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Sermon Notes for June 12-13, 2010
Third Weekend after Pentecost
The Seasons of Life/Summer - Ps. 32, 2 Sam. 11:26-12:10, 13-14, Gal. 2:15-21, 3:10-14, Lk. 7:36-8:3
*Earlier in Psalm: “strength dried up as by the heat of summer” … and just now sang in hymn: “Through summer heat of youthful years” (LSB 595), so I guess it’s not a stretch to say that heat is what stands out most about summer, right? Even if you really like it, you can only take so much of it, right? … need some shade and circulating air, need a cold drink or some cool water to immerse yourself in. Because of the heat, people generally wear a lot less than usual: short-sleeved shirts and short-pants, swimsuits and swim-trunks … as little as possible. Aesop’s fable: the wind and the sun’s argument about which was stronger, so when saw man coming down road decided that whichever one could strip him of his jacket first would win. Wind blew as hard and cold as possible, but man just pulled jacket in closer and tighter, so wind said best he could do. Then sun increased the intensity of his light and heat and the man quickly stripped off his jacket and tied it around his waist.
*Summer’s also a time of breaking from the routine, isn’t it? School is out, people go to the lake and on longer vacations, work schedules get relaxed—sometimes; people feel freer and take mores risks (which is good and bad). Precautions have to be taken else you can get a bad case of sunburn or sunstroke, you can be reckless and foolish—throw caution to the wind which lost the contest; you can make mistakes which bring tough consequences for yourself and others. When we think about summer as the highpoint of young adulthood or the prime of life when halfway through it, we have to strip things off, so to speak; we have to keep our senses about us, make sure our spiritual life stays hydrated with the refreshing and renewing water of God’s grace so we don’t find ourselves suddenly dehydrated, collapsed, and in a dangerous mess.
*Two examples of that in today’s readings—from different angles: King David being like “the stubborn mule”he counsels us not to be in his own psalm, and the unnamed woman so humbled by her mistakes and so motivated by her devotion to Jesus that she finds “blessed and truly happy is the one whose wrong is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” It took the prophet Nathan sneaking up on David through the story of the rich man who stole and killed the poor man’s lamb to get him to see the wrong he had done, acknowledge it and hear the freeing words that the Lord would put it away and not take David’s life. But think of that woman who didn’t have the luxury of being royalty—people making excuses for her—but instead, people looking at her with shame and ridicule, people always throwing her sins and her status back in her face. When she walked in to this big dinner in a “righteous” and “upstanding” Pharisee’s house (as people often would do to hear the conversations or beg for food), this “woman of the city” (probably a prostitute), eyes pouring with tears and head down near the ground, washed the Savior’s feet with the tears of her sin and shame, dried them with her hair, and anointed them with expensive fragrant oil. Wow—that woman’s humility and devotion should have shamed every self-righteous person there, but instead, Simon the host pulled back in horror saying to himself, ‘If he really was a prophet of God, he’d know what kind of woman she is and not let her anywhere near him!’ Jesus made him see that those who are overwhelmed with gratitude for the grace of undeserved forgiveness have an amazingly selfless love that teaches us all: ‘I came a guest in your house, Simon, and you gave me no water for my dusty feet, but she washed my feet with her tears—her tears—and dried them with her hair! You didn’t even kiss my cheek in greeting, but she hasn’t stopped kissing my feet! You didn’t even anoint my head with oil, but she slathered my feet! She has many sins, but they’re completely forgiven and put away; look at her humbled and believing love … look at her humble and believing love! Those who think they have little wrong in their lives see little need for forgiveness and have little love.’ Boy, the lessons of faith and love we can learn from that!
*Summer can be a time of recklessness and foolish mistakes while we’re riding high, thinking that nothing can bring us down. David and that woman both made their damaging mistakes. When the winds of conscience blew against David, he just pulled in tighter and refused to let go of the wrong … refused to see anything he needed to be brought down to his knees in repentance of … refused to see anything in his actions deserving of forgiveness. His love for self got bloated while his love for God and others dried up. But when the scorching sun of his sin beat upon him in that story supposedly about someone else, he stripped off that outer layer, looked his sin in the eye and humbled himself before God’s mercy and saving grace. The woman who came to Jesus already had her struggle with the wind and sun and came showing only those tears of repentance and action of faith-filled love. That’s what we sang about in that stanza: Through summer heat of youthful years / Uncertain faith, rebellious tears, / Sustained by Christ’s infusing rain, / The boughs will shout for joy again … the boughs will shout for joy again.
*What does all this have to do with us? We have to see David and that woman in ourselves—to see our wrongs and be brought to repentant joy and the love that flows from forgiveness again. As a people crucified with Jesus, who live because he took all of our shame, all of our wrongs, all of our mistakes upon himself … who became a despicable curse in the eyes of all so that we can have the blessing of his saving grace, we are called daily to live out the baptism poured out on us by the Holy Spirit. We’re daily to strip off our sins—our self-centeredness and self-righteousness, our self-excuses and dismissals of others—and plunge anew into the refreshing and renewing water of Jesus’ forgiveness. As a people who experience and live the resurrection of our Lord, we’re called to rise up in that freeing grace like David and that woman, and go back into our lives among each other changed and overflowing with love; rescued by our Lord and sent out in his restoring peace.
*Summer is the time for fruit to ripen, to grow. Like Jesus said, “If you abide in me, so you shall bear much fruit.” It’s the time for the fruit of repentance and faith and love to grow in us all, so that the fruit of Jesus’ living and dying and rising are seen in our very lives and bring about much good in the lives of others. Brennan Manning with elderly black shoeshine man at Atlanta airport … paid more and told him to get up in chair for a free shoeshine of his own. “Why would you do that?” the man said. “Because you’re my brother,” Manning replied. Tears formed in his eyes while he declined the generous offer, and when Manning hugged him, he said, “No white man ever talked to me like that before.” Do you see shades of Jesus and the unnamed woman? Let’s leave from here renewed—changed and different—for having been at Jesus’ feet and go to live and share his joyous forgiveness and freeing love—F, S, & HS—Amen.