[Propertalk] 5 Lent c

[robertpmorrison at charter.net]

This goes off to the editor now ...

Happy 5 Lent.

Bob



EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY                                       	 
THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT (c)
ISAIAH 43:16-21                         					        	       17th MARCH, 
2013
PHILIPPIANS 3:4b-14		                            	 
PSALM 126
JOHN 12:1-8

	They say, and I believe it, that the sense of smell is one of the most 
powerful of the senses. The merest, faintest scent can take us back 
instantly – to think of a wonderful occasion, a wonderful person, a 
wonderful action. The reverse is true also, of course. Another scent can 
take us to some place or situation of fear. All I need to do is to smell 
hydrogen sulphide – rotten eggs – to be taken back to a particular block 
of a road in Glasgow in Scotland, a road we travelled on the way back 
from our vacations every summer. Hydrogen sulphide meant that we were 
within twenty to thirty minutes of home, and friends and all the things 
to which I was attached. Hydrogen sulphide takes me back to the years 
starting about age seven.

	It’s funny. Many people would run a mile at the thought of being 
wrapped with that smell and, depending on the circumstances, I might 
join them. But not always.
	
	For days after that dinner in the Bethany, the home of Mary, Martha and 
Lazarus must have been filled with such an exotic, sweet fragrance that 
they wished that it would never disappear completely. Have you ever been 
there? Caught up with someone or something so much that you want to hang 
on to it forever? To hear some words, to visit some location, to inhale 
and re-inhale that scent again and again?
	
	But Mary didn’t do that necessarily to preserve the moment for ever. 
She responded to that moment because it was the only way she could 
respond to Jesus.

	Nard, known botanically as spikenard, is a flowering plant which 
originated between ten thousand and fifteen thousand feet in the 
Himalayas. Once the plant is crushed, then distilled, the result is a 
thick, intensely aromatic oil can be used as a perfume, an incense, a 
sedative and a medicine. It was so prized it was a luxury in Egypt, the 
whole of the Near East, even Rome.

	It was the most sought after perfume for the specialized incense altar 
in front of the Tabernacle in the Jerusalem Temple.

Most intriguingly, nard is mentioned as a special scent reserved only 
for the beloved as described in the Song of Solomon. 1

THIS was what Mary poured over the feet of Jesus - a pound of it, 
costing more than a labourer’s wages for a year. A pound – ALL of it 
over Jesus’ feet!

Judas’ comment, then, WASN’T out of line. Can you imagine spending a 
year’s salary on something that would in all likelihood be gone within a 
week? What Mary did was absolutely outrageous. How she even had that 
perfume in her possession is beyond me. But she had it – keeping it for 
that special occasion, no doubt!

At the very least, what Mary COULD have done was to have gone down to 
the unemployment office and staked a whole family for a year. But she 
didn’t. She took that holy oil, that oil of princes and presidents, of 
special Temple sacrifice, and laid it not AT Jesus’ feet, but ON His 
feet.

There’s that connection with the Love Poem of Life.

Mary was so dedicated to Jesus, so totally committed, so much in love, 
that she gave what was probably the most precious thing that she had.

	Suzanne Guthrie, an on-line commentator and editor, wrote, “With the 
raising of Lazarus from death, the religious authorities find reason to 
begin the final plot against Jesus. Mary understands that Jesus is to 
die, and anoints him with costly nard, as if for burial. She wipes his 
feet with her hair.

	“Jesus understands her extravagant gesture. It is if a wordless 
conversation of breathtaking intimacy takes place between them. Mary 
says, ‘I know.’ And Jesus acknowledges – ‘I know that you know.’ Mary, 
relieved, sighs, ‘Now I know that you know that I know.’

“The Fifth Sunday in Lent offers hints of the new life about to unfold … 
and invites intimate participation … – let this new life arise in me!” 2

Sometimes it’s incredibly difficult to know what to do with the 
resources one has. In the Gospel episode, at one end of the spectrum you 
have Mary of Bethany, totally giving, extravagant, completely caught up 
in Jesus and who He was and what He represented to her. On the other 
hand you have Judas. And his description is filled with venom by the 
Gospel writer, who’ll do anything to run him down and make him look like 
a monster. The very name “Judas” means “the Jewish one”, so the writer 
is giving vent to the rising anti-Semitism produced through the 
antagonism between two factions who worshipped together until after the 
fall of Jerusalem.

