An Uncomfortable Gospel

 An Uncomfortable Gospel

This whole scene today with Mary and Jesus makes me very uncomfortable. The whole idea of a woman wiping my feet with her hair with that amount of perfume in front of the whole vestry the congregation, my wife, family and friends makes me squirm and I think for good reason. It seems awfully personal and frankly a bit over the top. 

And the amount of perfume. The last I checked, and I checked, a 10oz bottle of  Nard Magdalena Anointing Oil bottled in Jerusalem would cost $8.85 from Amazon. My Prime membership guarantees delivery by Friday. But did you know a pound of the stuff would set you back $2,986.62! I checked on that too! 

There’s not a vestry in the Episcopal Church that would’t raise objections if anyone went off and spent that amount of church funds without prior approval. And rightfully so! Can you imagine the debate if someone ventured the idea? I mean even folks who think the world of me would rightly ask good questions about that kind of expenditure especially if it would take away from other valuable programs in the church. We simply don’t have that kind of money to spare; and to what end?

John’s Gospel, in telling this story with the benefit of hindsight sees that Judas was not particularly concerned about the poor. But who among us serving on any vestry could justify such extravagance even if we know that our beloved is destined to die? 

But Jesus tells them to leave her alone. I mean think of it. There she is wiping his feet with her hair and the fragrance fills the entire house. Good heavens a pound of the stuff you could smell half a block away. What is going on here anyway?

Then Jesus mentions his burial as if she alone among them sees what is coming in our Lord’s life. She is preparing his body for the inevitable. She alone sees who he is to the disciples. He is the source of their forgiveness and eternal life. She has seen it time and again and knows of it in her own life. She knows she is personally forgiven and that he has given her eternal life. She alone understands, at some level, that he will die and then will rise again. And she will be there again with the other women to anoint his body for burial and will be among the first to see the Risen One.

The women who follow Jesus play a critical role in the salvation story. The Mary/Martha story is interesting when one is fussing over the cleanup and the dishes while the other sits at his feet hanging on every word that falls from his mouth. Then there is the woman at the well who Jesus meets at noonday. She has had a whole sequence of husbands and the one she had then was not her husband. Another fascinating encounter. And on an on and goes until Easter Day when it is the women who are there front and center to be the first to witness his Resurrection.

When a loved one dies we spare no expense. The average cost of a funeral in Massachusetts is around $10,000. 

By the way, the Book of Common Prayer urges the people to make responsible preparations for death so that the burden of it all does not fall on our families.

Many avoid the subject. Clergy and lawyers are notorious for avoiding the subject. But in my experience families are often thrown into the trauma of dealing with the subject and are left on their own to make arrangements. Aunt Shirley didn’t have a will, durable power of attorney or any other arrangements. When urged to do so she merely said that she was afraid if she did make arrangements something might happen to her. Then yes something did happen to her. Namely she died and the State of Florida made all the decisions about the disposal of her estate because she had not done so. 

Let that be a word to the wise. All this business of death and resurrection and even forgiveness can make us uncomfortable. It is all so personal especially when it happens to us or to a loved one.

But it happens. As the Great Litany cheerily reminds us

“From from violence, battle, and murder; and from dying suddenly and unprepared,

Good Lord, deliver us.”

That’s the key. From dying suddenly and unprepared! In this Gospel Jesus and Mary were embracing preparations and facing facts. Moreover Mary understood that Jesus was doing something new for us. As the Prophet Isaiah reminds us today “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”

Jesus is about to introduce the idea of Forgiveness and Resurrection into our lives. Do you not perceive it?

This is what Paul is turning over in his mind in today’s Epistle. He is looking at life and death, suffering and resurrection and his life in Jesus and what that now means as something entirely new. He says; “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”

This is Paul’s way of understanding what it means to anoint Jesus with costly perfume. Pure nard. Even a whole pound of the stuff. 

Do you not perceive it, Jesus asks of us? 

Do you not understand what I am doing for you? 

Do you have any idea of how much I love you?

And as to the Resurrection from the dead. 

Do you not perceive it?

As uncomfortable as this moment between Jesus and Mary may make us feel, it remains a moment of pure innocence in the Gospel. Mary loves Jesus unlike anyone else gathered there that day. It had nothing to do with money but everything to do with the intimacy of her devotion to him and his love for her. No matter what she had done or not done in her life, Jesus loved her. Everything stood forgiven but more than that he gave her something entirely unexpected; Eternal Life. It was a life that had already begun and that she was living in the very moment she anointed his feet with her hair. There was nothing uncomfortable for Mary or Jesus in that moment. It was a moment of organic authenticity and fit perfectly into the plan of salvation Jesus prepared for her and for all of us. 

Which bring us finally to the words of today’s Collect; 

“Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found”

In the Name of God; the Most Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity. Amen. 

Fr Paul

Below the readings appointed for the Fifth Sunday in Lent and highlights that speak to my heart and soul

Fifth Sunday in Lent

The Collect:

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

First Lesson: Isaiah 43:16-21

Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.

Psalm 126

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, *
       then were we like those who dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, *
      and our tongue with shouts of joy.
Then they said among the nations, *
      “The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us, *
      and we are glad indeed.
Restore our fortunes, O Lord, *
      like the watercourses of the Negev.
Those who sowed with tears *
      will reap with songs of joy.
Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, *
      will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves.

Epistle: Philippians 3:4b-14

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Gospel: John 12:1-8

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”