Sermon for 3-21-10
Grace and Peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Throughout Lent, we have journeyed with Jesus, almost now to Jerusalem… We’ve travelled many story miles, perhaps as many as an L.A. Marathon (an official distance of 42.195 kilometres (26 miles and 385 yards)).
We have rested with Jesus along the way as we have heard stories and parables told to Spiritual people of all time…
And we have heard Jesus declare the Father’s love, and mercy, and compassion for all of us…
Today, we join Jesus just at dinner time, at the house of Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus…
Lazarus was once sick, and his sisters Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus…but by the time Jesus got there, Lazarus was dead and buried.
And we know that Jesus wept…
And we know that Jesus called Lazarus out of death…
This week, Jesus is still there in Bethany, approximately two miles outside of Jerusalem, in the house of Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus…two sisters and a brother.
And while there, Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anoints Jesus with a very costly oil, a fragrant oil full of symbolism and perfume…
I was wondering why on earth Mary would have had so much perfume on hand to begin with, and then I remembered, oh yeah,
It was just- maybe a day- before, that their dead brother Lazarus had returned with a graven stench; the Gospel story even says people gasped, reeled back at the smell; Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”
So, the perfume was meant to cover the smell of their brother’s death.
But, now it has blessed Jesus, anointing him for his own death, and resurrection.
That’s why she pours perfume over Jesus, because in fact, he was next to die; now, the whole house is being purified of the smell of death, by the sacred smells of purifying oils, the smell of life again.
This last Friday we had a Lenten Fish Fry that reminded me of a old-oiled story…
A few years back in New England, I went to a Fish Market early one Lent afternoon, and got some fish and chips, which I then ate in my car while parked in the Willimantic cemetery across the street, but it was cold out, like in the 40s, and so I had the windows rolled up…
But the next day, I opened to door to get into my car and oh man it smelled like old fish oil…
In a way, I wonder if this is what it was like before Mary got out the air deodorizer fragrance oils. With Lazarus around, Jesus could smell the nearness of his own death, just a few weeks, a few days away…
Then, by sharing this anointing upon Jesus, Mary is both cleansing the air from her brother’s death, as well as preparing Jesus to travel through his own death and resurrection, smelling pretty good…smelling distinctly Christ-like…
There’s even a story about, when our resurrected Jesus met up with two people walking on the road to Emmaus, the Gospel says that, Jesus, “showed them his hands and his feet (which were also freshly washed from a Maundy Thursday footwashing)… While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, Jesus said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate in their presence. Lk 24:40
So maybe the smell of fish isn’t so bad to have around after all…
Especially as we then expect the good fragrance of Easter lilies and Easter blossoms, and of course Easter Chocolate…MMMM
May God help you look and feel and especially smell your best
preparing for the upcoming celebration in Jerusalem,
and around the whole world.
Our God is alive, and Boy! , does God smell Good…
Resurrection Good.
Amen
