Fifth Sunday in Lent

March 21, 2010

Sermon by Rev. Dr. Marcus Pera

The Holy Gospel according to John, the 12th Chapter. (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.”

The Gospel of our Lord.

In the name of Jesus, sisters and brothers, grace, mercy, and peace be unto you. Amen.

I want to begin with a couple of news items. One of them happened back at Christmas time, a little bit before, and is titled, “The Mystery Santa.” It’s interesting; this person from Kansas City does this in the Kansas City area, and usually picks one other town. And what he does is stuff his pockets with hundred-dollar bills, and he goes out and he watches, for example, at laundromats and maybe at dollar stores, and looks at what people have in their basket, and he is able to pick out those who are really in need. And what he does is simply come up to them and give them a hundred-dollar bill. And he does this in his home area of Kansas City as well, and by the end of that season he has given out twenty-five thousand dollars. He says, “I know what it feels like.”

He grew up in Houston, Mississippi. He, at one point in his very early life, didn’t have a job, didn’t have a place to stay; and, in fact, at that one moment he had not had a meal for two days. Finally, he decided to go into this diner, and he had his speech all prepared and worked out. He would pretend that he lost his billfold, and then he would maneuver the meal in that particular way. When he finished—and he waited until the crowd thinned out a little bit—and then he went up to the counter. And then he came back, and he was looking underneath his booth. And finally the person who was the waiter and also the person who was the cook, and he later discovers was also the owner, came over there and kind of helped him look, and said, “Here, there’s a twenty-dollar bill, You must have dropped it.” And so the person took it and paid his way and left. He moved from Houston, Mississippi and went to the Kansas City area. He tried one business enterprise that failed; but then he tried another business one, and he was extremely successful. And it is out of that gratefulness that he has responded in this kind of way throughout the remainder of his life.

The second news item just happened a few weeks ago—I don’t know if you saw it in the news—and her name, I like it, is Grace, Grace Groner. She was from Lake Forest, Illinois, and she went to Lake Forest College, which is on the north end of Chicago. And she was always very appreciative of her college education. She went to school way back in the thirties. I’m sure that was somewhat unusual at that time as well. Shortly after that, she got a job, and that job was with Abbott Laboratories, and she worked with them for 43 years. She also did an interesting thing. She made a small investment early in her life of a hundred and eighty dollars, and she just simply left it where it was at. And at the point of her death a few weeks ago, it was announced that she left Lake Forest College seven million dollars. She lived very frugally herself. But it was out of that appreciation and gratitude for what she had received that she responded in that kind of way.

It’s interesting that the Gospel Lesson for today is one of generosity, and it’s a story of generosity and response out of gratefulness. So we want to try to uncover the meaning of that story just a little bit more.

As we look at it, the first point that is seemingly very clear is that a generous life responds because of a grateful heart; it flows from a grateful heart. We have John as the Gospel Lesson for today. The story about Mary and the perfume is in each of the synoptic Gospel Lessons. Our series this year is in Luke, and it’s interesting that it isn’t taken out of Luke. It’s because of the placement and some of the meaning. Matthew and Mark have one source for the story; Luke has another source for the story. And then John takes a little bit from each of those and then adds a little bit as well. And those will become meaning items hopefully as we talk a little bit further.

One of the things that John adds is that Judas was at the meal. It also is clear about the fact that the meal was at Mary and Martha and Lazarus’s house. He also is clear about the fact that, or at least reports it a little differently, that Jesus had his feet washed by Mary and wiped dry with her hair. But the one thing that is very clear is that probably, even though the story comes later in John, that this is a meal that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are offering to Jesus out of gratitude for he having resuscitated Lazarus, raised him from the dead. It is out of that kind of thing; it is an act of generosity.

The references made by Judas, at least to 300 denarii, is what this perfume cost, this nard. 300 denarii doesn’t make too much sense until you understand that one denarii was probably a day’s wage, so 300 comes to the equivalent of a whole year’s wage; obviously an extremely large act of generosity and gratitude on her part. And also it is clear that out of that Judas has some problem with it. He says this could have been sold; it could have been given to the poor. But his heart is in a different place, as the text says. His concern was with the treasury that he had control over and that he seemingly was lining a few of his pockets a little bit with some of that money. And the reference there is interesting also, where Jesus says, “The poor you always have with you.” It gets quoted quite a bit, sometimes in some very bizarre ways—and even some of the manuscripts don’t include it, so they must have had a little bit of trouble with it. But there is a reference in Deuteronomy to the fact that there always will be people in the land that will be poor and in need.

