Fifth Sunday in Lent - Year C (RCL) 2010

Fifth Sunday in Lent – Year C (RCL) 2010
Isaiah 43: 16 – 21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3: 4b – 14; John 12: 1 – 8
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR
Sunday, March 21, 2010

THE SWEET SMELL OF DEATH

Let us pray: Holy One of God we remember this day our repentance and reconciliation, which have been the focus of our Lenten journey. As we draw ever closer to the events of your passion and sacrifice at Jerusalem our hearts become heavier with the knowledge of our complicity in your suffering at the hands of humankind. You speak words of warning and we choose to ignore your call to love each other as you have loved us. Fill us this Passiontide with the strength to see the gift of your love in the faces of the poor and forgotten who are among us as the living embodiment of your grace which remains with us always. Amen.

(SUNG) WOMAN YOUR FINE OINTMENT, BRAND NEW AND EXPENSIVE
SHOULD HAVE BEEN SAVED FOR THE POOR. WHY HAS IT
BEEN WASTED? WE COULD HAVE RAISED MAYBE THREE
HUNDRED SILVER PIECES OR MORE. PEOPLE WHO ARE
HUNGY, PEOPLE WHO ARE STARVING – THEY MATTER MORE
THAN YOUR FEET AND HAIR.

The journey toward Jerusalem and the events of the passion, death and resurrection draw closer and closer in our liturgical year. This mornings narrative from the author of John’s Gospel places us in Bethany, and mere five miles from the gates of the holy city where throngs will gather to cry out for the blessed one who comes in the name of the Lord. It is six days before the Passover the author tells us; and we are well aware of the events which will unfold at that Passover feast. This day though in Bethany of Judea, Jesus will share a meal given for him at the home of Lazarus who had been restored to life from death. We can assume that many have gathered in this small town to see, once again, this preacher from Nazareth who was accomplishing acts mightier than any of the prophets of old. All four Gospel evangelists tell a version of this story of the anointing of Jesus as a symbolic preparation for events which will unfold in the days ahead. We jump from the author of Luke/Acts telling to the author of John’s telling in order to maintain the timeline in the narrative. The author of Luke/Acts places this event earlier in Jesus’ public ministry and at the home of a Pharisee where a woman of questionable repute washes Jesus’ feet with her tears, dries them with her hair and anoints them with ointment. We pick up the story in the Johannine text so that we can move the narration timeline along and arrive at the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, where the foreshadowing of Jesus’ burial anointing is laid out as is the betrayal by Judas Iscariot who is also present at this meal. Mary, in an act of costly generosity takes a pound of perfume made from Nard which was imported from India and hence extremely expensive – and anoints Jesus’ feet; then in an act which would have been scandalous to all who viewed it; pulls down her hair and dries the savior’s feet with it. The Iscariot Judas, unable to contain his indignation at this extravagance lashes out and demands an explanation and judgment against her behavior.

(SUNG) SLEEP AND I SHALL SOOTHE YOU, CALM YOU AND ANOINT
YOU, MYRRH FOR YOUR HOT FOREHEAD/THEN YOU’LL
FEEL EVERYTHINGS ALRIGHT YES, EVERYTHINGS FINE.
AND IT’S COOL AND THE OINTMENTS SWEET, FOR THE FIRE
IN YOUR HEAD AND FEET, CLOSE YOUR EYES, CLOSE YOUR
EYES AND RELAX THINK OF NOTHING TONIGHT.

Mary in her generous and extravagant act is blessed by Jesus who is grateful for the opportunity to pause, however briefly, before the coming onslaught and bask in the fragrant glow of a blessed moment of peace. It is almost as if the Gospel author gives us this moment to gather our breath and our minds about us before we are thrust into the chaos and confusion which will accompany Jesus and the followers in the coming days. Jesus is aware of what Mary has done – even if she is not – in preparation for what must be faced in the approaching days of betrayal and death. The high cost of her perfumed gift matches the higher cost of the offering which will be given at week’s end on the hardwood of the cross.

