FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT – 25 MARCH 2007
St. Paul Lutheran Church, ABQ NM – The Rev. P. L. Holman
Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4b-14; John12:1-8
“The Sweet Smell of Life”
Smells à memories, pain and joy; same smells evoke different responses: when I was young,
Gardenias ALWAYS at funerals à the smell of death
Sauerkraut ALWAYS for special family gatheringsà
the smell of life!
At the home of Lazarus in Bethany, they were very familiar with the smell of death. Not long before today’s reading the sisters had met Jesus at the tomb of their brother Lazarus [John 11:1-44]. Lazarus had died; he’d been properly prepared and buried; he’d been dead four days by the time Jesus got there. Yet Jesus called to Lazarus, and by the miracle of God’s healing power Lazarus came out, alive. This is not the only time that Jesus interacts with the household group: there was also that time the writer of Luke [10:38-42] tells us about, when Martha was in the kitchen getting riled up because Mary was sitting at Jesus feet instead of helping her.
This time the Bethany household is hosting the “Friendship Circle.” It’s a gathering at their place to sort of say “thank you” to Jesus who is on his way to Jerusalem with many other faithful to observe the Passover.
We know what they did not: Jesus was making his way not only to Jerusalem and the Passover, but also to the cross of suffering and death,
Somehow Mary must have known that this journey was about more than the Passover. In the midst of the gathering Mary the disciple shows her gratitude to the One who passed over her sins by offering him her ministry of caring presence and touch. Mary pours out the ointment, dumping that whole bottle costly nard – I’m thinking Chanel No.5 – the whole bottle on the feet of Jesus as though preparing his body for burial. Not on his head, which would recognize his power, but on his feet as though he was already dead.
Mary knows well that routine, and that smell: when Brother Lazarus died his body was prepared for burial, anointed with the smell of nard that morphed to stench after four days in the tomb. But this time the body – Jesus – is very much alive. And this time the oil is not left on the body. This time Mary wipes it off with her hair.
It’s almost as though Mary knows that Jesus is heading to no ordinary stinky death but to death on the way to the fullness of life, to die for the sake of the life of the world. And as though defying the deception of the world that Judas names in his objection to her action, the deception Jesus can see right through, Mary once again chooses the better part: Mary chooses to name the truth – to preach the gospel without words – and out of love for the Truth to anoint the feet of Jesus.
It’s almost as though Mary somehow knows that “just as the aroma of her discipleship wafted through the house, the aroma of Jesus’ faithfulness and love would soon waft through the whole world.” [Kershner, p.8; Journal for Preachers Lent 2007]
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The liturgy we use for Funerals, for Burial of the Dead, has evolved from a variety of ancient traditions. At its heart it is an Easter liturgy, a celebration of life. It begins with a reminder of the power and promise of Baptism, by which we are made children of God forever: “When we were baptized in Christ Jesus, we were baptized into his death. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life.” Our burial service doesn’t wallow in the fear the death evokes, but recognizes the grief and fear and moves beyond us them following the journey of Christ before us to confident hope, to the sweet smell of Life: “For if we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with Christ in a resurrection like his.”
The optional reading in our new red hymnal speaks of this power in terms of the clothing we are given for the journey: “All who are baptized into Christ have put on Christ. In their baptism, Ray and Janet and Stephen were clothed with Christ. In the day of Christ’s coming, they shall be clothed with glory.” [ELW p.280]
Each year when we walk the journey through Holy Week we are given opportunity to experience anew the mysterious power of God’s saving grace. The services of Passion Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday beckon us to remember together the One who has passed over all our sins and who in his dying offers us the assurance of Life. At the Easter Vigil on the evening of Holy Saturday, our worship dramatizes that Baptismal promise and the journey for which Christ has prepared us.
This Holy Week journey toward Easter is echoed not only in our Funeral liturgy but also in the order of worship we use for Baptism and Holy Communion, even in Marriage whose covenant is an echo and sign of the self-sacrificing love of Christ that is to characterize all our relationships. We are invited on this Holy Week journey to draw strength using all our senses as we experience the Gospel proclamation that Christ is risen and that the love of Christ continues to waft through the world.
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Whenever we worship, and especially in the most holy week of the church year which begins next Sunday, we are invited to soak up the sweet and glorious aroma of Christ wafting through the community gathered, and then, by the power of baptismal grace, to be that aroma amid all the situations of our lives and our world that otherwise reek of death.
As we worship this morning, God gives you the opportunity to open yourself to the aroma of Christ present in this time and place apart; God invites you to let it permeate your heart just as the costly nard enveloped those gathered in Bethany long ago. It is the aroma of hope for the despairing, healing for the lost, compassion for the broken, and the sweet aroma of life for all the places of death in our relationships and our world. Let the aroma of Christ present here in word and wine, in stranger and friend, saturate your body and soul, so you can’t help but take it with you to the places of poverty, brokenness, and pollution, in your school, your work, your home. So you can’t help but share a whiff of God’s love, and be surprised yourself by the sweet smell of Life.
Amen