Date: March 25, 2007
Text: John 12:1-8
This story is one of my favorite Gospel stories. The anointing of Jesus. The anointing of Jesus is told in all four Gospels. My favorite version is in Mark. In Mark 14:9 Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, wherever the Good News is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”
The irony of it is that in the Gospel of Mark we are not even given her name. Yet, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, wherever the Good News is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” So, the questions for me are: (1)Why does Jesus say we are to tell this story wherever the Good News is preached? and (2) Why don’t we put more emphasis on this story and what this woman did?
This is very significant. Jesus doesn’t say that anyone else’s story will be told alongside the Gospel. Just this woman. The woman who anointed him. And even as early as 60 AD, when the Gospel of Mark had been written, her name was already omitted. We haven’t paid her much attention.
Of course she is criticized right away in the text. Judas says that she has wasted a lot of money. Nard was expensive. We’re told that it cost about 300 denarii. This was about one year’s wages for a laborer. A lot of money to spend on oil used to pour over one person. That money could have been spent in more practical ways. Here in 2007 in New Mexico, based on minimum wage and a 40-hour work week, 300 denarii would be $10,300. A lot of money.
And sometimes, because we are people who contribute to the church, sometimes like Judas we would like to have more say over how the money is spent. Sometimes the church is criticized, like Mary, on how it spends money. You know what I’m talking about right?
I have heard someone say, quote “I wouldn’t give money to the church, I’d rather give it to some group that does something concrete with it.” Unquote. Well, I see two problems here. First, this person completely misunderstands how we spend money around here. The offering supports this parish, the school and pre-school and we send money on to the Rocky Mountain Synod, which sends money on to the national church. And so the money from the offering supports many concrete “GOOD WORKS.” Concrete causes that I am sure both the disciple Judas and this person I spoke to would agree are worthy causes.
But the real problem with the idea that sometimes the church wastes money is that Giving to God is not about supporting worthy causes. NO. Giving to God is really an act of worship. Think about ancient Israel – people would bring offerings that were usually food. The drink offerings would be poured on the altar, the wheat and produce would be placed on the altar and lit on fire. If someone brought birds or other animals they too would be consumed in flames. In a bartering society, these food items were essentially money. Worshippers brought things of value, gave them to God and they were simply destroyed.
The food wasn’t re-distributed to the needy, or anything practical like that. Now I’m not suggesting that we take all the cash from the offering today and burn it, but I am insisting that we have an offering during Sunday service because it is an act of worship.
We don’t take an offering to pay the bills, or to do good works with your money. It is true that we have bills, and that we do in fact do good works with the money. But we come here to worship God and there is no other point in the service where we are given such a pure opportunity to worship God as when we take the offering. We are asked to give something we hold precious, give it to God out of love.
And what Mary did in the text today was an example of someone madly in love with Jesus. Now I know most of you know something about being crazy in love. When you are crazy in love you want to be as close to each other as possible. And no expense is too great. Love is extravagant. I can remember those first dates when Andrew bought me giant bouquets and we had long date nights, and we’d buy little surprises for each other. Money was not an issue.
He’s good at that stuff. His parents warned him, “she’ll run through your money.” And it was true...but we didn’t care. Because love is extravagant and foolish. And he still buys me flowers. Crazy mad love.
And when you’re not together you are still on the phone or texting, or emailing each other. Andrew and I used to fax each other messages at work. We’d send letters and postcards. We’d talk on the phone: Hi how are you? What are you doing? I was just thinking about you. I Miss you. Me too.
And we are called to love Jesus with mad abandon. Messiah literally means, anointed one. Mary’s action in the Gospel recognizes who Jesus is and treats him with the proper love and adoration. We also are called to recognize Jesus and to love him recklessly, to want to be with Jesus all the time, to think about Jesus when we are not together, and to blow money on Jesus extravagantly to show our love.
Coming here on Sundays, maybe during the week too, is all about worshipping, loving, adoring, praising Jesus. Gazing lovingly into the face of Jesus. What a wonderful way to waste time on Jesus: come here and talk to him, sing for him, hear God’s Word, give away some of our precious money out of extravagant love.
But whatever we do, even if we spent a year’s wages on Jesus and poured out our love like precious oil on his head and feet, our love would still be nothing compared to his love for us. My 3-year old son, Alexander, has this children’s book: Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney. The little nutbrown hare wants to express how much it loves big nutbrown hare. And so the little one says things like “I love you as high as I can jump.” and the big nutbrown hare always has a come back like, “I love you as high as I can jump.” (And of course it can jump higher.) And finally the little hare gets sleepy and says that it loves big nutbrown hare right up to the moon and the little hare falls asleep. And over the sleeping child, big nutbrown hare whispers, “I love you right up to the moon and back.”
That is how God loves us. That is why Jesus went to the cross, that is why we have been invited into the promise of the resurrection. Because God loves us more than we could know, more than we could love God back. God loves us to the moon and back and then some.
And in response to that powerful love, I hope that this week you might love God back with some crazy, generous, mad display of love.
Amen.