This Christmas, our family received two very different kinds of gifts. One gift that was thoughtful and considerate, that took into consideration who were are and what we might enjoy. It was a print of a place we love, where we have deep roots, Milky Way Farm in Chester Springs. Steve and I both had tender memories before we got married, and since we have had children, it has been a part of our lives together. The gift was extravagant and beautiful. We offered heartfelt and tear-filled thank yous to the generous givers. And each time I see it above our mantle, I am thankful again for such a thoughtful and generous gift.
We also receive this Christmas one gift that was not in any way intended for us. It had our names on it, but it did not match us or our interests. It filled the checkmark of completing an expectation of exchanging gifts, but it did not reflect any care for us as individuals. It was not received from anyone in this room. We dutifully said our thank yous and wrote our notes, but all of our thank yous were perfunctory. We are still trying to figure out how to move it along, since it does not have a place in our lives.
Do you hear the difference in the two thank yous? One that is felt deep and expressed with tenderness. One that is barely scratching the surface of the obligatory thank you. Keep these distinctions in mind.
We have been exploring in this Lenten season intentional times of prayers. We have been starting from the basic observation that we all pray one word prayers as we travel through life. We find oops and help, please and why, wow slipping out of our mouths. We find ourselves praying sometimes without having a fully formed theology around what we are doing or what we hope or expect God to do through us and with us. We are praying. This Lent, we have been taking intentional time to more fully explore our prayers. This Sunday, we look at thanks.
Thanks seems like the easiest of prayers. It rolls off our tongues. It is what we say to someone who holds the door for us, even if we never look up from checking our texts on our phones. It is what we say to the grocery clerk absent-mindedly after we have purchased our groceries that were a bit more than we had budgeted. It is what we say to Fedex delivery. We throw off thank yous after we have encountered someone else. I am sure all of our parents would be proud to know our manners are intact. It is also what we throw off to God as we hurry over to our list of intercessions. There is for many of us, an obligatory thank you.
Giving thanks to God is much more than obligatory manners. Thanking God may be as simple as a quick thanks, but it has the potential to be so much more. Anne Lamott says it this way: “Gratitude begins in our hearts and then dovetails into behavior. It almost always makes you willing to be of service, which is where the joy resides. It means that you are willing to stop being such a jerk. When you are aware of all that has been given to you, in your lifetime and the past few days, it is hard not to be humbled, and pleased to give back.”1 Our gratitude leads us to extravagant acts of love.
In all four of the gospels, we hear the story of Jesus being anointed by a woman in the week prior to his death. In the gospel of Matthew and Mark, she is not given a name or identifying details, except that she carries an alabaster jar. In Luke, she is called a sinful woman and historical traditions have associated her with Mary Magdalene. In the gospel of John, this woman is Mary. This is the Mary who was listening at the feet of Jesus, when her sister Martha expressed such frustration at caring for all the household tasks without her help. This is the Mary who was with the men, listening intently and soaking up the wisdom of Jesus. It seems this is Mary who understood so well that she wanted to say thank you in a larger way for her life and for the life of her brother, Lazarus, who was dead in the tomb and was now alive.
Mary heard Jesus say multiple times that he was heading to the cross. She listened well. She heard Jesus prepare the disciples again and again for death and what comes next. Her thanks and gift was predicated on listening and caring. Perhaps, Mary gift even gave Jesus the courage and encouragement to continue down the road that he was committed to. Sometimes as travelers together on a path, we encourage and inspire our friends, family, and neighbors by hearing them and loving them. They continue to seek God, because someone has heard them and cared.
Even within the story of Mary’s anointing of Jesus, we hear the calls that she is extravagant. She has not rightly considered how money could be made and used for the poor from selling her perfume. Extravagance does not sit well with our cultural understanding of reduce, reuse, recycle. It also seems in contradiction to financial responsibility and serving the poor. But Judas and all of us have missed the heart of Mary here. We have missed that she has keyed into need more intuitively than the rest of us. Mary does not consider should I offer this to Jesus? Is this too much of me to give? She pours all that she has and says to Jesus – I give all I have to you. She offers her whole self to be used for the Gospel. And here we are two thousand years later highlighting and struggling with her extravagance.
