Episode Transcript
Hello friends and welcome to this week's episode of Grits and the Gospel. My name is Reverend Katie Griffiths and we are in the fifth Sunday of Lent. It is so hard to believe that we are getting this close to Easter. I hope this Lent and season has been meaningful and beautiful for you. Next week is Palm Sunday when we will celebrate with the waving of the palms. And then the next Sunday is Easter. And as we traverse through these last few weeks before our Easter time, I hope that you are taking time to really live into this time of reflection and somberness really and sitting with the hard things in life. So that on that Easter morning, it will be just a little bit brighter. Let us come now together in a time of worship, the Lord be with you and also with you. Today's song is from, well, it is the entirety of the 126th Psalm. Here now these six verses. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongue was shouts of joy. That it was said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us. And we rejoiced. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercolor, water courses in the Nijab. May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed of foresewing, shall come home with shouts of joy and carrying their sheaves. The Word of God for us, the people of God. Thanks be to God. As we say, once again, the Apostles Creed today, let us pay close attention to where we are and the litany of things that we believe led to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Where are we in our beliefs? What are we focusing on this litany season? Friends, as we come together, let us recite the things that we believe. What do we believe? I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ is only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. The third day he rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven and stood at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence, he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Come in. Let us pray together, dear Lord, we come to you today. Thankful for this litany season, this time of beariness, this time of wilderness, this time of sacrifice. Let us sit with those times. Let us be present with you in the wilderness. Feel the sacrifice and love that you have for us. That deep love, the choices that you made, help us see those and appreciate those and reflect and love those. Here is now as we pray those words that your Son taught us to pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen. Today's gospel lesson is from the 12th chapter of John, verses 1 through 8. Here now the word of the Lord. Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served and Lazarus was one of the ones reclining with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made a pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, the one who was about to betray him, said, why was this perfume not sold for 300 dinarii and the money given to the poor? He said this not because he cared about the poor. But because he was a thief, he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it. Jesus said, leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me. The Word of God, for us the people of God. Thanks be to God. Would you pray with me? To the Lord's we come together today to hear this message that I was given, help others to hear the beauty of your words, the way I heard them when I received them. But the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in my sight. O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer, amen. I am a big Marvel fan. Not the comic books, but the movies. I love how they weave a story, not just in each movie, but throughout the whole universe of stories. True Marvel fans know that you never, ever, leave the theater until you have watched all of the credits. There's always an in-credit short scene. Sometimes there are two. They show snippets of movies and stories to come. Sometimes they're more exciting than the movie you just watched. What is next? What is to come? Knowing at least a little piece of what would be next is like being a part of a secret club with a handshake. I love going back and rewatching this movies too. You can really see what things you've missed that pointed to the outcome if you go back and look. Ironically, all of these hints and clues are called Easter eggs. Jesus has been doing that very thing throughout his ministry. He's been foreshadowing this season we're in over and over again, dropping breadcrumbs, putting in credit scenes and a lot of his parables and stories. He's been giving us Easter eggs for a while now. In today's scripture, he is foreshadowing the things that are going to be happening in their lives over the next few weeks. It was six days before the Passover, but this Passover was going to be very different. This Passover was going to become the last supper. And the author of John certainly knows what will happen eventually. He's brought up his own Easter egg right there in verses 4 through 6. When Judas asked why Mary had wasted the perfume instead of making money from it, John names him as the betrayer. And then in verse 6, he makes sure everyone knows what a scoundrel Judas is. In parenthesis, John says, he said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. He kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it. I wonder how long it took the disciples to figure out that Judas was not only the betrayer, because that happened right in front of him, but that he was also a thief. That someone they had trusted was stealing from them the whole time they were trying to be in ministry with Jesus. You can almost hear the hurt in his voice, the anger at the situation. And to make sure that Judas went down in history as the terrible villain that he is, John, make sure we get the full picture of the man right there in parenthesis. But there's one more piece of foreshadowing in the text. One that John does not put in parenthesis. One that he may not have yet fully seen in his anger at Judas. It says Mary took a pound of costly perfume, made of pure nard, and adointed Jesus' feet with it and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of perfume. Y'all, that's a lot of perfume. Think about how much a pound of sugar is. Remember back to your high school days when you had to carry around that sugar like a