I.
It seems “faith” is on display again in this week’s reading as it was in the last few weeks.

Does this encounter help us understand faith any more deeply?

As you read the following you might spend time noticing how each person reacts to and treats the other.

II.
Luke 7:36–39, 44–50 (NVSVue)

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and when he went into the Pharisee’s house he reclined to dine. And a woman in the city who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair, kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.”

Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven loves little.” Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

III.
I noticed the heading for this passage in one bible is “A Sinful Woman Forgiven.”

Do you think that is the best title for and description for this?

What about –

• The dinner party crasher
• Uninvited guests
• The rude Pharisee
• The inhospitable host
• Where are tears coming from
• But I didn’t ask for anything

Do any of these alternate titles for the passage draw you into understanding how “love” is present and absent from these encounters?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}