Poured Out Love

Sermon John 12:1-8 March 13, 2016 Lent 5C

Poured Out Love

When the word generosity enters my thoughts I’m humbled and even silenced. When I reflect on the many ways generosity has been poured upon and about me I find myself unable to grasp the fullness of it all.

Generosity is powerful.

Generosity breeds generosity.

And kindness breeds kindness.

And love breeds love.

Mary’s love poured out on Jesus’ feet is an act of worship.

Her act was a gesture of love.

It was one small thing she could do to offer all she had to the one she loved.  

Love poured out can only be from the heart.

Imagine giving someone you love every ounce of what you have in life to offer?

What would it look like?

Mary’s ability to act in love for her Lord in the midst of a feast with many gathered around demonstrates the power that love gives to discipleship. Pure love and tenderness wrapped in the package of pure audacity and boldness.

Gail O’Day comments that the anointing shows what it means to be one of Jesus’ own. Mary gives boldly of herself in love to Jesus at his hour just as Jesus will give boldly of himself in love at his hour.

The fullness of love is hard to pin down to one word or phrase.

Is it the sloppy kiss or the diamond ring?

Is it the sunset shared with a friend or the fancy new clothes?

It is the thousand simple actions that open our eyes and our hearts to the goodness and truth of love that surrounds us. We’ve seen this gift in some marriages and desire that love in our own lives. We’ve seen in parent to child. In brothers and sisters, and even neighbor to neighbor.

In his book ‘The Four Loves’ C.S. Lewis states, affection is humbled love. He doubts we ever catch love at the beginning of it. To become aware of it, he says, is to become aware that it has already been going on for some time.’ Affection opens our eyes to goodness we could not have seen.

Mother Teresa shared that not all of us can do great things.

But we can do small things with great love.

Part of our ability to begin to offer gestures of love is also to know how to receive them.

We have difficulty receiving small gestures of love and as CS Lewis said we might miss the beginning of it and not even be aware that it is happening to us.

How many of us brush off a compliment?

When someone offers us a kind word can we hear it?

If someone tells you how much they appreciate you can you accept their words or do you deny them the gift of sharing them with you?

When someone tells you they like your dress or your tie or your hair or your speech or your presentation or your tidy office do you say thank you?

 Or like so many of us do you say, “Oh this dress or tie is so old, my speech and presentation were just ok and pulled together from old stuff, my desk is just like this today, you should have seen it yesterday.”

This way of receiving a simple outreach of affection, of a compliment, of a blessing denies the giver of being a blessing to you.

Our acceptance of generosity blesses the giver and together we are able to pass on the blessing to others.

Jesus offers us in this moment with Mary a window into the world of poured out love.

We know from the story of the raising of Lazarus that Mary loves and believes in Jesus. We know she was there and witnessed his return to life. We know that she was beyond grateful for this miracle of love and reuniting of her family. Her act of pouring out a pound of perfume on Jesus’ feet and them wiping them with her hair was not just a, ‘Gee, thanks Jesus, your such swell guy’, kind of act.

The act of Mary in this scene was intentional.

It was planned.

It was anticipatory.

This act anticipated future events.

Mary anoints Jesus’ feet before Jesus is buried in the tomb. Mary wipes Jesus’ feet with her hair before Jesus washes and wipes the disciples’ feet, telling them to go and do likewise.

She is the bold prophet.

She fulfills the love commandment (as Gail O’Day states) before it is taught.

Mary gives boldly of herself in love to Jesus at his hour

just as Jesus will give boldly of himself in love at his hour.

~~

And then,

Judas tries to derail everything she has just done.

He throws suspicion and doubt at Mary.

He disrupts the holy moment

to speak of morality and justice.

Only a Judas would question the gift.

Only a Judas would place suspicion on the reasons for offering all of oneself to another.
Only a Judas would steal the love behind the gift by comparing it to what others need or the concerns of the world, or the church budget, or the strings attached or …

Judas is the thief that wants to steal the power of the gift

and he wants to control the very gift.

We too can get caught up in controlling gifts we give or receive.

We put strings to them.

We’ve seen it in church and college and hospital budgets

where the power of the gift of a love gesture

is snuffed away as suspicion surrounds even the giver about motives.

Judas is the hypocrite that criticizes the gift of Mary and the power of love in its offering by telling Jesus it should have been given to the poor.

And that’s where we find ourselves so often stuck without a response or an answer to gestures of generosity.

We could feed the world with all the food and the funds we have on earth now.

And we should.

And we should find ways to do that.

We should already be doing that.

We should be offering our gifts towards issues of justice and mercy all the time.

It’s something we are supposed to do.

Judas makes the action of Mary an either/or rather than a both/and.

We should be going out and doing what we have been called to do in the world.

Because if we are not already doing these things then perhaps what we are doing is hoarding the gifts that are meant to be shared (Feasting on the Word).

Jesus rebukes the attempt of subversion by a self-centered Judas.

Jesus refuses to allow Judas to disrupt or destroy the community of faith.

Jesus’ words about the poor were not words to dismiss the Biblical responsibility that the community of faith has to care for them and to always lift them up,

but it was an anger that Judas would compare an act of worship

to a responsibility of living out true love.

Jesus will not allow the truth to be twisted by greed or subversion or any other act that is contrary to his love for God’s children!!

There are a lot of people today who are skilled at taking our attention away from the things that matter most.

There are a lot of people who are skilled at twisting words

and turning our heads to see things that appear to be about justice and mercy

and yet are really inciting hate and anger and violence.

Be careful of the Judases that still surround us!

And especially the Judases that live within our own hearts!

This story today is about Mary and just like the world lives,

the story seems to draw back to Judas

and he gets all the attention.

Our faith is stronger than that!!

Mary’s gift is where Jesus wants us.

Whether the gift of poured out love is oil from an alabaster jar or

an anthem sung by the choir or a

Sunday school lesson or an

arrangement of flowers or a

home baked pie or a

bar of chocolate,

these open our eyes

and our hearts

to the goodness and truth of love that surrounds us and make a lasting lifetime impact.

When the word generosity enters my thoughts I’m humbled and even silenced.

I find myself unable to grasp the fullness of it all.

Generosity is powerful.

Generosity breeds generosity.

And kindness breeds kindness.

And love breeds love.

Let the love of Christ be poured out upon you. Amen.

~~~~

After a challenging moment after Sunday's sermon-I added this addendum:

Perhaps I was wrong in my sermon yesterday.

Perhaps there are times
when no amount of generosity, kindness, or love
will breed generosity, kindness, and love.

And it is in those times we remain vigilant in the faith that sustains us.
In those times we hold on to the promise that in the end God wins.
God always wins.
And that is when God's love prevails.
Isn't that what the cross and Easter are all about anyway? 

Resources: Gayle O’Day notes from Gospel of John workshop; C.S. Lewis Four Loves; Feasting on the Word Lent 5C.