Let me offer a bit of history and context. Anointing was traditionally done to kings by prophets. This was problematic in both camps. First of all, Jesus was not a political king, at least not a traditional one. Calling Jesus a king, anointing him as one was countercultural and ultimately, could get him killed (and it did). One king does not tolerate the presence of another in the same territory without conflict. Second of all, Mary was not a prophet, at least not a traditional one. Men were prophets. The only other people who anointed kings were sometimes priests. That also raised issues to consider Mary as a priest. But Mary pours her oil, her treasure over Jesus and anoints him. It is intimate; she undoes her hair and touches his feet. In traditional anointings of kings, they receive oil on their heads. We have wonderful verses about oil running off their beards and robes. Nowhere, except Jesus, is a king anointed on his feet. This clearly is a different kind of king. One who serves and disciples, cares and loves.
Mary experienced Jesus as God. She was moved with gratitude. Her life and her actions followed far beyond her words. Thank you was her prayer, and in the sincerity of her prayer, her actions mirrored her heart. Her thank you was not perfunctory or obligatory, but came from the deepest part of her soul and did not even need words.
Friends, you and I have too often prayed the perfunctory thank yous and given the ho-hum gifts. We have not given our best to God. We have not given our best to God’s people. We have pulled out a obligatory $5 bill instead of considering how God is calling us to intentionally tithe. We have brought in a can of old beans from the basement instead of considering how God is calling us to give all the parts of a meal to the food pantry. We have dropped off stained and ripped clothes to the rummage sale instead of offering wearable items. Here is where we have a chance to repent, to turn around and go towards God’s way. We have all been given gifts of God’s extravagance. Where do you find yourself filled with deep gratitude today? Where have you heard and known God in your life? Where do you need to give thanks and pray that your actions and life will follow in extravagance? Would you find the post-it note in the bulletin today? Take a moment a record a word or a phrase that reflects the well spring of how you are thankful today.
After worship, I invite you to take a moment and add your prayer to the prayer tree in the Lobby. Feel free to pause and pray along with the prayers of others. Giving thanks alongside those who are giving thanks, interceding with those in need of help, and joining all the rest in a mind of prayer that God will use even us to answer the prayers that we raise. We give thanks to God that God has been extravagant in love towards us. May we respond to God and offer our treasures at God’s feet in thanksgiving and gratitude.
This is the gospel of Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
1Lamott, Anne, Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers. 2012, 56-57.
New Testament Lesson: Psalm 126
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us,
and we rejoiced.
Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like the watercourses in the Negeb.
May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves.
Gospel Lesson: John 12:1-8
Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus,
whom he had raised from the dead.
There they gave a dinner for him.
Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.
Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet,
and wiped them with her hair.
The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him),
said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii
and the money given to the poor?”
(He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief;
he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)
Jesus said, “Leave her alone.
She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, March 13 ~ Saturday, March 19
Sunday: “Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.” John 12:1-2. Giving thanks to God for how God has moved in your life for Lazarus and Martha looked like throwing a dinner party. How do you give thanks to God?
Monday: “Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” John 12:3. Mary offered her thanks with her treasure. Is God calling you to share your treasure in order to give thanks to God?
Tuesday: “Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.” John 12: 7. Mary acts prophetically. Open yourself to how the Holy Spirit might use you to act prophetically.
Wednesday: “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’” John 12:8 Prayerfully consider how God is calling you to serve.
Thursday: “The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.” Psalm 126:3. How are you rejoicing with what God has done for you?
Friday: “May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.” Psalm 126:5. Contemplate how God might still move in your tears and anxieties to bring shouts of joy.
Saturday: “Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.” Psalm 126:6. Where might you thank God for where your weeping has become joy?