Rev. Paul Tellström Irvine United Congregational Church5th Sunday in Lent, Year C “Virtuous Woman” March 25, 2007
Hebrew Testament: Psalm 126 Gospel Reading: John 12:1-8 word count: 1,531
At the 2006 International Christian Retail Show, the latest merchandise geared to making us feel like more complete Christians was unveiled. Christian merchandise accounts for $4.3 billion in annual sales. Testamints are mints individually wrapped in paper containing the most quotable Bible verses which you can read while battling devilish halitosis. “Follow the Son” flip-flops, for instance, have patterned soles that leave the message “Follow Jesus” in the sand. Consider Gospel Golf Balls. What better conversation starter in the tee box than a portion of Scripture emblazoned across your golf balls, providing a welcome word for Christian duffers? If you lose them, you will have shared the gospel with whoever finds them. Or, you can simply buy the more generic inscription, “I once was lost, but now I’m found.” For the kids, there are temporary “JC” tattoos and “Armor of God” pajamas so kids can defend against the Enemy while they sleep. I have with me, “Action Figure Moses”. Despite his gray hair and beard, he has pecs of steel, and biceps capable of snapping any golden calf in two. Exclusively for women, there is “Virtuous Woman”, a Christian perfume line. Virtuous Woman perfume comes packaged with a passage in Proverbs 31 from which it borrows its tagline: “Virtuous Woman … her worth is far above rubies.” Its web site claims that it is “a fragrance experience that engages body, mind and spirit, designed to promote and express spirituality,” and wearers will be “honored for exemplifying the image of a Virtuous Woman.” It costs $54 for 1.7 oz., and although I have never experienced it, I would like to think it smells like apple-pie and s’mores. “Mmm! Say, what’s that fragrance in the air? Is that Christian we smell?” How does a fragrance engage one’s spirit? How can one’s perfume express spirituality? Does a soul stink at the end of a long day like an armpit and can Virtuous Woman make this soul-stink more dainty and becoming? What makes a perfume spiritual — is it made from holy water that has received a sacerdotal blessing? These are important questions for would-be accessorizing Christians, and in this case the answer is that the perfume was created so that when people ask about the scent, you can share about your faith. I’ve often found other ways to be more direct, yet this seems plausible enough. But in a way, it is not unlike a question that Judas asks of Mary with her perfumed ointment, and if you were with us at Chapman University last Wednesday night with Elaine Pagels and Marvin Meyers, you might wonder if Judas wasn’t right. The Gospel of Judas raises questions about how different Christian communities understood their new way of faith. 300 Denarii represented about an average year’s wages—would you take and spend a year’s wages on perfume? The most expensive perfume on the market today is apparently “Clive Christian No 1.” A one-ounce bottle costs $1,820 at Nordstrom. Would you buy it? Would you buy enough to wash someone’s feet with, setting you back a year’s wages? I think it is fair to say that Judas was not unreasonable in his response to Mary’s use of the perfume. If you could give a year’s wages to the food pantries, or buy some really neat perfume, which would you rather do? Part of what I see happening in this passage is about literary foreshadowing. Who is Jesus sitting at the table with? Lazarus, whom he had just raised from the dead and taken out of the tomb. There’s a resurrection. Mary washes Jesus’ feet with oil, which could just as easily be seen as a part of the ritual of cleansing a body for burial. Judas shows concern for money, and the common purse that he often steals from might be the same one that will hold the pieces of silver for which he will betray Jesus. And Martha is preparing their last meal together. It seems that all Martha ever does is cook and clean, which must be why she is the patron saint of servants and cooks. From her welcome hospitality, Jesus will travel to Jerusalem where the events that have been hinted at symbolically at this meal in Bethany will unfold. So the narrative is letting us know that something is coming that will involve the elements we read in the story. And Mary has done something very strange. She has let down her hair, which a woman would not do in front of men, and she uses her hair to wash Jesus’ feet with this expensive oil. And we, as listeners, are inclined to believe that she is on to something with this very odd behavior. Our sympathy is with her. But still, as Judas points out, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” In “Keeping the Faith in Babylon”, Barry Robinson says that, “From the standpoint of discipleship, in particular service to someone who championed the plight of the poor, it was a response that made a lot of sense then and still does today. How often do we waste money on extravagant luxuries while turning an indifferent eye upon those who would have benefited from the expenditure? We all know the answer to that.” Even Jesus’ response makes us do a double take. “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You have the poor with you always, but you do not always have me.” It was about as odd as what Mary did. John wants us to believe that this one who was always thinking of others before himself was letting his needs come first. Whatever he may or may not have meant by it, there is no doubt that John wants us to look favorably on Mary’s act, to see it as the act of a true disciple rather than a false one. Not only John’s suggestion that Judas was a traitor and a thief, and Jesus’ uncharacteristic defense of a good work done to him—all of it is intended to state one simple fact: what Mary does is a sign of true discipleship. Her actions reveal that she understands and believes. “She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.” Mary with her perfume is a Virtuous Woman. What Mary did was to make a gesture of extravagant welcome. This is the kind of welcome that is missing in our scared little world. Who are the people that touch your own life or live within your consciousness, who may even now be walking towards their own Jerusalems? People who for reasons of health or tragedy, people who feel financial or spiritual poverty, people who are despised and rejected as Jesus was for walking the walk they walk; people who for whatever the reason, need to feel that there is a place where someone will pour out their extravagant welcome, in discipleship that lets them know they are not only welcomed, but loved. Extravagant welcome is love given away recklessly, not caring if the scent of it refills the jar from which it was poured, yet trusting in faith that it will. And faith is not something that you can go to the store and buy; it is something inside that allows you to give your love away. Judas sees discipleship only one way, his way, and it places things over faith and friendship. If we focus on what other people are doing or not doing to make things work the way we think they should work; that will not fix the problem. It will just make us feel aggravated, anxious and resentful. Concern for the poor, such as Judas may well have had, and giving extravagant gifts, like the gift Mary gave to Jesus, are not mutually exclusive things. The giving of the extravagant welcome covers all the bases. “It is not the sermons we preach or don’t preach that matter. It is not the words that we get to say or that we don’t. It is neither the theological formulations that we manage to articulate nor the scientific explanations that we provide. Nor is it the reasonably cautious, perfectly sensible, eminently logical rationalizations we provide for the ways we are not prepared to stand by those who suffer in this world simply for being who they are. “In the end, my friends, it does come down to that. It is about whether or not we are prepared to demonstrate our love for, and fidelity to, the people who need to know that they do not go to their Jerusalems alone.” When that kind of prospect lies threateningly over such victims, when it becomes crystal clear what the world is capable of doing, it makes perfect sense to lock up our hearts and head for the cellar. What doesn’t make sense is to make ourselves look just as extravagant, just as vulnerable and just as generous as Mary was, and as Jesus was. But from John’s gospel’s point of view it is the only response that counts and love is its name.
Sermon Resources Virtuous Woman website: http://www.nhimco.com/virtuous.html Homiletics Magazine, “The Scent of a Woman.” March-April 2007 Barry Robinson, “Keeping the Faith in Babylon” Lent 5C
Scripture Reading for Sunday, March 25, 2007
Psalm 126
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. 2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” 3 The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced. 4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb. 5 May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. 6 Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.
John 12:1-8
1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 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. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6 (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.) 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
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