3 Sunday after Pentecost 6/17/2007 Text: 2 Samuel 26-12:10; 13-14 Title: Gotcha
3 Sunday after Pentecost
6/17/2007
Text: 2 Samuel 26-12:10; 13-14
Title: Gotcha
This morning’s readings, at least the Old Testament and the Gospel reading are about forgiveness. Each has its own lesson to teach. The Old Testament lesson teaches us that you can be forgiven even when you have committed adultery and murder, but there is still a price that will have to be paid.
David is forgiven, but an innocent child dies because of his sin. That strikes us hard, for our God does not do those things does he? All I can say is that God’s Word tells us that he causes the child’s death, and we are left to wrestle with that information.
You see, we cannot fathom a God who would do such a thing. We forget as we try to figure God out, that God is perfectly righteous in all he does. Whatever and however he does it there can be no doubt that he is right.
I know it is hard, and some of you sitting there this morning are saying to yourself that cannot be what the scriptures say, or that they just looked at things differently then. They did not understand diseases and such and saw everything whether it was good or bad as an act of God.
We understand things now and by our understanding we have taken God out of our lives. He is just there. He is just someone you call out to when in trouble and give thanks to when good things happen. We say when someone has a tragic accident or dies that God did not cause it.
That is what we say because we want our God to be a loving kindly old man, sort of like a really nice grandfather that fusses at us when bad, but does not really do anymore than that.
We have taken God out of our lives, at least for the most part that is for sure and because of that we do not have a good understanding of God, or Jesus, or ourselves, for that matter.
You don’t think so? Just look at your life and the lives of others that call themselves Christians. Do you, do I, do they live the lives that God tells us that his followers live? We have to admit that for the most part we do not live our lives the way God wants us to live.
We hold grudges. We think our way is the only way. We put our personal comfort ahead of sharing the Word of God. We say we are Lutherans and if our worship style gets in the way, tough luck. There are other churches they can go to, even though we all know that there are a lot of churches that do not faithfully teach the Word of God.
No, I think that our lives would be much different if in fact we all had a better understanding of our relationship with God and with each other.
David did not, that is for sure. It was not until he was struck with the law given by Nathan that he owned up to his sinfulness against God. You see his sin although it started as probably an innocent glance, turned into a planned sin, adultery, murder, and worse of all a ridiculing of God in front of all the people. There is no doubt in my mind that a lot of people knew what had take place. The way the leader goes the way the people go.
God had to make public the punishment of David so that the people would know that what David had done was wrong. The child not only died but as you read more of the text you see that there was nothing but trouble for David. His son Absalom lay with David’s concubines on the rooftop just as Nathan prophesied.
In the Old Testament reading we see forgiveness, but we also see punishment, earthly punishment for God has to keep his name Holy.
Let’s take a look now at the Gospel reading. This particular story seems to focus either on Simon who looks like he wants to trap Jesus into saying or doing something that would justify his fellow Pharisees into charging Jesus, or it seems to focus on the woman, the sinner, thought to be a prostitute, although the text does not say so.
First you have the self-righteous Pharisee Simon who gets caught in his own trap. Simon, as Jesus points out did not do any of the things a host did back then. He did not provide water for Jesus to get the dust off his feet. He did not provide oil for his hair, which not all hosts did, only those that wanted to show their love for their guest. And he did not give Jesus a kiss as was the custom when a guest arrived at your home.
Jesus tells him a story about the forgiving of debts. It is a simple story as you can see and Simon falls into the trap. He is caught. His self-righteousness is exposed for all to see. Chalk one up for Jesus.
Now let’s take a look at the woman. The custom was that when teachers were lying at the table talking that people who were interested could stand at the doorway and windows to listen. They were even allowed to sit against the walls, as long they did not distract the people conversing. Their coming to listen told everyone that the people holding the dinner conversation were important, for they had something to teach.
Evidently this woman was known by Simon. What we really want to look at in this story is what motivated her to do what she did. We know that while the Law can and does cause people to look for relief it cannot give relief. It can be said that the Law cannot even lead one to repentance without knowing that forgiveness is available.
This woman sees in Jesus something Simon cannot see, something that some of us might not see, for Simon thinks of himself as being righteous on his own merit. He follows the Law, at least outwardly. He condemns the actions of others, those referred to as sinners. He stands up for the faith. He is a good man and what more could God want.
That is why he was so shocked when Jesus allowed the woman to do what she did. The very presence of the woman made all God fearing Jews unclean. It was a scandal to say the least.
But back to the woman. There is considerable debate over whether the woman was crying because she was grief stricken or because she was crying out of joy.
