March 25 2018 Palm Sunday Mark 14:1-11

I consider myself to be a logical person.  I like to think I make decisions that make sense.  I like to collect objectively verifiable data, analyze the data, reach a reasonable conclusion, and then act on it.  For the most part it serves me well.

As a pastor in this day and age I find I’m also having to defend Christian faith as logically as possible too.  I can’t count the number of times people have said something like, “So how can you not believe in evolution?”  It is their automatic conclusion based on what they think a Christian leader believes.  It is as if to be committed to Christian faith one must believe in myths and fairy tales.  Fortunately Christian theology and history are filled with excellent scholarship and sophisticated doctrines; even if people these days aren’t interested in learning them and would prefer to dismiss Christianity as a leftover of the ignorant past.

The problem is that logic and rational thinking can’t reveal everything about our faith.  Look at the woman who anoints Jesus that we read about in the gospel.  There were plenty of people around who, like me, applied good logic to the situation.  “Why was this ointment wasted in this way?  For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii, and the money given to the poor.”  Mark tells us that the people scolded her.  I’m all too ready to agree with them.

Let’s pause a moment to really focus on what Mark tells us, and what he does not.  I think we’re most familiar with a woman anointing Jesus from Luke’s gospel.  Luke tells this story with some different details.  Luke portrays this story as if it happened early on in Jesus ministry, not two days before he dies as in Mark and Matthew.  In Luke, Jesus is at something like a public banquet and a woman of the city who is called a “sinner” comes up and anoints Jesus’ feet and then wipes them with her hair.  The whole thing makes us blush with its sexual overtones.

But any number of biblical interpreters say we can’t combine the stories.  They say that when reading Mark just stick to just what Mark says and only what Mark says.  Commentator Pheme Perkins notes that as Mark portrays it this woman was probably a woman of the household.  Maybe it was Simon’s wife or his sister or maybe a daughter.  There’s no reason to suggest she has a sordid past.  And there’s also no reason so suggest she was poor.  Perkins suggests it is likely she actually had enough money available to her that she could afford some nice luxuries in her life – like a bottle of expensive perfume.

Let’s keep this picture of her in our minds as we consider what she did.  It’s impossible to know how much she actually knew about Jesus.  I imagine she was around hearing the conversation between Jesus, the disciples, Simon and other guests.  If she heard how the events of the last days went she had every reason to believe he was in trouble: overturning the tables of the money changers on Monday, then a whole day of argument and conflict with the religious leaders on Tuesday.  We aren’t told what happened earlier in the day on Wednesday, but I bet it wasn’t good.  Now it’s Wednesday evening and tensions are running high.  Something big is about to happen, and it will be scary.

Whether she sensed this and this was the case or not, she brings out a jar of expensive ointment.  The contents are said to be worth 300 denarii.  A denarii was a day’s wages for a laborer, so that’s about a year’s salary.  The economy was different and it’s impossible to give a real value in today’s dollars, so let’s just say it was excellent stuff that was worth a lot of money.  We do know the nature of this ointment.  Spikenard the plant grew in the Himalayas.  It could be processed into ointment and it was shipped in alabaster boxes.  Ointment of this kind would be used sparingly, and then only for special occasions.  Yet here this woman breaks the container and pours it all on Jesus.

Her gift is lavish beyond lavish.  A logical person like me is offended.  So were others at the table.  And yet she anointed the Savior of the world for his burial.  That smell was certainly with Jesus the next day during the Last Supper.  It was with him when he was praying on the Mount of Olives and then arrested.  It was with him throughout his trial, mocking, and beating.  That smell would have been with him through the torturous hours on the cross, and right up to the moment of his death.

This anointing is the only act of human kindness that lingered with Jesus through it all.  The disciples, male and female, didn’t stand up for him.  He was abandoned and forsaken by all – alone.  And yet the smell of the anointing was with him.  This was humanity’s only expression to God of appreciation for who Jesus was and his willingness to die for all our sins.

We should be deeply grateful for this woman’s act of service.  It was lavish, yes, but it still falls far short of the appreciation we humans should have shown to the one who saves us.

