Deuteronomy 26: 1-11
Psalm 91
Romans 10: 8b -13
Luke 4: 1-13

The Journey Begins

2500 years ago the Chinese philosopher Lao Tse said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

In the worship life of churches which follow the lectionary we journey from Advent through Christmas and Epiphany to Lent and then to Easter and Pentecost and the Season of Pentecost and then back to Advent again. Our natural world cycles through the seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. There are seasons and cycles for most sports and community activities.

What the lectionary does is take the church year, from one Advent to the next, over three slightly different versions, and tells the major stories of the Bible and the major events in the life of Jesus and asks us to reflect on our own lives in the light of these stories.

The beauty of the biblical story is that while some of it is several thousand years old, and the authors of this story knew nothing of the things that make our lives busy and complicated, the complexities of their lives do indeed speak to our own if we take the time to hear and connect with that story. What makes scripture , scripture is that it continues to speak God’s word to us all these generations after it was written.

Lent is a time set apart from the regular round of life and its busyness. Lent is a time when we, as individuals and as a faith community, are asked to pause and reflect on our lives as a people of God. Lent is a time for reflection and then for new and changed action.

Fasting in Lent, or giving up things for Lent, like some people do, is not an end in itself but it is way of making time in the midst of all that stuff I was talking about a few minutes ago, in order to focus on the journey; it is a time to focus on our lives in the light of our faith. It’s not about whether or not we can say “I didn’t slip at all this year” or “I only slipped once”. It’s a time apart so we can intentionally focus on our life of faith. The 21st century version of this might be giving up social media for Lent - no Facebook, no Twitter.

What is becoming more popular is “taking on” a Lenten discipline instead of “giving something up”, per se. Programs or ideas in this vein have been circulating on the internet, for the last few weeks. “40 Random Acts of Kindness” might be a good way to describe most of these ideas under one umbrella.

Similar to what I was telling the children, we could make a list or just randomly decide to do something kind for someone- either friend or stranger.

Pay for someone’s order at the drive through at Tim Horton’s or Robins! Take your neighbour’s green or black bin back to its place after the truck goes by on a Friday. Go and visit a senior and while there take their Guardian to the door if you notice it still in the box. Send a note to a former teacher and say, “you were a good teacher- thank you”. Bring a non-perishable item to church for the food bank - soup, spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, crackers, peanut butter - are a few ideas and always needed.

We hear so much about random violence that it’s nice when we hear about random kindness.

Sometimes such an act will leave the recipient speechless, sometimes they will turn around and do something else for someone else - but in most cases it will brighten their world. Some of these acts are best when anonymous - but sign your letter to the teacher, please!

Lent begins each year with the story of Jesus fasting in the desert; a fasting followed by temptation -

At Jesus baptism we find out, for certain, that Jesus is the son of God, that . Jesus is God’s beloved. WHY then is he tempted? Clearly being close to God is no guarantee against hardship and temptation. Clearly temptation is part of the human condition.

When we think of temptation we tend to think of a pull to do the wrong thing; like being tempted to steal from a candy store or to cheat on a test but Jesus’ temptations are about things that are far more subtle than that.

In Jesus day there were popular beliefs about the messiah and what this person would do when he finally came. Their expectations sound very much like the temptations we read about today. In telling the story of the temptation, Luke is telling us that while Jesus IS the Messiah he is the Messiah on his own terms, not the terms that the people expect.

It seems to me that one of the things that this passage teaches us, by itself and in the context of the lenten journey is that our struggle with temptation is constant. As a people of faith, as a church community, we must struggle with what is expected of us and whether delivering on that will compromise our faithfulness. If we succumb to every expectation we will not be faithful. If we succumb to every prejudice we will not be faithful. If we avoid change because we don’t want to risk a mistake or if we avoid new actions because we don’t want to upset people we will not be being faithful. We must focus on our mission and make a conscious choice about how to undertake the journey.

The lenten journey is ahead of us. Our annual meetings and possible changes are ahead of us. Let us go into this journey with courageous reliance on the Spirit who is with us always.

