After a season of ongoing isolation, our hearts long to return and reconnect. With the help of lay preachers from our congregation, each week we have taken steps to explore our faith during the season of lent. We begin our lenten journey connected in dust, moving through the wilderness, all while clinging to a promise. Together, we will go on to explore how repentance and reconciliation help us to draw near to one another and God. As we near Holy Week, we will be filled with great anticipation and look forward to Easter, a celebratory day of resurrection and reconnection!
We had the privilege of hearing from lay preacher, Sparky Lok this week. He helps us explore the gospel lesson in a fresh way, as we conclude our Midweek worship gatherings.
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.”
-John 12:1-8
Questions to Ponder
Sparky reflects on the gentle loving counsel Jesus offers to Martha as her sister does not offer the help she expected. Similarly, he reminds us that Jesus wept at the news of his friend Lazarus’ death. Then, in tonight’s reading, Jesus is at a special meal and Mary amazed everyone with an act of devotion that shocked everyone. She was the only one that seemed to really get what was occurring.
Have you ever witnessed an extravagant act of worship? What did you learn from it?
Bethany, where today’s story occurred, seems to be a “thin place” allowing close encounters with the divine.
Where is a “thin place” for you, where you sense God’s presence in a special way?
Thank you for journeying with us this lent. We pray you have been blessed by our times of worship together.