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"Extravagant Love" Today’s lectionary gospel is John’s account of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume and wiping them with her hair. This is not Mary the mother of Jesus, and not Mary Magdalene, but Mary, the sister of Martha and of Lazarus. Some background before I read the lesson. First. In Jesus’ day the men would recline at table, lying down on the ground around a low table, leaning on their left elbow with their feet out behind them, eating with their right hand. It would be nothing like DaVinci’s painting of the Last Supper, where Jesus appears to be saying, “Come on, boys. Get over on this side of the table for the picture.” Second. The first 11 chapters of John are often called the Book of Signs. It consists of seven miracles, followed by teaching about the miracle. The last and greatest of the miracles is the raising of Lazarus from the dead by Jesus. (Lazarus is a friend of Jesus’ and is the brother of Mary and Martha, the famous sisters from Luke chapter 10, Martha bustling about the kitchen, Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to his teaching.) The raising of Lazarus in John, chapter 11, is the final miracle and provides the hinge of the gospel leading into the second half, the Book of Glory, John’s version of the Passion of Jesus, the events of Holy Week: triumphal entry, Last Supper, arrest, death and resurrection. According to John’s gospel, the raising of Lazarus, more than anything else, made Jesus’ reputation and sealed his fate. The raising of Lazarus naturally created such a furor among the people that the Jewish leaders knew that the Romans were going to be upset so the Jewish leaders determined that Jesus must die “for the good of the people.” Jesus knew there was a price on his head and for a short time after the raising of Lazarus Jesus left Bethany and went away to the wilderness. But not long after he returned to Bethany, which is just outside Jerusalem, to Lazarus’ home, knowing full well what was soon to await him. Third. All four gospels tell this or a similar story. And people have over the years kind of mixed them all together in a mish mash of goulash. It’s important that we look at each story separately. Luke’s account has a sinful woman—read prostitute—crashing a party at a Pharisee’s house, then anointing Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair. It’s a powerful story and makes some potent points, but it is a very different story than John’s. So listen carefully to today’s scripture passage. John 12:1-8. 4But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5"Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages.[b]" 6He did not say this 7"Leave her alone," Jesus replied. " It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me." Wowzer! An amazing passage. I really like one-point sermons. However, this is a four-pointer and the Holy Spirit may well reveal to you other connections between this biblical story and your story. An amazing passage. Mary pours 12 ounces of pure nard over Jesus’ feet and wipes them with her hair. Both of those actions are astounding. First. Nard came from India and was extremely expensive. John says it cost 300 denarii, that is, 300 days’ wages for a working man. At least $30,000 in today’s money! Now, Mary clearly is not a woman of great wealth or her sister Martha wouldn’t have had to work so hard in the kitchen. Servants would have been doing that. So this perfume was a profound sacrifice. Presumably Mary did not know she was anointing Jesus for his burial. Jesus knew it, but she did not. All she knew was that he had brought her brother back to life! Can you put a price on that? In her overflowing gratitude she performs this wildly generous deed. Last week we looked at the fact that originally the word “prodigal” had no negative connotations, it simply meant “extravagant.” Well, here Mary, like the father in last week’s lesson, shows prodigal love! Way beyond the normal expectations! The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume: (v. 3d). Only a short time earlier, Jesus ordered that the stone be moved from the entrance to Lazarus’ tomb, and Martha protested, “Lord, there will be a stench because he has been dead four days” (11:39). Dick Donovan notes, The stench of death is now replaced with the sweet fragrance of Mary’s devotion. The second astounding feature of what Mary did is wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair. A respectable Jewish woman would not ever let her hair down in public. Unbound hair is the sign of a loose woman. So this was a shocking gesture. We don’t know what was behind it. Some have suggested that it is simply a spontaneous act and that most of us profit by being less inhibited in our affection for Jesus (Barclay, p. 128). One of my pastor friends calls most mainline Protestant church services “Talking Head worship,” intellectual, unemotional, and not using our bodies whatsoever. The Princeton Theological Seminary bookstore used to sell a T-shirt that proclaimed, “Presbyterians do it decently and in order.” That is scriptural (I Cor 14:40), but there are many more passages which would endorse exuberance (Ex 15:20-21; II Samuel 6:14; Psalm 149:3; 150:4, etc). Extravagant love, uninhibited worship. Third. There is in this passage a line that has disturbed many of us. Jesus says, “You will always have the poor with you. You will not always have me.” Seems like a callous attitude, but clearly it is not. For Jesus was constantly talking about the poor. Here in this passage Jesus is actually alluding to scripture, Deuteronomy 15. The complete verse reads, “Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land’” (vs. 11). Jesus is not saying to ignore the poor. He is simply saying, “Seize the opportunity while it is here. The poor are always present. I am not. Don’t miss your chance.” In that line about the poor, what’s the message for us today? Jesus is not with us physically today. Where is Jesus to be found? Parable in Matthew 25. Whenever we visit the sick or those in prison, when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, we are doing it to Jesus. “Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these, my sisters and brothers,” said