Sunday, April 7, 2019

5^th Sunday in Lent

The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:

First Reading: Isaiah 43:16-21, Psalm: 126
Second Reading: Philippians 3:4b-14
Gospel Reading: John 12:1-8

The liturgical color for the day is: Purple

Mary has invited guests to dinner.  Jesus is there.  It is, as the gospel writer sets it up, the evening before Palm Sunday.  This woman takes that which is of great price.  In terms of what a laborer would earn, it is worth an entire year’s wages.

Mary takes that perfume and she pours it out over the feet of Jesus.  She anoints him with it—she then wipes his feet with her hair.

Mary was extravagant.  It was the most expensive and fragrant essence one could get their hands on—so concentrated that just the very minutest portion would have been enough to gently touch Jesus with and show him her love.

She took the whole thing—she took the whole thing and she anointed his feet with it.  The most precious thing she owned—she took it and she spent it all on Jesus.

Love is not love if it counts the cost.  She did not count the cost of love.  Love is not love if it counts the cost.

We tend to count the cost.

What do we do with our love as we approach this season of growing—this way of the cross—this march to Jerusalem?  What are we doing?

Are we being extravagant?

Mary’s extravagance did not count what it would cost her in giving up the perfume.  Her extravagance was going the distance FOR Jesus.  It works as a definition of extravagance.

Extravagance: going the distance FOR Jesus.  Going the distance FOR someone other than self…

Live out of extravagance.  Go the distance.  If we are counting the cost of love, then it is not love…

Daris Bultena
General Presbyter