Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

20:57 when your social media timeline starts filling up with all of your friends who are drinking wine at the French Riviera. and they're jet setting off to watch world cup games around the United States and yet I want to share something I want to be honest with you is that on a Sunday morning at 10 a.m there's no place I would rather be than here with you all listening to this music and celebrating the Lord's day with you and so if you are one of the folks that God has called here I'm going to invite you to do something quite courageous and turn to your neighbor and just say you're right where you need to be. Would you pray with me? O God, in your mercy, I ask that either through these words or despite these words, that the reflections shared here today, that the people gathered might hear your voice and your voice alone. Speak, O God, for your servants are listening. Amen.

22:16 our scripture lesson today comes from the gospel of luke chapter 7 would you follow along with me

25:46 My friends, this is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. So if you asked Claude Monet, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Raphael Georgia O'Keeffe, If you asked all of these artists to paint the same scene, can you imagine how different their works would be? Just imagine it. Each one of them creating that piece of art from their own perspective, their own history, because of their own particular gifts. the same with the gospels, I think. Each portray Jesus in such a different way according to their histories, their perspectives, their particular gifts. In Matthew's gospel, for example, Jesus is our rabbi. He comes to take the people upon a hill and give them a new law about righteousness.

26:56 in the gospel of mark jesus is the great demon slayer where even the powers of deep darkness fear the name of christ in the gospel of john jesus is a king his powers are always subverting human error but in the gospel of luke in the gospel of luke where we got our reading for this morning, Jesus is the divine physician. He is the healer of our souls every disease. And so the gospel writer of Luke gives us vignette after vignette, allowing us into that doctor's office and showing us what Jesus's plan for treatment is. And sometimes, and I'm sure this is never the case with you, that when the doctor has something very important for us to know, something important about our health, well then they can sometimes be quite frank about how they want to make their point. And Jesus, our divine physician, is no different, I think. And so Jesus attends Simon the Pharisee's garden party. Simon, like many other of the religious elite, was eager to behold this man who had been becoming so popular in his neck of the woods. And these fancy garden parties, you see, they were all open air. These elite folks would gather in quite public spaces to discuss some of the most important ideas of their day. These men, and often they would be men, would have been reclining outside in a manner of sorts in which all people could have just walked by and seen who was there. In fact, that was their point. You see, these folks, they didn't live in an era

29:05 of Instagram and smartphones. You didn't have easy access to the faces and gossip of the biggest cultural figures. So no, they needed to be seen in real time. Power, even in those early days, depended at least in part on one's popularity. And so enters this woman. Whoever she was, she might have just wandered in off the street. She might have stumbled by, looked over, seen Jesus at this fancy meal reclining, surrounded by all those guests, and her first inclination is to make a beeline right for her Savior. And so now Simon and this woman, this religious leader, and this woman who simply seems to have wandered in off the street, at first glance they don't share much in common. You see, Simon's a holy man. He's a Pharisee. This woman, Luke, tells us that she's a sinner, whatever that means. And Simon is hosting a meal for his elite friends, and this woman just walks right in to a space where maybe she didn't feel like she quite belonged.

30:28 But there is one way in which Simon and this woman are so similar, and that is that they both know who Jesus is, but it's the way that they respond that's important. Whatever her backstory, this woman, as soon as she sees Jesus, simply lays herself down and begins to anoint him from head to toe, taking items that had quite a lot of value for that time, she begins to treat him like a king, even like a husband, like he's the bridegroom, like he's her bridegroom that has come to redeem the people of Israel. Simon? He's kind of a weird dude. You see, while this woman is lavishing Jesus with praise, Simon seems more intent on finding some kind of fault in Jesus, a chink in his religious armor, than in celebrating the transformative love that is unraveling right in front of him. Does he even know who she is, Simon says. And so maybe this is where the soul sickness plaguing Simon comes to the forefront. You see, Simon beholds this person bent over in gratitude with a life that seems to have been utterly transformed, and his own response is to question the very premise and the condition of that transformation. In fact, he spends so much time doubting the mercy of this Lord, of this Christ, that he forgets that he's actually the host of the meal, that he is the one responsible for hospitality. His doubt has made him aloof of what is incumbent upon him and how he is to serve.

32:38 as I was reading this text for this morning it reminded me of a figure that I know quite well a man named Jonathan Miller he used to pastor the church of Moorestown Presbyterian Church in South New Jersey and that is important it's South New Jersey this story from Luke reminded me of a story about Jonathan that was shared at a service honoring him and his tenure in ministry. The story goes something like this, that one evening Jonathan had officiated a wedding right outside of Philadelphia, and he and his wife and two of their friends, another couple, were making their way from the ceremony to the reception in downtown Philly. And the man Jonathan was walking with was telling him all of the reasons that he didn't go to church. and friends this really does happen to pastors I promise you and more specifically this man was saying all of the reasons why he couldn't go to Jonathan's particular church and as they were held up at an intersection a gentleman they looked over and they saw this gentleman holding a saxophone His sax case was tattered. His clothes looked like they could have used a wash.

