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A reading from the Gospel of John 8.1-11

While Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”

This passage is one of the first I remember hearing in church as a young child, sitting in a pew and it made a deep and fearful impression on me as imagined the angry mob ready to stone the lone woman. The crowd is raging and out of control, goading Jesus to order the woman’s death, as mandated by the Law of Moses. Deep in concentration as he writes on the ground, Teacher Jesus is pulled away from his mission by the rants of the crowd and their calls for him to address their taunts and cries for vengeance. Jesus knows what they’re doing and skillfully bases his response, not on the letter of the law, but rather on the second great commandment-- to love others as we love ourselves. He disperses the crowd by challenging them to throw stones at the woman only if they themselves are sinless. And, of course, they’re not. When they disband, he tells the woman to sin no more but wastes no time in returning to his mission to teach and resumes writing on the ground.

In our world we are all too familiar with lynch mobs, out-of- control crowds claiming righteous causes and easy access to public shaming. We witness the piling on of accusations, the perpetrating of scandals both real and imagined and myriad attempts to rile up the crowd around hateful and divisive causes. Our public square is now the whole world, with social media making the destruction of peoples’ lives easy and clickable. Political motives and financial gains most often motivate people to grandstand, condemn and co-opt causes that are often self-serving and destructive to both the planet and the people most in need of good intentions. Like Jesus, we are called to turn away from all these facile judgments and unholy distractions and get back to our essential work of loving God and taking care of our neighbors.

Raised in a family for whom criticism and judgments were as natural as Friday night fish suppers, I’ve worked hard for many years to leave those habits behind. Instead, I have been taught by my children, my friends, my work and the books that I cherish to show me what kindness means, in imagining others’ lives and re-imagining my own. John’s words, “Whoever’s sins you forgive, they are forgiven them, whoever’s sins you retain, they have been retained” are inscribed on my heart and in my mind, causing me to rethink the meaning of forgiveness in living a life filled with grace. Those words made it possible for me to strengthen my ability to make a life with less judgment and more charity. And to get back to the essential work this lent in following Jesus in paths of prayer, love and caring for our neighbors.

You can listen to the reading and reflection by clicking here.

John 12:1-11

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 those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of 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 three hundred denarii 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.”

When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.

There’s a lot here. First, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Ok. THAT’s HUGE! Then he is going to be killed, AGAIN. But all that doesn’t stand out to me though it is important. I don’t interpret this passage as most do, so I apologize in advance. Mary. Mary and her super fancy super expensive perfume. It smells earthy and musky. It’s sexy. I’m sorry, but I look at this as a sensual moment between two people who love each other. She is washing the feet of the man she loves with her hair with a very special oil. In front of everyone. It’s an intimate moment. Yet that is not what is shocking to Judas, it’s about the expense. Then Jesus sticks up for his lady.

Jesus isn’t worried about the money. He is letting Mary have her moment. Because he knows he is not going to be around much longer and they will not have many more of these moments. He didn’t want to deprive her, or himself of this special moment. He knows she will be suffering a great loss soon enough. If we knew when we were going to die, and our loved ones didn’t, wouldn’t we be in pain for them as well? Wouldn’t we do anything and everything we could to cherish or even create special moments? We don’t have to know we are going to die, or live in fear, to treat our loved ones with extra kindness and respect. Do it now. Stick up for a moment because it may be the last, allow it to happen as sensual or intimate or weird it might be. Additionally, it may seem counterintuitive during Lent, but I think Jesus is saying, expensive stuff is ok. Don’t laugh! And this isn’t a message to my husband, truly! Once, once in a while, we must honor and appreciate fine things for ourselves and our loved ones because it is part of the moment, the special memory, not a material thing. We will always have the poor, but we won’t always have each other, and we most certainly will have our memories, so let’s make them special, like Jesus did for Mary.

You can listen to the reading and reflection by clicking here.

Hebrews 4:14—5:4

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness; and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. And one does not presume to take this honor, but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

This passage makes me think about a special aspect of the Christian faith. The God of our faith knows what it is to be human. We humans are frail, “ignorant and wayward”, as the passage has it. We don’t act with the perfection of an all-powerful being. Jesus knows about our ignorant, wayward frailty very intimately, because He has lived as a man.

Churches and congregations share all those human qualities; we are perfectly capable of collective ignorance and waywardness, not just the individual versions. We require motivation, from each other and from inspiring leaders, to do good and to become better.

In a sense, I have been studying leadership over the past couple of years as I complete an MPA program part time. MPA stands for “Master of Public Administration”, a degree I hope to attain by Christmas 2022, if not sooner. I’m getting close. Studying administration often, and rightly, veers into discussions of leadership. My current class is called “Public and Nonprofit Management I”, and we’ve been reading and discussing recently about motivation theories. A lot of the material focuses on the fact that employees in government and nonprofit contexts find motivation in equal measure to how much their own beliefs and ideals match the organization.

As members of Holy Apostles, we aren’t employees of a nonprofit. But we are voluntarily engaged in an organization, and every organization, including our church, has beliefs and ideals. There is a mission statement, and it comes from Jesus: “Love everyone.” I come to church and am a member because I believe in that message, even if in my human frailty, ignorance, and waywardness I can’t perfectly live up to it. Our motivations as churchgoers and church members work similarly in some ways to nonprofit employees. Can our organization, our church, come close (or closer) to what we believe in?

That’s where our own priests and spiritual leaders come in. In our case, we are deeply fortunate to have Mother Kimberlee and Mother Sarah, Deacon John and Canon Sandye, offering us their leadership. They are frail mortals, too, able to understand and deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, being themselves subject to weakness. But they are, in many important ways, bringing us as a congregation closer to our own beliefs. Even though it’s hard, and even though all involved are far from perfect, our motivation to continue in our church and our joy in our beliefs is increased through their efforts. I feel immense gratitude for our leadership, and continue to grow in my own motivation, joy, effort, and love.