Amen.

Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13: 31-35

Jesus’ Lament

Most parents have hopes and dreams for their children. By the tine their children are of school age most parents have tried to teach their children how to behave especially when they are out of the house. A dad might say to his son, on the way to a friend’s house, “Remember your manners, I don’t want Bobby’s mother to think you are being raised by wolves!” Aside from the feelings of embarrassment a parent might feel at a child’s acting out, most parents raise their children so that they will make good decisions and be able to contribute to society. When a child suffers for his or her own mistakes a parent often wishes to take away the hurt or pain but knows they cannot or should not! Children have to learn to live with the consequences of their actions and decisions. That’s part of growing up.

We are in the second week of the season of Lent and today we read the passage often referred to as “Jesus Lament Over Jerusalem”. The passage begins with some Pharisees who seem to be on his side; they warn him of impending danger. Were they actually looking out for him? Perhaps! Perhaps not! Although we don’t know their real motives the warning sets up an opportunity for Jesus to teach his listeners about the prophetic role and his ministry.

The Herod referred to in this passage was a cruel puppet king who ruled over Galilee only at the pleasure of Rome. He was certainly a man to be feared. Jesus refers to him as a “fox”. Foxes are supposedly known for their cunning and also for their destructiveness.

The image that Jesus uses to refer to himself is that of a hen with chicks, or you could say a “mother-hen”. He expresses his deepest desire that he be able to gather the children of Jerusalem like a hen gathers her chicks and protect them - but he can’t because they wont let him.

I belong to a couple of e-email lists on which preachers share sermons and sermon ideas. Yesterday a sermon came through and its title was, “There’s a Hen in the Fox House”. The title captured exactly what I wanted to say.

Jerusalem was, in a very real sense, a den of foxes. It was the centre of power in Israel and time after time God’s prophets had been imprisoned or killed for calling the people back to an authentic relationship with God., or particularly for calling the King to account. The corruption of the ruling elites was a symbol of the people’s distance from the God who had called them and named them his own!

Jerusalem, is a metaphor for the people, leaders and followers alike who had not paid attention and had rejected generations of prophets and leaders and teachers. Jerusalem is the focus of Jesus anguish.

What we need to get our heads around today is how this story is addressed to us - two thousand years later. We need to ask how it speaks to our situation and how it challenges us to a) accept God’s desire to care for us, and b) to a greater faithfulness in the light of this message.

You are likely familiar with the TV shows, “Dragons’ Den” and “Shark Tank” where entrepreneurs go to get investment dollars for their business idea. The successful people on the panel are those who have succeeded in business; they are “dragons” or “sharks”. Of course it is implied that those are the kinds of qualities you need to succeed in the world. Fosus on making money. Look out for yourself. Maximize your profit. That’s the way of Herod’s Jerusalem and that is the way of the world, but here in this passage we have Jesus lamenting this way. Jesus has spent his ministry proclaiming another way. We know there is another way - if only we would trust in God enough to take that road.

Part of what Lent is about is taking a step back from the ways of the foxes who try to govern our lives and learn from the hen who seeks to teach us new way and who seeks to protect us as we venture into that new way.

Far from being an image of weakness the image of the hen with chicks is about strength and caring. I remember reading a story once about a hen sacrificing herself for her chicks. Apparently there had been a brush fire which consumed everything in its path: farmland and buildings.

When one of these farmers returned, there in the corner of chicken’s enclosure was the burned carcass of one of his hens. He went over and taped it with the toe of his boot and the ball of burned and blackened feathers started to roll over as he expected it would. What happened next was totally unexpected: out came five slightly smoky but very much alive little chicks. They had found shelter under the hen’s wings and even though she did not survive, they did.

How many of us have seen a young child jump off a doorstep or deck and shout out,

“Dad, catch me!” And dad had better be ready!

God call to us is not about launching ourselves into dangerous activities with us shouting “catch me God” as we achieve lift off, but often we act as if we are all on our own. Often we take no risks for the Gospel and we do not trust that we will be accompanied on our journey. We do not trust that this hen is any match for the foxes among whom we are living.

