A sermon for the fifth Sunday of Lent given at the United Church of Acworth, New Hampshire on March 17, 2013.
New Englanders pride themselves in being frugal,
following all the phrases we got from Ben Franklin
“Time is money”
“A penny saved is a penny earned”
“Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”
or my new favorite:
“The sleeping fox catches no poultry“
Some go to the dump, I'm sorry – transfer station – looking for that “one man's trash”
that can become this “other man's treasure”
Or we spend a day delighting in the deals at thrift stores or bargain shops.
But it's not without its dangers.
If we were to judge Ebenezer Scrooge only on the way he handled finances
he would be a shining star.
I think one of the reasons why this way of living is so beautiful is that it values simplicity – it cares to mend
and mend
before throwing away.
New Englanders recycled before recycling was cool.
It seeks to invest in what's most important.
But when this way of living becomes ugly is when it is grounded in fear and not love.
Love sometimes inspires us to actions that the world might call irresponsible.
Let's take Mary of Bethany for an example.
Mary is the sister of Martha and Lazarus –
she lives in Bethany, a suburb of Jerusalem.
When Jesus was last in Bethany, he called Lazarus out of the tomb where Lazarus had lain dead for four days.
shock, excitement, joy filled Mary to the brim
but when she sought to find Jesus to thank him she heard that he and his disciples had already left for another town to hide out.
You see, many people thought
that Jesus' extravagant resurrection of Lazarus was good news,
but there were some who saw it as bad news.
The chief priests and pharisees were afraid of Jesus' threat
not only to their own religious power
but also afraid of what the Romans might do the Jewish people if Jesus got out of hand,
So they had determined to arrest and put Jesus to death.
As Caiaphas the high priest put it to his colleagues,
“You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.”
Now that's some of the soundest utilitarian logic in print.
So Jesus was in hiding and Mary's gratitude lay unexpressed.
And everyone knew why.
If Jesus came close to Jerusalem, someone would get him arrested – and the rumor was that he could expect no better treatment than the way Herod handled John the Baptist.
So Mary knew. She knew that Jesus couldn't come back to Bethany unless he was determined to walk into the hands of the authorities and then possibly death.
So when days and weeks later a knock was heard on the Bethany door
and in walk Jesus and his disciples...
Mary was full of emotion.
On the one hand, I imagine she was full of excitement and love and gratitude for Jesus' extravagant gift to her family, to her brother.
But on the other hand, I imagine she solemnly recognized that Jesus was coming out of hiding and now walking into his all but certain death.
And so Martha her sister served Jesus and the women and men with him drinks and fruit and excitedly started cooking a feast.
And Lazarus invited Jesus to come and sit with him.
And Mary...
Well, Mary had determined what she would do.
She knew that she wanted to give a gift to Jesus to show her affection and gratitude.
And perhaps she didn't know whether or not she would be able to see him before he died, so she had purchased perfume to anoint his body for burial.
But now he's here. Now he's in the room. And there's no telling if she'd be able to see him again, even after he's arrested.
So she determines to show her gratitude and her love for Jesus by bringing out the bottle of perfume. Now.
And instead of washing Jesus' feet, (which was customary for hosts to do for guests.)
She pours out lavishly this nard perfume and massages it into his feet with her hair.
Nard perfume. (For the mathematicians 300 denarii = 300 days' wages – which in that time without a minimum wage was probably the equivalent of 20 dollars a day. In our economy with minimum wage it's about 60 dollars a day. Well 300 times 20 is 6000 dollars, and if it were three hundred days' wages in our economy that perfume would be worth 18,000 dollars.)
And so the good New Englander in me recoils as expensive perfume pours right off of Jesus' feet onto the floor.
And so I can sympathize with Judas when he says,
“Why was this perfume not sold for 6000 dollars and the money given to the poor?”
Now we know, and the narrator knows that Judas is not saying this with the purest of heart.
Recall that the narrator says, “He said this no because he cared for the poor but because he kept the common purse and would steal what was put in it.”
But what he says does make sense. It makes good financial sense.
And not just financial sense. Because the heartless businessman wouldn't suggest that the money be given to the poor.
Judas is criticizing Mary for wasting the perfume on Jesus himself when what's really important – the whole point of what Jesus is doing is to give to the poor.
But there's something more going on in Judas's mind.
Why is he criticizing Mary for what's obviously a gift of love?
She's giving not only of this expensive perfume but of her dignity as well as she massages his feet with her hair.
She's not merely giving of her possessions but of her very self.
As Kahlil Gibran says in his book the Prophet, “You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”
And perhaps her gift coming as it did from a heart of love exposed to Judas his own inner motivations. That he wasn't really in this ministry out of love, but out of a sense of duty, bound as he is to the laws of proper management of self and money.
And perhaps a need to justify himself in the eyes of others.
Perhaps he saw in Mary's extravagance, Mary's exuberance
a judgment of his own soul long dried-up and frozen by fear.
When Jesus responds to Judas, he responds with agreement with Judas's financial sense.
But Jesus wants Judas to recognize that while what he says is good, that there are sometimes when extravagance for the sake of love might be a really good thing.
What's most important is love, not financial sense. These are not opposed, but we should never neglect love for the sake of money.
When Jesus responds to Judas he quotes from the book of Deuteronomy, a sermon that Moses gave to the people of Israel before they entered the promised land.
There in that sermon Moses says,
“Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 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.'”
Mary is giving liberally and ungrudgingly to her friend who is now walking in the shadow of death. Mary is giving out of love.
Judas does not recognize the value of her extravagant love.
And it's this same shrew business sense that will eventually lead him to agree with the chief priests and pharisees. That it is better for one man to die that for the whole nation to perish.
The legacy of our Acworth Marys who gave of themselves as well as their money – lives on in the Community Aid next door. And so I close with this story which many of you know already.
In 1941, the Ladies Community Aid, a group that supported the baptist church, volunteering to raise money for repairs and painting of this building, refinishing the inside of this church, teaching Sunday School in their homes. The Community Aid group eventually bought that building next door which used to be a typewriter shop (using a generous gift from Gertrude Cummings Read) and the building has been used as a service for church and community ever since.
Why not sell the building and give the money to the poor? Judas would ask.
Some labors of love don't need to make the best financial sense.
Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so
….'Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.'”
Let's live true to our New England heritage not only in our wise handling of money, but also in our working out of our love for others and gratitude to God.
And give with loving hearts for it is love and love alone that truly sustains our life.
Amen.
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