The Anointing of Jesus by Sister Margaret Mardis

Fill Me Up and Pour Me Out

I’m going to start out in a non conventional way today. Instead of
reading the scripture today I am going to tell you one story that comes from three scriptures. The scripture story is about The Anointing of Christ at Bethany. It comes from the gospel of Mark 14: 1-7, the gospel of John 12:1-9 and the gospel of Matthew:26:6-13. Here is the story along with a little detail that I imagine must have happened too.

Come with me to the land of Israel in the time of Jesus our Savior. It was spring and the days were warming up and the shrubs were beginning to bud. By day you could wear your light robes and open sandals but the nights were still cold and the people were still eating and sleeping indoors. Jesus was always traveling in those days and six days before the Feast of the Passover Jesus came to stay in the town of Bethany. Bethany was a little suburb about 2 miles outside of Jerusalem. Jesus had been there many times and it was a place where he could relax and get away from the drama that sometimes followed him in Jerusalem. He had a lot of friends there. He had a friend named Lazarus whom he had recently raised from the dead and he had a friend named Simon whom he had healed of leprosy. Needless to say many people in Bethany opened their doors to him when he was in town. One of his friends was a woman called Mary. You may remember her. She was the sister of Lazarus. And she was also the sister of Martha who got mad at her one day for not helping with a dinner party they were throwing for Jesus. We all know that story. Mary was made of pretty strong stuff and we know from that tiff with her sister that she was not afraid stand up and follow the voice of God within her.

Now Mary had heard something very disturbing about her friend Jesus. She had heard that he was in danger. We don’t know how she knew. Maybe she was there when Jesus said that he had a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of him. Maybe she was close at hand in Jerusalem when he said that the people where trying to kill him. Maybe she heard people talking at the Market saying that they heard Jesus say that he would only be around a little longer and that where he was going no one would be able to find him. But once she heard that Jesus was in danger she had a nagging feeling that she had to do something for him. She knew she wasn’t strong enough to protect him. Anyway she had heard that a couple of his disciples had taken to carrying swords to defend him. He didn’t need another body guard. Mary knew that she could give him a gift and she knew she had one thing of great value. She went to her room and found a beautiful jar. It was a jar made of alabaster. It was the color of sweet cream and it was made from a rare stone that came out of Egypt. It was filled with a very expensive and equally rare perfume from India called Essence of Nard. She was being driven by a force within her to give this precious gift to Jesus. She had felt that force before and she knew it was God leading her to where she must go.

If she had talked to anyone and said she was going to give this gift to Jesus many, maybe even most people, would have told her she was crazy. “Who is this Jesus anyway?” they would say. “Nobody even knows where he comes from. And people are saying that he is demon possessed. Mary, don’t be giving HIM your special perfume!” And some might have told her to save this perfume for her father or her mother. In those days this perfume was kept for anointing the dead before funerals. There clearly was no funeral for Jesus and anyway, she should keep it for someone special in her family. They would remind her to not be impulsive and break it open because there is no way to close it back up once it was open. The most expensive perfume in the world would be ruined. No, Mary didn’t have to talk to anyone to know that she would be severely judged for giving Jesus this perfume. But judged or not she felt driven to give him this gift and she would do it.

But how was she going to get it to him? She knew that he was going to be having dinner with friends. She didn’t want to barge in uninvited but she had to give this gift before he left town. Jesus had been behaving strangely and moving around a lot. It was almost like he was hiding from someone. He would be somewhere one day and then be gone the next. So uninvited or not she took her alabaster jar and she went to the house where he was having dinner. She walked into the dining room and the table was filled. His friends had all come and his disciples were all there too. She came in and stood before Jesus. With everyone staring at her, she took out her alabaster jar and she broke it open. The smell of the perfume filled the whole room. Then what she did next shocked everyone. She poured the perfume on his head. Jesus did not move. It was as if he had been waiting for her to come. She poured all of the perfume on his head and then she was done. She had given her most valued possession to Jesus.

Then the judgment that she feared would come, did come. Some of those at the table were indignant. “Why waste such expensive perfume?” they asked. “It could have been sold for a year’s wages and the money given to the poor!” They scolded her harshly. It was the custom in those days to give money to the poor before the Passover Feast. They thought she was being wasteful because of this. The disciple, Judas Iscariot, was especially verbal about this point because he had already decided to betray Jesus and he was doing anything he could to keep looking innocent to the crowd.

