We are Nineveh...

I'm indebted to the work of Rev. Stephen Brown, the writing of Paul Janssen of the Poscack Reformed Church, and the insights of Beth Tanner in putting this week's sermon together.

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

Mark 1:14-20

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea-for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Our Old Testament reading today, from the book of Jonah, is interesting for what it leaves out. Jonah is told to go and prophesy in the streets of Ninevah, and because of his preaching the people repent and God’s mind is changed. Jonah is a hero, Ninevah becomes a city faithful to God, and everyone lives happily ever after.

The whole story is a lot more interesting. The book of Jonah is only four chapters, so if you haven’t ever read through it, spend a few minutes with it this afternoon, but the whole story is that Jonah isn’t much of a hero at all. He’s, well, kind of a jerk, to be honest.

See, Jonah is a Hebrew, in the land of Israel. When God first tells him to go to Ninevah and preach, he actually runs in the opposite direction, hopping a ship to Tarshish.

A storm comes, and in order to save the lives of the sailors he’s thrown overboard at his own request, God sends a big fish to swallow him, Jonah repents while in the fish, which spits him up onto dry land… and that’s where the reading picks up.

God tells Jonah a second time to go and proclaim a message of destruction to Ninevah. Can you imagine what it would have looked like? You’re in your yard, and here’s this guy, he’s been sloshing around in digestive juices and fish parts for three days, and he walks up to you and tells you, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

The next day you’re over at the market, and this same guy goes past – you know it’s the same guy without even turning around, because, well, he smells like he has been sloshing around in digestive juices and fish parts for three days, right? All he says as he goes by is “Thirty-nine days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

So the next day you have to go downtown and pay a tax on some sheep you sold. Sure enough, same guy goes by. He doesn’t smell any better. “Thirty-eight days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

It’s likely that Jonah would have gotten your attention. Maybe you’d have made fun of him. Maybe you’d have been afraid of him. Maybe he would have made you angry – who is he, after all, to come here smelling like fish guts and telling us our wonderful city is going to fall?

It is far, far less likely that his message would hit home, and you’d believe his words. Amazingly enough, though, this is exactly the reaction of all of Ninevah!

Reading from the third chapter, “When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.’”

What is even stranger than that, even more amazing, even more wonderful… “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.”

God’s mind was changed!

And here we get to the root of Jonah’s problem, what makes him, well, like I said, kind of a jerk: God changed his mind, and this made Jonah furious!

Jonah is, after all, a prophet, and as a prophet he sees things more deeply than others… and I can imagine that, as he was walking half-heartedly up and down the streets of Ninevah, day after day, “Thirty-seven days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown… thirty-six days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown… thirty-five days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown…” as he began to encounter people in sackcloth and ashes, fasting and repenting, crying out to God for mercy and forgiveness, he got angrier and angrier – in fact, the original Hebrew reads, roughly, “it was evil to Jonah, a great evil, and his anger burned.” –  because he knew full well what was coming… and it just… wasn’t… fair!

Jonah knew, after all, who the Ninevites really are:  not just enemies of his Israel, who would rejoice if every Israelite were ground into the dust.

They were bloodthirsty wretches, the kind of people who would just as soon slit your throat as shake your hand.  He knows the kinds of things they do:  sacrifice children to their idols, kill old people and toss them outside the city wall where the vultures and dogs can lick their bones clean. He knows that Nineveh has a reputation for ruthlessness, for devising ever more elaborate and gruesome methods of torture in order to produce fear in the hearts of all their enemies.

Jonah knows what they deserve.  They deserve to be punished, ransacked, destroyed, wiped off the face of the earth.  No mercy.  Just vengeance. 

That’s why he doesn’t want them to repent.  Nineveh used up its last chance 1,000 chances ago.  Which is why Jonah doesn’t want God to repent, either.  Why should God have mercy on them?  Why should God let them off the hook?  What would a little sackcloth and ashes do to atone for the tens of thousands of innocents the Ninevites had killed?  What kind of God would do such a thing – forgive the worst of the worst?

