By The Rev. Daniel Cannon
After three years of Hebrew exams and grueling Church History finals, standing here with you all today feels like a fresh spring breeze. You know the kind that come after a long winter—carrying the smell of new life…That smell is indescribable. The way that it seems to fill our whole body with life and compels us into the Great Story unfolding around us.
This Story is the reason we gather here each Sunday. Even the very seasons themselves long to tell it to us. It is the Story of life: a life that is ever new and ever fresh. A life that cannot be extinguished.
Our lives are a part of this Story. No one came here this Sunday by accident. The same Providence by which God prepares the seasons is at work in each of our lives. Before seven years ago I could have never imagined standing before you today as an ordained minister. Unlike some of the people I went to seminary with I wasn’t one of those children who went home after church and played priest.
In fact I never found church very interesting as a child. I could never understand why we did all of that “stand up—sit down—stand up—kneel.” Even at a young age though I could see that there were many loving people at church. I just didn’t understand why they couldn’t get together to do something more fun.
Well sadly I must admit that I didn’t grow out of this attitude until much later.
Yet ever since I can remember I have always believed in God despite my dislike for church. As a young boy I can still remember clearly one night when I asked my mother a really big question. I asked her how the God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit can all be One God.
They warned us in seminary that the Trinity is one of the most difficult topics to preach on—but her answer satisfied my curiosity.
She used St. Patrick’s three-leafed clover analogy and that helped me. From that point on I would say my prayers to Jesus, since I could picture what he looked like, and I knew that the Father and the Holy Spirit would hear too.
Up to college I continued praying to Jesus but I had a dislike of organized religion. The best of it seemed boring to me and I wondered why people didn’t just go out and help others instead of going to church on Sunday. The worst of organized religion to me seemed angry, judgmental and shallow. So you can see why I never imagined that someday I would be standing here.
For anyone who is curious about what changed my views, I could point many different things.
But to summarize I can only say that I was seized by the Great Story, which has been preserved in the Church.
What started this change for me was simply having someone invite me to read the Bible with him. I was struck by what I discovered there. Instead of being judgmental or something old and stuffy I found something new and amazing, which I had never seen before.
In the Scriptures I saw the story of humanity struggling to reach God, and God graciously lowering himself to embrace us.
This is the reason why we gather here each Sunday—We have each been invited personally into that Great Story by One who loves us deeply. We are invited to accept the message of Jesus and to allow it to shape our lives.
In our gospel reading today we see the story of two people who responded to Jesus’ invitation in very different ways. The first of these was Simon, a Pharisee. From what we know of that group we can assume that he obeyed the Ten Commandments, gave to charity and attended services often. If we met him today we would probably want to get him to join our Church.
The second of these people was a woman, whose name is not given and who had a bad reputation in the city as sinner. We don’t know what her sins are but Jesus says later that they are many.
If these two people came into our church one Sunday it would be easy to follow our fears and allow the woman to remain a nameless face next to us…and to invite Simon to join some of our activities.
What is amazing about this story, though, is that Jesus challenges all of our common understandings about religion and holiness. He shows us that God is at work invisibly in the people you’d least expect it. By doing so Jesus reveals to us the way to God.
You see even though Simon lived a moral life, Jesus berates him for judging the sinful woman. For in her brokenness the woman saw more clearly the gift of forgiveness that Jesus offered.
And from her behavior, we see that she accepted his invitation to a new life. As she humbled herself and washed Jesus’ feet with her tears—those tears of love washed her.
If you ask the average person what we need to do to get to heaven you would probably hear it answered: “Be a good person and make the world a better place.”
Now these things are important and I hope that we all strive towards them but they are not enough. Simon did these things but it was only to the tearful woman that Jesus said “Your faith has saved you.”
This is a glimpse into the Great Story that enthralled me and made me to want to serve Christ in his Church. The good news presented here is that God is eager to cancel the debt of our sins through Jesus Christ. All that he seeks from us in return is to respond with love.
It is only when we start believing that we are better than others that we lose sight of the debt of love that we owe to God for the gift of life itself.
As Christians we are called to avoid this pitfall of trying to justify ourselves and we are to keep our eyes fixed on God’s kindness towards us. Only then can we reach out with tenderness to care for those who are hurting around us: And to share with them the God’s invitation to healing and new life. This is why we are called here today; this is our mission to the community.
So in the coming week keep your hearts and eyes open. The Holy Spirit may point out to you someone who has never been invited to church. It takes courage to invite someone but you never know how God is working in their hearts. The fact that I am standing here today is because someone had the courage to invite me.
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