Fifth Sunday in Lent - Mary anoints Jesus
It
has been a very warm week. I almost don’t want to think about how much winter
we should have. I feel as if I talk about winter, all this good weather will be
taken away. I ran out to my mailbox and got the mail yesterday afternoon. I was
delighted that there were no bills! Actually, there was a bill, but it was much
less than I thought it would be. Again, I am quick to equivocate. I am a little
hesitant to believe the good news. I can’t really be that good, can it?
When
we allow ourselves to be open to God’s good news, we are often overwhelmed. God
gives to us so generously, so completely – we don’t know what to do with
ourselves. We are quick to remember loss, or our fear of loss. We think of
everything that could go wrong. We hold a baby and think about how hard it will
be to raise them right. We get a new job and wonder if we will be up to the
challenge. We find a new friend, or begin a new relationship – what if they
find out what we are really like? It can’t be as good as it seems, can it?
We
have moments in our lives when we glimpse God’s generosity. We are speechless.
New parents often feel this way. They plan for a child and anticipate
parenthood – then they hold their newborn child for the first time. They
marvel, “What is this new life? How could I be so lucky?”
I
think this may have been something that motivated Mary to offer her
extraordinary gift. We have to get beyond the strangeness of it. We are hearing
a part of a story, dropped into our own context. Jesus had just raised Lazarus
from the dead. Jesus had comforted Mary at the tomb. There was talk about
danger and about how Jesus (and a very live Lazarus) challenged the status quo
– and about how the leaders were plotting to do something about it.
Mary
is grateful. She wants to thank Jesus. She wants to show her love for Jesus.
She finds a very expensive jar of perfume and she anoints his feet and dries
his feet with her hair. The house is filled with fragrance.
This
makes everyone uncomfortable. It’s too much. It’s awkward. Are we being encouraged
to think up similar expressions of love? Where do we start? What could we do?
Judas speaks for us (also uncomfortable!). Shouldn’t we be giving this
expensive gift to the poor?
Like
Judas, we are not so concerned with the poor that we have to argue about better
uses of funds. We also know that this story has often been used to ornament our
buildings while ignoring the poor. So we should keep the needs of our neighbors
in mind – but this story isn’t about that. We are being invited to think about what
Jesus gives to us and about what we give in return.
It
is six days before the Passover. Jesus will die the day before Passover and he
will rise the day after. The great offering for our salvation is being set in
motion. Mary has no idea what Jesus will do for her – she is only responding to
what he has already done. Perhaps we don’t really grasp all that Jesus has done
for us. Perhaps that is why we shrink from her generosity.
God
is always giving to us generously. We don’t always see it. We might even object
and point to all the ways that we feel lack or loss. Yet even in our
difficulties, God is always seeking our best. God is always inviting us into a
new creation. God is always offering us a new beginning.
Many
of us have been working through the workbook from the Society of Saint John the
Evangelist called, “Growing a Rule of Life.” The deeper we go, the more ways
that we discover how much we have to do. We have been invited to plant a garden
– perhaps a place where we can meet God. The work is not to be exceptional. The
work is to create something that lives, something that nourishes us.
The
garden can be a place of peace and joy, and it takes a lot of work. There is a
cycle of death and life. The old plants nourish the soil that sustains new life.
Old plantings must be pulled down to make space for new ones. We have to set
aside old ways to make room for new possibilities.
We
grieve what we lose even as we plan with hope. There is no guarantee that what
we plant will prosper. Faith is about living with hope in the promises of God –
not in trusting the certainty of our own plans. So we plant our seeds and trust
in God’s goodness. Some of our work produces a glorious result – some is
unproductive. We rejoice in the power of God to produce new life in us, no
matter how well we succeed.
This
is our joy. God works in us no matter how much we prosper. God renews us no
matter what we think we deserve. Whatever God works in us, it is right that we
turn back to God and offer ourselves in gratitude. We can step outside of the
expectations of our world and praise our God who loves us always.
ReplyDeleteRoyal1688 The market for salt. Sakaeo rich man was murdered in the home.
Royal1688 The site is open to play casino games online. The news is interesting to me. And this past yesterday. The police went to inspect the house. In Ban Thai Pattana area, Klong Ha, Klong Hae, Sa Kaeo. After the murder, Ms. Sae Yan, the owner of the market. This market is considered a big market in the salt industry. And Mr. Pipat was a husband, both of whom were pierced and throated. The couple died in the house.
Home workers say that the two died in their homes after the incident and that they had come to work in the morning. It was found that the house quiet. But when they entered the house found that the two people died.
The police are under investigation. In the first set of two issues is the business of trading in the salt market or political conflict. Because there were earlier politicians. Trying to approach the deceased to help support. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed Royal1688