sermon

Here is my sermon for this Sunday. It did not receive the care and attention I usually give sermons, since it was a pretty intense week. I like the second half alright though.


Sermon:
Woman washing Jesus’ feet
Luke 7-8
Good morning. It is good to gather in worship with you outside here at the Sprunger’s land, celebrating in nature. Looking around us, we see the glory of God’s creation, and at least for me, looking at nature reminds me of the patterns of life and death in the world, which are particularly poignant as we remember Mary Elise’s life this morning.
I think it is appropriate, as we mark her passing, to have as our scripture text Luke 7, the story of an unnamed woman washing Jesus’ feet at the home of Simon the Pharisee.


We last looked at one of the stories of women washing Jesus’ feet back in March, during Lent, so not that long ago. Since these stories show up in every gospel, (like so many stories with slightly different variants that show up in different places through the text) as the lectionary wanders through the years, those sorts of overlaps will happen once in a while. But Jane and I chose this passage because we were struck by the faithful witness of the woman, and the way the text highlights the challenging way we are invited to serve God and neighbor, which is a very different direction than I took the story from the gospel in John.
I’d first like to reflect on the woman half of the faithful woman image-
There is a lot of gender stuff going on in this text. In all of these stories, as in all of the gospels, it is a woman who is anointing Jesus, and washing his feet with her hair. The gender dynamics here are hard to ignore-at least in this case, it is hard to imagine a man on his knees washing feet with his tears and his hair. But the relationship between men and women is a running theme through all the gospels, as Jesus engages again and again Men dealing with financial sin-the misuse of wealth and power (think Zaccheus and the prodigal son) and women dealing with sexual sin (think the Samaritan woman at the well, or the woman caught in adultery). So I think its interesting that throughout the gospels, Jesus is most passionately embraced by women like Mary and Martha after the death of Lazarus, most powerfully and personally claimed by the gender that had the least power and the most to gain by upsetting the system.
Jesus’ engagement with the gendered reality in which we live is emphasized by the little aside at the end of this text, where we learn about other faithful women, Mary Magdalene, Salome, and Joana, who were key supporters of the early Christian movement-a pattern that would continue during the time of the Apostle Paul, when women like Lydia and Priscilla would help with the mission of the church, and through the entirety of Church history. There we find saints like Julian of Norwich, who experienced visions of God, and wrote what is the first book known to be written by a woman in the English language in 1393. There we learn about profound thinkers like Simone Weil who wrote about God’s mystical presence in pre-World War Two France, or one of my favorite modern theologians, Elizabeth Johnson who wrote a fascinating discussion of female images of God in the Bible. These women, and millions like them served as a core support for the church. And today, as we have welcomed women more formally into the leadership roles that they have always held, we find congregations, conferences, denominations led by women who claim Jesus’ good news as their good news, and offer love in profound ways. So as we remember faithful women like Mary Elise, who claimed a career and shaped our congregation, it is worth remembering the path of faithfulness in which we walked as a pillar of the church.
It is in this gendered context that I’d like to look at the faithfulness on display in this story, because the story of the woman anointing Jesus’ feet is to me, is a story of radical service being rewarded with radical forgiveness. Its interesting to see how Simon the Pharisee is one upped by the woman in love and hospitality, exactly as Jesus tells in his parable that the love of one forgiven more will be greater.
From the perspective of Luke, Simon is a pretty good guy-for a Pharisee. He invites Jesus into his house-very hospitable. He has feast-quite generous. When Jesus wants to talk to him, his response is laudable-‘Teacher, speak!’
But the woman outdoes him in every regard. Jesus points out his inadequacy as a host, providing neither water to wash nor oil to purify, nor the intimate kiss of greeting, not to mention highlighting the hardness of his heart towards a woman who is expressing deep love towards Jesus.
Luke seems to be saying here, sure, you’ve done an OK job-you’ve been appropriate, done well. But consider what extravagance might look like? One of the stories about Mary Elise is that for 20 years she wrote birthday cards to everyone in the Fellowship. For someone who has trouble writing birthday cards to his immediate family, that is extravagant! And I wonder where else we might discover opportunities to go over the top.
In response to this over the top love, the woman receives over the top forgiveness-she is blessed tremendously for the love that she showers out on Christ. Which, interestingly enough, is the exact opposite of what Jesus says in his parable-that overwhelming love is the proper response to forgiveness. I kind of like the interplay here-that love and forgiveness are intertwined in a mobius strip, one leading into the other through infinity. It is in loving that we find forgiveness, it is in forgiveness that we create and experience love.
We face, as human beings, countless opportunities to forgive, and countless opportunities to love, and I think that one of the really useful tasks that we can embrace is practicing doing both together. That is, when trying to forgive someone who has wronged you, attempting to love them more fully. Or when asking forgiveness, attempting to do so in an over the top, extravagant fashion. Because it is in this mutual servanthood and extravagant love that we have the best opportunity to break through the dividing walls that we create between human beings-rather than the slow and hesitant reaching out to others always paying attention to the danger of being hurt because you reached to far, sometimes it takes a more dramatic action to signal to the other side that there is a chance of real reconciliation.
I don’t want to go too far here-we may need to forgive seventy times seven times but I don’t really recommend making yourself vulnerable to one person that often, but this image really speaks to me about how God works in the world. I notice here some of the great ideas of Christianity, all in one place- Sodzo-salvation. Apheonti-forgiveness. Eirene-Peace. agape-love. Pistis-faith. It is in the interplay of forgiveness and love that we find peace, learn faith, and discover salvation. May you find them all on your journey. Amen.