Year C Lent 5 2022 Appreciative & Yet Ready to Change

 Year C Lent 5, 3 April 2022

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Appreciative and Yet Ready to Change”

Collect: Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Philippians 3:4b-14

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that 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, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

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."

“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” What we value, the things we hold most dear is what shapes the choices we make, and the course of our lives. 

Back in college, I had a dear friend ask why I would “waste my life,” his exact words, being a minister. It sounds awful and harsh, but I was able to hear what he was saying. He, in a very different way, was telling me that he loved me, and he did not want me to give my life to something that he saw as a waste of time and energy. We love what we love. I have always loved church, and we are going through a phase when fewer and fewer are feeling a felt need for the church and its place in the world.

I value church, the Bride of Christ, and I have given my life to her health and well-being serving denominationally and locally at the church level. Because of this value I give it, it becomes a priority, and my identity, for good or bad, is closely linked to my role caring for the church. 

Do I think the church could be better? Of course.

But do I throw the baby out with the bathwater? Of course not.

The only way to make things better is to stay in the game.

I value the outcomes too much to opt out of the game.

There is a tension in all our lives. We see what is. We ponder what could be. We look around, and we COULD see with eyes of disgust, saying that things are not the way they should be, and we can envision with our minds’ eye what could be. The strain between the two is often what puts a fire in our belly to get up and make a change. It is normal, and right, and good.

But for most of us, we do not get up and do something about it. We look at the problems, and sit in our funk. We could sit there and stew in it, but does that do any good at all?

Are things the way they could be? No.

Could things be different? Yes.

Am I willing to make the change that I wish to see? Am I?

That’s the rub. Right there. That’s it. That’s where most of us stop.

There are very few stories found in all four gospels, but the washing of Jesus’ feet is. This story was so pivotal to the early church that no matter which audience and author, they needed to make sure that this story was included. We best pay attention.

In the various gospels, this story is told slightly differently. The location is ambiguous, or the woman performing this grace is ambiguous. But here in John it is Mary, the sister of Lazurus. So overwhelmingly thankful, she takes something worth a working person’s yearly wage and gives it as an extravagant gift to Jesus.

And “haters gonna hate.” Instead of being overwhelmed in the beauty of the moment, and appreciating what is, Judas Iscariot gets preachy and judgy and pontificating about waste and how it could have been spent on the poor.

Friends, could it have been spent on the poor? Yes, of course. But that was not Judas’ call. It was Mary’s gift. It was Mary’s choice. She chose extravagance.

It comes back to what we value. Mary valued Jesus above her costly perfume. 

Jesus valued Lazarus above the laws of thermodynamics. (i.e. Dead things stay dead.)

Judas valued money over anybody or anything else.

We look at what we value when we look around. That rub that I started with. The tension between what is and what should be. 

Instead of looking around in disgust at what is wrong, I think Jesus is inviting us to a different way. 

This world wants us to get caught up in the “Woulda Shoulda Coulda” of consumerism. It makes us see with “Less Than” eyes instead of Appreciative Eyes. It makes us scan and miss the beauty that is right before us, the gift that is lying at our feet.

Jesus looked at this gift beyond words, beyond measure. In his final days the aroma of this perfume may still have been present on him. When the nails pierced his feet he could know his body had been prepared and that he had lived a life and that he was loved. At least one person loved him once.

A small conciliation, but a gift in and of itself. A grace.

What we so often, TOO OFTEN, take as a privilege could very well be the one thing holding us back. We have to be better about appreciating WHAT IS. Jesus took this gift, as it was, and gave thanks to God. But there is more, we must also be ready when God calls us to bigger, and probably better, things.

St. Paul when he was running around with his old name, Saul, he found his greatest pride, the value of his identity in his Jewish heritage. It was what he valued most. Named for the first King of Israel, his name meant “Asked For” or “Prayed for.” And then after being confronted by Christ he became something new, someone different. His values shifted and he became Paul, not even a Hebrew name, a Latin one meaning “Humble.” From God’s Gift that was prayed for, to the Humble One. That is quite a change.

He says it better than I could in today’s reading from Philippians:

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ…

…this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul sees what came before. And he recognizes the value they once held for him. But there is something greater, stronger, better, that calls him to change, and grow, and LIVE.

Friends, as we finish our Lent, our realigning our values with Christ each and every year, our yearly appraisal and stripping away, may we come to be like Christ more and more each and every day.

We do not scorn our past or even our present. Even here there are things that are precious and worthy. And then we step beyond them as we can into tomorrow. 

As we wake in the morning, our attitude can be like that of Zoraida Rivera Morales in her poem, “The Gift.”

“The Gift” by Zoraida Rivera Morales

This new day is a gift — 

I open my eyes. 

It looks beautiful 

wrapped with Your Love, 

full of possibilities — 

and I haven't even 

taken off the ribbons.

I'll open it slowly 

during the day 

sure to find — 

people to love, 

things to laugh at, 

and places where the touch of my hand 

can make a difference.

Appreciative AND Committed to Change. The rub is actually here, my friends. Will we commit to being Thankful and Growing, Appreciative and Transformative? It goes against everything the world is trying to get us to do. Nothing external can make a substantive difference in you. Transformation starts with your heart, and then the whole world can be changed. One life, one heart at a time.

From our Isaiah 43 reading today we have it from God’s own mouth, by way of Isaiah. God is about upturning the old and bringing in the new. God is not the God of the Status Quo, God is the God of Divine Intent, the God of Making All Things New. 

Do not remember the former things,

or consider the things of old.

I am about to do a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert.

Let go of what came before. 

Perceive what is happening right now. 

Be ready for the New Thing that God is about to do!  Amen.