<html><body>Part 1 for Sunday - two baptisms, an infant and an adult, unrelated.<div><br></div><div>Bob</div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">THE
EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY THE FOURTH
SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">1 KINGS
21:1-21a PROPER
6 c<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">GALATIANS
2:15-21 12<sup>th</sup> JUNE, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">LUKE
7:36 – 8:3 PSALM 5:1-8<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> It’s interesting what we gloss over
with hardly a second thought. Take this morning’s Gospel story, for instance.
There’s something unstated, but which makes complete sense when it’s pointed
out. As Kenneth Bailey wrote out, “The story assumes that before the drama
opens, the woman had heard Jesus proclaiming the message of grace for sinners.
The entire account makes no sense without this assumption.” <sup>1</sup> Bailey
quotes an eleventh century scholar from Baghdad, Ibn al-Tayyib who wrote,
“There is no doubt that the woman previously heard the preaching of the Christ
and was deeply moved by it and believed, and repented and was anticipating a
chance to make visible her thanks to the Christ and to confirm forgiveness for
her sins and the salvation of herself.” <sup>2</sup><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> This changes the whole picture. This
wasn’t a woman who happened by the house of Simon the Pharisee by chance and
saw Jesus at dinner, or heard His voice, and made her way straight to Him.
Well, maybe that last part is accurate. She did make a beeline for Jesus as he
reclined at dinner, as leaders did. But surely we can see that she wouldn’t
have been wandering around the village with an alabaster jar of perfume in her
pocket in the off chance she’d like to pour it on someone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> No, this was planned.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> But what’s really striking – about
the story, and for our life here in Albany and the lives of everyone who lives
here – what’s really striking is that the first part of the story was over before
she even crossed on to Simon’s property. Either she’d heard Jesus Himself talk,
or she’d had a friend tell her what Jesus had said. She’d heard and believed
that God isn’t interested in crushing people like flies for being so annoying
and willful. She’d heard that <b><u>ALL</u></b>
sinners were able to be forgiven; <b><u>ALL</u></b>,
with no exceptions. The woman determined to turn her life around, to live
according to both the letter and the spirit of the law, and it was as if a huge
weight had been lifted from her. She became liberated.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> I don’t know how possible it is for
us to understand just what liberation such as this really feels like. I suppose
one way might be to have undergone cancer treatment and to be cancer-free five,
ten, fifteen years later. Surely that would lift a weight from our shoulders,
to hear a health-care provider say that it seems as if we’ve been renewed. Or
if some new surgical technique had been developed to restore vision or hearing
after spending time blind or deaf, especially if one had been led to believe
that there was no way on earth that vision or hearing could be restored.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> Maybe now we can start to get some
idea of what the woman felt like. She’d been ostracised from the community. She
wasn’t included in anything that was going on. If she walked into a home, or
the market, or the synagogue, people would shy away from her, possibly make a
path for her so that they wouldn’t have to touch her or to speak to her.
Imagine what it would be like to go from some situation where no one praised
you and everyone criticised you and looked down on you, to go from that to a
place where she was welcomed, where there were smiles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> But that’s not quite where that
woman was that dinner time. We have to backup a moment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> Jesus had been invited to Simon’s
house. Why? Because Simon asked him. But why did Simon ask Him? Well, because
it was a trap. Jesus was there to be quizzed on the appropriateness of His
speech and behaviour. The Pharisees to show Him who was the boss, who set the
agendas in town. So when Jesus arrived, He was insulted, deliberately. As
Bailey points out, if we go to a house, or a meeting, or even church, the host
says, “Hello, John, it’s nice to see you. Wouldn’t you like to come in? May I
take your coat? Wouldn’t you like to sit down? May I bring you a cup of
coffee?” Then, if the host turns off the TV, that’s a sure sign that the guest
is welcome and that the host’s prepared to spend time with the guest. <sup>3</sup><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> To omit this entire scenario would
be a calculated insult. It would be making a point not only to the guest, but
to anyone else in the room that the guest was unwelcome, was unworthy, was to
be treated like dirt.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> And that’s precisely what happened
to Jesus. There was no water to bathe His feet and His hands when He arrived,
no olive oil to rub them as we would with a good, scented soap nowadays.
Nothing to make Jesus welcome or comfortable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> The woman was already there, though.
She saw what they were doing, and she must have been appalled. The One from
God, who talked of peace, of healing, of forgiveness, of complete
reconciliation with and acceptance by God; the One of whom prophets had spoken
and for whom everyone was watching. He was in the living room, and they were
mocking Him. So she did what they were supposed to have done. She <b><u>HAD</u></b> meant to give her utmost
thanks for her freedom, to perfume His hands with the ointment, perhaps. But
she broke every rule. She uncovered her hair; she kissed His feet; she washed
them with her tears; she dried them with her hair; she spread the ointment on
His feet lavishly – all because she’d heard Him or someone else talk about
Jesus describing God’s love and welcoming acceptance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> Did she understand what Jesus had
said? Not all of it, I’m sure. But the vocabulary, the tone of voice, Jesus’
gestures would have said enough. So she came to give thanks, to show how she’d
taken Jesus at His word.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> What was Simon’s problem? He seems
to have enjoyed at least a little prosperity. He was respected enough by the
Pharisees that they had him invite Jesus into his home. Or were the other
Pharisees just using him to play their game?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><br></div></body></html>