John 12:1-8
“Acts of Love”
April 3, 2022
Harlan, Ruth, and June.
Three generous souls who cared for this church and had a desire to see us live on as a congregation long after they were laid to rest.
The memory of them reminds us that heartfelt acts of love are meant not to benefit those offering them.
No, such love, by its very nature, demonstrates a trust and concern that often can defy expectations or even what some would consider common sense.
In a period of about 25 years, Harlan Miller, Ruth Dinse Jones, and June Bentley gifted the Federated Church with generosity totaling approximately 2 million dollars.
Ruth and June both lived fairly quiet and unassuming middle class lives as devoted members of this congregation.
Harlan’s gift was remarkable in that he was not a part of this church but recognized our role in the larger community.
We now know that with these gifts our church has been able to live on and continue the work of faithful ministry to God’s beloveds close by and far away.
And here we have Mary whose act of self-less devotion involved a belief in what Jesus had been preparing his followers for – his death – a death that so many others were unable or unwilling to acknowledge.
Mary and her sister Martha had already experienced the amazing bringing back to life of their dear brother Lazarus by Jesus himself.
Mary understood that as a way of honoring Jesus in both life and death, she anointed or blessed Jesus with precious perfume that was worth the average annual salary of that time.
All four of the Gospels have some form of a story involving Jesus and expensive perfume.
The location in John’s as well as Mark’s & Matthew’s locate it in Bethany which is less than 2 miles from Jerusalem.
John is the only one who names the woman and identifies her as the sister of Lazarus and Martha in this encounter and response on the cusp of Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem.
While Luke’s take on this woman brings up questions about the woman’s morality and Mark’s raises up the importance of showing kindness to the poor, Mary’s anointing here exposes Judas for who he is – a hypocrite and a thief – and they haven’t even gotten to the part where he will betray Jesus.
Unlike a written will that delivered Ruth, June and Harlan’s gifts to this church, so often we can’t be sure of the intention behind someone’s generosity.
Most of the generosity and kindnesses offered in the normal course of our lives are not nearly as dramatic as these 3.
I know I have benefitted from kindnesses that individually were not huge but collectively have forever imprinted themselves on my heart and keep me looking for ways to love that generously.
One of the examples that immediately comes to mind is my former church, Second Congregational in Bennington. Knowing that I would be commuting from Bennington to Boston every week, they quietly encouraged folks to contribute to what would be known as “Kathy’s Gas Fund.”
It started out with a card on which they would add money regularly to cover the cost of my commute.
They never shared who contributed. They designated one person to regularly check-in with me to determine if the amount was getting low and then miraculously more money would appear.
For 5 years of that weekly 6-hour roundtrip, I never had to pay for gasoline. They also knew that when I finished seminary, I would be leaving them – and still they supported me so kindly and without any fanfare.
Mary was thwarted from giving of her gift quietly because of the stink that Judas made.
While Mary, knew and accepted Jesus’ fate, she anointed Jesus for the burial to come for this was what the perfume she wiped with her hair from Jesus’ feet was intended to be used for.
Meanwhile, Judas, the one who by betraying Jesus will lead the way toward his death, is both ignorant as well as deeply unkind in his attempt at shaming Mary in front of Jesus.
Jesus lifts up Mary as extraordinary while giving voice to the hypocrisy of Judas.
Jesus is on the edge of death – it will come in less than a week, so this is not just any random dinner. It is also a final dinner, loaded with the heaviness and meaning of what is about to happen.
Mary exhibits a generosity of spirit that Jesus validates with the strong rebuke of Judas’ critique.
Jesus says, “Leave her alone.”
Love is meant to be shared with generous hearts.
We have the choice everyday about how we will spend whatever gifts we have to share.
We can love with the perspective of abundance or scarcity.
Jesus is calling us to a life lived from the perspective of abundance, abundance not to be hoarded for ourselves alone but to be shared wholeheartedly.
Such generosity Jesus provided abundantly, as John’s Gospel shared. It came in the form of his first miracle of turning 180 gallons of water into wine at that wedding in Cana.
There were 5000 hungry folks fed seaside with plenty of leftovers because of Jesus’ generosity.
We have so much to share – our time, our talents, our treasures. We also, always have kindness to spread around – yes, like manure – because kindness begets kindness. It will not be in grand gestures, perhaps, but in small everyday acts.
Consider then the wisdom found in the poem “Small Kindnesses” by Danusha Lameris:
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead — you first,” “I like your hat.”
May we be extravagantly generous with our kindness this day and every day. Amen.