A
sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC March 13, 2016,
the fifth Sunday in Lent.
Text:
John 12:1-8
What
will it cost? That is a critical
question in any renovation project. And
the “renovation reality” is that it almost always costs more than planned. Behind door number three might be gorgeous
original tile OR black mold, unexpected wiring, or termites. Or perhaps there are costly delays thanks to the
weather…or DCRA. Renovations are
expensive, one way or another.
Renovation
is the work of making things new, the work of restoring, mending, making things
what they are meant to be. In our lives,
this work is about being and becoming who we really are—truly, fully, freely
ourselves as God intended. Anyone who’s been
alive a while—no matter how long—knows that being yourself can be risky and
costly. As a child, being strong or
sensitive or loud or a dreamer, being shy, competitive, meticulous, or
“bookish”—any of these things (and countless others!) can draw criticism and
judgment, teasing or jealousy. How do
you look? Where do you live? What language does your family speak in your
home? How do you…smell?…I can recall the
brutal treatment of one of my childhood classmates who would come to school
smelling like bonfire smoke and as if her clothes hadn’t been washed in a very
long time. Eventually I learned that her
family lived in a metal shack not far from my home and that their only heat
source was to burn trash in a barrel.
For her and her siblings, the realities of extreme poverty made just
showing up at school a costly experience because of what they had to endure.
“Being
ourselves” involves the things that simply are—our
race, gender, sexual orientation, economic reality, physical ability—and those
other parts of ourselves that comprise our personality, skills, passions,
strengths, weaknesses, and quirks. Being
who we are in the world without trying to fit into others’ expectations or
cultural constrictions can cost us friends and family. Being black or gay or transgender can cost us
our lives. Being who we are can cost a
great deal.
I
wonder what Mary—sister of Martha and Lazarus—would have to say about all
this. In two different books of the
Bible Mary gets called out for who she is and what she does. In Luke, Martha gets angry at Mary for
sitting at Jesus feet listening to him instead of helping in the kitchen (see
Lk 10:38-42). And as we heard today in
John, Judas attacks Mary for anointing Jesus’s feet. In both instances, Mary wasn’t acting in the conventional
way for women. Men were those who
studied with Rabbis and “sat at their feet” listening. And this business of anointing Jesus’s feet,
well, where does one even begin? It was
customary for a servant of the home to wash a guest’s feet; Mary takes Jesus’s
feet into her own hands. For a woman to
touch any man other than her husband—and in public!—was simply not done. A woman’s hair was considered a quite sensual
and private part of her appearance to be seen only by her husband and family;
Mary not only shows her hair, but uses it for the anointing. And if all this weren’t enough, Mary brings
forth an extravagant gift—nard, an intensely aromatic, amber-colored essential
oil derived from spikenard root—likely costing a years’ wages for a peasant
laborer.
It
seems likely that Mary, M
