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the (395), and (220), jesus (89), that (88), for (79), this (68), was (66), god (65), with (58), his (58), you (53), one (46), pilate (44), may (42), her (41), are (36), she (34), what (31), not (31), who (29), their (29), can (29), when (29), were (29), march (28), they (27), life (26), new (25), christ (25), all (25), have (24), 2007 (23), had (23), them (23), another (23), love (22), from (22), our (22), april (21), about (21), december (20), january (20), february (20), august (20), there (20), abram (20), then (20), him (20), mary (20), october (19), july (19), september (18), november (18), june (18), other (17), your (17), time (17), even (16), story (15), people (15), now (14), sermons (14), church (14), after (14), through (14), give (14), death (14), grace (14), well (14), said (14), some (14), would (13), think (13), rather (13), here (13), reconciliation (13), 2008 (12), 2009 (12), 2010 (12), 2011 (12), 2013 (12), 2015 (12), 2016 (12), 2017 (12), 2018 (12), 2019 (12), 2020 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gave it to the beautiful woman and said when you meet a little girl in one of those refugee camps who needs a ring please give this to her just then the teacher came up and said oh no margie you shouldn t give your ring what would your parents say but the beautiful woman said let her give what she can she may not always have so much to give or the heart to give it 1 in today s gospel we encounter a similar kind of heart filled giving this is one of the most beautiful gospel stories full to overflowing with love and meaning at the centre of this story are mary and her extravagant gift of anointing jesus feet the story comes right after jesus raised mary and martha s brother lazarus from the dead in response to this miraculous act some of the religious leaders in jerusalem planned to arrest jesus and put him to death it was dangerous for jesus to travel near or into jerusalem during the passover season yet travel there he did with the knowledge that he was about to face his arrest trial sentence and death on the cross the time now is six days before the passover the place is lazarus home at bethany where a dinner is served likely in gratitude for jesus having lazarus from the dead everything seems to be going along smoothly until mary enters the room with a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard anointed jesus feet and wiped them with her hair this was probably a very surprising intrusion into the evening why well first of all mary s action went against the proper cultural traditions of the day women were not supposed to be the centre of attention in the presence of men this was a patriarchal society moreover women were especially not supposed to touch a spiritual leader in public like mary did here in the story it was customary for women to wear their long locks of hair up for a woman to wear her hair down in public was a sign that she was not an honourable woman mary s act of extravagant giving seems to have been an uncalculated spontaneous one it is a sign of her love and gratitude to jesus for what he has done for her and her family sometimes our hearts are in the right places and we do the right thing out of love rather than hold back out of fear of what others might think because we may have violated some culturally conditioned tradition a second point of offence was the actual extravagance of mary s gift john tells us that it was a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard then we re told judas iscariot s complaint that the perfume could have been sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor now three hundred denarii were close to one year s wages for a labourer at that time thus mary s gift was extravagant alright moreover maybe the perfume was to be saved for the burial anointing of their family members at any rate this complaint of judas is a classic one some folks look at life only from a monetary perspective which blinds them to the proper place for extravagant giving motivated by love albert schweitzer said it well if there is something you own that you can t give away then you don t own it it owns you for mary extravagant giving based on love goes above and beyond a price tag indeed it is priceless as we reflect on this story further there are at least two other noteworthy themes the first one is the significance of anointing itself the word messiah literally means the anointed one mary anointing jesus in public like this may very well first of all be affirming the truth that jesus is the true messiah look she may be saying with this action the very one i am anointing in front of you right now this one is god s anointed the messiah that may be one possible meaning of mary s anointing of jesus the second significant detail of this anointing is that mary anoints jesus feet why his feet well i think it is for at least two reasons first of all it is a foreshadowing of what jesus himself will do in chapter thirteen when he washes his disciples feet this is an act of humble service and love which is exactly what jesus himself teaches his disciples when he washes their feet they are to humbly serve and love one another mary s act is foreshadowing that event by anointing the feet of the greatest loving servant of them all jesus himself jesus stressed