Yours, Mine and Ours: Can You See Her?
September 11, 2016
Dr. Chap Clark
Luke 7:36-50

Dr. Pace: Our Scripture today is a passage that doesn’t seem right upfront, like it aims at what it means to be family. But I think when you hear Dr. Clark talk about it, it will speak to you. So I’d like you to follow along in your bulletin insert as we hear this Scripture read from the Gospel of Luke.

When one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “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.” Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “speak.” “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they 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.” Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 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.” Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:36-50 NRSV)

Dr. Clark: Hi, everybody! It has been a joy for me to be here. This is the fourth service I’ve gotten to be a part of. I’m here for the day to enter into a conversation you’ve been having for some time regarding community, and we’ve seen that during this service especially.
I have to tell you I’m a little sappy right now. I may be sappy a lot. But from the baptism to you guys, to the children’s sermon and especially the last guy to come down. I just love that. That’s so me in fifth grade. I just love that kid. Amazing, so thank you. Do you guys applaud for them? (Applause). Really fantastic.
It is interesting, and Tom mentioned this although he didn’t say this at the other three services. How does this text fit into all of this that we’ve done this morning? It does seem rather odd because it’s kind of a different text of Scripture.
But it is actually leading us into what does it mean to be together in this journey that we have exhibited and experienced together this morning. I love that we had the two readers. All I asked for was two people that were clearly siblings. And you know what? They are, but you’ll find that out a little bit later in the morning.
Your website which is marvelous and what your church is working so hard on is moving in a direction of asking this question of what does it mean to walk together in this journey of faith. And when you move to a family section of one of the pages of the website you describe your commitment to intergenerational relationships this way: “To involve children and youth in an intergenerational community of believers in which children and youth build relationships with many mentors and teachers other than their parents who demonstrate the love of Jesus and make it real for young people in tangible ways.”
Let’s look at the focus of this. The first line, “We involve children and youth…” That’s you guys. “In intergenerational community of believers …” And you use “community” a lot – that’s fantastic by the way. And yet the actual strategy in how you do that with whether it’s six through eighth graders, or high school students or emerging adults, we know that adolescence actually lasts longer today. For women it’s mid to late twenties. And for men mid to late fifties.
Well, the reality is that there’s such a fragmentation in culture. There’s such a distance between generations and even in the church we’ve become as fragmented as often as we are in culture. In fact some are using the term atomized. One writer described the church as a network of isolated worshippers. But we still seek this notion of community.
When it comes to young people, those two words are wonderful and they’re way beyond, almost every church and I do this for a living, research these kinds of things, and try to speak into these kinds of things. Those two words that are used as strategy here “mentors and teachers” so often in our culture they can become words that actually are counterproductive. That’s not what’s intended here, but the words themselves carry with them two connotations.
One is this: “mentors and teachers” what they do is they pass on data. When you mentor someone or when you teach someone you have data, and you pass it on. The second connotation is that it enhances and reinforces hierarchy and power, so that those who mentor have a mentee. Those who teach have students.
And yet with the younger generations what we have learned and have seen, especially over the last twenty years or so as we become more fragmented and atomized, it’s the last way to build a bridge with this generation by employing data dump and hierarchy and power.
So what does it actually mean biblically? What does it actually look like to be the people that God has called us to be as a community of believers? And that leads us to this text. Now the text in Luke 7 some of you, if you have been to church a lot, you may have heard this being read, or read it yourself along the way. You recognize it as what we call one of the anointing passages. Anointing is when you pour oil on somebody. I wouldn’t try it this afternoon, okay? But it can be an interesting experience.
In the Scriptures we know that Jesus four different times is anointed. And maybe you think, “Oh, yes, I see this is just another one of those anointing passages.” But I want to point out something to you. The three Gospels that have the anointing passages, besides this passage in Luke, are Matthew, Mark and John. All three of those are when a woman comes to him and pours oil on him and is anointing him for his burial. It’s preparing his death as he’s approaching the cross.
