June 13, 2004 - The Second Sunday After Pentecost

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June 13, 2004 - The Second Sunday After Pentecost - Father Fred Myers

FIRST READING: 1 Kings 21: 1-21a

PSALM: 5: 1-8

SECOND READING: Galatians 2: 15-21

GOSPEL: Luke 7:36 - 8:3

It would be really fun to preach on the Old Testament about conniving wives and such, but, rather, I would like to look at our Gospel and on that statement that Jesus made when he looked at the woman who was bathing his feet. He said, "Your sins are forgiven".

Forgiven . . . An interesting word. To forgive . . . Frederick Buechner, in his book, Wishful Thinking, describes forgiveness as: "To forgive is to say to another person, 'What you have done is unspeakable; it goes against everything I stand for; it is against my principles, and I just cannot be in a relationship with you; and so, therefore, I cannot forgive you; I cannot be with you; I don't want to be with you'; but forgiveness says, 'I am not going to let that stand in the way of my relationship with you. It doesn't mean I am going to forget it; it doesn't mean it never happened; there will still probably be pain there, maybe even a scar; but I am not going to let that stand in the way of my relationship with you.'" That is to forgive.

Now, there is another side to forgiveness, which the woman who bathed Jesus' feet understood, and that is to receive forgiveness. To receive forgiveness. When we don't receive the forgiveness that someone else has given to us, what happens to us? We are filled with guilt and pain. We don't allow the relationship to be renewed or restored. We just don't do it. In both instances, not to forgive and not to receive forgiveness, what stands in the way of doing either one? Our pride; our principles; because we are right and you are wrong; and that stands in the way of giving forgiveness and saying to the other person, "You know, what you did hurt me; what you did was not right in my eyes; it went against everything I stood for; but I forgive you; that is, I want our relationship to remain intact. I want it to be whole. I want to be in a relationship with you." And notice, there is no condition on that; "I'll forgive you if . . ." And Jesus didn't say to the woman, "I will forgive you; your sins are forgiven, if . . . ." He just said, "Your sins are forgiven". The woman was ready to receive forgiveness. She recognized in Jesus something that was good and pure; something that she needed in her life, so she went to Him and demonstrated to Him, in the only way she knew how, that she expected Him to give the love of God - Jesus, the One who forgives.

The Pharisee couldn't understand it. Well, he was a lawyer. How could he understand it? (I don't mean it!) The Pharisee did not understand what Jesus was all about, and so he reprimanded Jesus. "If You only knew who she was, You wouldn't do this; You wouldn't allow her even near You, if You only knew who she was." But Jesus said, "She wants a relationship, and I want that relationship to be made whole; so I can say to her, 'I forgive you; you know what you have done is wrong (she must have come there with a guilty conscience); you know what you have done is wrong, but you are showing that you want to repent of this'". And, Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven".

Do we believe that we are forgiven when we hear those words? In the Eucharist, we pray for forgiveness; we confess our sins together; and then we hear the words from the priest or bishop saying for God, "I absolve you." Do we believe that? Can we accept that? Can we then say, "Ah yes; I am now in a right relationship with my God."? Can we do that in a real way?

Nathan was playing this morning a hymn with the words, "What a friend of Jesus". I love than hymn! As schlocky as it is, it has a lot of truth in it.

What a friend we have in Jesus,

All our griefs and sins to bear;

And, all we have to do is take it to Him in prayer, and that is really what that woman was doing. She was taking her sins and her griefs to Jesus in prayer. Her prayers were her tears and the ointment and kisses she gave to Jesus.

Forgiveness - a strong word. To forgive is to say, "Yes, you hurt me, but I don't want that to stand in the way of our relationship". To receive forgiveness says, "I accept your forgiveness, and I want to be in a relationship with you". Jesus was telling them, day after day, hour after hour; "I want you; you are Mine; and I want you to be in a right relationship with Me."

What a friend we have in Jesus; take it to the Lord in prayer.