And yet… that’s just what God did. The God of Second Chances, the God who gave Jonah a second chance, gave Nineveh their second chance as well… And Jonah hit the roof. “I knew it! I told you this was gonna happen! You want to know why I ran to Tarshish? This! Man, God, you’re all gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and I knew you’d change your mind! It just isn’t fair! You know what? Just kill me, OK?”

Jonah knows full well what God should be like: God should know who does right, and who does wrong, and should automatically dispense blessings to the good and punishment to the evil. 

It isn’t God should be angry:  just the opposite. In Jonah’s mind, God should be dispassionate, uncaring, detached, acting and reacting in coldly logical and predictable ways. In other words, to Jonah, God should be exactly like the pagan gods that the Ninevites worship, not a caring God who is slow to anger. Not a God who cares, loves, and forgives… at least not to people other than Jonah’s own, the Israelites!

Jonah wants a safe, predictable, consistent God, not a God who is passionate, reckless, extreme. But of course God gets angry.

God’s anger is not a “miffed” kind of anger. It isn’t a petty, petulant or self-interested anger, God’s anger doesn’t work the way Jonah’s anger – or the way our anger – works. Jonah gets angry when things don’t go his way, and that should sound very familiar to all of us.

God’s anger – God’s wrath – is passionate, deep, burning, from down-in-the-gut. Here’s the thing, though: Though we expect God’s wrath to be the catalyst for fire from heaven, though we are told by this televangelist and that talk show host that God’s wrath is the cause of this natural disaster or that disease, what we find is that God’s wrath the energizing force that kindles the ferocity of God’s love, the love that doesn’t whimper like a kitty but roars like a lion. When we say that God is love, what we are in fact proclaiming is that God is passionate, reckless, extreme. God will be God.  A God who will sometimes repent, and sometimes not.  But who will always love.  Always, love.

At the end of the book of Jonah, he’s suicidal because a worm eats a vine that was giving him shade – yet he wasn’t at all concerned for the thousands whose lives were saved by their sincere repentance. In fact, he was camping out there, outside of Nineveh, in hopes that God would switch back and destroy the city anyway.

The Book of Jonah ends without a resolution. God teaches Jonah a lesson about compassion, but we don’t ever really know if the lesson took… and this is, in its own way, good news. Good news because the one thing we know when we leave Jonah, crying in the dust over a withered vine, is that God is not done with him. This reckless love, this extreme compassion, this passionate mercy that has enraged this prophet is now gently, or not so gently, leading a disappointed Jonah into a new and deeper understanding – a new and deeper relationship – with the living God.

My prayer is that this God of Second Chances, who is so loving and patient and forgiving of Ninevah, and of Jonah, will be just as loving and patient and forgiving of me… of all of us. Because, after all…

We are Nineveh. We are in a bad way.

We have lived our own way, believing we could have what ever we wanted, buying whatever we desired, possessing whatever tickled our fancies.

We have lived our own way, building our mansions away from the riffraff, borrowing for what we can’t really afford.

We are Nineveh. We are in a bad way.

We have lived our own way. We have trusted in our might, building armies to keep us safe, guarding against those who threaten our treasures.

We have lived our own way. Keeping strangers at arms length, constructing fences to hold back aliens, being wary of the foreigner.

We are Nineveh. We are in a bad way.

We have lived our own way. Treating our families as optional commodities, marriages as throw-away pleasures, children as showy playthings.

We have lived our own way. Caring for our parents out of obligation, putting them in homes for our convenience, waiting for our inheritance.

We are Nineveh. We are in a bad way.

Gracious God, God of Second Chances, forgive us.

May we be thankful for our daily bread and share our wealth. May we be satisfied in our humble abode and rejoice in the Lord’s house.

Gracious God, forgive us.

May we turn our swords into plowshares, and trust in the arm of the Lord. May we welcome the stranger and minister to the least of these.

Gracious God, forgive us.

May we treat our families as holy things, and treasure every relationship. May we honor our mothers and fathers all the days of our lives.

Gracious God, forgive us.

Amen.

Forgive Us Our Debts As We Forgive Our Debtors...

