[Propertalk] Lent 5c Reflection

Sat Apr 6 18:41:17 EDT 2019

This is good, Allison. I have no problem about your hair discussion
and think most would understand.
I had a thought that, since you’re giving this in a hospital
setting, you might be able to work in hospital smells, good or bad -
I’ve always enjoyed the smell of antiseptic disinfectant - and maybe
a hospital reference... healing? Hope? Comfort?
Thanks for sharing.

Bob

	-----------------------------------------From: "Allison Dean" 
To: "Propertalk"
Cc: 
Sent: Saturday April 6 2019 7:10:57AM
Subject: [Propertalk] Lent 5c Reflection

   Another rare reflection probably going to be preached via hospital
radio tomorrow as the noise of drills and hammers construct a
temporary hospital chapel below our current one in preparation for a
move the week after Easter. Barbara Brown-Taylor and Kathryn Matthews
were the inspiration for me this week. Comments and thoughts welcome
as it is a bit different from what I would normally prepare.

   Allison Cline-Dean,   Lead Chaplain,   East Suffolk & North Essex
NHS Foundation Trust   Based at Colchester Hospital, Colchester,
Essex, UK

	Isn’t it odd how scents can trigger memories? Remember the smell
last summer when the first rain came down after the six weeks of
heatwave – the odour as the rain hit the ground? Earthy, damp,
unmistakable, wonderful.  It was a long, generous rain for parched
ground and crops as well as for children wanting to jump in puddles! 
And then there are perfumes and after-shave colognes. When I smell
Chanel No. 5 I think of a certain person who is no longer with us –
a crusty, to the point lady with a heart of gold and she loved Chanel
No. 5. She would not leave the house to go and clean the school
without a spritz of her Chanel – she was subtle in the application
yet the fragrance left a trail as she walked by. As we recall certain
scents that trigger memories, our gospel invites us to experience
God’s extravagant generosity as portrayed by Mary anointing Jesus’
feet with the fragrant nard. 

	This story is also used by the other Gospel writers but in different
ways and in different contexts. John is the only writer who states
that the woman is Mary. These 12 verses are the turning point in
John’s gospel. This is where Jesus, the popular itinerant rabbi
leaves the world behind and heads for Jerusalem where in six days time
he will be brought before Pilate and eventually crucified. Jesus knows
that when he came to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead that he
left the safety of the lands across the river and put himself in the
position where various officials can plot his arrest. He has jumped
from the fat into the fire – he knows he is no longer in a safe
place. 

	Yet before Jesus heads for Jerusalem he attends a dinner party thrown
by Martha in Bethany, just on the edge of Jerusalem, to celebrate
Lazarus’ raising from the dead. It was a lavish party because the
men were reclining at tables. This was not just a simple dinner
amongst friends around a table with people seated on chairs or sitting
on the floor. No! This is a dinner where there is the equivalent of a
chaise longue for each guest. Martha would be bustling around the
kitchen ensuring that the very best food and wine was being prepared
and served. This was a celebration. This was a lavish banquet with an
abundance of food – Martha’s way of thanking Jesus for bringing
her brother Lazarus back from the dead. The men reclining gives us a
foretaste of the Last Supper in a few nights time.  

	And in the midst of it all, Mary enters the room with a beautiful
alabaster jar, breaks the neck of it, and the pungent smell of
spikenard permeates the room and the house, going into all the
corners. It is a musky, sharp scent halfway between mint and ginseng,
according to Barbara Brown-Taylor.  It is in contrast to the four day
old “stench” that Martha spoke of when Jesus told her to take him
to Lazarus’ tomb. Possibly this jar was the last very expensive
bottle left from having anointed Lazarus’ body before it went into
the tomb.  Or this bottle of spikenard may have been Mary’s dowry,
started by her parents when she was born, added to by relatives over
the years, each time a little more put in the alabaster jar and then
re-sealed with wax. However, the heady scent would have been quite a
contrast to the smell of the empty tomb so recently vacated by
Lazarus.  

	After breaking the neck of the bottle, Mary kneels down, loosens her
hair, and begins to anoint Jesus’ feet. She uses all the nard,
rubbing it into the crevices and cracks of Jesus’ feet with her
hair. Mary breaks all the rules with this lavish, generous, and
extravagant gift. Just as Jesus breaks down the barriers, so Mary too
breaks rules and boundaries. 

	She does things not acceptable in polite company in that culture and
time: she unbinds her hair, loosens it as women did only for their
husbands or when they were in mourning; she pours expensive balm on
the feet of Jesus (his feet, as one would anoint a corpse, not a king;
a king would be anointed on the head). And Mary touches Jesus even
though she's a single woman – again, not "appropriate" - and then
she wipes his feet with her hair. (Kathryn Matthews) 

	Mary does not hold back the bottle – she uses all the ointment at
great cost to herself, and in effect, prophecies as to what will
happen in the next few days. . . . “Jesus began his ministry with an
extravagance of excellent wine at a wedding feast, so his ministry
comes to a close here in an extravagance of expensive ointment, a
passionate display of love and caring that even the woman who offers
it does not fully understand.” (Barbara Brown-Taylor, _Bread of
Angels_). 

	I wonder if, as Jesus and his disciples gathered for the Last Supper
a few evenings later, reclining at the table, if they recalled that
evening with Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. As Jesus washed the feet of
his disciples after the Last Supper, were he and the disciples drawn
back to those moments when Mary bent over Jesus’ feet and washed
them. In that single act did Mary give Jesus the idea for the new
commandment that he gave the disciples that night as he washed their
feet: Love one another, as I have loved you.  

	Mary’s demonstration of her love for Christ gives us much food for
thought this week. Mary’s love shows us the lavishness and
generosity of God’s love and mercy for each of us.  In that one
single extravagant act, Mary shows the disciples, Jesus, Martha,
Lazarus, and us what it means  

	to love our Lord so much that we break open our hearts to those
around us and to our world – to give of ourselves and not count the
cost. In that moment of lavishly anointing Jesus feet, foretelling of
his death and burial, Mary demonstrates how an extravagant gesture of
love and generosity can transform a situation. A generous spirit
offers forgiveness and healing, a spirit of kindness offers healing
and hope and speaks words of encouragement, a spirit of freedom gives
out of the abundance we live in so that others have enough to live.
(Kathryn Matthews).   

	This is a story of contrasts – Mary’s generosity vs. Judas’
miserliness. Mary’s love against the fear that others in the room
are experiencing. It is a story that shows us just how extravagant,
generous, and lavish God’s love is. God’s love is not stingy, it
is not miserly, it is not fearful, and it won’t run out. God invites
us to open our hearts, our minds, and spirits, in the midst of an
world filled with fear, violence and political machinations, and
experience God’s extravagant, generous, and lavish love anointing
us, pouring into our spirits, giving new life and new hope, filling us
with the fragrance of Christ. When we are filled with God’s love,
“There is no reason to fear running out--of nard or of life either
one--for where God is concerned, there is always more than we can ask
or imagine--gifts from our lavish, lavish Lord.”  (Barbara
Brown-Taylor)
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