Sermon for Lent 5C
March 21, 2010
Texts:  Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-11

Have you ever done anything really extravagant
Just because you really loved someone?

Something you did,
Not because you wanted to impress your friends and neighbors!
And not because everybody else was doing it!

But something just because the recipient was special to you
And because you thought he or she would really enjoy it.

The one event that comes to mind for me
Was the celebration we had for John’s 50th birthday.
I was still working at AT&T
And we were still living in New Jersey.

Unbeknownst to John,
I had invited our best friends, Mandy and Bill
And made plans for a dinner in New York City.

One of my New York colleagues’ secretaries made the arrangements for me
At a eclectic restaurant in the TriBeca area of New York City.

We surprised him on the day of the event
And spirited him away into the city.

We had a sumptuous multi-course meal
With elegant service,
To celebrate John’s arrival at middle age. 

We could have gone to a local restaurant
Or we could have even had a quiet dinner at home,
But this was an event that I wanted John to remember.

He had been carrying the bulk of the work at home
Because I had been doing a lot of international travel.
I appreciated what he was doing,
And wanted him to feel special.

This was an extravagance,
But one I have never regretted
Because of the memories that it created.

I am sure that we could have found other uses for the money,
Particularly with one daughter almost ready to head off to college.
But that wasn’t the point,
The point was to do something extravagantly special for John,
Because I love him and he is special to me.

The inverse of doing something extravagant
Is to tightly hold onto something,
Rather than sharing it or incurring risk.

I have heard a poignant story
About a young woman cleaning out her grandmother’s house after her death.

In the attic she found exquisite china,
Which neither she nor her mother had ever seen before.

After asking around to older family members,
The story of the china emerged.
This china had been given to her grandmother
A piece at a time when she was growing up,
For birthdays, Christmas and graduations.

The gifts were always accompanied by warnings
Of how expensive and valuable the china was.
Because the china was so expensive,
The young girl’s grandmother had never used it
It was too good to be used.
Consequently, it was never taken from its box in the attic,
And there was never any joy associated with it.

All those years had gone by,
When the grandmother could used the china
To create a special meal for family or friends.

Imagine how special the granddaughter would have felt
If her grandmother had served her a meal on the elegant china.

Instead, the china was preserved in tissue paper in a box in an attic,
Its extravagance never being enjoyed by anyone.

In this morning’s Gospel, Mary is being extravagant.
She has a pound of pure nard—a highly valuable perfume,
And she is using it to wipe Jesus’ feet.

Who knows how or why she had the nard?

Perhaps it was left from the recent burial of her brother Lazarus,
The one Jesus had raised
And who was sitting at the table with them.

Perhaps Mary, had come to the realization that Jesus was in danger
Even if the disciples could not yet accept it. 

Perhaps Mary had bought it to be ready for his death,
Which she felt certain was going to happen.

Perhaps she was so grateful to Jesus
For bringing her brother Lazarus back from the dead,
That she rushed out and bought this valuable ointment,
Just so Jesus could have a special treat.

Just imagine the setting.
Jesus has gathered with Mary’s family for a special meal.
The disciples have been invited too.
Undoubtedly, Martha has been cooking all morning.
And they’ve set up Lazarus at a recliner at the dinner table
So he could rest up from the strenuous effort of being dead and then raised.

It is a bittersweet time.
The sisters are thrilled to have Lazarus back,
But their women’s intuition tells them
That Jesus is in deep danger and probably won’t be with them much longer.

Mary can’t thank Jesus enough for bringing back her brother,
So she begins to wash his feet—a job usually reserved for the servants.
This is the same act that Jesus will perform
For the disciples a few nights later at the last supper.

This is Mary humbling herself with an act of service.
And she is determined to do it up right.
She pulls out that valuable nard perfumed ointment.
And extravagantly uses it to soften and anoint Jesus’ dry, cracked feet.
Mary sees no point in letting the nard sit on the shelf,
Rather she uses it in an extravagant act of love.

The extravagance of the act is reinforced
By the smell of the perfume which permeates the whole house.

