"You will always have the poor with you..."
Interestingly, this phrase was in my head after I taught a class recently at St. Barnabas on the promises we make in the Baptismal Covenant. Specifically, we pledge that, with God's help, we will persevere against evil and, whenever we fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord. For me, this got me thinking about the various sins that perpetuate the evil of haves and have nots. I find things such as red-lining, which perpetuate lack of wealth because of creating Lower Property Values, makes me angry. It compounds societal problems because lower property values means fewer tax dollars to go to schools in the red-lined area of a city. And, of course, the people who get hurt are largely the African-Americans who have been kept out of more property rich parts of a city or town.
I couldn't figure out how to bring all that thinking into a sermon...especially since the popular culture this week has been pre-occupied with the "Slap Heard 'Round the World' at the Oscars, where actor Will Smith walked up on stage and flat-hand comedian Chris Rock for making an off-color joke about Will Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith and her shaved head. This is what happens when the wealthy are always with us...their shenanigans dominate the news.
Anyway, I abandoned my fixation on that phrase, at least for a sermon. Instead, I thought it was necessary to turn to "the new thing" that happens in Isaiah and carries forward to Jesus.
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Texts: Isaiah 43:16-21; John 12:1-8
Prayer: Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,
and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
May my teaching drop like the rain,
my speech condense like the dew,
like gentle rain on grass,
and like showers on new growth.
For I will proclaim the name of the LORD;
ascribe greatness to our God! Amen. ( Dt 32:1-3).
Several years back…I remember being in a group of people talking with the associate rector of my Tallahassee parish. The topic came up of the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament.
Apparently, one of the children in a Sunday School class had raised concerns about these “two Gods.” And like so many other Christians…there was a struggle for this child to reconcile the behavior of God from the two parts of the Bible.
Well…the priest apparently had a hard time coming up with a good explanation.
And now this discussion amongst adults in the back of the sanctuary was ranging all over the place. There was consternation about violence in the Bible…and how God seemed “mean” in the Old Testament…and “nice” in the New Testament. Having listened long enough for my very introverted self to finally put together a response, I said to our associate: “Y’know? It’s the same God; just different tactics.”
There were never “two” Gods; only the one.
And the One God is always doing a new thing.
I think that’s plain when we look at today’s passage from our First Reading in Isaiah.
This part of the prophet’s book comes after the people of Jerusalem have been conquered and scattered with many whisked off into exile in Babylon.
At this point in the history…Cyrus of Persia has captured Babylon and is allowing the Israelites to return to their homeland. For Isaiah…this is a time to share words of comfort to a battered and bruised people who may have felt distant and alienated from God.
It may be hard for us to imagine what it must have been like to have your homeland occupied and your people scattered with the Babylonian invasion. But we have real-time events that might give us some insight.
Journalists are helping us to witness the ravages of war with Russia’s attack of Ukraine.
We see the bombed-out buildings…the body bags in the streets…and the tear-soaked faces of refugees.
These same scenes are happening in Syria…and Afghanistan…and Ethiopia. We might not see them…but they are still happening.
And as this terror goes on… I don’t think any of us would fault the scared and frightened people for wondering,
“Where is our God?”
This is when we turn to the prophet Isaiah to remind us that…even in times of trouble… God never forgets the covenant made with humanity to be with us always. For the Israelites in this 43rd Chapter of Isaiah…God is making a way for them…causing streams of water to flow through deserts just as has happened before. Out of the rubble of their lives…God “is about to do a new thing” (Is.43:19a)
That theme of doing “a new thing” extends into our Gospel lesson.
Mary of Bethany can see that a new thing is about to happen with Jesus. In fact…lots of new things have already occurred!
This dinner is at Lazarus’s house. It takes place after Jesus has raised him from the dead. And now Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha are having a meal with their friend Jesus, and no doubt, raising a glass in appreciation for this “new thing,” this resurrected life of Lazarus. This is all a little taste of what is to come as Jesus heads into Jerusalem.