If the Easter story is about anything it is that the Herods and Pilates and foxes of the world do not have the last word. The message of Easter is that this one whose care for us is as fierce and strong as a hen’s care for her chicks is the one who has the last word.

This is the one who calls us to speak a different truth. This is the one who calls us to live by a different set of values. This is the one who calls us to live a life of generosity and self-giving. This is the one who calls us to live as if there is more to life than personal gain. This is the one who calls us to care for creation, even if it is at a cost to us. This is the one who calls us to place our trust in the way of Jesus of Nazareth who proclaimed the strongest force in the world was the force of love. This is the one whose paradoxes can only be truly understood by living them in community.

God is seeking us out. God wants us to follow and God wants to care for us. Are we willing?

Amen.

Isaiah 55: 1-9
Psalm 63
1 Corinthians 10: 1-13
Luke 13: 1-9

Why Buildings Fall Down?

In the days and months after the well publicized events of 9/11 there was several programs on tv, and probably many more studies than we will ever know about, where experts in the construction of high-rise buildings tried to explain why the twin towers fell down as they did after each of them had been hit by a passenger jet which exploded upon impact.

The event was not un-like the sinking of the unsinkable ship, the Titanic; the failure of these towers was a logical outcome, given the specifics of the event.

Captain Edward Smith, the longest serving captain in the White Star Line, should not have been steaming at breakneck speed in ice infested waters. To make matters worse the ship had serious design flaws, was constructed with brittle steel and had too few lifeboats; all of which contributed to the immensity of the disaster.

Noone associated with the design of the World Trade Centre complex seems to have envisioned the scenario of a passenger jet laded with fuel for a long haul flight impacting either of the buildings even though other high rises had been hit by smaller airplanes and remained standing. I read somewhere that all of the copies of the studies by structural engineers on theoretical aeroplane impacts were lost on 9/11. Their main flaw was perhaps their attitude that they were invincible and loved by the world.

Each time there is a plane crash, there are those who work tirelessly to find out the cause. If they find out that it was the thingamajig that controls the whoosewatz on the top of the whatchamacallit they reason that they can prevent further tragedies by replacing those defective parts or redesigning the entire mechanism on each and every plane of that model.

Every so often a certain model of car has a serious malfunction and similar changes are made so that loss of life cannot be attributed to such flaws. This is important and necessary work and has saved many lives.

However knowing the physical or scientific mechanism of an accident or tragedy does not really answer the deep question, “Why?” What we really want to know cannot be answered by blaming a faulty part or shoddy construction or a drunk driver or international terrorists. What we really want to know cannot always be satisfactorily answered by finding someone to blame either. “Why do the innocent suffer and the guilty go un punished” is often the unspoken question. Most counsellors will tell their clients that the “shoulda, woulda, coulda” responses never get us to a satisfying place.

In the events recorded in today’s gospel reading Jesus is asked a question about the sin of those whose murder took place during worship. They want him to play the “blame game” but he does not bite. He gives the example of a building collapse in his answer saying that they were no worse sinners than anyone else and goes on to teach them with a parable about fig trees and second chances.

On the surface his assertion that all people are sinners is hardly comforting but I think he is trying to jolt his questioner into a different way of thinking.

If we can blame the actions of someone else for a disaster then there is less reason for us to change the way we act or think. Jesus is telling them that bad stuff happens and what we need to do is work on our own personal and collective relationship with God - and with one another. In short. we all need to repent or we will perish.

We all know that life is a complex set of intertwined motives and circumstances and what we do does affect the lives of others. Some natural disasters, for example, can be attributed to climate change which most scientists attribute, at least in part, to global warming. Some natural disasters affect the poor disproportionally because, for example, they are forced to live in areas prone to flooding and earthquakes or because the response to these areas is slower and not a priority of those with the ability to help. It is all well and good to say “they should move” or “they should have better houses” as if blaming them can protect us from any responsibility to help. We all know that disaster can befall anyone, despite all of the best practices of preparation in the world. Someone can eat right, exercise and be a non-smoker and have good skills for coping with stress and still come down with a heart condition or some such illness.

