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| Ready for worship at Beverley |
I'm wondering.....have you ever failed to tell someone you loved them? and the moment passes....and it's too late and?....like someone has died and you weren't able to tell them?
A month or so ago, I had a very tragic funeral to deal with. A young man who had struggled with mental illness...and as so often happens...substance abuse issues...and actually made it through rehab...committed suicide. There were so many tragic aspects to this story I can't even recount them all. I was amazed at an overflowing room at the funeral home deep in Staten Island. Many of them young people. Person after person stood up and talked about how much they loved him, how important he was to them. At one point, a friend of mine leaned over and said to me, "So if everyone loved him so much, why isn't he still here?" And as we talked with his young friends, we heard the same story over and over how they had "fallen out of touch..." Honestly, we don't really know if things could have bene different...but....I know the people I didn't get to speak to...even in much less tragic circumstances.
As so often happens in Lent, today we have another of my favorite Gospel stories. It's one of the most vivid, and visual, and even sensual stories we have of Jesus. One that has been rendered by painters. One so dramatically presented in "Jesus Christ Super Star" as Mary sings "Everything's all right" to an exhausted Jesus.
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| from Solentiname |
The story varies in the different Gospel tellings. In our mind's eye, we see this as Mary Magdelene, but that's not always clear. Here in John, it seems to be Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha, and the recently resurrected Lazarus. But I'm not sure that matters.
Just allow the camera to settle for a moment on this scene. Watch as wordlessly, in silence, as Mary brings that jar of the most expensive oil and pours it on his feet. Imagine you are in the room. Imagine the fragrance filling the air. And watch, again in silence, as she wipes his feet with her hair, her tears flowing and mixing with the oil. What do you feel?
Do you feel uncomfortable? I mean it is so personal, so intimate, and everyone is watching...
Or do we react like Judas and say "What a waste!" John is pretty hard on Judas. I think we can take Judas at face value, like in ...Super Star. Here's this guy who's always talking about the poor allowing this woman to just waste this valuable resource.
I want to stress that Jesus's response about 'The poor being with us always"is not saying not to worry about them. He knows how the world is. Judas will have plenty of opportunity to help the poor tomorrow. And the day after...and...
So what's going on here?
1. Jesus knows the end is near. He's just about had it. He knows what he's got to go through to get to the other side. This is one of the few times he allows himself to be given to. One sign of understanding love is being able to allow ourself to be loved. To allow ourself to believe we deserve it.
2. Mary may be the only person who knows Jesus well enough to understand herself what he is facing. And she decides to use his burial oil to celebrate him, comfort him, love him, while he is still alive. (I have a friend who'd like to have his funeral while he's still alive...)
3. Jesus is saying it's ok to love extravagantly.
So that raises some questions for me. We're more than half way through Lent, our time of self-examination, of repentance, that is turning around...And let me say I'm so glad that having begun Lent with you, I will be able to come to its end and celebrate Easter with you in two weeks....
So here's my question....what are you holding back? From other people? Is there someone you need to reach out to? is there someone you need to tell them "I love you"? Think on that....and I almost want to say, don't come to Easter if you haven't said "I love you" to someone in the next two weeks.
Bigger question....what are you holding back from Jesus? What do you need to let go of ? To give to him?
I love how one person here goes all out to make things fancy, to make events special for people...that's a way of giving to the church and through the church to Jesus.
Tonight I'll help my old congregation do its monthly meal at the homeless shelter. Other congregations do sandwiches or pizza. One of our members cooks a four course meal for the people.
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| the crew |
May Jesus grant is the grace to love him...and each other...with all our hearts....
AMEN
We share our communion. Our prayers for one another. Then go to the social hall. Eugene has brought a Roku equipped TV for the church. It will be a pleasant walk back to the subway....
Gospel John 12:1-8
1Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3Mary 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. 4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5"Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" 6(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.) 7Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."
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