One of the most compelling images of God I’ve come across is that of the Sun. We turn our face up into the sky and can barely look at its blazing light…a second or two and it’s too much. Get too close to it can blind you. Stand out in it for too long and it can be dangerous with sun burn and even the extreme of skin cancer. It’s actually the cause of some of the most intense weather on our planet…it’s the sun that actually makes wind to form and storms to erupt.

And yet…we love being out in the Sun and certainly can’t live without it. Despite the danger…our skin actually needs the Sun. Sun exposure to the skin is the natural, most effective source of vitamin D. Crops can’t grow without the Sun. Scientists and Archaeologists have come to know that it was the lack of sunlight that decimated the dinosaurs. In fact…without the sun there could be no life as we know it.

Nowhere in creation is there something so fearful and so beneficial as the Sun. And of all the frightening and fortunate aspects of the sun there’s one that I think directly relates to this gospel…and so many others. It’s curious fact…every second the sun gives away millions and millions of kilowatts of energy which it will never get back. I think that’s fascinating. Every second the Sun gives energy away that will never be replaced. In all of God’s creation…there’s nothing more generous…more overabundant…more sacrificing of itself than the Sun. And in this way…the Sun is like God.

This is what our gospel here today is really about…God’s overabundance in our lives. Jesus goes to eat at a rich…connected…socially influential man’s house. I’m sure it was lovely…the best food…the best drinks…the most popular people in town. It was the place to be. It was overabundant from the start. Servants…chefs…waiters…large trays of food and flagons of wine. And like usual…Jesus accepts the invitation into the abundance and then…as usual…teaches by jarring our sensibility and turning convention on its head…all to make a very simple point.

Besides lepers or poor begging widows or shepherds (Notice they’ve all made appearances in the gospels with Jesus) besides these…maybe prostitutes of Jesus’ time were the most disrespected…disturbing…distracting characters of the community. So here’s Jesus in what everyone expects to be a very predictable…enjoyable...quite lovely evening and he begins to teach using something not so lovely – prostitution.
Again…overabundance is the theme…and this seedy woman enters stage left with overabundant generosity herself. Tradition holds that the ointment she brought was in an alabaster container…the most expensive material of the time for a jar. It also tells us that she breaks the jar rendering it useless for any further anointings. In other words…she gives with no intention of receiving any of it back. It’s an overwhelming spectacle. Then she herself becomes overwhelmed…weeping openly because of her own sins…in doing so admitting her overabundant sinfulness to not only Jesus but…with no pride because it’s all been taken away long before this day…she lays it all on the line and becomes the most overabundantly honest person in the room next to Jesus. The onlookers follow their lines perfectly…for Jesus to make his point of course…making fun of her honesty and judging her which says more about them then her…calling her as a sinner and…in Mark’s account…chastising her for wasting perfectly good oil.

In the end they recognize what’s happening and can’t deal with it…they become uncomfortable…uneasy with Jesus and this prostitute…an uneasiness I suggest because of their own fear. Really they’re afraid…afraid of being around unseemly people…afraid of their own sins as she so honestly repents…afraid of being poor (any time someone judges a gift as being a waste of money they’re really afraid that they won’t have enough themselves)…they’re afraid that they will never be loved like Jesus is loving the prostitute. Maybe they have too many things and Jesus’ forgiveness doesn’t seem something needed which is one of the tragedies of the story. All the while the theme of overabundance…lavishness flavors the scene…the dinner was overabundant…the prostitute was overabundant in her gift to Jesus…and Jesus is overabundant with his forgiveness…which takes me back to my first point…the Sun…God’s overabundant generosity. That’s what the gospel is about.

And really it’s all over scripture…the Father who no matter how disrespectful his Prodigal sons are…no matter what unacceptable behavior they inflict upon him and his honor…no matter how embarrassing their antics…he never runs out of forgiveness and love. The vineyard owner from Matthew’s gospel paying the 7AM workers the same as the noon, 3, and 5 workers. We would never think that was fair…and yet God has no problem being generous with those who might not deserve it. Jesus himself asking Peter…do you love me…three times giving Peter the chance to make up for the three denials. Like the Sun shining out millions of kilowatt gifts of energy upon creation…the Sun that demands nothing in return…the Sun that possesses powerful authority and abundant generosity…like the Sun…God is abundant and shines his loving forgiveness down upon us without measure…without merit…without judgment…without ranking us…without following our expectations but rather teaching us His expectations. That’s the point.

This gospel is difficult for us…we can so easily see ourselves as those sitting in judgment…we’ve all done it…awkwardly trying to deal with someone who isn’t as religious as we are actually being holier than we are. But at the same time we are the ones wanting to anoint Jesus too…the prostitute is our stand in…because we’re here…worshipping Jesus…honoring him…bringing our sins to his feet…without guile…without pride because really our pride has long been tempered by the reality of our brokenness (if we choose to admit it). We arrive into the scene and are invited to be generous with God who is generous with us…God who will never NOT forgive us...God who will always welcome us back from our dysfunctional wanderings…God who is faithful to us. I don’t know about you…but this is Good News!

And so if we are to be like God of whom we were created in his image and likeness in the first place…and we are…then it seems only logical that we would want to be generous like God…lavish…overabundant how we forgive each other. Not because sinful people deserve forgiveness...they might not…or because it will make what they’ve done any better…it probably won’t. We forgive simply because want to be like Jesus in this gospel...the point of all of this Church stuff is to be like Jesus. And maybe in the end that’s the very best reason to generously…lavishly…over abundantly…forgive one another…because we want to be like Jesus.