Jesus told his listeners that they must all repent. We tend to think of repentance as “feeling bad for what we did wrong and then not doing wrong things in the future” but that is only one way to look at repentance. The biblical view of repentance has very little to do with what might be called “remorse” and more to do with turning around. Repentance assumes that one is on a road, on a journey, and to repent is to turn and go in a different direction. It is deciding that change is needed and then making those changes.

Some people think that the church should focus on moral issues: sex by far being the biggest and most common one. They think it is as simple as me saying, “Don’t have sex till you are married and only straight people should be married!” They think we should teach the golden rule and the ten commandments and that they church should leave the rest to others.

Well, I am here today to say that for us, there is no “rest”; our whole lives should be seen as a response of faith.

While it is not helpful to blame ourselves or others for particular tragedies or disasters we know that we all need to take a look at our own lives in terms of God’s will for us and seek to make those changes we are able to.

Part of our faith statement in the United church affirms our call to “live with respect in creation”. We have all learned about sorting our waste into the two blue bags and the green and black bins. We all pay the .10cent deposit on beverage containers and save them up so we can take them back for .05cents refund and we hope that the $ used to run the refundables system makes a difference.

We look at the dandelions on our lawn and wish we could attack them with whatever chemical we used to be able to buy. Yet we wonder why there are so many children with severe, life threatening allergies.

We know that if we burn fossil fuels or benefit from the burning of fossil fuels we are partially responsible for global warming but we ask how are we going to heat our homes or get to work and the only thing keeping some families going is going to Alberta to work for “big oil”.

We know that our standard of living in North America is partially dependant upon cheap imports of goods from other countries. Working conditions in the factories which produce these goods would not be tolerated in North America which is why the factories are off shore. We get cheaper stuff, the shareholders get larger dividends and everyone is happy except the workers who perished in the fire at the factory because they were locked in for their shift or the children who work in factories and who cannot go to school or hope for a better life.

We want cheap imports of almost everything, including food, but wonder why our farmers are going broke and there are no jobs.

If can blame a certain disaster on someone’s sin, then I can feel safe, especially if I am not guilty of that sin but are we ever truly innocent. Sure, I am not guilty of this thing or that thing, but instead of focussing on someone else, I can look at my own living and what I can do as I seek to be faithful.

Jesus’ parable about the fig tree is about the gardener who not only wonts the tree to survive, he wants it to thrive and produce figs which is its purpose.

Repentance is not about being so paralyzed by our own sin or vindicated by our innocence that we change nothing about our lives. Repentance is about taking a journey of faith and intentionally walking in another direction.

So lets stop wasting time and energy obsessing over misfortune or disaster and stepping forward in faith to do something positive, to do something different, to repent and go in a new direction,

Our God wants for us all fullness and abundance of life - in this lenten seasaon and beyond, let us go forward as we seek to make the changes we can so that everyone can reap the fruits of this promise.

Amen.

Joshua 5: 9-12
Psalm
1 Corinthians 5: 16-21
Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32

The Scandal of Grace

We all know them, or know of them; maybe we have one in our own family. Everyone knows about them but no one really talks about them except in whispers with head shaking. People might say to me, “Can you go and visit Hezekiah and Esther, they are shut-ins now, but when you are talking to them don’t mention their son Hezzy Jr - they don’t talk about him ”. Of course, I’m talking about those lost ones, the they are the runaways, the “black sheep” the “n’er do well wastrels” who blow their parents money and break their hearts seemingly without so much as a second thought! In most cases their leaving isn’t much of a surprise; in some cases it is a relief.

Many years ago I did a funeral for one of those lost ones; he had lived away for years but his family brought him home to be buried. In preparation for the funeral I asked for some life details for the remembrance and I got his parents names and his dates of birth and death and the name of the place he had been living most of his life as far as they knew, and the comment, “we really have nothing good to say about him, so please don’t say anything at all!” I can’t remember what I said about him at the funeral but I do hope I talked about God’s love.

