“What Does This Have To Do With ….Me?”
1 King 21: 1-14; Galatians 2:15-21; Luke 7:36-8:3
Who is this woman who entered the Pharisee's house that she can do the things she does? Isn't she a sinner? Certainly she sees herself and Jesus differently than the Pharisee did and we often do. And Jesus saw her.....
You see….it’s not that the “bigger” sinner gets more forgiveness or more grace, it’s that they feel more gratitude. That was Jesus’ point. That’s what this woman felt. And the affect of more gratitude in someone’s life?
Gratitude, deep gratitude and appreciation….like for the beauty of a flower garden, someone you love overcoming a handicap or challenge, the birth of a child or baptism of a teen, the devotion someone offers without need for even a thank-you, gratitude for a church community, gratitude for being forgiven for the fumbling mistakes you make.…deep gratitude affects the whole heart of the believer, and so the believer sees the heart of the matter….all matters….what really matters….in the little and big stuff of living life….differently.
A heart filled with gratitude grumbles less and complains less. It gives more, no strings attached. It is open and free and giving. A heart shaped by gratitude assesses choices differently, and brings courage….to go beyond the “law” to the intention of the law…not to break laws or mores but to live beyond them.
The woman who washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and dries them with her hair because of her deep gratitude…she finds within her amazing courage to set aside the condemnation of others, to enter a situation unfriendly to her, to do what is “right” in the sight of God even though it challenges religious and familiar law. She knows in her faith “the thing most needed” to be done and she finds the courage to do because she feels such deep gratitude for her life and appreciation of her freedom to be all she can be. She goes beyond the law.
You see, in God’s eyes there is a far more pressing matter than matters of the law….whether they be religious, civil, or familiar (including those unspoken laws that happen in most families and communities….like that’s my seat, we don’t talk about that out loud, we’ve always done it this way, children should be seen and not heard, senior citizens are past their prime, don’t ask me about my money and don’t expect me to give any more…all those laws)….in God’s eyes there is something far more important than any law human kind develops…..even with the best of intentions.
And that would be?
Right relationship with God and each other based on justice for all people. You know…this is not an original American ideal. We Americans got it from the Bible as interpreted by Presbyterian polity way back in the 18th Century. Really. And what was obvious then is even more pressingly true today. Justice for all people is the cornerstone of the law and supercedes the law when the laws fail to provide it or when people use the law to deny it!
You see, in Naboth’s case with Ahab, and in Paul’s wisdom, we see following the rules, the laws doesn’t make our actions right. We bend laws and connive all the time to justify what it is we want to do. No. Laws don’t create justice, people do!
Laws don’t create right relationships, people do.
And friends, life is unfair. Faith doesn’t change that. But faith does change us, if we accept God’s grace and live with deep appreciation and gratitude for the lives we do have and for the lives of others.
Religious, civil, and familiar laws don’t keep life from being unfair.
All the laws in the world don’t keep some of us who are here today from being in the midst of a divorce or separation process, involved with the judicial system, forced to sell a home, excluded from a nephew’s wedding or grandchild’s celebration.
Right relationship depends on us even when life is unfair….laws don’t do it!
Our laws, social mores, family values, and religious structures are formulated to insure justice and equal access to resources…let’s say that’s true. But even so, one consequence of using only rules as a measurement of what is “right” is that one is either guilty or innocent, winner or loser, insider or outsider. Holding to rules as the only “standard” ignores the fact life is sometimes unfair, even when rules are followed “religiously” and there’s more than one right way to do everything, settle everything. Gee…what might have happened if King Ahab had simply asked Naboth if he could help him figure out how to get his garden closer to his house? There is another dimension to living a joy-filled life that goes beyond the rules, regs, and laws!
And that’s Good News! Statutes, status, and scripture don’t determine our lovability! Whether guilty or innocent, winner or loser, insider or outsider in the eyes of the law, in the eyes of God we are loved and all of equal value and equal worth. You’re worth everything to God!
Feel that. You’re worth everything to God! No law of any kind and no sin will ever keep God away from you! If you can really feel that, gratitude slips over you and brings you a courage enabling you to do the simplest, hardest things well…to get right with yourself and right with God and right with others and right with….. “Right” now!
So this is what all this has to do with you: You are not to be a law abider but a justice maker! And I would be done sharing what’s been prompted in me except…..what about the women suddenly being included at the end of our Lucan story? Can you go just a moment longer?
It is not common for women to be named in the gospels….it was a shamed based culture in which they lived (to have shame/smallness was the best, most worthy state to which women could aspire) and this reality influenced how the stories were heard and recorded….along with the fact that the primary story tellers were men and the primary editors of the Bible being men.
But I believe the intentional stories of women by name in Luke point not to the lowliness of women and the powerless, but to the lowliness of the powerful (who often were men in that cultural time...who are no longer only male in this time in our culture). Perhaps the author of Luke by the inclusion of this list of women points to the very upheaval of society which Jesus subversively and directly instigates.....and eventually is crucified for.....Jesus was crucified because he was a threat to the powers that be and the system and laws which kept them in power!
Today's story happens just after Jesus' saying: "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?"
The log in our eye may be our ignorance to the power we have in our own lives to come close to Jesus, to receive forgiveness, to go beyond the law and show love boldly. We have real power to stop ignoring and labeling others....real power to stop assuming the best of ourselves and the worst of others....real power to turn toward God in our own brokenness and so experience a forgiveness that is so deep, so gracious, so breathtaking and fulfilling, we shall know peace in our lives like never before. Peace is not so much a lack of conflict as it is a quality of life that gives us freedom....it begins within us as love and forgiveness, showing up as gratitude.
Each of us has the power to change our lives. Yet how often we give in to the powers that be, follow the usual ways....the rules and regs....build up again what we once tore down, getting no where fast.
You have the power to change your life. It begins with the awareness of your neediness, the log in your own eye. You don't need to have the answers, to be able to figure out what to change in order to be different. Changing doesn't begin in the head. It begins in the heart with your gratitude and intention. The power to change is in seeing yourself more clearly and touching your deepest, holy desire. If you come to the feet of Jesus, tears and all, you will experience the love you long for and the forgiveness you need to be free of the past and open to the future….like the woman in Luke, the women in Luke.
No doubt, it is very hard for us to see ourselves clearly when we all walk around with specks and logs in our eyes....like Simon did. Some of us need a really wide clearance! Need some tweezers or a log mover? Worship is our log mover.
Be as courageous as the woman who walked right into the Pharisee's house seeking out Jesus.
And looking at you, speaks:
"I have something to say to you."
Your sins are forgiven.
Your faith has saved you.
Go in peace.
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