September 23, 2024: Monday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 14:3-9
Blessings and peace be with you this morning in the Name of our LORD Jesus Christ, and by the power of His Spirit.
As I had said, yesterday at church was so comfortable that a few members were actually feeling it was a little too chilly. Coming this Sunday is Rally Day 2014 at 9AM in the parish hall. I hope that you are planning to join us. It will be fun for our youth and for our adults. Please bring a brunchy type snack to share, or some sweet treats, or whatever you are moved to bring. We will begin our study of the Book of Ruth trying to get a personal understanding of what it must mean to leave one life behind and begin a new one in a completely unfamiliar place. We will also answer the question about why Ruth is in the Bible at all and work up your trivia mind so that you are ready to play. See you Sunday at 9AM. This Sunday we will also have a Gospel Music rehearsal after worship. Bell practice will begin soon in October, as the Bell Ringers get ready to offer their music on Christmas Eve. If you have been concerned about the warm temperatures in the worship space, let me assure you that it will be very comfortable this coming Sunday, as will the parish hall. Please pray for Steve as he continues his care for cancer, for Annette who will have knee surgery in mid-October, pray for good results in my fall visit to the urologist, and give thanks for the success of Holly's angioplasty. Also pray for Bobbie and Sharon, friends of Sharyn B who are both having health issues which will require health care intervention.
Today Mark passage is one with which we have a pretty good amount of familiarity. But the action of this woman who remains unnamed in Mark offers to Jesus one of the most beautiful and lovely actions that she had the power to take on His behalf. In the middle east there was a host practice to sprinkle a fine scent on the guests who entered their homes. We might have expected this action in the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, but that is not where Jesus finds himself on this night. He is, instead, at the home of Simon the leper, being hosted for a meal. I feel that we can assume the great love that this entire household held for Jesus. This gratefulness becomes something much more when this woman, who is probably a relative, friend, or perhaps even the spouse of Simon, chooses to break open an extraordinarily expensive perfume from India, and to literally pour it over Christ's head. In my ministry, I know what it means to have parents participate in their child's Baptism by placing water on their child's head three times, or to serve communion to those who are receiving with whom we have a special bond, yet this act was not an inbreaking of God's grace for the lives of His Son's followers. It was instead a royal anointing of Jesus as He stood before those who loved him and followed Him. I am certain that this pouring of the richest nard over Jesus' head was indeed a gift of love for Him. There is a similar scene in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". It was not the woman's love which respected a return of affection. Instead, it was in the Greek, "kalos" which means good in a winsome, gentle, and charming ways. Imagine if we treated one another in that way, offering the good of the love of Christ with grace and gentleness within the church, and with everyone that we ever meet.
Jesus makes this unexpected act of Grace one of the loveliest things that could be done for Him, now in life, instead of only in His death.
If love is true love, then there must always be a certain extravagance to it. It will be the beauty of the heart of compassion, thankfulness every day for the other, giving the gifts of the heart with every day abundant offerings. I can think of nothing more, outside of Christ Love and Grace, which fills my heart to the brim other than when I think of the good that has been gifted between my wife and me. It still lifts my feelings every time I give myself time to offer "kalos" and an open heart to receive it. Like our Lord's Kalos in our lives, there is nothing better or greater.
Christ understands, and gives us His gift of understanding, that Love filled with Kalos will not come at every turn in our lives except through His Spirit. In fact, this experience of Christ, He knew to be a once in a lifetime event. For Jesus, it moved Him and lifted Him in a way that nothing else could do at that time before His death.
And Jesus knew one more thing too. This gift of such good love for Him came at that time when the weight of the sins of the world would be borne on His body in death, but at this moment the extravagant gift gave Him all the more drive to move with humble obedience in the face of God's Love for Him, and for us too!
Blessings and good love be with you every day, offered through you, and received with grace by you.
In Christ's love, Pastor Kim
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