The story that makes up today’s gospel is the last of three told by Jesus when he was being criticized for welcoming sinners and eating with them. In the minds of some, rabbis and teachers were only supposed to associate with upstanding and righteous people.

The word “prodigal” means “wasteful” and even though this passage is referred to as the “Parable of the Prodigal Son”, you could say that all three of the people mentioned in the parable are wasteful in some way or other, not just the younger son!

I’m not much into art, but I do have a Rembrandt on my office wall - of course it is a copy, a poster actually - it’s title: “The Return of the Prodigal Son” You look at it and you can almost hear the tears of joy and the breathless sobbing.

As far as the story goes, we’ve known it forever! A man has two sons - one is good and the other an ungrateful brat. Yet both are estranged from their father, neither understands the depth of their father’s love for them. The younger one has had it. He’s had it with his officious older brother. He’s had it with the rules at home. He knows more than his very old fashioned dad and he risks everything so he can cut all ties with the family.

Scholars tell us that when a son asked for his inheritance he was saying, “Dad, I wish you were dead.” A proper father would not give it to him but would have him beaten. The book of Deuteronomy actually gives the parents of such a son permission to present him to the elders of the village and have him killed by stoning! Any lesser punishment and the lad would be considered to have been very lucky.

As Jesus’ detractors were hearing this story for the first time they would probably have assumed that this could not have happened to a “good father”. Perhaps some of them would have said. “There’s something wrong in that family to begin with!”

Bus the father in this story does give him his share. In accordance with the inheritance rules of that time and place he would have received a third, assuming there were only two sons.

If you wanted to convert land and possessions into cash you haggled and waited for the best offer. This lad seems to have taken the first offer and blown town with the cash.

All we are told is that he wasted his money in dissolute living. As was not uncommon in that era a famine came upon the land and the friends who had helped him spend his money were nowhere to be found when he found himself in need. There is not surprise to that!

He landed a job feeding someone’s pigs. That would have been the ultimate degradation for a Jewish man - pigs were considered unclean. He was so hungry he would have eaten the pig’s feed - likely carob pods - but he was not given any.

So he hatches a plan. He will go home and throw himself on his father’s mercy and ask for a job; he knows his father treats his own servants better than this.

Meanwhile at home, the older son is working for Dad. Now I can’t say for sure but it seems to me that he is probably sullen and angry and putting in time till his father dies and he can do things his own way. We can probably sat that we know one thing for sure; he’s glad his little brother has gone.

His father, on the other hand, probably goes to the roof every day and looks down the road in the direction of the gentile cities that attract the young men with stars in their eyes.

Then came the joyous day when he saw the young man walking wearily todard home - and despite any kind of protocol he ran to meet him. He did not wait for the prepared speech; he didn’t wait to hear his son’s carefully rehearsed speech, but ordered that a party be prepared and garments of sonship and honour be brought.

The sullen older brother is portrayed as a resentful and ungrateful soul who refuses to join the party; he refuses to share in his father’s joy; he refuses to welcome his brother. Pay attention to the menu; a lamb would be a family meal; a calf would feed the whole village. This was a big shin-dig.

As they all went to bed for the night their father might have been wondering how he lost his first son the day he regained the second!

What is this about?

Well it’s about God and it’s about us. It’s about how the heart of God receives us and restores us even when we’re not even home yet- our God rushes out to meet us and embraces us in love.

But perhaps since this was told in the presence of some of the religious leaders who looked down their noses at the company Jesus was keeping we have to honestly ask the question, “Who am I in this parable?” And just perhaps we will have to admit that we are the older brother?”

I suspect that Jesus listeners would have assumed that this father would have made the son wait a good long time before he gave him a job. I doubt any of them could have imagined that he would be welcomed back as a son and have a lavish party thrown to welcome him home.

This father cannot do the “right thing” so he did the wrong thing and welcomed his son with open arms.

