Sermon for Lectionary 11C;  Proper 6C
Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 13, 2010
Texts:  1 Kings 21:1-10, 15-21a; Psalm 5:1-8; Galatians 2:15-21; Luke 7:36-8:3

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

You may remember the movie by this title released over 40 years ago,
With a star studded cast,
Which forced many Americans to confront their stereotypes
About interracial marriage.

This Sunday’s Gospel also features a surprise guest at a dinner,
But in this case an uninvited one,
Who also forces the guests to confront their stereotypes.

To view this dinner scene through the host’s eyes, in a contemporary setting,
Imagine hosting a summer BBQ,
At which an uninvited guest of questionable background shows up.

You’ve taken a risk by inviting a colleague,
Whom you would like to get to know better,
To your house for a large BBQ.

When your special guest shows up,
You are a little pre-occupied at the time,
So you quickly show him to the porch,
And the bar located out there,
And tell him to make himself at home.

By the time you return to your guest,
A woman that you know only by reputation,
And not a very good reputation at that,
Has put in a surprise appearance.

While you were busy,
This uninvited woman wandered onto the back porch,
Fixed your guest a drink,
And is now massaging his back. 

You are a little taken back
And wonder what is going on.
You thought you knew your guest,
At least by reputation.

And now you wonder to yourself,
Why he is associating with a low class woman like that. 

What is going on?

By the time your guest is finished telling you what has happened,
He is questioning your hospitality
And defending the surprise guest.

Your BBQ is in a shambles
And you still are not clear about what happened.

In the Gospel version of this story,
Simon the Pharisee,
Had invited Jesus to dinner.

As a Pharisee, he assumed some risk
In inviting the itinerant rabbi to dinner,
As most of his friends and colleagues
Had already labeled Jesus as malcontent and trouble maker. 

We don’t know why Simon invited Jesus to dinner.
Maybe he was intrigued by him, and wanted to get to know him better.
Maybe he wanted to see for himself,
If all the buzz about Jesus not following the rules was true.

In any event, he does go out on a limb and invite Jesus to dinner.

Now, granted when Jesus shows up,
Simon must have been a little busy and the ordinary hospitalities
Of foot washing and offering oil for anointing desert dried skin were skipped.

Was this an oversight,
Or a deliberate slight?

We don’t know.
But Jesus, being Jesus, doesn’t make a fuss at the time.

However, the dinner takes a turn that Simon could not have predicted.

A woman of the street shows up
And begins paying attention to Jesus.

And Jesus allows the woman to wash his feet,
Anoint them with a perfumed oil
And dry them with her hair.
The situation is embarrassing to say the least,
And Simon wonders why Jesus is letting her continue.

Simon also wonders why, if Jesus is really a prophet,
He can’t tell that it is a street walker
Who is giving him all this physical attention.

You think Jesus would tell her to stop
And to ask her to leave,
So that the carefully planned dinner party could go on. 

Instead, the conversation takes a strange turn.

Jesus turns the tables on Simon,
And using a parable about two debtors,
Calls into question Simon’s own motives and hospitality.

After Jesus discerns that Simon is questioning his reputation,
He uses the parable as a basis
For comparing Simon and the unnamed sinful woman.

In this comparison, Jesus asserts that the woman
Has been forgiven her many sins.

Her great love and devotion to Jesus,
Played out in the ministrations of foot washing and hospitality,
Grow out of her thankfulness for the forgiveness she has received.

Her care for Jesus is not an example of unwanted physical harassment,
But rather evidence of her great love and devotion
To the one she knows as Lord and Savior.

Simon on the other hand, does not know Jesus as Lord,
Doesn’t accept the forgiveness of sins that could be his,
And has slighted Jesus, when he arrived, by not offering the usual full hospitalities.

In this story from Luke’s Gospel,
Both Simon and the unnamed woman
Took risks to offer Jesus hospitality.

At probable peril to his reputation,
Simon invited Jesus to his home.

The unnamed woman took the risk
Of showing up as an uninvited guest
At what was probably an all male dinner party. 
However, Simon’s hospitality was lukewarm,
Lacked the usual social graces,
And showed no evidence of devotion or love for his guest.

The unnamed woman, by contrast,
Took great personal risk
To demonstrate her deep devotion
To the man who had pulled her out of the muck she had made of her life.

Jesus had offered her forgiveness for all the things she had done wrong.
And released her from the tyranny of her past mistakes.