34:01 But he was playing Amazing Grace on that saxophone so beautifully. He was so talented, in fact, that even when the light turned green at that intersection, Jonathan insisted that they stay for just one more moment so that he could finish playing Amazing Grace. Well, eventually, they made their way toward the reception venue. They crossed that street and this gentleman continued to talk to Jonathan. Jonathan, do you want to know why I can't go to your church?

34:34 Well, okay. Because all of those well-dressed Christians, well, they never would let a man like that in the doors. so just as they approached the venue jonathan quickly turned around and ducked back outside and came back a half hour later and he sought out that friend at the reception as everyone was eating dinner and he handed that man a piece of paper and he said that man that we saw well his name is Leonard and here is the phone number and the address at which you will arrive to pick him up for church tomorrow morning. Don't be late, Jonathan said, because he's going to play in the service.

35:26 And so the following morning that couple sat shoulder to shoulder with Leonard until he got up for the offertory and played Amazing Grace and in fact people loved it so much that they asked him to play again for the postlude where he began to play when the saints go marching in.

35:46 Friends, maybe the the biggest threat to our faith is not doubt, but maybe it's cynicism. You see, cynicism clouds our minds with a distinct kind of pleasure. It tells us that we already know all of the answers that need to be known. That any kind of motive or judgment or action that doesn't seem to fit our preconceived cookie cutter narrative of how the world really works is just hollow or fake.

36:25 Cynicism is the Simons of the world telling Jesus that this woman's sin is beyond redemption because that's just not how things go around here. Cynicism is sharing that, well, I'll come to church, but only when the right people show up or the right matters are discussed. Cynicism knows all of the answers and makes it impossible to raise the question.

36:59 But maybe this is the great soul sickness that our even greater physician wants to help heal. And so in this story, what is Jesus's remedy for the cynicism that plagues Simon? It's quite simple, really. It's genuine thanksgiving.

37:22 You see, Jesus tells a story of two people who had their debts forgiven, one who owed much more than the other. And I think we often assume in this story that it's the woman who is meant to be the greater debtor, but I'm not so sure if that's the case. We are told that Simon is the holy man, that this woman is the sinner, but slowly and surely those categories begin to unravel and invert themselves throughout this story. so do we want to know what the opposite of cynicism looks like it looks like a thankful heart bending over backward to show adoration and gratitude because where cynicism looks at the world and sees a closed circuit where all of the values have already been established. Jesus comes into the story to upend those values that sometimes hold our world down. A member of this congregation a few months ago asked me to meet and talk.

38:39 They said that their daughter had graduated from college. She was now a young professional. they have a good relationship with her. They described her as being church curious, that she had been raised in the church, but that over the years it didn't seem like it held that much sway in her life anymore. And so this woman came to me and said, well, she has questions about religion. She wants to talk about with me, but I feel so underqualified for what she's asking. I'm nervous I won't have the right kinds of answers that she's looking for. Well, our conversation continued and eventually it ended. And as it happens in my mind throughout the following days and weeks, all sorts of things came up about what I really should have said in that moment.

39:37 But her question lingered with me. What kinds of answers might be helpful? well I think friends if I could take another stab at the conversation with this person I think I might say something different than I originally did in the midst of a swirling of anxiety about what kinds of answers might be offered I think I would have suggested something different that what is the help for a restless heart I think I simply just would have said, bring her to church. You know, I don't know if an abstract answer is going to do the trick, important as those answers might be. Friends, but I do know something for sure. There are plenty of places in this world where we can go to seek out answers for all sorts of questions that we might have about this life.

40:47 And church is indeed one of those places. But one of the things that I love so much about church, about this church, is something quite different. the church isn't just another voice in the information economy. It's not just another place where we can get another answer to our seeking, but it's something quite different. That church is a schoolhouse in Thanksgiving. That this is a place where we come week after week after week and where we practice the art of genuine gratitude. That this place where we are, this nomadic, sometimes cynical and restless bunch of travelers that we are, that we take in this house whatever small alabaster jar that God has given us in this life and we choose again and again to pour it out in thanksgiving at the foot of Jesus. Because what really changes a human heart?

42:07 Will an answer change a human heart? I'm not so sure, but I think thanksgiving just might. Amen. Friends, I'll invite you to rise with me as we say together our prayer for the day. written in your bulletin. Would you join me?

42:32 Lover of restless hearts, help us trust the slow, patient, and steady work that you have begun within us. No progress is too little. No accomplishment is too small. No fault is too great. Step by inching step.