“Healing of Soles”
Pentecost 3 C –
Luje
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Grace and Peace to you from the Triune God: Father Son, and Holy Spirit.
The title for this message is “Healing of Soles”. That’s S-O-L-E-S. As in the bottom of your feet. And goodness knows we spend enough money on healing our s-o-l-e-s. Arch supports, bunion and corn medications, arch supports, athlete’s foot sprays, and those new gel inserts you put in your shoes, the things with the obnoxious commercials -- I’m gellin’ so my feet aren’t smellin’. Dr. Scholl has become one very wealthy doctor because of our concern for those soles at the end of our legs..
Soles and feet in general for that matter were important for more that how they felt. Feet were key to hospitality and welcoming, to establishing relationship, especially between hosts and guests. It was a way to make clear that the host was the servant of the guest.
Today we rarely show our feet in public, let alone touch someone else’s feet with out hands. Feet, soles and toes and all, are private, hidden in socks and shoes. When in comes to feet and soles, we keep them very much to ourselves. And if you think about it, we tend to keep our s-o-u-l-s very private, too.
By this time your probably wondering, what any of this has to do with our gospel today. Or perhaps like me, at first hearing of these stories, you may be scratching your head and saying, “I get the foot connection in the first story: the main action seems to be a woman bathing Jesus feet with her tears, wiping them dry with her hair, then kissing his feet and anointing them oil. It’s seem a kind of over the top, but you can’t miss the foot. But what’s the point of including the second story about the women traveling around the Judean countryside with the disciples? What does that have to do with a dinner party at a Pharisee’s house? Why not just stick with the dinner party? Why confuse things?
The answer is to what connects souls and soles comes in three parts: forgiveness, healing, and the women who love Jesus -- kind of sounds like an Oprah show title, doesn’t it? Seriously though, healing, whether of body or soul, and the actions of the women in both stories are rooted in and connected to each other through Jesus’ forgiveness of sins.
Let me put it more simply: forgiveness is the source of all healing. Forgiveness is necessary for healing of the body and soul. The whole point the gospel today is that when you receive God’s forgiveness, you receive all that is necessary for the healing of the whole person, body and soul.
Recently Pastor Rolf and I have been using the service of Laying on of Hands and Anointing the Sick with ailing members of the congregation in their homes and in the hospital. We also have a congregational Service of the Word for Healing that we are looking forward to using in the near future. Many people are pleasantly surprised to find that we have such services – and use them!
In my understanding a key component of such a healing service is confession and forgiveness through the words of confession and through Holy Communion. When sins have been confessed and forgiveness received, healing of body and soul begin.
But such confession needs to be thorough-going and heartfelt. Like the woman in the story today, we should hold nothing back in our confession. If we do hold back, or try to judge for ourselves whether our sins are mere misdemeanors not worthy of God’s attention, we compound the sin.
Another effect of holding back our confession is controlling the amount of grace and forgiveness we receive – we want just enough to feel good ourselves, but not enough to share that joyous gift of grace and forgiveness with others.
And I think what is so powerful in the very brief service of laying on hands and anointing of the sick, what I see in the faces of those folks who receive it, comes from the closeness of the words of confession and forgiveness, human touch and anointing with oil, and the eating and drinking forgiveness, taking God’s forgiveness as given and shed for us literally inside us
It is the communion of our body and our soul. And forgiveness is both its source and its fruit.
Body and Soul story
Music - Harmony
Pouring out - union communion
I Love you body and soul as God does - Body & Soul
Incarnation
This woman in the gospel by her extraordinary acts of devotion to Jesus pouring out her soul literally onto the soles of Jesus’s feet. Her great sinfulness opening out of her through her actions; a confession in deed not word.
Though her sins were great and many, even greater was her love for Jesus. And Jesus forgiveness of this woman astonished and scandalized those who heard. It scandalizes us yet today. No matter how great your sins, Jesus’ words are for you: “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
But where did the woman go in peace? Where will you go in peace?
One answer is in the second story that begins at Chapter 8, verse 1. Might not the woman who lavished hospitality and love on Jesus -- and his feet, might she not have walked in peace with the One who is peace? Couldn’t you see such a woman, a great sinner, forgiven by Jesus, couldn’t you see her with Mary Magdalen, Joanna, Chuza and Susanna walking the Judean countryside with Jesus and the 12? Forgiven and healed. Body and soul. And in peace.
And how about you? Does the grace and forgiveness you have received for Jesus’ sake (not yours) does that forgiveness drive you to extravagant acts of love? And can you see the connection between that the healing you so deeply desire -- whether healing of body or of soul?
Your faith has saved you. Will you go in peace with the Prince of Peace as a forgiven and therefore forgiving person? Will you walk with the one who will forgive you from the soles of your feet to the depths of your soul and everywhere in between? Amen.
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