Sym's Blog: June 2007

Jonathan Hill has been re-writing the Lion Handbook series. These are text books and reference books. In the past they have been extremely boring in their style.

Jonathan however is an absolutely gifted writer. The books are now in modern language and he has a very funny sense of humour in his style.

The History of Christianity provides a readable and interesting overview of the history of the church. I think there is a lot we can learn from studying where our church roots have come from. One thing that strikes me is that some of these big name people of the past had what we consider now, some fairly whacked out ideas. I wonder what people will think of some things we hold to in 300 odd years time.

I guess when we read books like this we are trying understand better what God's will is for our lives. We try to learn from our forefathers successes and mistakes. We also do this from our own experiences and particularly our own engagement with the Bible (and the collective engagement of our wider church family).

Anyway... this is a great book. Even is you find history boring, you will enjoy this book because of all the little funny comments splattered all the way through it.

Oh... and it is cheap for a hard covered 550 page glossy text book.. only $70

Luke 7:36-50

This morning we are going to look at a time when Jesus was worshipped by a sinner-woman. This is quite appropriate today as we recognise the good work of important women in our lives… Mothers.

These verses this morning drive us to ask one question…

How do I respond to Jesus?

Now this might sound like the beginnings of an evangelical sermon… aimed at convincing those who do not call Jesus their Lord to follow Him. It is not.

If you do not know Jesus, and want to, please come and chat afterwards.

This question is actually aimed at those of us who know Jesus…who have already been called by Jesus.

How do we respond to Jesus?

Let’s have a look at Luke 7:36-50.

36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table.

Does it amaze you that while Jesus really stuck it to the Pharisees… called them on their hypocrisy… they kept inviting Him to eat with them?

37And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. 38She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.

Isn’t this a bit over the top (OTT)? While this wasn’t necessarily a huge jar, it would have been quite an expense.

And isn’t this a bit inappropriate. I mean all this crying and kissing feet… awh!

39Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.’

The Pharisee… who Jesus identifies as being called Simon… is appalled. This is a woman with a reputation. Surely Jesus, as a prophet, should know who she is. And if Jesus knows who she is… then He should put a bit of distance between Himself and this wailing chick. I mean… what would the congregation think when the photos hit the Woman’s Day? Simon can see the headlines now…

40Jesus spoke up and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ ‘Teacher,’ he replied, ‘speak.’

Jesus knows what Simon is thinking… which is kind of ironic in that it proves that Jesus is at least a prophet.

Jesus is about to teach Simon a profound truth. And Simon is ready to listen.

41‘A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42When they could not pay, he cancelled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?’

Ok. So in today’s terms… one dude has a mortgage of $20,000 and one has a mortgage of $200,000. Both are about to declare bankruptcy. The bank cancels both debts. Which one likes their bank the most?

43Simon answered, ‘I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the greater debt.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’

Of course the answer is obvious… the one who has the bigger debt being cancelled. You don’t need to go to Uni to figure that one out.

Jesus then makes the connection to Simon’s world…

44Then turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.’

This sinful woman had presumable heard Jesus before and repented of her sinful life. She had faith that He would forgive her. Because of this she was forgiven. She was forgiven much because she had a great deal of sin in her life. And because she was forgiven of so much her love, her gratitude, her response was great.

In fact her love was so great it was considered OTT… over the top. It was inappropriate for some at this meal. It was uncomfortable for those around her.

Theologically this is the guts of this passage. Faith leads to forgiveness which leads to love. Specifically the more you are forgiven, the more you will love.

Pretty simple… not rocket science!

But Jesus doesn’t finish the story there.

48Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ 49But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ 50And he said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’

While Jesus has shown everyone the complete and utter reasonableness of the actions of the sinner-woman… just like today… many people were focusing on the legal nuances rather than glory of what had just happened.

In this case these negative people where thinking… How can this guy forgive sins? Only God can forgive sins?

And the answer is YES! Only God can forgive sins. Therefore Jesus is… you do the maths… But they had failed NCEA maths! They did not have Peter Walton-Jones as their teacher. They couldn’t see the equation from the lines.

Friends… as we take a moment today… and quite rightly so… to recognise all that our mothers are and have done on this Mother’s Day… I invite you to take a moment to think about how we respond to who Jesus is and what Jesus has done in our lives.

Do we love Jesus more than our mothers?

We should!

Is our desire to follow Jesus as strong as our desire to do what our mothers say?

It should be!

Our sins are forgiven through Jesus. Jesus has bought about real healing… healing of the soul. Jesus brought forward the foundations of an eternal Kingdom and invested it in us.

Are we a bit too measured and controlled in our response to these facts? Do we lack passion?

Passion is one of our three key themes of the vision for our church family. I would like to suggest this morning that the reason why passion has been targeted is that, as a church family, we are not passionate. We have even identified this ourselves.

I think we are too emersed in and swayed by our culture. Our culture is one of placing great weight on what other people think of us. PR and spin rule the day.

In many ways we are fearful and pre-occupied with our perception.

While we are called not to be a stumbling block to others, pre-occupation with our perception has become a lead weight tied around our collective ankles.

Quite frankly, it is time for us as a family to cut free of this weight. It is time that we feel free to worship Jesus passionately. It is time we serve Jesus passionately.

What does this look like?

I think we all have different God-given dreams of what a passionate community of Jesus followers would look like. My dreams involve a good chuck of my church family not being here… but being missionaries of one form or another. My dreams involve our church splitting every 10 or 15 years… and planting a new church. Big, scary, grandiose plans…

However, I would like to suggest that as a church family we are not going to see these dreams turn into realities when we are busy worrying what our perception is when it comes to actively and publicly following and worshipping Jesus.

We need to be like the sinner-woman at Simon’s house… passionately grateful… passionately focused on worshipping, serving and following Jesus in response to the amazing, undeserved forgiveness we have been shown.

We have an opportunity now with a time of communion and a time of musical worship.