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St. James' Episcopal Church
Jackson, Mississippi
June
17, 2001
The 2nd Sunday After Pentecost
Repentance:
The Key to Forgiveness
The Rev. William
A. Kolb
Old Testament Reading: 2 Samuel 11:26-12:10,
13-15
Gospel:
Luke 7:36-50
Two weeks ago on a day off, Sunny and I set out to find a place which
we both had heard about, the Mediterranean Grocery. I had heard that they
have sardines from Riga Latvia and because my grandfather came over from
Latvia early in the 20th century and went into business in New York City
importing sardines, I was interested in seeing them and perhaps buying
and eating them. Sunny was interested in doing some exotic grocery shopping.
So although we are new to Jackson, we set out and eventually found our
way to this diversely-stocked, special food store. We also found a lovely
middle-eastern couple, Elias and Juanna, who own and run the shop. We
had such a good time together that we ended up sitting at their one table,
talking over lunch. We discussed philosophy, theology, Mideast life, history--Elias
is a Marionite Rite Christian, Juanna is a Roman Catholic. When I told
them I was a Jewish Episcopal priest, Elias said I was not the first one
he had met. In fact, he said, his priest in Israel had been Jewish in
Germany and at some point had become a Marionite priest. I asked if the
priest had become Christian in Germany during WWII. Elias replied something
to the effect that he does not make a practice of asking too many question
about such things. "I judge people based on who they are now, not
what happened earlier in their lives." And I was immediately reminded
of this morning's Gospel reading.
In that lesson from Luke's Gospel, we hear those gathered at a social
event shaking their finger, so to speak, at Jesus. Jesus is present for
a dinner party. A woman who is a known sinner has taken it into her head
to minister to him. Without being asked, she has taken some expensive
ointment and knelt at the Lord's feet. Before she administers this soothing
lotion, the woman washes Jesus' feet with her tears and dries them with
her hair.
Many of us know, from our own experience watching or taking part in foot-washing
services on Maundy Thursday in Holy Week, that to wash the feet of another,
and to allow one's feet to be washed, is intimate and can make us feel
vulnerable. A very special and humbling act to carry out or have done
to oneself.
Despite all the incredible changes that have taken place over the last
two thousand years in the areas of technology, social relations, transportation,
nutrition and all other areas of society, human nature has not changed
much. If you and I find washing someone's feet humbling, and I know I
do, then we can be pretty sure that it was humbling for the woman.
What a wonderfully personal and intimate way for her to minister. This
woman nurtures and thanks Jesus for all that he has brought to her life,
and she does it in the most open and giving way possible. This woman,
branded a sinner by her fellow townspeople, has evolved through the events
and reflections and learnings of her life to the point where she can be
on the surface all that she is within. She can weep in gratitude, she
can be humble in the presence of those who would shame her, she knows
what she believes in and is more than willing to witness to it. Wow.
Or take King David in this morning's Old Testament reading. This past
week the old movie, "David and Bathsheba," with Victor Mature
and Susan Hayward, played on television. As you know, this is the story
of a man with great worldly power, who has one of his soldiers sent to
a dangerous field of battle where the man is killed. Soon after, King
David takes the dead man's wife into his own household as his wife. When
confronted about this by the prophet Nathan's accusation, the King is
repentant and seeks God's forgiveness. He pays a price for the evil he
has done, as we all must, but he continues one of God's favorites.
It is David - clearly having abused his power and clearly having sinned
- who after the transformation that comes from true repentance, is forgiven
and adored by God. And it is the woman from our Gospel reading, the person
she is now, as a result of all that she has done, been, learned, suffered
- it is this woman whom Jesus forgives and loves and affirms. He deals
with her as she is now. He forgives all her past sins and rejoices, celebrates
all that she has become.
To quote The Rev. Dr. Phillip Turner, former Dean of the Berkeley Divinity
School at Yale and guest lecturer at our Mississippi Clergy conference
this past week at Gray Center, "the basis of all Christian living
is repentance." If that is true, then there is no more important
rite of passage on the spiritual journey than for us to look inward and
find need of God. That transformation from the hubris with which we are
born to the humility that can come only from God, is more important to
our soul than any sins we may have committed on the way to that growth
of spiritual self.
