August 26, 2007 Sermon

Acceptance Through Faith
Luke 7:36-50

At nineteen she was crowned queen of her county fair. She graduated with honors from a top private college. An international corporation hired her as a media spokesperson at the age of 22. They loved the fact that besides being attractive, she could appear gracious no matter how intense reporters’ questions got. She married an attorney; by the time they turned 30 they had two healthy children. She volunteered in the community, regularly attended church and was genuinely liked, even by other young professional women in town. She hated herself.

Tall and thin even after two babies, she saw a fat slob when she looked in the mirror. She wondered when everybody would discover what a fraud she was. She was consumed by fears she struggled to keep hidden from the world. She did not believe she had any friends. She was sure women put up with her because her husband was a rising star. She felt men never saw the real her, but only her face and body. She thought her whole life was a lie. She believed in Jesus but felt he probably had no use for somebody as tricky and angry as her.

Many people feel unworthy of God’s love. Yet Jesus went out of his way to demonstrate that he loved all sorts of people. Jesus went out of his way to break every social barrier in the Holy Land of the 1st century. He spoke with a Samaritan woman in broad daylight. He included a tax collector among his closest followers. And when a sinful woman (likely a prostitute) interrupted his supper, Jesus accepted her. He accepted her presence; more importantly, he accepted her.

Can you enter that room? Jesus had spent the day preaching, teaching and healing. A Pharisee invited him to supper. Jesus reclined beside a low table. Can you smell the food—possibly boiled barley or wheat cereal, lamb roasted in herbs, cups of wine, grapes picked from the vine in the back yard? Can you hear the excited murmurings of the crowd just outside? Can you see the rich robes of the Pharisee contrasting with the simple linen tunic Jesus likely wore? Can you hear the commotion as a woman barges into the room? Can you smell the pungent perfume as she cracks open a vial clenched in her hands? Can you see the tears flowing down her cheeks and onto Jesus’ feet as she wipes them with her long, black hair? Can you hear her sobbing? Can you hear Jesus tell her he forgives her sins?

This woman took a tremendous risk. She put herself in a place nobody wanted her to be: in a religious man’s house, in front of witnesses, at the feet of a strangely powerful man. She knew she was unworthy of his love, yet she could not resist asking for it. And Jesus accepted her. He told her that her faith had moved him to forgive her sins. In that moment her tears changed from expressions of grief into expressions of joy.

We all need acceptance. In spiritual terms, we all need forgiveness. We all need to know that God loves us—despite ourselves. The woman who wiped Jesus’ feet needed that knowledge. The county fair queen with her secret fears needed that knowledge. You need it. I need it. We need to believe that when we have faith in Jesus as our Savior, God’s love covers our sins. Through faith, God accepts us. Trust that.

He served as clerk of session at a Presbyterian church and worked as a senior accountant at a Fortune 100 corporate headquarters. He taught the Bible. His elder son flew fighter jets in the Air Force. His younger son attended seminary in hopes of becoming an ordained Presbyterian minister. He had nothing but contempt for this son, whom he thought was stupid and too lazy to get a “real” job. He arrogantly judged all people who broke any of God’s Old Testament laws. And he cheerfully and frequently spoke about all of the above.

He argued that the elders of the church should carefully examine all who sought membership. He advocated that they should ask newcomers explicit questions about sexual orientation, extramarital affairs and pornography. He felt divorced men should never be permitted into the ministry; women pastors were unthinkable. When a fellow elder lost his job to downsizing, this man insisted it was because his project team had falsified test results. Though the man was cleared our clerk friend felt sure he knew the cheating was going on and should be removed from church leadership for dishonesty. He saw no contradiction whatsoever between his contempt for his younger son’s intellect and the love of Jesus.

This man reached all these—and many more—positions through his legalistic reading of the Bible. The Bible meant exactly what it said, he felt, and any attempt to soften its words was blasphemy. You may ask how he got elected as clerk of session. The answer is that he had the passionate support of his fellow legalists in the church. Legalists (people who insist on observing the letter of the law at the cost of ignoring the Holy Spirit behind it) are everywhere. We probably have a few in our own congregation.

Jesus met legalists along his way. In fact, he ate in the home of one the night the woman sinner cleansed his feet with her tears. A Pharisee, a lifelong student of the Old Testament, had invited him to supper. And though because he was a legalist he was unlikely to accept Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus had no qualms about accepting his hospitality. Why not accept the man himself, too, if he should start to believe?

Jesus had but one question when it came to deciding whom he would accept and whom he would reject: did the person in question believe in Him as Lord and Savior? Look again at the very last words in our passage from the Gospel of Luke: he told the woman at his feet, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Faith is all it takes to receive Christ’s acceptance. But faith can be hard to gain. Through faith, God accepts us. Do what it takes to grow your faith in Jesus as the Messiah.

Faith comes easily to a few. Most of us, however, struggle at least a bit to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. We struggle to believe anything. The young woman with whom I opened this sermon truly did struggle to believe in herself. Everybody else thought of her as a particularly impressive person; she thought of herself as a liar. The legalistic clerk of session posed as a man of deep faith but he made a common mistake. He confused his commitment to God’s severe law with faith in the gracious God who created it—and who sent His only Son to die for us when not one of us could keep it. Thus the clerk struggled to believe in the Jesus who actually was.

Through faith, God accepts us. Get and grow your faith. Pray constantly. Even two word prayers (like “help me!”) can be good enough. Just pray. Developing the habit of prayer creates faith in Jesus like nothing else I know.

Read your Bible. Go to Sunday School and/or Bible study. Learn the truth about Jesus. The more you know about Him the greater your faith in Him will become.

Hang around fellow Christians. Even the most individualistic among us change like chameleons to resemble the people around us. We blend in. It’s human nature. Blend in, therefore, with people sharing your journey toward faith in the risen Jesus.

Through faith, God accepts us. We long for it. Go get it.

Life is short. Life can be hard and cruel. Far too often the worst enemy we have is ourselves. Try not to make the mistake of the self-doubter. Trust in God to deliver you, sinner that you are. Try not to make the mistake of the self-righteous. Trust in God to love even you. Through faith, God accepts us. Believe in the love of God as shown in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Savior, who loves you.