Sermon for
Monday in Holy Week, Year C
St. Philips
In The Hills Parish, Tucson ,
AZ
The Rev. Vicki Hesse , March 25, 2013
For Readings
May the
words of my mouth and the meditation of all hearts be acceptable to you, o
Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen
“What
makes this night different from all other nights?”[1]
Are
you familiar with that phrase?
“What
makes this night different from all other nights?”
is
the question that Jewish children ask
every
year during the celebration of Passover.
What
makes this night different from all other nights, for us,
is
that tonight we gather to mark the beginning of Holy Week.
Holy
Week:
an
important devotional and liturgical occasion
for
Episcopalians.
Not
only for our desire to
“…reach
as many people as possible
with
the proclamation of the death and
resurrection
of Christ,”
but
also (and sometimes more importantly)
to
deepen our own sense of meaning and theological understanding through
these rememorative services.
Tonight, we weave the annual
conversation
of
many sacred voices journeying to Jerusalem
Tonight we re-member the
paschal mystery –
Christ’s
passion, death and resurrection.
Tonight we mark the beginning
of fresh perspectives.
Tonight’s
Gospel brings us to the time
just
prior to Jesus’ triumphal entry to Jerusalem
That prior moment was when
·
Jesus
had been on his way to Jerusalem
·
he
had raised Lazarus from the dead, so many of the Jews believed in him and
·
he
had learned that the chief priests and Pharisees planned to put him to
death.
That moment swirled with movement,
tension, fear, and
…
a pause. They held a dinner party
for
Jesus and his disciples.
What
happened at the dinner party?
It
is such a familiar story;
nearly
as familiar as the story of
Lazarus
being raised from the dead.
At
that dinner party,
Mary
poured expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet
and
wiped them with her hair.
Judas
exclaimed in the midst of that action
why
the perfume instead of giving to the poor?
Why
indeed, is the question for tonight.
It
is theologically significant for us
in
terms of gaining a fresh perspective of God’s abundant love.
Why
is this question important?
Because
many people have used
“the
poor will always be with you”
as
a suggestion – no, stronger, as
endorsement,
that
the status quo is okay.
Is
that what Jesus was saying?
That
status quo vis-à-vis the poor was okay?
Well,
no.
Jesus
rebuked Judas, for one thing,
because
Mary was preparing Jesus for his burial.
Jesus
knew that his death was near and
Mary’s
gesture prepared for and pointed to the gravity
of
what lie ahead.
Judas,
however, did not get the social cues or even
the
explicitly stated (by Jesus) message.
Judas
shook his head – rubbed his eyes –
and
could not acknowledge the reality that was
unfolding
before him.
All
Judas could see was his narrow perspective
of
Mary’s apparent waste.
Mary’s
gesture of abundance and extravagance
showed
an expansive reality according to the
“economy
of God.”[2]
In
that economy, disciples like Mary give
as God gives,
fresh
with love and without shame or hint of fear.
pause
In
the economy of the world, that Judas knew,
in
his narrow and self-centered greed, he
could only see waste.
When
Jesus’ rebuked Judas, at
“you
always have the poor with you”
Jesus
pointed out Judas’s “this-worldly” economy.
In
that social system
Judas knew only scarcity, thievery, and death.
Jesus
did not and does not approve of poverty, no.
Rather
he points to fresh perspective:
a
different “economy” –
that
emerges out of death, into
extravagant,
self-giving love,
with
unbounding grace.
Pause
In
2009, I came face to face with how this works.
That
summer, Leah and I traveled to El Paso
where
for a week we lived with two Dominican Sisters.
These
nuns founded and ran Centro Santa Catalina,
a
ministry based in Ciudad Juarez
The
ministry empowers, educates and spiritually nourishes
the
poor women and children of the Colonia
located
on what was once the city garbage dump.
During
the day, we hung out with the women of the Center.
We
talked, shared, tried to teach each other our language
and
played with the children.
We
saw how they lived with so little
in
terms of material wealth and
so
much in terms of abundant joy.
Many
have built their homes over time,
often
starting with cardboard and wood pallets,
and
eventually graduating to cinder blocks.
Most
of their homes have no water, sewer or
electrical
services;
and
for those who do,
the
services are inadequate and unreliable.
One
day for lunch, we walked
from
the Center to Irene’s house,
past
rancid garbage and
decomposing
carcasses of cats and dogs,
over
broken glass and wind-blown plastic bags.
Irene,
a widowed mother and grandmother
who
works at the Center’s sewing co-op,
offered
to prepare lunch for us in her home.
Instead
of a simple meal of beans and tortillas,
she
called her grandson over and handed him a couple of bills
from
her now empty change purse.
He
slipped away and returned shortly
with
a package of queso.
She
prepared a feast of enchiladas filled with rice, beans,
queso,
tomatoes, salsa and spice.
She
offered us a soda to drink.
In
my head, I cringed.
I
wanted to call her back to the economy of the world –
Look,
Irene, you have nothing! You don’t need to feed us!
Irene
could certainly have fed us more simply,
scrounging
up something from her near-empty pantry
and
saving her money to feed her family for weeks.
Yet,
thankfully, she could not have understood my language. She only spoke in the language of God’s love
and
God’s economy.
She
offered me a fresh perspective.
She
chose to share abundantly with us,
to
offer us her extravagant hospitality,
to
put this privileged, first-world women’s needs
over
her own real needs.
She
saw and lived in God’s economy and
shared
abundantly with us.
Just
as Mary poured out for Jesus her expensive perfume,
Irene
embodied God’s love.
Pause
So
I wonder, as we begin Holy Week,
“What
makes this night different from all other nights?”
Tonight we ask ourselves, in
what economy do we live?
Where
are the powers and principalities
in
this-worldly economy, exercising violence toward life?
How
does the world engender fear and control
while
God
invites us to notice God’s expansiveness?
Tonight we recognize the fresh,
good news
of
God’s economy.
God’s
economy pours love onto narrow perspectives
without
any effort of our own,
with
abundant grace and kindness,
through
the fresh lens of Mary and Judas,
both
accompanying Jesus the life-giver.
What
makes this night different?
This is the night of concentrated resentment
among
the religious authorities to kill both Lazarus and Jesus. This is
the night where the irony is palpable.
This is the night when the religious
authorities
commit
to killing Jesus because he gives life to others.
As
we enter Holy Week, we live into the mystery of
the
paradox:
Jesus’
death, the gospel tells us again and again,
is
what will bring new life to all.
“What
makes this night different from all other nights?”
God’s
fresh perspective, again and again.
May
your journey to Jerusalem this week be filled with fresh perspectives of
mystery and Love.
Amen.
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