Pentecost IV --- 16 June 2013

Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.

• As I was preparing this talk, I ran into an interesting interview. The person who spoke this was the lead singer of a contemporary band called U2. The man goes by the name “Bono” and the following is an excerpt from a report of that interview.
• “You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics; in physical laws every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It’s clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “as you reap, so you will sow” stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed...”
• For lack of a better term, we like “Karma”, which is basically the idea that a person's behaviour determines their future. This concept comes from Eastern religions, where there is the implication that this is God's doing and since God is fair, each person gets exactly what they deserve.
• This balance we expect in the universe and in our behaviour does not seem to apply to Jesus and his willingness to forgive.
• From the sound of things in Luke's account, the woman who anointed Jesus' feet had a real history, a history we'll never know. All Luke says is that she was “in the city” and she was “a sinner.” Our minds jump to all sorts of conclusions from this. Was she a prostitute? That's a common but unfounded assumption. Really now, aren't there many other sins? Was she a swindler? A murderer? An eater of pork? A wearer of cotton and wool at the same time? A collaborator with the Roman occupation? Or was she simply someone who could not afford all that was required to keep the Law in its entirety?
• To the Pharisees of the time, anyone who was not completely faithful to the Law of Moses was “a sinner.” Anyone who could not afford the cost of keeping every point of the Law – the laws regarding diet, clothing, religious decoration, friendship with Gentiles, proper occupations, contributions to the Temple, and even how often to go to Jerusalem and the Temple – all those people were sinners just as much as a person guilty of murder. To offend against one of the least points of the Law of Moses was to offend the entire Law; It was all or nothing.
• Whatever the woman's sins might have been, she was known publicly and publicly condemned as a sinner. As Simon the Pharisee, the dinner's host thought "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner." Simon, of course, would have nothing to do with her. He probably would not have even spoken to her.
• Still this un-named woman somehow entered Simon's house and acted outrageously. Simon was appalled, but Jesus appeared not to be bothered and uses the woman's presence as a teaching moment. Jesus points out that the woman was willing to do with her tears what Simon was not willing to do to welcome his guests. He says her sins are forgiven and because of that, she loves a lot.
• Here is the crux of the matter. As humans, we reward good behaviour and avoid or punish bad behaviour. We expect how we act to result in a return of the same. The problem comes up when we expect God to act just the same way. God rewards those who do good and God will punishes evil. God forgives the repentant, but only the repentant.
• The Gospel lesson today should make us think twice about this idea, at least twice. Jesus seems to go contrary to our idea of repentance and forgiveness. “...the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little." I'd think that many of us would think it's the other way around, that those who love much are forgiven much. Jesus word's tell us that our love is a response to God's initiative of forgiveness. We love God because we are forgiven. We'd like it to be the other way around: we want to think we are forgiven because we love God. That however is not the Gospel. The Gospel, the Good News that frees us in so many ways, is a Gospel of Grace. It is not a Gospel of balance or of equal action and reaction. It tells us that we are free, that we are forgiven and because of that, we are free to love God. God, as always, has taken the first step. The Grace of God turns everything upside down.
• As we've seen in the Gospel readings from the past few Sundays, Jesus is not afraid of becoming “unclean” by contact with sinners, Gentiles, or even the dead. It may be that his presence and grace makes “clean” all he comes in contact with, no matter what the situation. Those he contacts then respond in love. As always, Jesus reaches for the broken people, the sinners, the sufferers, the outcast, the forgotten, and the poor – those most in need of grace. As we all know there are many, many ways to be any of those folks.
• We need not be afraid to come to Jesus for forgiveness and healing for our soul. We don't have to be afraid of being needy. Those who need, receive. If we take a good hard look at ourselves, we'll know we are very much like the woman in the Gospel passage and we'll know as she did the message of grace: “Your sins are forgiven... Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

June 9, 2013 -- Third Sunday after Pentecost

When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, "Do not weep."

