One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and 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."
Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.
We all love those kinds of movies where the good guy is obviously good and the bad guy is obviously bad. We enjoy being able to pick out the evil guy by nothing more than his black top hat, cape and handlebar mustache. We don’t even need to see him tying the heroine to the railroad tracks to know where he stands. We love to be able to pick out the good guy too. He’s the one wearing a white outfit and his light saber is calming green, not angry red. These stories make things simple and in our complicated lives we like simple. Everyone is easily identified as either 100% good or 100% bad.
The temptation when we read this gospel story from Luke is to read it like one of those clear cut Hollywood scripts and at first, the actors in Luke’s story seem to do a good job playing their parts. The Pharisee starts out by being rude, arrogant, inhospitable and kind of a jerk, so he seems to be well on the way to being a perfect 100% bad guy.
The woman too seems at first to be playing her part well. She enters the room with proper humility having realized God’s love and forgiveness in her life. She gives Jesus proper thanks for those gifts. She gives him the respect, honor and treatment due the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So she too seems to be well on the way to playing the perfect, 100% good guy in this drama.
They play their roles well at first but people just aren’t that simple. The truth is that the Pharisee who is arrogant, rude and a kind of a jerk also, like all Pharisees, has committed the whole of his life and being to growing closer to God. We might argue with his methods and theology but deep in his heart, the thing that drives him every minute of the day in every aspect of his life is a desire to grow closer to God. The truth is, it’s just really, really hard to be 100% evil when your heart’s deepest desire is to grow closer to God.
The woman too, it turns out, isn’t exactly 100% good. Even if we do our best to make excuses for her past, imagining a horrible childhood or a series of seemingly unavoidable and tragic decisions, the truth of her life is that she became a prostitute and in doing that she hurt herself, her family, others and her community. The reality of this story is that neither the Pharisee nor the woman is 100% anything other than 100% human.
At the synod assembly this past weekend, instead of a guest speaker, the Bishop gathered a group of people who, when surveyed about their religious affiliation, check the box labeled “none” on the survey. In current religious lingo, these folks are called “nones”... not the nuns with the habits, but “nones” as in people with no religious affiliation. In New England, 75% of people choose to fill out that survey question in that way.
One temptation when church folk think about the “nones” is to see them in a similar, simplistic, good guy - bad guy way. The gathered group of pastors and lay delegates to the assembly being 100% “good” and those that claim “none” on their religious affiliation survey as maybe not “bad” but at least as people lacking something very important... something we church folks have got and they are missing.
The truth about the Pharisee and the prostitute is that neither was 100% bad or 100% good... they were both 100% human with all the good, bad, nice, mean, shine, muck and mire that humanity entails. The other truth about the Pharisee and the prostitute is that both had something the other needed... and both needed something the other had.
The Pharisee needed to learn about the depth and breath of God’s forgiving grace and love. He needed to learn that no one is ever, EVER beyond God’s infinite and unconditional love and he needed to learn how to be hospitable, compassionate, humble and caring. She had all of that! She KNEW God’s love! She KNEW God’s forgiveness! She KNEW how to respond to God’s love and grace and she KNEW how to be hospitable, thankful and caring of her neighbor. Whether he recognized it or not he needed her and what she knew and understood. Would he set aside his pride and be honest with the ways he was broken? If he could see her as an equal and as a gift in his life, she had something special that could help him grow in faith, she could help him in his desire to grow closer to God.
But it wasn’t just him that needed her... she needed him just as much! His gifts were passion and an understanding of discipline. He knew the Law could be a gift and by dedicating yourself to the law it could help you live within healthy boundaries and living that way made for a less anxious life. He knew the peace of having God in your heart and knew rituals and the practices that could bring peace into her life too.
Would she could dare to risk being hurt by a religious institution that had treated her badly? If she could set aside the way of life she had fallen into and if she could see in herself that she was just as worthy of God’s love and grace and just as worthy of being in God’s presence as he was, then she too could shed the guilt, shame, fear and loneliness that plagued her; learn from him, grow in faith, and more fully become the beloved child of God she was created to be.
At the synod assembly it became very clear from the conversation the bishop had with the “nones” and from the questions that followed that the lesson Jesus was trying to teach at dinner is a lesson the Church desperately needs in our time. We too must realize that those outside of the Church have something that we inside the church desperately need... and I’m not talking about a check book either! The folks that check the “none” box often have a way of understanding God’s love and grace and a perspective on faith that we need to hear and learn from and if we can do that, then eventually we may someday get the opportunity to share the wonderful perspectives on faith that could help make their lives more beautiful as well.
But an attitude of superiority... an attitude that we in the Church are better and those outside the church can’t live without us just won’t fly. It won’t fly because it simply isn’t true! Those of us in the Church are NOT superior, we are no different than the Pharisee... no different from the woman... we are all just 100% human like everyone else in this world.
And just like the Pharisee and the woman, the truth is that we NEED each other for the same reasons the Pharisee needed that woman and that woman needed the Pharisee: To expand our understanding of breath and depth of God’s love and grace in our lives in ways we just can’t see from our perspective inside the Church! From their unique perspectives they could help us grow in faith in ways no one inside the Church ever could! Inside or outside of the Church we are all broken. Inside or outside none of us have all the answers. Inside or outside all of us need a caring community to help us make it through this life. Inside or outside, God is working in amazing ways in everyone’s life.
There are lessons for us that we can learn. Lessons to be taught to us by people with experiences and thoughts and perspectives we know nothing about. Our teachers though won’t be coming here to teach us what we need... if we want to learn the lessons God has to teach us through them we will have to go to them. In the story from Luke we don't know if the Pharisee learned the lesson the woman had to teach him. We don't hear if the woman learned what she could learn from the Pharisee and the story of whether we in the Church will learn what the "nones" have to teach us has yet to be written. Will we set aside our pride, decide to take a risk, go outside our walls and seek the lessons God has to teach us through the "nones"? That is the question for us today... will we?
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