Proper 6C, June 17, 2007

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable in thine eyes, O Lord my strength and my redeemer. Amen

“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.”

With the new Fantastic Four movie opening this weekend, I find myself inspired by our scripture readings to talk about another old-fashioned superhero that you don’t hear much about anymore.

Anyone here remember, The Shadow?

I think Orson Wells did the Shadow’s voice on the radio in the 40’s.

He was also in few comic book series in the 70’s, which is where I first got to know the character.

And some of you might recall a few years back a big budget screen adaptation with recent Dad of the Year nominee, Alec Baldwin, playing the part of Lamont Cranston, the man who knows how to cloud men’s minds.

Does anyone remember the famous introduction to the old show, Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.

There was in the comic stories I read as a child a certain melancholic irony, a strong sense of fate, the almost Greek notion that the characters were trapped by their own choices and their own sins.

Dressed in black with a red scarf over his lower face the Shadow appeared much like an Old Testament angel, relentlessly pursuing those who had broken the law and dispensing his own brand of justice.

Or to put it another way, the stories reminded me of something my mother used to tell us when I was growing up, your sins will find you out.

It was not so much that the Shadow caught people but there was a sense that the folks who chose to live under the shadow of sin were eventually caught by their own actions.

And this brings us to the two other people in this morning lesson’s that have been choosing to live trapped under the shadows of their past sins.

First from our Old Testament story, Nathan the Prophet confronts King David with his adultery and conspiracy to murder Uriah in order to obtain his wife, Bathsheba.

The wise prophet Nathan decides that instead of accusing the King directly, he tells him a story.

And through this story David is forced to an account for the terrible sins that he has committed and to confront the shadows of his past.

Scripture tells us that despite what David had done, the Lord still loved him.

As a friend of mine used to say, God was more interested in David’s future than his past.

And we see in our story David choosing the path of courage, and emerging from the shadows that have controlled his life.

He says, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan is there to reassure him that the Lord has put away his sin.

In our gospel lesson from St. Luke, there are no illusions about whether the unnamed woman knows she is a sinner.

She knows all about her past. I am sure that everyone in town is always ready to remind her what kind of person they think she is.

But before Jesus in the house of Simon the Pharisee, she is ready to confess those sins and seek God’s forgiveness.

Jesus tells Simon that the great affection and love she shows is because she had so many sins to be forgiven.

But he who is forgiven little loves little.

The implication of the story is that Simon is a sinner as well, but doesn’t know it.

Simon’s lack of love is reflected in his scant hospitality to Jesus. Although he invites him to his home he does not really make him feel welcome.

Everyone in town has told Simon how wonderful he is, and he unfortunately believes them.

Simon has made the common mistake of thinking that salvation comes from his ability to fulfill his moral and religious obligations.

The women who comes to Jesus weeping, realizes that her moral works cannot save her. All she can do is throw herself on God’s mercy.

And what you may ask does this act of contrition accomplish.

We see in Luke’s Gospel a picture of the way that God’s love can bring about profound personal transformation in her life and all of our lives as well.

God’s forgiveness has released the deep wells of love and devotion within herself.

And we are called in the same way to give that kind of extravagant love and forgiveness to others.

You might recall there was a popular book that came out in the seventies called, I’m OK, you’re OK.

I have always had some problems with the title because my experience of human nature is that none of us really that Okay.

Like Simon the Pharisee, we might put on a good show but we still in some way struggle against the same shadows that David and the unnamed woman knew.

Jesus certainly wouldn’t have thought much of the book’s title since he reminds us that the tax collectors and prostitutes inherit the kingdom before any of us.

But if we want our church to lead others to know Christ, to be kind of place that changes people’s lives, we must be willing to admit that none of us is really okay.

If we really thought that we were OK, we would probably just do away with the weekly confession of sin.

Or try and make it into something less offensive to our own sense of pride. We could call it a confession of minor infractions.

I have always believed that we only begin to live authentic lives when like David we have the courage to admit that we have sinned against the Lord.

In our current culture most people think that confession is a sign of weakness.

No one wants to admit their own fears, the battles they wage against the shadows.

The mess that we all can make of our own lives and the lives of those we love.

But as I have said previously, growth in Christ comes for us at moments of death.

It comes at those critical times in human life when we abandon our own illusions about the kind of people we think we are, and admit that we need God’s help to be the kind of people that we ought to be.

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men and women.

God knows.

And thank goodness the message we hear this morning is that God is ready to put away the shadows of our past sins,

To give us hope in our future, and to tell us that like the prodigal son, God always is ready to welcome us home.

Therefore I tell you, her sins and our sins, which were many, have been forgiven.

Thanks be to God.