Some of Jesus listeners would have found this the best news they had ever heard and some would have found it very offensive. The older brother types may have been asking, “Why follow the rules if there are no consequences to breaking them?”

The American poet, Robert Frost once wrote: “home is where when you have to go there they have to take you in” but sadly there are those who have no such home. This is a call to all of us to realize that our God gives us this kind of home and calls us to form communities which offer that kind of welcome. Its not about permission to go rogue but about being a welcoming community to those who seek forgiveness and restoration.

Its not just about biological family, its about human community of any kind; including church community. Its not about how many years we cracked lobster before the annual supper or how many hundred pounds of potatoes we have peeled for the salad or how many letters we have delivered or how many tons of snow we have shovelled in the pre-dawn so we could get the church warm enough for worship.

It’s about grace and the fact that both sons lived under the grace and love of their father - even though they saw it in vastly different ways.

Last week, according to Luke’s time line Jesus told some folks not to get tied up in knots, or rest too easily, over who is responsible for tragedies such as building collapse and political oppression but instead focus on turning and journeying in God’s way. This week he tells a story of the joy in the heart of God over those who do return to their home in God.

The good news is that the older brother who left the house without joining the party does not get the last word. The last word was spoken by the God of love in the action of Jesus resurrection from the death.

So the good news of this story on this day is an invitation to join the party - welcome and be welcomed. If you go away hungry, don’t blame the host. The good news is that God’s love will not run out - the fatted calf is big enough for everyone.

Amen.

Isaiah 48: 16-21
Psalm 126 John 12: 1-8

the house was filled with the fragrance

Perfume in church, and in many public places, is a difficult issue these days. You hardly go anywhere without seeing a sign that informs those who enter that “this building” is a scent free zone. At hospitals, dentist and doctor’s offices and churches people are encouraged to leave their perfume at home. We do this out of respect for those who might have problems breathing because of someone else’s perfume.

I am told that most women’s perfume is purchased by men and since it is an impulse purchase stores would lose “big time” if they made perfume as hard to find as let’s say, “frying pans” or “men’s neckties”.

So this is the disclaimer; for this sermon, and only this sermon, perfume is a good thing. Please continue to keep in mind those with sensitivities to it and don’t wear it to church or when you go to the doctor, the dentist or to see your friend in hospital or manor.

Today’s gospel reading finds Jesus with his friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus,. in Bethany. His friends have thrown a dinner party for him. When we hear about Maru anointing Jesus’ feet keep in mind that they did not sit on chairs to eat but ate while reclining on couches and mostly propped themselves up on one elbow and ate the other hand. Now, if I tried that I would probably get the mashed potatoes and gravy all over my blouse!

Maybe this was a “thank you for raising Lazarus from the dead” supper. While they were eating, Mary took a pound of costly perfume, by Judas’ estimate worth a year’s wages, and anointed Jesus feet with it, wiping them with her hair, which must have been quite long. Apparently the fragrance of nard was quite pronounced and the whole house was filled with its scent.

We all know the expression, “hindsight is 20/20" and in this case the comments of the Gospel’s author about Judas are no different. None of the Gospels were written down until many, many years later, and John’s was the latest of all. By then the long dead Judas certainly had no redeeming qualities left . He was remembered, after all as Jesus’ betrayer. In the context of this passage he was, at best, a “party pooper”, a “wet blanket” or at worse, “a thief”. When he immediately said, “What a waste - we could have given this money to the poor”, he was showing one or the other, not really a concern for the poor! The author of John’s gospel makes this quite clear.

Whether Judas was a thief or not, the same objection is sometimes given to certain kinds of extravagances - “what a waste, we could have done something else, something better, with it”. The saying, “you will always have the poor with you” is possibly one of the most quoted verses in relation to the subject of poverty and given its context, one of the most mis-quoted.

You see, I would venture to say that most people who quote that verse try to use it to absolve themselves of any responsibility to change how things are done with respect to the gap between the rich and the poor.

