Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 7 Verses 36 to 50:

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table.  And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment.  She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.  Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.”  Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “speak.”  “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.   When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?”   Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.”  Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.  You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet.  You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.    Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”    Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”    But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”    And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

In thinking about today’s Scripture, it perhaps is easy to dwell on the lack of hospitality displayed by Simon the Pharisee or on the innate goodness of Jesus in forgiving sin.  However, I would like to focus instead upon the unknown woman who bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears before anointing him with oil.   For Jesus, we know for sure that he would not care how much this woman knew – or even who she was.  As the Son of God, it certainly would not have mattered to our Lord that the woman was not someone of high status, wealth or wisdom.  But it also did not matter to the woman that she served God faithfully when called to do so in difficult and uncertain surroundings.

To me, through her simple act of kindness, this unknown woman has lived the words of the Gospel.  Clearly, this woman was certain of her intentions.  Her witness of Christ, together with her openness to the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit in reflection placed her in the Pharisee’s home at that time.  Her own willingness to keep ministering to Jesus despite the fact that her neighbor, Simon, saw her as different or unworthy, showed a fine example of accepting her neighborhood as it was.  She did not walk out when her neighbor insulted her.  She also did not seek to admonish him, nor plead her case to Jesus.  She even took the great risk that Jesus could have rejected her after all of her efforts.  The woman went about demonstrating Christ-like qualities anyway.  She did so no matter what others thought of her, and no matter what risks she might have faced.

It is important for us to remember this in our own lives.  It is easy to feel close to God and to one other during worship.  It is easy to feel that we know the love of the Divine, and that we are doing the right thing by celebrating our faith.  However, as the warm glow fades beyond the walls of our churches, it can seem very hard indeed to see the holiness in someone who seems threatening to us.  Or in someone who might reject us and our values.  To me, this is the truest test of our faith: to be able to stand as a light unto the darkness of our own fears and difficulties – – and yet curse not the darkness for the opportunities of healing and growth that it brings.

Often, the best answer that we can give to the hardest questions is that we do not know – but that we are there with them all the same.  As the German poet Rilke would say, we are left to live out our questions because maybe we could not live with those answers right now.  And our questions should be as big as the universe that embraces us.

People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.  Even if all the world calls us a sinner or, in contrast, celebrates us for our worldly accomplishments, we are not trapped in our past or in our own self-image.  We do not need to live up to the labels or assumptions of others.  Instead, like the woman who used her own tears to bathe Jesus, we just need to listen and act.  She followed the most important question the Holy Spirit ever could ask of any one us: What would love do now?  For the most important thing to know is how to give and receive love.  In granting forgiveness of her sins, Jesus showed that our salvation may be founded as much as in our reaction as in our outward appearance of action.

The fact that a simple act of kindness in bathing and anointing the feet of Jesus is remembered even today shows that the smallest gestures will continue to work themselves out positively beyond what we ever could know or imagine.  It might be a smile which eases someone’s difficult day.  It might be cutting the lawn of an elderly neighbor.  It might be offering encouragement to our young people, who face an uncertain and harsh world.  Like the kindness of the unknown woman, many of the unspoken kindnesses performed by you will resonate tomorrow.  Like a boomerang, they will come back to you all, for everything is noticed and every loving act applauded.

Just as surely as God knows every hair on all of our heads, we each have within us the ability to transform our lives and those around us in the same way that Jesus did.  By always being the servant and not the master.  By listening to the Holy Spirit and acting accordingly.  With God’s help, we have the power to look beyond the temporary and temporal moments of what we perceive to be good times and bad times to see the bigger picture.  All we have to do is ask.  Through prayer and daily devotion, we are able to follow the harmony of how to behave faithfully one day at a time.  After all, the Psalmist had it right: the Lord is indeed our Shepherd.  And in God’s care, we shall not want.  Amen and Amen.