Forgiven and Invited Psalm 119: 57-64; Galatians 2: 15-21; Luke 7:36-8:3 A few weeks ago we talked about inviting people to come to church. You know we Presbyterians have a reputation that s particular; folks refer to us as the frozen chosen. And if there is one word in church speak that punctuates that and scares most of us silly it s the word evangelism. Say that word around a crowd of Presbyterians and they will scatter faster than cockroaches scurrying for cover when you flip on the lights. What do you think of when I say evangelism? Going down to the street corner and hand out gospel tracts. Now so you know, I m not opposed to doing that but the fact is that it doesn t do much good. Or maybe street preachers like the ones down on Alamo Plaza who stands and shout about repenting or going to hell. They give evangelism a pretty bad reputation. Or two young men in white shirts and black ties get off their bicycles and walk up on the front porch or another group shows up and hands you the latest copy of Watchtower and ask, If you were to die tonight would we go to heaven? Seems some folks are more concerned about dying than living. One of my beloved older pastor friends, now a member of the church triumphant, had a couple of folks ring his door bell one morning; he opened it. Immediately, one of the folks asked, Do you believe in Jesus and if you died tonight would you burn in hell? Ed responded, I d be damned if I didn t. And he closed the door and went back to his paper. But you know Jesus said go into all the nations teaching and baptizing. But most of you think that that s what preachers are paid for and that the job of the laity is to serve on a committee. That s what most of you think let the preacher be the evangelist and we ll do the committee work. I read in a book that at a memorial service for a Presbyterian elder it was said, Ole Bob was a faithful elder and a loyal member for 40 This sermon is written for the ear & thus may have grammatical inconsistencies nor has it 1
years who diligently served on 37 different church committees, 11 of which actually did something. Well preachers are call to evangelize, and so are you. In fact, you have more potential as an evangelist than I. It is a typical Sunday, there are between 105 and 125 of you sitting out there and me up here. Now if each one of you this week talked to 2 people and invited them to church you would talk to over 200 people and one or two might show up. I couldn t do that. You can reach a whole lot more people than me. Ok, don t go rushing out quite yet - most of you are asking yourself this question, What do I say? You re thinking, I don t have a clue about what to say to somebody at work or to my neighbor or let alone a stranger I meet at the supermarket. Evangelism can be scary. The good news is that it is not all that hard; and most of you have all the tools. Friday is my day off. So in nice weather I like to sit by the swimming pool at our country club and read I re-read The Brothers Karamazov this summer along with a whole lot books on theology and one really good book called Sarah s Key about the Nazi murder of Jews in Paris during World War II; had a lot to do with healing and forgiveness. Friday is my day in the sun so to speak and my pool time this summer was pretty productive. The other thing that I do at the pool is talk to people. I was taking to a person that I knew and she was sitting next to a person that I did not know. She introduced us and told the other lady I was a preacher. Oh where s your church she asked, we just moved to Fair Oaks and we are looking for a church. Well, I didn t go into the fact that it is not my church but Christ s; I knew what she meant. I talked about Forest Hills, our traffic youth ministry, growing Christian education ministry, wonderful mission work you know we ve got a great story to tell. I explained that it was about 12 miles from Fair Oaks and probably too far for her to drive. On, she said, We are Presbyterians. I recommended a couple of churches in the area. Now do you see what happened? This sermon is written for the ear & thus may have grammatical inconsistencies nor has it 2
I was in a casual conversation and had the opportunity to talk about church, both our congregation and others. That s evangelism at its most basic. I simply listened to what she was looking for in a church and then I was able to say that I though she might like to visit and I named a church. Think about what you could say about Forest Hills to someone with a young child or a middle school aged child. Tell them about what the Christian Education Committee is doing to turn the Ark into the children s worship space and learning center where they will be nurtured in the faith. Or how about someone who is interested in Bible study, or mission work; we have a great story to tell. And we are part of the greatest story ever told. Then tell our story! Reading the gospel stories you notice something about Jesus, he gets invited to a lot of dinner parties, and parties in general. His first miracle was at a wedding reception turned well water into the best wine ever served; it s right there in John. Well in the story today, Jesus is at the house of a Pharisee. To put that in modern church talk he was eating at the senior pastor s house. I imagine that the Pharisee was wondering about this itinerate rabbi and wanted to learn a little bit more, the story doesn t say why Jesus was invited. It takes place early in Luke s gospel. Jesus had done a lot of healing and teaching and at