She was bound and determined
To make sure that her love and deep devotion for him
Were evident to everyone around.

She was going to make up
For all the lack of hospitality
That her savior had experienced at the hands of his host.

The unnamed woman loved Jesus and was deeply devoted to him,
Out of gratefulness for his forgiving of her sins.

Simon, on the other hand,
Appeared to be merely curious
About who this rabbi Jesus was.

He had no love for him
And showed his ambivalence
In inviting Jesus for dinner,
By subtly forgetting to offer the usual social graces. 

Simon and his guests were unable to accept Jesus’ forgiveness of sins
And couldn’t help wondering about Jesus’ assertion that he could forgive sins.

This story from Luke’s Gospel is indeed a perplexing one
That forces us to think about where we fit into this story.

I would like to ask you to step back for a moment
And think about your own reactions to this story.

As you heard it,
Were you embarrassed
By the appearance of the invited woman at a dinner party,
And her intimate ministrations to Jesus?

Did you have difficulty with the mental image
Of the woman washing Jesus’ feet with her tears
And drying them with her hair? 

Could you feel yourself siding, even just a little, with Simon??
Wondering how this woman showed up,
And why she was embarrassing all the men with her actions?

Could you feel yourself wondering
Why Jesus let all this stuff go on?

Surely he must have known about the woman’s reputation,
Why didn’t he stop her and let the party proceed
On its orderly course?

Now….. was anyone able to walk in the sinful woman’s shoes?
To comprehend the depth of her gratefulness,
And her willingness to show her love and devotion? 

For sure, her love and devotion were not hidden under the proverbial bushel basket,
But were right out in the open for everyone to see.

She offered a visible witness to Jesus’ own love and care for her.

Yet, there are other ways of showing love for Jesus
Than the very intimate expressions of this unnamed woman.

Simon, for instances, would not have needed to mimic the woman
To show his own love for Jesus.

If he had truly loved Jesus, rather than being merely curious about him,
He could have earnestly welcomed Jesus into his home,
And made sure that he was treated as an honored guest,
Rather than slighting the normal hospitalities.

I think that there are some parallels in this story from Luke’s Gospel,
To our own struggles in this congregation
With the concept of passionate spirituality. 

Last fall, we received data back
From the Natural Church Development process,
Suggesting that the characteristic that was most limiting
To our being a healthy congregation was passionate spirituality.

From where I stand, I can see the facial expressions and body language
Every time we have attempted to talk about passionate spirituality.
We seem to be embarrassed by the term,
And seem to go into shut down mode when it is discussed.

I can only imagine that this term brings to mind images
Of standing up, Southern Baptist style and shouting “Amen”,
Or “Preach it sister”, during the sermon.
Or maybe images of lots of clapping and hand waving,
And maybe even public witness or speaking in tongues.

In many ways, the idea of passionate spirituality
Seems just too inconsistent with our northern New England heritage,
And our stoic Lutheran culture.

How can God’s frozen chosen be expected to show passionate spirituality??

This past week, the Council spent some time thinking and praying
About what a deepened and joyful spirituality might look like in our context.

Just as the unnamed woman’s ministrations to Jesus
Were not the only way to demonstrate deep devotion to him,
A deep and abiding spirituality does not need to be demonstrated
With shouting, clapping or hand waving.

A deep abiding love for God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit
Might be visible in a joyful practice of prayer and devotions.

Likewise, it may show through in a life lived in service to others.

It might pop up in teaching or caring for others.

It might be evident in a dedicated engagement in worship,
Or in hymns sung from the bottom of one’s heart.  

The unnamed woman was the recipient of much forgiveness,
And showed her deep devotion to Jesus in a way that worked for her.

If Simon had been devoted to Jesus, and not just curious about him,
He could have shown his love for Jesus in any number of ways,
Beginning with treating him as an honored guest.

Like the unnamed woman,
You have been the recipient of grace and forgiveness,
Given through the death and resurrection of the same Jesus.

Only you know how much grace and forgiveness you have received.

Only you can decide how much deep devotion you want to show
To the Father who sent Jesus for you, to the Son who died for you,
And the Holy Spirit who continues to guide you.

Will you demonstrate the deep, joyful and abiding devotion of the unnamed woman,
Showing it in a way that is consistent with your life, personality and culture?

Or will you withhold true devotion, showing only half-hearted questioning interest,
Like Simon the Pharisee?

May the grace and forgiveness you have received,
Guide the practice of your devotion to your Lord and Savior.

Amen