that the greatest among his disciples are those who humbly love and serve others mary s act of anointing is surely a sign of this humble love and servanthood secondly the significance of this act of anointing jesus feet is mary s way of recognising what is about to happen to jesus and to prepare him for it in other words she realises that jesus is about to die and jesus in verse seven admits this when he says in her defence leave her alone she bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial or as eugene peterson paraphrases it in his book the message let her alone she s anticipating and honouring the day of my burial it may be mary s pledge of faithfulness to be with jesus as he faces his cruel suffering and death this too may be the point of the following words in mark s version of this story when jesus says in praise of the anointing truly i tell you wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world what she has done will be told in remembrance of her mk 14 9 the other noteworthy theme in this wonderful story is found in verse three where john tells us the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume for john who is a deep thinker and expert in working with symbolic beneath the surface meanings this is i think a symbol of the beautiful sweetness of all acts done extravagantly and motivated by loving kindness john s readers including us can be inspired by this detail to go and do likewise following mary s faithful example our extravagant loving acts as faithful followers of jesus can add sweetness and quality to the lives of others listen to the following beautiful inspirational story about someone right here in our fair city of medicine hat when discussing women in history who had a definite impact on our community many hatters immediately think of vera bracken bracken served as an elementary school teacher in the medicine hat area for decades being named citizen of the year in 1985 her positive outlook on life her volunteerism and generosity as well as her passion for education and life inspired many vera bracken is the only person to have a part of the college the vera bracken library named after her without a financial number being attached said shelley chomistek coordinator of the medicine hat college foundation if you were to see the way she talked about her students you would know why the library is named after her she truly believed in life long learning she was affectionate towards her students and tried hard to instill in them her passion for learning and reading bracken gave each one of her grade one students who eventually enrolled in medicine hat college a scholarship cheque for 100 after all of bracken s former students had reached college age she began donating the money to students studying to become teachers sheila drummond reference librarian at medicine hat college said vera was a great supporter of education so it s very fitting that the college honoured her in this way 2 as we continue our lenten journey moving now closer to holy week may we also move closer to the spirit of mary s extravagant loving act of anointing jesus may we like mary live out our faith ever grateful for what jesus has done for us on the cross and act in ways that inspire others that they too may come closer to jesus and his all sufficient love for them amen 1 john e sumwalt lectionary stories cycle c lima oh c s s publishing co inc 1991 pp 70 71 john sumwalt notes this story was inspired by an article about actress liv ullman which appeared in the wisconsin state journal section 7 page 2 may 3 1981 2 kaylynn hohensinn celebrating influential alta women the medicine hat news saturday september 30 2006 p a3 filed under sermons sermon 4 lent yr c march 17 2007 leave a comment 4 lent yr c 18 03 2007 2 cor 5 16 21 rev garth wehrfritz hanson pastor of grace lutheran church chaplain of the good samaritan society s south ridge village medicine hat alberta the ministry of reconciliation reconciliation in today s second lesson the apostle paul in one of his most eloquent and beautiful passages highlights the saving work of god in christ and its consequences for us reconciliation is a gift from god through christ s suffering and death on the cross it means quite literally to change enemies into friends it also means going further than that by making us members of god s family this is certainly the heart of the gospel message a message of god saving love and grace god s forgiveness in christ through his sacrificial atoning death on the cross and new life a new creation through his resurrection for the apostle paul it is quite clear that it is god s initiative god s work in jesus christ that we are reconciled with god this truth paul most likely based on his damascus road encounter with jesus indeed through that encounter paul was changed from an enemy of christ and his disciples into a friend apostle and family member of christ s body the church now in this rather painful second letter to the corinthians paul addresses an issue in the congregation it seems that some of the corinthians were judging paul and his ministry as well as one another on the basis of common human standards like their pedigrees their type of work their intelligence their wealth their accomplishments paul says at one time that is before his encounter with jesus we judged one another and even