This text in Luke 7 is not the same thing as those other three. It’s a stand alone event in the life of Jesus from the Gospel record. Luke is writing his Gospel, most scholars think, in order to reach out to those second generation Christians who were most of them non-Jews that he was writing to. His intended audience was those who had followed Christ but weren’t really sure how it was working out. Great divisions in the church. And he intentionally chooses this event that the other three Gospels do not mention. And actually why scholars often lump these four together is because Simon the man in the story is in one of other texts. But the other text is Simon the Leper. This is Simon the Pharisee.
So how do you know this is unique? Well, first of all Simon is a very common name. Come on – it’s like John or Chapman – very common. What’s interesting about it is that there’s a lot of Simons in the Bible. There is Simon, the brother of Jesus, his half-brother. There are two Simons who are disciples. And then there’s Simon the man who carries the cross when Jesus is weary heading to the cross. And of course David Seville and his family – the Alvin, Theodore, and Simon family that’s in the Scriptures. And if you don’t get the joke ask someone on the way home, because it’s funny.
What’s really interesting about this text is that this man Simon is throwing a dinner party, and it’s a big thing. He’s invited Jesus the famous itinerant. Simon is a Pharisee, and he’s powerful and wealthy. He brings his friends to a dinner party and invites Jesus to come and recline at his table along side of him.
Then chaos ensues when one of the town women breaks in - barges in – to the event, and she throws herself at the feet of Jesus. She weeps, kisses, wipes with her hair, and pours perfume. And it’s not only breaking every social convention, but it’s breaking the law. She wasn’t allowed to be there. As we see from the Scripture, she was what’s called a “sinful woman.” So here’s Simon, rich, powerful, religious, a solid citizen with his friends, and then a “sinful woman” comes in. All we know is that she was well known in the town. That’s clear and that likely her sin was a public sin likely sexuality. So therefore she was really the worst of the worst in that culture.
And Simon was appalled that she would break into his party. So he thinks, but he doesn’t say it out loud, that if this man were a prophet he would know who’s touching him and what kind of woman she is. She is a sinner! What’s she doing here? He should know better than to let her touch him.
So Jesus tells the story. It’s one of his briefer parables. He tells the story of two people who borrowed money from a lender. One borrowed a lot – 500 pieces of silver. Another borrowed a lesser sum – 50 pieces of silver. Neither of these could pay back their debt so the lender forgave the debt of both.
So Jesus asked this really amazing trick question. He said, “Both of them had their debt forgiven. Who would love the lender the most?”
And Simon thought for a second, and it probably didn’t take him long to realize, “Well, the 50 pieces of silver might be a problem but it’s not that big a deal. 500 pieces of silver – that’s a large debt to be forgiven. I suppose it was the one who had the larger debt forgiven.”
A little Biblical hint – parenthetically for you. Anytime there’s a parable in the Scripture having to do with money and wealth and wages and those things, it’s important to remember that wealth always has a context and money and the amount of it is always relative.
So to Simon and his friends the 50 pieces of silver was not that big a deal, but the 500 was significant. To the woman and her friends both are so out of reach it wouldn’t make any sense at all.
Nonetheless, Simon took the value of his culture of his friendships of his status and he said, “The one who had the most forgiven.” And Jesus answered, “You’ve judged correctly.” To which often you’ll hear people will say that Jesus is affirming Simon. That he gets the parable. But that can’t be true from the text.
Because something amazing happens. This whole time Jesus is reclining at the table with Simon the host and his friends. And this woman remains at his feet, weeping and wiping, and crying and pouring alabaster perfume on his feet. So Jesus does this. He turns away from Simon. And he looks at the woman. He looks at her, as he continues his conversation with Simon.
That’s an amazing thing. As he says this, “Simon, you who stand in judgment of this woman, you are so critical of her and know she doesn’t have a place here in this home. Do you see her? Can you see her?”
Then he goes on to publicly show how Simon had failed his honored guest. “You did not give me water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman from the time I entered has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you Simon…” And he’s still looking at the woman. “…her many, many sins have been forgiven as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.’
It’s fascinating, because in this passage what we see happening is Jesus’ pointing out to Simon something that he didn’t catch and something that Jesus didn’t actually overtly says. But it’s all right there. Have you picked it up yet? “Simon, you clearly don’t understand who I am, what I’ve come to bring, and why this woman has entered your home. She was lost.”
