Our two Scripture stories from Samuel and Luke are disturbing ones to me because they speak of perceptions that people have had of women that might not be necessarily true. The more we read Scripture which contain stories of women the more we might try to read between the lines as to think about or imagine what was going on in the life of the women in the story.

Women back in the time of Jesus usually did not have the luxury to make decisions about their own lives. They were considered just like property. If you think about one of the commandments – “you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or house, or cattle or anything that belongs to your neighbor” – it means that the woman is the property of the neighbor.

I was looking over other people’s sermons on this text and I suppose was not surprised to find one male preacher saying that the woman in Luke’s gospel was a prostitute. The story doesn’t say that though does it? Why is it when women and the word sin are put together, the assumption is that she has done related to sex or something morally wrong. The Greek word for sin that actually appears in the text is Hamartõlos. It is the same word that Peter used when he was fishing with Jesus and there was a great catch of fish. Peter fell in front of Jesus and said, ‘forgive me for I am a sinner.’ But no one thinks he was out earning a living by selling himself for money.

In the David and Bathsheba story, David is the one with all the power. He coveted Bathsheba, had an affair with her while her husband Uriah was off at war, then had her husband killed because she was pregnant with David’s child. Nathan, the prophet calls David on this behavior and abuse of power and ultimately says that the child will die. And the scripture tells us that indeed the child becomes ill. Nowhere does it talk about how Bathsheba might have felt. Here she is carrying life within her, feeling it move within her and because David abused his power, that life will be taken away. Often when women miscarry, people say, “Oh it was probably a blessing, you’ll have another,” without allowing the woman a chance to grieve. Her body had been preparing itself to give birth – it has you might say – rearranged itself for this birth and now suddenly, there is to be no birth. The woman’s body as well as her soul aches for this loss. When I was at St. Michael’s in New York, I did two services for women whose children had either been still born or had died early on in the womb. We called them services for a Life Not Lived. These were terrible services to have to do and yet the couple was able to say, “We loved this child, cared for this child, and even though this child will not be with us, we will never forget.” The senior warden at that time was a woman and she finally, after 20 years of silence, let out her anger and grief that she was not allowed to mourn the death of her twins who died in the womb. We so often focus on David in this story that we don’t take the time to think about the woman.

The same thing applies to the woman who comes in as an interloper to anoint Jesus’ feet. She is weeping, and people are talking about her. But we don’t know what her sin is. In church lingo we think of sin as being separated from God. But often circumstances or events happen to people so that even when they have been victimized, they feel sinful…as if they had done something wrong. Their demeanor changes – they walk with their heads down and there is no lively spring in their step. They may feel as though it was their fault and that they are unworthy of anyone’s love.

Maybe this woman had heard about Jesus and how he treated all people with love and equality. Maybe she knew that he had broken some of those precious ‘religious’ Codes, by talking to women in public or actually touching a leper or having the audacity to heal someone on the Sabbath. So she came in uninvited to offer her faith to him by anointing him.

Jesus contrasts her behavior with Simon’s who didn’t even offer to have Jesus’ feet washed nor did he offer him water or food. Even though he was Pharisee, one of the elite, he did not offer the ‘norm’ of hospitality to Jesus. Many times we read in the Gospels where those with little to no social status accept Jesus, accept God’s plan and the religious elite do not.

And then, as if an afterthought, the writer of Luke throws in, “And following him were Mary, called Magdalene, of whom he had healed seven demons, Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna and many others, who provided for them out of their means.” Notice it does not say Mary was a prostitute or that she was a sinner. It says she had seven demons driven out from her.

What is a demon? It could be addiction, or low self-esteem, or shame or doubt or depression…all things that would keep a person from living a whole and healthy life. Whatever they were, Jesus cast them out. And Mary Magdalene’s life was changed. She not only followed him, she supported him and was always there when he needed her the most. Since she was there at the foot of the cross and he revealed himself to her at the empty tomb, I often picture her as his confidant – “Mary, what are they saying about me in town? Why don’t Peter and the rest of them understand what I am about?”

