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There is a time-honored
tradition of the church that dates back centuries---a proud tradition of the
church with deep theological roots and ancient convention. It is called:
"Take the preacher to lunch." Perhaps some of you have heard of it.
This begins our text for today (Luke 7:36-8:3). Jesus has been invited to eat
with Simon, a Pharisee, a pillar in the community, a righteous, educated and
proud man. Well-versed in scripture and careful to follow the letter of the
law found in the Torah. They were the specific guardians of the Law, and no
detail escaped them.
Even so, formal meals with a celebrity (and Jesus WAS a celebrity) was a
public event. Everyone wanted to see Him. He was getting a reputation as a
great teacher, and some even spoke of miracles. It was said that he raised a
widow's son from the dead in the nearby town of Nain, and now He was here.
This is how the dinner party worked. The invited guest would recline with his
face towards the spraed of food, and his feet in the opposite direction. A
tight circle was formed among the invited guests, but anyone could show up to
watch the meal and listen to the conversation. (There wasn't much
entertainment in those days.)
Then this woman shows up. This was not such a scandal, because all kinds of
people would have shown up to see and hear the goings on. The real scandal in
simon's mind was that Jesus allowed her to touch Him and get close to Him, to
become intimate and personal. If Jesus knew that she was a sinner, he would
not allow her to get that close to him or the table.
In Verse 39, Simon says to himself: "If this man were a prophet, he
would have known who and what kind of woman that is touching him, TOUCHING
him, that she is a SINNER!
Notice that these are Simon's THOUGHTS, and not his words. He is thinking to
himself. You can tell when the mood in the room has changed. When someone who
doesn't belong walks in, you feel the stiffness that occurs. He didn't have
to say anything...it was just evident by the tension in the air. What he was
thinking and feeling...
Jesus tells them the wonderful parable about the payment of debts. "'A
certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the
other fifty. When one could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them.
Now which of them will love him more?' Simon answered, 'I suppose the one for
whom he canceled the greater debt.' And Jesus said to him, 'You have judged
rightly.'"
In verse 44, "Then turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, 'Do you
see thsi woman?' Jesus asks Simon to LOOK at the woman, at the individual.
Here is an important point for us.
Remember Simon thinking "who and what she was." He did not see her
as a person, but a kind of person, not as an individual but a group, a caste,
a collection of lawbreakers and undesirables.
What Jesus does for Simon is ask him to look at the individual.
The larger context of this story is that Jesus has been healing blind people
and now he is giving sight for Simon to SEE the neighbor.
LOOK AT HER, SIMON...The woman, the individual, the person, not the sinner.
He tells Simon, "look, you invited me to your house but this woman has
offered me something you didn't, hospitality. See how much she has to offer.
This woman you have labeled. Look at her!" In this passage, Jesus calls
us to see people, not look at groups.
A parishioner was saying that he just didn't like woman pastors. Well, what
about Pastor Sally? Oh well, she's different, she's alright. The difference
is that he saw the individual and not the nameless group.
On this, World Refugee Day, it behooves us to ask:
How different would our immigration policies be if we no longer saw them, but
saw him and her?
How different would our penal system be if we no longer saw they but he and
she?
And how different would our own lives be if we no longer saw them but him and
her?
Same thing is happening in the second reading, Galatians 2:15-21. Peter
thinks the uncircumcised non-Jews should not be allowed at the communion
table. Peter sees a "them" and a "they." "They"
are not worthy, they are not good enough. They are not US. Paul calls him to
task, pointing out the personal relationship of the risen Christ.
CONFESSION: I was interviewed by the Bergen Record this week about the New
Jersey Synod's resolution asking our national church to remove the
prohibition against sexual minorities serving in the ordained office. We've
discussed this ad nauseum as you know.
The reporter asked me, "Who do you consider your enemies in this so that
I might interview them?" I began naming the names and then it hit me.
This is not a group of people, but individuals I am calling by name. People
who are sinners like me. People who are wrong about this, but are still
people, people I am called to see and love.
In my lown Pharisaic actions, I, too, lump people into "them" and
they's." Right-wing religious folks, biblical literalists. I often see
Them as the modern-day Pharisees. The flip side of this story is also
interesting. This is the only place in Luke where a Pharisee is called by
name, an indication that we are also to look at Simon as an individual. You
know these Pharisee guys get a bad rap. But God sees them all as individuals.
The good news this morning is that God is a personal God. A God that sees us
all as individuals.
You think God ever says: "You know those people are just getting on my
last nerve?"
The scripture tells us that God views us with all our faults and our
blessings as individuals. Sees us one by one, comes to us one by one by one,
and loves us one by one. Go and do likewise.
Amen.
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