Grace and Peace to you from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
While watching the Olympics, I observed Lindsay Vonn, the gold medal downhill skier as she went over to her husband once she learned she had won. She reached out to him, put her head in his chest and immediately the tears started to flow. I thought to myself “How laden with meaning are those tears!” She was in real physical pain from a shin injury; she was filled with joy and a sense of fulfillment that only a handful of people in history ever know. Her tears were also simply the release of a bagful of mixed emotions and the crying was incredibly healing for her. Her husband held her for awhile but was obviously uncomfortable with her crying and the world watching. In fact, he said to her “You just won no more crying now, that’s enough”. Clearly he didn’t “get it”. As the old book title says “Men are from Mars and women are from Venus”.
We see another famous lady crying in our lesson from Luke’s gospel. Remember our theme “the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations”. We are focusing on healing and how God heals us and the many ways in which God heals us.
The woman who comes into Simon the Pharisees house is a party crasher. It took a lot of nerve for her to come in, uninvited and sprawl herself out at Jesus’ feet and make a scene. The Bible says she was “a sinner”. We don’t know precisely what her sin was, but from Simon’s words that he mutters to himself, we can, I think safely assume she made her living in the way that single, unprotected women who have no property make theirs; she sold the only thing she had that men wanted.
It is always easy to judge people who are “fallen”. We interpret their life space and life experience from our own, and then condemn them because they have failed to live a proper moral life. Yet, the truth is that people turn to prostitution and other forms of degrading behavior most often because it is that or starve. Perhaps she was abused as a child. Statistics do vary, but abuse of children is common and widespread. What we do see of her though is her contrition. Contrition means to feel overcome by a sense of guilt and desire for atonement – to be reconciled. The word contrite comes from the Latin word for crushed. Her spirit is crushed. She lives under the weight of a ton of guilt and shame. She is a broken person and she comes to Jesus, she comes to God, to have this weight removed. She wants to be whole again.
I was watching TV recently, half-distractedly when Oprah came on. She had a man on, 40 years old who had been sexually abused by his mother from the ages of 9-11, and had been used as a prostitute by her to buy drugs and liquor. His mother, who should have loved and protected him, betrayed his trust, misused his love and hurt him in a way no other person, let alone a parent should ever have done. It was painful to watch and his eyes shed tears for the whole 50 minutes or so the program was on. Somehow, he had managed to call an Aunt and explain what was happening and child protective services finally intervened.
Oprah herself endured something similar as an adolescent and has a heart for folks who struggle with these issues. The pain they carry is deep. It affects them in every way, in mind, in body and in spirit. How could it not? We are after all an integrated system. What happens to us at one level of being happens to us at all levels of our being. We don’t have a body that is our possession like our car, our house, or our wristwatch. Our body is not an object we posses. Our body is us. Mind, body and spirit are a unity and cannot be separated and compartmentalized.
Jesus, who somehow knew this women’s history gives her exactly what she needs; forgiveness. His forgiveness is at once chemotherapy, spinal decompression therapy, acupuncture, psychoanalysis, and radical surgery all rolled into one. The cancer in this woman was guilt and shame. It was sorrow for her lost innocence. It was embarrassment for not having been able to do better, to be decent. It was all the rejection and hostility that she had been the recipient of and internalized for all those years rolled into one. She was being crushed by its weight, until Jesus with a mere but mighty, almighty Word, took it away from her.
“Your sins are forgiven”, says Jesus.
You are henceforth recreated. You are whole. You are free.
What do you need from God this evening? All of us have baggage that we carry around needlessly. We have a table set up her in front of the altar. There is a fountain placed there and a big pool of water. Our lesson reminds us that this tree of life that grown in the New Jerusalem straddles a river – the river itself is a life giving river.
Have you ever noticed how round and smooth river rocks are? All the rough edges are worn away by the water and by their rolling around in the river with the other rocks.
We have two kinds of rocks on the table, rough and smooth. Come up and put a rock in the river – the smooth ones signify prayers answered, healings that have occurred in your life – by the power of God. The rough ones will signify petition – needs you still have for healing – rough stuff in your life that needs to be made smooth –healing that still needs to occur.
Let your movement and this action be a prayer of healing for you and may you know the healing love of the forgiving God who is Jesus Christ. Amen.
Who We Are