That she dumps it all out, all of it, unreservedly is deeply important.  She did not make a calculated decision of what would be an appropriate amount to dispense upon an honored guest.  She did not pour out a few drops of this valuable stuff and think to herself, “Well, I guess that ought to be enough for this occasion.”  This was completely and totally without logic or stategy.  It was the most complete way this woman could unreservedly give to Jesus.  This was self-emptying love in about as pure a form as it could be. 

I love these words from theologian Halford Luccock, “The verdict of these shocked onlookers reappears in the feeling of many that worship is waste… [Worship] builds no barns, yields no compound interest… To this type of mind the sacrifice of life for a faith is waste.  We hear that judgment daily passed on one who chooses a vocation of obscure service to God and man in preference to what is called… ‘making good.’  Francis of Assisi wasted his life.  He might have been a lord of the manor instead of a beggar… So was John Wesley’s.  What a major general or parliamentary whip he would have made with all that executive capacity!”  Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Volume 7, Pg. 869

This woman loved so much that she gave everything to show love, and respect, and thanks to him.

That still leaves people like me in a sticky situation.  What about all that money that could have helped poor people?  But that is the problem of my logical mind – a mind interested in value, calculation, and measurable effect. 

We need to have those qualities, but not exclusively.  Some things are beyond dollars and cents.

When we talk about giving everything to God that is not a calculated response.  I think many people unknowingly live as if they are executing a strategic plan for eternal life.  They think they have to be good now and behave themselves so that they can get to heaven, because, they think, God doesn’t like bad people.

I think, “Do you really want to spend eternity in heaven being forced into good behavior?!?”  They’ve got it all wrong.  The unnamed woman had it right.

Don’t be a good and kind and generous person as a strategy.  And don’t force yourself to be genuinely good and kind and generous because that’s the attitude you think God wants from you.  Those life plans lead to anger and misery.  Know that God loves you – God loves you so much that God takes the brokenness of the world upon himself so that you don’t have to.  In fact, God loves you so much that he took the brokenness of the world upon himself without you having to even ask him to do it.  God just did.  Pure gift to you – and totally lavish.

If you have to focus on anything to be a righteous person focus on that.  When you can realize you are loved so much then goodness and kindness and generosity flow out of you without you even having to try.  They become a part of who you are, right to the core.

I’ll never forget being at the one Penn State vs. Miami football game while I was in college.  Miami was beating us, and it was a pretty sure thing they would win.  But there was still some hope Penn State could win it.  A guy on the bench in front of me starts saying, “God, if we win this game I’ll go to church tomorrow.”

Um, while God can use anything as a conversion experience I doubt that God wanted to get this guy in church the next day so badly that he’d swing the outcome of the game!  Plus, if we did win I doubt he would have gone to church anyway!

The guy was being stupid, but it was still calculating.  The woman with the ointment may have been stupid too – but there was no calculation involved at all, and in so doing she gave God one of the greatest gifts a human ever has.

Know that you are loved by God.  Certainly keep a logical brain in your head, but let God’s love guide you through life.  Then you will know the joys and freedom Jesus gave you from the cross.

March 18, 2018 Lent 5 Mark 11:20-13:37

In the first part of our gospel reading Jesus is getting asked about a whole lot of hot button issues of the day: authority, the place of the temple, paying taxes, eternal life, and the commandments.  His answers to any one of them could get him into trouble.  I don’t want to suggest that the current state of our political climate is a parallel to Jesus’ day, but I do think the way he handles things gives us some principles to live by.

            I’m sure you’ve all sat around the table with a bunch of relatives at a holiday and somebody brings up a hot button topic.  It seems to happen a lot these days.  There might be a ringing silence, and your anxiety may shoot through the roof.  What’s going to happen?  Is it going to be ignored?  Is someone going to blow up?  Is there going to be a fight?  A great holiday with lots of anticipation may turn into a disaster.

            Some people bury their heads in the sand – probably a bad idea.  Some people instantly blow their top and start an argument – probably also a bad idea.  Some people try to be diplomatic and see things from all sides and then try to be the peacemakers.  That’s kind of sweet – but it could also be a bad idea.  In some things there is no room for diplomacy.  Some things are simply wrong.  They must be stopped or rejected.

