Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. How do you express yourself? An artist might express herself with paint and canvas, painting with bold brushstrokes or delicate points of color - We can come to know an artist by the way she expresses herself in paintings, by the color she uses or the way the lines flow - We know a lot about the painter Van Gogh, for example, by his bright colors and wavy lines - by the way he expressed himself when he picked up a paintbrush and painted the things and people and landscapes around him. A dancer might express himself in the way he moves his body, the way his feet and his arms flow to the rhythm of music - We recognize the dance of Fred Astaire, of Gregory Hines, of Leslie Caron as expressions of themselves - the way their dances flow, how quickly they tap or how smoothly they move across the floor. A singer might express herself in song, or by playing an instrument in a particular way - When you hear Aretha Franklin sing, you know something about her, when you hear Sting or Pavarotti or Shania Twain, you hear them in their music and in their voices. When you hear Eric Clapton play the guitar or Yo-yo Ma the cello, you hear something of them in their playing. We express ourselves in many ways - even if we are not gifted in painting or dance or music, we can still express ourselves through them - a child can express himself through the simplest finger-painting, can't he? We can know something of him, of his emotions, his hopes, his fears, his ideals, what's important to him, by the drawings he brings home from kindergarten. But, when we talk about expressing ourselves, we think most about how we use words - We say that someone uses old-fashioned expressions - Or that someone expresses himself in a colorful way - Or that someone else expresses herself well - When someone doesn’t understand what I'm saying, I might say I didn't express myself well. Our words are probably the most important - and most common way that we express ourselves. In fact, most of us never go a day in our lives without expressing ourselves by way of words, do we? Our words convey our thoughts, our feelings, our preferences, our ideals, our hopes and dreams, our priorities - In short, who we are. God expresses himself in his word, too - In the beginning was the word, St. John writes, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us - God expressed himself to us through his Son, Jesus Christ, The word made flesh. God showed himself - his nature, his thoughts, his feelings, his priorities - through his word made flesh - through Jesus. And not just by what Jesus said, either, but by who Jesus is - by his very self, God is showing himself to us, expressing himself to us. And you know, expressing something has another meaning - it means literally to push something out - You can express toothpaste out of a tube, can't you? - When something is expressed, it's pressed out - And in that sense, too, Jesus is God's self-expression - We read in Philippians that God poured himself out into Christ And in Colossians that in Christ the fullness of God was pleased to dwell - Jesus is God's self poured out into a flesh and blood man - So that when we see Jesus, when we hear him, when we watch him deal with people, We are seeing God's self-expression right there - We are seeing God poured out in flesh and blood. Which is one of the reasons why this morning's Gospel lesson is so striking - Because of how Jesus is - how he acts and what he says and how he is God's self-expression in this part of Luke's gospel. Jesus has come to dinner at the house of Simon, a Pharisee, a man who worked hard at being pure in God's sight, according to the laws of the Jews. He was thought of, and thought of himself, as someone who was upright, upstanding, righteous, a "good" person, who did all the right things and followed all the right rules. He might even have felt that Jesus should be grateful to be invited to the house of such a fine upstanding citizen - that he was doing Jesus a favor by inviting him to dinner. Well, while Jesus and the others were at the table - and in those days they didn't sit in chairs, they reclined - they lay on their sides on the floor around a low table - While Jesus and the others were at the table, a woman came into the house - Now, in Jesus' time, homes weren't as closed up as they are today - they were more open to the street, and it was common, especially in the homes of more wealthy or prominent people, for friends and acquaintances and servants to be going in and out of the house pretty much at any time - People came and went, but all of them known to the host. So, when this woman came in off the street, eyebrows were raised - She wasn't a friend or an acquaintance or even a servant of Simon the Pharisee - In fact, she was someone that he didn't even want to know - someone he wouldn't admit to knowing even if he did know her. She was a woman of the street - a prostitute, maybe, a sinner certainly - Luke even tells us that. And she had the nerve to go into Simon's house, uninvited! And even more nervy, she went up behind Jesus, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair, And she went on and on, kissing his feet and anointing them with ointment - which was like lotion or skin cream - that she had brought with her. Well, Simon was shocked by her behavior - who did she think she was - And more important, who did Jesus think she was - 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." Well, we know that Jesus is a whole lot more than a prophet, don't we. We know that Jesus is God's self-expression - And Jesus knew exactly what Simon was thinking - That here was "one of those" women - scum of the earth, lowlife, dirt under her fingernails, the whole thing - She isn't fit to be in my house, Simon was thinking. And Jesus, knowing what Simon was thinking, told him a story - A story about two debtors - one who was deep in debt, owed a lot of money And one who had a little debt, not much, but a little, And how their creditor, the one who had loaned them the money, cancelled both their debts - Both the one who owed a lot and the one who owed only a little. Which of these two, Simon, will love the creditor more? Well, Simon gave the right answer - the one who had a bigger debt cancelled loved the creditor more - it stands to reason. Then Jesus does something beautiful, something that shows us how God expresses himself - He turns and defends the woman from Simon and the others -Even though she's a sinner, she has done something beautiful and gracious for Jesus Because she knows that Jesus forgives her, doesn't hold the past against her - Because she knows Jesus sees her not for her past sins, but for her self - a broken and outcast person, despised by the "good" people. Jesus defends this woman and what she has done for him, even though Simon looked down on her. Jesus says, what she has done is more than even what you have done for me, Simon, and it's because she has more need of my forgiveness, more need of my mercy. He protects her and forgives her, when the rest of the world condemns her - And in doing that, he lifts her up. He lifts her up out of the gutter where everyone else had put her and gives her forgiveness and peace - And that is God's self-expression - God is the one who ignores the whispers and the innuendos and the judgments of the smug. God is the one who forgives sinners, and welcomes them and lifts them up - And gives them peace God is the one who comforts the hurting, and defends the lowly and stands up for the outcasts. God is the one who goes to the cross and takes on beatings and torture and death for those same sinners - Not to glorify the sin, but to forgive it. To give a hopeless, weeping woman a new life - To give a blind man new sight. To give sinners new hope. That's how God best expresses himself.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
|
