Jesus Relating to Simon the Pharisee and the Sinful Woman

4 Pentecost 2013

1 Kings 21:1-10, 15-21; Ps 5;Gal2:1-8; Luke 7:36-8:3

Father Adam Trambley

June 16, 2013, St. John’s Sharon

 In today’s gospel, Jesus is contrasting the situation of two people with him at dinner.  The first is his host, Simon who is a Pharisee.  The second is a sinful woman who came unannounced to the dinner and began to wash his feet with her tears, dry them with her hair and anoint them with very expensive perfume.  The point Jesus is making is about love and forgiveness, and his point is descriptive.  Those who are forgiven more, love more.  He’s not saying that people who are forgiven more should love more.  He is saying that they do love more.  Look at how this sinful woman lavishes love on Jesus.  She isn’t worried about herself, or the Pharisees around her, or if she’ll get in trouble.  She just wants to express her love to Jesus.  Meanwhile Simon the Pharisee, who has been forgiven little, loves only a little.  Jesus is taken care of as a guest, but nothing to elaborate has been done.  Simon is being hospitable, as is required, but there isn’t a whole lot of love slipping through. 

Now the contrast of love coming out of forgiveness is especially interesting, because otherwise Jesus relates to both of them in very similar ways.  Both offer their gifts, and Jesus treats both of them respectfully and he gives both of them what they want, as well as what they need.  Simon the Pharisee invites Jesus to dinner at what seems to be a nice house.  He provides Jesus an opportunity to join his dinner party, and Jesus joins him.  While Simon may seem the negative character in the story, Jesus doesn’t treat him badly.  Simon is looking for good conversation and teaching, and Jesus gives him that.  Jesus tells a parable about two debtors and offers an interpretation.  This discussion of ethics is why Jesus would have been invited.  At the same time, Jesus knows what this Pharisee needs.  Simon needs to understand about love and forgiveness, so Jesus instructs him. Then we assume that after the woman leaves, Jesus respectfully stays and the rest of the banquet continues.   Luke tells us that the guests are talking to each other about Jesus, and certainly the next day what happened is going to hit the first century gossip mill, but Jesus gives Simon both what he wants and what he needs.

The sinful woman who comes to Jesus also gives what she has. Mostly what she has to give is herself, as well as this alabaster jar of ointment.  Jesus also gives her what she wants and what she needs.  She knows she needs forgiveness, and she also needs to be able to have someone accept her love.  Given her past, many would not receive her pure love borne of repentance and forgiveness.  Jesus, however, accepts her expressions of love.  He could have told her to stop.  He could have told her come back at a different time.  But he didn’t.  He allowed her to demonstrate the great love she had for him, even if it embarrassed the host a bit.  In fact, he took her gift and used it, offering it as a teaching on love and forgiveness to the Pharisees around the table.

So Jesus gives them both what they want and need, but what the woman receives is clearly the better choice.  She is able to give and receive deep love from Jesus and she receives profound forgiveness.  Simon the Pharisee could have received the same, but he didn’t.  The choice for us is what we would rather receive from Jesus.  What we are going to come to Jesus for?

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Now the answer here is not to go out and sin spectacularly so that Jesus can forgive us a lot and we can love a lot.  No, the answer is to come to Jesus as the sinful woman did and not as the Pharisee did.  Simon is interested in Jesus teaching.  He’ll probably learn something from it.  He might even incorporate Jesus’ story in some of his own teachings.  But he is clearly controlling his own life and his own situation, and respectfully considering Jesus’ own opinions.

The woman realizes her situation is out of control. She knows she’s beyond anything she can do for herself.  She recognizes that only with Jesus’ forgiveness does she have a chance at future life.  So she shows him all the love she could.  Simon doesn’t show that kind of love.  Simon isn’t even buying olive oil, much less ointment.  Simon isn’t kissing Jesus at all, much less his feet.  Simon is trying to weigh just how much of a prophet Jesus is, while the woman is busting into dinner parties and throwing herself at Jesus feet all out of love.  We have to decide whether we want to be like Simon or like the woman.  Certainly many of us could make an argument to ourselves much of the time that our lives are mostly under control.  We can allow Jesus in our lives at a comfortable level as a dinner guest, providing insight and occasional instruction.  If we really need him, he’s there, and we can go on with our lives.

But it doesn’t take much to see things get out of control.  Most of us have had times of crisis when we have thrown ourselves into prayer.  Sometimes our own sinful contribution to the difficult parts of our lives are clear enough to us that we really do seek God’s forgiveness and mercy with an abandon much like the woman who anoints Jesus feet.  Too often those moments don’t last so long, our lives normalize, and our extravagant love of God wanes.  But it doesn’t have to.  Just because life seems good doesn’t mean we need to turn into Simon.

