Being a Person

I have just got to go back to a bible story that I have read so often that I am loosing count. (actually I have not kept count. I feel like I am repeating myself like a skipping record like a skipping record like a skipping record like a ...)
Read with me: Luke 7:36-50
Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is-that she is a sinner."
Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
"Tell me, teacher," he said.
"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"
Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."
"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.
Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven-for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."
Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"
Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
Last week I suggested that we need to rethink the relationship between God and us, humanity. Here, I believe, is the second step in this reconsideration. (The first step is a whole discussion about "Created in God’s Image", but I don’t have the smarts to unpack that phrase.) Our theology teaches us that Jesus was God, and so to know God we just need to look at Jesus. Jesus ‘blasted’ Simon for not noticing a woman - a person. ("Do you see this woman?) He saw a "Sinner" (with the appropriate gasp of repulsion and "tsk tsk") not a person created by God and Loved by Jesus.
What does the church do? It sets up rules to follow for us to be accepted. Last generation those rules were, don’t drink, smoke, dance, play cards or go to movies. This generation it think it is, attend church, contribute lots of money, get involved in a ministry that saps all your spare time and spare energy because, after all "the local church is the hope of the world!" If we don’t do all those things, we are not worthy of love.
Jesus loved that sinner because she was a person. Personhood needs to be re-thought in Christian circles. What is a healthy person? What is a healthy, mature Christian? Are they significantly different?
I am created in the Image of God, and Jesus sees me without labels or judgements. That’s kinda significant.
Hope and peace
David