The Good News Is… Great Love for God and Neighbor

Luke 7:36–50 | Matthew 25:35–40 On this Second Sunday of Lent, Rev. David Wheeler explores the story often titled “The Sinful Woman” and Jesus’ teaching that whatever we do to “the least of these,” we do to him. What if the real failure in Luke 7 isn’t scandalous behavior — but withheld welcome? What if the most dangerous sin is not what we do, but the love we refuse to give? Preaching in the midst of U.S. military action toward Iran and rising global violence, this sermon names the tension between empire and the kin-dom of God. It reflects on power, national identity, soldiers who carry out orders they did not choose, and the human cost of turning people into categories. The question at the heart of the gospel is not “Were you respectable?” or “Did you win?” It is far simpler — and far more disruptive: Did you love? This message is both lament and hope — an invitation to see differently, to love courageously, and to refuse to let any human being become invisible.