Sermon - Trinity 2

Today we are lucky enough to be able to witness a new chapter being turned over in the lives of some of our youngest members. They will be admitted to receive the sacrament and they will share with us at the Lord’s table. This new chapter is something really important, it enables them to be fed to go out and do God’s work in the world – This picture of batteries being recharged is a good one. We come to church weary of the ways of the world, and the stresses that beset us all, and we are freed from that temporarily, and put back on track.

This would be enough of a reason to celebrate today, but it is even more than that – what we are allowing the children today is the opportunity to be closer to God, and to see his purpose for them in their lives. I know it sounds a bit grand, but the Bible, our Human history and indeed our own lives, are full of examples where God has called us into closer relationship, and in that place we find ourselves. Bit-by-bit, we grow in the knowledge of a God with us – and that can never be taken away.

Communion might not be the only place this happens, but it is where we can find ourselves closest to God, when we place ourselves there in the narrow gap between heaven and earth – receiving the sacrament.

It’s great isn’t it!

In the readings today, we can see the connections being made between God and people – connections that are giving others the opportunity to reflect and recharge. The woman who gatecrashes the party at Simon the Pharisees house is intent on trying to put things right in her life. Her encounter with Jesus, her courage and her determination end in Jesus saying to her “Your sins are forgiven…your faith has saved you, go in peace”.

All it took was the one thought she had to change things, and in the presence of God incarnate, this was supercharged into peace and forgiveness.

We are never told her name. Luke does not record a single word spoken by the woman in her sacrificial act of worship. Wordless worship now there is a thought (I bet you would like that). But her worship was so profound that Jesus uses her as an example to a very proud religious leader.

Each of the gospels has an account of the washing of Jesus’ feet by a woman (Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14: 3-9, John 12:1-8 and in today’s text in Luke). The accounts of Matthew, Mark and John all deal with the same incident, but the one recorded in Luke is a unique incident, recorded only in his gospel.

“Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. (37) And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil,”
Jesus is invited for a meal into the home of a religious leader (a Pharisee) by the name of Simon (v. 40, 43-44).

We really don’t know what prompted this invitation. It does not seem that Simon believed in Jesus or loved Jesus because he did not extend to him the normal hospitality. Common courtesy for the day would have been that as soon as Jesus entered the house of Simon, he would have been greeted with a kiss, His feet would have been washed and His head anointed with oil. The absence of such normal hospitality suggests an underlying animosity on the part of Simon which Jesus will address. Simon seems to have purposefully omitted the common courtesies accorded to any honoured guest. Simon treated Jesus with practiced cool contempt. He carefully avoided every custom that would have made Jesus feel welcome. And you cannot help but think that all the guest noticed it as well.
In sharp contrast to Simon, a woman enters the room because she wants to find Jesus,

Our translation does not convey the shock that the entrance of this woman made, when it says “when a woman” it is literally “And look a woman!” The shock was primarily because of this woman’s reputation. The text tells us that she was a sinner whatever her sin, she was a woman of considerable notoriety.

Her desire is to find Jesus and when her eyes finally rest on Him, suddenly doesn’t matter what these respectable people think about her. All that she sees is Jesus.

She began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.” She knelt at the feet of Jesus with the perfume she had brought with the purpose of anointing his feet.

All eyes are on Jesus what will he do. He doesn’t appear to be either embarrassed or upset at the extravagance of this display of love and devotion. This woman’s worship was at great personal cost.

It isn’t the cost of the perfume, or even the possibility of getting into trouble with the authorities. The cost was the possibility of the scorn and rejection of the self-righteous Pharisee and his dinner guest. No one had invited her. She was not wanted there.

And I think that is our challenge as individuals – do we risk rejection and scorn by doing the right thing in our church and community, or do we take the easy route? Do we ignore what the self-proclaimed righteous think – or do we feel secure in ourselves because we regularly come before God to tell Him about our successes and failures?

It’s fair to say that there has been a fair amount of dispute in the benefice for some time, and I think we are in great danger of losing the point of our mission. Whether the disputes have arisen because we care too much or we don’t care enough, we are certainly putting too much effort into caring about things that are unimportant. We all need to get on our knees and spend some time in the presence of the living God – trying to recapture that which is important about our faith before it’s too late – admitting our failure, admitting that we are in huge debt to God and humanity – and remembering that nothing but His grace will save us.

When the children receive communion today, it is a sign that things can be right in this church. It is a sign that God is still working with us, even though we all fall short in so many ways in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN