Slapped in the face by grace

Luke 7:36-50

Have you been slapped by grace? 

Grace, by definition is unmerited divine assistance, so one is often surprised when grace happens.  One may experience grace when a stranger helps another pick up items that have dropped, or perhaps when late to work one day – you find all the lights on Hillsboro Street turn green at just the right time.  Grace flows freely.   But when one is slapped by grace there is an additional current that suddenly runs perpendicular and grace runs right into you.  Please note – I don’t imagine that it is grace being hard, but quite the opposite – I imagine grace being well – graceful, kind, soft.   What is hard is actually us in our stubbornness, in your “have to be right-ness”  - in our dichotomic way of existing in and seeing the world  – when this unmerited assistance runs into us – it hurts.  We are slapped by grace. 

I help an organization called Love WinsMinistries.  No, I’m not referring to Rob Bell’s Love Wins – though mutual liberation is probably found in both.  I am referring to the Love Wins Ministries at 707 West Jones Street that provides hospitality and presence to anyone experiencing homelessness.  Love Wins is best expressed through its hospitality house that provides coffee, toiletries, an advocate, conversation or just a place “to be” when the shelters are closed.  

We get slapped by grace a lot at Love Wins.

A few months ago Love Wins celebrated their birthday.  To celebrate the occasion, we threw a birthday party, invited friends and neighbors from all around.  We spent the month before collecting plates, dinnerware, chips, and other yummies to throw on the grill.  One day, during an informal meeting about what else we needed – a friend of Love Wins expressed she would like to contribute too:

“I will get my EBT right before the party.  I’m happy to buy the hotdog buns we need,” she said.

I stood shocked.  Shocked at the selflessness. Moved by the compassion.  When she left the room, I asked my colleague – “we’re not going to let her do that are we?”   My colleague responded – “why not?  She wants to share what she has.  She wants to contribute and be a part of this.”  

In that moment I was slapped in the face by grace.   I had yet to offer anything for the party and there I was witnessing hospitality and charitable giving from what Jesus considers “the least of these.” 

Have you ever been slapped in the face by grace?

I ask because in our scripture story, Simon the Pharisee was slapped by grace!

Simon fell into the trap.  He fell into that parable trap that Jesus always sets. You can see it coming– you know someone is being set up – like in Meet the Parents – where you just feel bad for the guy.  All the way back in Chapter 6 of Luke the table is being set. Jesus gathers his 12 Disciples, he preaches the Sermon on the Mount, he talks about how it’s easy to love those who do good – but what you really have to work on is loving the unlovable.  Jesus talks about being those who are hypocritical – “why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own?”  Jesus wants those who really love him – to hear his words and act on them.  And for those in which words are not enough – Jesus heals the centurion’s slave and raises Nain, the widow’s son.

By the middle of Luke chapter 7, Jesus’ popularity is rising.  There is discussion from Jesus and John the Baptist about whom the other is and what the other has come to do….  They have come to announce the Kingdom of God is near – but this announcement does not fulfill the expectations of God’s promises.  And God’s people act like children, sitting on the sidelines, pouting, refusing to join in the game.  God is not acting as they had expected – they refuse to respond to God’s call to join in the fulfillment of God’s redemptive purposes for the world.  And who is part of this rat pack refusing to be a part of the solution  - Simon the Pharisee - who then thinks it’s a great idea to invite Jesus to dinner! 

Such a dinner banquet was not a private affair.  It wasn’t a quiet evening sharing a community meal with close friends.  On the contrary - such a banquet was public with the paparazzi townspeople, including that woman – who was a sinner - crowded around to check things out.

We don’t know this until the end of the story – but apparently, Simon was not the most hospitable host.  According to Jesus, Simon does welcome Jesus with a kiss, give Jesus water to wash his feet, or anoint his head with oil.  All considered hospitable gestures. 

It is clear from the story that the woman is aware of who Jesus is and what he has been doing, Seeing a space to offer hospitality where Jesus’ host does not – this woman walks in.  As an expression of love and gratitude – she anoints Jesus.   We don’t know anything about her – other than she is a sinner (usually inferring prostitute).  The women’s actions violate all social norms – she has invited herself into this banquet hall, the act of anointing in this particular way has sexual overtones, and as a sinner she would be considered unclean and made Jesus unclean by touching him.   Even in modern times - this is a SCENE!

Only a small percentage of communication involves actual words: 7%, to be exact. In fact, 55% of communication is visual.  It must have been a look that Simon gave Jesus during this scene – a look of judgment, a look filled with assumptions, a look inferring “otherness”:  I am clean.  She is unclean.  I have invited you to dinner.  She is poor.  I am a distinguished gentleman, she is a prostitute, -

A look so dynamic that before Simon can say word – Jesus tells a riddle that levels the playing field for everyone.  Leaving Simon slapped in the face by grace. 

Simon learns about hospitality from the poor woman – the woman he has always differentiated himself from.  He learns about kindness from the person whom society says is unclean.  He learns what it means to be compassionate from the one who is an outcast and doesn’t fit in.  It is in this moment that  (I imagine) Simon sees his need for grace. 

This scripture demonstrates perfectly my experience with Love Wins. I am Simon the Pharisee.  I am the man blinded by ego and unable to see my need for grace and forgiveness and I need to see it.  I need to experience grace and I know I can only experience grace if my neighbor experiences grace. 

So, I will knowingly be slapped and punched by grace.  Sounds exciting right?  It’s the workout you hate to do – but you know it’s good for you.  This is the place where I am forced to take a good long look at myself – the dark corners, the scary places.  It is here that I can learn and work to unbind myself from the “otherness” that the world presses upon me and that I often carelessly participate in. 

The work of Love Wins is not to make me feel better, or because the bible tells me so.  On the contrary, I participate in the work of Love Wins because this is the place the Gospel makes sense.  

Because unbeknownst to most, there are hidden tent cities that people call home

Because on Thursday night, while thunder storms and 60 MPH winds raged through Raleigh, I knew Jay didn’t make it to the bus on time and therefore didn’t arrive at the shelter on time …and therefore was out in that thunderstorm.

Because how the hell is someone supposed to find and keep a steady job when they need to be lined up at the shelter by 4:00 PM? 

Because it shouldn’t be so damn hard to get a North Carolina ID.

Because a mother shouldn’t have to choose between her child and a safe place to sleep.

Because those who have served and protected this country deserve better.

Because there are holes in the system and injustices to address.

Because people can and do and want to change.

Because I claim a tradition that proclaims that there is good news, newness of life, and hope!

Because there is a chorus of voices asking God “where are you?” and I cannot help but wonder if God asking the same question….

Because my liberation is bound up with yours. 

Love Wins is by no means, the only place such work happens in the world. It cannot be.  Love Wins sets out to be a catalyst, an example, an inspiration, a sounding board to the work that God calls ALL of us to.

We probably are not going to eliminate poverty and homelessness.  I believe in the words of Jesus when he said, “The poor will always be with you.”  But if our work as people of God can be to focus on unwrapping ourselves from the labels we give each other and that separate us – that gives us the illusion we are safe. If we concern ourselves with the same issues Jesus was concerned: pride, injustice, hypocrisy, blindness; what Richard Rohr calls the three “P’s” – power, prestige and possessions  - then no longer will we see poor – but a child of God; no longer will we see homeless – but human, not race – but friend, not republican or democrat – but neighbor, not sexual orientation- but brother and sister in Christ.

Let it be so.