Worship
Service for April 6, 2025
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: Break open our hearts this morning to hear
Your word, O God.
P: Let our fears be vanquished, our spirits
restored!
L: Come and let us worship with great joy!
P: Let us drop the things of the past which
weighed us down!
L: God is about to do something new in our
lives.
P: Let God’s will become strong in our
lives. AMEN
Opening Hymn – Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley
#80 Blue
Prayer of Confession
Patient Lord, we find it easy
to blame others and other circumstances for the things which happen in our
lives. We hear the words “if only” and wonder why things didn’t happen
differently for us. Too often we want
you to be a “magic” presence which will, with the wave of a wand, cure our
ills, give us success and happiness; but we don’t necessarily want to take
responsibility for our attitudes and actions. Things happen which we didn’t plan for and
events swirl around us over which we have no control. But to place blame and not to find ways in
which we can work through the situations is detrimental to everyone, especially
ourselves. Forgive us when we are so
busy placing blame that we don’t recognize your presence and love for us. Free us from placing our own desires first and
foremost. Help us to look at the many
ways in which you are working in the world for peace and justice, and enable us
to be part of that ministry. In Jesus’ name, we pray. (Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: God has forgiven you and offered God’s
healing love to you.
P: We give thanks to God for this gift and
accept it through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
AMEN
Gloria Patri
Affirmation of Faith/Apostles’
Creed
I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord; who was
conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius
Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the third day
He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right
hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick
and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost,
the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins; the
resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. AMEN
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s
Prayer
Lord God, how
extravagant your love for us is! You
continually pour upon us blessing upon blessing - in the lives of people near
and dear to us, in the beauty of creation, in the skills and abilities You have
given to us. There is so much for which we are thankful. Yet in the midst of
this thankfulness, there lurks the demons of demand and confusion. We want You to be in control of taking care of
all the things that threaten us. We want
You to prevent us from facing times of confusion and doubt. Actually, we want to have a more complete
faith. Like Judas, who misunderstood
Jesus’ intention, we wonder about the anointing of Jesus - about the perceived
waste of materials. How hard it is for
us to see that we need to take some time to honor and praise Christ instead of
continually asking for Christ to do things for us. We have a lot to learn. Lord, teach us! Open our hard hearts to the healing words You
have for us. Give us patience and
persistence in our service to You. And
when we stumble and thrash around faithlessly, bring us back to Your presence;
that we may find healing and hope.
This morning we ask for
the healing of our friends and loved ones.
We lift up to You…
Hear also our silent
prayers this morning…
We praise You for Your
faithfulness to us, praying together…Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. Give us this day,
our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil. For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, forever.
AMEN.
Hymn – Jesus Paid it all #305 Brown
Scripture Reading(s):
First Scripture Reading – Isaiah
43:16-21
Second Scripture Reading – John 12:1-8
Sermon - Tell Me Why
When
was the last time you did something for someone else without any expectations,
with no strings attached, without any conditions or preconditions? There was no why to what you were doing. You were just doing what you were doing
because that’s what you were doing.
Angelus Silesius, a
seventeenth century German priest, wrote this:
“The rose has no why; it blossoms because it blossoms.
It pays no attention to itself, nor does it ask whether anyone sees it.”
What
if we were to live like the rose, without a why? What if we blossomed simply because we
blossomed. What if there was no motive
or seeking to our blossoming; to be noticed, to be praised, to accomplish? What if we fragranced the world because we
couldn’t do anything but fragrance the world? The rose is going to do what it’s going to do
regardless of whether anyone sees or smells it. Its beauty and fragrance are not means to an
end. It has no why.
I
learned this song as a nursery rhyme song that my mother would sing. I don’t know where it originated from – Bing
Crosby sang it in 1954, Pat Benatar made a recording of it in 1999. It’s listed in the Hymnary in a number of
hymnbooks like the Chapel Conference Songbook, the Children’s Hymnal, and Hymns
of the Rural Spirit. It’s called Tell Me
Why.
Tell
Me Why
Tell me why the stars do
shine
Tell me why the ivy twines
Tell me why the sky's so blue
And I will tell you, just why I love you.
Because God made the
stars to shine
Because God made the ivy twine
Because God made the sky's so blue
Because God made you, that's why I love you
I
want to live without a why. Or at least
simply because God created it. I want to
give and do unconditionally (at least that’s what I want on my better days). I think that’s often how we see ourselves and
how we want to be and live, to live unconditionally and without strings
attached, but it’s harder than it sounds. We live in a world of economy, exchange, and
transaction. You scratch my back, I’ll
scratch your back. We live in a world in
which you pay for what you want. There
is, as the saying goes, no such thing as a free lunch. We’re expected to return the favor, pay off
the debt, or reciprocate in some way. In
short, you get what you pay for. And we
pay in all sorts of ways.
Think about all the ways
that happens and how commonplace and acceptable it is.
- We exchange our time for money,
sacrifice our families for success, and trade our dreams for the
practicalities of making ends meet.
