Loving God, you are more ready to forgive than to judge, and yet we manage to put judgment first.  Help us to know and to experience the gift of your forgiveness, that, filled with your love, we might happily pass it on to others; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Just out of curiosity, how many of you have ever heard the story about Naboth’s vineyard before? [not very many?] So why are we hearing this story?  It’s not as though anybody in it is setting a particularly good example.  Ahab could be an example of how not to be a father, or how not to be the king of Israel.  And Jezebel was such a wicked queen that her name has become synonymous with any wicked woman.  Yet, this is one of a number of stories included in the Old Testament that tell us about Ahab and Jezebel and Elijah.  Perhaps all of these stories could have an introduction that goes something like this: Here is what happens when people turn away from the Living God in order to worship idols.

    Of course, I had to include at least one picture today to show you Naboth’s vineyard – or at least the area where this vineyard would have been.  It is an extremely fertile valley, where many things are grown, including grapes.  And one of the things in this story that is quite different from how people generally think today is the whole attitude toward the land.

    In that time and in that place, land was not generally bought and sold.  In fact, if you did sell it, it would only be to a close relative.  Naboth’s vineyard would have been his ancestral inheritance, which had been passed on from one generation to the next in his family.  It would also have been viewed as a gift from God, and so it is not surprising that Naboth would respond: “The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance” (1 Ki. 21:3).  What Ahab was asking would have been inconceivable to Naboth or any other person at that time.  However, of course Ahab and Jezebel don’t see it that way, and so Jezebel comes up with a plan in order to get Ahab what he wants.

    So, in the whole story about Naboth’s vineyard, how many sinners did you notice?  (Ahab and Jezebel are obvious, but the astute might also name Naboth and Elijah and the scoundrels, elders and nobles.) “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).  However, we normally like to point to the “really big” sinners, right?  And so it’s pretty easy to point to Ahab and Jezebel as sinners.

    In fact, did you happen to notice how many of the Ten Commandments are broken simply in the course of this one story? [coveting, false witness, stealing, murder, idolatry] And so, what if Ahab or Jezebel repented of their sin and turned to God?  Would they be forgiven? [responses]

    Particularly interesting with this story is the part that we don’t hear.  Our first reading today ended with Elijah going to Ahab and communicating God’s judgment to him.  The chapter continues with further details about what will happen to Ahab and Jezebel and their family because of their sin, and the writer of 1 Kings makes it clear that there was no king in Israel who was more evil than Ahab.

    However, then an amazing thing happens.  Ahab tears his clothes as a sign of repentance and grief, puts on sackcloth and starts fasting.  In other words, he repents when he hears these words of judgment from Elijah.  It is interesting that in this story, as in others in the Old Testament, there are still consequences for Ahab’s sin, but the judgement will be carried out during his son’s life-time rather than on Ahab himself.

    Of course, in today’s gospel we are also asked to think about sin and forgiveness.  In this case, we are really not given a whole lot of information about the woman who features so prominently.  What we do know is this: She loves Jesus and shows it by washing his feet with her tears, drying them with her hair, and anointing them with ointment.  We also know that the other people in the room considered her to be a sinner.  That’s it.  That’s all that we are told.

    Isn’t it interesting that, rather than listening to Jesus or learning from him, Simon the Pharisee is sitting there judging both Jesus and the woman who is anointing his feet?  Simon is thinking, “Can this man really be a prophet?  Surely a prophet would know how sinful this woman is and would rebuke her!  If Jesus were a prophet, there’s no way he would let this woman touch him, or even come near him!”

    However, while Simon is sitting there judging, God is more than ready to forgive.  God is ready to forgive Ahab, and God is ready to forgive this woman who is ministering to Jesus, and God is ready to forgive good people like Simon.  It might be worth it to ask ourselves which attitude we adopt most readily.  Are we quick to point out who the sinners are?  Are we waiting to see how God is going to punish them?  Or are we just waiting to announce God’s forgiveness to those who repent and who know their need of God?

    I have often heard people say that so-and-so is a good person or that they themselves are a good person.  However, today’s readings raise the question as to whether we really can love God if we don’t know that we have been forgiven.  This isn’t to say that we should go out and commit lots of sins so that God will have lots to forgive.  Rather, this is to say that all of us need to have an awareness that we have sinned, and that we do need God’s forgiveness, and that we have received God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

    It is an incredible gift, to be forgiven – especially by God – and the only appropriate response is one of love: love for God, certainly, but also love for those whom others would prefer to judge.  This is what Paul describes as living “by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).  May we, along with the woman in today’s gospel, hear Jesus say to us: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Lk. 7:50).  Amen.

Lectionary 11(C)                                Luke 7:36 - 8:3
June 16, 2013                                1 Kings 21:1-21a
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church                        Galatians 2:15-21
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2013 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved