PROPER 6C - 2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15; Psalm 32:1-8; Galatians 2:11-21; Luke 7:36-50 -

17 June 2007 - A sermon preached by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

 

Responding to God’s Forgiveness

 

INTRODUCTION - The most frustrating game?

 

I was invited to play in a golf tournament to raise money for a local charity recently. I completed a St. Ambrose foursome. Let’s establish right from the start that I was the weak link in this foursome. I play golf, if I’m playing a lot, may three or four times a year. I tend to hit almost everything to the right, especially my tee shots. If you’ve every played golf, and you are almost never playing your second shot from what they call the “short grass” - the fairway - then you know it tends to make for a very frustrating day, not to mention a high score.

 

So I had one key question when I was invited to play in this tournament. “Is it a scramble format?” “Yes, it is.” “Whew, that’s good. Sure, I’ll play.” For those of us who are hackers, a scramble is the only way we should play golf. It actually makes golf fun, assuming you have a couple of guys on your team who can hit the ball straight. For in a scramble format, everyone tees off, and then everyone plays his second shot from wherever the best shot lies. You all hit your second shot from that place, and then you all hit your next shot from wherever the next best

shot ends up. In other words, if you have a couple of decent players in your foursome, you are almost always playing from the fairway. You are almost always on the green in regulation. You are almost always putting for birdies! This is the kind of golf where you don’t feel like throwing your clubs in the nearest lake. This is team golf, not to mention riding-along-in-a cart-golf. And... these are two words almost never said back to back: It is forgiving golf.

 

So we played in this tournament on Thursday. And I played the way I usually play. They should just give me a tape recorder, and I could push “play” over and over again. “Oh, man, I hit it ten yards to the right of the fairway again.” For variation, “Wow, I hit that fat! Twenty yards short of the green.” But this is scramble golf. So it is “oh, well, I’m good to go” golf. As in, “Oh, well, Steve hit it down the middle 275 yards. Last time it was Joe. Next time it will be Kerry. Hey look, I’m hitting from the fairway again. Bad shot? No big deal! Find my ball, pick it up. Move it next to where Joe’s shot landed. I’m shooting from the fairway again, good to go. Let’s see, how long is this shot? Maybe I can hit this close to the flag, and actually help my team.”

 

Did I mention there is one catch? You have to play from each team member’s tee shot at least twice during the round. In other words, can we pray for the law of blind luck to come into play, that two out of eighteen times I might actually hit a decent tee shot? I’ll take the guesswork out of that question for you. We were waiting until the last few holes of the round to find a second tee shot of mine that the other three would actually want to use for hitting our second shots.

 

But you know, if I’m going to play golf, scramble golf is the only way to play. Because - as I said - it’s forgiving golf. I’m not ready to bite someone’s head off at the end of the round, and that’s a good thing.

 

DAVID’S EXPERIENCE OF THE FORGIVENESS OF GOD

 

Being a person who knows the love and forgiveness of God is scramble golf times a thousand.

 

King David knew what it was like to be forgiven. By the time David became king of Israel and Judah, he had a number of wives. But one day David was out walking on the roof his house, and he saw a beautiful woman names Bathsheba bathing. David, being king, inquired about the woman, and found out she was married to Uriah the Hittite. Rather than saying, “Uriah sure has a beautiful wife!” and dropping it right there, David let his temptation get the better of him, called for her, and committed adultery with her - while Uriah was off fighting a war on David’s behalf. When David found out that Bathsheba was pregnant with his child, he called Uriah back from the front, hoping that he would sleep with his wife and it would look like the child was Uriah’s. Uriah was too faithful to David and to his unit to agree to that plan, and foiled David’s cover-up. So David went to “Plan B”. He sent Uriah to the worst part of the fighting, where he knew he would be killed. He was, and after Bathsheba mourned for her dead husband, David brought her to his house, and made her his wife. (And you wondered where soap opera writers get their material?)

 

David thought he had gotten away with a big coverup. But God knew what had happened. And Nathan, the prophet, was very in tune with God, and God revealed to Nathan what David had done. And so we have one of the more memorable encounters in all of the Bible, where Nathan tells David this parable about a rich man stealing a poor man’s only lamb, and playing to David’s sense of injustice, and then, just at the right moment, Nathan stops, and turns to David, and says, “Ha! It’s you! You are the rich man in the story. You not only stole Uriah’s wife, but you are responsible for his death, too!” At that moment, the coverup ended, and David confessed his sin. “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan said to David, “Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child that is born to you shall die.” (2 Samuel 12:13-14)

 

There were consequences for David’s sin. There are always consequences. In this case, the first child born to David and Bathsheba did die. Another child was born to David and Bathsheba. That child’s name was Solomon. Solomon, of course, became king and was commissioned by God to finally build the temple in Jerusalem.