AMEN
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July 18, 2004 - Seventh Sunday After Pentecost

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July 18, 2004 - Seventh Sunday After Pentecost - Father Fred Myers

FIRST READING: Amos 8: 1-12

PSALM: 52

SECOND READING: Colossians 1: 15-28

GOSPEL: Luke 10: 38-42

The Martha and Mary story - that controversial story, particularly among those of us who try to identify with either Mary or Martha. And, if we identify with Martha, we ask the question, "Well, what was wrong with what Martha was doing?" She was providing a meal, and she was providing help and so on for Jesus, who was visiting her. She was doing all the right things that you would expect to do for any guest that came into your house, and Jesus seems to make her wrong. But then there is Mary. Mary sits at the feet of Jesus, and she listens to Him attentively and doesn't even think about what Martha is doing. She is there with Jesus. Is Mary wrong? Is Martha wrong? Well, yes and no for both of them.

Martha was doing what she would have done had any visitor come to her house. Hospitality in the mid-East was a very important thing to do. It was very important to be hospitable to strangers. You can go back into the Old Testament and see how that played out in various ways. Hospitality. It is even true today in the mid-East, as I understand it. I have never been in the mid-East, so I don't know, but I understand that hospitality is still very important. And Martha was doing exactly that. But what she didn't remember was that she had the Lord in her house. Can you imagine the audacity of Martha saying to Jesus, "Well, tell her to help me"? Who is she talking to? Would you tell a guest in your house to tell someone else in your house to help you work? I don't think so, but that is what Martha did. She wasn't afraid to do that, and so she did.

Mary. What was her problem? Well, Mary had a problem that she was not attentive to hospitality as Martha was; but she was attentive to her guest, and she was attentive to His teaching.

We are reminded that this story is between two stories in Luke, the first story from last week was about loving your neighbor - love your neighbor as yourself - and the story of the Good Samaritan, which is based on works and based on doing this for your neighbor. The next story, which you will hear next Sunday is about prayer - about how we communicate with God and how God communicates with us. So, the Mary-and-Martha story is in between those stories.

Martha was so busy, so busy that she just couldn't find a way to pay attention to what Jesus had to say, and Mary was listening to Jesus. But, isn't that the way it is in our lives? Don't we sort of fall into both categories sometimes? We get so busy in our lives that we just don't pay attention to what is going on around us, and we do not pay attention to what God might be saying to us in our lives. We don't take the time to do that, and so we get very, very busy; and we become Martha-like. At other times, we become too contemplative, and we forget what we are supposed to be doing; and we hide ourselves behind the Word of God, and we forget to do what we need to do. So, there are dangers on both sides.

But, I think the story of Martha and Mary is trying to tell us that we need to be careful about our busy-ness. Busy-ness - being too busy for too long can lead to burn-out, if you will. People in the helping professions - doctors, nurses, psychologists, priests, ministers - often burn out because they try to do too much all the time and don't take time to be refreshed. So, there must be a time when we must sit back and listen to what God has to say to us through Jesus Christ and through His Word. Isn't that why we come to Church on Sunday? - to take a break in the week, to take a break in the busy week to hear what God has to say through His Word and through the music that we sing? What is it that Jesus wants us to know this week? What does Jesus want us to do this week? And so, we take time to do that, and that is what Mary was doing.

It is interesting how this plays out, and how we get so involved in busy-ness. Take, for instance (and I have heard this so many times, having been a priest for 20-some years) people who come to the Eucharist, come to the Mass, and they will sit in their pews and say, "Well, why isn't Father doing so and so? Why didn't they cross themselves at this point? Father so and so, he used to do it the other way when I was in St. Smithers of the Swamp. . ." And they get all caught up in how we do the Eucharist, and they don't get caught up in what is going on in the Eucharist - the drama, the mystery, the grace of the Eucharist. We all come up here, and we gather around - all of us coming from different walks of life, from different parts of our busy lives - we come up to the altar and come up around the table and gather around. We are the guests of Jesus. Are we going to be so busy? Are we going to be so worried about what happens at the altar - that we don't genuflect at the right place; that we don't cross ourselves at the right time; that we didn't put the cup on the right side; that we didn't . . . . . Are we going to be so busy doing that, or are we going to listen to what God has to say to us through the Holy Mystery?

Listen to one another. Listen to God through one another, as we gather together in this place to hear the word of God - to hear and to experience the word of God in the Holy Mysteries of the Eucharist.

AMEN
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