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Finding the Right Church Member
Luke 7: 36 - 8:3 |
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Summary
Finding the Right Church Member Let’s use our imaginations today. Suppose someone set up an arrangement so that this church had two applicants for membership, but only one could actually join. We have to vote on which person can join the church. In real life, we would accept both members with open arms, but just for today, assume we can accept only one. Let’s look at the two candidates and see which one we choose. Candidate one is a religious leader. He owns his own home, indicating that he has some financial means. A gracious host, he entertains prominent people in his home. Confident in his faith, he recognizes quality people when he sees them. We do not have to try hard to make the case for this candidate. As a religious leader, he would add prestige to the congregation. We need more people who are serious about their religion. He has all the right credentials. As a homeowner, he has roots in the community and knows how to take responsibility and care for things. He might make a good member of the trustees committee. If we need to buy a new parsonage, he could add valuable expertise. As one who likes to entertain, he could host get-togethers in his home. That always comes in handy when we want to impress prospective members. He has a certain discernment about people. He can judge talent, knows a sinner from a righteous person. He would help us on the nominating committee that picks the rest of the officers for the church. Let’s not forget that as a homeowner, he obviously enjoys some financial comfort. Such a member helps out at pledge time and when we need to make the budget at the end of the year. Keep all of that in mind as we are voting. The other candidate is a woman with a bad reputation. Everyone knows her as a “sinner.” We do not know her particular sin, because “sinner” can mean anyone who is not scrupulous about keeping the law. Her religious practice is sort of hit or miss. We don’t know her true financial status, but she can afford an alabaster jar of ointment. For all we know, however, that is the only thing of value she owns. Who knows where she lives or what she does for a living. When we watch her actions, well, we don’t come away with a good feeling. Let’s be honest about this. She is a little emotional. We would never say that all women are emotional, of course, but this one is. We’ve seen men weep buckets of tears just as she does. Without generalizing about women, we can say that she is a bit emotional. A little weepy, she strikes us as a tad weird. We can talk here, right? If we vote her in, we are stuck with her, so we better be careful about this decision. Look at what she does, for heaven’s sake! Pouring ointment on Jesus’ feet and wiping them with her hair. I mean, what if she did something like that during one of our worship services? What would visitors think? Do we want to take a chance on her emotional stability? Our choices seem pretty clear in this case. On the one hand, we have a religious leader who is a pillar of the community. He likely would serve well on a number of committees. He has the financial resources and respect that would reflect well on the church. A gracious man who would open his home for ministry would prove to be quite an asset. On the other hand, we have a woman of questionable reputation, who seems a bit needy. We can only assume that if she joined the church she would require high maintenance from the fellowship. She might require a lot of visitation from the pastor when her jangled nerves come to the surface. Her Sunday school class would spend a lot of time taking care of her. She might start crying in class! Who could trust her with anything of value in the church? If she would pour out expensive perfume on somebody’s feet, who knows what she would do with some of the heirloom stuff the church has? Hearing the parable Are we ready to vote? Just to make sure we don’t mess this up, let’s take one last look. After all, Jesus tolerated this silly woman, so maybe he saw something we don’t see. Jesus noticed that the dinner host, a Pharisee, seemed to be troubled by the woman’s actions. We can’t quite blame the Pharisee. She seems to have just barged into the dinner party and begun playing the fool. You have to do some serious crying in order to make someone’s feet wet enough that they need to be dried off. Why does she use her hair for that? Isn’t she with it enough to go grab a towel? No doubt the Pharisee furrowed his brow when the woman started kissing Jesus’ feet and pouring out the expensive perfume on them. Wouldn’t you? Jesus responded with a parable. (We love the way Jesus’ parables make us think ... except when they make us think too much.) Anyway, in the parable, Jesus asks about gratitude. Two people owe a creditor. One owed 10 times as much as the other. The creditor forgave both debts. Of the two, who would be more grateful? Jesus’ question seems so easy. Both debtors are in trouble. If the debtor who owed 50 denarii worked two jobs, he’d pay off his debt in about two months. The problem would be finding two jobs. The one who owed 10 times as much would take years to pay off, if he worked a double shift the whole time. The one who was spared years of labor would be more grateful. Do you get the feeling we should consider this parable when we vote on our new church member? If we vote for the woman in this passage as our new church member, what does she bring to the table? She might not help us out at budget time. She might not chair any committees. She doesn’t help us out in the prestige department. What would she do for our church? The woman in the story would remind us of something we forget too often. Every time we looked at her, her presence would confront us with our true spiritual state. We would realize where our spiritual complacency came from. We could no longer hide behind our usual way of thinking. At best, we assume that we owe only 50 denarii. We can read the papers, surf the net. We are not the worst of sinners. Our sins are nothing compared with what other people do. Our debt’s not that bad. Truth be told, we might even have a little left over in our account. After all, didn’t we dig deep to pay for the new carpets? Haven’t we served on the building committee? Didn’t we take meals to the poor at Christmas? That felt so good! If we vote for the woman in this passage as our new church member, we risk losing all of that self-satisfaction. She would always be right in our face, reminding us that our devotion to God does not arise out of such a deep place in our souls as does hers. She would remind us that we can’t change the past. We can’t undo the hurt we have caused. We turn a blind eye to the agony of poverty, the stupid cruelty of racism, the exploitation of God’s good gift of sex. God forgives us for the hurtful things we’ve done and the careless things we haven’t done. If we truly understood that, maybe we would act a little crazy, fall on our knees and weep buckets. If we vote for the woman, we at least have a chance for that kind of gratitude to overtake us. Loving God back So, there’s our choice. We can vote in the respectable religious leader who has all of the organizational qualities we want. Or, we can vote for the woman who teaches us what deep gratitude means. We can vote for the woman who causes us to catch our breath and ask why our worship doesn’t move us like that. We can vote for the woman who holds a mirror up to us, so that we see our failures, sins and spiritual shallowness for what they really are. Only if we see that can we truly appreciate God’s grace. I don’t know how you will vote. We need good committee chairs in this church. From my way of looking at it, I need an appreciation to the core of my being of just how much God loves me, so that I can truly love God back. |
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