In its way, this is a 9/11 sermon. How could it be anything else? My heartfelt thanks to the work of Sharron R. Blezard, Rosemary Thornton, Connie Knighton, and many others in writing this sermon.

Exodus 14:19-31
The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. At the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the LORD is fighting for them against Egypt.”
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.“ So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the LORD tossed the Egyptians into the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.
Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great work that the LORD did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the LORD and believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

Romans 14:1-12
Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.
We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.”
So then, each of us will be accountable to God.

Matthew 18:21-35
Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.
“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

This is the Word of the Lord.

Just like we do every Sunday, you and I are going to recite the Lord’s Prayer following the Prayers of the People today. If you’re like me, you’ve been hearing the prayer since about nine months before you were born, and reciting it since you learned to talk. There’s a line in the Lord’s Prayer that pertains to the Gospel reading today. In fact, when you think about it, it’s a little frightening: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

I love talking about forgiveness, about how deep the grace of God is, to forgive us of our sin and how wide the love of God is, to welcome us into the Kingdom and into eternal relationship through Jesus Christ.

“Forgive us our debts… as we forgive our debtors.”

Anytime we venture into the realm of forgiveness – and I mean the necessity to forgive others based upon the fact that we ourselves are forgiven so much – we tend to step lightly, to try and be careful, not hurt feelings, not start arguments. Forgiveness is messy work, hard, backbreaking, and very often thankless toil… not to mention the fear of forcing someone to make a dangerous choice in the guise of forgiveness – forcing an abused spouse back into a violent relationship, for example.

“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

Forgiveness, for the Christian, is not optional. Throughout Scripture, we learn two things about forgiveness: First, we are to seek the forgiveness of others – for example, Matthew 5: 23 and 24, where Jesus says, “Suppose you are offering your gift at the altar. And you remember that your brother has something against you. Leave your gift in front of the altar. First go and make peace with your brother. Then come back and offer your gift.” Second, we are to forgive, and to do so extravagantly, egregiously, vastly. Our Gospel reading today is just one of the illustrations of exactly how far we are expected to go when forgiving.

We are told of a slave who is brought before the king to pay an impossible debt. Ten thousand talents was equivalent to the lifetime earnings of three thousand people – something like twelve billion dollars in this day and age. Not so much if you are a corporation getting a bailout, or a country, I guess, but for a common worker? And a slave at that? It’s almost hilarious that, in pleading for himself and his family, he promises to pay it all back.

And the king forgave the debt. Just like that, the specter of a short, hard life of pain, spent in some mine shaft, his family sold into slavery and a world away, all that crushing hopelessness, that’s what twelve billion dollars of debt meant, and in an instant, it was all gone!

Imagine all the credit cards in your wallet maxed out, your bank account’s overdraft has broken the national debt ceiling, your mortgage is hopelessly behind and so far underwater you can see the fish, Operation Repo, Lizard Lick Towing and Dog the Bounty Hunter are looking for your car, and you just found out you are at the top of the IRS’ “Most Wanted” list. One day, a log black limo pulls up, and Donald Trump steps out. He tells you that he has acquired the bank, the mortgage company, the loan office, and the credit card companies you owe money to, and he’s here to collect, or else. The Sheriff’s Department pulls up, and they aren’t happy. Behind them are the Men In Black from the IRS, and they’re less happy.

Then, just as the deputies are pulling out the cuffs, Trump says, “Y’know what? Never mind. I’m cancelling your debts. Have a nice day.” He climbs back in his limo, the Sheriff’s deputies drive away, the black Suburbans carry off the IRS agents…

How would you feel?

And how on Earth, with this slave having been forgiven so much, could he not turn right around and give the guy who owed him what today would have been eight thousand dollars? Sure, eight grand is a lot, but in comparison to billions? Really? Do you blame the king for taking back his forgiveness and throwing that fellow in debtor’s prison? The very idea!

And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the lesson is not about kings and slaves, but about God and us. We have been forgiven. The price paid was more than we can imagine: Jesus’ death on the cross. And as a response, we cannot do anything but forgive.

