Sermon Notes for John 12:1-8. Is. 43:16-21 for 3/17

My mother was a depression-era person. she had to draw water from a shared pump, so we did not waste water in our house, nor did we waste food, or much else of anything. i remember I spilled something in our basement and was pleased with myself for cleaning it up, and she yelled, no, no that’s a good rag.holy waste in John even something good can be overwhelming. can anything dedicated to the holy be  a waste. I recall in the first church in seminary work, the invoice was messed up and we  had a sea of lilies in the sanctuary for Sunday. What a waste, was the mantra of that Easter Sunday.The anointing is in every gospel, but only here is it Mary, whose brother is Lazarus, the one raised. Instead of the stench of death, the whole room is suffused with perfume, an odor of life and intimacy..I am always alarmed when I agree with Judas that the act could instead of gone to so much good for the poor.When I am in a sour mood, I look at all of the church properties and shake my head at the other uses such spaces could be devoted.

Is utility the only value? Why should not care, artistry, and devotion be projected toward the worship of God? Some things are intrinsically good, useful or not.Regardless of cost,
Actually, her work is an enacted prayer. It is an act of gratitude and devotion, an act of humility, a prophecy of his death when women will go to the tomb to anoint him, and also in the narrative a foretaste of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. She acts a a female John the Baptist.  She points toward the nature of Jesus and his destiny.

Mary Chapin Carpenter has a song what to keep and what to throw away.Can we waste our memories?

Is. 43:remember/remember not (Is.46:8-9) how many regrets we hold on to. Perhaps,it is a waste of time for us to replay the past.Christians should be the last people to nurture regrets as we have a ritual of pardon and release built into our sunday services.(Is this an anointing?) God breaks into rituals and gives them new meaning. God is interested in the past, but the past is no idol for god. God does new things, for we worship a living and responsive God.Perhaps,it is a waste of time making detailed plans, when the future is so fluid. Part of our constant conversion in baptism is looking back and seeing how our minds have changed, how our attitudes evolve over time.(Tom Long on the absurd in worship-that is unless we are capturing glimpses of the way of God in the world) Our big words and bold organ chords are sentinels catching sight of something bigger and brighter beyond today’s headlines. We are people whom God formed; God labored, over, did fine-tuning. greatness fades quickly in our celebrity culture, like a flickering wick. we go to a trivia contest and struggle to remember the name of someone important,but oh we recall the jingle of ra detergent, or a lunch meat.Some people speak of healing of memories.

St Patrick is remembered, often with legends surrounding his life. Use some of the breastplate prayer.for some,it is a waste of time to consider fiction,myth,or poetry;only facts  count. For others,it is a waste  of time to accumulate data without having a sense of priority,organization,or pattern.So what we consider waste is a look inside our psyche.