GODLY BEHAVIOR
I Kings 21:1-10; Luke 7:36-50
June 17, 2007
I generally have a good view of the innate goodness of humankind. I even believe, as St. Augustine first proposed, that there is a “divine spark” within each human being that needs but to be nurtured. But I must admit watching the local news puts that image to the test. A man tried to run over his wife with their Jeep. He was killed in the chase by police. A man murdered his pregnant wife, etc., etc., etc.. It makes one a little sick to the stomach. It seems as if we humans can be a very selfish and greedy lot! And people sue one another for enormous amounts, and for ridiculous reasons. There is actually an award for the most ridiculous lawsuits, called the Stella Award, named after the woman who spilled hot coffee in her lap at McDonalds and sued them and won $2.9 million dollars. With the corruption that only the web can allow, there are even bogus Stella Award sites, with fabricated stories about outrageous lawsuits.
So here are a few examples from the official True Stella Awards site! A squirrel crawled up the leg of a woman while she was outside a shopping mall. She fell and had some injuries, so she sued the mall for over $50,000 because they did not warn her that squirrels lived outside. An FBI agent, while driving and working on a case, lost the magazine from his pistol and crashed his pick-up truck. His blood alcohol level tested at more than 3 times the legal limit. But he sued the manufacturer of the pick-up truck, and the dealer he bought it from because the truck somehow caused him to lose consciousness. And the #1 winner of the True Stella Award for 2006 was Allen Ray Hecker, the man who, though 3 inches shorter, 25 pounds lighter, and 8 years younger than Michael Jordan, says he is often mistaken for him. He sued Michael Jordan for $52 million “for defamation and permanent injury” plus $364 million in “punitive damage for emotional pain and suffering.” He tried to sue Nike for the same amount, but dropped the suit when they said they would counter-sue. All of these rather try our faith in humankind, don’t they?
So when we turn to the place we turn to most for ideas of right living, the Bible, we run across stories like this one of Ahab and Jezebel! Naboth had a vineyard by the palace of King Ahab, and Ahab told him one day that he wanted the vineyard, to make it a vegetable garden. Like any Bible story, there is more here than meets the eye. There are several Bible passages that describe God’s care as a vineyard. And Deuteronomy 11:10 compares the promised land, the one flowing with milk and honey, to the land of slavery the people of God left in Egypt, where they “sow seed and irrigate by foot like a vegetable garden.” Naboth’s reply to Ahab is that he will not give up his family’s land. There were no laws prohibiting the sell of inherited land, but Israelites tried to keep such property within the family. Naboth may have invoked God’s name in his answer as a bit of resistance to Ahab’s foreign and pagan rule. Once refused, King Ahab then went home and to bed to sulk. And it is his wife Jezebel who took action and came up with a plan. She used the law to her benefit, and set up a way to entrap Naboth with witnesses, two as required, who would say that he had cursed his God and king. By law, such a blasphemer would be stoned to death. And so it happened with Naboth. The property of an executed criminal could then be seized by the crown. It was a diabolical scheme, and it worked. Even in the Bible we see behavior that is not very Godly.
But do not be dismayed. There was some justice enacted after this event. The prophet Elijah heard what had happened and went to Ahab with very condemning words:
“Because you have sold yourself to what is evil in the sight of
the Lord, I will bring disaster on you; I will consume you, and
will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel…” And then Elijah cursed the house of Ahab, and his sons. And concerning Jezebel, he said, “The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the bounds of Jezreel.”
(I Kings 21:20-21; 23)
Even this reprisal seems violent and cruel itself. But there are also political undertones here, as Ahab and Jezebel introduced and forced upon Israel pagan worship. And interestingly enough, Ahab repented when Elijah harangued him in this way. Ahab tore his clothes and put on sackcloth, and lay fasting and dejected. According to the Scripture, God then decided not to bring disaster upon Ahab, but only upon his sons when they came into rule.
None of this seems to us like Godly behavior. We look, I think, for a God of love and peace, and, well, perhaps also of justice, but not if it means anything harsh! But, wait, don’t you think that God too must get tired of the way we humans act at times? When gentle tactics do not work, perhaps God works harder to get our attention!
Proverbs 6 says that “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to [the Lord]: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family.” (Proverbs 6:16-19)
And the Letter to the Galatians in the New Testament lists the fleshly (or selfish) desires that are opposed to the Holy Spirit: “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.” (Galatians 5:19-21) “Those who do such things,” the letter clearly states, “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:21).
We do not want to acknowledge that there are limits, perhaps, to what God will put up with! But it appears that there are indeed times when our parent God draws a line in the sand to stop our errant behavior, and when we cross that line, we get into deep trouble with God! God’s behavior does include judgment, as it must, or we, like our children, would not know the boundaries. We were given, as the people of God, a list of behavioral rules, long ago. They said things like, in relation to God, worship no one but God, and do not make idols of other gods or things; do not misuse God’s name; and keep the Sabbath day as a holy and restful time. And in relationship to other people, the rules told us to honor our parents, and to not kill, not commit adultery, not steal, not lie, and to not covet what belongs to someone else.
