Luke 7:36-50 (NIV)

When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 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 people 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 forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“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—as her great love has shown. But whoever 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.”

Reflection

We are invited into a life of worship because of all that Jesus has done for us.We are His crew and therefore all the blessings of God have been poured out on us.But the means to this type of worship is quite contrary to what we or even the world may think, in fact it can seem scandalous in many ways.This story, this encounter, this woman found the means to real worship.By grace she recognized her need and inadequacy to truly worship God, and in turn feel at the feet of the only one who could touch, heal and transform her life.Grace, mercy, forgiveness, and faith…“go in peace.” The woman’s heart was so undone, transformed, and healed by the Lord’s touch in her life.There was no other “reasonable” response for her than to reciprocate what she had received from him in such loving adoration and extravagant worship.Now that is real worship!

Responding to the Transmission

Today we are invited once again into ‘real worship’ by the grace of God, and in the salvation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.Let’s come before the Lord with our ‘many sins and wrong ways’ so we can be touched afresh in His forgiveness, healing, transformation, and peace. Let’s pray that in turn our lives will be a living response of real and extravagant worship to our God.Pray for an overflow that stirs those around us to also come and know our Lord. Receive from Him deeply and ‘go in His peace’ today, extravagantly expressing your love for Him…that will be real worship!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F-Xq6zn5v0]

Anyone (PIs, research team members, students, etc.) who is involved in a research project have the responsibility to act in a proper and ethical manner.

A recent National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) YouTube Tuesday video, “Research Ethics” provides information on what to keep in mind when working on a research project, regardless of the terms and conditions of any award.

See http://www.youtube.com/user/ncura1959 for the video. For more information about responsible conduct of research go to http://my.umbc.edu/groups/compliance/documents/166. Training and educational opportunities are also available related to ethical conduct of research at http://my.umbc.edu/groups/compliance/documents/163. 

In fall 2011, Michele Osherow, associate professor of English, and Manil Suri, professor of mathematics, collaborated to jointly teach a freshman seminar, “Mathematics and What It Means to be Human,” in which they explored the connections between the two disciplines.

They are discussing their collaboration, and its challenges, in a three-part series on The Chronicle of Higher Education.

In the first part of the series, the two discuss what led them to teach the class, and their experiences in planning it.

“Ever since the word problems my father forced on us at dinner, I’ve always been terrified of math,” Osherow says. “Manil had made the math in the play [Arcadia] interesting and almost familiar; the complexities hypnotized me a bit… Might the allure of mathematics captivate the incoming freshmen? Hard to tell, but if it could, I was sure Manil was the person to supply it.”

“When Michele tantalized me with a whole semester’s worth of such highs with a class full of enthusiastic (OK, at least captive) students, the endorphin factory in my brain went into high alert,” writes Suri.

In the second installment of the series, the two discuss the challenges of teaching the course (including their own conflicts), and watching their students discover the connections between the disciplines.

“I think the students liked those days when Manil and I went at it. I liked those moments, too, because I not only had to confront another perspective head on but also had to challenge my own. I loved seeing the baffled expressions of the students while their instructors disagreed; the things we were asking them to consider were perplexing and appropriate,” writes Osherow.

“They’d now glimpsed the future: the digitalization of the humanities, the emphasis on statistical and quantified evidence, the interconnectedness of human experience,” says Suri.

In the third, and final, installment, the two professors write about the students’ final projects (“Mathematically deepest of all was an instrumental composition that musically interpreted what it means to be a sine (or cosine) function—by a humanities scholar inspired to take calculus this semester,” writes Suri) and the ultimate value of the class.

“Though there are a lot—I won’t say infinite, but an impressive batch of natural numbers’ worth—of moments I’d redo if I could, I would not have missed out on co-teaching this seminar, tricky as it was. There is a language to mathematics, and I’m devoted to seeing what language produces and provokes.,” Osherow concludes.

Kimberly Moffitt, assistant professor of American studies, appeared on Midday with Dan Rodricks on Tuesday, October 9 to discuss the upcoming election.  Moffitt discussed both the presidential election and Maryland ballot initiatives with Rodricks, the other guests, and callers.

The first topic the group covered was the widespread consensus that Barack Obama lost the first presidential debate.  This led to Mitt Romney’s poll numbers going up despite the fact that the unemployment rate fell below 8 percent.

“Visuals make a difference for us. Being able to see Romney come out and be aggressive, seem confident and show us that he had the ability to be a president is what really stuck with the American people, and that is what carried us through the weekend, instead of talking about the job numbers. [The job numbers] didn’t hold water for us, but the visual of seeing him on that split screen with Obama who seemed very reserved and not his usual self, is what made the huge difference,” Moffitt said.

The full interview can be heard online here.