"Loving Greatly" Sermon for Epiphany 4 (Narrative Lectionary 3)

Loving Greatly
Epiphany 4 (NL3)
February 3, 2013
Luke 7.36-50

Cindy and I recently saw the movie, Les Miserables, based on the book by Victor Hugo. It was a powerful and moving experience. Set during the French Revolution, the story revolves around Jean Valjean who, as the movie opens is in a brutal French prison for having stolen a loaf of bread. His absurd four-year sentence was stretched to 19 because of repeated escape attempts. When he is released on parole, he’s unable to find work. The only welcome he finds is in a cathedral, where the bishop feeds him and gives him a warm bed. Valjean betrays the bishop’s kindness by stealing the church’s silver, only to be caught, beaten, and hauled back to the church for his reckoning.

In a startling turn of events, the bishop tells the police that the silver was a gift to Valjean, asking Valjean why he forgot the priceless candlesticks as well. After the police leave the bishop tells Valjean that God has set him aside for a purpose. I won’t spoil the rest of the movie, but I will tell you that, freed from the burden of his past, Valjean is a changed man who changes the lives of others. This is not easy for him, because his old prison guard and nemesis, Javert, refuses to release him from his old way of life as the bishop did.

I think that our scripture reading from Luke 7 is an equally moving and powerful story of forgiveness. I don’t know that Hugo had this in mind as he wrote Les Miserables, but there are certainly similarities. We are told that an unnamed woman had “many sins,” but we are not told what they were. Nowhere does Jesus deny her sins, but claims that she, like Valjean, no longer suffers from their burden. The woman, as Valjean, is freed to live a new life, a freedom and release she expresses lavishly in tears and costly ointment. The fact is that forgiveness changes who we are and it changes who we believe God to be. There is an old Jewish folk tale claiming that before God created the world, God forgave it. It expresses the important truth that forgiveness is vital to all creation.

However, this story would be not much more than a Hallmark Movie Channel offering if it weren’t for the woman’s outpouring of gratitude and the response of the religious leader, Simon. The woman’s behavior with Jesus was scandalous, a modern equivalent might be a lap dance given to a priest. Simon is outraged that Jesus allows such behavior, condemning the woman’s behavior and Jesus for allowing it. Yet, the real scandal is that God’s forgiveness is poured out so freely and abundantly on anyone and everyone. Like Javert, Simon cannot let go of the past and cannot believe that God has done so, either.

I seem to recall from a Literature class many years ago that the American novel is unique in that it tends to be open-ended rather than being complete stories. We are often left hanging, wondering what happens after the final page. Though there is some aspect of Les Miserables that is left open, we do know how the French Revolution unfolds and we are given a wonderful vision of the future at the end. Of course, regarding the biblical story, we do know what happens to Jesus, and that even the darkest powers that stand against him and us will not prevail. Plus, we are also given a wonderful vision of the future. But, what about Simon; does he finally “get it” at some point? We know that there were Pharisees who came to believe in Jesus and the good news of God’s love and mercy for all. Was Simon one of them? And what about the Unnamed Woman, is her life really transformed in some meaningful way? We are not told about either.

Great stories like Les Miserables and today’s reading from Luke are not only great because they have a good story and characters, but because they touch something deep within us. Yet, they are also great because they draw us into their worlds and open us up to hear important truths in ways we might not otherwise. We are invited today to think about what our own futures might be like lived out through the amazing abundance and blessing of God’s love and forgiveness that sets us free. Forgiveness is constantly needed because we are an imperfect people in an imperfect world; we are a people on the way. If there is nothing else that we can offer each other and our world it is this, hope through God’s abundant grace and mercy. Go in peace, loving greatly; you have been forgiven. Amen.