Thursday, June 10, 2010

Pentecost 3c - Luke 7:36 - 8:3


Luke 7:36 - 8:3
I caught a 5:20 AM flight from Columbus, OH to Charlotte, NC to get to Dallas by 9 AM but feel like I’ve been stuck in a holding pattern all day. Maybe the woman felt the same way. Stuck in “sin” so named by the Pharisee, storing up tears, accumulating guilt there comes a moment when courage born of desperation makes her crash the party to which she never would have been invited anyway. The Pharisee is stuck in a different sort of pattern. Smug in self righteousness, not recognizing the shallow nature of religion by the rules, Simon appears more amused than offended by the turn of events. Jesus is a joke to him and the opportunity to see the preacher from Galilee make a fool of himself is what the party is all about. But the joke is on Simon because Jesus turns the table and the host becomes the object and the gate crasher the subject. “Do you see this woman…?” is an invitation for Simon to look at himself and if he has enough courage to admit the truth he might end up next to the woman at Jesus’ feet.

No comments:

Post a Comment