Rev. Debbie Cato
Isaiah 43:16-21and
John 12:1-8
Fairfield Community
Church
April 3, 2022
Let us Pray: Holy God, sometimes our waking is
a prayer. Sometimes the song we have stuck in our head, rumbling around on
repeat, is a prayer. Sometimes the way we talk to our children and the way we
hug the dog is a prayer. Sometimes the way we take our phone out to get a
picture of the sunset or the people we love—that is a prayer. Other times,
prayer is moments like this— heads bowed, eyes closed, hearts quiet for just a
moment. And in all of it, we trust you to hear us. Help us to hear you in
return. Gratefully we pray, Amen. ( Rev. Sara Speed santifiedart.org)
Brazen
Faith
Jesus was
friends with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and it hasn’t been that long since Jesus
raised Lazarus from the dead. He is back at their house for dinner – Luke tells
us it is 6 days before Passover so it is about a week before the beginning of
what I will call, “Jesus’ walk to the cross.”
A week before his last Passover with his disciples and before his
arrest, condemnation, torture, and crucifixion.
A week before all this is to happen, Jesus is hanging out with friends
for dinner. What an ordinary thing to
do.
And yet it’s not. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead! Mary, Martha, and Lazarus know who he is. They believe. Jesus is no ordinary friend. He is the Messiah! So of course, Mary and Martha joyfully welcome Jesus into their home and they give a dinner for him. Martha served and Luke tells us that Lazarus was one of them at the table with Jesus. We also learn that Judas Iscariot, the disciple that will later betray Jesus, was also there.
While they are lounging at the table, Mary takes a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard and anoints Jesus’ feet, and then wipes his feet with her hair.
Now, we learned something during our Wednesday night Soup & Study that I think is important to share here. In Jesus’ time, people did not sit around the table in chairs like we do, which I imagine we are all picturing in our minds. First, they always took their sandals off at the door because their sandals were filthy from walking on dusty roads. So, they ate barefoot. Then, they sat around the table on the floor in a reclined position, resting on an arm with their feet tucked behind them. I would demonstrate but I would never get up off the floor again!
The reason this is important is because Mary had easy access to Jesus’ feet, but not easy access to his head. So rather than anoint his head with the perfume, she anoints his feet.
Now this perfume was incredibly expense. Judas Iscariot points out that it cost three hundred denarii. Three hundred denarii would be nearly a year’s wages for a laborer. Just think – a years wages. It’s possible this perfume was originally intended to anoint her brother’s body when he died but it was not needed. Jesus raised Lazurus from the dead.
It was an extravagant act. Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet is an extravagant act of public worship. Her faith does not hide. It is embodied, broken open, and poured out. This isn’t a frugal faith—it is an abundant, extravagant faith. Mary’s act is also risky—she puts her full body into it, sort of like a protest. It’s intimate. She exhibits a shameless and brazen faith.
Mary doesn’t need to use words; her yearning, her worship, her gratitude, and her love are enacted wholly through her body. Just as Jesus later breaks bread with his disciples, Mary breaks open the jar in her hands, allowing its contents to pour freely over Jesus’s feet. Just as Jesus later washes his disciples’ feet to demonstrate what radical love looks like, Mary expresses her love with her hands and her hair. Just as Jesus later offers up his broken body for the healing of all, Mary offers up a costly breaking in order to demonstrate her love for her Lord.[1]
In her blog, Debi Thomas writes, “Mary recognizes the importance of meeting the world’s brokenness, cynicism, and pain with priceless, generous beauty. Even as death looms, she chooses to share what is heartbreakingly fragile and fleeting: a fragrance. A sensory gift. An experience of beauty.”[3]
As people of faith, we are called to crack ourselves open, pouring out the richness of what is within us to more fully worship God. We cannot hide pieces of ourselves or grasp onto expectations that distract from what God created and creates within us. We are free to bring our whole selves as a living testimony to who God has made and makes us to be, both what we label as good and that which we hide from the world.[4]
Christ’s love for us is so extravagant; so brazen; that in six days, he will enter Jerusalem and begin his journey to his crucifixion – his final act of unabashed love for each of us. Love that leads him to sacrifice his life so our sins are forgiven and we can have eternal life. A love that leads him to sacrifice his life so each of us can live.
We must ask ourselves what kind of worship do we offer him in return? Yes, we show up on Sunday. Yes, we stand when we are supposed to. Yes, we speak when it’s our turn. Yes, some of us sing but some of us don’t because “our voices are not good.” How much do we hold back? What would it look like to have brazen faith? To not hold back? To have extravagant faith? To believe that our worship is for God and not for us or the people sitting next to us. Is this enough? Or should there be more?
What if our faith were so brazen that being in church to worship God was a priority over other things? What if it was so important that we invited others to join us? What if we were so excited to be together and hear God’s word that we wanted our friends and family to hear too? What if we took those kinds of risks for the sake of our faith?
Lutheran minister Reagan Humber puts it this way: “What won’t always be with us is the opportunity to see God in whatever and whomever stands in front of us right now. The kingdom of God is here. Right now is the moment when God can break our hearts. The love of God is the grace of now.”[5]
What would our church be like if we were known as a church with outrageous faith? If we showed that faith in extravagant ways in the community? Not preaching and being self-righteous but loving our neighbors and meeting their needs the way Jesus did. What would that look like? What would it mean to our community if people saw ordinary people like you and me being extravagant in our faith? What would it mean to our church?
Mary’s love for Jesus; her belief that he was the Christ filled her with so much joy, that she was brazen enough to break an alabaster jar of expensive perfume over his dirty feet and wipe it with her hair in front of other dinner guests. What are you willing to do for your faith? Amen.
[1] https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay?id=3357. Debi Thomas.
Posted 3.27.2022. Beauty and
Breaking.
[2] Biblical commentary by Rev. Ashley DeTar Birt &
Rev. Larissa Kwong Abazia. Santifiedart.com Full to the Brim.
[3] Journey with Jesus. Debi Thomas. Posted 3.27.2022. Beauty and Breaking
[4]
Biblical commentary by Rev. Ashley DeTar Birt
& Rev. Larissa Kwong Abazia.
Santifiedart.com Full to the
Brim.
[5]
https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay?id=3357. Debi Thomas.
Posted 3.27.2022. Beauty and
Breaking.
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