"Forgive Us Our Shame", June 16, 2013

I Kings 21: 1-7 Luke 7: 36-8: 3 This morning, Father's Day, we read a story of a great community feast in which Jesus is invited. And in the Town of Skaneateles, Father's Day is the day of a great feast! We are mortal creatures, which more than meaning that we were born and will die, identifies routines of daily living. Every day, we Sleep and Work and take Meals. Some meals are in isolation, some are very public like a Wedding Feast or the Rotary Pancake Breakfast, all are filled with circumstances of ritual and expectations. We know it will be difficult parking and given how much rain we have had, that the grass around Allyn arena will be wet. We knowing as we enter there will be this long line, as you see and are seen by the whole Village. We know there will be Sticky Plastic Checkered Table cloths. Before we are given food, we will have that plastic sleeve with napkin, fork, knife, spoon, salt and pepper. We know the smells of the Band and the Sound of cooking, and the feel of the cement beneath our folding chairs.This morning from Luke we read the story of a great feast, with circumstances of ritual and expectations. In human history, in addition to being Mortal, we have become Creatures of Commerce. Increasingly over the last decade, our worth, our measure, the minutes of the day and years of our lives are measured in dollars and cents, not simply in quantity but quality valued above all else. The difficulty, identified in this story of Ahab, as well as the Housing Boom and Bust, Inflation and Recession, is whether there are things beyond monetary value? Whether integrity has limits? Whether Promised Land and inheritance still have meaning, or does everything in our world have a price? If so, then the wealthiest and most powerful bully has the ability to manipulate, to accuse and destroy, to put to death, to cover-up scandal. In each story there are three characters. Can we agree, right up front, that NONE of US is God? As much as we want to believe and to follow, none of us, are able to put ourselves into the position of being God or Jesus Christ. Which in each passage leaves two identities. Rather than claiming we are always Sheep at Jesus' Right Hand, and Sinners are Goats always at the left. We recognize some of each in each of us. As we begin interpreting, we recognize the name Ahab. There is reason why, Herman Melville in Moby Dick, chose this as the name of the flawed Sea Captain. Ahab is an Obsessed man, willing to sacrifice everything to get vengeance. No price, not even the sacrifice of his leg or his boat or his crew, are too great compared with getting what he wants. Ahab's identifying characteristic is that he has sacrificed a part of himself, and replaced it with a lifeless block of wood. In Moby Dick with a wooden leg, in the Bible with the wooden fertility idols of Baal. Also, we know that a Jezebel is one who puts themselves and their desires above all else. A Jezebel is one who will sell themselves to control what they want. In this case, Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, is willing and able to set herself up as if GOD. All this we know before the story ever opens. King Ahab is now Monarch over All Israel, Samaria and Sidon. Ahab has the entire Nation, Israel's Economy and Military and Government as his power. Anything, everything, and everyone, he controls. But from the window of his summer palace, King Ahab is able to see the Vineyard of his Neighbor, Naboth. In the Bible, there are certain words that carry meaning. “Vineyard” reminds us of the Garden of Eden, Paradise, which God created and we were intended to care for but trying to control we lost! Over and over, in Jesus' parables, when he names a Vineyard, it is a symbol of God's Created Order, Promised Land. And “Neighbor,” given Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan, always reminds us of our responsibility to care for others, to put ourselves out by attending to the needs of those weak or in trouble. All of which sets up, that Ahab wants his neighbor's land. He will trade anything for it, or pay any price. However, to Naboth, this Vineyard is not Real Estate to purchase or sell, this was the Promised Land given to his ancestors, and inherited generation after generation. Identification with The “Promised Land,” Moses, David, Solomon, these are what Ahab had forgot. And even the King could not by eminent domain, over-rule the Law of Promised Land and Inheritance. As the most powerful man, who is blocked from what he wants, Ahab is Depressed and goes to Bed. Jezebel is willing to play God, and give Ahab what he wants. She writes Letters with his signature and seal, to have Naboth accused not only of Treason against the King, but Blasphemy against Israel's God. The problem of Capital Punishment, is that errors have been made. Power has been abused. Naboth is stoned to death and his blood runs into the ground. Remember Cain and Abel? Ahab cannot avoid the Prophet Elijah, like Cain with God, he knows he has done wrong and will be punished for all eternity. The passage from Luke appears in each of the Gospels. In Matthew and Mark, a woman anoints Jesus' head with oil as preparation for his death and burial. In Luke's Gospel, I think we need to first recall a story from John. Jesus was writing in the dirt, when the crowd bring forth a prostitute who was caught in the act and they want him to judge her to be stoned to death. Jesus never even looks up, but says, “Let the one who is without sin, cast the first stone.” One by one, they all go away, and Jesus refuses to condemn the woman of the City. Imagine a public meal like the Father's Pancake Breakfast. Simon is a Pharisee. The Pharisees were not Pastors, not Priests, not Prophets. Pharisees were Powerful Aristocrats, Highly educated Judges, who knew and manipulated the Law, judges who liked to name other people's sins and condemn them. Jesus was in town, so Simon had to invite him. On the one hand, if he turned out to be the Messiah, to be able to say he was the first to have Jesus over for dinner! Making another your guest, created a debt of gratitude, to be called in and repaid at a later date. On the other hand, if Jesus turned out to be a fraud, Simon would show no kindness to him, and be able to say, “He ate at my house, but I gave him nothing.” Envision the woman of the City. She is not strident. She is not pretentious or powerful. She knows what she has done, and who she is, and how others judge her. She is un-named. The only clothing she would have would be those of a prostitute. She would have the aroma of cheap perfume, and liquor seeping out of of her pores. Her long braided hair piled high to reveal the nakedness of her neck and shoulders and ears. Her make-up smeared. Piercings and markings from her earlier life would never come off. Of all human emotions, shame is among the most destructive. The importance of shame is feeling embarrassment, knowing when we cross boundaries or violate taboos. But when bullied, when day after day we are pushed and embarrassed and made to feel less than equal less than human, we bow our heads, and slump our shoulders, as if weighed down by an oxen's yoke. This woman, who earlier on that day had been publicly shamed, yet Jesus protected her from being judged, from being killed, she walked through the crowd to kneel behind Jesus and touch him. Touch is important in the Bible. Last week, there was one story after another about touching a dead body, and being unclean, or offering life from the Savior to the one who was dead. Here, the Prostitute's touch is intimate. For water to wash his feet she weeps sincere tears. Instead of a towel, she lets down and uses her own hair. She kisses his feet, the act of one whose life has been spared for the one who saved them. How Jesus left that dinner, is not described. But for the woman, where she entered stooped, she left without burden, without sin, walking as a whole human being who has given themselves in acts of love. In recent decades, there has been a silly argument between Churches. Whether when translating the Prayer Jesus' Taught do we say “Debts and Debtors” or “Trespasses and those who trespass Against Us” or “Sins and Those who sin against us”? In the world today, I think all of these have become words distant and meaningless to us, and perhaps what we want and need to pray is FORGIVE US OUR SHAME as WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO HAVE SHAMED US.