Lent 5
Reformation, Media
Larry V. Smoose
Our Gospel lesson outlines a classic church battle. The setting is a private home, the home of Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from death just a few days earlier. Jesus is enjoying a meal with his disciples, and in the midst of the meal, Mary, one of the hosts, brings out a jar of extremely expensive ointment, breaks open the bottle and uses it to anoint Jesus – an action of extreme generosity and graciousness. It catches the disciples by surprise. The immediate reaction of Judas – the treasurer of the group – was to protest this display of reckless extravagance as inappropriate, and to suggest that it would have been better to sell the ointment and use the proceeds to help the poor.
I had a similar experience during my first building program at God’s Love in 1983. The congregation badly needed the new sanctuary, but one group protested. They thought that we should not spend so much for the building – it was extravagant, and we should use the money for more benevolent programs. Through the years, this same issue has been battled out in a variety of forms -- Extravagance vs. Benevolence.
I understand the concern, because we live in a culture of extravagance! Flip through Philadelphia Magazine or Cosmopolitan or Men’s Health or Vanity Fair and you will see the fancy, glossy ads for perfumes and watches, sports cars and condo’s. And not just any old brand – Breitlinger and Rolex, Porsche and Mercedes, Gucci and Prada, vacations for the rich and million dollar properties. My wife’s son Chris, who is Chef de Cuisine at Emeril’s tells us about celebrities or business executives who come in and spend thousands of dollars for a bottle of wine. For the wealthy, extravagance is a daily routine that can almost be vulgar.
But Mary’s action in pouring the oil on Jesus was extravagance in its best form. It reminds us that sometimes it’s OK to be extravagant. Let’s remember this is Lazarus’ house and Lazarus was Mary’s brother. Mary’s extreme gratitude to Jesus required an extravagant gesture – and so she poured this amazingly expensive ointment over Jesus. Judas missed the point. He was so focused on the cost, so myopic in his understanding that he resented a beautiful act of love and devotion. Jesus’ commendation of her action, which silenced Judas, suggests that Jesus understood how extravagance can be an expression of unusual gratitude and love.
Without extravagance we wouldn’t have diamond engagement rings. Without extravagance we wouldn’t have holiday feasts or wedding banquets. Without extravagance we wouldn’t have church spires or new organs or flowers covering the chancel at Christmas and Easter or paraments on the altar. There is a time when our love or our devotion demand extravagance. And Jesus not only understood that reality, but was able to accept this lovely action with grace and humility.
Perhaps Jesus was using this moment to prepare the disciples for the days ahead, when Jesus would pour himself out in the most extravagant form of love imaginable. His death on the cross would become the ultimate expression of extravagant love, just as his action of washing the disciples’ feet was an extravagant expression of servanthood, and when Peter became the protester, hesitant to accept that gracious act of love, Jesus had to teach him now to accept extravagant love to prepare him for the days ahead.
Yes, sometimes it’s OK to be extravagant. In fact, I want to encourage you to live a life of extravagance, and in the process, to change the attitudes of all those around you about what it means to be extravagant.
I want you to be extravagant in your love of Jesus, expressing it in ways that reveal devotion and an appreciation for the great love God has shown to us. Like Mary, be extravagant in your gratitude and generosity to our Lord as a sign of your devotion. And that’s when the other miracle occurs. God has a way of turning our extravagant love and devotion into gifts that help those in need.
At God’s Love, after we built that sanctuary, within five years we had given away more in benevolence than the building cost – and that giving continues to mark its life and ministry. And this past week, I was awash in extravagance. For the second time in a year some of our members took a week of their vacation time, and paid their airfare, to help rebuild houses in New Orleans.
When we got there, we met 45 of the 400 students from Howard Univ. who gave up their Spring break to help. We stayed at Bethlehem Lutheran church, where Pastor Keen has turned his church into a center for re-building, hosting people every week, in gratitude for their willingness to come down to help. One of the women whose house we were working on, Patricia, poured oil on our head in the form of homemade cake and pies and another, Myrnette, made some po boys for our lunch.
Here are people who have experienced extreme extravagance from so many, and who respond in gratitude with extravagant kindness of their own. – And, That’s the secret! In a society in which extravagance is so often expressed or marketed with expensive things in glossy ads, Jesus shows us what real extravagance is. And once you have experienced it, nothing can replace it. And the aroma that you smell, that will fill this sanctuary and will fill your life, is the perfume of God’s Love. It emanates wherever the extravagance of love, the extravagance of gratitude and the extravagance of generosity are poured out, and both those who give and those receive are blessed, as the extravagance of love becomes a never ending circle designed to change the world.
The same Lord who raised Lazarus from death, who graciously received the anointing from Mary, who washed the feet of his disciples and who poured out his own life for the sake of humanity comes to us today and challenges us to be bold and brave enough to live a life of extravagant love, extravagant gratitude and extravagant grace.
Amen.