Sunday, April 7, 2019

Extravagant Love


Scripture  John 12:1-8  NRSV   
12 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.”

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One of my seminary classmates showed up for class one day just fuming.  She was a member of a large congregation in downtown Indianapolis, in a part of the city where there were a lot of homeless and desperately poor people, an area that was undergoing gentrification.  The congregation had a significant mission to the poor - feeding programs, clothing programs, after school programs to provide a safe place for children to wait for their parents to come home from work.  My classmate was heavily involved in this work and knew that they always needed more funds, more food, and more volunteers.  She had been at a board meeting the day before where it was announced with great joy and excitement that a member had left a substantial sum of money to the church to be spent on the choir.  “The choir?  But there are all those poor people out there!   Why use this money for the choir when we could help so many more people?”  

Why didn’t she sell this perfume so we could help the poor? 

Lazarus, Martha and Mary figure rather prominently in John’s gospel.  We have a lot of clues to suggest they were one of the wealthy families who helped support Jesus’ ministry.  Lazarus could afford to support his two unmarried sisters.  They were able to give a dinner for Jesus and his disciples.  They had a family tomb where Lazarus had been interred.  Mary had a pound of perfumed oil worth nearly a year’s wages for an ordinary laborer.  Jesus obviously felt close to them and they to him.  Jesus wept over Lazarus’ death.  Mary and Martha both felt comfortable speaking to him in a way that they wouldn’t speak to just any man who not a relative.   Luke’s gospel tells us how Martha gently scolded him for letting Mary sit at his feet listening to him teach rather than helping in the kitchen.  And John tells us that after Lazarus died Mary was bold enough to say to Jesus, “If you had been here my brother wouldn’t have died.”  Women simply did not speak to men who were not family members in these ways. 

Like my classmate, Judas wanted to know why this woman is wasting her wealth in this way when it could have been spent to help more people?   

The real answer, of course, is she did it because this is the thing that was important to her.  Serving her Lord in this way was important to Mary.  Helping the choir glorify God through music was important to the woman in Indianapolis.  As Jesus rightly said, “You will always have the poor with  you, but you do not always have me.  He wasn’t making a particular commentary about the inevitability of there being poor folks and rich folks.  After all, Deuteronomy 15:11 says clearly, “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.”  He was simply telling Judas and the other disciples that they would have plenty of time to care for the poor, but his time among them was limited.  He was looking ahead to his death. Mary was anticipating his burial by anointing him ahead of time.  She may not have known the prophetic nature of what she did, but Jesus did.  What she did know is that she felt it important to make this extravagant gesture - to pour out this oil on his tired feet, and then to wipe them . .  not with a cloth, but with her own hair, an incredibly intimate task signifying great love and devotion.  In a few days Jesus would perform a similar intimate task for his disciples, washing their feet at the beginning of a meal.   

My friend Danny Bradfield, Pastor of Bixby Knolls Christian Church in Long Beach, said in recent sermon, “We go to church expecting to encounter Christ - and we do - but more significantly, we go to church to learn how to recognize Christ when we encounter him in the world.”   

We each spend our love on the things that are important to us.  Kathleen and I spent Friday and Saturday at the Community of the Great Commission with a number of other folks who dedicate themselves to outdoor ministries and camp programs.  On Friday we were asked to trace our hands and draw what camp means to us on that hand.   Then everyone shared.  I don’t feel a particular connection to camp, although I believe it is a very valuable experience for young and not so young alike - and you should all go.  I’ve only been to camp once before and that was maybe not the very best camp experience ever.  But aside from me, the depth of the devotion each person there expressed was as awe inspiring as the setting in which we were meeting.   I could feel the extravagant love for nature, for helping young people along their spiritual journey, for sharing their love of God and church with the campers and with each other, that each person there described - that has kept them coming back to camp for 10, 15, 26 years.   For these people and the many others in our region and elsewhere, this ministry is where they pour out their love in gifts of time, talents, and money just as extravagantly as Mary poured out her perfumed oil.  It is where they see Christ.  

We see Christ in every act of generosity, because Jesus’ ministry was all about generosity and abundance.  The miracle at Cana, producing way more wine than could be consumed.  The feeding of five thousand men (plus women and children) with twelve baskets of food left over.  After fishing all night, Peter is sent back out and immediately so many fish fill the nets that the boats are in danger of sinking.  Wherever Jesus is present, there is abundance - enough and more than enough.  It’s the way pot lucks work.  Not nearly enough people sign up but on the day the tables are so crowded with food that there is barely room for it all.  No one is sent away hungry from Christian Cafe.  

Linda is a nurse who was on a mission trip some years ago.  She was handing out pre-natal vitamins one day and realized that there simply wasn’t going to be enough for all of the women in line.  So she started giving out only half as much as each woman needed.  When the person in charge of the mission saw, she said, “No, don’t do that. Give each one the full amount and have faith.”  And lo it came to pass that a truck came, unscheduled and unexpectedly, and on that truck was a goodly supply of prenatal vitamins.   And every woman received what she needed.  

Why didn’t she sell this perfume so we could help the poor?  And Jesus said, ”You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Well, ok.  But that was then.  Now we do always have Jesus, for he is resurrected.  He is the living Christ.  He dos not require incense or fragrant oils and he does command us to go out and love one another.  So why give to the choir or the organ or the youth group or the camp program?  Or office supplies?  Why not give directly to the poor?  We should give directly to the poor, but also to all these other things, because those things help us serve the poor.  

When we pour out our love on those things that equip us - on music with which to praise God and on raising up our young people in Christ and on sending folks to camp who might otherwise not get to go - we are equipping ourselves to go out from this place to serve God in whatever way we are each best suited.    When we pour our love into those things that strengthen us in God’s service, we are enabled and emboldened to help the poor, the hungry, the desolated, the angry, the depressed, the lonely, the sick, the addicted . . .  When we pour out our love for Christ as extravagantly as Mary poured out the perfumed oil, We are enabled to give more than we can imagine, in ways we could not foresee, to further God’s mission in the world.  We are returning to God the gift of extravagant love that he pours out upon us.  

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