It is so easy to fall into judging other people. As you may know last week I was at Kanuga, North Carolina as the keynote speaker and chaplain for the Province IV Episcopal Churchwomen’s Conference. I was behind the front day one morning, using their office computer to look at my presentation. Two women were standing at the front desk so I asked them the following question: “What would elicit more conversation from you - if I asked you to define ‘what is a woman’ or if I asked you to ‘define a good woman.’ One woman thought very carefully and said, “Hard to answer because each definition would be a little different.” I decided to ask the larger group to do both. However, the other woman immediately blurted out, “Well! I’ll be glad when someone asks the question “What makes a good person?” I tried to gently point out to her that this was…a conference for women. Apparently she wasn’t remembering that women didn’t even have the right to voice and vote at General Convention until 1976. Then she went on to tell me that she was going to a conference to meet the missionary to Haiti. “Those Haitians,” she said, “they just operate on their own time.” I replied that because of the catastrophic events there – that Haiti, like New Orleans immediately after Katrina - had no specific time. She then said, “Well, they were like that before the earthquake.” We are all too quick to pass judgment on others without really walking in their shoes.

On my last afternoon at Kanuga I was sitting in the swing on the porch of my cabin. I heard all kinds of chatter and yelling and when I looked out the screened porch I could see about 20 little boys, probably around eight to ten years old. They were a grand mixture of colors and cultures. Three young men, their counselors, who looked pretty weary already, were with them. They were going canoeing on the lake. The boys put on life jackets – then began to run at each other and bump each other like sumo wrestlers. The noise level was very high. Then somehow or other the canoes were out on the lake. I never heard paddles in the water only boats bumping into each other and lots of yelling. Every once in a while I’d hear one of the counselors yell out, “Cabin 1 – sit down and be quiet.” Or Cabin 2 – stop squirming around or you’re going back.” The noise level never abated. They were out there maybe 20 minutes and it started to rain so back they came. While the counselors were still lugging the canoes up to the storage rack, a few of the boys found another diversion….trying to run up trees. One boy yelled, “Look at me,” and proceeded to attempt to run up the trunk of the tree. The other boys immediately lined up behind him- each taking a turn to see how far up the trunk they could run. I swear to you girls just don’t get those kind of strange ideas. The counselors rounded them up – now looking really exhausted – and they all trudged off back to their camp. Quite an entertainment for a late afternoon.

The guy who drove me to the airport said the kids were staying at Camp Bob. Camp Bob is in a separate area from the conference center. It has its own dining hall, little store, climbing wall, and cottages. Camp Bob exists for children whose living conditions are not the best, whose parents would never be able to afford to send them to regular camp, and who have some behavioral problems. At other times of the year Camp Bob has welcomed children whose parents have been wounded or killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. And Camp Bob has been a healing place for children who have been abused.

They’ve all had their own demons of self-esteem problems – abuse – distrust – and disobedience. But here they have a chance to be loved for the children they were meant to be – to have the goodness of God lifted up within them, to learn that indeed they are worthy in not only in the sight of God but in others as well.

Later that night I had dinner with our musician friend Fran and his wife Diana. We swapped camp stories – some camps from hell - that we had experienced. We had all been in situations where we had to remind ourselves that underneath all the bluster and noise and bravado – there was a human being who had been formed or possessed by the demons of life…just like the unnamed woman in Luke’s story, like Mary Magdalene, like Bathsheba.

We all have stories to tell – ways we have managed to survive what the world has thrown at us – and I imagine we’ve all had some of our own demons to deal with and drive out so that we can be whole and healthy.

Whenever we read stories from Scripture we should try to read between the lines – think about the character – and try to imagine being in that person’s shoes. So often we judge others by what we’ve heard about them or by the way they look rather than actually getting to know them as the people they are. And…it is possible that we may actually be the demon in someone else’s life.

Jesus gave people back their dignity – took away their shame, their doubt and accepted them as they were and loved them back into life. In life, let us follow his example…let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive. And in as much as we can, let us read between the lines so we can find the true person, the goodness of God, which is always present in every human being.