Instead, we can realize the overwhelming love and forgiveness God has for us.  We can only understand how much we are forgiven when we both receive a Holy Spirit-led conviction about our sinfulness and grow in our ability to be fearlessly honest with ourselves.  As we come to recognize just how much even our normal everyday lives rely on God’s goodness and grace, we are led into the kind of extravagant actions that we do only for the people we love with as much of our heart, mind, soul, and strength as we can muster.

We know what those actions are.  We spend time with those we love, and spending time with God generally means prayer.  But at least two other actions we perform for loved ones are highlighted by the woman anointing Jesus feet.  She goes wherever she can find him, and she offers her wealth to him.  These activities are, by the way, the same ones we take in our marriage vows.  We promise to be together, and then we give each other rings as symbols that we honor and cherish our beloved with all that we have and all that we are.  (You can read the details on page 427 in the Book of Common Prayer if you want.)  This woman bursts into a party because Jesus is there and then anoints his feet with really expensive perfume. 

Our love of Jesus can express itself in similar ways.  If we really feel ourselves forgiven and loving God, those actions will flow automatically.  But if we are struggling to overcome our own ego and control, we can live into love and forgiveness of God by intentionally undertaking those actions. 

How do we burst in where Jesus is?  We find him in church, of course.  We know Jesus is really present to us in this place and when we receive him in communion.  But we also find him in many other places.  We find him where the least of our brothers and sisters are gathered, knowing that ministering to them is ministering to him.  We find him amid children, who Jesus seems to really like.  We just have to keep an eye out for him, like the woman in our Gospel, and run to find him when we hear of rumor of things happening somewhere that sounds like he might be there.

Then we also give all our possessions to him.  By that, I don’t necessarily mean turning over all your bank accounts to the church along with your car keys.  But we can offer everything we have back to God with great joy and abandon and allow it all to be used by God, whether for our needs or to take care of our loved ones, or save, or to give away.  Once we recognize it is all God’s, we find ourselves pouring expensive ointment in very good ways upon the feet of Jesus where we find him, and some of those guises will be unexpected if not downright disturbing, and some of the ointment we have to give will probably surprise us.

Those who are forgiven much, love much, Jesus says.  We all have been forgiven enough to love with our whole being.  We just have to recognize how much Jesus has already forgiven us and start seeking Jesus wherever he is and pouring all our ointment on his feet.

You've Got to Prime the Pump

Pentecost 3 2013

1 Kings 17:8-16; Ps 146; Gal1:11-24; Luke 7:11-17

Father Adam Trambley

June 9, 2013, St. John’s Sharon

Today’s first reading reminds me of a Kingston Trio song, Desert Pete.

So remembering Desert Pete’s instructions, let’s dig into First Kings.  Israel is experiencing a serious drought, brought on by disobedience.  Elijah has just come out of a wilderness area where he found a little trickle of a stream to drink from and the ravens brought him bread and meat every morning and night.  Finally the streambed dries up and God tells Elijah to go to Zaraphath, which is not in Israel.  Zaraphath is in Sidon, a foreign area.  God says he’s told a widow there to feed Elijah.

Now imagine you are this widow, living in the middle of a drought with your son.  All you have left in your larder is enough flour and oil for one pancake.  You can’t go to the store and buy more food, because there isn’t any more food.  You can’t go out to the garden to pick some vegetables, because all the plants have died of thirst.  All you can do is eat your last pancake and hope the rain comes in time for something to grow again before you starve to death.  This widow in Zaraphath is in that situation, and she is gathering dry sticks outside the city to cook her last meal.  She meets a foreigner who asks for water.  Now she probably doesn’t have much water, but she agrees to get him some.  Hospitality is important in that part of the world.  Then, while she is on her way to get water, he calls out, “Get me some food, too.”   She tells him, “I don’t have anything prepared, and I’m just about to cook the last pancake in my house and eat it with my son before we both starve to death.” 

Now the expected response to such a pitiful request would probably be something like, “Oh, I’m sorry.  Let me share some food with you.” Or at least a, “I wish I could help.  Don’t worry about it.”  But Elijah says, “OK.  Go home and cook up that last pancake for me.  After I’ve eaten, God will make sure there is enough for you and your son.”  Amazingly, the woman does what Elijah asks.  She goes and feeds him.  Then she has enough to feed her and her son that meal.  Then she makes Elijah a bedroom upstairs and she feeds Elijah and herself and her son and the rest of her household as long as the drought lasts.  The jar of meal is never empty and the jug of oil doesn’t fail.

