Sunday, 25 March 2007

The anointing


Lent 5 year C Sermon 07 Helping Jesus cry - the anointing

If you don’t survive this... I want you to know I love you.

Mary isn’t going to save her love for later.
The cost of loving Jesus starts right now.
In a week his life will hang in the balance
and Mary knows it...

and so does everyone else in the room.

And so with her hands and her hair...
and with the costly perfume
she’s saved for Jesus’ burial...
Mary seems to be saying...If you don’t survive this... at least I want you to know I love you.

Costly love...the kind of love Mary shows...
is costly...the kind of love Jesus shows during his last hours in Jerusalem... is costly love. The kind of love Jesus asks his followers to show...
followers like Mary...followers like us.

You know children intuitively
understand that kind of love. Someone asked an eight year old what love is... and her answer speaks volumes...

‘When my grandmother got arthritis,
she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time now, even when his hands get arthritis too. That's love she said."

And a six year old says...
"Love... is when you go out to eat...
and give somebody most of your chips...
without making them give you any of theirs."

Another child says: "Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."

Or when mummy makes coffee for daddy and takes a sip of it first... to make sure it tastes OK."

Or how about this one...I love this one...:
"Love... is what's in the room with you at Christmas... when you stop opening presents
and listen."

Another eight year old offers us this... "If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend
you hate,"

or "Love is like a little old woman and a little old man... who are still friends...
even after they know each other so well."

Or "Love is when your puppy licks your face...
even after you left him alone all day."

But the very best one... I found...
in the wonderful email Cheryl sent me this very week
about children’s intuitive understanding of love...

the best one... was a four year old whose eighty year old next door neighbor had recently lost his wife.

When the little boy saw the man sitting crying in his garden, he ran across the boundary...
And climbed into his lap, and just sat there quietly.

All the while his mum.... is watching out the kitchen window... and when the little boy comes back home she asks him what he’d said to the neighbor, and the little boy, "Nothing, I just helped him cry" [pause]

You could say Mary was helping Jesus cry. At lunch that day... just a week before his entry into Jerusalem.
She’s already engaging in the grief process they’d almost certainly face... in just a short time. She’s willing to pour out all the perfume willing to risk the ridicule of Judas...before it’s too late to let Jesus know how much she loves him...

Costly love for Jesus is what Paul is talking about in his letter to the church at Philippi

For Jesus sake I’ve suffered the loss of all things,
and regard them as rubbish, so I may gain Christ and be found in him... not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law...but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings
by becoming like him in his death.’ [pause]

You see the nard Mary uses to anoint Jesus’ feet...
is a rare and expensive perfume imported from India.
In the culture of her time...
it’s associated with love and with death.

And in a very short time, Nicodemus will bring spices
to help Joseph of Arimathea bury Jesus...
and the women will come to anoint Jesus body again:

The Greek word Christos means... the anointed one.
The Hebrew word Messiah means the anointed one.
Similar stories of a woman anointing Jesus...
are embedded in every Gospel account...
of Jesus passion and death. And in Mark’s story Jesus tells his followers...people will always remember her for this. And so we do...remember.

Love of this kind.... costs. And the pain we endure when we love this way costs us...the pain of... parental love shown in the story of the prodigal son, the huge effort taken by the shepherd to find the lost sheep...Jesus mother’s pain as she weeps at the foot of the cross.

My guess is that we’re unlikely to argue as Judas did.. about the practicality of loving this way...
when we are sitting with a loved one who’s dying
or when we’re looking for a lost child

So why then... do we argue about practicality when we talk about our mission of love as Christ’s Body the church our mission... to our community? It seems to me that like the Judas’ complaint...such arguments
take us away from the very centre of our faith...
arguing about practicality takes us away from Jesus’ command to love one another as he loved us...
and from Jesus’ request to take this commandment... to the ends of the earth....

I think arguments about the practicality of loving allow us to avoid true commitment...
and the costly love which goes with it.

As Christians...‘through worship praise and prayer... we’re called to know and love the God who already knows and loves us... and through sharing the mind of Christ and the fresh insight of the spirit we’re called to the costly love of others and all creation.

For, despite all our bad public relations to contrary, this costly love is what it means to be a Christian... what it means to be in committed relationship... first with Jesus Christ...in true devotion... honouring him... in his life, death and resurrection...

And next...and honouring him... by pouring ourselves out for one another in costly love.

In Jesus name... have the mandate
to affirm this costly love to all the world before it’s too late....

and whether Judas agrees... or not.

Sunday, 18 March 2007

The forgiven ones


Lent 4 year C Sermon 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 and Prodigal Son

What’s the point...of being good?

Here in Rembrandt’s famous painting... the return of the prodigal son. You can just about hear the older brother’s anger...and bitterness

What’s the point of being faithful and obedient?

