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March 21, Lent 5. MLC Ocean View, NJ, H.Fege, D.Min.

Is. 43:166-21, Philippians 3.4b.-14, Jn. 12.1-8

 

In John’s Gospel we learn that while Martha is in the kitchen cooking, again,

Jesus is being bathed by Mary with a pound of costly nard… worth 300 denarii… that’s a lot of aroma and a lot of money…

What is Jesus worth... that's what this sermon is about!

They say opposites attract. That may be true in some areas, physics, magnetism, plots in movies and in some of the more volatile relationships… and some not so volatile at least initially. 

We are drawn to the mysterious other…

But I’d advise anyone who is contemplating a long-term relationship,

a relationship that has staying power, to look at what you have in common.

M J and I have much in common. We both grew up Lutheran. We both come from working-class families… we now have similar political persuasions… that one took some doing. We both have five grandchildren and even with all that, there are days…

She likes knick-knacks… dust collectors I call them. Things you stick in front of the house that spin and twirl…

When they get old or break and she is out of the house, I sometimes make a trash haul and that is where things get a little heated...  Sometime things disappear and I get in trouble. 

Let me give you another example.

When my parents decided to move to America and my dad told my mother that they had to get rid of all their stuff… that was hard on my mom.

She cried for days.

I cried because my mother cried, my brother cried because he couldn’t take his train set. We all cried, except my dad – he just waited us out. It is hard to let go of that which gives us joy… In the second lesson today, we learn that someone named Paul also had to toss out some stuff that for him at one time had great value.

In a letter he wrote to his friends in northern Greece in a town called Philippi he said:

If I were to enter a bragging contest I would win. Not for what I have, I’m not a wealthy man, but for who I am. My identity, my genealogy, my pedigree, my family connections, my standing in the community. I can win any bragging contest!

I am a Jew… I'm proud of that. I am a member of the house of Israel. We have been persecuted, shoved into gas ovens and locked up in concentration camps. But we have not lost our faith.

We have given the world the basis for all moral and ethical standards, the 10 Commandments. We have shaped three great religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I am proud that I am an Israelite, a Jew. I was circumcised on the 8^th day.

My family was from the tribe of Benjamin the smallest of all tribes, that didn't amount to much in some people’s eyes but God has always used the smallest and the weakest and the least known in order to accomplish what God wants to do.

And so it is with my tribe. Did you know that my tribe Benjamin contributed to Israel its first king, King Saul?

I am named for him, you know – Saul of Tarsus – and I am proud of that.

My denomination? I am a Pharisee. There are other denominations but as Pharisees we believe in the Bible. We follow the “good book.”

We believe that the Bible is God’s book. It tells us how to live, what to do and what not to do. I am proud of that. I have followed the rules of the Bible. Just ask my teacher the great Gamaliel. I live by the book!

I get upset with those who want the commandments and prayer to be taken out of public education.

If I went to a bragging contest about my religion I’d beat them all – hands down! My standing, my character, my family tree – and yet…

Paul said I count all this as trash. rubbish. I have tossed it. I took it all to the dump.

Why?  Paul is not a man who lies awake at night wondering if he did the right thing.

He is not burdened with guilt.

All the things I just told you about Paul, all the good things that most of us would be proud of too, Paul tossed.

Paul today would be seen in many churches as a model Christian; good, clean, upright, honest, productive, lover of the Bible, doing what is right, following the commandments kind of guy.

There are many, some are even Lutheran who would question why he did that.

Paul did all that and then threw it all away. Why?

Why would he throw away all that he just called good?

“Whatever gains I had, these I have regarded as loss because of Christ…” he continues… More than that I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

And what kind of Lord is Jesus? He is a Savior with downward mobility.

He came from the presence of God, from all that is good, but he tossed it all and became a human being like you and me, obedient even to death.

Paul asks how can I, how can anyone, claim to be a follower of that man and still claim upward mobility?

How can I look at my income and divide out a little to the church, a little to the kids, a little to my club, a little to my hobby?

How can I hold on to my own agenda and just add in church as it may or may not fit into my already over-crowded schedule?

Paul believed if you are going to follow Jesus you should be like Jesus.

So what to do with your own agenda, your bank account, your schedule, to which you may or may not add in Sunday morning worship? 

You take it all to the dump so that you may be more like Him.

This unusual man named Paul had this idea that the Christian life should be like Jesus;

To love, to care, to give, to serve, to suffer, to sacrifice like he did.

I’m not there yet he said. I don’t want you to get the idea, he protested, that I have arrived, oh no!  But being like Jesus is the one thing on my mind.

I’m running toward this. I’m running as hard as I can. My heart is thumping in my chest, my lungs are starving for oxygen, my muscles are aching, and sweat is running down my face… running, running… If I could just be like Jesus. Paul was special. You and I probably will never meet anyone who takes Jesus that seriously… but I feel called to tell

you about it today because once in awhile someone does… And I had the feeling that it might be you. Amen.

Ideas for this sermon came in part from: 1. Fred Craddock, “Throwing Away the Good Stuff” The Cherry Log Sermons. 2. Eugene Peterson “Tell it Slant”