Sermon for Lent 5C – RCL April 7, 2019St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Sacramento
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."
The gospel
lesson for today is full of the unexpected.
The gospel lesson is shattering societal norms – then and now. It is also a gospel lesson that has been
misused – or used, as an excuse for prioritizing our spiritual life over caring
for those in need. This lesson takes
place six days before Passover. Six days
before John will relate the story of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples
and giving them a new commandment – to love one another. In our liturgical cycle today is the last
Sunday before we start Holy Week. Next
week is palm Sunday with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, followed by Maundy
Thursday, good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter. Our Lenten journey will pick up speed and the
events of Jesus ministry leading to his death are before us. Today we find Jesus at table with his friends
at the home of Mary and Lazarus. And we
find the unexpected.
Can you
imagine being at table when suddenly someone is being anointed with expensive
perfume? To be in a house where a woman
let down her hair – which was simply not done in polite society. And anointed a man. Anointing as a king for burial. Unexpected. When Judas complains Jesus tells the gathered
that Mary saved the perfume to anoint him at his death – and here she is
anointing Jesus. The perfume must have
permeated the room. And suddenly – with
Jesus words it is the perfume of death.
It is the perfume of crucifixion.
Jesus, on his journey to Jerusalem has been telling his disciples that
he will be killed and now they have the scent.
Jesus is being anointed for his coming burial. The evening events are unexpected.
Perhaps we
can even understand Judas’ complaint – even if the Gospel tells us it was
insincere. He cannot imagine such
expensive perfume being used so extravagantly.
300 denarii is a huge sum of money.
If you google the current values of 300 denarii you we learn that it is
the equivalent of a years wages for a common laborer. In today’s dollars it is the equivalent of
$20 thousand dollars or more. Mary is
extravagantly anointing Jesus with a year’s worth of wages.
Unexpected
extravagance that leads to Jesus saying the unexpected in response to Judas’ complaint: “You always have the poor with you, but you
do not always have me." This seems
so out of character with the Jesus. The
Jesus that has been gathering in at table with outcasts and sinners. The Jesus
that we hear in the Gospel of Matthew telling the gathered people that at the
end of times God would sort the sheep from the goats. And the sheep – those who would enter into
the kingdom of God, are those that took care of Jesus by taking care of those
who needed food and clothing. By
visiting those who are sick and in prison.
Can Jesus really be telling us that our relationship with the our
spiritual side is more important than taking care of those who are in
need? Our use of expensive oils to
anoint Jesus are more important than taking care of those in need?
It is
unfortunate that this one phrase has been used by people to justify
inaction. It has been used to justify
systems that keep people unhomed. It has
been used to justify a kind of faith that does not reach out to the poor. It has been used to justify a faith that
stays out of the public square – a faith that does not work to bring about a
just society. It frankly has been used in ways that are contrary to the rest of
the gospel reading where Jesus reaches out to those that society has cast
off.
Lindsey
Trozzo, from Princton Theological seminary said. “If Jesus says, “You always
have the poor with you, but you do not always have me,” -- so the argument goes
-- we should attend to spiritual needs over, above, or instead of tangible
needs. “Just a closer walk with Thee” instead of a march on Washington;
thoughts and prayers as opposed to votes and legislation. Even at its best,
this perspective promotes only individual acts of kindness but keeps the church
out of the realm of policy making and community activism. …” Lindsey continues with to say that we may be
mistranslating the original Greek. That
there is an ambiguity in the original that could be translated as “Have
the poor with you always. Or Keep the poor among you always.”… Perhaps this statement, which has been used to
justify disregard for the poor is actually a direct command to always have
Jesus’ mission for and among the poor at the forefront of our thoughts and
actions. Keep the poor among you always.”[1]
This
alternate reading of the text changes how we respond. It is a message that we cannot separate our
spirituality – our relationship with Jesus, from our work to take care of those
that society wants to discard. It calls
us to use our resources to feed, clothe and house those that are in need. To work for policies that respect the dignity
of all of God’s beloved children instead of accepting laws and policies that
criminalize the un-homed. Policies that
make it criminal to sleep in public, policies that exclude access to
bathrooms. Policies that ignore the
underlying issues that we simply do not have enough affordable housing for
people. If you don’t believe me just
open todays Sacramento Bee! There is a front-page
story about the increasing criminalization of the unhomed.[2] People
getting tickets for having a cart on the American River Parkway – not camping
but just having a cart with their belongings on the Parkway.