I believe that she is doing what she is doing because she sees in Jesus the Gospel message, the gift of acceptance and forgiveness. I believe that she knew that her lifestyle was wrong. I say that because of the Jewish faith. Those of the faith would have certainly pointed out the kind of life she was living.
She lived a life under the Law with no place to turn, that is until she knew or at least heard of Jesus. That is why she is there that day. Jesus drew her to him by his love, his concern for sinners.
She was so overwhelmed by his presence that she could not help herself, for maybe the first time in her life, she knew that someone really cared for her.
That is why Jesus pointed out to Simon that a person reacts according to how much one feels the need to be forgiven. Simon who felt that he was okay, did not really need Jesus. He kept the Law, at least outwardly, and that is all that mattered.
On the other hand this woman knew her sins and felt that she deserved the condemnation of God. She knew she needed God’s forgiveness and so when she saw and heard Jesus relief rolled over in big waves of gratitude.
As a little side note, it is hard to understand the way the English translation is written, but it is not her love that gives her forgiveness. It is Jesus’ love, that wonder love shown in forgiveness that causes her to love Jesus back.
For the past 6 months I have been sharing with you what the Bible tells us about our unworthiness to love Jesus on our own. It is only in his love shown in his death and resurrection that we can truly love as God wants us to love.
As I have been studying for the Bible studies and sermons I have found that a large part of my growth in faith is realizing, I mean really realizing my complete sinfulness.
In the past sin consisted of doing bad things, such as lying, gossiping, loosing my temper, not studying the Bible as I should, not praying, and other such things.
Forgiveness meant that God did not punish me for doing those bad things. Since sin was only the bad things I did. Forgiveness implied not being punished as I deserved for doing those bad things. Since the bad things I might do weren't all that bad nor that often, I didn't think I needed much forgiving, at least like others I knew. You know the idolaters, crooks, drunks, drug addicts, and so forth.
But as time has gone by, especially during the last 6 months I have come to realize that my sinfulness, that all of our sinfulness, goes much deeper than just doing bad things. Sin involves inner attitudes, desires, motivations, etc. Sin is in each one of us in such a way that we will never be free of it, until our bodies die. And because of that I will always be in need of forgiveness.
Thus, I, we, will always be in need of God’s forgiveness, forgiveness given to us, because Jesus and only Jesus alone took the punishment from God that we all deserve.
Without that free undeserved gift we would all be lost. We need to live our lives as Christians so that we can be his heart, his hands, his feet, his mouth on this earth, for after all is not that what we should do. Amen.
6/17/2007
Text: 2 Samuel 26-12:10; 13-14
Title: Gotcha
This morning’s readings, at least the Old Testament and the Gospel reading are about forgiveness. Each has its own lesson to teach. The Old Testament lesson teaches us that you can be forgiven even when you have committed adultery and murder, but there is still a price that will have to be paid.
David is forgiven, but an innocent child dies because of his sin. That strikes us hard, for our God does not do those things does he? All I can say is that God’s Word tells us that he causes the child’s death, and we are left to wrestle with that information.
You see, we cannot fathom a God who would do such a thing. We forget as we try to figure God out, that God is perfectly righteous in all he does. Whatever and however he does it there can be no doubt that he is right.
I know it is hard, and some of you sitting there this morning are saying to yourself that cannot be what the scriptures say, or that they just looked at things differently then. They did not understand diseases and such and saw everything whether it was good or bad as an act of God.
We understand things now and by our understanding we have taken God out of our lives. He is just there. He is just someone you call out to when in trouble and give thanks to when good things happen. We say when someone has a tragic accident or dies that God did not cause it.
That is what we say because we want our God to be a loving kindly old man, sort of like a really nice grandfather that fusses at us when bad, but does not really do anymore than that.
We have taken God out of our lives, at least for the most part that is for sure and because of that we do not have a good understanding of God, or Jesus, or ourselves, for that matter.
You don’t think so? Just look at your life and the lives of others that call themselves Christians. Do you, do I, do they live the lives that God tells us that his followers live? We have to admit that for the most part we do not live our lives the way God wants us to live.
We hold grudges. We think our way is the only way. We put our personal comfort ahead of sharing the Word of God. We say we are Lutherans and if our worship style gets in the way, tough luck. There are other churches they can go to, even though we all know that there are a lot of churches that do not faithfully teach the Word of God.
No, I think that our lives would be much different if in fact we all had a better understanding of our relationship with God and with each other.
David did not, that is for sure. It was not until he was struck with the law given by Nathan that he owned up to his sinfulness against God. You see his sin although it started as probably an innocent glance, turned into a planned sin, adultery, murder, and worse of all a ridiculing of God in front of all the people. There is no doubt in my mind that a lot of people knew what had take place. The way the leader goes the way the people go.
