Generous Response

God of grace, help us to love and support one another as your followers supported you. Give us grace today to hear your word and respond to it, in your name. Amen.

The Gospels tell us about a man who did some amazing things.

He fed thousands with minimal resources.

He walked on water.

He cast out demons.

He thwarted corrupt authorities.

He healed lepers and paralytics and blind people.

He even raised people from the dead!

Jesus’ ministry was incredible.

But you know what? The guy still had to eat. And as awesome as walking on water might be, it doesn’t do much to put bread on the table.

Today’s Gospel lesson reminds us that Jesus didn’t always eat through the miraculous multiplication of loaves and fish – his ministry was financed by some generous donors.

And as it turns out, those donors were women.

Jesus went about his ministry, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as women such as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, and many others, who provided for him out of their resources.

Luke 8:1-3, edited

Jesus was able to do generous, compassionate, out-of-the-box ministry because of the selfless women who supported his work.

Without the ministry of women, Jesus would never have reached the audience that he did in his life, and he would never have had the impact that he did in his death and resurrection.

In the church, so often we hear about our forefathers in the faith.

I am here today to tell you that our foremothers in the faith were at least as important as our forefathers, and perhaps even more instrumental in spreading the Gospel to the world than the men were.

Women were the first witnesses to the Resurrection, and the first to share the news that Christ was raised from the dead.

Women were the ones who accompanied Jesus all the way to the cross. When all the male disciples had abandoned Jesus, except maybe for John, the women watched and followed him until the moment of his death.

Women were the ones who allowed Jesus to carry out his itinerant ministry, who made sure that he was fed and clothed and housed in every community that he visited, sharing from whatever resources were at their disposal to ensure that the ministry of this amazing man could continue. 

What do you think it was that inspired these women to support Jesus so selflessly?

Perhaps they heard a few lines from the Sermon on the Mount and thought – yes! That’s the God that I know! I will support any preacher who speaks those words in God’s name.

Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.

Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets. (excerpts from Matthew 5-7, NRSV)

How can you hear such emphatic teachings and not be compelled to respond?

Some of the women who supported Jesus – Mary Magdalene in particular – had experienced his healing power first hand.

If you’ve had demons cast out of you, or have been healed from blindness or given the ability to walk for the first time, or restored to life after crossing the bridge into death – how could you not want to support the person who had made possible such wonderful miracles?

Perhaps the women who supported Jesus caught a glimpse of the vision that he was imagining – they were picking up what he was laying down, smelling what he was cooking – these women felt his passion for the kingdom of God. They wanted to see his vision come to fruition.

         And so they gave generously to make sure that it could happen.

The ministry of Jesus was made possible thanks to the philanthropy of the women who supported him.

One woman in today's Gospel story gave so generously, that the Pharisee who had invited Jesus to dinner that night was offended at her gift.

         This woman was a sinner, he thought. Whatever that means.

Nothing she could give was good enough for the Jesus, the Messiah, the chosen one that this man had invited to dinner.

Simon the Pharisee didn’t realize that Jesus had healed people from much greater things than sinfulness.

OK, so this woman was a sinner.

Big deal! She still wanted to support the ministry of Jesus.

And Jesus accepted her support with grace and gratitude.

The ointment this woman poured on Jesus’ feet was the most precious thing, the most valuable gift, that she had to offer. And her way of showing appreciation to Jesus was by giving him the thing that was most valuable to her.

The Pharisee didn’t appreciate the sentiment behind the gift.

But Jesus did.

He even learned from it.

In Luke chapter 7, we hear about Jesus having his feet anointed by this woman, and Jesus appreciated her action as the act of generosity and servitude that she intends it to be.

In chapter 22, Jesus shares the Last Supper with his disciples.

Now, in Luke, this meal is a Passover observance and nothing more.

But in the Gospel of John, at the same meal, we hear about Jesus washing his disciples’ feet.

Where else did Jesus experience footwashing as a sign of extravagant hospitality, except from this woman? Nowhere that we know of in the Gospel accounts, that’s for sure.

Women who Jesus encountered in his ministry were the ones who supported him selflesslessly and generously, and who even taught him things that he later used in his own ministry to others.

These women can serve as examples to us.

What do you do when you hear an impassioned speaker and feel moved to respond?

Do the words of the speaker influence how you give? When you volunteer? Where you shop? How you vote?

Do you respond as enthusiastically to the word of God as the women in the Gospels did?

OK, that’s not a fair question.

Each person’s response to Jesus can only be measured against their own ability to give, not that of another person.

It’s not fair for someone who makes six figures and has a couple of million in the bank to look at someone who lives paycheck to paycheck, and say – hey! I’m giving as much as they are! So I must be doing all right.

         That’s not what a faithful response to Jesus is supposed to be about.

What we can learn from the women in today’s Gospel lesson is that all people have something to contribute, and no matter how big or small that “something” is, it’s important to the kingdom of God that we both give and honor others’ gifts with integrity.

No one deserves to be cast aside and disregarded, and that includes women at all stages of life, regardless of what the news headlines might tell us.

A woman should not be discredited simply for her gender when she becomes a player on the political field.

A woman should not be discredited when she has become the victim of assault at the hands of a drunk college student.

A woman should not be discredited simply for her gender when she becomes a migrant worker or a pastor or a mother or a medical worker or an immigrant or a widow or anything else.

Each and every woman who walks the face of this earth was created in the image of God.

Every single one of us has the potential to support the ministry of Jesus, and to teach the world something about sacrificial love, as the women did in today’s Gospel reading.

Do we take seriously the contributions of all people?

Prisoners and rape victims have something to teach us about the kingdom of God. Are we listening?

Wealthy benefactors and sinful women have something to teach us about the kingdom of God. Are we listening?

We can’t know how these women were inspired to support Jesus’ ministry. But today, I invite you to consider why you are here in worship today, and what compels you to follow the teachings of Jesus.

Where do you see God at work in the world?

How do you respond to an impassioned speaker, or to a miracle worker?

Does your experience with Jesus influence the way you manage your money and other possessions? Does it have an impact on the organizations you support with volunteer hours? Really, now – does your faith change where you shop or how you vote?

For the women in today’s Gospel reading, the ministry of Jesus influenced all these things, to whatever extent these women had the right to independently choose anything in the ancient world. They made their decisions with Jesus at the forefront of their minds.

And that is the model that they leave for us today.

Praise God for the women who fed, clothed, housed, and supported Jesus and his disciples.

And may God give each one of us the will and the inspiration to support the ministry of Jesus in today’s world.

You know, we can give generously like those women did.

We can make a difference in the world.

It doesn’t take a huge amount of wealth, or knowledge, or experience. Mostly, it just takes courage.

The courage to stand up in court and speak the truth.

The courage to face an oppressor and call him out in public.

The courage to believe that whatever small thing you have can be transformed by God into something bigger and better than you can ever imagine.

That’s what happened with the gifts of the women in the Gospel story today. God took their resources and turned them in to a ministry that became revolutionary for the whole world.

And that is what God can do with your time, your abilities, your possessions, your family, your self – if you just give God the chance to work.

Praise God for the faithful women who made Jesus’ ministry possible.

And praise God for all the faithful people who continue to make ministry possible, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Pentecost 4C, 6/12/2016

Luke 7:36-8:3