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28 March - Lent 5

Very Rev Lawrie Hampton

The Readings

Isaiah 43: 16-21 The second Isaiah writes as the exile in Babylon is coming to its end, The preceding verses (14-15) speak of the coming fall of Babylon. God will break down the bars of the captivity for your sake. Our passage first reminds the people of the mighty acts of God in rescuing his people from slavery in Egypt, and goes on to promise that God will do a new thing, even more marvellous than that Exodus, bringing the people this time not through the sea, but through the terrible wilderness that lies between the people and their homeland.

Psalm 126 “Psalms 120 -134 …are known as Songs of Ascents, that is, ‘songs for the way up’ to Jerusalem. These songs were sung by members of the Covenant people who either wanted to make the ‘ascent’ to Jerusalem, which lies about 2300 feet above sea level, in order to attend one of the covenant festivals, or were pilgrims who were already on the way up or had even reached the great outer gate of the Temple.” (George A F Knight: The Daily Study Bible: Psalms, Volume II)

In this Psalm, the event that was promised in our Isaiah reading is remembered and celebrated with great joy. The second half of the Psalm recognises that the return of the exiles is not complete, and prays for their safe return; it may also reflect the difficulties being experienced by the returned people in rebuilding their life in their homeland. It looks to a joyous completion of the process.

Philippians 3: 4-14 The lectionary has us reading during Lent a pot-pourri of apparently unconnected selections from Paul’s letters. Today we return to the letter to the Philippians, to the chapter before that from which we read on the second Sunday in Lent. In the NRSV and NIV (as in the Greek) this reading begins in the middle of a sentence! – but not in the REB or GNB. Paul outlines the grounds on which – if such a claim was valid - he could claim to have earned God’s favour. But he insists that such claims are totally invalid. Indeed, his history as an orthodox Jew and Pharisee, and his zeal and his righteousness are irrelevant – indeed he regards them as rubbish (NRSV, REB, NIV) or garbage (GNB). The Greek word means refuse or dung. One commentator suggests an appropriate translation would be muck. Whatever, it’s a strong word with which to contrast his former religion with the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord.

John 12: 1-8 In Mark’s Gospel (14: 3-9) we read of an unnamed woman who breaks open an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and with it anoints Jesus’ head. This takes place when our Lord is at table in the home of Simon the leper, in Bethany, and there are anonymous protests that the ointment was wasted and could have been sold and the proceeds used for the poor. Matthew (26: 6-13) tells the same story, but here it is the disciples who are angry about the waste. Luke (7: 36-50) has a similar story, set at the house of Simon, who is described as a Pharisee. The woman, delicately described as a woman in the city who was a sinner, anoints not Jesus’ head but his feet, and bathes them in her tears. The objection in Luke’s story is not about extravagance, but, coming from Simon the host, is a complaint that if Jesus were a prophet he’d have known about the woman’s unsavoury reputation, and in response Jesus tells a story, and the account closes on the subject of the relationship between love and forgiveness.

In today’s lection, John’s version, the woman is Mary of Bethany, and here, as in Matthew and Mark, but not in Luke, Jesus relates the anointing to his coming death.

Scholars are still not agreed as to the relationship between these stories, whether they are all versions of the one incident, or relate to two or three different but similar events.

In John’s Gospel, we are told the value of the perfume: three hundred denarii. The NRSV in a footnote says that 300 denarii would be nearly a year’s wages for a labourer. It’s impossible to convert this into our money value, but it would have to be many thousands of our dollars. In John’s version it’s Judas Iscariot who raises objections about the extravagance and says the money could have been used for the poor. It is no accident that the narrative goes straight on to tell of the plot to kill our Lord. The woman’s extravagance and Judas’s meanness of spirit form a stark contrast.

Preaching

Undeniably, Judas had a point. Mary’s was an extravagant act, by any standard. A sermon might make something of the contrast between Mary’s gross extravagance – not only the cost of it, but that while, like Chanel No 5, only the merest dab is needed, Mary impetuously pours a whole jar of it on Jesus. Caught up in a flood of warm-hearted gratitude and devotion, she performs this grossly extravagant act for the one who has done so much for her. Undoubtedly the poor people of Bethany could have been helped by a gift of this amount of money. But contrast on the one hand the cold, calculating, bean-counting attitude of Judas, reducing everything to dollars (denarii) and, on the other hand, the unbounded enthusiasm of Mary, pouring out her heart and perfume equally lavishly in a deed that no one can ever account for in the coinage of any country.

The house was filled with the fragrance – as indeed it would be, in such quantity. But this is also speaking, in the manner of the fourth Gospel, of the fragrance of Mary’s deed. It is the equivalent of Mark’s She has done a beautiful thing to me (Mk 14:6 NIV; the NRSV has She has performed a good service for me, which sounds inappropriately pedestrian in the context; It is a fine thing she has done for me (REB)). The Hebrew Scriptures have several passages where God is pleased with the soothing odour, a sweet savour that rises from the earth. Whenever the ancient writers use this image, it is always in connection with an offering made to God. There is an element of beauty and fragrance about God’s relationship with his people. You might like to ask what kind of fragrance ascends to God from our offering of worship.

All the four accounts of the anointing of Jesus see it as pointing forward to Jesus’ death, as does our observance of this season of Lent. Lesslie Newbigin, in 'The Light has Come – An exposition of the Fourth Gospel' writes: “The reply of Jesus (v. 7) is not easy to interpret. Mary cannot keep for his burial what she has already poured out. The words can have the sense, ‘It was that she might keep it for the day of my burial,’ and this seems to be the meaning. Mary has not given this to the poor, but has kept it for an act which is a true expression of love and concern. As Mark has it: ‘She has anointed my body beforehand for burying.’” . . .. To set alms for the poor over against devotion to Jesus is to miss the real motive for Christian discipleship. Devotion to Jesus and gratitude for his service will lead in fact to a service of the poor (which will always be needed) in a manner quite different from a legally required almsgiving. It will be in fact part of the fragrance of the gospel which is destined to fill the whole world.”

Prayer

Call to worship.
The skies above us tell of the glory of God. The world around us shows the wisdom of God.
Jesus the Christ brings to us the beauty of God’s love and care.
 Let us worship God.

Prayer We worship you, God eternal, our Father.
 We honour you, maker of everything good.
 Your love, declared to us in Jesus Christ – his life, his teaching, his suffering, his death,
 his risen presence with us, his grace, beyond our deserving, bringing freedom and life.
 For it all, we honour you, Lord God. We give ourselves to worship you in spirit and in truth.
 Amen.

You have done great things for us, eternal God, in the history of our nation,
and in the chronicle of our own life.
We have received so much that is good and beautiful, bringing colour to our life, and joy to our heart;
your goodness and your mercy, following us all the days of our life.

You have been with us, deepening our delights, multiplying our joys,
giving to us patience and hope and strength in our troubles.
We know that sometimes in our joy we forget that all that is good in our life is your gift to us;
and sometimes in our sorrows and our difficulties we can be resentful and full of complaints . . .
Here, in this quiet time we remember again, that though we may forget you,
you do not forget us, and your forgiving love never comes to an end.

We ask you for a stout heart, to bear our own burdens, a tender heart to bear the burdens of others,
and a trusting heart to share our burdens with you, our eternal Father, for you care for us.
In warm-hearted love, and in whole-hearted worship, may we always serve you our God
in the name and the spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.