When describing your worldview and your sense of available resources, where would you put yourself on a continuum that stretches from: Scarcity - to - Not enough - to - Just barely enough - to - Enough - to - Plenty - to - Abundance - to - Extravagance?
If Jesus came to reveal what God looks like, then the story of Mary of Bethany anointing him in preparation for his death and burial with the most extravagant perfume is a story of Jesus praising her for her extravagant devotion. John 12: 1-8. To emphasize this extravagant love that Mary pours out upon his feet, Jesus chastizes Judas Iscariot (who is about to betray Jesus) when Judas demands that the perfume should be sold to provide for the poor. Jesus realizes that Judas doesn't care so much for the poor, as he cares about keeping the common purse for his own purposes of stealing from it. Jesus rebukes Judas: "Leave her alone." (v 7). In light of Jesus' impending death, Mary "wastes" perfume on her beloved Master and Jesus receives it with gratitude.
How often do we "count" the value of various resources (especially money), giving into the temptation that there won't be enough - that our resources are finite and must be carefully controlled? Whether we're hoarders or cheapscapes or just reasonable folk who give of ourselves according to the time/energy/means that make practical sense in a world overwhelmed with "not-enough-ness," we operate out of the worldview that tempts us to value our efforts and our things by their usefulness or practicality or cost effectiveness.
Is the cross a symbol of our temptation or do we trust in the God of resurrection? Father Richard Rohr writes: "The cross is a statement of what we do to one another and to ourselves. The resurrection is a standing statement of what God does to us in return." (Richard Rohr, Easter 2012)
Both in the extravagance and love poured out by Mary and in the promises God makes in Isaiah 43: 16-21, we are drawn toward a God of extravagant abundance, whose love and providence have no end. Isaiah, using powerful water imagery, reminds us that God will make a way through the waters (Red Sea) just as he did for the Israelites fleeing the Egyptians. And when we wander in the desert of our temptations, we can trust that God will provide rivers in the desert & water in the wilderness - drink for God's chosen people.
Our challenge is to move through, around, past the barriers of temptations that there will not be enough. Our challenge is to trust God's promises of abundant healing, enough water for all, and an abundant love that sustain us through droughts. If we remember what God has done in the past, we are able to trust in the new things God is about to do in our future. We can trust in the love that shapes whatever new thing lies ahead.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley
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