Breathing In….. “Extravagant Grace”
Isaiah 43: 16-21, John 12: 1-8
Lent
What does devotion smell like? What is the fragrance of deep caring, unselfish love? What does it feel like to have someone pour it out over you? Could a pouring out of devotion ever be wasteful? What does extravagant grace smell like......like nard?
Our story finds Mary and Martha and Lazarus with Jesus once again. In joy and celebration they dine -- in stark contrast to the sorrow and loss they had experienced in their lives prior to this particular evening's events. Jesus earlier turned their sorrow into great joy as he raised Lazarus from the dead. Their joy stays with them.
The stories of the Bible are full of sorrow and loss, and the hope that God is doing a new thing in our lives and in the world. Emotional stories. Our story today is emotional and makes an appeal to our senses -- both literally and figuratively.
I invite you to let yourself be filled with the smells our gospel lesson. Against the backdrop of aromas of a wonderful meal…perhaps that’s aroma of roasted lamb lofting in the air…Mary broke open a bottle of very expensive perfume equal in cost to a year's wages for a laborer.....real love never comes cheap! And she anoints Jesus' feet, wiping them with her hair, and "the whole house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." More than perfume, it was the fragrance of rejoicing and devotion and trust.....love in motion. Oh that we could fill this sanctuary with such a fragrance today!
Smell the fragrance of the nard, of Mary with Jesus....you with Jesus. Extravagant Grace. Breath deeply…let yourself be filled up with this new breath.
But not all who were there were able to smell the fragrance--perceive the newness, the rejoicing and devotion that filled that room. Some there experienced, instead, a stench -- the smell of joy a stench in their nostrils. That is, they were threatened by the sweet emotions and not trusting in joy or new possibilities. They held suspect the possibility that the world could ever be different. Judas was one of those. So were the empire makers and some religious authorities who were out to stop Jesus and Lazarus…..and YOU!
....And I wonder if, in last's weeks story of the prodigal brothers, joy was a stench in the elder brother's nostrils when he first smelled the fatted calf on the grill at the welcome-home party for his younger brother. Joy a stench because he did not trust joy, and any thing new was perceived as a threat.
Mary's extravagant, breath-taking gesture of anointing Jesus' feet could have drawn gasps from those present, for she went beyond the greeting of a friend or patron. But imagine how Jesus must have felt about receiving her gift. Imagine the meaning to Jesus as he approaches the hostile authorities in
Imagine what it must mean to God when we make extravagant gestures of love in the face of judgment and hostility – we offering "rivers in the desert", "a way in the wilderness". When have you been extravagant with your love....enough so to begin something new within one of your relationships? How were you extravagant?
And imagine the meaning to Jesus of Judas' reaction. Judas deceives his colleagues by feigning concern for the poor in order to get money for himself. The poor are always with us, but not because of any quality of the poor. They remain with us because we of power continue to live our lives creating governments and policies which oppress and destroy. Only willing to throw resources the value of a bottle of nard at the symptom, not advocating for justice around the real problem! How often we appeal to some high sounding cause/principle in order to avoid action or accountability! Well, the government should.... If the schools were..... If it weren’t for this or that…. Where is the Judas in each one of us?
"Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial." Mary must have begun to sense Jesus' movement toward the cross and perhaps even his rising again. Something in her had begun to shift toward belief and the understanding that the newness God offers cannot easily be killed, that it rises again in the face of great odds......an Easter awareness.
Sorrow and loss -- the sorrow and loss in each of our lives does not have to bring us to a state of hopelessness. God knows it's hard to be a human being. After all, isn't that why Jesus came? Jesus goes ahead of us changing all the possibilities and bringing hope into the realities of our lives through living with integrity…his actions one with his faith/one holy breath….lives integrity in his relationship with God and with others. He shows us these ways! The newness Jesus offers is not easily killed, except through our own refusal to perceive what "springs forth"....or through our stinginess.
Consider the moments in your life when you risked costly consequences to express deep affection and care for someone who needed it right then….whether a family member, church-goer, fellow worker. A moment when you risked the consequences to care…
Perhaps it was the opportunity to tear down a sturdily built wall,
Or walk through a suddenly opened door,
Or give honor where there had been disappointment,
Or grasp a hand that had long since been let go.
It is Lent -- a time to turn toward what it is that has meaning in our lives and honor life's meaning with extravagant acts of celebration and devotion. And it is amazing to notice what drops away in the process of boldly re-prioritizing our lives -- and amazing to notice what lives on.
Smell the nard -- literally and figuratively. Breath it in! Let the sweet smell of newness and devotion fill your senses. Become one with the Holy Breath…you are! Feel the risk it takes to be extravagant with love, extravagant grace! Know that you are not alone in taking the risk; we are with you. Know that pessimism and sorrow are at best an emotional half-holiday while joy and hope are the uproarious celebrations by which all things find aliveness, through which energy for facing the day is found shaping a new possibility right through the reality of our lives.
"Do not remember former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness (of your life) and rivers in the desert (of seemingly overwhelming realities)."
In the next few moments I invite you to anoint yourself with this symbolic "nard". As we come forward, I invite you to deeply breath in the smell the fragrance of God's love and let it engulf you. I invite you into the deep joy of knowing God is doing something new in you even as we speak....an early Easter! I invite you to anoint yourself. Just as the fragrance of this nard fills this space and rises through the air, we fill this space with our prayers and lift each other to God. Within the playful and awesome spirit of prayer, let us be with God.
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