This is also more than an intimate gathering with close friends. Clearly the disciples are also present because Judas Iscariot is there. In John’s Gospel, Judas plays the part of the really bad apple in the bunch. The other gospels tend to make all the disciples share in the griping and sniping.
But in this story, Judas demonstrates “discipleship done poorly” vs. Mary’s “discipleship done very well.”
Much like last week’s story from Luke of the prodigal son…we have a scene where extravagance is met with a bitter sidebar complainer.
Mary takes Nard, which is a highly-fragrant oil imported from the Himalayas and very expensive, and pours it on Jesus’ feet. She begins wiping them with her hair.
Again… just like the meal with a resurrected Lazarus, this foot washing scene is all a foreshadowing of what Jesus will be doing with his own disciples at the Last Supper.
As the air in the room begins to fill with the perfume of the Nard…Judas is huffing and puffing about Mary wasting a perfectly good commodity.
“Y’know…that oil COULD have been sold and we COULD have given that money to the poor!”
OK…yes…she could have done that. In today’s currency…a denarius would be about seventy-four cents…so three hundred denarii would come to about 222-dollars (yes, I did the math). In First Century Palestine, that would have helped quite a few people. Instead…she anoints Jesus’ feet and uses her hair to wipe them. That was her way…her new way…of showing devotion to the one who has demonstrated that resurrection is real.
I want us to set aside John’s parenthetical commentary on Judas’ motives for making his complaint.
Was he really a thief?
Was he more interested in pocketing the profits that could have been made from selling the oil?
Maybe.
But rather than trying to climb inside Judas’ head and heart, or dismissing him as some undesirable bad apple…we might want to pause a moment and consider how Judas’ thinking is not that far off from how many of us think.
We all have this tension in our lives…that thought that we shouldn’t “waste” something valuable…or be a spendthrift when there is suffering in the world. Whether it’s in the church or in our secular society, I’m sure all of us at one time or another have complained about costs.
Can we really afford “this”?…whatever “this” is. When confronted with any “new thing,” few of us leap right in to embracing change, especially if it comes with a cost.
We can think of a hundred other ways to use the money or resources we have, and in ways where we might get more personal satisfaction out of it. Perhaps we tell ourselves that we’re being righteous because what we propose is going toward a “good” cause. But there’s always a tinge of self-interest at play….no matter how “good” or “righteous” we’re being.
So let’s just put aside John’s idea about Judas’ motives for complaining…and recognize that his presence at this dinner party and his objections serve to keep us all honest. Even the most miserly is part of the kin-dom of the God.
Jesus is direct and not ugly in his response to Judas. He and the disciples routinely give to the poor. This is in keeping with the demands of Torah…where it says in Deuteronomy “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land” (Deut.15:11b).
At the same time…Jesus knows that what Mary is doing is of equal importance and value; she’s keeping with the Jewish custom of washing a body before burial.
So…Jesus understands what Mary is signaling. She is aware that his actions and his words are threatening to the power structures. And she anoints him with fragrant oil, perhaps in anticipation that he’s going to die. But having seen what happened with her own brother, she also has faith that resurrection is real. She knows that a new thing is on the horizon. The others, including Judas, don’t understand this. They’re fixated on the cost of the Nard, and not the sweetness of the feet being bathed in it.
And then Jesus says…
“You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
Jesus doesn’t say there aren’t poor or needy people: what he says is that in the face of Mary’s generous love…becoming tight-fisted isn’t the answer. We should pull out the expensive oil and share it because that’s how you treat one another. His whole life and mission are teaching us how to live as a beloved community. When we don’t respond, we are more Judas than Mary.
Jesus is carrying this love mantra of plenty and open heartedness into Jerusalem. And this puts him in stark contrast to the powers of Empire and scarcity.
It also places some questions on us:
Where do our hearts lie?
Do we approach others with an attitude of open hands or closed fists?
Are we ready for God to do a “new thing” in our lives both individually and collectively?
Things to ponder as we enter this fifth week of Lent.
May God give us the will and the courage and the joy to consider where we are heading and be ready for a “new thing.”
