Sermon Tone Analysis

Series Review

One of my pastoral responsibilities is officiating weddings.

Wedding ceremonies in the UMC last 20-40 minutes, depending on what the couple wants to include.

Pretty easy.

Not very time consuming?

That’s like saying that a sermon only requires about 20 minutes a week.

Like a sermon, there is alot of preparation: and not just by the pastor.

I spend time with the couple, developing and preparing them for marriage, not just a ceremony.

Pastor’s have different approaches, but for me the primary theme through out the premarital sessions is listening.

Whether it’s who cleans and who cooks, how many children we want and how to raise them.

Finances: What are our spending priorities?

Do we believe in tithing to the church?

How will God play a role in our lives?

Married couples will differ, so they must constantly work to see the world through each other’s eyes.

I want us to see the world through the eyes of people in the Bible through their eyes: this takes a little work, but if we don’t we will seem through our own eyes and we will miss the truth they can show us.

As we’ve seen in previous sermons, they understood things about Jesus that the religious people did not.

The centurion recognized Jesus’ God given authority, while the religious people challenged his authority.

The corrupt tax collector understood that true repentance was not just saying I’m sorry Jesus, but demonstrating repentance.

Today we are going to look at a sinful woman.

Sermon Introduction

At the heart of this sermon is the problem of hypocrisy.

Now we all have multiple personas that we allow others to see, because we all play multiple roles.

That’s not what I’m talking about.

Donald Downs: 2 personas: congregational care and police officer.

funeral luncheons, a serious coordinator driven by compassion and the desire to serve families who have experienced loss; a former police officer; I am certain that my interactions with Donald the funeral luncheon coordinator will be very different from the Donald who pulls me over for driving over the speed limit. 2 very different roles.

One is compassionate, and the other is an administrator of justice.

Hypocrisy is putting on a false persona.

Allowing someone to see a side of us that really doesn’t exist.

Or we are covering a persona that does exist.

Not all hypocrisy is intentional.

Some of it is because of ignorance and we need someone to point it out.

Some of it is so subtle that we don’t realize it exists.

Some of it is rooted in pride: we want people to see our goodness, but we want to hide our inconsistencies and struggles.

The woman in the story demonstrates authenticity.

The religious people demonstrate hypocrisy.

Authenticity: allowing people to see us as we really are, is difficult.

Hypocrisy is much easier.

Authenticity hard.

Hypocrisy easy.

So let’s look at...

The Person

Notice the sermon title is “A Sinful Woman,” yet when Marti told the story she did not mention the woman’s sinful past.

This is not because Marti forgot her lines.

There are 4 accounts of this story in the Gospels, and they all include different details.

Let me say something about this: repetition means importance.

The Gospel writers don’t always include the same stories, but they all included this one.

Apparently, this was very important.

The Resurrection is in all 4, and we know (I hope) how important that is.

So will be referencing the other Gospels in this sermon.

They’re having dinner at Simon the Leper’s house.

Why are you going to a leper’s house.

Isn’t that stuff contagious and deadly?

That’s like going on a play date with someone’s sick kids.

I think it is a safe assumption that Jesus had healed Simon of this deadly disease.

Our primary focus is on the woman.

Marti shared Matthew’s perspective, and he wants to tell us about her act of service: anointing Jesus with perfume.

Luke shares an additional detail: that she had lived a sinful life, and everyone at the dinner table seemed to know it.

She had a terrible reputation.

And yet as Jesus says in Luke’s version of the story, the more you are forgiven, the more you give.

The more you acknowledge what God has done in your life, the more you want to give.

God has forgiven so many things in my life, I am so grateful, I want to be generous with my life.

That’s what the sinful woman is doing with her act of praise.

Her Praise—v.

7.

The woman showed her devotion to Christ by pouring an alabaster box of ointment on the body of Christ.

She demonstrates her authentic repentance.

She doesn’t just say a prayer and say “Lord, forgive me.”

Her very bodily posture reflects her desire to repent and live a new life.

She is at Jesus’ feet, shedding tears.

Matthew wants us to pay attention to her her giving: she brings the good stuff.

“I found this at the dollar store.

A whole box of them.”

No, this is rare and costly perfume.

A custom in Jesus’ day.

People’s feet got really nasty in the days before indoor plumbing.

Do we give to God generously, or do we give our leftovers?

I was doing an internship as a youth pastor, and a family invited me to their home for dinner.

"Join us for lunch after church.”

I gladly accepted.

The previous Wednesday we had a pizza party for the youth: I showed up with a car load full of Dominoes Pizza, and we had a great time.

When I joined the family for lunch the following Sunday, guess what they served?

I like pizza for breakfast the next day, but not 4 day old pizza.

I didn’t feel valued that Sunday.

I don’t mean to sound entitled, but their gift cost them nothing.

Required no effort accept popping it in the microwave, no costs: it was paid for by the church.

It was obtained through questionable means, as the pastor would later point out.

Our giving can be like that: I will help if it is convenient.

I will put a little money in the plate if I have a little surplus.

Giving is praise.

And praise isn’t cheap.

Praise is costly.

The sinful, generous woman who was excluded from the synagogue, not welcome at the table, recognizes this, but the religious people did not.

Instead, they can’t see through their own self righteousness and they create a problem for her.

Her Problem

The disciples complained, saying this was a waste.

Luke tells us that they weren’t the only one complaining:

She get’s attacked on 2 fronts: she has lived a sinful life, and she’s wasting money.

e.g.

before i read this story I experienced it as a teenager in a pentecostal church; I was one of those disciples, wanting to be closer to Christ, going to Bible study and meeting before the youth meetings to pray; in comes teenage girl with a bad reputation; we were uncomfortable with her around.

It was easier for us to see her past than her present.

What we do for Christ is never a waste.