Let me put it differently for some of us. She was sad. She was broken hearted, and she had been found. She had been touched. She’d not only been healed, but she had been included. She was a wandering orphan, isolated and alone. And she became someone who Jesus Christ drew into himself. Simon remained at the table.
Now you don’t know me clearly, all you know so far is that I’m attractive. It’s not quite that funny when you’re this close. But I have to tell you that when I read a passage like this, and by the way when you look at the Scriptures without cultural filters, it’s impossible to escape this feeling often for me anyway. It’s that I’m Simon. I don’t know if that applies to you or if you came to church today you came more as the woman than you did as Simon. What have you looked for? What have you seen with little children and our wonderful sixth graders and the kids in the sermon and in the blessed choir which is a little bit older than most of the other three we’ve seen? Or you’ve lived a hard life. Not really…
But when we come to Christ, when we come to faith I come so often as Simon. I recognize in myself that I have worked hard to earn my status. I have spent a lifetime building a way for others and even to convince myself that I’m worthy of being noticed that I perform my way into blessing and I deserve to recline at the table.
I hate to admit this, even to myself maybe especially to myself. But let me give you one little insight about children – or not necessarily children - but early adolescent or middle school, mid adolescent, high school, emerging adults. Almost none of them feel like Simon. They’re labeled as narcissists, I know, an entitled generation. Those are people that actually don’t know them. They just write articles. Because they actually know they are far more like the woman than they are with the man who was at the table.
And I feel so often that I cling to my comfort, to my friendships, to my agenda when in desperation what Jesus meant for Simon to see was this amazing fact that Simon did you not hear the story of how two people owed a debt.
Two people owed a debt. How come you’re still at the table? Why haven’t you taken off your outer robe and knelt before me next to this precious one. She is lost, but Simon, you are lost. She is sad, but Simon, you know that you too carry sadness within you. She is broken hearted, but Simon, you know that you’ve spent a lifetime buttressing up the pretence to make sure you have a place at the table when I have come to remove that mantle from you that you don’t really need to continue to do that.
You are mine. How do we know that? Because Jesus doesn’t just, the Bible doesn’t just call us a child of God. John 1:12, “To all who are received, to all who believed in his name he gave the right to become not (singular) a child of God – but (plural) children of God. That’s who we are. In Christ we have not only been found, but we’ve been rescued, and we’ve been granted a new family which is exactly what happened at baptism.
What that actually means to us though is that we come to this place where some of us think we should be surrogate grandparents and uncles and aunts in the body of faith. We have a few friendships, but let’s not get overboard with this community thing. The fact is that community is not something we do, community is who we are. And it comes out of the mutuality of our own wandering in orphan-ness.
He gave us the right to become children of God among other children. Here’s what I said about these being siblings. The facts are that you and I in Christ are siblings of one another. You who are 45 or 50 years old you need a friendship with a 12 year old to know what vibrancy in Jesus Christ is.
Did you see what those kids were doing with those Bibles? A lot of them were holding them up when you were clapping. Maybe some of us who are a little bit older than 45 could use a friendship with some of these folks to mentor us into what does it actually mean to be a child. It means we nurture each other. It means we empower each other. It means we include each other.
Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens. Carry each other’s burdens.” It’s the call. As siblings that’s who we are.
Close with this. You’re at a pre-school, and the pre-school teacher says to the three and four year olds, “We’re going to go to recess.” A three or four year old gets excited, and then she says, “Grab the hand of your friend, and let’s go out to recess together.” A three or four year old doesn’t scurry to try to figure out whose hand can I hold. They grab the hand of the kid right next to them and they say, “Here we go!” They run out to sing and to dance and to play in the sandbox at recess.
That is who you are, St. Luke’s, a gathering of people, an intergenerational, interracial, inter-economic, inter everything you can think of, a wide variety of different people who all have one thing in common. We’ve taken off the robe of our privileged place at the table, and we’ve joined the woman at the feet of Jesus together. May St. Luke’s learn what it means to live into the reality that we’re siblings so we can grab one another’s hand and run out, running and dancing and singing and laughing in the sandbox of the kingdom of God. One to another, nurturing, empowering, and including each other. That’s who you are.
May God give you the courage to enter into that life together. Amen.