4th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 6C sermon

4th Sunday after Pentecost—Proper 6C June 16, 2013 This week, Jack and I were driving down the road and talking about opposites. I would say, “What is the opposite of light,” and he’d say, “Dark.” “What is the opposite of happy?” He said, “Sad or Mad.” “What is the opposite of summer?” “Winter.” We were doing well and having fun until he started asking for things that did not have apparent opposites. The game ended rather abruptly when he completely stumped me by asking, “What is the opposite of 1?” (I’m an English major…I don’t do numbers!) Today’s gospel reading also seems to be a lesson in opposites. Jesus is invited to dinner at the home of a Pharisee. When he takes his place at the table, a woman comes in, uninvited, and she begins to make quite a spectacle. She is crying, and washing his feet with her tears, and anointing his feet with precious oil from an alabaster jar. The story tells us that Simon, the Pharisee, was having his own inner monologue critiquing Jesus and the woman, and Jesus tells Simon a parable about two debtors and their response to having their debt forgiven. We see a contrast of opposites here. Sinner versus righteous. Forgiveness versus judgment. Hospitality versus unfriendliness. Graciousness versus rudeness. Gratitude versus entitlement. Another commentator writes that this story is really about forgiveness. “Forgiveness gives you back yourself. It is at the heart of the restoration of relationship. It is releasing any claim on someone else for any past injury or offense.” Gratitude is the woman’s response to Jesus’s forgiveness. “So this story is about forgiveness. And it’s about the gratitude that forgiveness creates. And its about the extravagant acts of love and devotion that gratitude prompts. But it’s also about something else; it’s about hardness of heart as opposed to love, about judgment instead of forgiveness and a sense of entitlement instead of gratitude.” “Those who have been forgiven little love very little. It may be not that they’ve been forgiven little but rather they just don’t notice it, don’t think they need it. Simon is a man who has no sense of needing to be forgiven and so judges Jesus and the woman out of hardness of heart. Because of this, he’s missing out from living a life out of love and gratitude” (from David Lose’s blog: http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=2601). Do you relate to one of these seemingly opposing characters more than the other? Are you like the woman, singularly aware of your sins and your need for forgiveness? Is it hard for you to accept that, no matter what you have done, you are forgiven? Or are you like Simon, seemingly unaware of any need to be forgiven? Or are you a strange mix of both, depending on the day? Theologian Paul Tillich wrote “There is no condition for forgiveness.” And some theologians argue that God offers us forgiveness before we even ask for it. But the awareness of it, our need for it, and our reception of God’s forgiveness are all important parts of our relationship with God and with others. Let’s look again at the connection between forgiveness and gratitude. Br. David Vryhof writes of gratitude in the April 21st meditation from the SSJE series “Brother, Give us a Word”. He writes, “Opening our heats brings gratitude into our lives. A closed heart sees no reason to be grateful; it is aware of its own unmet desires, its own sufferings and disappointments. But an open heart is full of gratitude for all that is. It sees goodness and beauty in ourselves, the world, and others; it senses hope and possibility.” Forgiveness is the key that unlocks and opens our hearts to experience gratitude. Where do you need to accept God’s forgiveness in your life that your heart might be opened? Where do you need to offer forgiveness? And what happens if we can’t accept God’s forgiveness or if we can’t even admit that we need it? I got rather hung up on the character of Simon the Pharisee this week. It’s so easy not to like him and his self-righteous attitude. But he is us. We are him. What happens to us when we can’t admit that we need God’s forgiveness or if we think our sins can’t be forgiven? Jesus confronts Simon not with judgment but with grace. And he asks Simon to open his heart to give and receive the grace of God that is being freely offered to him and to others. Here’s another meditation by Br. David Vryhof. This one is called Grace: “We are recipients of undeserved grace, of a love that overlooks the arrogance, pride, and self-centeredness of our hearts, of a kindness that forgives our haughtiness” (SSJE.org/ Jun 14, 2013). May God open our hearts this morning to the gift of God’s grace, that in accepting God’s forgiveness of ourselves and others, we may live lives of gratitude in which we see goodness and beauty in ourselves, the world, and others; and that we may be open to hope and possibility for ourselves and for all of God’s creation.