            I say it is our faith responsibility to be able to engage in conversations about hot button issues or political issues.  We should not shy away from them when they come up.  Although we also have to remember that following the example of Jesus when you engage something may still get you in a lot of trouble.  Good Friday didn’t exactly turn out sweet for Jesus now did it?

            So what does Jesus do?  Every time Jesus is asked about something it’s presented in a limiting way.  For example, should they pay taxes to Caesar or not?  It’s an either/or situation.         Last Wednesday many high school students held a 17 minute walkout as a protest to gun violence and in memory of the school shooting in Florida.  I was pleased with the way the students decided to express themselves, and in Canandaigua at least, I was pleased with the way the administration honored the students’ desires.  They were allowed to walk out, or not; no punishment, no judgment.  And yet I couldn’t help feeling like it was all limiting.  It seemed like students were either for or against.  There was no room to express anything more complicated, and it that’s the end of the situation then the complications can never be expressed.  Only time will tell with this one, but a lot of hot button issues turn into either/or situations; people battling for their side to win.  They rejoice when they do, and they get mad and want revenge when they don’t.

            How many civil conversations are there on Facebook over hot button issues?

            The same limits were being placed on Jesus.  But he refused to let society’s ways of defining an issue be his way of defining an issue.  Look at all his answers.  He redefines things according to his own terms, which are God’s terms.  Jesus’ answers take thought.  They are seldom simple.  They honor the value of people and they honor how complex issues are. 

I think that people are by nature lazy.  We want simple solutions to complex problems.  How many times do politicians on the campaign trail say that an issue is complex, there are no easy solutions, and that everyone is going to have to work hard on it for a long time?   What do politicians usually say?  That the opposing party is the problem and just kick them out and everything will automatically get better.

Lea Schweitz is a systematic theology professor at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.  She talks about what she calls the “wicked problems” of the world.  By wicked problems she doesn’t necessarily mean they are particularly evil.  She means that they are not easily addressed – things like poverty, racism, and addiction.  You can’t just hire experts to study the problem, then implement a solution, and have the problem go away.  That’s the way people want things to work, but it doesn’t.

No, for Lea “wicked problems” are problems where you do the best you can today to address it.  But you know that the problem isn’t going away.  Six months or a year from now you have to restudy it, see how your solutions worked or didn’t work, and then adjust them and move forward.  You can’t stick to party lines or ideological purity.  And no one ever gets to claim victory, and maybe the problem is never solved.  But constant thoughtful attention can minimize it.

I think this is how Jesus wants us to address the problems of the world.  We have to be careful to avoid being blinded by our own desires, our own concepts of how things work (or should work), and blind attachment to particular authorities or parties. 

Let’s wrap all this up by pointing out something easy to overlook.  This week’s reading began with the disciples noting the withered fig tree.  You’ll remember from what we read last week that this is the tree Jesus cursed because it didn’t have figs.  The whole thing raises more questions than it answers, but the point of it was a prophetic action.  The withering of the fig tree to its roots symbolizes the withering and rejection of the temple in Jerusalem.  And now Jesus uses it to talk about prayer.  He says that if you have faith in God you could say to a mountain, “’Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you.”  (Mark 11:24)  If that were the case I’d never lift a shovel again!  I get all sorts of wild images in my mind of how I’d use such powers.  And in that imagination I miss how Jesus teaches to apply it, for that is the real thrust.

What is his practical application of prayer and it’s power?  He uses it for forgiveness.  “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive your trespasses.”  (11:25)

There’s nothing triumphal in asking God for forgiveness and in forgiving others.  If mountains are hard to move, so also forgiveness can be hard.  I don’t think Jesus means to just ignore the wrong people do.  No, there needs to be accountability.  A parent needs to establish discipline and consequences in his or her children.  Jesus isn’t talking about no consequences for wrongdoing.  Jesus is talking about rooting your understanding of yourself and others in your common brokenness before God and your need for God’s grace.

If you can see yourself in the proper light before God, then you will also see others in the proper light before God.  From there the real issues of the world can be addressed, and we can all grow in faith and hope.