But Jesus replied in her defense, “Leave her alone. Why criticize her for doing such a good thing to me? You will always have the poor among you, and you can help them whenever you want to. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could and has anointed my body for burial ahead of time. I tell you the truth, whenever the Good News is preached through out the world; this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed.”

Mary left the house where the dinner was held and she went to her own home and she cried. She had not thought at all that she was preparing her friend, her teacher and the man she believed to be the Son of God, for his burial. He was in more danger than she had thought. She was sad and more than a little confused. Jesus was not ill. Indeed he was very much alive but he had clearly just talked about his own burial as if it was coming soon. Mary knew the traditions around burial and knew that even if the worst happened and he was murdered by his enemies he would be anointed with perfume again. That was the custom and custom was everything. No one would forget to do this. She found some comfort in knowing that what she had done, she did because God had spoken to her and led her. With this knowledge, peace came over her and her confusion left her.

What we know and what Mary could not have known, was that Jesus would die by crucifixion. He would be put to death as a criminal. In those days the only people who were not anointed before their burial were people who died as criminals. That night, she had done what no one else would be able to do later on. And all of this happened because she listened to God.

What is God saying to us in this story? Clearly Mary is a model for a righteous and devote person. We admire her for her willingness to listen to God, her unwavering belief in Jesus and her devotion to him. We admire her for her courage to follow her beliefs, to go out of her comfort zone and to face certain criticism because of what she did. We like Mary and as we listen to her story, we cheer her on: “You go girl! Don’t back down! Keep going! You can do it! Stand tall and don’t let them push you down!” We need her kind of strength and her unfailing belief today more than at any time. Because these are hard times and we are being pushed and stressed everywhere we turn. We want her backbone and strong mind but most of all we want to walk with God the way that she did.

This story nudges us to be like Mary and we couldn’t do better in our Christian journey than to strive for that. But like so many things we read in the Bible, there is a story behind the story. We know that a mustard seed is more than a mustard seed, that a vineyard is more than a vineyard, and that a gate is more than a gate. The mustard seed is faith. The vineyard is the Lord’s chosen people and the gate is Jesus Christ. I think if Jesus had had more time he would have turned to his disciples, as he so often did, and said, “What do you think this really means?” But in the town of Bethany, six days before the Feast of Passover he was almost out of time. So it is up to us to find the story within the story. Is the jar just a jar? Is the perfume just perfume? And are the critics just critics?

We already see that Mary was an extraordinary woman because she let herself be a vessel to carry an enormous amount of love to Jesus who needed it at that moment. She was the alabaster jar; that special container that opened her heart and soul up to carry a priceless gift. That priceless gift was within her and it was God’s love. It was given to her in excess by God so that she could give it away. The only way she could give her love to Jesus was to open up her heart. Her heart was not like a corked bottle. She couldn’t open a little and give a little and close up again. She broke herself open and poured out her love to Jesus. In this way the great commandment to Love One Another was put into action for us to understand.

We see that her critics where indignant. They admonished her. They scolded her for opening up her heart and pouring out its’ contents. Her critics were the jar closers. We all know jar closers. They are people who ask us why we get up at the crack of dawn to go to church when we could be getting some rest or reading the Tribune. They tear us up for going to Bible study instead of going to watch a game at the Sports Bar. They encourage us to get behind office gossip and do some tearing down instead of some building up. In little and big ways they encourage us to close up our hearts and shut down our love. That is the way it is with jar closers.

But let’s be honest. It is not always someone else that shuts us down. We can just as easily do it ourselves. We get caught up in our physical or emotional pain. We can get shut down and we can let our fear close us up. We withdraw and feel low. Our smile is only skin deep. We hope no one notices. This can happen in hard times like these. We have more trials than we are used to and more hard news than we can bear. I know about this because I am not just Sister Maggie. I am also Main Street USA. I am one of the self employed Americans who is worried that my part of Main Street is going to be closed. After writing this sermon, I put a note in front of my desk that says: Keep Your Jar Open, Somebody Needs Your Love. I can close my jar and close up my love because I am anxious but there is a price. I start to feel less alive. The strange thing about this love inside me is that it only feels good when I take the cork out. I think that is because God gets happy when his love can be poured out. Somebody I don’t know needs my real smile and the love that flows so naturally with it. God needs me to pull them away from their despair. I’m not all of that but God’s love Is ALL of THAT.