At its face value, Judas represents those who say that the poor have to 
be cared for at any cost, cared for before anyone and anything else. 
This makes sense. After all, the majority of the followers of Jesus came 
from this class of people who’ve been living under oppression. It was to 
them that Jesus addressed The Beatitudes, for instance, about how those 
who were at the end of every line when things were being passed out, 
that the out-of-work, the out-of-medications, the out-of-food folk – 
they are the ones who seemed to get Jesus’ most compassionate attention. 
We know how some of the disciples themselves came out of despised 
groups.

So Judas’ comment brings us up short. We can NEVER forget the poor, and 
whatever difficulties and dangers they face. No matter how we decide to 
utilise our resources, there, and there always will be folk who need our 
attention.

The other side of the comment on Judas’ attitude has to be acknowledged 
too, though. Just because we call ourselves Christians and organise 
ourselves into congregations and denominations doesn’t give us some sort 
of a pass on honesty and integrity. We don’t need to look far to find 
evidence of that. Some say that this is one of the more obvious reasons 
why many people don’t attend or affiliate with congregations any more. 
They see or hear of so much abuse – physical, emotional, financial – 
it’s all here.

The most distressing thing about this is that we’re given charge of so 
much, often ear-marked for special projects or given because churches 
used to have the reputation for being scrupulously honest and fair. But 
we know that we’re not the models of Jess were supposed to be. Even when 
we try our best, we fall short, possibly for reasons we never 
anticipated or imagined. And that charge sticks. We know how hard it can 
be to clean out old reputations. It’s almost as difficult as getting rid 
of the smell of hydrogen sulphide. Try we must, however, and the only 
way we can do this is – to use that incredibly overworn expression – by 
being transparent.

We’ve to be transparent about how we react to the Gospel: does this mean 
that we mix only with certain folk, at certain parties, in certain 
locations? Or does the Gospel tell us to forget about anything that 
demarcates one person or one place from another?

We’ve to be transparent about how we treat to those who come to us for 
help. Here’s a terrifying thought: what if Jesus, His disciples, Mary, 
Martha and Lazarus were having dinner and someone came to the door 
saying their house had burned, or an adult had been gored by an ox, or a 
child had scalded herself by pulling a pot of food out of the fire? What 
would have happened to that nard then? Where would its scent have rested 
then – on Jesus? In that house? In the community?

We’ll never know. But the question comes up today again and again. 
People stand or sit in my office and talk about insurance bills, 
electric bills, empty refrigerators, family at the other end of a bus 
ticket. They’d love it if the scent of Mary’s gift would surround them 
and go with them, the scent of the adoration of and commitment to Jesus 
and His ministry to everyone without exception.

Here’s one time when I feel that it IS appropriate to ask, in all 
seriousness, “What WOULD Jesus do?”

“What happened at Jesus’ anointing in Bethany has plagued the followers 
of Jesus from then until now. How much do we spend on ourselves and how 
much do we give to missions? Couldn't we do more good by giving all this 
money to the poor instead of spending it on, say, a new building?

	“In partial response to this question, (a writer’s) mind goes back to 
an experience of William Willimon, chaplain at Duke University. Willimon 
tells of the time the faculty of Duke was discussing a proposal to 
renovate the seminary chapel. They had received a modest proposal from 
the architect. But, would the chapel be renovated? No. ‘With all the 
poverty and hunger in the world,’ said one faculty member, ‘how can we 
as Christians justify spending $50,000 to pretty-up our chapel?’ Of 
course, this person failed to offer similar objections when faculty 
salaries were raised each year, (a figure that collectively exceeds 
$50,000) nor does he question the morality of the luxurious faculty 
lounge. Obviously the man was posturing, just as Judas was posturing. 
Even so, the problem is tough. How much should we give to others and how 
much should we reserve for ourselves?” 3

Was the Gospel writer suggesting that we can relax our standards, our 
priorities about caring for those who suffer, that we can let our 
conscience off the hook as we drive under the Pacific Avenue overpass?

	The Gospel today poses an incredibly tough question for us. That 
question will follow us around every day of our lives.

	The relationship to which we’re called is one of immense intimacy with 
Jesus. But, as Oscar Wilde wrote,

	“Where there is no extravagance
		there is no love,
		and where there is no love
		there is no understanding.” 4

	What would YOU do with the nard? Where will that beautiful scent 
linger?

NOTES:

1 	Song of Solomon 4:14. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nard  for a 
full description.

2	Soulwork Toward Sunday: self-guided retreat. Lent 5 (year c) 
"Extravagance and Intimacy" http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/

3	Richard Meyer,” Break a Vase”, Richard Meyer.

4	“Speaker”, 1890, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)


Robert P Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban
PO Box 1556
Albany OR  97321   541-921-1076 (cell)