Poured Out for Love

Introduction

Christmas carols often have the invitation, “Come to Bethlehem” — but this morning, on Palm Sunday, when we remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, I would like to say “Come to Bethany.” Like the little town of Bethlehem played an important role in the birth narrative of Jesus, Bethany plays an important role in this holy week when Jesus comes to Jerusalem, dies on the cross and rises again. This morning we continue in our sermon series through the Gospel of Mark, and even though today is Palm Sunday and the story was read to us, I will be preaching on the second story that was read of the woman anointing Jesus with perfume. If you have been out on a walk lately, you would have noticed the beauty and fragrance of spring all around us. Unless one is struggling with allergies, the cherry blossoms, crocusses, and now the magnolias and others remind us of the natural beauty of this region. Then you come home from the walk or bike ride or drive, and check in on the latest news and all of a sudden, the beauty of the natural world becomes almost overshadowed by the large scale human tragedies across the globe. The world in a split second goes from beautiful to dark and ugly by the impact of human violence and from fragrant to the horrid stench of moral evil that reveals a decay that has eaten up to the core of our humanity. We struggle to identify what is real anymore, what is true anymore, what is good and what is beautiful. Thank God that in Jesus, we are invited to a different story than the ones which leave us helpless and hopeless in this world. The second passage from Mark 14 is one more glimpse into that story which reminds us that like the newness of spring, God is at work in renewing the world, and each one of us and our stories are interwoven into God’s grand redemptive story.