Sermon
7th April 2019
Text:
John 12:1-8 – Feeding the poor
Something
that really struck me when l listened to the presentation by Vicki Gollasch
from ALWS last week was her question – what if today you only had what you
thanked God for yesterday.
I
don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I would have a lot today.
To
remind myself of what I should be thankful for I went back to Luther’s
explanation of the Apostles’ Creed first article.
Let
me read that:
I
believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body
and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and
still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink,
house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and
daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He
defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All
this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, even though I do
not deserve it. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey
Him. This is most certainly true.
I
think I would be quite bare and lonely today if I only had what I thanked him
for yesterday.
In
our gospel reading today we have an interesting exchange between Jesus, Mary
and Judas.
Mary
has an expensive bottle of perfume – John says it was worth a year’s salary.
Would
you be surprised to know that the latest average annual salary in Australia is
$82,436 a year.
That’s
one expensive bottle of perfume.
Judas
was furious at the waste saying it could have been used to feed the poor.
We
know from John’s commentary on the text that Judas’ had ulterior motives.
But
the interchange in this morning’s gospel comes down to thankfulness.
Mary
was thankful for all that Jesus had done for her – raising her brother Lazarus
from the dead in particular, and so her response was to use what she valued to
show her thanks.
She
didn’t care about the cost.
Yes
it could have fed the poor but once the money was gone it was gone.
As
the old saying goes – you can only sell the farm once.
But
what Mary did was put her treasure where her heart was which would provide a
lot more for the poor in years to come when the money would be gone.
It’s
like the story Jesus told about the widow who put in 2 small copper coins into
the treasury which Jesus said was of greater value than the thousands that the
rich people had put in because God could use her heart more than he could use
the dollars.
I
think what we can get from this interchange is that sometimes we are so worried
about the future and what is going to happen that we fail to recognise the
present and what God is doing.
That’s
why Jesus said to Judas to leave Mary alone.
You’ll
always have the poor and opportunity to look after them – but what is it that
will keep you passionate about helping them.
When
the money is all gone, if you don’t have the passion to help them then you will
stop helping them.
And
how often doesn’t that happen when we see the poor around us and we throw our
hands in the air and look for reasons to not help them.
I’ve
barely got enough to pay my own bills.
Surely
they could find a job if they were really that desperate.
What
did they spend their benefits on – cigarettes and alcohol I bet.
But
if we can start at a different position and look at the abundance of blessings
with which God has blessed us and is blessing us with then we don’t look for a
reason to avoid helping but we look for an opportunity to help.
Rather
than protecting the little we have we start to help from the abundance we have.
The
Red Cross once produced a comparison of what truly makes up riches in the
world:
WE
ARE THE LUCKY ONES
You
can read…you are luckier than over one billion people who cannot read at all.
If
you woke up this morning with more health than illness … then you are luckier
than the million who will not survive this week and even luckier because you
have medicare that guarantees you will have healthcare in case of illness.
If
you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of
imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation...then you are
ahead of 500 million people in the world.
If
you can attend any meeting you want—political, religious, social…… then you are
luckier than 3 billion people in the world.
If
you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head
and a place to sleep… … then you are richer than 75 per cent of this world.
If
you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish
someplace…then you are among the top eight per cent of the world’s wealthy.
If
you can read a list like this, then you don’t belong to the 1 billion people
who CANNOT read...
Jesus
said that we will always have the poor among us – but for how long will we be
passionate about helping them before we burn out and say “let someone else feed
them”.
But
when our first love is Christ then helping the poor and loving our neighbour
never becomes tiresome as St Paul reminds us:
Whatever
gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than
that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and
I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.
Regardless
of Judas’s motives for Mary’s use of the perfume, Jesus’ criticism remains
relevant.
Jesus
criticism of Judas was not because he felt he had more right to Mary’s
treasured perfume than the poor.
His
concern was that his care for the poor was not motivated by his love of God.
Remember
when Jesus was asked – what is the greatest commandment.
He
said – Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
And
the 2nd is like it – love your neighbour as yourself.
Our
love for our neighbour, rich or poor, comes from our love for God – which Mary
was showing.
As
Jesus says – seek first the Kingdom of God and all these will be added onto
you.
Or
when Solomon chose wisdom over riches and success but God rewarded him with
those very riches and success because he didn’t seek after them.
Likewise
if our heart is first for God then our heart for the poor and all humankind
will multiply many times more than if our focus is on what we can afford.
So
many times our mission has been driven by what we can afford.
If
our heart is for mission then what we can afford won’t be the indicator of what
we do or don’t do.
With
a year’s salary we could feed the poor for a long time, but with Jesus we can
feed the world for eternity with his body and blood which never runs out and
frees all people, rich and poor unto eternity in heaven.
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