But there is one reference by one of the commentators that I think is helpful, and that is a distinction between alms giving and acts of charity. On the one hand, you have alms giving. You do this on an ongoing basis. You care for the needs of the poor, and the widows, and those who have other kinds of needs. Alms giving. But the other are acts of charity, which are opportunities to give in different kinds of ways. This, for Mary, was evidently, or the suggestion is there, an act of charity. And could we even maybe be making the distinction of saying that we have our ongoing benevolences that contribute to the needs that are ongoing ones? But are there moments and times of acts of charity that can respond to a bigger need, or a bigger project, or a bigger concern, that is in the interests of the kingdom?

One of the reasons that stands in the way of generosity flowing from a grateful heart is when the heart is in a different place, like Judas’s, and the concern is greed and self-concern rather than is the concern of response. It seems to me that one of the easiest mistakes that people so often make is they think, according to our culture, that’s the way we grew up. We pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps; we earned everything we have. And it is so interesting and easy to challenge that. Even our getting up this morning and the air we breathe, and the fact that we are alive; did we contribute anything to that? The fact that we were born in this country, where the opportunities are there and are rich; did we contribute anything to that? The fact that we have schools to attend and the fact that we were given by our Creator God decent kinds of abilities to be able to act on those gifts and opportunities; did we contribute anything to that? Certainly, we are co-creators in the process, and we have tried to maximize the gifts that we have been given. But when we understand that these things are all gifts, then we begin to respond with gratefulness, and then is birthed a generous heart.

Now, the second part of this is, there is a generosity that flows from also a loving heart. And here we’ve got to come to the foot washing that Mary does, and it’s an interesting part of that. The practice in the time of Jesus was—the streets and roads were all dirt and very dusty— people would come to a home; more than likely there would be water and a basin that was there. And people, on their own, would wash their feet as they entered a house. If it was a very special guest, or if they were wealthy enough to have a servant, a slave, that person then would probably wash the other’s feet, in honor of that person. But it was an act also of servanthood. This Maundy Thursday, we are going to reenact what Jesus did in the upper room, and that is to wash one another’s feet, as a sign or a symbol of the fact that Jesus said, “I have done this as an example that you might love one another as I have loved you.”

So here is Mary, and they reclined in those days, so the feet come off on the side here. She didn’t have to get under the table or down at the floor. But she takes this perfume—again, costly perfume—anoints Jesus’ feet, and then wipes it with her hair. And one of the interesting things then is that this almost in a way prefigured what Jesus did in the upper room, because Mary becomes a model and example of discipleship, a model in which she responds in servanthood to her Lord. And it’s an act of endearment; it’s an act of love. Hair in those days was so extremely important for a woman, covered when they were outside, not let down unless they were inside the house. And the fact that the hair is dropped down and is used in this particular way was a very intimate kind of response and expression on her part. It came out of a very loving heart. Her example in contrast, once again, to Judas, Judas, whose concern was totally in a different kind of place. His concern was a self-centeredness that didn’t allow for that kind of endearment and that kind of response.

Well, how do we move toward a heart that is flowing with response, that is flowing with gratitude, and that is flowing with love? And here I want to refer to the First Lesson for today. It’s really a neat lesson, in the sense that people were anticipating, once again, the return from exile in Babylon. And one of the things, as their life lived out in Babylon for many years, they tended to remember a little bit of their foundation and looked back to that, when God made a covenant with God’s people. But they were also in a land in which they were compromised in so many different ways, and they began to forget kind of who they really were. And then the prophet or God is saying, “Forget about the past,” not in terms of its benefit and the important things of how he covenanted with them, “but look forward. Behold the new things that I am doing. Now you see it and then you don’t. Look and see those new things that God is creating.” And then this Lesson makes reference to the water, the water that cleanses and makes new, and purifies. And for us we think of that as the water of baptism, as we reminded ourselves once again at the beginning of this service, how God, through that, created us anew, and our reminder of our baptism recleanses us in that awareness. And God also says, “Look, I’m doing something through, I give you bread and I give you wine.” It is, once again, a kind of cleansing and energizing, a renewal of our faith through the gift of God’s very presence himself. And it is through this that we begin to understand a little bit more the great things that God has done unconditionally for us, and we begin to see and experience gratitude. We begin to experience the love of God for us, and it starts to pour out from us in love to and for others.

The hymn that we will sing in a little bit says it so well:

“We give thee but thine own,

What – e’er the gift may be;

All we have is thine alone,

A trust, O Lord, from thee.”

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.