You are the precious and rare vessel that carries the most valuable thing on earth. You are God’s love carrier. He has filled you up so that you can pour yourself out to someone in this church, to someone in your family, to someone you know or to someone you haven’t met yet. Mary had her time and her place. Now you are just right and this is the right time for you. There is no one more prepared and ready to carry his love. God has filled you with his love for this time and for this place. He needs you to be his alabaster jar because there are so many that need his love. Let’s all throw out our corks and pour everything we have out. It makes God happy and we will get more love because his is the love that never ends.

Turn to your neighbor and say:
Keep your jar open-Somebody Needs your love.

Turn to your neighbor on your other side and say:
Keep your jar open-I need your love.

Mothering Sunday

The Prodigious Love of God

Three American hikers supposedly crossed the border from Kurdistan, a northern region in Iraq, into Iran on July 31, 2009. Joshua (27), Sarah (31), and Shane (27) were arrested for “illegal entry” into Iran. In November, Iran’s chief prosecutor had said they were accused of being spies. As of mid-December, Iran had stated that the hikers will be tried in court. However, as of today, there have been no formal charges.
The American hikers were friends who all graduated from UC Berkeley. They had planned a short trip to Sulaimaniya, a resort area in Kurdistan, where many other Westerners have traveled. While there, the three decided to take a hike to Ahmed Awa. It’s an area known for its beautiful waterfall. And it is also near the Iranian border so it’s pretty easy to cross over without realizing it. Iranian officials claim the hikers crossed the border into Iran on purpose. The hikers’ families and friends state the three had no intention of entering Iran for any reason. The Kurdish regional government issued a statement saying the hikers had “lost their way due to their lack of familiarity with the location, and entered Iranian territory.” Since then they have been held in Evin Prison in Iran. Because America and Iran do not have diplomatic ties it is hard to negotiate for their release. The only one who has seen the three is the Swiss Ambassador who said they were physically healthy. The families of the detained hikers have sent letters and video messages asking for their children’s release to people such as the Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations and to President Ahmadinejad. The hikers have not been released. Their families have been allowed one phone call and that was just this past week, after 7½ months. U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton has expressed the hope that they will be freed on a “humanitarian and compassionate basis as soon as possible.” People have held vigils for the three hikers and have signed petitions. Influential individuals have called for their release. With no other options in sight, all three mothers applied for visas to travel to Iran to plead their case themselves and to be allowed to see their children, one of the mothers said. They have not gotten word back on their applications. In the meantime, hundreds of letters of support have poured in, many of which the families have forwarded to their imprisoned children. We can't say enough how important the letters are to them the mom said. "We found a way to get the letters straight to the prison, and we hear they do get them." But they haven't been able to write a letter to anybody…," she added. "They don't know what's going on. That's horror enough right there.” We know in our bones that these mothers will not give up until the children come home. It is a frightening situation we would not wish on any mom or dad… We might compare the situation of these families with one of the stories in our Gospel today. Bright children, endowed with the hopes and dreams of a family, possessing top quality educations and looking to bright futures, head off into unknown territory, taking all that their parents have been able to endow them with. Likewise, the prodigal son took what his father had to give him in terms of life experience and worldly goods and headed off into the unknown.
Maybe we can’t imagine exactly how the parents feel but at the same time we can share their loss and pain. Being a mother or father is something very special – from living in extreme joy to living in hell. The connection with the child is never broken no matter what happens, no matter how far the child strays. Sometimes the child leaves and goes physically far away like those young people in Iran, or sometimes they are lost in the depths of their own minds, like the young man with the promising future as an electrical engineer who was killed at the Pentagon the other day. He had bi-polar disorder. His mother, and no doubt his father, too, traveled with him to the depths of his soul. And now they live forever with his violent death.
Of course a mother or father is not always someone who gives birth to the child. A mothering relationship exists wherever a selfless love enfolds someone who is in need of this kind of love. And we all need this kind of love.
In our gospel for today, we have three examples of self-giving love that seemingly go beyond the bounds of reasonable behavior. The most familiar story is the one I have already mentioned, the Prodigal Son. I looked up the word “prodigal” in Webster’s dictionary and I was really surprised by what I found there. I always thought prodigal meant “wayward” or “selfish” but in actuality prodigal means Lavish, Luxuriant and Profuse – including the meaning of wasteful and spendthrift, but also including the meaning of abundance. The words “prodigious” (meaning huge, wonderful and marvelous) and “prodigy” (meaning extraordinary or surprising) are related to the word prodigal. So it might be a little confusing then, who in our story of the prodigal son is actually the prodigal. The father’s gift of half his worldly goods is really prodigal in the sense of being abundant. Maybe recklessly abundant. And so is his lavish welcome on the son’s return. Prodigious, we might even say. And there were two other stories in our Gospel today - do these readings also have something to say about the abundant, lavish and even reckless self-giving God-like love?
