[Propertalk] Gospel sermon tidbits - March 21 - Part 2

[Joe Parrish]

The poor will always be with you, the tasks of changing the world will not go away, but Jesus endorses your right to pull out from time to time to seek intimacy with God, to worship and to be refreshed and renewed before you return to the workface. 

http://www.laughingbird.net/ComingWeeks.html

Nathan Nettleton, 1995
- - - - -

Each time we gather for worship, in laying aside our compulsions to remake the world as we think it should be, and just become part of a congregation who indulge in this wasteful and unproductive celebration of God; we are in fact, almost incidentally, offering a great gift to the world. Because if you want a glimpse of heaven just picture the intimate communion between Mary and Jesus at that dinner party and you'll realise that worship itself brings at least one little bit of the world more in tune with that picture. And more than that it sends us back out to the poor who will always be with us with a greater ability to love instead of just a social obligation to do charity.
<>
Frederick Buechner said, whether our worship is "a Quaker Meeting, a Pontifical High Mass, the Family Service at First Presbyterian, (or) a Holy Roller Happening - unless there is an element of joy and foolishness in the proceedings, the time would be better spent doing something useful." (Wishful Thinking, HarperSanFrancisco 1993, p.122)

http://www.laughingbird.net/ComingWeeks.html

Nathan Nettleton, 2001
- - - - -

As we gather at this table, it is Jesus who gets to his knees and washes our feet. Receiving the bread and wine, we receive his gifts of himself, lavished upon us with an abundance that these morsels can only hint at. And the proof that we "get it" will come when we are found on our knees, with bowl and towel, and with joy and freedom, lavishing the love we have received on the Christ we meet in the broken victims of a violent world. And at that point, the giving and the receiving all become one in Christ, for we too are the victims, and as uncomfortable as it might sometimes make us, others will serve Christ in ministering love to us. And while Jesus could say to Mary and Judas, "you will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me" , now in the giving and receiving of his love in compassionate service of others, we find that the poor with us and Jesus with us have become one and the same thing, and no gift is too costly and no devotion to outrageous.

http://www.laughingbird.net/ComingWeeks.html

Nathan Nettleton, 2007
- - - - -

Jesus speaks more to us, to those who wonder if Mary's apparent recklessness sets a dangerous precedent. When he says, "You always have the poor with you," he does not diminish the seriousness of poverty and the imperative for charity. Possibly he alludes to Deuteronomy 15:11, which commands generosity toward the poor precisely "since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth." As punctuated by the anointing for burial, Jesus looks toward his death, contrasting his impending departure with the perennial opportunity to serve the poor. 

http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=3/21/2010&tab=4

Matt Skinner, 2010
- - - - - -

Anointing was the last step before burial, but not for executed criminals. Perhaps in v. 7 Jesus means that Mary bought the perfume so as to have it ready for his burial, that what she did has a meaning she does not realize, and that the perfume is not wasted. Perhaps v. 8 says: the poor are constantly in need, but Jesus' impending death is unique.

http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/clnt5m.shtml

Chris Haslam
- - - - -

The parallels are Mark 14:3-9 and Matthew 26:6-13. Luke records a similar event in 7:36-50. 
<>
Verse 1: "the home of Lazarus": "Home" is not in the Greek. 
Sanders, J.N. The Gospel according to John London: Black 1968 
 offers "where was Lazarus." 
<>
Verse 7: Mark 14:6-8 is fuller and much clearer in meaning: "'Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial'". So if John borrowed from Mark, he had not only abbreviated his source, but also obscured the meaning. 

http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/clnt5l.shtml

Chris Haslam
- - - - -
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20100320/1b6caaa5/attachment.htm>