Sun. Jun. 13, 2010 (Henry Neufeld)

Henry Neufeld jumped off from the previous week’s address on Ahab and Jezebel by Dr. Veronica Dyck and introduced the day’s metaphor of seeing differently through lenses and filters, as with a camera. Henry reviewed Ahab’s seizure of the ancestral land of Naboth’s ancestral land. Ahab saw the transaction as just business, through the lens of acquisitiveness, while Naboth (honoring God’s law, which said an inheritance of land could not be transferred from tribe to tribe, nor may the king take the land - Lev 25:24) refused the king’s wishes, seeing through the lens of faithfulness. The deceit and murder practiced on Naboth by Ahab to gain his land are still successfully used today. Then Henry moved to the story in Luke 7 of the woman who washed Jesus feet. Henry noted the debtors did not ask for forgiveness, and nor did the woman, who was called “sinner” - it was freely offered by Jesus without being asked .for. Why? Further, why did Jesus use a story of two debtors, not one? Was Simon encouraged to change lenses, to think about his behaviour compared to the woman’s? Though Simon the Pharisee’s consternation is understandable to Jesus, and to us, Jesus makes plain her sins are not the focus of the story because she showed great love. Key phrase: “Simon, do you see this woman?” Or do you, as Simon did, see only her sins? Jesus encourages us to change our lenses to see people in a different light. Don’t just look at our children through a parental lens, don’t just look at our fellow worshippers through a congregational lens, don’t just look at our career through a professional lens. If we changed lenses, might we see Jezebel in a different light? Or our neighbour? [AP] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, June 13th, 2010 using your browser's preferred media player.