“Will Simon Change?”

Lectionary 11 C 2007

Luke 7:36-8:3

              Seven years ago, I had an experience that changed my life, my faith, and my attitude toward others.  I was on a sabbatical leave and one of the things I did was volunteer one night a week at the Our Savior’s Homeless Shelter on Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis.  I didn’t know what to expect, but I thought it would be an interesting experience.  I was not disappointed.  I would arrive at the shelter around five o’clock and work until 10:00pm.  I would go to the front door, ring the doorbell, and they would let me in.  My supervisor was a young woman who was a junior at Augsburg College.  She would give me my jobs, like changing the bedding on some of the beds, washing and drying sheets and towels.  Sometimes I sat at the front desk and let the residents into the building.  At that time, the residents would stay up to 30 days, working with the advocates to find a job, save money, and find more permanent housing. 

              The thing I enjoyed the most was sitting around eating and talking with the residents.  I was interested in learning about their life stories, their background, what did they did for a living, what led them to be homeless.  My attitude at first was they must be irresponsible people, addicts, or troublemakers.  What I found out was that most were ordinary people who experienced some kind of trouble in their life that put them out on the street, like the loss of a job, a divorce, a medical crisis.  The director of the shelter, Sandy Aslakson, said that most people can handle one crisis in their life, but when they are hit with two or three crisis at a time, it becomes overwhelming and that leads to homelessness.  I began to think of my own life and family and realized at that time that, if I lost my job, I was really only three or four paychecks away from homelessness.  What really impressed me was the faith that some of the people had and shared with me.  There was one woman who would knit after supper.  I remember her saying to me, “God has been so good to me in the past.  I know that God will deliver me from this present trial.”

              I believe God uses these kinds of experiences to mold and shape us into the kind of people that God wants us to be: loving, caring, and merciful.  When we come to know the love, mercy, and grace of God through God’s Son Jesus, and accept it in faith, our lives are changed and we become new and different people.  We become the people of God in the world.

              After reading the gospel lesson for today, I began to wonder if this is what could happen to Simon, the Pharisee.  Would Simon change after his experience with Jesus?  Simon invited Jesus over to his house for supper, but he had no idea what to expect, or what was going to happen.  While they were reclining at the table eating, a woman comes into the room.  She is not just any woman, but “a woman in the city, who was a sinner.”  My take is that she was a prostitute.  She came into the house to see Jesus and do for him the most loving, caring thing, anoint him with ointment.  Moved with such emotion, she stood behind Jesus at his feet crying, washing his feet with her tears and drying them with her hair.  She continued to kiss Jesus’ feet and anoint them.  Simon was more than annoyed by this woman.  She was breaking all the taboos of society.  First of all, she was a woman in the company of men.  She also touched Jesus very sensuously, taking her hair down to dry his feet.  The act of washing feet was also a task that a slave or servant would do, so she casting herself in that kind of a role.  And again, “she was a sinner.”  Jesus also annoyed Simon by allowing her to do this to him.  He thought if Jesus was a prophet, he would know what kind of a woman she was.  Jesus should have known better and sent her away.  But instead of responding the way Simon expected, Jesus does the unexpected.  He knows what’s going on in Simon’s head, what his thoughts were.  Jesus is indeed a prophet, but after what Jesus says to him, Simon probably wished that he wasn’t.

              Jesus tells Simon a parable about canceling debts.  When asked by Jesus which of the two debtors would love the creditor more, Simon answers correctly by saying the one who had the most debt cancelled.  Jesus then tells Simon to look at this woman and uses her for a teachable moment.  She will teach him about being forgiven, about receiving grace, about love and hospitality, something that Simon failed to do.  Jesus says to Simon, “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.”  What Simon fails to realize is that he too is a sinner in need of forgiveness, in need of mercy, in need of grace.  And because he fails to see that in himself, he fails to show love, mercy, and grace to others, especially to Jesus.  But this woman, who is a sinner, realizes the forgiveness given, the mercy provided, the grace granted, and reflects this change in her life through a selfless act of love.  The good news of God’s kingdom was proclaimed to her, and in the presence of Simon, “Your sins are forgiven.”

              I wonder if this encounter with Jesus had any effect on Simon.  Would Simon change and become a new and different person, like the woman in the city, who was a sinner?  To me the story is more about Simon than it is about the woman, for the parable and teaching moment is directed toward him.  Will Simon see and admit that he is also a sinner in need of forgiveness?  Will he accept the grace that God offers so that his life might be changed?   Does he see the need to become a new and different person and live his life as God wants it to be lived?  I wonder what would happen if Simon saw this woman the next day on one of the streets of their little village?  Would he cross over to the other side, or would he speak to her?  Would he see himself, like her, as a forgiven sinner and extend a hand of welcome or a kind word of hospitality?  Would Simon change?

              We are not told how Simon reacted after this event.  It’s an open-ended story that leaves us up to our own conclusions.  What is important is how this story effects us and whether or not the gospel message of Jesus can change us and make us into new and different people.  At the heart of the gosple message is the acknowledgement and confession that I am a sinner, that you are a sinner.  That is, perhaps the hardest part, admitting our sinful nature before God and before one another.  The next step is receiving and accepting the forgiveness of God that God has already provided for us through his Son Jesus Christ.  Through his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, our sins are forgiven and we are given a new life, now and into eternity.  The act of salvation is already accomplished.  God’s change agent is this:  “Your sins are forgiven.”  Set free from guilt and shame, from sins past and present, we go out from this place to see and to meet other as we see ourselves, as forgiven sinners.  There his love leads us to forgive as we have been forgiven, to accept as we have been accepted, to deal with one another as God deals with us.

              This forgiveness and grace comes to us today in a very special way.  As you extend your hand you will receive the bread of life.  As the wine is poured you will share in the cup of salvation.  Jesus invites you to the Lord’s Table, sinners of every kind, each one of us.  Upon receiving his grace, Jesus says to you, as he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”  Amen.