this point he hadn t gotten into too much trouble, yet. So this Pharisee invites Jesus and they are at the table eating when this woman shows up. She s not invited or welcome neither in the Pharisees house nor I imagine to the temple either. Well somehow she got into the dinner party and immediately she goes to Jesus. Now the story said that she had led a sinful life. It doesn t say what kind of sinful life she led but I imagine that she wore a lot of high hem line, red dresses, thick makeup and hung out on the corner. You know what I m talking about. I bet that is what you re thinking too. Well we don t know what the sin was but it was sin and she was not invited. She goes up to Jesus, it doesn t say that she said anything; she just goes up to Jesus and begins to weep and anoint his hair with perfume the good stuff too. Then it says, she washed his feet with her tears. This sermon is written for the ear & thus may have grammatical inconsistencies nor has it 3
Imagine that. How would you act? I can tell you this, I would be mighty uncomfortable. I had someone wash my feet at a church retreat once and it was uncomfortable for me; and there is this woman washing his feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. Jesus didn t seem uncomfortable. He received her tears as gifts. Now there is an awful lot going on in this story and we don t have time to talk about the symbolism and theology of it all today, so I want to focus on just a couple of areas. First, Jesus capitalized on the teaching moment. We learn that the Pharisees name is Simon because that is what Jesus calls him. Simon, he said now let me pause here a moment. When I talked to the lady at the pool about church I paid close attention to her name and called her by her name. To most people their name is the most beautiful sound in the world right up there with You ve won the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes. People like to be called by their name. But not in that phony, I ve got something to sell you way you know what I m talking about. Well Tom, aren t those the best set of stake knives you ve every seen, Tom? Tom how many people on your Christmas gift list Tom? Tom how many sets do you want to buy? Tom, Visa or Master Card? No - not pushy and hard say their name in a soft, inviting way like Jesus did. Jesus said, Simon, I have something to tell you. And then he talks about forgiveness. Next, Jesus turns to the woman and makes her the object of forgiveness and love. I bet she showed up at Jesus next Bible study. Why? Because he accepts her just as she is; he doesn t tell her she s not good enough. He does not go into a diatribe about her sin he knew about it and I bet she knew he knew. He accepts her just as she is. When we sing the closing hymn today, probably the most familiar evangelism hymn in the world because of Billy Graham, pay attention to the words; it may just speak to you, just as you are. When you are talking to somebody, it does not matter what they wear; it does not matter what their station is; Jesus did not put up barriers. What Jesus said to the woman was this, Your sins are This sermon is written for the ear & thus may have grammatical inconsistencies nor has it 4
forgiven. He didn t say you have to do something: go on a mission trip or you ve got to come to confirmation class or fill out a pledge card just Your sins are forgiven. I wonder how that woman felt? Probably for the first time in her life a man treated her like a human being not an object. You know she could hear what they were saying about her when she walked in. Heads turned, whispers, and I imagine that if her sin was what we imagine, there were probably a few nervous men in the room. And Jesus just said, Your sins are forgiven. Just like that! Well that got the whole crowd talking and then as if to punctuate his first statement and so that everybody could hear he said to the woman, Your faith has saved you; go in peace. Now what just happened? Jesus didn t judge the woman; he did not lay the weight of the law on her. He could see into to her heart though the prism of tears that validated her confession and repentance as genuine. And because her sin was great her gratitude was magnified. That s what Jesus said, The one with the bigger canceled debt loved the moneylender more. I have to warn you about something. From time to time, you are going to talk to folks who have had a bad experience with the church. They are going to be skeptical. They ve not been treated all that well by church. In fact, some preachers give churches and awful name. Churches that categorize people; those in/those out, good enough/not good enough Jesus calls that by what it is sin. When I got out of college my first job was as a probation officer. It was good training for working with our men s ministry; Al just woke up. I had this kid on probation; he was about 19 or 20. He wasn t a bad kid, just dumb. He was hanging out with the wrong crowd of folks, stole some tires off of a car and got caught. No prior record so the judge did the right thing and put him on probation. I told the boy that if he laid down with dogs he would always get up with fleas and that he needed to find a new crowd to hang with. He really was a sincere kid. No prior convictions, high school graduate. He said he knew that he had to hang with different folks. He told me his mother told him to go to church. He did. You know what happened? This sermon is written for the ear & thus may have grammatical inconsistencies nor has it 5