God had to make public the punishment of David so that the people would know that what David had done was wrong. The child not only died but as you read more of the text you see that there was nothing but trouble for David. His son Absalom lay with David’s concubines on the rooftop just as Nathan prophesied.
In the Old Testament reading we see forgiveness, but we also see punishment, earthly punishment for God has to keep his name Holy.
Let’s take a look now at the Gospel reading. This particular story seems to focus either on Simon who looks like he wants to trap Jesus into saying or doing something that would justify his fellow Pharisees into charging Jesus, or it seems to focus on the woman, the sinner, thought to be a prostitute, although the text does not say so.
First you have the self-righteous Pharisee Simon who gets caught in his own trap. Simon, as Jesus points out did not do any of the things a host did back then. He did not provide water for Jesus to get the dust off his feet. He did not provide oil for his hair, which not all hosts did, only those that wanted to show their love for their guest. And he did not give Jesus a kiss as was the custom when a guest arrived at your home.
Jesus tells him a story about the forgiving of debts. It is a simple story as you can see and Simon falls into the trap. He is caught. His self-righteousness is exposed for all to see. Chalk one up for Jesus.
Now let’s take a look at the woman. The custom was that when teachers were lying at the table talking that people who were interested could stand at the doorway and windows to listen. They were even allowed to sit against the walls, as long they did not distract the people conversing. Their coming to listen told everyone that the people holding the dinner conversation were important, for they had something to teach.
Evidently this woman was known by Simon. What we really want to look at in this story is what motivated her to do what she did. We know that while the Law can and does cause people to look for relief it cannot give relief. It can be said that the Law cannot even lead one to repentance without knowing that forgiveness is available.
This woman sees in Jesus something Simon cannot see, something that some of us might not see, for Simon thinks of himself as being righteous on his own merit. He follows the Law, at least outwardly. He condemns the actions of others, those referred to as sinners. He stands up for the faith. He is a good man and what more could God want.
That is why he was so shocked when Jesus allowed the woman to do what she did. The very presence of the woman made all God fearing Jews unclean. It was a scandal to say the least.
But back to the woman. There is considerable debate over whether the woman was crying because she was grief stricken or because she was crying out of joy.
I believe that she is doing what she is doing because she sees in Jesus the Gospel message, the gift of acceptance and forgiveness. I believe that she knew that her lifestyle was wrong. I say that because of the Jewish faith. Those of the faith would have certainly pointed out the kind of life she was living.
She lived a life under the Law with no place to turn, that is until she knew or at least heard of Jesus. That is why she is there that day. Jesus drew her to him by his love, his concern for sinners.
She was so overwhelmed by his presence that she could not help herself, for maybe the first time in her life, she knew that someone really cared for her.
That is why Jesus pointed out to Simon that a person reacts according to how much one feels the need to be forgiven. Simon who felt that he was okay, did not really need Jesus. He kept the Law, at least outwardly, and that is all that mattered.
On the other hand this woman knew her sins and felt that she deserved the condemnation of God. She knew she needed God’s forgiveness and so when she saw and heard Jesus relief rolled over in big waves of gratitude.
As a little side note, it is hard to understand the way the English translation is written, but it is not her love that gives her forgiveness. It is Jesus’ love, that wonder love shown in forgiveness that causes her to love Jesus back.
For the past 6 months I have been sharing with you what the Bible tells us about our unworthiness to love Jesus on our own. It is only in his love shown in his death and resurrection that we can truly love as God wants us to love.
As I have been studying for the Bible studies and sermons I have found that a large part of my growth in faith is realizing, I mean really realizing my complete sinfulness.
In the past sin consisted of doing bad things, such as lying, gossiping, loosing my temper, not studying the Bible as I should, not praying, and other such things.
Forgiveness meant that God did not punish me for doing those bad things. Since sin was only the bad things I did. Forgiveness implied not being punished as I deserved for doing those bad things. Since the bad things I might do weren't all that bad nor that often, I didn't think I needed much forgiving, at least like others I knew. You know the idolaters, crooks, drunks, drug addicts, and so forth.
But as time has gone by, especially during the last 6 months I have come to realize that my sinfulness, that all of our sinfulness, goes much deeper than just doing bad things. Sin involves inner attitudes, desires, motivations, etc. Sin is in each one of us in such a way that we will never be free of it, until our bodies die. And because of that I will always be in need of forgiveness.
Thus, I, we, will always be in need of God’s forgiveness, forgiveness given to us, because Jesus and only Jesus alone took the punishment from God that we all deserve.
Without that free undeserved gift we would all be lost. We need to live our lives as Christians so that we can be his heart, his hands, his feet, his mouth on this earth, for after all is not that what we should do. Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 10:50 AM
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