Saturday 18 June 2016

Sermon Sunday 12 June 2016 Pentecost 4 Quarterly Communion

Readings: 1 Kings 21:1-10, 15-21   Luke 7: 36 -39, 44-48

Let us pray:  may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our rock and our sustainer.  Amen.

The story of Ahab and Jezebel has all the elements of a good thriller of today, does it not?  Enviously seeking what another has, a few words dropped here and there to destroy reputation, the prize within their grasp till the deceit comes back to bite them – hard – in the person of Elijah.

Ahab is the king of the northern kingdom of ancient Israel, and according to the authors of the time, ‘did more evil in the sight of the Lord than all who had gone before him’ – and they were not angels by any means.

But this act of ‘I want, I want, whatever it takes’, was just plain nasty and underhand from a petulant spoilt child: and its not the first or the last time that we hear of the corrosive nature of greed (remember the tale of king Midas?)   That story led to disaster and so did this one.  Ahab and his dynasty are destroyed.

In fact few indeed of the kings of either Judah or Israel in this troubled time walk a path of kingship that was pleasing in God’s sight.   And in response, we see the emergence of the prophets as the voice of conscience for the ill deeds of the powerful – often at real risk to their own safety as Elijah finds out.  All those early laws so carefully developed in Leviticus especially about looking after the poor and reconciliation of those treated unjustly seem to have pretty much gone by the board, particularly for those in power.  Yet God’s focus on the care of all the people means that leaders who live out of injustice and exploitation will be doomed and Elijah is the voice of God reminding Ahab of this.

We see this same compassion and mercy in the work and words of Jesus as he seeks to remind the people of a God who loves and cares for all creation, a God who refuses to let hatred and duplicity and injustice triumph.  Jesus, in sharing his perspective on the visit of the woman with the alabaster jar, reminds us of the unique relationship we have with God that continues to be misinterpreted and mislaid. 

Let us look at the story from the viewpoint of Simon for a moment.  A Pharisee, Simon has invited Jesus to his table but we can see it is a guarded invitation rather than a fulsome one.  He is cautious, not wanting to overdo the welcome and so his hospitality does not include water for cleansing, nor a kiss of welcome, nor oil for anointing.  All of these things are provided by the woman whom Simon immediately labels as a sinner and is therefore not welcome, even slightly.  His rationale: a righteous God cannot endure sinners and therefore to be right with God he needs, as a member of the elect and strict follower of the law, to avoid all contact with those he considers might taint him in any way.  And so by encouraging contact with this woman Jesus has failed to see her for what she is, a sinner, and therefore can no longer be regarded as a genuine prophet – by Simon’s standards.  He was right to be cautious, the host reflects. You will see immediately the irony of his stance in comparison with the way Jesus goes out of his way to embrace Simon’s unwanted visitor: her sins which were many have been forgivenshe has shown great love“

The relationship of the people of God with their God has become skewed in the person and attitudes of Simon.
Jesus comes back to Simon on his approach and challenges his assumptions as only Jesus can do. 
And there are several threads to that challenge.

First of all Simon has dismissed Jesus as prophet – Jesus demonstrates that not only is he beloved of God but that he is the one they are waiting for – he shares Yaweh’s authority to forgive sins, to heal and restore and reconcile.  ‘Your sins are forgiven’.  He comes from the Father, is in right relationship with God, and is redefining the law of the Lord in line with the love of Lord.

Then he redefines divine righteousness as the generous mercy of God rather than the separateness of pious living: and that the woman was more in the way of being right with God than Simon was.  Her generosity of regret and graciousness shows up not only Simon’s withheld hospitality and lack of compassion but also his blindness to his own need for mercy and forgiveness.

And the third thread: Jesus highlights the importance of the connection between grace and gratitude in our salvation rather than Simon’s understanding that by following the code of purity he will be right with God.  It’s all about relationship – ongoing and connected relationship which means God’s love and forgiveness is constantly flowing through our broken lives making us whole.  Our capacity for love and gratitude is relationally connected to our ability to receive divine love and grace and forgiveness.  And this is something the unnamed women totally gets and Simon just doesn’t.

And it is this last thread that I would like to consider a little more deeply.  Rachel Remen in her book Kitchen Table Wisdom begins one of her stories with the words “Wholeness lies beyond perfection.”  Simon wanted to be prefect, the woman found out how to be whole!  Rachel talks about her childhood and a father whose response to a 98% pass in an exam was ‘So what happened to the other 2%? Perfection she say is a major goal of people today and she calls herself a recovering perfectionist.  She goes on to say that perfectionist find it difficult to tell the difference between love and approval.  So much so that we now have to invent a new phrase for love which is ‘unconditional love’ but actually, isn’t any kind of conditional love not love but just approval, to be withdrawn at any time. 
Wholeness is something quite different – recognising that with all your flaws and mistakes and lack of perfection you are deeply and completely loved.  In God, we are made whole.
The woman who invaded the private space, who was despised by the host as an untouchable, who knew her own brokenness was the one who was made whole.
And I think we need to think about this quite deeply ourselves.  Perfect for God (doing it our way) or whole in God (love and forgiveness and grace in relationship with God).  Which way is it to be as we gather around the table today – do we come convinced of our piety or do we come sure of God’s abiding love for us, whoever and whatever we might be, in all our brokenness and in our very humanity ?  Amen


Margaret Garland

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