Throughout Lent we have been exploring following God's way, instead of the way society dictates. Following the lectionary passages we have looked at how we are called away from focussing on security, fearing what could go wrong, figuring how to earn our own way, and discerning who is in and who is out. We are called, instead, to trust God, to allow ourselves to be generous with what we have been given, to care for others, to open ourselves and our congregations to all people, to believe God loves us, no matter what.
Now we come to the story of Mary embodying many of these characteristics. In the story in John 12:1-8, we come once again to the home of Martha, the consummate hostess, Lazarus, the man who had been risen from the dead, and Mary, the open, loving, and somewhat impulsive disciple of Jesus. Without a lot of introduction we are told that Mary appears with some very expensive perfume, pouring it over Jesus's feet, then wiping it up with her hair. She isn't worried about how the cost of the perfume may affect their household budget. She isn't worried about how she looks to the other guests. She is totally focussed on pouring out her love and devotion with the perfume, so Jesus would know in a tangible way how much he meant to her. What extravagance!
So often in today's world we are bombarded with messages of scarcity. We need more. We need better. We need the latest and greatest things. We need more friends or followers on social media. We need to be more - thinner, fitter, taller, shorter, smarter, funnier, more efficient. We keep getting messages that we neither have enough nor are enough - but those are not the messages God is calling us to hear. God, like Mary, is pouring out extravagant love and asking us to notice and accept it.
The other lectionary passages support this.
The prophet Isaiah heard this message. In Isaiah 43:16-21 we are encouraged to notice what God is doing:
"See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland. "
Even in a dry and barren dessert, even when things seem hopeless, God comes through with stream of refreshing water. When it looks like there is not enough, God provides abundance.
In Psalm 126 we read of how, when things seemed dark, God came through and changed Israel's fortunes - so their mouths were "filled with laughter" and even other nations noticed:
"It was even said, at that time, among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them!”
While things don't always seem to be going the way we would prefer, God is there, making a way and helping us through. God is there, loving us through it all. pour out abundant love.
Philippians 3:4b-14 assures us that all we think we need to do or be is not what is important to God. Paul even calls some of the status symbols of his religious life garbage in comparison to all God has given. God's abundant love has made us enough, whether or not we are what others think we should be. God's abundant love has made us enough, just as we are.
Over and over again we are reminded that God lavishes us with love as well as with everything we need. God's abundance has overcome any scarcity that we may fear. We can relax into God's loving arms and enjoy the experience of living with enough. We can live without fear. We can risk compassion for those with whom we disagree. We can give generously of our time and resources. For we know God loves us and has assured us that we are enough and will have enough.
May you find the joy and comfort of enough as we approach the end of Lent and the coming of the Passion week.
Take care.
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