 

Perhaps it is time we remember a few of the words that David wrote about God.

 

“Even though I walk through the darkest valley...” - David experienced that darkest valley when Nathan exposed his sin - “I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff - they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)

 

“Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day... Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O Lord! (Psalm 25:5, 7)

 

“Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation! If my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up... I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” (Psalm 27:9-10, 13)

 

This was a man who knew what it meant to be washed clean, to be forgiven by the God of steadfast love. He knew God to be the God of his salvation.

 

THE SINFUL WOMAN

 

As did the sinful woman who interrupted the meal that Jesus was having at the house of Simon, the Pharisee. We don’t know what this woman’s sin was. Evidently it was pretty well known in the community. More important than what others knew, though, this woman knew herself to be a sinner. She had heard about Jesus - his miracles, but more importantly, his love. And when she found Jesus at Simon’s house, she came up to him - from behind - and began to cry. There were so many tears she could bathe Jesus’ feet with them. She kept crying, kept washing his feet and drying them with her hair, kept anointing those same feet with ointment, kept kissing them.

 

Simon couldn’t get past his own prejudice about who this woman was. Why would Jesus let this woman touch him? Jesus knew Simon’s heart. And he knew the heart of the woman. He knew that he was witnessing one of the most amazing confessions he had ever seen. And though, as Jesus said, her sins were many, Jesus forgave her - right there in front of everyone. Her life was changed forever that day. When Jesus said to her, “Go in peace,” it was not just a nice farewell. She knew the peace of God that comes with being loved and being forgiven - deeply and greatly forgiven.

 

BEING FORGIVEN

 

A number of weeks ago, Julia and I decided to set aside regular times just for us - to appreciate each other, to share any difficult things that we might need to share with each other, to clear the air, keep things honest and fresh - whatever we needed to do in these times. Because life is busy and the best intentions can get away from you, we decided to set aside two times - on Mondays and Fridays - to have this special time for us.

 

On Monday we were in the middle of one of those times and the phone rang. I looked to see who it was. It was a work-related call for me. I answered it. I dealt with the issue. It took a few minutes. By the time I got off the phone, Julia was on another level of the house. I went and talked to her, and discovered she was really angry about me taking the call.

 

I tried to explain myself, but there really wasn’t an explanation that made any sense. I had blown it by taking a call during our sacred time. Julia went to another level of the house. I thought to myself, “Maybe I should just let her cool off.” But then I realized that was really about me wanting to hide, me not wanting to face up to what I had done. I followed her into the basement and told her I still wanted to have our time together. She let off more steam. I sat there, not squirming as I used to do when someone I care about is angry. It was sort of my David moment with Nathan, I guess. There was nowhere to run. “I’m guilty. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.” We got through it, by being honest with each other, caring about each other. We got through it, too, because I experienced Julia’s forgiveness. In times like these - our loved one, our friend, our co-worker, whoever it is - is a channel of God’s love and forgiveness.

 

CONCLUSION

 

Oh yeah, how did we do in the golf tournament? Thirteen pars, five birdies - five under par. Not too shabby. Playing golf by myself, shooting only from where by ball landed, I could never get a score anywhere near par, much less five under par. Are you kidding? Makes me want to play golf again - as long as we can use a scramble format.

 

But I’m not nearly as interested in playing golf as I am in learning how to love someone. Why? Because not once, not twice, but countless times, I have experienced the forgiveness of God, the grace of God, the abundance of God, the faithfulness of God, yes - the love of God. You and I, in one sense, are not worthy. But our God sees us as worthy, deems us worthy, makes us worthy. As we are reminded in Eucharistic Prayer B, God sent Jesus “to be incarnate from the Virgin Mary, to be the Savior and Redeemer of the world. In him, you have delivered us from evil, and made us worthy to stand before you. In him, you have brought us out of error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life.”

 

That is what the sinful woman who anointed Jesus’ feet encountered. That is what you and I have encountered. Have you been loved and forgiven just a little? Or have you been loved and forgiven more than you can ever put into words? Have you been made worthy, thanks to Jesus, so that you can stand before the One who made the universe? If so, then you know something of the call to love - not out of obligation, but out of a deep, deep sense of gratitude and awe.

 

Scramble golf is a most forgiving game. The love and forgiveness of God is all that... times a thousand, maybe even times a million.

 

“O Lord of our salvation, we cannot begin to thank you enough for your love and your forgiveness. Help us to love others, as you love us. Amen.”