baby to learn what it was like to raise a child? That second of sugar got heavy after a while and it was only a pound. The perfume bottles on my chest of drawers are only measured in ounces. And here Mary was pouring a whole pound of it on the feet of Jesus. I bet the whole house smelled like perfume. I bet the whole neighborhood couldn't smell it. And while Mary was rebuked for it by Judas, I'm sure others had the same thought. What do you want to bet? Martha came out of the kitchen and had a thing or two to say about the smell and the waste. I can only imagine because I am a Martha and that's what I would've done. But Jesus said this. Leave her alone. She bought it so she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you but you will not always do not always have me. Jesus was not being very subtle with his Easter egg. He was keeping it from she was keeping it from my burial. He says what he doesn't say what they would have never understood was that she wouldn't need it a few short days. And a little over a week it was six days before the Passover and then the day they crucified him and then three days they put him in the tomb. Mary would not need the perfume for his burial. Mary is not even one of the named women in any of the stories of the tomb. At his empty tomb in Matthew we see Mary Magdalene and the other Mary but he doesn't say which one. Mark names the other Mary as the mother of James and then adds in Salome. And Luke names Mary Magdalene, Joanne, Mary the mother of James and the other women. Here in John it is Mary Magdalene alone who is the first to see the empty tomb and the rest erected Jesus. Could this Mary have been in that group listed in Luke? Could she have sat at the feet of Jesus enough to know what he was already trying to tell people? Is that why she felt comfortable using the pound of perfume that would have been saved for the burial of Jesus? Until we can ask for ourselves when we see her in heaven we will never know. But she seemed to know something that everyone else did not. What had everyone else missed that she had seen? What had she heard in his stories and parables and his teachings that was pointed to the events that were coming? What Easter eggs had she picked up on that others had missed? It begs the question, what have we been missing? What are we not seeing in our own lives at our Easter eggs? Do the things that we have been doing during Lent end up not just with Easter eggs but with an Easter moment for us all? It reminds me a lot about the first time when I got the call to ministry. I could look back and see the things, the hints, the Easter eggs that had guided and directed me to the place I am now. In all areas of my life God was teaching and molding me and showing me things I would need to know in ministry. I was taught in my grandmother's lessons of putting others first and how to properly serve at a party are all things that are foundational to pastoral care. Building community throughout my life gave me experience in building relationships in the church. Through my four years and six pastors that I went through at Mulberry as lay leader I was taught invaluable lessons about the structure and inner workings of the United Methodist Church. I built relationships with those pastors that all have now become that of mentors in ministry and not just as a pastor. I couldn't see it at the time but now I look back and I see clearly the path that I was on and the Easter eggs I was collecting. I was still afraid that I missed something before my call to ministry. I wonder if Mary was afraid to miss something to you. I wonder if that's why we see her at the feet of Jesus most often in scripture. Maybe that's where we should be. Jesus didn't need the perfume for his burial because he was not going to be in the tomb on that third day. He knew he wouldn't need it. Mary either knew it or sensed something about the weeks that they had ahead of them. As we come to the end of this letting season let's start to look back and see when Easter eggs have been laid out for us. The things we have had before us that maybe didn't make sense at the time but in light of all that came after it now make things very clear. What are you being called to do in your own Easter season? Are you like John who is so angry at Judas that he can't see straight or see what other lessons are being taught by Jesus on his way to the cross? Are you like Mary who may not know exactly why yet? But you just know something big is coming in your life and you want to be prepared for it. Maybe it's time to pray the prayer I prayed when I first had to make decisions about a call to ministry. I started looking back and I realized all that had been done to prepare me for my calling and I prayed more than once. I just made these answers and these decisions so obvious that I cannot possibly miss what you need from me Lord. We are on our way to the cross. We are on our way to the day of celebration and resurrection. But before we get there we need to cherish every moment of land. Every step along the path so that we don't miss the things that Jesus is trying his best to show us. Because one of the best parts of being in a relationship with Jesus just like when you figure out the Easter eggs that Marvel leaves in its movies is getting to see the blessing and say I knew and I knew that was coming. Because having faith in our Easter moment that our Easter moments are coming means that we have been vigilant about along the way and looked for the hope and the Easter eggs that are being left all around us. One of the most meaningful places we can look for guidance and the hope for things to come is at the communion table. The Sunday we will be coming together as we and we will be sitting quietly and remembering those six days before the Passover. When we do that let us be mindful of the lent and season and the things that God is trying to remind us of before we celebrate the empty tomb. Amen. As you go throughout the rest of your lent and season as we move toward Palm Sunday and that celebration and Easter morning and that glorious day of resurrection. Let us take a minute to look back over these few weeks and look for things that point to the blessings Jesus is trying to give us. Because in life and death and life beyond death got us with us. We are never ever alone. Thanks be to God. Amen.
