Plymouth Congregational Church of Fort Wayne, UCC
March 21, 2010
Fifth Sunday in Lent

Scripture Lesson:  John 12:1-8

Counting the Cost  

"Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard,
anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair.
The house was filled with the fragrance ..."
(John 12:3)

Prelude

I'm so pleased that today we

have the opportunity to dedicate special offerings,

both those generally directed to

One Great Hour Sharing,

which serves to bring relief, promote health,

and spur development in suffering places in the world;

and those hygiene and baby kits,

that are specifically directed

for Haitian earthquake relief. 

I was counting the cost this past week,

trying to approximate a dollar figure for the kits

that have been assembled. 

We have 40-some hygiene kits,

(with specified combs and clippers and

cloths, band-aids and toothbrushes),

each valued at $10. 

We have over 30 baby kits,

(with pins and diapers, sleepers and sweaters,

suited for babies from 3-months to 1-year of age)

each valued at $39.

There is an estimated postage/handling

fee of $2.50 per kit. 

You add it up, and we have

an offering valued at $1,745.

Counting the cost.  It is not an exact figure, but

it suggests the level of offering we have attained.

Our dedication is not intended to signal

that the work or the offering(s) is over,

for it is certainly not.  An assembly party is

schedule for Wednesday of this coming week,

and then we hope to transport the kits

on Saturday to Indianapolis, where a Church World Service

trailer will be parked to receive and facilitate transport.

We could, I suppose, calculate further costs. 

Shopping time,

driving time (and the fuel factor),

assembly time.

It all adds up, even these less obvious costs.

It doesn't take long to sense the escalation of

cost when trying to assist, wanting to respond

and help a hurting world.

The calculator ribbon never ceases to roll;

every step of the way has a cost.

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In the Statement of Faith of our UCC,

it is clearly stated:  God calls us into the church

to accept the "cost and joy of discipleship."

The fixation of cost to the understanding of discipleship

is not buried in fine print.

This is an attempt at full disclosure in the life of faith,

it acknowledges a "pay to play" dimension

in that which we hold most dear. 

The full cost is darn hard to calculate.

It isn't hidden, but it is variable.

The cost for Jacob was a bruised thigh

and a noticeable limp when he walked.

The cost for Moses was being able to see,

but not step into, the promised land.

The cost for Jeremiah was heartburn,

          facing the threat of death from a people,

religious types, who had God near on the lips,

but really quite far from their hearts. (Jeremiah 12:2)

Joseph of the many colored coat was a man of integrity,

it cost him time in prison.

Daniel was committed to a well-ordered prayer life;

          he paid by being thrown into a den (Daniel 6:16).

Amos was a social justice prophet charged with conspiracy;

          the stridency of his preaching resulted in Amaziah,

chief priest of the Bethel shrine, to text message the king:

          "the land is not able to bear all his words" (Amos 7:12),

          the cost to Amos is not clear, but I'm guessing it cost him

          his passport, the revoking of his visa ... he had to vacate

          the premises.

John the Baptist gave his heart

to the preaching of repentance;

make straight your crooked life;

the king was neither spared nor exempt, and

          it cost him his head.

Paul the apostle gave his life to Jesus,

          and according to his accounting, there were

          numerous imprisonments (imprecise).

          But then the accounting becomes a bit more exact:

          five times he received the lash (40 strikes minus one);

          three times he was beaten with rods;

          once he was stoned (with rocks, mind you, not with "weed");

          three times he shipwrecked and once was lost at sea.

          He faced constant danger; endured "many a sleepless night"

          when he was hungry, cold, and without suitable clothing.

          Once in Damascus when hunters drew near, he was placed

          in a basket and escaped through a window in the wall.

                   (see II Corinthians 11:24-30)

There are, I suggest, both fixed and variable

sides to the question of cost in discipleship.

God provides universal billing,

but not an equal payment plan.

The kingdom for which we pray has

equal opportunity and full employment.

Every job description has standard language.

We know what is required: 

do justice, love kindness, show mercy (Micah 6:8).

We also know that there is freedom and

discretion to the pace and practice of faith. 

There is minimum wage:  in the Christian life

you'll always have a friend in Jesus.

There is a guaranteed return on your investment:

you will never live "superficially" (A. Schweitzer),

after that, the skies the limit;

you and you only determine

the heights of your soaring

and the costs uniquely associated with

your journey. 

The many variables can often be disputed.

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We have a disputation taking place in our morning lesson.

Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, friends of Jesus who

welcomed him to their table in the family house at Bethany,

anoints Jesus feet with what is described as a pound of

"costly perfume" made of pure nard. 

We have quantity and quality involved here.  

