Date Sunday 25th March 2007 Sermon 7th January 2007

Early Word.

We’re asking you this morning to have a chat to the young ones in your area. They have three questions that arise out of both of the readings we’ve just heard.

Those on the pulpit side will talk with Emily about Qn 1.

Those in the middle will talk with Trevor and Sam about Qn 2,

and those on the Choir side will talk with Dale and Devon about Qn 3.

After you’ve had your chat, the young people will each tell us all what you’ve talked about

QN 1 - What form of Church of the past are you still clinging to?

QN 2 - What gift has ever been given to you which changed the direction of your life?

QN 3 - Tell of a time when you felt someone had misused a gift you had given them, or you had been criticised for giving the gift to someone.

Young people report back

Song - Said Judas to Mary (Sam, Emily, Devon & Graeme)

Later Word - - Wasteful Extravagence

Love can drive us to do anything. The object of our love is the recipient of at times expensive, or even extravagent gifts. Love refuses to allow us to put a limit or a value on its expression. We love, therefore we give, without counting the cost.

We are at a banquet which lies as a thread connecting us to the party given for the lost son about whom we read last week. A banquet is the natural way to honour someone, and particularly to express joy in the restoration to life of one who was dead but is now alive. We are not told in whose home the banquet was held only that it was in Bethany - so we are at a communal feast.

The characters in the story are familiar. Martha is still serving, but not complaining! Lazarus, recently died but brought to life by Jesus, is reclining at the table. Is the feast for him, we don't know. Mary is again at Jesus' feet, the place of a disciple. We already know of her utter devotion to Jesus.

She does something most unusual: offers a most personal and intimate gift - she pours a most costly perfume over his feet and wipes them with her hair. A gift full of symbolism. Given in humility and love there are three glaring facts: the oil was very expensive; it would normally have been poured over his head - not his feet; no self-respecting woman would have undone her hair in public; wiping a man's feet with her hair was the action of a prostitute. No wonder there was much consternation.

Yet, it was not the act Mary performed which caused the consternation, rather the cost of the gift, as if it's anyone else's business what we do with our own resources. But it was over the top: worth a year's wages. It is a gift where sensibility is thrown to the wind and seems to all the people around to be wasteful extravagence. Love is always extravagent but never wasteful when given through the eyes of grace.

It is not that they didn't think Jesus deserved it. Rather, there were other needs: poor in need of food, homeless in need of shelter, addicts in need of care. How often it is that the church is criticised for spending money on itself, on its building, on its technology when really, according to critics, the money should be spent on needy people.

It is significant to note who makes the strongest objection to Mary's act of devotion: He identifies Judas, the treasurer. Who though offering an outward concern for others is more concerned about himself and what percentage of the purse he missed out on because of this gift. A writer of With Love to the World noted "it is precisely the people who have not given their whole selves to the work of God who are so incensed by this kind of action. It is the same sort of people today who still quote the first part of vs8 - "you will always have the poor with you" to justify themselves not giving all of themselves in intimate and personal offering to Christ, and the world for which he died."

Lesslie Newbigin offers a further thought: To set alms to the poor over against devotion to Jesus is to miss the real motive of Christian discipleship. Devotion to Jesus and thanks for his sacrifice will lead to a service of the poor (which is always needed) in a manner which is quite different from obligation.

Though it is true, there is no greater love than to give one's life for one's friends, we usually want to settle for less than full commitment; to keep our options open, make sure there is a handy escape clause, a way out. We make the giving of ourselves or our resources conditional on our agreement with how our gifts are used or on whatever else is going on in our lives. We compare what we give with what others give. The Judas's of the world are ever-present, ever ready to pounce, ever ready to criticise.

Who are we - are we a Lazarus whom Jesus has brought back to life and come rejoicing and thankful in his presence, glad to be alive, glad to have him at the feast.

Are we a Martha - happily serving Jesus and the others who have gathered.

Are we a Mary who offer all that we are and all that we have - extravagently, because we love Jesus so much, and know the cost of His love for us.

Or are we a Judas - objectionable and objecting, hiding behind a facade of devotion seeking to find how in service we can feather our own nests. Whoever you are, we are here. For no matter how we see ourselves, Jesus loves us and has died for us and today offers us the opportunity of new life in him. Do you hear him call your name - just respond - Here I am Lord! Amen.