[Propertalk] Proper 6 c - part 1

[Robert P Morrison]

Part 1 for Sunday - two baptisms, an infant and an adult, unrelated.
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER
PENTECOST 

	1 KINGS 21:1-21a PROPER 6 c 

	GALATIANS 2:15-21 12th JUNE, 2016 

	LUKE 7:36 – 8:3 PSALM 5:1-8 

	 It’s interesting what we gloss over with hardly a second thought.
Take this morning’s Gospel story, for instance. There’s something
unstated, but which makes complete sense when it’s pointed out. As
Kenneth Bailey wrote out, “The story assumes that before the drama
opens, the woman had heard Jesus proclaiming the message of grace for
sinners. The entire account makes no sense without this assumption.”
1 Bailey quotes an eleventh century scholar from Baghdad, Ibn
al-Tayyib who wrote, “There is no doubt that the woman previously
heard the preaching of the Christ and was deeply moved by it and
believed, and repented and was anticipating a chance to make visible
her thanks to the Christ and to confirm forgiveness for her sins and
the salvation of herself.” 2 

	 This changes the whole picture. This wasn’t a woman who happened
by the house of Simon the Pharisee by chance and saw Jesus at dinner,
or heard His voice, and made her way straight to Him. Well, maybe that
last part is accurate. She did make a beeline for Jesus as he reclined
at dinner, as leaders did. But surely we can see that she wouldn’t
have been wandering around the village with an alabaster jar of
perfume in her pocket in the off chance she’d like to pour it on
someone. 

	 No, this was planned. 

	 But what’s really striking – about the story, and for our life
here in Albany and the lives of everyone who lives here – what’s
really striking is that the first part of the story was over before
she even crossed on to Simon’s property. Either she’d heard Jesus
Himself talk, or she’d had a friend tell her what Jesus had said.
She’d heard and believed that God isn’t interested in crushing
people like flies for being so annoying and willful. She’d heard
that ALL sinners were able to be forgiven; ALL, with no exceptions.
The woman determined to turn her life around, to live according to
both the letter and the spirit of the law, and it was as if a huge
weight had been lifted from her. She became liberated. 

	 I don’t know how possible it is for us to understand just what
liberation such as this really feels like. I suppose one way might be
to have undergone cancer treatment and to be cancer-free five, ten,
fifteen years later. Surely that would lift a weight from our
shoulders, to hear a health-care provider say that it seems as if
we’ve been renewed. Or if some new surgical technique had been
developed to restore vision or hearing after spending time blind or
deaf, especially if one had been led to believe that there was no way
on earth that vision or hearing could be restored. 

	 Maybe now we can start to get some idea of what the woman felt like.
She’d been ostracised from the community. She wasn’t included in
anything that was going on. If she walked into a home, or the market,
or the synagogue, people would shy away from her, possibly make a path
for her so that they wouldn’t have to touch her or to speak to her.
Imagine what it would be like to go from some situation where no one
praised you and everyone criticised you and looked down on you, to go
from that to a place where she was welcomed, where there were smiles. 

	 But that’s not quite where that woman was that dinner time. We
have to backup a moment. 

	 Jesus had been invited to Simon’s house. Why? Because Simon asked
him. But why did Simon ask Him? Well, because it was a trap. Jesus was
there to be quizzed on the appropriateness of His speech and
behaviour. The Pharisees to show Him who was the boss, who set the
agendas in town. So when Jesus arrived, He was insulted, deliberately.
As Bailey points out, if we go to a house, or a meeting, or even
church, the host says, “Hello, John, it’s nice to see you.
Wouldn’t you like to come in? May I take your coat? Wouldn’t you
like to sit down? May I bring you a cup of coffee?” Then, if the
host turns off the TV, that’s a sure sign that the guest is welcome
and that the host’s prepared to spend time with the guest. 3 

	 To omit this entire scenario would be a calculated insult. It would
be making a point not only to the guest, but to anyone else in the
room that the guest was unwelcome, was unworthy, was to be treated
like dirt. 

	 And that’s precisely what happened to Jesus. There was no water to
bathe His feet and His hands when He arrived, no olive oil to rub them
as we would with a good, scented soap nowadays. Nothing to make Jesus
welcome or comfortable. 

	 The woman was already there, though. She saw what they were doing,
and she must have been appalled. The One from God, who talked of
peace, of healing, of forgiveness, of complete reconciliation with and
acceptance by God; the One of whom prophets had spoken and for whom
everyone was watching. He was in the living room, and they were
mocking Him. So she did what they were supposed to have done. She HAD
meant to give her utmost thanks for her freedom, to perfume His hands
with the ointment, perhaps. But she broke every rule. She uncovered
her hair; she kissed His feet; she washed them with her tears; she
dried them with her hair; she spread the ointment on His feet lavishly
– all because she’d heard Him or someone else talk about Jesus
describing God’s love and welcoming acceptance. 

	 Did she understand what Jesus had said? Not all of it, I’m sure.
But the vocabulary, the tone of voice, Jesus’ gestures would have
said enough. So she came to give thanks, to show how she’d taken
Jesus at His word. 

	 What was Simon’s problem? He seems to have enjoyed at least a
little prosperity. He was respected enough by the Pharisees that they
had him invite Jesus into his home. Or were the other Pharisees just
using him to play their game?

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