• What is compassion? What does it consist of? What does it look like? Have we ever received it? Have we ever felt it?
• In this portion of Luke's Gospel, Jesus is seen as compassionate. Notice that he appears to have compassion for the widow and that is what he acts on. In his day as in ours, the death of a person would be considered a tragedy and it would also be considered a normal thing. What really make the difference here is that the dead man is the widow's only son. She is now without place in the world. In Jesus' day, a woman had to depend on the men of her family for her life. A father, a husband, a son – all had the responsibility to take care of her, each depending on the relationship. A widow had to depend on her sons to take care of her. This woman had lost both her husband and now her only son to death and she would have no place in society and no support for her life. She would be beyond the margins of that society – invisible, unnoticeable, and without any advocate or resource.
• This is the situation Jesus has compassion on. The double tragedy of personal loss and loss of community would be too much to be borne. In this, Jesus is moved to act in a very powerful way. The English translation says “He had compassion for her.” This sounds sort of clinical, especially when we see that the Greek word used in the Gospel - the word we translate as “compassion”- is a very visceral one. It can't be translated directly, but the word is related to the Greek word for a person's internal organs – for lack of a better, more polite term, the guts. One translation puts it “His heart went out to her.” This is rather close, but the real sense of the word is more of being moved from the depth of one's guts. This word is found in the Gospels a number of times and only in the Gospels.
• So we see Jesus moved from his depths in compassion and restoring the young man to his widowed mother. Not just restoring him to life, but restoring them both to the community. That is why Luke notes that the young man sat up and began to speak. In that, he was restored to his mother and to the entire community.
• Luke also notes that Jesus touched the bier “and the bearers stood still.” It could be that the bearers were shocked by what Jesus did, because what he did made him unclean. By touching the body, Jesus became ritually impure and liable for ritual purification before resuming his place in society. But it appears that Jesus was not worried about such things and the requirements of compassion took priority.
• Jesus was not afraid of ritual impurity nor was he afraid of criticism from those around him. No doubt many of his contemporaries wished he were more scrupulous in following the strictures of the Law. They would want him to be more particular about who he spent his time with and whom he associated with.
• This was (and is) not how Jesus worked. He was not afraid of meeting people where they were in the exact circumstances of their lives, no matter what those circumstances might have been. His compassion extended to any he met and finally to all the world, were we to look at the meaning of his sacrifice on the cross. This is how the Gospel in general and this passage of the Gospel applies to our lives today.
• Jesus is not afraid to “get his hands dirty” with any aspect of our lives. He is not waiting for us to clean up our act, as it were, before coming to us as our Savior. No, he takes us as we are. That is the meaning of salvation by grace, the cornerstone of the Lutheran understanding of justification and salvation. In short, Jesus is not scared of our sin and is greater than our sin.
• There is no hidden agenda or subterfuge with Jesus. If his work in our lives appears to be hidden, it is because it is subtle and what he does is often hidden in plain sight.
• Once we learn to see them for what they are, we will see the miracles and daily grace of Jesus as signs of the Kingdom of God present. They are the first rays of the glorious dawning of what our Father has in store for us. Still, the dawn is not the whole day and none of us lives for the sunrise alone. To concentrate on miracles alone without seeing their larger and deeper meaning is to miss what might be seen as the real light of day.
• In concentrating only on the raising of the widow's son, we could miss the reality that both are restored to their place in the larger community. We could miss the response of the crowd, who gave glory to God and thanked God for the presence of a prophet beyond imagining and for God's favour to his people. We could miss the acceptance of this miracle as a healing and reconciliation for the whole people. In the hoopla of the miraculous even, we could even miss the powerful presence of God, manifested for God's people in need.
• Jesus has power over all that troubles us, whether or not he solves all problems or heals all ills. His compassion is very real and comes from deep within.
• Our place then is at the side of Jesus in his compassion for his chosen. Our place is with his chosen – not the self-proclaimed righteous but the poor and the people on the margins of life. If we're honest with ourselves, we'll know that we've spend a lot of our lives there as well.
• That's not a bad thing – after all, that's were Jesus can most often be found.