His mama had told him to go to church. His probation officer told him to find a new crowd and he did. He went to his mama s church. You know what happened? The preacher told him he was not good enough to come to his church. Can you believe that? Not good enough to come to church - I didn t believe the preacher said that. I got the preacher s name and the boy and I went by to see him. I said, Pastor, this boy told me that you told him he was not good enough to come to your church. Is that right? Yes it is. That boy is no good. He s trying to go out with, and he named a name I don t remember, it was somebody else s girl friend and the somebody else is in prison for armed robbery and I am rehabilitating him and I don t want that boy in my church messin with so and so s girlfriend. Can you believe that? That s what he said, He wasn t good enough to be in his church and he wasn t going to let him in. I wonder if that preacher had ever read the Scripture we read today? Some people have been treated mighty bad by the church. I sometimes wonder about that boy. The fact is not any of us are good enough and we never will be. That makes some people mad, but it is the best news that you tell everybody just as you are. Come on in, Jesus is waiting to forgive you. But that s not the only reason people are afraid of evangelism or inviting people. Rejection - people are afraid to ask because they think they will be rejected. Well get use to it, you will be, sometime. But you never know. See I believe that the Spirit was already at work in that woman before Jesus ever came to town. I think that deep down inside she was hurting and did not know where to turn. She had probably heard about Jesus, his healing and preaching and such and maybe even thought to herself, well I ve tried everybody else maybe this one is different. The Spirit does that. The Spirit is there waiting for a heart to be so broken that it has no where else to turn and then that s the work of the Spirit, not your work, the Spirit s - and none of us know exactly This sermon is written for the ear & thus may have grammatical inconsistencies nor has it 6
who is open and who is not so invite; just invite - you don t know who will come and who won t, you don t. Abraham Lincoln is one of my favorite presidents. Much has been written about his theology and faith. Some say he was an agnostic some say a Presbyterian, well he was neither. He was the only president who never joined a church. He was skeptical of Christians. He must have met a preacher like the one who told that boy he wasn t good enough. In 1862, during the darkest days of the Civil War, with confederate troops camped across the Potomac; the very survival of the union at stake; and right after his eleven year old son, Willie, had died Lincoln was in a state of deep depression. He was seen walking around the White House with a Bible and remarked that he had gone to his knees in prayer because he had no place else to go. The President of the United States, he had no place else to go. We just don t know where the Spirit is at work. We just don t. Jesus left the dinner party and Luke tells us another remarkable thing, After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news (Luke 8:1). That s not a big deal; that s what preachers do proclaim the good news. But look who is with him; that is a very big deal women. In ancient Israel, women were not even second class they were third class. There is an old prayer prayed by the rabbis, Dear Lord, I thank you that I was not born a gentile, a slave or a woman. And there is Jesus saying, Women, come on into the church. Jesus had just left the Pharisees house after forgiving a sinful woman and there he is traveling about with the disciples and these third class women. In ancient Palestine, rabbis did not teach women, much less have them follow them around. And there is Jesus, treating them like they are somebody. There it is a whole list of their names: Mary Magdalene, Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod s household; Susanna; and many others. Not only were they following Jesus they were supporting him from their own means Jesus didn t make them fill out a pledge card but they did, and they paid them. This sermon is written for the ear & thus may have grammatical inconsistencies nor has it 7
Jesus was opening up the church to everybody and as a result funding poured in and the ministry spread because of one fundamental difference lives were being changed by what he was preaching and what he was doing and how he was living. Now it s easy to invite people to church if you have a story like that to tell and if you are a member here you have a story to tell. We are a church that by the power of the Holy Spirit is a catalyst for changing lives. The quilt ministry alone has reach out and around the globe extending the love of Christ and your love to people who are might ill and we have seen some power change take place. So invite people, they re not good enough, never will be, but Jesus will accept them just like he accepted you just as you are. When people let him in he changes them and uses them as the vehicle through which the Holy Spirit will change others. That s what was happening in Jesus church large crowds were coming in town after town (Luke 8:4). You ve got a story to tell, you ve got a world to change one sinner at a time. Tell it; tell it to everybody. You just don t know where the Spirit is working; you don t. Amen. This sermon is written for the ear & thus may have grammatical inconsistencies nor has it 8