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A time of giving up, a time of taking on. And with so much in the world today, making space for those quiet moments of reverent worship can be so important.
I’ve found myself being a bit more contemplative this week, in my thoughts and especially in my prayers. Celebrating and giving thanks for birthdays, days of visibility and acceptance showing up on my social media timelines… I also found myself grieving and struggling with so much news this week. Praying over my continued heartbreak at violence and war. Praying over my fears for communities facing intolerance and bigotry across our country. And looking at our readings today, thinking and praying around the word “reverence” today, seeing Isaiah and our Psalm, and even Paul in his letter to the church in Phillipi talk about this new thing that God is up to in us, through us, and around us, I can’t help but find myself kneeling at Jesus’s feet, offering whatever I can. My thanks, my heartaches, my fears, my celebrations. Like Mary at Jesus’s feet, performing what would likely be seen as an entirely too intimate, entirely inappropriate action, she holds all of the heartache of knowing this may be the last time she sees Jesus, and the joy and thanks-giving of having her brother alive again with her and her family. During this week I have had celebrations and joys, I have witnessed heartache and despair in the face of so much injustice and violence in the world. And like Mary I can only lay it all at Jesus’s feet. She takes this jar of nard, what has been said to be worth a year’s worth of wages, and she pours it out for Jesus, taking her hair a symbol of her identity as a woman and wiping the perfumed oil over Jesus’s unclean feet. It wasn’t unheard of to pour some oil on the hair of guests at dinner parties in the homes of the wealthy and well off in Jesus’s time, but Jesus and his disciples are not exactly well to do. Not only that, a little oil on the hair of guests as a welcome gift is very different than the scene unfolding in Bethany during this evening. For Mary, her reverence, her thanks-giving, her heartache, her worship comes down to her devotion to Jesus. She is devoted to her faith, giving the greatest gift she can, and even more than that, through her scandalous anointing not only is Mary worshiping Jesus, not only is she preparing him for his burial – a tradition that Jesus’s body does not receive after the cross – she's also anointing Jesus as King. Her devotion declares who she is as a follower of Christ, and who Jesus is as the Messiah who saw her tears and cried with her. In this salacious moment Mary declares Jesus to be the Savior who brought her brother back from the dead. In this intimate reverence with her Lord Mary declares Jesus to be the King who receives her love and worship with grace and his own thanks-giving. And like often happens when others see or hear the reverent devotion of others, Judas is fast to admonish Mary. He has his own intentions, his own failings, his own focus in this moment, mostly about the expense of this act. He doesn’t seem to care too much about the scandalous behavior of a woman wiping the Lord’s feet with her hair, but rather the cost of the oil that could have been used for “other things”. Judas gives mouth service to the poor and in need, but he’s only really focused on himself. John’s Gospel is the only one that gives us this insight into Judas, which is interesting since Judas was known as the zealot. He was one of John the Baptist’s followers before coming to Jesus. We don’t know how he went from being a zealous and overeager follower of radical prophets to seeking only his own financial gain. But here we are. And Jesus is quick to remind Judas and all who witness Mary’s love for Jesus that putting down or judging the gifts given from others, the thanks-giving, heartache, and worship of others, is not the righteous action to take. It might seem like the right thing to do to speak of giving the funds from the jar of oil to the poor, even if that was actually Judas’s intention, but here Jesus reminds us that this moment isn’t about any one person making themselves righteous. This is reverence. Not asking for anything, but rather laying our everything at Jesus’s feet. And when we truly lay everything, we have at Jesus’s feet, we find ourselves, as we often do during this season, drawn to the cross. The path we’re on with Jesus during this season is one that continues to go to the cross. And as Jesus names here in his response to Judas, and as many scholars over the centuries have inferred, this reverence from Mary of course points to another moment in Jesus’s journey. Jesus says that Mary bought this oil for his burial, and like the jars of oil are often broken and left inside the tombs, Mary has broken this jar over Jesus’s feet, sharing with him a moment of care, of love, of devotion as he prepares himself. Not only was she declaring Jesus to be King, but also in that declaration preparing the way for his death. And his resurrection. For Jesus and for Mary, it’s not about the cost of the oil, it’s not about the amount of alms she was willing or able to give. We so often want to list out all the gains we have had in our lives, all of the ways we might be righteous in God's eyes. Like Paul in his letter, listing his pedigree of righteousness. But like Paul, when faced with Jesus, when faced with the unrelenting love that cries with us when we cry, that invites us to the table, that welcomes us and offers hope for the new thing God is springing forth in the world, all those gains we might have thought we earned are losses. Nothing compares to Jesus’s love. Nothing compares to Jesus’s grace. Nothing compares to being found in him. So, when we fail to recognize the divine grace in others. When our heart aches over the violence in this world. When we weep at the ongoing injustice and loss we see on the news or in our own communities. For all those maybe-too-intimate, maybe-too-scandalous moments of reverence we have as we find ourselves walking our paths in the world. Jesus prepares himself for the cross. Jesus prepares himself for the tomb. Jesus prepares himself for his resurrection. And Jesus prepares us. Inviting us into an intimate reverence, a faithful devotion, so that as Jesus rises from the dead we too rise up, springing up with new hope. So that we too my press on, seeking these moments of Christ’s care and comfort, whatever the world may hold. So that we can be the fragrance that fills the room with love and worship and grace. So that whatever we might face in this world, we too can give Jesus our thanks, our heartaches, our fears, and our joys. So that we too might fall to Jesus’s feet, giving our all, and straining forward in this heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Thanks be to God, amen.
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