These rules for living were very simply stated, and they were etched onto stone tablets, so that they might be etched into our minds. But the people of God have not been able to keep those laws very well. So God sent into the world someone who embodied those laws, to show us how to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.” But we all know the tragic story of God sent into the world. The laws of this world were used to let people put him to death, perhaps similar to the way Jezebel found a way to use the law to have Naboth put to death. Surely God must get upset with our behavior!
Yet God found a way to conquer even the evil act we did to Jesus, by raising him from the dead. This act showed that God is more powerful than death or sin!
We Christians often turn to the New Testament to find out more about God’s expectations for us. Our passage today, where a woman bathes Jesus’ feet, appears in some form in all 4 gospels. And yet in Luke, it is not used as a reference to anointing Jesus just before his death as it is in the other gospels. It is used as a story about love and forgiveness. And so it gives us clues to God’s nature and how God expects us to act.
Jesus was invited to a dinner party at the house of a Pharisee, quite a unique invitation because Jesus and the Pharisees usually conflicted with one another. Usually when one was invited to a dinner party, they were given a bowl and towel as they entered, to wash the dirt of the streets off their feet. Or a servant washed their feet for them. For a very honored guest, the host might even wash the feet. Guests were often also greeted with a kiss, and sometimes their heads were anointed with oil, as to smooth and clean the hair for public contact. The Pharisee did none of these for Jesus. When dinner parties were held in that day and age, they were much more public than they are now. Townspeople were free to wander in and out, and the poor could take any uneaten food. So the presence of this woman was not out of place. Guests gathered around a horseshoe-shaped table, laying on their left side, propped on the elbow, reaching for food with their right hands. Their feet would be stretched out, and this woman approached Jesus’ feet. She was obviously emotional, weeping, and she began to bathe Jesus’ feet with her tears, and wipe them with her hair. She also kissed his feet, and anointed them with an ointment. The host Pharisee judged her quickly. Her unbound hair might have caused his judgment, because women of that time did not leave their hair unbound. And the ointment that she carried might have been one used by prostitutes. So he judged her by her appearance. Jesus, indeed the prophet who could read his host’s thoughts, proposed a riddle, which was a common dinner party practice. The host, Simon by name, must have seen Jesus’ trap, because he reluctantly answered that the one who had been forgiven more loved more. Jesus then proceeded to compare Simon’s lack of love and forgiveness to the great love and forgiveness of the sinful woman. Her sins were many, he said, and that was why she showed great love. She came in weeping, knowing, perhaps, of his power to forgive. And she honored Jesus as a host or a servant ought to do, bathing his dirty feet, anointing his head. Jesus declared her forgiven. And the other guests questioned his authority to do so. But Jesus ignored them and concentrated on the woman, telling her that her faith had saved her, and sending her off with a blessing of peace.
So the Godly behavior we can observe in Jesus here tells us many things. Jesus graciously accepted the invitation of someone known as an enemy. Jesus risked social criticism, and even ritual soiling in that day and age, by accepting the caring attention of someone known by the community to be a sinner. Jesus used a story to gently but firmly tell and explain to his host the differences between him and the sinful woman, and, much to Simon’s pious surprise, she got the more favorable review! So Jesus pointed out to us the error of righteous, pious behavior and the benefit of humility and love.
Both of our passages point, then, to behavior that God adores, and behaviors that God abhors. The Catholic Church has had, since the 6th century, a list of the 7 deadly sins. They are: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath (which is hateful and destructive anger), envy, and pride. There are also 7 holy (or contrary) virtues: chastity (purity of soul), abstinence or temperance, liberality or charity, diligence, patience or forgiveness, kindness, and humility. Lest we think these are Catholic but not necessarily biblical, we can turn again to Galatians 5, where the fruit of the Spirit is listed as: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I think, and will confess my own shortcomings, that we can all be guilty of any of the deadly sins from time to time. We are, after all, human, and we “fall short of the glory of God.” But we can also, and should also, strive for the Godly behaviors of love, peace, forgiveness, self-control, all those 7 holy virtues, and those 9 fruits of the Spirit. We are all capable of sinful behavior. We are all also just as capable of more Godly behavior, but we have to work at it.
One commentator, Sharon Ringe, who is a professor of New Testament at Wesley Seminary in DC, thinks that in our Luke passage, the woman came to Jesus already knowing that she had been forgiven, and that is why she acted with such love to bathe his feet and anoint him. Her tears were tears of gratitude, as she was forgiven for many sins, and so she had great love. So Jesus also acknowledged: “Her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love.” “But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little,” he also said (Luke 7:47). Perhaps, then, the key to our embracing Godly behavior is simply to acknowledge with all our heart and soul the great forgiveness God offers us. And then, forgiven much, we will be able to love greatly, and to pursue peace, joy, and all the other fruits of the Spirit. The justice and judgment of God asks us to repent. The forgiveness of God enables us to love. As Tully Fletcher said last week when he preached here, it is that simple, and it is that hard. Ponder these things in your hearts. AMEN.