Luke 7:36-8:3
June 16, 2013
I
went on a retreat in early May as part of my continuing education. At the retreat were seven pastors and a
leader. One day we were getting ready to
start one of our sessions and one person wasn’t there yet. She came in about 5 minutes late, and when
she came in she was very apologetic.
“I’m so sorry. I really
apologize.” We all did what you all
would do…we chuckled and said, “you’re forgiven.” We chuckled because of course she was forgiven…It
went without saying.
But
then, she went on to explain herself, and say that she knows starting on time
is important. The leader interrupted and
said, “the correct response is, ‘thank you.’”
We all laughed, because we have all been there. We do something that annoys or affects
others, and we feel bad so we apologize.
If they say, “no problem,” or “you’re forgiven,” we go on to
explain…because in truth, we don’t think it’s true. We don’t believe it when we are told we’re
forgiven. We still feel bad, embarrassed. We still think others are judging us, even if
it’s about trivial things.
While
I was watching this unfold, I thought about our prayer of confession. I’m not saying our prayer of confession is
equivalent to admitting you are late. It’s
not trivial; we have confessed our willingness to go to war, our participation
in systems that degrade and kill, our unwillingness to see our neighbors in
need. And when we say “you are
forgiven,” it is not usually in the tone we used that day at the retreat. But it made me wonder, do we really believe
it? When we say together, “In Christ we
are forgiven, freed and made whole,” do we believe it? Do we even know what it means?
At
first reading of our passage it’s easy to think the woman comes in weeping
because she is contrite. She is
embarrassed for all her sins and desires to be forgiven by Jesus. But when we read to the end, I don’t think
that’s the case. I don’t think these are
tears of contrition, I think they are tears of gratitude and joy. I think these are the actions of someone who
knows what it means to be forgiven, freed, and made whole.
It’s
always a little awkward to preach a sermon that turns on a verb tense, but here
goes: When Jesus explains to Simon the
Pharisee what is going on with the woman, he says “her sins have been forgiven.”
Notice he doesn’t say “her sins are forgiven,” present tense, or even “your
sins will be forgiven,” future tense. The verb here in Greek is in the perfect,
indicative tense: which means something
that has happened in the past and continues to be true.
There
is no indication that this woman confessed her sins. There is no indication that she changed her
ways. There is no indication that
something was required for her sins to be forgiven. They simply have been forgiven…in the past
and ongoing. I don’t think this verb
tense is insignificant – in fact I think it carried all the significance in the
world.
It
was already true, it had been true
all along. And I think she believed it. I think something in how Jesus interacted
with her made her realize what it meant to be forgiven and made whole –
“saved,” as the text says. She believed
it and no longer felt the need to see herself as a sinner, to apologize for who
she was and what she had done, to feel bad and guilty. And she certainly said “thank you” with
everything she had! Because that’s the
spontaneous response when you believe such good news…gratitude.
In
our prayer of confession, the way we do it in worship, we can too easily
convince ourselves that we come unforgiven and then, only after we confess can
we be forgiven. I worry that this might
make us question our forgiveness – in the same way my friend did at the
retreat. She came knowing we already
knew she was late…the sin had been committed, and now she needed forgiveness
from us. If we decided to be annoyed or
upset, she wouldn’t feel forgiven. And
while her offense was trivial, the chance that someone might be annoyed was
fair to middling. So, unless she was
sure no one was upset, she wasn’t going to feel forgiven. Hence the gravelling, self deprecation…these
are things we know to do to secure people’s forgiveness. And we assume we need to do these things to
secure God’s.
We
come to worship knowing we have sinned.
We come knowing what we say in the prayer of confession is true. At times we have done, or at least been
complicit in, the things we admit. And
so, we come in need of forgiveness, right?
And there’s a sense in which we need to gravel, self deprecate, indicate
remorse, feel shame in order to earn forgiveness. After all, we only do the assurance of pardon
after the confession. Because we have
set up our worship the way we have, we can miss what it really means to be
forgiven, freed and made whole. If we
knew, I think our Gloria would be louder.
To
be forgiven, freed, and made whole means we have
been forgiven…before the confession.
We make the confession as forgiven people. Not because we have done nothing wrong, and
being forgiven does not mean we just go on doing what we’ve always done; but
because it’s not the confession that secures the forgiveness.
We
are included in God’s realm – in the community of those feasting at God’s
banquet – as we are. It makes no sense
to us, but when we realize we are a part of God’s world, we can be sinners and
forgiven at the same time. “Nothing can
separate us from the love of God in Christ” we’re told in Paul’s letter to the
Romans. There was nothing that separated
the woman from Jesus – not her status as a sinner in other people’s eyes, not
her status as a female, as an outsider.
It was clear that being forgiven meant complete union with
Jesus…intimate, beautiful, powerful union.
In
Jesus’ day, sin primarily had to do with being included in the community or
not. When you did something wrong, you
were excluded from community. Inclusion
was determined by a list of rules you had to follow. Sinners were not invited to the banquet
table. Sinners were not able to
participate in the Jewish community as equals.
They were shunned.
Sin
and forgiveness are not just between individuals and God – remember, this whole
scene unfolds in front of Simon and the other Pharisees. Jesus tells the parable for their sake, he explains her forgiveness
for their sake. He is telling them she’s in; she’s always
been in, because being in God’s community is not dependent on a list of moral
regulations. In the parable, Jesus shows
Simon and the others that if people who were sinners were not allowed at the
table…no one would be there.
When
confession seems like a prerequisite to forgiveness, we perpetuate the idea
Simon has…until you confess your wrongs and fix them you are not welcome in the
community. Confession, the way we do it,
also has the unintended effect of reminding us that we will always fall short
of the ideal, and so we can never actually be forgiven – believe we are forgiven, because the second we are declared
forgiven, we tell ourselves we’re in need again.
That’s
why this week we assured ourselves of being freed and made whole at beginning
and end of confession. We are forgiven
going in, nothing changes, and we’re reminded that we have been forgiven the
whole time…because it is in Christ, not confession, we are forgiven, freed, and
made whole; and we are in Christ; in the community of God, from the day we are
baptized by the waters of the womb. And
probably the best response to this as we worship every Sunday is, “thank you…I
accept.” A loud and powerful “Gloria!”
So
if our prayer of confession runs the risk of undermining our understanding of
forgiveness, why do we do it? Many
churches don’t for this very reason.
Aren’t we just perpetuating this notion that graveling, self
flagellation, humiliation are a necessary part of the Christian faith? Maybe – maybe we need to change how we think
about it and do it. But I think there is value to confession. It is what was needed from Simon and the
Pharisees in response to the assurance of forgiveness. Confession.
The
woman’s forgiveness in Christ was not all she needed. She needed the religious community to reflect
God’s forgiveness as well. Confession is
about naming that the world, our communities, do not reflect the
forgiveness/wholeness/inclusion we find in God.
At
the end, Jesus turns and addresses the woman directly. He tells her her sins are forgiven. Because of this, we might be tempted to think
she needs this assurance of
forgiveness. But, his words are
unnecessary as far as she as an individual is concerned. She has already been forgiven. Jesus just made that clear. Others, however, are having difficulty comprehending
her new state and Simon might continue to regard her as ‘a woman known in the
city as a sinner;’ exclude her from the community. She does not need forgiveness from God, but
she does need recognition of her new life and forgiveness among God’s
people.
But
as much as we might need confession, it needs to be surrounded by the assurance
that like the women, like Simon, like everyone, we have been forgiven. In the past and ongoing…we have been
forgiven.
Friends
believe the good news…in Christ we
are forgiven freed and made whole. Amen.