Jesus, “you have done it unto me.” Let’s not miss our chance to do for the least, to do for Jesus. Fourth. Another way of looking at this parable is as an extreme example of Jewish hospitality. When guests came to dinner, normally the lowest servant would wash the guests’ feet. Here Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with wildly expensive perfume and then dries them with her hair! Hospitality was absolutely at the core of Jewish life, arising out of their history, the harsh nomadic, desert existence of the people of Israel. When there were no motels and no restaurants, hospitality was a matter of life and death. The Bible has dozens of examples of great hospitality, especially for strangers. In Genesis 18, which Pierce read for us, when Abraham saw “from afar” strangers coming, he quickly invited them in, ministered to their physical comfort and fed them lavishly. Rabbinic literature expanded on this, considering hospitality to be a great mitzvah, a good deed, an expression of kindness, especially when extended to the poor. (The Jewish Virtual Library) Hospitality. Oak Grove has such a great history of hospitality: VEAP, Cornerstone for victims of domestic violence and many others. As I thought of this passage in these terms my mind sparked on all sorts of possibilities. I offer them to you not as clear direction, but as “think-withs” for our conversation together. Right now the Session is in a visioning process discerning where God is calling us to be at work in the community. Where are the holes? Where does God need us to be at work where no one else is? Last summer I arranged a meeting with Les Fujitake, the superintendent of schools for Bloomington. As it turns out, his wife was our son Andy’s second grade teacher in Minnetonka. I asked Les, “What are the greatest unmet needs for our kids?” He responded, “It is vital that every kid is ready for kindergarten, so when they get to school they can learn. The most important predictor for school success is to be able to read at grade level by third grade. In fact,” he told me, “the states of California and Illinois use the numbers of 3rd grade children not reading at grade level as their predictor of how many prisons they will need to build. We have some great programs in Bloomington. Mt. Hope Lutheran Church up Old Shakopee about a mile offers scholarships for free preschool, but families that need scholarships often don’t have reliable transportation, so they quickly drop out.” I thought about our location. How many preschoolers live in the apartment buildings within three blocks of Oak Grove? Preschool for those within walking distance. We had the Bloomington Nursery School here previously…developmentally challenged children. At our session retreat in January I asked the elders to brainstorm our assets as a congregation. What do we have going for us? At the top of the list is that we have a fabulous, large building that sits empty 160 hours a week. And we have dozens—or hundreds—of retired people with lots of vitality and compassion and free time. Oak Grove and a preschool may be a marriage made in heaven. Another possibility. A group of women, including our own Beverly Bliss, has been researching the need and the possibilities of a shelter for homeless teens here in Bloomington. It’s heartbreaking to imagine: kids who have intolerable home situations, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse. Not getting along with a step-parent. Some of them are gay teens getting thrown out of the house because the parents can deal with the child’s sexual orientation, one reason gay teens have three times the suicide rate of straight teens. Robert Frost, in The Death of the Hired Man wrote, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, They have to take you in.” Well, that’s precisely what these kids don’t have. This group of women has come to Oak Grove to see if the drop-in center might be housed here. The request is making its way through the proper channels now: Mission Committee, Building and Operations Committee, Session. There are lots of questions yet to be answered. But it is certainly an issue of Biblical hospitality. And let’s see: we have a shower, we have a washer/dryer, we are within two blocks of Creekside and we’re on the bus line. Hmmm??? The goal ultimately is to have a stand-alone building for a shelter, which is estimated to cost about $200,000. I find it interesting that that is almost exactly the price of stained glass windows and new projectors. Stop! Don’t get your knickers in a twist. Take a deep breath. I’m not saying it’s an either-or, that one project is good, the other is bad. Maybe we can approach stained glass windows and a shelter for homeless teens as a both-and. Or neither. The only question as we consider either project, or anything else…The only question is, “Where is the Spirit leading? What is the faithful thing to be doing?” I just raise these possibilities as think-withs. A preschool for low-income kids, a drop-in center, a homeless shelter for teens. Those are all big challenges. But God is a big God. How does God want us to use this fabulous building? Within the Presbyterian tradition the sanctuary may be a “temple” for the worship of God, but the rest of the building is the mission headquarters! Big challenges. Big God. And God never calls us to major challenges and then leaves us alone. God will provide the resources as we move forward faithfully step by step. Recap: In the story of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with oil we see extravagant generosity, exuberant devotion, Jesus’ admonition to seize the opportunity and an example of incredible hospitality. And a final note: A few people commented this week that it was a good sermon last Sunday. Thank you, but we really won’t know if it was indeed a “good sermon” or not for a few years, until we can see whether or not our behavior changes. Having encountered that scripture passage of the Prodigal Parent in Luke 15, and now this one, will we love more extravagantly? Will we become more faithful? Let us pray. O Holy Spirit, may these scripture passages take root and bear fruit in our lives as together we embody Jesus in this world that you love. Amen.
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