the Sinners sermon

Sermon preached Sunday, June 16
St. Cyprian's
The Reverend Will Scott
Luke 7:36 - 8:3
 
What is this about? Who is this about? These are pretty simple questions to ask about today’s gospel lesson. The answers are not that simple. Let’s start with the second question. Who is this about? For starters the woman with the tears and the alabaster jar of ointment is not Mary Magdalene, though don’t feel bad if that’s what you thought because you aren’t the only one, sadly countless numbers of church people for centuries since Pope Gregory have taught that mistaken notion as fact. Mary Magdalene’s got her own story which is well worth contemplating, but this story isn’t about Mary Magdalene. If you want to explore the significance of Mary Magdalene’s story, gossip surrounding her and what it says about the church’s long held sexism --- you need start nowhere closer or better than the San Francisco Opera. So this “sinful woman” is not Mary Magdalene even though Mary is mentioned later in this passage as a demon-liberated woman underwriting or bankrolling the Jesus’ movement. 

This story is also not about Mary of Bethany, either, that’s Lazarus’ sister --- but in John’s gospel there’s a story about Mary of Bethany involving Jesus feet, her hair and some expensive perfume. Confused? That’s okay. 

So we are in the Gospel According to St. Luke, who notes more often than the other canonical gospel writers the essential role of women in Jesus’ life and work. For example it is in Luke that we get the story of Jesus’ old pregnant aunt Elizabeth and his teen mother embracing and singing subversive songs to one another. The author of Luke is also said to have written Acts of the Apostles where we meet such prominent women of the Way as Lydia, Tabitha, and Phoebe. Most scholars believe that the early church was remarkably hospitable to women in leadership until this got in the way of the Church’s pursuit of power and respectability in the Roman Empire.

But we still haven’t answered the question: who is this about? We don’t have a name for this “woman of the city, who was a sinner.” We don’t know if we see her again after she leaves Simon the Pharisees house. This woman whose faith saves her, is clouded in mystery. For many reasons when folks read “woman of the city, who was a sinner” they read “prostitute.” That may or may not be the supposed sin this woman is well known for.

We also don’t know that much about Simon the Pharisee. Some people think he’s the same as Simon the Leper but if there can be so many different Marys in scripture, why can’t there be a few Simons too? I think in order to understand this guy, the host in today’s gospel, we should pay attention to how Luke describes him a number of times which is as a Pharisee. Pharisees were a sect within Judaism that emphasized the “set apart” nature of God’s people.  They were serious about the interpretation of scripture and how this translated into their personal and communal daily life and practices. Some scholars actually think Jesus himself and his followers were Pharisees.  Whether that’s true or not, we know Jesus is often in conversation with Pharisees, and usually challenges anyone who is overly self-confident about their relationship with God including and especially Pharisees. Jesus’ peculiarly charged relationship with Pharisees is likely what contributed to the second definition for Pharisee you can read in the dictionary, “a self-righteous person, a hypocrite.” Simon seems to be one of those Pharisees, a person who is walking around with an air of superiority, the first words out of his mouth reveal his attitude: “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of a woman this is who is touching him --- that she is a sinner.” This Pharisee seems to be the kind of gossip that Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Teddy Roosevelt’s only daughter would enjoy spending time with who said, “If you can't say something good about someone, sit right here by me.”

I think it is important to keep the word sinner in parentheses, in a place of question, in suspended judgment.  I think that’s what Jesus wants us to do…perhaps sinner is not really supposed to be a category of person, perhaps what Jesus would have us believe is that whatever category we may belong to, whether we are a woman of the city or a Pharisee or a child of a former president, we are capable of committing sins --- and most importantly capable of being loved, forgiven and reconciled with the Divine and each other. None of us needs to be relegated immutably to the category of sinner. None of us is a Sinner, with a capital S.  We are human beings who sin and are loved, forgiven and reconciled.

So who is this about? This is about all of us. And what is this about? About God’s extravagant embrace of humanity --- absolutely completely and totally.

I can hear the questions and the murmuring…but what about people that do wrong? What about those who are well known to be Sinners with a capital S, gang leaders, drug dealers, pimps, and prostitutes --- war mongers, murderers, greedy bankers, gamblers, terrorists, abusers, racists, sexists, and homophobes. Isn’t religion supposed to defend us against them sinners, to sort the good from the bad? What’s the point of religion if I can’t judge a few folks and find a way to keep myself clean from impurity and sin? 

WWJD? What would Jesus do? What does Jesus do in today’s gospel, he shares a parable he says…

“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.” 

As Dear Abby said so many years ago, “a church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.” So if you are going to have a category called sinner then it is probably best to include yourself in it. So today’s gospel proclamation, as it always is, is that God loves us, God forgives us, God challenges us to love ourselves, & to love others not a little but a lot.

What would it mean for St. Cyprian’s to really take these words of Jesus to heart? What if this community became known far and wide as a place that really and truly loved each and every person that walked through our doors? I don’t mean just tolerated or liked, I mean love. What would it look like for this church to really deeply embrace not just the good parts about each other, but even the tough, hard, and painful spots? What if this church expressed that love and care, that attention and respect to those who take the Bible seriously our world’s contemporary Pharisees, and those who are well known sinners? 

What if St. Cyprian’s, like Jesus, helped those who sit in judgment of others, be liberated from the demons of their own inflated egos and helped them see themselves and others as part of one human family, worthy of love, care, affection and forgiveness? What would that look like? What new folks would be welcomed into the midst of this space?

What if a big part of the history of St. Cyprian’s is one that is exactly about this very matter, what if at the heart of what people have been singing and praying about for over 90 years is about God’s great love for each and every one --- especially the most lost, mistreated, oppressed, misunderstood, abused and broken among us? What if our role is and has always been to be a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.