“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

CS Lewis said, “Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive.” And isn’t it the truth? I mean, surely God understands that, well, in most cases, yes, we should forgive, but what this person or those people or that company or that agency did to me, well, it is unforgiveable! There’s no way God can really expect me to lay aside my hurt, my anger, my righteous indignation!

“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtor.”
Think, for a moment, about the psychology behind unforgiveness. When we hold on to a wrong committed against us, we ruminate on it, we turn it over and over in our mind. Our anger smolders, our bitterness ripens, and our grudges grow like kudzu. We curve inward, consumed by the injustice we harbor—whether real, perceived, or a little bit of both. Our view of the world and the other becomes warped and clouded. Our bitterness takes on a precious but poisonous tang. Studies have shown that cortisol – a hormone produced by stress – increases in the bloodstream. Our blood pressure rises. Our heart rate increases. Our immune system is even compromised! Nelson Mandela said “Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting on it to kill your enemy.”

There are group therapies, individual therapies, self-help books galore on the subject of forgiveness. It’s a big deal psychologically, and spiritually.

Oh yes, make no mistake, there is a spiritual aspect to unforgiveness as well. It is an inescapable fact that whatever we think most about – whatever commands our emotions, our reflections, whatever we are most passionate about – has become an object of worship. And if the object of our worship is anything other than the living God, we are committing idolatry, pure and simple.

So if unforgiveness is bad for our health… if unforgiveness is detrimental to our relationship with the one true and living Creator, it makes sense that we, who are forgiven so much, should in turn practice forgiveness all the time and everywhere, as frequently and naturally as breathing.

But forgiveness isn’t at all natural, is it? Revenge, punishment, recompense, these are the natural reactions when we are offended in one way or another. “Fight or flight” responses are thought, by some psychologists and scientist types, to be leftovers from the days when reacting quickly to stressful situations – like being attacked by a saber-toothed tiger – was, well, life and death. And there are, of course, many situations where fight-or-flight reactions can save our lives.

But nursing a grudge – fantasizing about revenge – wanting someone to hurt like they have hurt you? There is no good that can come from it, and if we are honest, we can admit that we know it.

“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

How? How do we forgive?

For the Christian, forgiveness is very much a spiritual discipline. And like all disciplines, forgiveness takes time, effort, and practice.

It’s a hard fact to swallow, but the resentment we feel toward someone who has wronged us doesn’t harm him or her in the slightest. Chances are, they’ve gone on with life and hasn't given it another thought. So let yourself off the hook! The Aramaic word for "forgive" means literally to "untie." The fastest way to free yourself from the physical and psychological and spiritual poison of holding a grudge is to forgive. Untie the bindings and loosen yourself from that person's ugliness. Release yourself from the resentment and bitterness that ties you to the person responsible for your pain. Your forgiveness enables you to start walking away from him or her and the pain.

This is key: forgiveness is for you and not the other party. Freeing yourself through forgiveness is like freeing yourself from chains of bondage or from prison.

A word of caution: Forgiveness does not equal trust. Nothing requires us to trust a person who has caused us harm, who hasn’t acknowledged that harm, and who continues acting in harmful ways. This person isn't likely to ever be trustworthy -- you must keep a distance. Acknowledge; move on.

Simply put, an offender who wants reconciliation must do his or her part: offer a sincere apology, promise not to repeat the offense (or similar ones), make amends, and give it time. If you don't see repentance, well, again, move on. Forgiving that person is a benefit to yourself, but balance that forgiveness against the certain knowledge that evil exists, and some people enjoy harming others, and those people should be avoided.

There are over one point six million results when you type “How do we forgive” into Google, and I hesitate to offer myself as some kind of authority on the mechanics of forgiveness. All I have are broad suggestions.

Suggestion number one is to retrain our thinking about a person, a group of people, a situation, a company, an entity that has hurt us. And retraining our thinking has a couple of different approaches. You know how, in Scripture, Romans 12:14 to be precise, Paul writes, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse”? Try it! When a person or a situation or a company or whatever has offended us comes to mind, send him or her a blessing. Wish our enemy well. Hope the best for him or her. This has two effects. One, it neutralizes that acid of hate that destroys us, individually and as a community. Two, if it is true that the evil we wish for another has a rebound effect, the same must be true for the good that we wish for another. And if the Scriptures are true, then as we make ourselves able to return blessing for hatred, we know we are becoming more like Christ, who forgave even the ones who called for his death, even the ones who nailed him to the cross. Of course it’ll feel fake, even hypocritical at first. It’s a new thing, and we will stink at it. But eventually, it’ll become a habit. And we will be untied! Free!

