So…I’d never heard of Barry Bremen. Apparently, he’s Michigan marketing executive who dressed as the San Diego Chicken, an umpire and a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader to sneak into big events. Bremen ended up in the third row at the 1985 Emmy Awards and jumped on stage to accept the supporting actress award for Betty Thomas. Bremen usually got caught and arrested, but he once said he didn’t mind paying bail [source: mercurynews.com].

He seems to have gotten really famous from those stunts.

We’ll be reading about a party crasher in our study of Luke this Sunday, reading Luke 7:36-50. She has been famous for much longer, and for far more noble reasons.

This story in Luke is similar to ones in Mark, Matthew and John – though scholars mostly consider this to be a unique incident, not associated with the others.

A good idea when reading this is to put yourself into the place of each the characters interacting with Jesus. Why do you suppose the Pharisee didn’t see himself as someone who had to be forgiven very much (the point of Jesus’ parable). The woman, on the other hand, seems overwhelmed by the forgiveness she received. Where do you fall on this line – as one who feels they’ve been forgiven little or much? How comfortable or uncomfortable are you in demonstrating your gratitude to Christ in worship? There’s a lot to ponder from this little vignette.

In the parable, what did the debtors have to do in order to be forgiven what they owed? What does that tell us about the nature of our forgiven status? How might a knowledge of grace impact our sense of gratitude to God?

Hopefully you can join us this Sunday at 10 AM as we dig into this wonderful gospel!

Click here for a pdf version of the teaching slideshow.