First Lutheran Church
April 3, 2022 – The Fifth Sunday in Lent C
John 12:1-8 - Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
Sermon
Pastor Greg Ronning
This past Saturday afternoon I was resting in my hotel room, preparing to officiate at a wedding. I was in New Orleans, and the night before at the rehearsal dinner we enjoyed plenty of drink and a wonderful four-course meal. By wonderful I meant, that I was still full 20 hours later, and another meal awaited me, in just a few hours, a wedding feast that would be extravagant, a five-course meal. As I rested, I picked up my phone, and decide to watch some news. The news was horrible, I watched as the people of Ukraine were being destroyed by Russian bombs dropping from the sky.
It has always been this way. Someone has always toasted with a wine glass in one part of the world, at the same time someone else has lost everything in another part of the world. Even in the same city, someone falls in love, while somebody else grieves the loss of a loved one. “The fact that suffering, the ordinary, and beauty coincide’ is both unbearable and remarkable.”
In today’s appointed Gospel, Mary of Bethany, breaks open a jar of pure nard, a very expensive ointment worth three hundred denarii, the wages a day laborer might hope to make in an entire year; and she lavishly anoints Jesus’ feet. Judas is outraged, “We could have sold that and given the money to the poor!” The author of John suggests that Judas’ outrage is not motivated by concern for the poor but his own greed, but still - Judas’ criticism gives me pause. Shouldn’t we be thinking about the poor? Shouldn’t we be sensible about our resources? Shouldn’t we be restrained in our personal choices? Is that not what disciples of Jesus do?
Jesus’ responds to Judas’ concern, and his response is frankly a little confusing, even troubling, “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”Is Jesus saying that the poor don’t matter, that we should accept poverty as something that can’t be changed?
Today’s Gospel, today’s world, a life filled with weddings and a life filled with war, leaves me with difficult questions regarding poverty, piety,and stewardship.What am I to do with my life as a follower of Jesus? How do I exist in this world of celebration and misery, this world of art and bombs, this world of beauty and horror? Once again, “The fact that suffering, the ordinary, and beauty‘coincide’ is both unbearable and remarkable.”
John August Swanson is one of my favorite contemporary artists. In particular I love his paintings of biblical stories. (Ex. The Good Samaritan)Swanson was born in Los Angeles in 1931, his parents were humble Mexican and Swedish Immigrants, an unlikely pair escaping violence and poverty in their native countries and trying to survive through the Great Depression and its aftermath. Growing up Swanson experienced poverty, and as a person of faith he struggled with the many and complex issues of poverty. As a young adult he was active in the social justice programs of his church serving his neighbors and his community. And that experience led him to go to college to become a community organizer, - that seemed to be his calling. Yet in college he became an artist! In his studies of both the social sciences and the arts, he realized that through the visual arts he could awaken the holy imagination of people and inspire them to build a better world. He combined social justice with the power of art.
Professor Gonzalez-Andrieu of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles writes, “If you want justice, work for beauty. Justice is the work of making all things beautiful for all of us, restoring beauty to everything that is neither good nor true.” “Art as a Gospel of Beauty points us back to the One source of all that is beautiful.”
In today’s Gospel Jesus invites us into a moment of beauty. Into a moment of the senses, not common sense, but the senses that make us alive, the senses that inspire our faith, the senses that remind us that we are loved. There is fragrance, there is touch, there is something to see. In Mark’s version of this story Jesus responds to Judas, “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.” And then Jesus points to the importance of this event, “Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
So, what’s the message for today?
I think it’s one of balance, the call to live a balanced life that inspires us to love our neighbors, especially our neighbors in need. Art and beauty are gifts from God that activate our holy imaginations, that give us a glimpse of the divine, a vision of shalom – peace for all of creation. We sing, we create, we feast, we celebrate love, we enjoy life; not at the expense of the poor, but to empower us to serve those in need, to restore the fullness of life where it has been taken away. This demands a careful balance. Art and Beauty in their purest forms are not to be self-indulgent but point us back to “the One that is the source of all that is beautiful,” and call us to the work of justice –“making all things beautiful ‘for all’ of us.”
Jesus’ declaration that, “You always have the poor with you,” was not a call to accept the condition of poverty as permanent in our world, not an excuse allowing us to selfishly enjoy life in the midst of suffering. Jesus was most likely was referring to Deuteronomy 15:11,“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be openhanded.” Beauty and justice are to be connected, beauty and justice are meant to open up our hands! To whom much is given, much is expected.”
What is it that empowers us to be openhanded? What is it that inspires us to be generous? What is it that causes our faith to be put into action serving others? What is it that causes us to give from our bounty to those suffering in faraway places?
Perhaps it was a moment of beauty? Perhaps it was a celebration of love? Perhaps it was a work of art? Perhaps it was a song that seeped into our heart? Perhaps it was that moment when you were in need, when you needed comfort, when you needed help, that moment when someone who loved you treated you lavishly, extravagantly, and plentifully. Mary lavishly anoints Jesus to prepare him for the cross. On the cross Jesus opened up his hands offering grace and mercy and love.
Let us all take in the beauty of this world, the beauty of God’s creative presence, let us open up our senses and enjoy. And may that beauty, that joy, the beauty and the joy of the one that creates, sustains, and empowers; open our hands generously to those in need. Amen