You’ve got to prime the pump, have faith and believe, right?  Give of yourself before you receive.

I find it helpful to think of our blessings as water coming through a faucet.  If we turn on that faucet fully to pour out blessings upon others, blessings come to us, as well.  But if we turn off the faucet, holding everything in for ourselves, then we stop that flow.  More than that, what we do have becomes unpleasant to us, just like the lukewarm tap water that comes out when we first turn on a faucet that has been off for a while.  If our faucet has sat unused for too long, we may even need to prime it with what little water we have, following the instructions of Old Desert Pete.

The Biblical principle involved is the principle of sowing and reaping.  What we plant is what we harvest.  When we step out in faith and obedience to God with our tithes and offerings, we open ourselves up to receive blessings in return.  Notice how when the widow provides food to Elijah, she receives back all the food she needs.  She has to step out in faith, however.  She doesn’t tell Elijah to wait and see what she has left.   She takes a risk in faith to give first, and then takes care of herself. 

We’ve seen examples of the jug not running out during our community lunches on Saturday.  We know at least one occasion when we had a lot more people than we had prepared food.  But somehow, another serving kept showing up in the pan, as needed.  Members of the congregation faithfully stepped out to feed people, and God blessed them as they did so, providing enough for everyone. God still provides.

We are all called to the same kind of faithful risk-taking to bless others as the widow of Zaraphath was.  In Luke’s gospel, Jesus says, “Give and it will be given you, a full measure, pressed down, shaken together and spilling into your lap.  For the measure you give will be the measure you get.”  God wants to measure incredible blessings for us, but we’ve got to begin with the faithful giving that opens us up to receive them. 

One of those steps in faithful giving is our tithing.  Tithing is giving the first ten percent of our income back to the church.  Tithing is the Biblical standard of giving and we in the Episcopal Church understand it as the minimum standard of Christian giving.  Scripture commends us to give our firstfruits to God, so that he can bless the rest of what we have.  Our tithing to the church is our first step in turning on the faucet of God’s blessings so that we can turn our entire financial lives over to him for his care.  Our tithe is the water in the bitters jar we use to prime the pump to live into God’s generous care for us.  Just like the widow first took care of Elijah, so that she could let Elijah take care of her, we give to God through his Church so that we can let God take care of us. 

I’m not talking about tithing today so that the church gets more money.  The church doesn’t need our gifts.  The church is God’s and he takes care of it.  We need to give our gifts to the church for our own good.  Trust me, there have been times in life when I have not tithed, and it was not fun.  At one point, I decided that I didn’t trust the church I was going to then with my money (it’s not this church).  Given the little money I had, I’m sure it didn’t matter to that church, but it kept me from trusting the community that I probably needed around me at that time in my life.  And I still had but little money.  At other times, Jane and I didn’t think we could afford to be generous to God and others.  As long as we felt that way, we never did seem to have enough.  But when we began to tithe, which was when we were in school, living on practically nothing but scholarships and gifts, we found the flour and the oil didn’t run out and our needs kept being met somehow.  The more we have tithed and given, the more we have been able to give to both the church and to those in need.  And all our needs have been met, even if occasionally it happens in God’s time and not in our own.  But that’s the exciting part of living by faith – never knowing exactly what is going to happen next, but trusting that God will take care of us in times that seem good and times that are struggles. 

Now somebody out there may feel like they just don’t have the faith to tithe their first fruits, to give to the poor, to prime the pump, to offer their last pancake to some impolite immigrant.  There are a couple of steps you can take to help.  First, pray.  Pray daily for the faith to do be generous and receive God’s blessings.  And let me know so that I and some of our prayer team at church can be praying for you as well.  Second, start to take small steps forward and see how God is able to work in your life.  Make two columns in a notebook.  In one list how you are sowing blessings by giving to the church and by giving to those in need.  In the second column list the blessings you are receiving.  Then keep doing what you see making sense.  Third, know that if you do take a step in faith and risk tithing or moving toward a tithe to God by giving to St. John’s, that we’ll help you out if you run into trouble later.  Part of what a parish family is meant to do is backstop each other when needed.     

God doesn’t want us crawling through the desert hoping for a small drink that we find here and there in a bitters jar when we are thirsty down to our toenails.  God tells us to give until we receive, feeding the hungry, bringing our tithes and offering to God, priming pumps until water gushes from the spigot and rain falls from the sky.

You’ve got to prime the pump.  You must have faith and believe.  You’ve got to give of yourself ‘fore your worthy to receive.  Drink all the water you can hold.  Wash your face to your feet.  Leave the bottle full for others.   Thank you kindly.  Desert Pete.