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Is there someone in your life whom you have not fully forgiven? Someone who hurt you deeply? Have you done something to hurt others, already been forgiven by them, but still cannot forgive yourself? Mark Strand tells of an experience that occurred following his first year of college. His parents had left for vacation and Mark wrecked their farm pickup truck, crumpling the passenger-side door. Returning home, he parked the truck. When his dad returned home and saw the damage, Mark acted surprised and denied any knowledge of the accident. Mr. Strand then asked the hired man about it, and to Mark’s delight, the man admitted he was responsible. He had heard a loud noise while passing the truck with the wings of the cultivator up, and now he assumed he had caused the damage. But the weeks that followed were torturous as Mark struggled with his guilty conscience. He repeatedly considered telling the truth, but was afraid. Finally one day he impulsively blurted out, "Dad, there’s something I need to tell you. You know the pickup truck door? I was the one who did it." Dad looked at him. For the first time in weeks Mark was able to look his father in the eyes. To his utter disbelief, Dad calmly replied, "I know." Silent seconds, which seemed like hours, passed. Then Dad said, "Let’s go eat." He put his arm around his son’s shoulder, and they walked to the house, not saying another word about it. Not then, not ever. In our scripture for today Jesus revealed to Simon that the weeping woman in the midst of this formal banquet had many sins, but they had all been forgiven, just like Mark’s father forgave him. The outpouring of loving thankfulness that bathes Jesus' feet with tears and then anoints them with oil demonstrates this woman's response to her forgiveness: "She has shown great love". "Where little has been forgiven, little love is shown. Where much has been forgiven, much love is shown." Yet, the beauty of the forgiven life is not that our love is an obligatory love, any more than the love of this woman anointing the feet of Jesus was duty-driven. It is a love which is naturally elicited by God's forgiveness. This woman’s actions reveal to us one of the most basic spiritual principles governing this universe. We would do well to burn it on our hearts. The principle is this: There is a connection between love and forgiveness. The more we are able to forgive, the more love we will have in our hearts. Are you having trouble loving someone? Perhaps you haven't fully experienced God's forgiveness. Can't love your coworker, your neighbor, a family member, the marginalized of our society, those who are different from you? Then you need to experience forgiveness; not just know you're forgiven in your head, but experience that forgiveness in your heart. We know by heart Jesus' saying, "To whom much is given, much is required." We need to know by heart Jesus' saying, "To whom much is forgiven, much love is required." By the love we return to God and the love we show to others, we demonstrate our own forgivenness. Many of us can identify with the woman who anointed Jesus' feet, but a less appealing prospect is to identify with Simon the Pharisee: Simon the judgmental, Simon who couldn't even show the common courtesy of a welcoming kiss, but who still believed himself several cuts above the repentant woman. The problem is, if we are like Simon, we are not apt to know it, for Simon was blind to his need for forgiveness. Jesus did not tell the parable of the two debtors for the woman's benefit, but for Simon's. When a person suffers from sin-hiding blindness, it often takes direct confrontation or a powerful example to force insight. If we don't see any of Simon in our own character, it may be because he doesn't lurk there...but it could be because Simons always have trouble seeing themselves as they are. Jesus confronted Simon with the parable to make him see. We can use the parable in the same way to confront ourselves. For when we do, we are likely to discover we possess elements of both the woman and Simon, and both need much forgiveness. Forgiveness is so critical to our faith -- and so elusive! Perhaps every word, movement, theme and ritual we share in worship should include forgiveness -- so that we finally are filled with this gift. It is the essence of grace -- and encompasses the reason God has come to us in Jesus Christ. We are forgiven much, so we may be empowered to love much! Once there was a little boy named Jackie who enjoyed playing on an elevator while his grandfather made some purchases in a large department store. Jackie would say to those entering the elevator, "Up or down." On one floor a sour-faced woman got on the elevator. "Up or down," Jackie said. "Neither one," the woman growled. "You get out of here you little pest." Poor Jackie. If he had a tail it would have been tucked between his legs. With a heavy heart and tears trickling down his face he went to and fell into the arms of his grandfather who saw what had happened. "Why did she call me a little pest, Grandpa?" Grandpa tried to explain to Jackie that sometime in the past the woman must have been hurt and the hurt had left scars on her soul. "She feels that, by hurting others, the scars on her soul will heal. But that isn’t true. For when she hurts others her scars become worse." When Jackie prayed that night he asked God’s blessings for many people. "But dear Lord," he prayed, "don’t bless the woman with scars on her soul, because she has put scars on my soul!" Grandpa heard what Jackie prayed and said, "Jackie, if we want to be truly loved and forgiven by Jesus, we must love and forgive others." A few weeks passed and Grandpa thought Jackie had forgotten all about the unpleasant experience. But one day Jackie came and said, "Grandpa, I am going to love everyone that has scars on their soul. And I am going to love everyone who has put scars on my soul!" Are there scars on your soul? Do you find yourself literally unable to forgive someone