Community Church Sermons

Year C

June 16, 2013

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Breaking the Faith Barrier

Luke 7:36 – 8:3

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

Senior Pastor

A number of years ago, most of the American Protestant denominations located their headquarters in one building in New York City. 475 Riverside Drive. One day, a Christian woman came to New York to do some business at 475 Riverside Drive. The cabbie, who picked her up at LaGuardia Airport, said, "Hey, I know that address. I take people up there all the time! What actually goes on up there?"

The passenger explained that 475 Riverside Drive was where many Christian groups had their headquarters.

The cabbie said, "Well, now that you mention it, most of the people I take up there are really nice. They're not like everyone else in this city. They don't grumble. They always ask me about myself and my family. And they're usually pretty good tippers!"

Then the cabbie looked at the woman through the rear view mirror and said, "How the blankety-blank do you people GET THAT WAY?"

Today, the Bible invites us to think about ordinary people who live extraordinary lives. They are not like “most people in this city” as the New York cabbie said. They are really NICE people – they seldom GRUMBLE – they are people who ARE TRULY INTERESTED IN AND CARE ABOUT OTHERS.

And they are almost always GOOD TIPPERS!

Maybe the Bible is talking about YOU!

Our Gospel story today is about such a person.

To some, she was a loser – a woman known in that town for her sinful ways. We are not told exactly what her sinful ways were, but we can surmise they were pretty sinful indeed since the people at the dinner party that night did everything they could to avoid her and became very upset when Jesus let her touch him. She came up behind him, big tears streaming down her cheeks. Then she knelt down and wet his feet with those tears, wiping them away with her long, dark hair. Then she kissed Jesus’ feet, and taking out an alabaster jar, poured perfume over them. Simon - the man who was giving the dinner party grumbled, “If Jesus was really a prophet he’d know what kind of woman is touching him – a sinner.”

To most people there that night, she was a loser.

But to Jesus, she was a most extraordinary woman.

He turned to her and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman?”

What a great question that is because, you see, Simon SAW SOME STUFF about this woman, but he did not really see HER. So Jesus helps him see HER.

“Simon buddy, I came into your house, but you didn’t give me any water for my feet.” Footwashing, you know, was an important act of hospitality and hygiene in those days of dust-covered roads. “You gave me no water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.”

Yeah, Simon saw some stuff about this woman, but he did not see HER.

“Simon, you didn’t give me a welcoming kiss, but from the moment I came in tonight this woman has not stopped kissing my feet. And you didn’t put oil on my head as a sign of blessing, but she has poured this perfume over me.”

And then Jesus told Simon what he saw in this woman that was so extraordinary.

Are you ready? Three words:

“She loved much.”

Simon hadn’t seen THAT!

You know, everybody loves. You. Me. The people sitting beside you. The people at the dinner party that night long ago. Even Simon. Everybody loves. It’s in our nature to love.

But the love that God calls us to take up is a kind of love that’s bigger than the kind of love you see every day. Oh sure, we all love our friends, but how many of us love our enemies? And yet that’s the kind of love Jesus calls us to take up. Christian love is love that goes beyond the ordinary. It’s the kind of love that made that New York taxicab driver ask, “How the blanket-blank do you people get that way?”

Getting to Christian love is sort of like breaking the sound barrier in a jet. On one side of it, you’re like everyone else – flying along, loving in all the ordinary ways that people love. But when you break through that zone of “compressibility” as Chuck Yeager called it and burst through the sound barrier – or, in our case, the faith or love barrier – you go out to a place where love is so extraordinary that even Jesus calls it “BIG LOVE.”

“She loved much!”

Today on Father’s Day I carry wonderful memories of my dad who was a very ordinary guy in whom Christ grew some truly extraordinary expressions of love. This was not an easy task for the Lord because my dad had some traits that got in the way of that kind of Big Love.

Like a fiercely competitive spirit and a need to win.

This was one of the characteristics that made my dad a very successful coach when he wasn’t working as the Comptroller of a large corporation. Baseball. Basketball. My dad got out there with kids of all ages, taught them good fundamentals, and led them to all sorts of championships. He was a winner.

But one of my favorite stories to tell about my dad on Father’s Day – I think I tell it every Father’s Day – is about the day this winner lost.

The star pitcher on his baseball team had lost his lower leg. Tried to jump onto a moving train – and missed. My dad visited with the boy in the hospital and tried to share his faith that things would be okay. But faith wasn’t what the boy wanted. He wanted to play baseball again. So my dad promised him that when he was ready, the game ball would be waiting for him, and he would pitch.

Trouble was that months later when the boy felt he was ready to come back it was the very day my dad’s team was playing for the league championship.

I could see in my dad’s eyes the internal struggle that was playing out as the boy limped across the field to the dugout. The prosthetic foot was on his right leg and that’s the foot a right handed pitcher pushes off with.

So what would the man who always needed to win do now?

He hesitated for a moment. And then with a look of agony on his face, he tossed the game ball to the boy.

So he pitched that day.

And the team lost. They lost big.

But the boy won. It was his first real step in the long road to healing.

The boy won.

And so did his teammates and their families who cheered him on all the way.

For me, I like to say that in his son’s eyes, the day my dad lost was the day my dad won. He’d broken through the faith barrier with an act of extraordinary love.

BIG LOVE!

“How the blanket-blank do you people get that way?” the cabbie asked.

Well, here’s how Jesus explains it to Simon.

“She loved much because she was forgiven much.”

And then Jesus said, “He who has been forgiven little loves little.”

You see the area of compressibility and resistance that has to be overcome for you to break through the faith barrier – the love barrier – is humility.

It’s only when you discover how small you are that you can truly discover how big God’s love for you is. Christian Faith begins with forgiven people – sinners who have been embraced by and immersed in the amazing, forgiving, redeeming love of God. So Christian Faith never looks down at people. It always looks UP at people, and seeks to serve them with the same love God has given us.

Humility. Breaking the faith barrier requires letting go of your sense of superiority, accepting God’s love for you, and then taking up the role of a loving servant to others in everyday, practical ways.

Humility.

And generosity. This woman was extraordinarily generous with her love.

As the New York cabbie would say, she was a good tipper.

I recently heard a story about a 10-year-old boy who entered an ice cream shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. “What’ll it be, son?”

"How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.  "Fifty cents," replied the waitress.  This was in the olden days. The little boy pulled a bunch of coins out of his pocket and studied them for several long moments, silently adding up the amount.

"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he asked. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.  The little boy again counted his coins.  "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.

So the waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left.  When the waitress came back, she was stunned and began to cry as she wiped down the table.  There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies.

You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough money left to leave her a tip.

“They’re good tippers,” the cabbie said.

Christians are above characterized by extraordinary generous. Everybody in the world gives what they owe. But the distinctive love of our faith inspires people to give what they owe – and then some. That night at the dinner party, the woman could have just washed Jesus feet – but then she kissed them too – and that would have been enough, but then she anointed them with perfume.

And in these actions, Jesus saw HER.

She loved BIG!

What does Jesus see in YOU?