just disappears for awhile.  Your show is coming on.  What is it that you’re watching anyway?  Glee?  Grey’s Anatomy?  Lost?  Well, your doorbell rings and you have to get up and answer it.
            But the person standing outside is not familiar at all.  Maybe it’s a kid from the neighborhood selling chocolate bars to raise money for band.  Maybe it’s some older man selling magazine subscriptions and that’s not at all a welcome sight.  Maybe it’s two guys in matching white shirts and ties and name tags telling you that they are “Elder So and So” from the Mormon mission and they’d like to share with you the Book of Mormon.  Strangely it could be a stranded woman whose car has broken down just outside your door.
            It’s an awkward moment because this person outside the door is not part of your life.  What do you do?  Most likely you just open the door a little way and don’t go outside.  You kind of stand there in the doorway as if to suggest purely through body language that they are not entirely welcome.  What you don’t do is stand aside and say, “Come on in.  Have a seat.  Let me get you something to drink.”  This is a stranger after all.
            I think we’ve all been there.  Awkward.
            What I mean to suggest is that we are familiar with the dynamics of welcoming people into our homes or not welcoming them.  There are folks who belong there and there are folks who do not.  And all of that is taking place in this story in Luke’s Gospel as a man named Simon invited Jesus over for dinner one day.  Now, Jesus was the welcome guest.  But, I suspect that Simon did not expect him to bring the gospel along with him—at least not in the way it happened.  This is the word of the Lord…
 
            One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table.  And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment.  She stood beside him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair.  Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing 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 kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.”  Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”  “Teacher,” he replied, “speak.”  “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them.  Now which of them will love him more?”  Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.”  And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.”  Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman?  I entered you house; you gave me now 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.  But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”  Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”  But those who were at the 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 afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bring bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.  The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities:  Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.
 