for hurting you deeply? Let’s take a look at the word, "forgive." It is a gift, "give", that comes before, "fore" we even know we need it. It is a giving (we have no claim or deserving) and it is the pure, costly anointing that cleanses, enhances -- yes, makes us over! And the word is correct -- forgiveness is God's gift "for" us -- in our behalf alone! Yet, how can we communicate this forgiveness, how can we "get" it, sense it, feel it, experience it and know it, so that we may love much? Perhaps in our worship as the body of Christ, we need others around us to proclaim to us, in quiet, eyeball to eyeball, love-embracing tones -- "You are forgiven! You are loved!" Maybe we need an accepting hand holding ours in prayer, a hand which then can lift us up to sing "Freely, Freely." And perhaps we need the loving confrontation of one who does not let us continue down a wrong path, but calls us to that painful point of repentance, but then offers forgiveness. Perhaps we need a "Forgiveness Offering." Some tangible means for each of us to mark our gratitude for God's forgiveness by our gift of -- stirring at the soup kitchen, nailing at a Habitat House, praying for missionaries and teaching a class. This is not the work of the penitent, but of the gratified! David Dunn, in his book Try Giving Yourself Away: A Tonic for These Troubled Times, tells of a woman waiting for a train in a big city station. She saw a young mother trying desperately to cope with two crying children and an armload of packages. She also saw a teenage girl sitting nearby who quickly went to the harried mother and offered to help by taking care of the children until the train arrived. The mother, delighted with this offer, gladly accepted and left to get a much-needed bite to eat. Shortly she returned and the teenager again offered her help in carrying the packages to the train. As the train pulled out of the station, she stood on the platform and waved good-bye. The woman watching all of this now watched as the girl returned to the station lobby and shortly offered to help yet another mother with small children. This scene was repeated several time over. Dunn continues the story: The woman who had been watching all of this was both puzzled and fascinated as the same scenario unfolded several more times. Finally she approached the girl, saying, "I'm curious. I've been watching you for an hour or so and you've spent the entire time helping young mothers and their children. Why are you doing this?" To which the teenager replied, "Oh, I was one of five children. My dad was in the army and we were always moving from one place to another. My mom used to get so tired carrying the packages and suitcases and caring for all of us, and I always tried to help her. I remember her saying to me, 'You are so good with children.' My dad went to war in Europe and never came back, so that left mom alone. And she just recently died, so I thought that maybe I could do something for others because she said I was so good with kids. I thought there would be a lot of tired mothers here so that's why I come to the depot. It makes me feel good. It really helps." Would you say that you are a grateful person, that you normally give thanks several times a day? It could be that this is a sign that you are a forgiven person, that you generally give and receive forgiveness. It is important that we act on our forgiveness, that we do something to show our gratitude. Every Friday, an old man walked from his house in the early evening down to the ocean, carrying a bucket of shrimp. And as the sun started its descent and the evening waves gently lapped the shore, he walked to the end of the pier and reached in his bucket of shrimp and began to feed the birds who were already there waiting for him. Slowly, intentionally, he distributed the contents of his bucket, as he did every Friday evening, with the sun slipping down over the horizon. What was he doing there? He was saying thank you. His name was Captain Eddie Rickenbacker. Years before, in October, 1942, President Roosevelt dispatched Captain Rickenbacker with a special message to General MacArthur who was beginning to plan American strategy in the Pacific war. But the B-17 became lost, ran out of fuel and went down. The crew of eight made it into lifeboats and then began a harrowing, desperate fight to survive the sun, sharks, waves, and most of all, hunger. When it seemed that the end had come and there was no hope, when they had prayed all they could pray, Captain Rickenbaker, in the raft, was asleep with his cap over his eyes. He felt something. A bird had lit on his head. He knew if he could catch it, they would live. He did. And they ate it. They used its entrails for bait. They survived. And so the old captain, now hunched over, but still proud, every Friday of his life, took his bucket of shrimp and fed the birds and said, 'Thank you.'" I’ll end this sermon with the same question I asked you at the beginning. Is there someone in your life whom you have not fully forgiven? Perhaps even yourself? Will you refuse to begin the cycle of forgiveness, love, and gratitude? Will you continue to allow callous layers of pride to keep your heart hard? Or will you be the one to allow the forgiveness of Christ to put into motion the cycle of love? Forgiveness changes the way we think and behave. Forgiveness changes the way we see and treat others. Remember the woman who anointed Jesus? Each one of us has an alabaster jar of ointment in our hearts. We carry it around with us wherever we go. Don’t you think it is time to break out that alabaster jar of ointment and begin to pour the oil of love upon those around us? Pentecost is all about the power of God’s Holy Spirit being loosed in the world. You and I now have access to that power. You and I can be. We should be. And we will be a MUCH LOVE person, because you and I are a much-forgiven person. Let us go forth into the world and live our lives with MUCH LOVE. |
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06/17/01 - Much Love
