LENTEN LINE 11: IN REMEMBRANCE

 

Extravagance --- an initial reaction to the word is a "tsk-tsk, how wasteful or a most often silent inner rebuke and outward slow shake of the head.  Most times extravagance is met with strong criticism.

Is there ever a time when extravagance, to quote Martha Stewart, is a "good thing?"

All four gospel narratives tell the story of the anointing of Jesus at Bethany days before his death.  NOTE: When any story is re-told in multiple gospels....pay attention, for this one you may want to remember, this one most likely will be on the final exam.

The telling I like is the first telling, the one from Mark's gospel.  Mark, the earliest of the written four gospels was placed down on papyrus during a time of great persecution, quickly scribed because there was not time for colorful, detailed stories and profound teachings ---- just time to tell it and tell it quickly, make your point and then proceed.  Therefore, I find it interesting that Mark's telling of the anointing at Bethany includes the identity of the host, Simon the Leper, and adds an ever more important element as the indignation and criticisms rise toward the woman who burst in, broke a jar of expensive ointment and poured it on the head of Jesus, anointing him for his burial. 

Jesus, always on the side of those on the outside of things, the wrongly and easily labeled, speaks and says, "Leave her alone, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her."

Do we?

There are times when our love for Jesus and our acts of discipleship must be extravagant, done in ways that have heads shaking, gossips talking and love lessons being lived. 

I think the community of faith needs to stop always playing it safely which also sadly hints at playing it stagnantly. 

It was a Children's Sabbath Sunday. We made it a point to invite ALL the children, those we knew for they were a part of us and the ones in our urban neighborhood that we needed to know. We decorated the sanctuary with balloons, stuffed animals and baby blankets and children's "blankies" as the paraments. The sermon was a drama based on Sandy Sasso's children's book, IN GOD'S NAME, where different aspects of creation, the animals and the waters and the trees, offer names of God's identity based on their experience of God.  

As we readied and rehearsed for the service, at each practice I asked the parents and grandparents to provide snacks for the kids.  We had a lot of milk and cookies...it was glorious!  During one post-rehearsal connection over cookies and milk a couple of kids suggested we should have milk and cookies in church more often. DING!!  A GREAT IDEA!

Foundational to the church is table.  I hope that all have had the opportunity to sit at table with a child and share in milk and cookies.  

We went for it.  

Parents made chocolate-chip cookies, we bought gallons of whole milk (gave no thought for waistlines nor lactose intolerance), members of the children's ministry team poured milk into Disney characters decorated cups and carefully placed cookies on plates. 

At the appropriate time, I expressed that we were going to celebrate being at table in the way kids do best....milk and cookies. I stated this wasn't communion, no cookie would be consecrated.  This was just sharing and celebrating in the way kids enjoy. As the organist played up-beat songs from a children's level play list, adults accompanied children around the sanctuary assisting them in passing out milk and cookies. 

Who would not receive a homemade chocolate chip cookie and glass of milk from a smiling, giggling child??!!?!  In that congregation, more than I thought. Certain members were furious, they glared and stared. I am certain the District Superintendent's (my boss) phone rang frequently that week. 

Extravagance?  Perhaps not, yet, a definite action to re-mind us of the belovedness of every child; a moment that I hope each child who participated in that service still  remember for the time we "stirred it up a bit" in worship. 

A wise elder in one of the first congregations I served gave me that advice: "Honey, stir 'em up!"  I have and I plan to continue so to do.

LENTEN LINE #10: What are you looking for?

 The interviews for Summer Program Staff to work at the Annual Conference’s Camps were led by the conference camping director, the directors of the three conference camps, the conference lay leaders, the president of the conference UMW and three clergy tossed in for good measure. All representatives of WPA Annual Conference power. Along with “If your best friend was asked to describe you, what five adjectives would she/he say?” The other question I remember is “What is your favorite Bible story and why?” I was twenty-years old; I had not prepared for that question. My fellow interviewees reverted to their childhood Sunday School lessons and most of them said Noah’s Ark.  I went with the Nativity. If I was asked that question today, I would say LUKE 15 the story of losing and finding.

 

As the great storyteller, Jesus builds the narrative of lost and found raising the significance of what is lost from money to livelihood to a person. For many of us, we can relate to each example.  

 

When one can’t find their car keys or wallet, a mis-placed folder, a book ---- there is frustration.

When one faces layoff and losing a job ---- there is fear.

When on loses a person --- there is fracturing.

 

The story arc of the chapter is the movement from lost to found; the relaxation of tension when the lost item is found; the exhale of relief when being called back to work or finding a new job; the hope found and possibility present when a relationship is restored.

 

Losing and finding and celebrating is central to the Christian story.  We each have lived experiences of the roles featured in the chapter’s culminative story of the prodigal. 

·      We’ve known and expressed boldly a love that is passionate more than practical

·      We’ve judged, we’ve been part of the “pew posse” that circles and defends the space keeping out whomever we define as “those people.”

·      We’ve strayed, we’ve been arrogant living in the realm of “all about me” and spent the currency of ourselves and our self-respect and dignity on trying to find ourselves and fill the “God-shaped hole” in our lives.

·      We’ve named our failings, owned our mistakes and returned to the person or community we hurt and hoped for, needed a safe, soft place to land and be and rest and renew.

·      By the WOW and wonder of God’s grace we’ve found the grace for which we long.

 

That grace….even more than finding grace….have we offered grace, been grace to another?

LENTEN LINE 7: Why???

Clergy folks tend to get asked the WHY? Question frequently. The inquiry appears to be asked most often during times of loss, fear, suffering, war…..times just like these.

 

At my first congregational appointment, a young couple had been trying for years to have a baby. Finally, the grand news for which all were praying and waiting…. she was pregnant!  There was much celebration and anticipation. The baby was born premature, the little girl lived for a day and passed on.  Why?  

She cried the question to me…. Why…. usually followed by, “how could God let this happen?”

 

I am not one to pontificate nor to offer trite, tidy phrases found often on tea-towels. 

I listened. I offered the comfort of being present to her and her grief. The question kept being asked, why?

I answered honestly…I did not know. I didn’t then and I don’t now.

I shared what I did know and do believe --- God was present, there with her in the midst of such deep sorrow and that “God’s heart was the first to break.” (A line offered by the Reverend William Sloane Coffin on the tragic death from a car accident of his twenty-something-year old son).

 

Personally, I find comfort in a God who grieves with us, is in process with us. I don’t need an omnipotent God with all the answers.  

 

Here’s a riddle, a puzzle to discuss and wrestle and ponder:

            God is all powerful

             God is all loving

             Evil exists

 

I cannot and will not give up on my deep belief that God is all loving, steadfast in love and that God constantly shows up for us. 

 

I could be way off in my understanding, yet that is what based on experience and reflection I believe. Now, for me, I need the courage and the willingness to live as disciple to that belief.