As we prepare for the upcoming re-telling of the pivotal piece of our Christian story, we are struck by the quickening pace of our narrative and the events that surround the band of disciples who will join Jesus in Jerusalem for the Passover feast, and the whirlwind three days that will mark Christ’s suffering, death and burial. Just at the gates of Jerusalem we pause and reflect on the anointed one who will carry out the greatest act of love known to humankind – the offering of one’s life for one’s friends. I wonder if Jesus is trembling with the fear and anticipation of what awaits him and his disciples. I wonder if we are ever truly ready for the events we live out each Passion tide as we continue the journey with this one whom we have claimed as our Savior.

Our beloved Episcopal Church has once again grabbed the world spotlight as we begin to experience the bantering and political posturing from across the pond to the news that The Rev. Mary Glasspool has received the required consents from Bishops and Standing Committees to permit her Consecration as Bishop Suffragan in the Diocese of Los Angeles to proceed. On Wednesday the office of the Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church, The Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori announced that the majority consents required had been received. The following day a communiqué from Lambeth Palace, the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury was released that said among other things; “It is regrettable that appeals from Anglican Communion bodies for continuing gracious restraint have not been headed…following the Los Angeles election in December, the Archbishop made clear that the outcome of the consent process would have important implications for the communion…further consultation will now take place about the implications and consequences of this decision.” The Episcopal Church has made it clear with the election and consecration of The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson in the Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003; and now the election and pending consecration of the Rev. Mary Glasspool in the Diocese of Los Angeles that we have ended our fractious debate on the issue of the inclusion of ALL of God’s children to ALL of the sacramental rites and orders of our Church. We will continue to hold our sisters and brothers in the Anglican Communion who respectfully disagree with our decisions in our hearts and our prayers and we will continue to join with them at God’s holy table to share the joy of our Good News in Christ Jesus that no one will be turned away from the bounty of God’s grace and blessing in our Church.

It is with great relief and joy that I report to you that the ongoing demons of institutional disgrace have been turned aside by the persistence and good graces of many folks who have looked deep into their hearts and seen their hardness and have chosen to repent and return on this Lenten journey. The nursing staff of the unit at the Oregon State Hospital where our parishioner is staying has communicated that they will accept a visit from your priest and deacon this afternoon. Ken and I will travel to Salem and join with our brother in prayers of healing and blessing as he looks to regain some of the dignity of his personhood in the midst of a difficult system that needs much reform. Our persistent prayers and pleadings have moved an institutional block just a hair’s breathe enough to let the grace of God move in and our Christian commitment to visit the sick can be lived out.

Our community of faith, which has been looking to move outside of the red doors of our facility is gaining ground; sacred grounds that is – and the service of meditation and prayer held at the new location of Cello Coffeehouse downtown was a rousing success this past Wednesday. About twenty of us gathered in prayer and fellowship in this latest move to bring the Good News out into our neighborhood. Thanks are due to all of you who joined us and a challenge is renewed to invite a friend or neighbor who might not know about our community to join you either here on a Sunday morning or at one of the other services of Holy Week that will dramatically re-tell the story of our redemption and renewal in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Beginning next Sunday we enter that special time of our liturgical year that we call Holy Week. The music is being polished, the drama is being set up and the excitement is beginning to build. The penultimate acts of our salvation will be retold on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday – and the great celebration of the Resurrection is not far behind. We have so much to be excited about – so much to be grateful for and so much to share with those who have yet to become aware of the power of the Gospel alive in this place. When we greet each other across the aisles at the exchange of peace this morning, we should be conscious of those who are here with us to relive our Christian story – and we should be more aware of those who are not and how we can bring them to join us in the work we have been called to do. God asks no more of us than God is willing to do for us; and what God has done for us in the life, death and resurrection of the Christ is amazing news meant to be shared with all of creation so that the Good Friday sacrifice may burst with the empty tomb of Easter joy.

Amen.