This reading
calls us to do the unexpected. And the
Episcopal church is doing the unexpected.
At St. Matthew’s Center, which
this congregation has supported, and where I am now on the diocesan governing
committee, is doing the unexpected. The
largest building on the campus is no longer the worship center but is now part
of River City Food Bank. An unexpected ministry to feed those in need that was actually started as a food closet by
this congregation.
The small
congregation of St. Matthew’s did the unexpected and acted to house the
un-homed for a week this winter. One
Sunday after the bilingual service the congregation moved all of the furniture
in the worship hall – the former parish hall where they now worship, to
accommodate sleeping cots. The
congregation worked with Carmichael Homeless Assistance Resource Team or
Carmichael HART to provide shelter. And
for a week 25 people were fed a nutritious home cooked dinner and offered a
safe, warm place to sleep. A place to
sleep with access to bathroom facilities.
Anyone
looking in would recognize that this was disruptive to the worship space. The Sunday after our hosting Carmichael Hart’s
winter shelter the worship hall was not ready for worship. The furniture and altar were still
inaccessible. So, we worshiped around
the tables. It took a lot of work to
house people for a week. It took the work
of multiple congregations including people from St. Paul’s, St. Michael’s as
well as St. Matthew’s to make it happen.
It was an unexpected action by a very small congregation in conjunction
with community support to house people – if only for a week.
Jesus is
calling us in this gospel lesson to the unexpected. He is calling us to a ministry that does not
call us to choose between action and spirituality. It is a lesson that calls us to action rooted
in Jesus. It calls us to take unexpected
actions to welcome people who are hungry.
It calls us to take unexpected action to work for just policies that
will house people.
What
unexpected actions are we being called to do here at St. Paul’s? In the midst of the construction mess that is
around us – and is only going to get worse over the next year – what are we
called to do? Could this congregation
offer shelter during the winter? We do
not have the facilities to house large groups but could we, like St. Matthew,
work with other congregations to house 25-30 people for a week or two during
the winter? I know our facilities are
limited but I have seen that it is possible – with only two bathrooms and
limited kitchen facilities to provide 25-30 people a place to sleep for a
week. A place to find medical care, a
place to connect with resources that can provide options for more permanent
housing. There are several other HART
organizations in Sacramento and I know there is interest in starting a downtown
HART. Is St. Paul’s called to be part of
that organization?
Are there are
ways that this congregations is being called by God to do the unexpected. The expected is to have Sunday services and
otherwise to act as a museum for what many people consider a dying faith. We already do some unexpected things. We provide sack lunches to the hungry and we
are open during the week at noon as a place of worship and sanctuary. Are we being called to do more?
This week an
article from the Episcopal News Service had a story about a congregation that
used $15,000 leftover from a capital building campaign to partner with an
organization that eliminated $4 million in medical debt. Emmanuel Memorial Episcopal
Church in
Champaign, Illinois, used an enexpected surplus to do something
unexpected. To partner with an
organization that buys medical debt for pennies on the dollar – like collection
agencies do, but instead of collecting the debt it is forgiven. No strings attached. No membership requirements. Just crushing medical debt released.[3]
There is a
hunger for a faith-based response in our society. I saw it here on Ash Wednesday where we had
Ashes to Go outside the J Street doors.
I saw the hunger in the over 200 people who came up wanting more. Wanting a prayer that called them to
action. Wanted the reminder that we are
called by God to remember that we are all equal – that in the mark of ash on
our foreheads that we are all called to remember that we are created by a
loving god and to that loving god we will return.
Our loving
God is calling us in the Gospel to act differently than our society would
expect. In the coming week we will
remember that our God acted differently than expected for a messiah. Instead of entering Jerusalem with an army to
overthrow the Roman Occupiers he will enter on a colt with a rag tag group of
disciples - who are certainly not an
army. A band of fisherfolk, tax
collectors, and women. We will witness a
messiah that instead of demanding worship will don a towel and wash his
disciples’ feet. We will witness a
messiah give a commandment that we are to love one another – to love all of God’s
beloved creation just as much a God loves us.
We will witness a messiah who instead of overthrowing the occupying
force is crucified. And ultimately on
Easter we will remember that the love that was crucified on Good Friday could
not be killed. We will witness the empty
tomb. An Empty tomb that calls us to the
unexpected. An empty tomb that continues
to call us out – out to do the unexpected. Out to show that we love God and we
love all of God’s beloved children.
No comments:
Post a Comment