Love to Tell the Story

New typing arrangement this morning: portable keyboard wirelessly connected to the iPad. We'll see how it works. There are some intuitive movements with MacBook that don't apply here, so new habits to absorb. This may be messy.

Same upon retiring from the Navy. Except for the sea duty, even fifty-five years ago as a LTJG at Naval Station, Mayport, Florida there was always a secretary to move papers to and from my desk and keep things filed properly. Not until my first day of retirement when setting up my home office for business did I enter the real world of office management. Now, more than thirty five years after retiring from the Navy my office is still not under control, it's the biggest mess imaginable. Never absorbed new habits and on the rare occasion when things are in order, a day later it's messy as ever. So, reasonably expect never to master the iPad and Bluetooth keyboard arrangement.

Our gospel for the upcoming Sunday, June 16, is Luke 7:36f, Jesus invited to dinner at the home of Simon the Pharisee. We reasonably wonder why Simon invited Jesus, seeing that he seems to disapprove of Jesus, has him under judgment the entire time. But then, we don't know the culture and customs of the day, do we; maybe Jesus was prominent as a local rabbi, a teacher, and it was socially "the thing to do." Or maybe Jesus was regarded as a man who had to be watched, Luke doesn't tell us. Luke does say there were other guests watching Jesus, though it isn't clear whether their comments are to be understood as critical, the word for today would be animadversion, or astonishment, or Luke planting the thought, "Who is this?" in the minds of his hearers. 

In the other gospels this pericope (that's a short little story, Bible scholars call it a tradition, that stands on its own) is located elsewhere and later and used otherwise than Luke. The other three gospels put it at the end of Jesus' ministry, in Jerusalem. Mark (14:3-9) and Matthew (26:6-13) locate it at the home of Simon the Leper in Bethany just before Jesus' trial. In his Gospel, John (12:1-8) has it happen in the Bethany home of Lazarus, with his sister Mary doing the anointing and Judas piously objecting that the expensive ointment could have been sold and the money given to the poor, Judas setting himself up as the villain.

Luke locates the dinner party and anointing much earlier, during Jesus' ministry in Galilee, as part of Luke's opening agenda about Jesus being recognized as a prophet. Luke uses the event to stir up an issue about Jesus forgiving sins, something people believed only God could do -- so something for Luke's hearers to be thinking about while reading along in Luke's story -- and also to mark the growing hostility of the Pharisees and Jesus' other enemies.

The bulk of the pericope as Luke presents it is about who is more grateful for having their sin debt forgiven, those whose sin is light or those whose sin is heavy, and that Simon the Pharisee just really doesn't get it. I'm not preaching Sunday, but will be in a place where a Jesuit priest probably will be giving the homily, and it'll be interesting to see what he does with this gospel.

TW+  

Here's the story
Luke 7:36-8:3

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

A Sinful Woman Forgiven

³⁶ One of the Pharisees asked Jesus^[a] to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. ³⁷ And 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. ³⁸ She 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. ³⁹ Now 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.”⁴⁰ Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “speak.” ⁴¹ “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii,^[b] and the other fifty. ⁴² When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” ⁴³ Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus^[c] said to him, “You have judged rightly.” ⁴⁴ Then turning toward 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.⁴⁵ You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet.⁴⁶ You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.⁴⁷ Therefore, 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.” ⁴⁸ Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” ⁴⁹ But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” ⁵⁰ And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” ...