            Talk about awkward.  I mean this is a very intimate scene.  I don’t care how you dress it up with trying to understand ancient customs, it is a very intimate scene with a lot of touching and provocative motions.  Sure, people got very dirty feet from walking along in sandals along dirt roads and paths.  And it was customary for servants to clean the feet of house guests upon their arrival.  But, that’s not all that was taking place in Simon the Pharisee’s house.  Was it?
            This woman just kind of barged into the place uninvited and started lavishing all of this physical affection upon Jesus.  Caressing him with her hands, bathing his feet in ointment and her own tears, and wiping his feet with her hair.  It was enough to make anyone uncomfortable.  It’s uncomfortable to describe the whole thing, to be honest.
            I’m curious what kind of assumptions you might have about who this woman was.  The Bible simply says that she was a woman of the city who was a sinner.  Does that paint a certain picture for you?  Do you imagine that she was well known for her sins because they were constantly on display for others as she stood on the street corner attracting business with her short skirts, low-cut blouses, high heels and stockings?  Is that who you think she was?
            That’s probably fair, actually.  The Bible just says that she was a sinner.  I think that Luke was trying to make a point with that.  But, it’s probably fair to assume that she was what you think she was.  Do you see how awkward it is?  I don’t even want to use the word in the pulpit for fear that it will be too uncomfortable.  But, it’s probably fair to assume all of that.
            She had a bad reputation.  And from what I can gather, she had come by it honest.  She was what folks said she was.  And there she was touching Jesus in the home of a Pharisee in ways that raised some eyebrows.  “This guy is a prophet?”
            I want to get the tension in that room clear with you.  But, I’m trying to be as civil as possible, you see.  But, let’s be honest.  There were all kinds of assumptions going on about what folks do behind closed doors.  The men in the room squirmed in fearful anticipation of what might be on display here.  And Jesus was just relaxing and enjoying the whole thing.  Can you imagine?
            Decorum, people.  Decorum.  There’s an understanding of what is appropriate in a given setting isn’t there?  And Jesus clearly doesn’t get it.  Or he clearly doesn’t care.  I’m willing to bet that poor ‘ole Simon the Pharisee was mighty embarrassed and full of regret for ever opening his home to this man they called a prophet.
            Have you ever had house guests like that?  You know.  Have you ever had somebody in your house that you’d just like to leave?  As soon as possible?  You wonder the entire time that they’re with you if they’d treat their own house that way!  Man, my mother used to say that to me.  “Would you do that in your own house?”  I don’t know what offense I was guilty of.  “Would you do that in your own house?”
            Jesus was the guest here.  And he just treated the place like he didn’t care too much for what it would cost his host if he just made a scene with this woman.  And then he called his gracious host to task for the whole thing by telling a parable to put him in his place.  “Who’s going to love a creditor more?  The one who was forgiven a great big amount or the one who was forgiven just some pocket change?”
            Did you happen to catch Simon’s answer?  He said, “Um, I suppose that it was the one who was forgiven more.”  I suppose.  He’s looking down at his feet in utter embarrassment.  “I suppose…”  Simon knew what was going on.  He knew that Jesus was telling this parable about him.  Jesus didn’t have to be so indirect with a parable.
            And just to put icing on the cake, Jesus switched from indirect to just blatant.  “I got here and you did nothing to show me affection.  But, this woman has been loving on me since the moment I arrived.”
            Is this the Jesus you expected to come to your house?  Goodness.
            There was a preacher once that was invited to speak at large gathering of church folks.  Kind of like Jesus, Tony Campolo was an invited guest.  His hosts anticipated a great, uplifting sermon according to the man’s reputation.  And he stood there in the pulpit where he was a guest and he said…now I’m actually cleaning this up.  He used the “s word” right there in the pulpit.  I don’t find it necessary to repeat it for you.  But, he used the “s word”.  He said, “I have three things that I’d like to say today.  First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 children died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition.  Second, most of you don’t give a…” here’s where you insert the s word.  “What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said (the s word) than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”
            You want me to invite him to preach here next time I’m not here?  That’s the kind of scandal we’re talking about in this story with Jesus, you know.  It’s offensive.  I don’t know.  Some of you would probably like to hear sermons like that.  But, Jesus was an offensive guest.
            A friend of mine challenged me on this story the other day.  I was talking with her about writing a sermon on this story and she really painted a different picture.  She said, “Take all of the underlying stuff about human sexuality out of it for a moment.  Imagine something completely different.
            “Suppose that the host of the dinner was this guy that you really respected.  He is totally environmentally conscious and does everything he can to live ‘off the grid’.  He’s got a rain barrel in his back yard, composts all of his waste, drives an old Mercedes that runs on vegetable oil instead of gas, recycles, eats organically and shops purely for fair-trade products without living in excess because he knows that the way his own life is lived directly impacts the entire world.  And he is the one that has invited Jesus to his house to share a meal.
            “Now suppose that the uninvited person that has come for Jesus’ forgiveness is not a prostitute.”  There, I said it.  “Imagine that it’s not a prostitute with all of the prejudice we have about those kinds of sins.  Instead, standing there in this fine, upstanding, moral man’s home is the CEO of BP and he’s asking Jesus for forgiveness.  And Jesus pretty much says that the two of them have to learn to forgive one another.”
            Did you notice that this all took place at a meal?  It’s almost to suggest that what takes place in church is a radical thing where folks like you and me get together for a meal a lay aside all of our sins against God and against one another and start to learn how to be a new kind of community together.  Am I reading too much into that?  Is that what takes place in church?  Do we get here and decide that, after all, we do belong together despite all of the things we’ve done and all of the things we’ve believed about others?  God, I hope so.
            In the end, we ought to come to see that Jesus has come for all of us with the same gift of forgiveness.  This woman had a bad reputation when she got there.  I’ll bet it’s true for all of us in one way or another.  She had a bad reputation when she got there.  And Jesus took it, redeemed it and said, “Go in peace.”
            It turns out that Jesus left that place with the bad reputation.  Folks murmured, you know.  “Who is this that even forgives sins?”  Those weren’t words of wonder and praise.  They were slander.  “Who does he think he is?”  “Look!  A glutton and a drunkard!  A friend of tax collectors and sinners!”  (Luke 7:34)  He takes the bad reputation of others and carries it around his own neck.  Good Lord. 
            What is it that Paul said?  “For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
It’s no wonder folks gave everything they had to follow him.

Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)