Sunday of the Ointment-Bearing Women

Bright Vestments

Ambon Prayer any of 32-36

Dismissal: “May Christ our true God, risen from the dead . . .”

Our Holy Father an Confessor Martin, Pope of Rome. The Holy New Martyrs Anthony, John and Eustathius

Title

Giving What You Have

Outline

The New Testament is the opposite of the world

The world values people by how much they earn, how much they collect, and how they use their wealth for themselves.

The New Testament, based on a God who gave his best and continues to give all good things, values people by how generously they give and how they care for others, even to their own detriment.

Look how this works out in our passages

In Mark we pick up the story after the death of Jesus. Joseph takes the risk of asking for the body. Remember that he is “looking for the kingdom of God” but he like all the rest is not expecting the resurrection. Joseph does the pious act of burying the dead, purchasing a linen cloth, making himself unclean on Passover to prepare the body for burial, and using an expensive tomb. John tells us Nicodemus had helped him and had brought 100 lbs of spices. Expensive, risky, but right.

Mary Magdalene and her colleagues prepare spices themselves, offering their best, and come to give them to Jesus as soon as they can travel after the Passover. They are not expecting a reward from God, they are certainly not expecting a resurrection, and they not expecting to see “a young man.” Yet even in their shock and awe they obey the message, rushing out of the tomb and on towards where the disciples were, not even giving customary greetings to folk along the way in their awe. So we see them in the end giving up their reputation in the Jerusalem area.

Acts gives a different example

Because of a language difference the Greek speaking widows were getting neglected in the Jerusalem church. The problem came to the attention of the Twelve and instead of blaming others, they took responsibility but resolved the issue by empowering/ ordaining men from the Greek speaking community to oversee the distribution to all widows, Geek and Aramaic. They gave up power. And while the apostles would focus on their vocation, “prayer and the preaching of the word,” they chose men who were not just administrators but “full of the Spirit and wisdom” as they were. These men were so capable as spiritual leaders that when persecution drove the Greek speaking believers out of Jerusalem, these men seem to have been able to establish new communities all over the east end of the Mediterranean due to their linguistic ability.

In other words, just as the disciples in Acts ch 4 shared their funds freely when they saw a need, these men shared their power and authority freely. The result in both cases was the growth of the church including the curious note that many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

That’s the way that spiritual life works, Brothers and Sisters

It is not what you have that counts in the kingdom, but what you have shared. It may be material goods, it may be a skill, it may be leadership and authority, it may be any number of things. And you will not necessarily be thanked by people, but there will be results. Others, likely without knowing about your sharing, will be attracted to the community, some of them being unlikely candidates for the faith. The result will be a community strengthened in numbers or in relationships or in their own sharing and God will be glorified. And, as for you, you may be unknown, but you will be closer to God, you will be divinized, for you are acting like God. And that is all that counts in the end.