Suggestion number two is to learn to mentally and emotionally change the subject. One of the things I teach in sales training is how to warm up with people, develop rapport. When you’re getting to know someone in the context of a sales presentation, it’s a cardinal rule to avoid politics and religion – unless they bring it up, and then you should only proceed if you’re comfortable discussing politics or religion. If not, you can change the subject.

“Oh, you’re a practicing Satanist? Fascinating. So, that’s a nice flower arrangement, did you do it yourself?” “Ah, I see, you’re a member of the American Communist Party. Interesting. So how many grandchildren do you have?”

Similarly, we can focus on other things when we begin to ruminate over past hurts and offenses. We remind ourselves that we have made a conscious choice to forgive, and we move on. Perhaps we think of someone who was especially kind to us in the situation, or we focus on some good that came out of the situation.

“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

Y’know, mathematically speaking, the kind of forgiveness God gives to us is not rational. It is an unequal equation of which we are the beneficiaries. Like the slave in the parable, there is no way we can ever repay the debt we owe. We are totally and completely reliant on divine love, grace, and forgiveness. Thanks be to God that heavenly math is different from what I learned in school. And in seeing what I have been forgiven of, I am humbled and challenged by what God requires of me in forgiving my neighbor and my enemy—not just from my rational self but from my broken, wounded, and very human heart. Yes, it’s hard. Yes, I will make mistakes. I never was very good in math; I pray that through continued practice I become better at forgiveness.

Let us pray.

Oh God,
Give us hearts of compassion where we seek an understandable revenge.
Open our minds to your wider justice.
Help us not to fear those who would kill our bodies but those who would maim and ruin our souls.

(prayer for individuals)

(The Lord's Prayer)

Amen

At the Feet of Christ

A very short one; I think sometimes the Scriptures need very little commentary. The contrasts between the folks we meet in our readings today kind of speak for themselves in many ways.

1 Kings 21:1-21a
Later the following events took place: Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. And Ahab said to Naboth, "Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house; I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money." But Naboth said to Ahab, "The LORD forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance." Ahab went home resentful and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him; for he had said, "I will not give you my ancestral inheritance." He lay down on his bed, turned away his face, and would not eat.

His wife Jezebel came to him and said, "Why are you so depressed that you will not eat?" He said to her, "Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, 'Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard for it'; but he answered, 'I will not give you my vineyard.'" His wife Jezebel said to him, "Do you now govern Israel? Get up, eat some food, and be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite."
So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal; she sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who lived with Naboth in his city.

She wrote in the letters, "Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth at the head of the assembly; seat two scoundrels opposite him, and have them bring a charge against him, saying, 'You have cursed God and the king.' Then take him out, and stone him to death." The men of his city, the elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them. Just as it was written in the letters that she had sent to them, they proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the head of the assembly. The two scoundrels came in and sat opposite him; and the scoundrels brought a charge against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, "Naboth cursed God and the king." So they took him outside the city, and stoned him to death. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, "Naboth has been stoned; he is dead."

As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, "Go, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead." As soon as Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab set out to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.

Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: Go down to meet King Ahab of Israel, who rules in Samaria; he is now in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. You shall say to him, "Thus says the LORD: Have you killed, and also taken possession?" You shall say to him, "Thus says the LORD: In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your blood."

Ahab said to Elijah, "Have you found me, O my enemy?" He answered, "I have found you. Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the LORD, I will bring disaster on you; I will consume you, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel;

Galatians 2:15-21

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

Luke 7:36-8:3

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.


This is the Word of the Lord.

