Sermon Title: What is your perfume?
Sermon
Text: Mark 14:3-9
Sermon Date:
Palm Sunday, April 5, 2009
3-5Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the
Leper. While he was eating dinner, a woman came up carrying a bottle of very
expensive perfume. Opening the bottle, she poured it on his head. Some of the
guests became furious among themselves. "That's criminal! A sheer waste!
This perfume could have been sold for well over a year's wages and handed out
to the poor." They swelled up in anger, nearly bursting with indignation
over her. 6-9But Jesus said, "Let her alone. Why are you giving her
a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me. You
will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives. Whenever you
feel like it, you can do something for them. Not so with me. She did what she
could when she could—she pre-anointed my body for burial. And you can be sure
that wherever in the whole world the Message is preached, what she just did is
going to be talked about admiringly."
MESSAGE
The Israelites have done
it again. They are still complaining
about the conditions of their newfound freedom.
They want it all. A nice place to
live, food to eat, and transportation. I
have no doubt that they would want SIVs and not the energy efficient Hyundai
Genesis. It is hot and dry and thirsty,
tired, hungry and frustrated. Once again
the Israelites are venting their anger about Moses and God and God is not
pleased.
The story goes on that
God sent these poisonous snakes to prove that things could indeed get
worse. People were bitten and died and
once again they repented. They begged
God to remove the snakes, “Please, if you do this, we will never mess up
again.” But God doesn’t buy it and
instead of ridding them of the snakes, God gives them the chance to heal
themselves.
I cannot read this
scripture without thinking of my friend Peter Carman. We used to be in a clergy bible study
together and when this passage came up, the question was asked, “who was the
first person to stand in front of the bronze snake?” Peter’s answer? A mother with a sick child. Of course, doesn’t that make sense?
Can’t you imagine that
everyone else stood there waiting to see who would make the first move but this
mother whose child lay limp in her arms could wait no more and didn’t care how
it looked for her to go before a bronze snake.
Not long ago I was in
the grocery store with my mother in Scottsburg when a woman standing next to me
commented on my perfume. When I
mentioned I had on Obsession, she said, “I may follow you all around the
store!”
The perfume this unnamed
woman puts on Jesus was not for the scent, at least not the way I wear it. I wear perfume it to smell good in life; the
woman was anointing Jesus for his death.
At least that is why
Jesus says she did. We don’t know if she
knew that is why she was doing it or if she felt led by the Holy Spirit to do
this. I suspect you understand that –
you feel led to do something and later find out that God had a plan in your
actions. Maybe it was that way for her.
Each Gospel has a woman
anointing Jesus. However in Luke she
anoints Jesus much earlier, as if she is anointing him for his ministry. In Luke she washes his feet with her tears
and dries them with her hair. She is
called a woman who had lived a sinful life and his compassion and love for her
made her very emotional indeed.
In the Gospel of John,
she has a name – Mary. Is she Mary, the
sister of Lazarus and Martha or Mary Magdalene?
There is no evidence in scripture or otherwise that it was Mary
Magdalene so I suppose we will just have to wonder.
Whoever the woman is,
she has performed an important duty.
When we get to Friday, the day we remember that Jesus was crucified, his
body will be put into a tomb before it has been anointed. You see, Sabbath had begun and the task would
have to wait until tomorrow. Except that this woman did this for Jesus.
It is believed that the perfume she used is
spikenard, a flowering plant of the Valerian family. Grown in the Himalayans of India,
That is what it was…..a
sacrifice. If she paid for it, it was a
financial sacrifice. If it had been a
gift, she gave up something of her own to give this to Jesus.
Either way….giving up
her perfume was a sacrifice.
What is your
perfume? Not the scent you wear but the
sacrifice you give to Jesus.
Usually when we move
into Holy Week we ask people to take on a more somber mood. After all, this is serious stuff we are
talking about but I’d like you to enter in a reflective mood this year.
I want to thank you for
the ways in which you use your perfume to glorify God and honor Jesus.
First, let me thank you
for supporting First Baptist and its ministries.
It isn’t easy to talk
about money in church these days when people are struggling with finances at
home. Obviously the church needs money
to exist but I know that you do too. Maybe
your monthly income isn’t what it used to be.
Maybe you’ve lost your job or your hours have been cut. What we all need to remember is that when we
give to the church, we are giving to God.
When you sacrifice financially to God, you sacrifice just as the woman
who anointed Jesus did. Your financial sacrifice
may be your perfume and I, among others, are grateful that you care deeply
enough for this church to make the sacrifice.
I also want to thank you
for the sacrifice of your time. Many of
you are at the church or other activities during the week. This isn’t your only day here. Or you visit homebound or make shawls for the
ill. You shop for bread for the Bread
Giveaway and hand it out to the hungry.
You work on work days and help get ready for the church directory. You strive to encourage interfaith
dialogue. You plan worship and you study
the word of God.
I thank you for your
commitment to God, to Jesus and to First Baptist.
I also want to thank you
for the ways in which you contribute to the community and the way you use your
God-given gifts to improve our world.
You do wonderful things in many places and because of you the world is a
better place. When you give yourself to
others God is glorified.
I am entering Holy Week
a little reflective and very grateful…..like the woman who knelt at Jesus’ feet
and washed them with her tears. Like the
woman who anointed Jesus with very expensive perfume. Her gratitude for all Jesus had done for her
was evident. She came out of gratitude
and Jesus received it in the same way.
In a moment you will be
invited to come forward to receive communion, to share with other believers the
love Jesus has for each of us. My prayer
for us today is that as we take the bread and dip it in the cup, we will
receive the gift of Jesus with much gratitude.