"An Incredible Gift of Excess" March 17, 2013

Isaiah 43: 16-21 John 12: 1-8 Syracuse University lost last night to Louisville... The President and Congress are no closer to compromise than they have been in five years... For the first time in 600 years The Pope resigned, and two weeks later we have another Pope... Fighting in Afghanistan continues, as do fears of nuclear war between North and South Korea, between Israel and Iran... We live in a very pragmatic world, nothing really changes, people do not change, we may be momentarily surprised but what seemed newsworthy quickly fades into routine, with technology we can explain away miracles. Far and away the majority of us may not believe God Grew Tired of Us, but that God forgot us all together. We had given up on there being a God, we took life for granted, and like Tinkerbell disappearing if we do not believe, with our having given up on God, it seemed as though God gave up believing in us. What would you say if I told you that late last week, the Church received a letter from an attorney, stating that the church was given an incredible gift. An anonymous donor wanted to make an offering of $50,000,000. I thought that might get your attention. Some are wondering who. Some are wondering if this is a dream. Several are waiting to hear what strings are attached, how is this offering earmarked. If invested, with a return of as little as 2% /year the interest alone would be equal to three times our total Operating Budget. Does it need to be used for mission, or charity, or maintenance? Some are already thinking what will we do with the interest, let alone the gift. Others have begun calculating whether we still need to make our offerings, whether the church needs our gifts and contributions when there is promise of such an embarrassing excess. But the promise is not ours to control, to spend. The promise is of an offering to God. In the language we are most accustomed to, this is a statement, quite an emphatic, excessive, even embarrassing statement of devotion to God. But as your Preacher, as your Pastor, the question I need to ask is “Whether it makes any difference?” The Nation of Israel had grown to be the most affluent and powerful Monarchy in the world. Under King Solomon, the Nation that had been set free from slavery in Egypt and had become a Superpower. But in an equal number of generations, the people of faith came to trust only in themselves. For decades, there had been drought, famine disease, the Assyrians had attacked, then the Babylonians. Most no longer believed in the Monarchy, in the government, an even the King had forgotten God. It seemed there were two classes of people, the widows and orphans and poor and disabled, and those with means with education with opportunity. But at the end of the War, those with education and opportunity were the first taken away to Babylon. The greatest most affluent and powerful nation in the world were handed over as Prisoners of war, marched 900 miles across the desert, where they had been enslaved and oppressed for generations. The story was still told, that a thousand years before, Moses brought plagues upon Pharaoh. Moses had parted the Red Sea, but Moses was dead, and more hopeless than being blocked by the sea, the barrier to freedom was 900 miles of scorching desert. To this people comes promise of a great gift an incredible gift of excess. There is a God. The same God who parted the Seas and made a walkway between the waters, could also provide a highway through the desert, where instead of parched wasteland there would be rivers for irrigation and even the poor and lame, the disabled and aged would not be forgotten. There is a powerful prophetic phrase here: REMEMBER NOT the Former Things. The People of God had forgotten God, had come to believe that God forgot the people; but as God had not forgotten, God would provide vision of a future. $5,000,000 imagine the value of purchasing the freedom of an entire nation, an enslaved oppressed people, not only set free, but brought home, brought to the home of their ancestors, their Promised Land, not only for those who could afford it but for everyone, the poor, the homeless, the disabled, the children, the widowed and the dead, all would be redeemed. Would such a gift allow us to forget what had been and to believe, to dream of a different reality, would such an excessive gift make a difference? We have heard the stories of Mary and Martha, the sisters who welcomed Jesus and his disciples into their home. How Mary had been accepted and included like one of his own twelve disciples. How Martha had served the Messiah at her table in her home. Just before this morning's events, we learned that Mary and Martha also had a brother Lazarus, the male head of the household, he was loved by Jesus, closer even than Jesus' own brothers. Jesus, Lazarus, Martha and Mary had been like family. And when Jesus had been gone, Lazarus became sick and died. Lazarus' sisters who had cared for him when he was ill, after he had died washed his body, anointed him with perfumed oils and wrapped him in burial clothes, almost as if swaddling cloths for a babe. They buried him in a tomb and mourned he was dead. Days afterward, Jesus had finally come home to them, that Mary and Martha could share the news, share their mourning with Jesus who had loved Lazarus as they did. But instead, the Messiah had restored Lazarus from death to life. In so doing, Jesus had restored to Martha and Mary their family, had gifted them with what they had lost. Jesus had taken their grief and mourning for one they most intimately loved, who had died, and Jesus gave them opportunity to again share with their brother. I have been privileged to have had two friendships with peers who have been closer to me than my own brothers. How many times we have shared a meal together. How many times we sat on the porch and solved all the problems of the world. How many times our families have sat with us. I can only imagine, were one of us to die, how much we would want, how much our families would want to hear us share one more afternoon on the porch, to have one more meal together. In thanksgiving for this gift, Mary offers her own gift of excess to Jesus. Remember not only the feeling of gratitude and thanksgiving for having their family back together, for a return to normalcy, for one more meal with your loved ones; but also remember the stench throughout the house as your brother, your only brother, the head of the household, had been sick for days and had died. Afterward, you washed the body and buried the dead in the tomb, but the stench of death had stayed with you, the smell had permeated the whole house. In preparation for this feast of homecoming, this gift of having life redeemed and restored, Mary spent an amount equal to a Median Family's Annual Income, which for us in the world today would be in excess of $50,000 and bought perfume with it. After a wonderful dinner in their home, with Lazarus and Jesus and his disciples all together reclining around the table, Mary took the perfume and washed Jesus' feet with it! Imagine spending $50,000 on perfume, then using it to wash someone's feet! But where previously her lungs and nasal passages and everything about their home had reeked with the stench of death, suddenly her gift made the whole house, their company, her nasal passages and lungs, even Jesus' feet smell of the most incredible perfume. But still, that was only money, and what she desired was the most intimate devotion she could provide, of just what this gift meant to her. In that time and place, the question was not ever “If Michelle Obama had cut her bangs?” No woman ever unveiled her head, or let down her hair, except for intimacy with her lover. In a world of cultural taboos, veiling her bound hair was one of the most private and intimate. After washing his feet with $50,000 of perfume, Mary took off her veil, exposing her head, she let down her hair and used her own locks to dry his feet, her hair taking on the smells of the perfume and the scent of his feet. Her act of devotion. Her incredible gift of excess and intimacy, and more than anything else of acting as servant to another, this became Jesus act of devotion at the Last Supper. Knowing what was to come on the cross and tomb, knowing that they would all abandon and betray him, before they sat at Table, Jesus stripped off his clothes and knelt before the disciples washing their feet. Was there a promise of $50,000,000 not yet, but imagine what unrestrained incredible gifts of excess we each could give, if we acted in response to the love of God who redeems and restores us.