jesus himself on the basis of such human standards now all of that has changed we no longer judge each other or christ on the basis of such standards now says paul all who are baptized into christ are a new creation in him the old has passed away the new has arrived thanks to god s saving reconciling work in christ through his death and resurrection in response to this action of god in christ of reconciling the world to himself paul goes on to say that christ has given us the ministry of reconciliation and even gives us a rather honoured job description saying we are ambassadors for christ since god is making his appeal through us we entreat you on behalf of christ be reconciled to god how does this take shape in real life for us the rev dr lois wilson a one time canadian president of the world council of churches on her visit to lutheran congregations in tanzania among the masai tribe tells how these christians practice christ s love through reconciliation deeply embedded in their tribal culture was the conviction that if one person angered god by taking the life of another it was the responsibility of the whole community to join in the reconciliation ritual between the families of the victim and the wrongdoer it was also important to effect reconciliation between the whole community and god one elder from each of the two families performed the ritual each punctured a small hole in his thigh then each licked the blood from the thigh of the other a young female baby and a young male baby were exchanged by their mothers and suckled as if they were their own the babies were never returned to their natural families since the ritual made them brother and sister they were not allowed to marry each other then the murderer s family gave forty nine cows to the victim s family the name of the victim was pronounced for the last time and then prayers for reconciliation health fertility and peace were offered then rev dr wilson adds i think that people who bring this strong tradition into christian living have much to teach us about the difficult art of reconciliation 1 i like the practice here in this act of reconciliation of regarding the two babies as brother and sister indeed that is what we all are as members of god s family having been reconciled in christ another story of reconciliation this time one that involved me several years ago in one of the congregations i was serving during a choir practice for easter sunday we were singing the hymns for that day the choir director i ll call him bill not his real name and i had a bit of a falling out over hymn 797 this is the three fold truth in the hymnal supplement 1991 which i had chosen bill protested adamantly and said that he didn t want to sing this new hymn i adamantly insisted that we would sing it next evening prior to the maundy thursday service i walked up to bill and said i forgive you i hope you forgive me too he smiled and said yes i do and we shook hands i had decided to compromise somewhat by arranging for a duet i ll call them john and andrew not their real names to sing the hymn instead of the choir and congregation john and andrew willingly consented and practiced the hymn after the maundy thursday service while they were in the midst of their rehearsal choir director bill and a few other congregants were making preparations in the chancel for good friday after greeting everyone in the narthex i walked back into the church john and andrew had just finished their practice they told me it went very well bill was up the ladder hanging the black shroud over the cross he was humming the tune to hymn 797 i listened and recognized the tune a great smile burst out on my face and i laughed with gratitude inside of myself however i have the feeling that the one who laughed last over this was the lord himself he of course laughs best whenever we are reconciled something of the holiness of that night filled bill and me both of us departed in peace reconciled with each other we are ambassadors for christ according to paul jesus title as messiah is a royal title thus jesus our king of kings has given us a very privileged and important work to do as his ambassadors we are ambassadors of reconciliation when we establish creative rather than destructive relationships between nature and human nature between the goodness of god s creation and the mess we have made of it we are ambassadors when we refuse to trash other persons people whose politics or theology we abhor ambassadors of reconciliation working in local politics working for fairer tax laws working for better health care for the poor and for everyone 2 this is our ministry although not always easy we can trust that our cross bearing saviour is with us as we follow him amen 1 lois wilson turning the world upside down a memoir toronto doubleday canada ltd 1989 pp 211 212 2 robert mcafee brown reclaiming the bible louisville ky westminster john knox press 1994 p 44 filed under sermons sermon 3 lent yr c 11 03 2007 march 9 2007 leave a comment 3 lent yr c 11 03 2007 lk 13 1 9 rev garth wehrfritz hanson pastor of grace lutheran church chaplain of the good samaritan society s south ridge village medicine hat alberta another chance cause and effect everything can be rationally explained and understood if god is just then the world ultimately operates on just principles because god ma...