A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The Lectionary readings for the Fifth Sunday in Lent are here.
In our small group study this past week we had some great conversations about how the beatitudes (you know those sayings of Jesus that all begin with Blessed are) are Jesus explaining how he came to fulfill God’s law not do away with it. Jesus showed us, in flesh and blood, that the spirit of the law, the true meaning and intent of God’s law, is what should guide our daily lives, not just letting the Ten Commandments be a checklist of dos and donts. Our outward behavior matters, yes, absolutely, but our motivation and the intent of our hearts matters more. And no matter how we try to mask it, our inner motivation always shows through in some way.
When John wrote his version of Jesus’ last days, he wanted to make sure those who read it understood Judas’ motivation wasn’t about living God’s law but using it to redirect people’s attention away from his thieving. And not to make this sermon a summary of our small group conversations, in our groups we also talked about the commandment that says not to use God’s name in vain, this is what that looks like: calling our behaviors ‘God’s work’ while hating our neighbor. I love it when our Sunday readings and what we are learning during the week reinforce each other. Ok, back to the sermon.
John makes it clear that Judas was trying to mask his greed by redirecting the dinner party’s attention to the poor. Judas saw how much money he could make from the perfume Mary used to anoint Jesus. Judas used the letter of God’s law but hadn’t let the Spirit of the Law shape his heart.
And Jesus, as he so brilliantly does, took the conversation to a deeper learning level. He’s been trying to prepare his closest disciples for what is to come: his arrest, death, and resurrection. The women in Jesus’ inner circle seem to be the only ones who get it. Peter and the other men argue with Jesus when he talks about his death. The women listen and believe and trust. Mary trusts enough to spend her money on the ointment used to cover a body at the time of burial. Mary is helping Jesus prepare with what she has because this helps her prepare, too.
But what about this perplexing statement of Jesus, ‘you will always have the poor with you’? All that Jesus teaches with his words and actions is that we are to help the poor no longer be poor. Is he saying our actions are futile, that God really doesn’t mind if some of God’s beloved don’t have enough? Not at all.
In light of all that Jesus teaches, in light of all of the stories we have of God and God’s beloved recorded in our holy scriptures, I hear Jesus saying that there will always be others with whom we can share our blessings because sharing is the purpose of blessings. People who want to justify their own greediness hear this as permission to hoard what they have for themselves; they hear it with a heart of scarcity. Those who are living to be more like Jesus hear it with a heart of abundance, as a reminder that we are all on this journey together, sharing what God provides so that we all thrive.
Mary is sharing her blessing with Jesus, fully believing he is the Messiah, the son of God come to set us all free. In this moment, Jesus is the ‘poor’ one, the one with whom Mary shares her blessing because that’s what blessings are for, to share. And there will always be someone with whom we can share what we have; and there will always be times when we need to receive what another has to share.
It is God’s intent that no one be in need of anything and we participate with God by being open-handed and generous, not closed fisted and cynical. When we try to justify selfishness or greediness by pretending we are trying to be responsible with what God has given us, we aren’t following Jesus. Now, don’t get me wrong, of course we should be good stewards of all God has given us; what we shouldn’t do is pretend we are being responsible in order to pad our own pockets. Part of being a good steward in God’s Kingdom on earth is working toward the directive that no one is in need.
God gave the Law to teach the ancient Israelites how to be God’s beloved people. When we love God we don’t worship other gods, when we love our neighbor as ourselves, we don’t steal from them, or lie to or about them, or try to discredit them. God’s law is our tool to learn to be God’s beloved people. And it’s so much more than a checklist. The intent of the law matters. The purpose of God’s law is to shape our hearts and minds to be more like God’s so that in our every day interactions with others we reveal the image of God within us so that others can know it’s in them, too.
God knows, better than many of us are willing to admit ourselves, that we have unruly wills and affections. And God love us. God loved us before we used our freewill to make choices against God’s purposes. God loves us while we are letting our unruly wills rule. God loves us when we return and say, “I’m sorry, I was wrong, please forgive me.” God loves us. God loves so that we can love.
Next week, we will enter in Holy Week with Palm Sunday, the remembering of Jesus’ final entry into Jerusalem before his arrest and crucifixion, the events that Mary was preparing Jesus and his followers for.
Lent has been our preparation for this time of remembering the very foundation of all that we believe – that God came to with us as one of us, to die so that we could know the unbounded love of God. Our belief is manifested in all that we think, say, and do. Our Journey with Jesus isn’t about showing up to make ourselves feel better but about showing up so that we are made better by God’s grace, opening ourselves up to the heart shaping work of Holy Spirit so that we live the spirit of God’s Law every day.
Paul, in his letter to the church in Philippi reminds us that it is a lifelong journey of becoming more and more like Jesus regardless of what we might think our pedigree is. This is the purpose of following Jesus, to continually grow into the image of God in each of us.
N.T. Wright says it this way, “If you want to know who God is look at Jesus. If you want to know what it means to be human, look at Jesus. If you want to know what love is, look at Jesus. … And keep looking until you are no longer a spectator but part of the grand story.”
I invite all of you to make the challenging choice to show up here every day beginning next week with Palm Sunday and through all of Holy Week to Easter. It will be a commitment to rearrange what your typical evenings look like, I know. You won’t regret it, I promise. We will walk through the final days of Jesus together so we can live the glory of Easter each day, for the rest of the year. As we journey together we will learn to love more loudly than the greed which leads to hate in this world as we open our hearts to the abundant Spirit of God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven. Amen.
Mother Nancy's Coffee Thoughts 