I just should’ve lazed around drinking and eating and having a good time and enjoying myself. I could’ve lied and cheated my way through school. I should’ve had that affair... I should’ve just put my kids into day care and got on with my career... I should’ve spent all my money on travel and excitement and cars and big houses and clothes.

But noooooo.... I did all the right things....never rebelled... tried to be a good and grateful child...
took care of the farm and the house...and the garden...
I obeyed you, I obeyed the law, I gave money to charity....never asked for anything....[pause]

I thought after all my years of devotion
and hard work... I could earn a special place in your heart... a place just for me.

Now it seems like a complete waste of my time.... I’m so angry I could cry...This whole brother thing just confirms what I’ve always suspected...
I’m never going to be loveable...no matter what I do...[pause.....]

And can you hear it...right there from that pile of rags on the floor in the shape of a man... you can hear the younger brothers’ anguished sobs?

‘This terrible stupid thoughtless thing I’ve done... I’ve ruined everything... I’ll pay for this the rest of my life...You’ll never trust me... or love me again.

I’ve lied and cheated and whored around...I’ve made a mess of everything. Wasted everything...I don’t deserve to be loved... I’m never going to be loveable...no matter what I do... [pause]

One brother says...I’m never gonna be lovable no matter what I do...and the other brother says... [pause]
I’m never gonna be lovable no matter what I do...

How can two people with such completely different life experiences...come to the same heartbreaking conclusion? ‘I’m never gonna be loveable...
no matter what I do...

It’s a very common lie people tell themselves...and others...a widespread misunderstanding...here in our church... and in our community...and that’s why we like to say... the bible lives. Because that’s exactly what the story of the Prodigal Son is all about... something many of us feel today..

Two brothers...

one trying to earn love...by being the good son...
the other certain...there’s no love left to earn... because he’s squandered it all...both labouring under the same self defeating illusion of being unloved and unlovable.

But did you notice what happens in the story Jesus tells about how the Father loves?
Did you notice the father throws dignity to the wind.. when he runs out... arms open wide... to greet his rebellious son...

and did you notice... the father ignores the rules of being a good host... as he walks out on all his guests ...to urge his bitter older son...to come back in and rejoice with him.

Come back....I love you... I’ve always loved you... let’s be reconciled...let’s patch things up...and let all our relationships be healed. [pause]

My child your attitude is wrong...your insistence you had to earn my love was wrong...you misunderstood and your brother misunderstood...I love you... regardless...in spite of....just come back home... just turn around and come back in.

Neither of you understand the way I see you...[pause]

And this attitude...this misunderstanding...
is what Paul is pointing out to the Corinthians in our other text we heard this morning.

We...Paul’s talking about Jesus followers...
we don't look at people the way the world looks at them.

And I’m reading from the Message Translation now…
we don't look at people the way the world looks at them. Why? ‘Because when Jesus died... he died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. Jesus included everyone in his death so everyone could be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people could ever live on their own.’

When Jesus died... he died for everyone. Everyone...everyone, everyone...

Paul goes on...
‘God put the world square with himself...
through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins.’

In Jesus...God settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other.

So we don’t look at people the same anymore...we don’t look at ourselves the same anymore...dividing the world into the forgiven and the unforgiven...that’s the way the world looks at people...

And Paul tells us...God’s given us...Jesus followers... the job of telling everybody what God is doing.
We're Christ's representatives now.
We're speaking for Christ himself now... Paul says ...when we encourage people to make it up with God; because he's already waiting for them. And God uses us to encourage people... to make it up with each other. [pause]

‘Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.’ Through the work of Jesus... everyone is forgiven... the only difference is.... people whose lives are a living hell...just don’t know about it...yet.

And we here beneath these mountains and beside these lakes...we are called to the same ministry of reconciliation to which the young church in Corinth was called. We’ve been commissioned...to tell everyone the good news...come back in from the cold of your bitterness...come home from your lost ness. We will welcome you as the father welcomes you.

The Father is waiting... arms open wide...and not just waiting... but running.... toward you... telling you you’re loved... and before you can even open your mouth... before you can say... Father I have sinned against you...

before a word is on your tongue... you’re hoisted high upon his shoulders... so the celebrating can begin. [pause]

We aren’t to look upon people as the world looks upon them...we’re to see them...the way Jesus taught God sees us.

And Jesus...the one who died for everyone says...
I am the way, the truth, and the life...and

no one comes to the father except through me...

and Paul reminds us...
If you’ve come back to the Father you’ve come back through Jesus...because Jesus has opened the way back to God for everyone

So come back from your guilt or your resentment of others...from your misunderstanding of grace.

In Jesus Christ you’ve already been forgiven...
all you have to do is receive it. Come back...
the Father is waiting.