In the first story the shepherd realizes that one of his sheep is missing. He looks around but doesn’t see the curious and exploring sheep nearby, so he leaves the other sheep, who are equally defenseless and in need of care, to go and search for the one that wondered off the beaten path looking for adventure or a midnight snack. The shepherd searches everywhere until he finds the lost one, scoops it up onto his shoulders and carries it tenderly home. Christ, as the good shepherd, is the great example of tender, loving, even lavish protective care: this is God our mother, who loves us and will not let us get lost out there in the cold and dangerous world, who will recklessly abandon whatever else is at home and if she can’t find us, will not let anyone forget us if we do. This feminine aspect of God is willing to go where we go even if we end up in trouble. And even more, God our Mother and our human mothers, are willing to forgive us even before we are sorry and repent. Jesus was a known visitor to the homes of tax collectors and sinners and was seen eating with women of ill repute, all who might be considered unrepentant sinners. Some of the religious people didn’t understand Jesus, like the Pharisees and scribes, who called him a glutton and a drunkard, but Jesus went to the hellish places that people can create for themselves to bring his abundant message of love and acceptance. Mothers, fathers, ministers, friends, teachers, nurses, aunts and uncles - and self-giving people of all kinds -know this willingness to go to the dark places of the human soul in order to comfort and encourage the lost ones. This lavish and abundant outpouring of love is of God. Archdeacon Anthony Turney preached a sermon at ordination one year telling the newly ordained to “go to hell” – to go where Jesus went – to find the souls who need the message of loving acceptance the most. And to love them abundantly, even before they repent. When those souls are brought back into the fold, there is rejoicing in heaven and the party begins. We might even call such a party a prodigal display of joy and love.
The second story in our gospel today is a vision of an industrious housewife, who having done her accounts, discovers one of ten silver coins she had in her charge is missing. She lights a lamp, and begins to search diligently for it. She alerts the neighborhood of her loss and maybe some of them come out to help her look. The lamp and the neighbors are key to this story – she doesn’t dig around in the corners looking for the coin -miserably alone and in the dark. She doesn’t try to hide the fact that she lost the coin, or make excuses, she brings all the light she has to bear and the light illuminates her search and she brings others into the search and they all celebrate when the coin is found. God our Mother gives us the never ending light of the Gospel to help us find the lost one and celebrates in putting all the pieces back together again! God is the woman and we are the coin, a part of God’s profuse treasure who alone can make the treasury complete. By the light of the Words of the Gospel we are found and restored to our rightful place in God’s overflowing and luxuriant love.
And then, of course the third story in our gospel today is the prodigal son. We can talk about the recklessness of the son, his insulting request to have the goods and money he would have if his father were already dead, the lavish response of the father in giving in to his son’s demands, the selfish attitude of the brother, who resents the warm welcome that his returning brother receives…but the most striking and touching part of this story for me is the image of the father running towards his son, he can’t get there fast enough. The father loves and forgives him before he knows even that the son has repented! What kind of lavish radical love is this? It is the love of a mother who can wait for years for a child to return from the far corners of the world not knowing the real story of what happened and if the child will ever come back. It is prodigal in the sense of being abundant and overflowing. If we can imagine the depth of love the parent has for the prodigal son then can we also imagine the love that God has for us? That we could wander into the worst places of the mind and soul, into the most addictive habits and destructive behavior, and still God our Father & God our Mother would run so fast to greet us, even when we are far off and possibly not yet repenting of our sins? Martin Luther in his sermon on this gospel reading says that to be a Christian means to get down into the mire of the “sinner” just as deeply as he or she sticks himself there – and taking that difficult situation upon ourselves and floundering out of it with that person just as if it were our own problem. Getting down into the mire with the one who has been lost, giving that one a hand up, covering them with our own love and piety instead of judging them, and helping by the light of the Gospel, to bring reconciliation with God and each other, that is the true work of the Christian, according to Martin Luther. The prodigal, prodigious – abundantly marvelous love of God is the light that we live in every day. And it is also the work that we are called to do as Christians – to love abundantly, recklessly, and surprisingly those who wander from our fold into life’s dangers just as God our Mother loves us when we stray.
Amen.