The sermon never seemed to gel when I worked on it this morning before worship. the Time with Young Disciples seemed to go well, so I thought maybe the sermon was going to pull together. But, it never did!
“Giving Gifts: Anointing” SAPC, Denton; January 30, 2022; I Mark 14: 1-8; Exodus 30: 22-33; gift giving series
Mark 14: 1-8:
It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus[a] by stealth and kill him; 2 for they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.”
The Anointing at Bethany
3 While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,[b] as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. 4 But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii,[c] and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. 7 For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial.
Introduction: We continue our preaching series on giving gifts back to God. As you know, it grows out of the Epiphany story of the wise men bringing gifts to the Christ-child.
Wise men brought gifts worthy of a king, but they were not easy gifts. they represent challenging gifts for us to give.
Today, we think about the wise men giving the gift of myrrh - a rare perfume often used for anointing - and the gift of anointing.
Anointing as a gift - what does that mean?
A gift in two parts - investing your life in Jesus and acting on your investment.
Move 1: In the story in the Gospel of Mark, we see the woman investing her life in Jesus.
a. We know her story is important because it is told in all four of the gospels, although the details vary depending on the gospel.
1. Details vary about where the anointing takes place - Mark and Matthew, the event occurs in the house of Simon the leper. Luke locates it in the home of "one of the Pharisees." In John it takes place in the house of Lazarus.
details vary about who the woman was - In Mark and Matthew she is an unnamed woman. In John she is Mary, the sister of Lazarus. In Luke she is "a woman in the city, who was a sinner."
Details vary about what part of Jesus body was anointed - In Mark and Matthew, she anoints Jesus' head. In Luke she bathes his feet with the ointment and her tears and dries them with her hair. John's account mirrors Luke's, though Mary's action there is more matter of fact, minus the tears.
and what the objections were.
Even the reasons why each Gospel writer tells the story varies: Luke uses it to emphasize the forgiveness of sins. John emphasizes the anointing of Jesus' body for burial. Mark and Matthew emphasize her proclaiming her beautiful act of anointing to the whole world.
(Analysis of this parable found in https://www.patheos.com/resources/additional-resources/2012/03/extravagant-holiness-alyce-mckenzie-03-26-2012?p=2; “Extravagant Holiness: Reflections on The Anointing at Bethany” by Alyce Mackenzie, 3/25/12)
b. Her anointing reveals that the woman has found the one to whom she wants to give her life.
1. the one worthy of using very expensive oil to anoint.
2. Like the story in Exodus where myrrh is used to anoint the tabernacle and its furnishings, to set them aside for holy purposes, to acknowledge that they represent something more than everyday things, something of God, the woman anoints to proclaim that she has found the one who was holy, the one who is more than anything or anyone else she can find in the world.
3. When the disciples question why she anointed him, Jesus defends her actions and says, “She has done what she could;”
4. in the Greek, this is the same phrase Jesus uses to comment about the poor woman who gave two coins in offering (The Gospel According to Mark, James R. Edwards, 415)
5. A reminder - the gift of choosing Jesus is not a matter of money, but a matter of commitment.
c. As Jesus reflects on her gift of anointing, he also foreshadows his coming death.
1. A reminder to us that the gift of anointing, the gift of giving our lives over to Christ, reflects the gift God has already given us.
2. That is, in Christ, God says I choose my children. and in choosing them, I will even die for them.
3. so the gift of anointing Jesus grows out of Jesus willingness to be God’s gift to us.
The woman invests herself in Jesus Christ. Are you willing to give the same gift?
Move 2: not only does she invest in Jesus Christ, but she acts on her investment.
a. How do we act on our commitment to Christ?
1. I am reminded of reading about the impact the camp meetings had on people on the KY frontier.
2. I served in an area whose religious history was greatly impacted by the camp meeting phenomenon.
3. In fact, the Disciples of Christ trace their beginnings to an area near where I served when the Presbyterian church refused to let its ministers be involved in campo meetings.
4. Hear this description: Davidson, History of Presbyterian Church in KY, p. 136 in the discussion of the impact of the Great Revival: “The laborer quitted his task; age snatched its crutch; youth forgot its pastime; the plough was left in the furrow; the deer enjoyed a respite upon the mountains; business of all kinds was suspended; dwelling houses were empty; whole neighborhoods were emptied; bold hunter and sober matrons, young men, maidens and little children, flocked to the common centre of attraction; every difficulty was surmounted, every risk ventured, to be present at a camp meeting.”
5. Imagine that commitment.
b. Remarkable part of the story in Mark.
1. As betrayal and brutality are being plotted; as the disciples are trying to figure out what Jesus is doing, the woman takes a moment and boldly acts.
2. She anoints Jesus. it may have practical purposes, but it was also a symbolic gesture.
3. She is giving herself over to Jesus.
4. All that she has, she gives to anoint him.
c. I suppose that is the question before each of us.
1. when we choose to give our lives over to Christ, what is the next step?
2. Scary question. Or, maybe scary answers arise from the question!
3. Dennis Campbell, former dean of Duke Divinity School, tells that he frequently got calls from parents worried about their children. Seldom was it about how the kids were doing academically or socially. Usually, the parents were worried about their kids' religious commitments. Going to church was apparently okay, but getting too caught up in that commitment, especially if it meant mission work, was difficult for parents to understand.
3. The woman in Mark anointed Jesus. What will you do?
Amen.
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