And while Mary is cleaning Jesus’ feet,
She doesn’t use any old wash rag.
She is so devoted to Jesus that she uses her hair, her crown and glory,
In an ultimate act of humility and devotion.
Mary wants Jesus to know how thankful she is to him
And how much she appreciates him.

Then the scene shifts.
You can almost see Judas shifting from one foot to the other.
Face growing angry, mumbling under his breath.

We don’t know exactly what set him off.
Maybe he didn’t like the smell of nard.
Maybe it was seeing Jesus get all the attention.
Maybe he couldn’t stand seeing the intimacy of seeing Mary wipe Jesus’ feet.
Maybe he had an impending appointment to set up Jesus’ death.

In any event, Judas comes up with an all time rude and ungrateful interjection.
Why are you wasting that valuable perfume?
Why didn’t you sell it and help the poor?

Can you imagine how Mary felt?
Here she is on her hands and knees washing Jesus’ feet,
Performing a loving act for a special person,
And she has just had the wind kicked out of her. 

It would be like you going to a special lobster and filet celebration meal
That your friends have taken particular care in preparing.
When you sit down at their table,
You ask them why they didn’t just serve beans and rice,
And donate the money to the food pantry.
A comment like would put a pall on the evening,
Characterize you as ungrateful,
And would probably ensure that you would never be invited back. 

Here Judas is a guest in Mary’s house.
What business does he have criticizing the way in which she uses her resources?
If her brother Lazarus weren’t so weak from his time in the tomb
You could almost imagine him picking up Judas by the back of his robe
And tossing him out into the alley. 

Instead Jesus, who appreciates Mary’s extravagant act of love, steps in.
He orders Judas to leave Mary alone.
Jesus then drops this little bombshell about Mary buying the nard for his burial.

Do you think that comment made Judas just a little nervous?
Perhaps Jesus was onto what Judas was planning!

Jesus’ next comment about the poor being with you always,
Has been misinterpreted and misused for years
Particularly, by people who are as unscrupulous as Judas.

I think Jesus was just giving a quick retort to Judas,
Reminding Judas that he had a lot of ways and a lot of time left to help the poor
But only a little time left with Jesus, himself,
As Judas most certainly knew.

John, the Gospel writer, signals the danger of the whole situation,
By reminding the reader that crowds gathered had outside the door of Mary’s house,
To see both Jesus and the newly raised Lazarus.

This crowd gathering so angers the chief priests
That they want to kill both Jesus and Lazarus. 

John has also told us that the Passover is only six days away
And that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem.

Not only is the scent of nard in the air,
But scent of impending death is also.

In this scene with death lurking around the edges,
John takes great pains to contrast Mary’s gentle, extravagant devotion
With Judas’s meanness and self-serving greediness.

Mary’s love is displayed in opposition to Judas’ impending betrayal. 

Mary’s love and devotion are symbolic
Of Jesus’ own love and devotion for his disciples throughout the ages.

Mary gives of herself to Jesus
And Jesus literally gives himself for his disciples and for us.

God’s gift of Jesus for us is extravagant
The extravagant act of a God who loves God’s people. 

How do you, a 21st century disciple respond to God’s gift?

Can you accept it with a grateful heart?
And receive the forgiveness of sins and eternal life that it gives you?

Or are you the least little bit like Judas,
Questioning the ways and the means,
Asking God why Jesus had to be sacrificed,
And couldn’t it have been done some other way?

You are a child of an extravagant God
Who loves you with abandon.
God is not miserly in counting the blessings that are given to you,
Or risk adverse by hiding the best gifts in the attic.

God is a lot like Mary,
Giving abundantly to you,
And loving without restriction.

As God loves you,
So you are also called to love others.
Jesus will tell his disciples in a few days
That others will know them by the love that they show.
The extravagant love that they show.

God’s love flowing into you,
Shapes you into a fountain of love flowing to others.

As you sit here in this Lenten season,
With Jesus’ impending death,
The proverbial elephant in the room,
Are you able to feel the love of an extravagant God,
Who gave his only Son for you?

Will you be able to respond to this love,
With a sense of abundance and extravagance similar to Mary’s?

Extravagance is not wasted
When it is given in love
For the benefit of someone else.

Jesus has demonstrated that for you.