Such great love

Gospel
Luke 7.36-8.3

36One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. 37And 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. 38She 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. 39Now 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.’ 40Jesus spoke up and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ ‘Teacher,’ he replied. ‘Speak.’ 41‘A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42When they could not pay, he cancelled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?’ 43Simon answered, ‘I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the greater debt.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’ 44Then turning towards 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. 45You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47Therefore, 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.’ 48Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ 49But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ 50And he said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’

1Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, 2as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.

Dulverton Sermon

At the beginning of each eucharist we hear our Lord’s command ‘to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength, and our neighbour as ourself’. If we build our Christian lives on obedience to this command it is possible to create a most good life, worthy of much admiration. And many do. However the nature of love illustrated in today’s gospel is of a totally different order. It is a love deriving not from obedience to a command but from a compulsive response to a Saviour’s compassion. It is the “such great love”of “a women in the city, who was a sinner” overwhelmed by Jesus love and forgiveness. I am reminded of Nancy’s song from the musical ‘Oliver’ about Dodger –“I’ll do anything; For you, dear, anything; For you mean ev’rything to me.”

Here in this chapel last Friday was kept as the Feast of St Barnabas because of the date but the 2^nd Friday after Trinity is also kept as the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. From very early Christian times there has been devotion to the 5 sacred wounds of Jesus which we represent by the 5 incense grains we insert in the Paschal Candle – 2 in the hands, 2 in the feet, and 1 in the side of Jesus at Calvary. They have always been seen as spouting not simply blood but Divine love. In 1673 a French nun (Margaret Mary Alacoque) had a series of visions and revelations in which devotion to the 5 wounds were consolidated into devotion to the sacred pierced heart of Jesus. The traditional prayer associated with the 5^th wound in the side of Jesus began “Lord Jesus Christ, we adore the sacred wound in your blessed side. We thank you for the infinite love manifested to us at the opening of your sacred heart”.

Whilst I was still at school I had a Saturday job as a butcher boy and I was familiar with the nature of fleshy animal’s heart on the butcher’s slab. The human heart is not much different but when we speak of the human heart we usually are not thinking of it in a fleshy way but in a non physical or spiritual way as the repository of human emotion. When we adore the sacred heart of Jesus we are not devoted to the fleshy blood pump from his body but the overflowing repository of the plentitude of his Divine love. It signifies his willingness to love and forgive us, at great cost; we who are so human and so sinful. When you really find yourself on the receiving end of such love can only respond with the spiritual equivalent of “I’ll do anything for you – anything –f or you mean everything to me”.

The compilers of the lectionary carry today’s story of ‘such great love’ over from Like ch7 into the first 3 verses of ch8 where we read about the 12 and a few women (among whom would have been the woman from ch7) accompanying our Lord , and sharing with him, his mission to proclaim the Kingdom of God to the world, in word and deed. How appropriate that the eucharist which begins with the Lord’s command to love, draws us at its heart into his love for us in communion with the sacrifice of his body and blood, and ends with our being sent out into the world around us ‘to love and serve the Lord’ in response. May he give us grace to make our love for him surprisingly spontaneous and generous because we too, with our many sins, have been forgiven much.