The Power of Forgiveness, The Rev. David R. Williams, Pentecost III--Year C--June 17, 2007

Almighty God, you alone are our true judge, for you know what we are, you know what we should be, and with you there is mercy.  Amen.

Imagine with me for a moment a large farm or plantation.  We all live on this land stretching several miles wide.  We are one family.  Let’s call us the Willet family.  Maybe we are not all blood-related, but we have a common cause, a common theme, and common values.  We have rules and we have order.  We are free.

Our farm has a boundary so that non-Willet people are not able to come into our farmland.   Non-Willets could come on our land, but they would have to go through a series of stages in order to be a Willet.

Our work is varied, but, for the most part, the work we do makes the best use of the land – so, we provide the best food anywhere.   In fact, our food is so fine that we send it to areas beyond the Willet property.

As we become accustomed to our abilities to live in this large farmland, we become very good at our craft – so good, in fact, that we realize we can produce more food but are short of enough people to do the work.

So, on the sly, some of us invite non-Willets, living outside our farm to sneak across the border and help us out.  The rules of the farm say: only legal Willets can work the land. Still, the opportunity to make more and better food is great incentive for both workers and farm owners. More non-Willet folks begin to come across the border, while very few Willets say anything. The Willets know they are producing more food by having more workers.  The Willets also know there is a process within the rules to bring non-Willets into the farmland, a tedious, long process which can be prohibitively expensive and cumbersome.  So, why bother with protocol?  It becomes more expeditious just to let anyone work – Willet or non-Willet—first-come, first-serve.

For years, non-Willets are lured to work with Willet people on their farms and in their businesses.

At one point, a sheriff of the Willet land says: “We have a problem.”

The sheriff reminds his Willet constituency that the habit of allowing non-Willet to our land is against the rules and has gotten out of hand.  The practice of breaking the rules has to be stopped.

For years, very few sheriffs and law enforcement people have turned a blind eye, for they know how prosperous their farmland and their lives have become with the help of non-Willet workers.

One day, a particular Sheriff Willet asks another Willet, a kind of low-rent Willet, to join a group of community leaders in a meal.  This particular guest, a religious man, is close to the farm workers, both non-Willet and Willet.  He knows those who tend the land, do the heavy lifting, and get their hands dirty. Too, he is viewed by community leaders as a bit of a rebel, a potential rule-breaker.

The intention of the Sheriff’s dinner invitation is to embarrass this low-rent-maverick Willet at their nice meal; so, they have their little feast out in the courtyard for everyone to see.

During the meal, a woman from the crowd, obviously a non-Willet, approaches the guest at the table.  She breaks into tears and offers her confession.  She washes the guest’s feet with her tears.

The Sheriff is appalled.

In a most eloquent way, the guest, the religious maverick Willet, suggests that the Sheriff’s humanity and the woman intruder’s humanity—Willet and non-Willet-- are really one and the same in the eyes of God.

The maverick Willet goes on. He says that forgiveness is the most powerful force one person can offer in an imperfect world, an imperfect community: forgiveness of sins, forgiveness for our imperfections, forgiveness for our desire and need to sometimes break the rules of the day.  He even says that this non-Willet intruder, the woman, represents the spirit of forgiveness in better ways than the Sheriff and his friends.

Folks, maybe this image and this analogy are a stretch as we consider the “immigration” issues of this twenty-first century, but we cannot deny the gray areas. By telling stories and reciting parables, Jesus calls the religious leadership of his day to think beyond simplistic black and white. Surely, there is wrongdoing. Surely, there is legality and illegality. However, we all benefit from the work force of undocumented “aliens” in our culture. Ninety percent of the undocumented workers coming crossing the Mexican and other borders truly want to work and they want to pay taxes. A small percentage of the undocumented are, yes, criminals.

After years of turning our backs on laws designed to deter people from crossing the borders, we are not going to solve the problem over night, especially now that it has gotten our attention, the attention of the lawmakers, and the attention of the Presidential candidates.  By the nature of our faith and beliefs, a spirit of forgiveness may go a long way as we work toward a solution.  Forgiveness is not always amnesty; however, amnesty is always a statement of forgiveness.  Forgiveness seems to be a more important ingredient than out-and out-amnesty, especially for the 12 million undocumented workers living this country as we speak.

The meeting among the Pharisee, Simon, his cohorts and Jesus—and the lesson through the woman, a sinner--fit a common teaching pattern in the life of our Lord Jesus. Paul describes the faith teachings of Jesus in the first line of the Epistle to the Galatians:

“We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.”

Our faith in a living Christ begins in confession of our imperfections, our wrongs, our dark side, and we receive our Lord’s forgiveness.

Some people have said God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ is a scandal. Forgiveness goes out to sinners regardless of religious or social standing. Forgiveness breaks into human existence without prior invitation.  Forgiveness transforms who we are, who we understand God to be, and how we are to live our lives and use our resources.  Forgiveness touches every aspect of our being, enabling respect, civility and acceptance. Through the power of love, we are carried through times of healing, new life and reconciliation.

We are all children of God blessed by the ability to forgive, let go and move on. Too often, in an effort to be “morally upright,” the Church forgets that we are a community for sinners only: Willet and non-Willet; Jew and Gentile. Those who are not sinners need not apply for membership.

“As a guest”, Jesus says, “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. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.  The one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”

Then, Jesus says to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Amen.