The Pharisees have a pretty bad reputation in the Gospels. Honestly, it’s a reputation they come by honestly for the way they work against Jesus at every turn. Yet however badly they turned out, the origin of the movement was sincere: to be as faithful as possible to the Law of God, as handed down to them in the Scriptures.
Pharisees like Simon strove to be as faithful as they could be, carefully, one might say obsessively, working to observe the smallest detail of those dietary and ceremonial laws passed down from Moses, keeping themselves separated from anyone and anything that might bring uncleanness upon them.

Compare this carefully pious man with the woman who came into the dining room just moments after they had reclined on their couches to eat: it was customary, by the way, for guests to lay on their left side, knees bent so their feet hung off the couch behind them. This woman, who in Luke’s account has no name, never says a word. She had her own reputation – Luke calls her merely “a sinner,” but one with means enough to buy expensive ointment in a costly box.

Simon may have heard about Jesus raising the widow’s son, or may have overheard him preaching in the town’s marketplace, we don’t know. Whatever the case, he took it upon himself to have Jesus over for dinner, so he could get a closer look at the fellow. Was he a prophet, a man of God, or just another in a long line of rabble-rousers, intent on overthrowing Roman rule and “restoring” David’s throne, with he himself sitting in it?

Interesting, isn’t it, knowing as we do who Jesus was and is, that a Pharisee would have been checking Jesus out, making sure he measured up to expectations. One could make the argument that Simon was looking for reasons to discount Jesus as a prophet or potential Messiah; after all, isn’t it the case that when we claim to be making sure someone else measures up, what we’re really doing is looking for the ways in which someone else does not measure up?

This woman, who is washing Jesus’ feet with her tears and drying them with her hair, might have heard Jesus at the same time as Simon. She may have seen Jesus at a different time, though, speaking with her friends, eating with sinners like her; perhaps she had seen sight restored to the blind or a sick person healed by a touch from Jesus. Whatever the case, this woman knew that it wasn’t a question of Jesus measuring up to her expectations – the fact was that, deep down, she knew she had no hope of measuring up to such hope and love as Jesus personified.

And the nerve of this Jesus fellow, to allow such an unseemly display! Why, if he were really a prophet, he’d know the kind of woman he’s allowing to act that way, and he would certainly not allow the likes of her to touch him! Horrifying!

What Jesus says in response describes the contrast between the Pharisee and the woman perfectly: “her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”

Think about it: by their very nature, the Pharisees depended on their superior knowledge of the Law, their careful habits and attention to minute detail, to keep them in a place of acceptability toward God. Since they were, in effect, doing everything themselves, there was, in effect, not much need for God to help them. They had things under control just fine, thanks. Whereas they had originally sought to please God by their piety, their efforts had in fact become a replacement for God – they could be good enough without forgiveness… they had works, so who needed faith?

All too often we fall into the trap of thinking we are good enough – that because of where we’re born, or how often we attend church, or the sins we do not commit, we are somehow acceptable to God. We find ourselves thinking, like Simon, that we measure up when, in fact, we should be sharing the floor with the weeping woman, sure of nothing except the fact that we need forgiveness.

One of the most fascinating things about Scripture is how readily we can find the sharp divide between our expectations – be they theological, cultural, or political – and the reality of life in Jesus Christ. For example, our readings today bring us in contact with another Pharisee, one who had, at the outset, sought the destruction of the men and women who followed this itinerant Rabbi whose feet had been anointed with the contents of the woman’s alabaster box. Paul had dedicated his life to being the most observant, most holy, most dedicated of all the Pharisees, had sought the instruction of the most famous of teachers, had been above reproach in his knowledge of and adherence to the Law.

Yet as we read this passage in Galatians, we do not meet a man who has reached perfection by his own actions, do we? Rather, we see a man who has looked at himself not in comparison to stringent rules and regulations, but in comparison to the holiness and perfection of God-made-flesh: and just like the woman who wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair, he has found himself in need of forgiveness. And like that weeping woman, he has found forgiveness, justification, and new life in Christ.

You see, no matter where we start from, Jesus meets us, and always at the place where we lay down our right to claim social status, or religious purity, or birthright. Kneeling at the feet of Christ, crucified with Him, and yet alive in Him.