It was an overpowering act, quite a stimulant, not

only to the senses, but also to the conversation.

She works the feet, not simply with hands,

but with her hair.

The smell - it fills the house, wafting through the air.

Mary isn't quoted, but we can guess what she is thinking:

it isn't so much, this act of adoration. 

The cost (both to the pocket and the reputation)

is proportionate to the occasion.

Judas is the character who disputes;

Judas is the community comptroller, the church treasurer,

whose hand is in the purse.  He is the CPA

whose eye follows all expenditures and receipts. 

We probably should note:

Mary did not submit a check request

to Judas for reimbursement.

The friends of Jesus (Mary, Martha, Lazarus)

assumed the cost.

The complaint of Judas is come from a cost-benefit analysis.

It is too much, he states.  His assessment:

that perfume had a retail value worth three hundred denarii,

a considerable sum said to be nearly a year's wage for a day laborer.

If sold, proceeds could have gone into

a project with more merit,

i.e. relief of the poor. 

Our narrator in John suggests there are additional

factors entering into this disputation.

Judas had a real love of money

and a pretentious attitude toward the poor.  

The poor he had not at heart.  And more than once,

apparently, he helped himself to the common purse. 

A strict follower of the rules he was not.

Judas was disenchanted; disgruntled; disagreeable. 

It is hard to fully discern what was driving him.

We know very little really, other than from

his position within, he was working his way out. 

Maybe he became tired of being tested and stretched by Jesus.

Maybe he fell under the influence of a radio personality (Glen Beck),

and felt a need to run away, get out of the movement

whose cost he either didn't understand or was proving

to exceed his earlier estimates.

Maybe his love of money was simply

greater than his love of the Lord.

Jesus interrupts the Judas rant.

"Leave her alone.  Stored for the day of my burial,

it suits this occasion.  The poor always are with you,

but you do not always have me."

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"To love someone is to see them

as God intended them"

(Dostoevsky).

Mary illustrates costly devotion, she did not hold back.

It is an act of veneration.  She may be the only one at table

who begins to calculate the full significance of the Jesus life.

Mary, alone among those at the table, sees Jesus as God intended.

Mary sees Jesus as the Lamb of God.

Mary sees Jesus as a Pascal offering,

not demanded, not required, but as saving

grace to spare the world its sin and death.

Mary sees Jesus as a gateway to new and needed

exodus, as inspiration for new possibilities and

life transformed.

"To love someone is to see them

as God intended them."

Mary sees Jesus as more than the Lamb of God;

she doesn't simply wash his feet - she anoints.

Curious that she doesn't anoint the head,

which is a traditional sign of royalty; Mary is witness,

a confessor, seeing Jesus as the Messenger

bearing gospel and good news.

Had not Isaiah once pronounced?

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet

of the messenger who announces peace,

who brings good news, who announces salvation,

who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns'" (Isaiah 52:7).

Had not Nahum once preached:

          Look!

On the mountains the feet of one

who brings good tidings,

who proclaims peace!

(Nahum 1:15).

This word is not insignificant.

Paul carried into his writing to the Romans:

"How beautiful are the feet

of those who bring good news"

(Romans 10:15)

So, Mary serves as one who honors and exalts

the Messenger with a full measure of devotion. 

She sees Jesus as God intended Jesus to be seen.

It is tender and beautiful and quite moving in

what it reveals. 

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I have a confession:  I've never been able

to see the cross as a symbol of beauty. 

Maybe I've got too much "old rugged cross" in me:

 "the emblem of suffering and shame."

I look for beauty elsewhere in the faith story.

It is not hard to find.  We see it this morning,

when Mary offered all that she had in anointing

the feet of Jesus, preparing him for bearing love

in a broken world resistant to change, which cost

Jesus his life. 

Such beauty we find also when we are reconciled

and at peace, within, with each other, with the God

who is our salvation.

Such beauty I find at the table, welcome,

accessible, open, available, to those who

hunger and thirst for righteousness. 

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How beautiful the feet of the Messenger who

announces peace, who brings good news.

Dostoevsky says: "Beauty will save the world."

Beauty, I suggest, consists of

• (1) wholeness; integrity
• (2) proportion; balance
• (3) "claritas," aka, radiance.

(Aquinas)

That's the charge today.

Do not hold back.

Promote, protect, provide,

pray for beauty.

Do not hold back, but give to that 

which reconciles, harmonizes, restores,

preserves, and elevates our humanity. 

Do not hold back. 

The cost is life, focused, intent,

persuaded, of what truly endures.

In the words of the Psalm:

One thing I asked of God, that will I seek after:

to live in the house of the God all the days of my life,

to behold the beauty of God,

and to inquire in God's temple (Psalm 27:4).

Amen.