So lets say someone supports a joint government and private sector initiative to come up with strategies to eliminate poverty and someone objects saying, “well Jesus said we would always have poor people, so why are we trying to do something which Jesus said we would never be able to do”. But it seems to me that Jesus, in other stories, exhibits a very pronounced concern for the poor. He clearly wants people of faith to help the poor and to address the reasons for poverty.

That verse must be taken in the context of this passage and as a result that verse must be carefully used, very carefully used.

The context of this passage is the proximity to Jerusalem in geography and the proximity to it in time. Just around the corner are the trial and crucifixion. It seems clear to me that Jesus could sense what was coming; he knew that he had rubbed the wrong people the wrong way, but he was not willing to compromise his principles so he knew that his visit to Jerusalem was going to be very difficult. Mary, Martha and Lazarus were his best friends and no doubt they knew it too.

The put the meal on, but Mary, the impractical, sensitive one of the three, throws caution to the wind and performs this bold and clearly extravagant gesture.

So, in this context let us look at this passage once again for what it does say to us, on the Sunday before Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph only to die on a cross five days later.

In some ways Judas’ purpose in this story is like a “foil”. The foil in a story is a character whose presence sets up an argument or an event so that the main character can say or do something meaningful. If Jesus were a comedian, Judas would be the “straight man”.

Mary’s gift was one of pure grace. Not counting the cost she took the gift and poured it over Jesus feet and expressed her love for him and her feelings of sorrow that something bad was about to happen in the only way she could Judas could not see that. Can we?

The Guardian carried a story early last week about an Island optometrist who gave a homeless man the gift of a room for the night only to find out that the man used this opportunity to help himself to a duvet and a television for which the kind optometrist received a bill.

Some have criticized the young eye doctor for his naivete. Some have said he did a good thing. Some others were not at all impressed for various other reasons.

According the Guardian he has not been deterred completely from acts of “paying it forward” and will continue to teach his children about kindness and helping those in need.

Now, one could say that the Delta was way over the top and he could have gotten several days for the same money at a less lavish establishment! For whatever reason that option was not chosen.

You could compare it to Mary’s use of the nard - according to Judas, a substance worth a year’s wages (which was what 300 denarii would signify). Whether he could easily afford it, or not, the stay in the hotel was a gift of loving generosity and given joyously. Somehow that story fills my mind with the rich smell of perfume.

I cannot help but think of the charity The Children’s Wish Foundation. Seriously ill children apply to the charity for a “wish” that involves the whole family, both for the ill child to have a happy time outside of the hospital and for the family to have memories of their loved one which do not involve tests and treatments and worry. You might try and argue that the thousands of dollars these wishes cost are an unnecessary extravagance. You might argue that the money would be better spent on research into childhood illnesses. You might contend that many families with perfectly healthy children cannot afford such things so why should we help one group and not the other - even well kids will smile when they get a heartfelt wish.

But there is something about such extravagance in the face of the danger and risk posed by a serious or life threatening illness that makes it more than worthwhile for the donors and certainly for the children’s families. When I hear of the work of the Children’s Wish Foundation I swear that I can smell the fragrance of Mary’s gift. Sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind and splurge - sometimes the world needs more nards!

Sometimes you do have to make a statement about your stance against poverty by being more frugal than necessary, even when it will not actually accomplish all that much, in and of itself.

I hear that the newly elected Pope Francis is resisting some of the traditional opulence that comes with his office, choosing, for example, to keep the same pectoral cross he had when he became bishop of Buenos Aires. We are told that he checked out of his hotel and paid his bill himself and carried his own bags - putting a very different face on his office, a more humble one than we have been accustomed to for many generations perhaps.

Judas protested this act of extravagant caring and perhaps he represents those whose faith is calculating, measuring the cost against what is “in it for them”. Will my act of kindness earn a star in my crown? Will my entry into heaven be made easier? Even, will this actually do any good at all?

As Holy Week approaches we are confronted with the extravagant gift that Jesus gave. What other response was possible for Mary? What other gift can we give?

Amen.