Second Sunday after Pentecost - 2 June 2013 - Confirmation

(This is the text of my sermon for Confirmation Sunday. 6 young women from our congregation were confirmed in a packed church with the temperature of about 27º C (or 81º F.)

Solomon prayed “...so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name...”

Jesus said "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."

• Our focus today is on insiders and outsiders, the included and the excluded. Someone once said about who is in and who is out: “When you get to heaven, don't stare!” Remember, our God is full of surprises. We have two very good illustrations of this from the Scripture.
• Solomon prays in the Temple in Jerusalem for those who are not of the people of Israel – the foreigners, the Gentiles, the Goyim, the outsiders who could not pray in the Temple, but only in the Court of the Gentiles. Solomon asks that God hear their prayers even as God hears the prayers of the people of Israel. Behind this prayer is the understanding, found throughout the Hebrew Scripture, that all nations will come to know the God of Israel and will worship God on God's holy mountain. The prophets constantly speak of this and it can be found in Jesus' own teaching, since he stands in the powerful stream of the prophets of the Hebrew people.
• Luke writes in the same vein in his Gospel. Jesus is approached by some Jewish elders on behalf of a Roman centurion, an officer of the Roman army occupying Judea. The centurion's servant is ill and in need of healing. Despite his office as one of the occupying force and his foreign birth, the elders go to bat for him, saying “... he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us." This is no ordinary Roman Gentile; he is just and honourable, one of those foreigners the Jewish people called “God-fearers”, who honoured the Jewish traditions and teaching and worshipped the God of Israel without fully converting to Judaism.
• Jesus agrees to come and heal this slave. Another group of friends intercept Jesus and all those with him, carrying the words of the centurion that no visit is necessary, only say the word and the healing will be done. The centurion explains that he understands authority and orders – just what you'd expect from a professional soldier.
• The difference here is what Jesus has authority over. The centurion knows of orders and obedience; it's his business. He appears to be a realist as well, knowing who and what he can and cannot give orders to. He has some understanding and acceptance of who's really in charge. He humbly trusts Jesus to heal his servant by just desiring to. Nothing more needed – no ritual, no instrumentality or props - “But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed.” It might remind us of the story of creation from the Book of Genesis: “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good...” In effect, the centurion is saying: If you say so, it's good enough for me.
• And Jesus is astounded at his faith. He doesn't just believe, he acts on his believing. In the past, he has acted as a just “God-fearer”, showing his reverence through his support for the Jewish community. Now his faith and reverence leads him to an experience of the power of God. Jesus said "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."
• Insiders and outsiders – a common experience. We've all known it, on the first day at a new school, at a new job, at a new place to live, as we set foot in a new country with a new language and a new culture.
• The insider/outsider experience continues to this day. There are people here who are insiders and people here who are and might always be outsiders.
• For you six confirmands, Confirmation has many meanings – renewal of faith, adult membership and responsibilities, bestowing of the Spirit by the laying on of hands, admission to full membership in the church – in other words, becoming an insider, as it were, at St. John's. As of today, you are insiders. Some of you have been on the verge all your lives, while others have been brought closer over time.
• Understand now, just as the Church is larger than these four blessed walls, full church membership goes beyond St. John's, the Eastern Synod, and even the whole Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
• What makes a person an insider in the Church of Jesus Christ? Hearing the Word and acting upon it every day. “Who are my sisters and my brothers?” This is the question asked by Jesus in Mark 3:35. He then says “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” This is what it really means to be an insider. This is what it really means to be a confirmed Christian! This is also something you will reconfirm every day – by how you act out your faith in grace, by your prayers, by your worship, and by your service to one another and all in the name of Jesus Christ.
• This is a big day and we look to you for example – not so much as scripture scholars and experts in the Lutheran Confessions, and not so much as perfect examples to us of Church-going youth. We look to you for example of what it means to be a 'true insider', of what it means to be a sister (or brother) of Jesus Christ – namely 'Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’ Girls, help us build up our faith.
• So we welcome you to adult membership in your congregation. We all want you to be insiders, but not insiders looking in at all the other insiders, but insiders reaching out and showing us all how to reach out, working for a time and place where there will be no outsiders.