There is natural resistance, I think, to teachings that sins can be forgiven
and one's slate can be wiped clean. So much of Scripture portrays thoughts,
words and acts that we recognize as being part of ourselves; the reaction
when we hear that Jesus just plain forgives sinners is no exception. Like
the Pharisees at the dinner table, we all say, at least once in awhile,
"who is this who even forgives sins?" We find ourselves uncomfortable
when we hear that unconditional forgiveness -- Grace -- is always available.
Part of that may be because of our difficulty in forgiving ourselves.
But I think there is also for many of us an instinctive reaction to declarations
of blanket and unconditional forgiveness. After all, if the Church says
anything can be forgiven, what's to keep us sinners from running wild?
What's to keep society from unraveling? Surely the leaders of the exodus
community found the Ten Commandments helpful in keeping that mobile nation
under control during their long trek to the Promised Land. So it seems
to me that forgiveness that the Church declares, especially when repentance
is not emphasized, is not always received as good news. And that is a
perfect example of why it is a life-changing proposition for us to take
our Christianity seriously. As long as we don't have to actually live
out the more uncomfortable truths of our faith all is well. But let the
church declare, for example, that Timothy McVeigh should not be executed
and watch us squirm. The fact is that God is a bigger forgiver than we
are sinners. Or as St. Paul put it, there is nothing that I can do that
can separate me from the love of God.
Another important thing about God's forgiveness is that while it frees
us, it also serves God's needs. When we accept Grace and incorporate forgiveness
into the depths of our being, we are more alive and more free to be what
God wants us to be, and to do what God wants us to do.
There is a perverse side to some of us that makes it very difficult for
us to accept God's forgiveness for this or that about which we feel guilt.
Accepting God's forgiveness requires that we forgive ourselves.
The woman about whom we hear in this morning's Gospel reading has clearly
worked through all her guilt - and she had to feel some guilt if she had
repented - because she has clearly appropriated God's forgiveness and
has a free enough soul to love and weep and minister to others. Guilt
keeps us from doing all kinds of things.
I always find it difficult to articulate this last point - but let me
try. Our unwillingness to forgive ourselves is a form of pride. It is
very subtle, but when we refuse to accept God's forgiveness, we are, first,
overruling God's judgment - a characteristic of humanity that goes all
the way back to Adam. And secondly, our attitude says that we are too
good to do bad things. We are
above such things. Refusing forgiveness is the same as denying responsibility.
The problem is that until we know that we are sinners by nature, we have
not really begun our spiritual journey. We are unable to receive the healing
and life-giving nurture to our soul that comes with God's forgiveness.
Repentance and humility are balm to our soul and forgiveness automatically
follows.
We are imperfect human beings, created by God and loved unconditionally
by God. We cannot help but make mistakes and bad decisions in this life.
At many points along our way we have the chance to take a long look at
ourselves. We have a chance, in the words of St. Luke in his deeply universal
story of the Prodigal Son, to "come to ourselves." And this
process is a never-ending cycle that brings opportunities and needs for
repentance time and again. This is a conversion process, a transformative
watershed fork in the road of life. Forgiveness, as necessary to the soul
as food is to the body, lies just beyond that bend in the road. Richness
and peace follow. May each of us be blessed with repentance all our lives
long.
Amen.
Copyright
2001 The Rev. William A. Kolb
Old
Testament Reading: 2 Samuel
11:26-12:10, 13-15
When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband
was dead, she made lamentation for him. When the mourning was over, David
sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him
a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD, and the
LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, "There were
two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man
had very many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing but one little
ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him
and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare, and drink from
his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. Now
there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of
his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him,
but he took the poor man's lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had
come to him." Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man.
He said to Nathan, "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves
to die; he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing,
and because he had no pity." Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus
says the LORD, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and
I rescued you from the hand of Saul; I gave you your master's house, and
your master's wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel
and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much
more. Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in
his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and
have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword
of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your
house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the
Hittite to be your wife. David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against
the LORD." Nathan said to David, "Now the LORD has put away your sin;
you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly
scorned the LORD, the child that is born to you shall die." Then Nathan
went to his house. The LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to
David, and it became very ill. NRSV
Gospel:
Luke 10:1-12, 16-20
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 himÑthat 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."
NRSV
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