- Have you ever received a gift
and felt indebted, obligated to return the favor, or at least send a
thank-you note? Even the best
intentioned gifts can leave the recipient with an unintended debt of
gratitude. And how did you feel
when you did not receive a thank-you note or other acknowledgment after
giving a gift, or did not receive an invitation to dinner at their house
after you had them to dinner at your house.
- Have you ever sent flowers
after an argument? Were you giving
a gift or working a deal?
- Have you ever argued over the
lunch bill? “You paid the last time, it’s my turn” or “I’ll get it today,
you can get it next time.”
- Have you ever said or done
something as a means to an end? Have
you ever wondered why somebody was doing something for you, wondered what
was in it for them?
- It’s even in church and our
faith. Theologians call it “the
economy of salvation.” Believe in
Jesus, follow his way, and you too can have salvation. Sometimes we believe that our prayers and
good behavior are the currency that pays for God’s favor.
I say
none of that as a criticism or judgment but simply as an observation that there
are thousands of ways in which we daily transact the business of life. We can’t escape that. It’s hard, maybe impossible, to give a pure
gift. Economies are a part of our world
and our lives. As much as I love being a
pastor and say that I am not in it for the money, I still want and need to be
paid. I am not suggesting economies are
inherently wrong or that we need to rid ourselves of economies, but maybe we
need to be more aware of them and the power and influence they have over us. Maybe we need to lessen and loosen the
stranglehold they tend to have on us.
(Pause)
We don’t
always do everything for the payoff.
There are times when we do or need to do something simply for the sake
of doing it; things like love, forgiveness, truth, hospitality, justice,
compassion. In those times something is
being affirmed for itself not for what it might achieve or accomplish. There is no why. I’ve been thinking
about this why question a lot lately.
Why do we do things? What is our
motivation for doing them? Are we simply
doing them because we’ve always done them in the past? Is there a reason behind it? Does there need to be? Are we doing them simply because it’s the
right thing to do? In the same vain,
should we be doing things that we aren’t doing because they are the right things
to do?
I
think that’s what’s going on with Mary in today’s gospel reading. Before we get to Mary though, I want to point
out the insert that was created to this text.
If you remember a few months ago I was talking about Mary Magdalene and some
interesting things that happened with her in our text from the earliest translations
of our scriptures. From Papyrus 66 we
learn that in John 12 this tiny little phrase, “Martha served” was added in
order to connect the story in Luke about Lazarus having two sisters – Mary and
Martha. Other manuscripts do not include
the phrase, “Martha served.” What
Elizabeth Polczer learned was that there are two separate stories one with Lazarus
and his sister Mary who lived in Bethany and one with Mary and Martha – two sisters
who lived in Martha’s home in an unknown village.
There
has been great speculation over the years, even before Elizabeth Polczer’s work
that Mary of Bethany, Lazarus’s sister is the same Mary as Mary Magdalene or
Mary Magdala or Mary, the Tower. Mary Magdalene
is the woman in the parallel story in Luke whose tears fell on Jesus’s feet and
she anointed them with a perfumed oil.
In
any case, Mary of Bethany/Mary of Magdala, Mary, the sister of Lazarus/or Mary,
the Tower – whoever she is; loves because she loves. She anoints because she anoints. She fragrances because she fragrances. There is no why. It is gift, “grace upon grace.” There is nothing in it for her. It is unconditional, without measure or
calculation. And it looks reckless and
irresponsible. She is not invested in a
result or seeking a particular outcome. She’s
just doing what she’s doing because that’s what she’s doing. She breaks the chains of means and ends. And it makes no sense to Judas or any modern
day economist.
Gift
stands in contrast to economy, even as Mary stands in contrast to Judas. “Why was this perfume not sold for three
hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” I don’t know what Judas’ real motive was.
Maybe he was, as our text says, a thief and wanted it all for himself. Maybe he really did care about and want to
help the poor. Or maybe our gospel
writer was seeking paybacks and revenge and portrayed him in a negative
light. There are multiple ways of interpreting what Judas says.
In
any event Judas is calculating and practical. He knows the market. He’s an investor looking
for a return. He wants to turn Mary’s
gift into a profit. Judas has a why. He’s aligned himself with a means and an end. In the economies of our life everything has a
why, life is calculable, and we become calculating, expecting a return on our
investment whether that investment is money, time, love, or a good deed.
However,
let’s not draw any conclusions here about Mary or Judas. It would be easy to oppose them. Mary is good, Judas is bad. Mary is right, Judas is wrong. But here’s the thing; I know times when I have
lived as Judas and times when I have lived as Mary. You probably do, too.
What
if they are not two opposite lives or people, but two aspects of our lives, two
ways of living and relating? What if we
hold both Mary and Judas within ourselves? What if they are images of ourselves, images
of our charitable self and our economic self, images of our unconditioned life
and our conditioned life? When have you
been Mary and when have you been Judas? What’s
your experience of the two? In what ways
have they shaped or misshaped your life?
I
don’t think it’s a question of choosing one over the other, gift or economy,
Mary or Judas, but of living in the tension of the two. That tension is what sometimes keeps us up at
night, calls us into question, awakens us to how we truly want to live. That tension is the call to be discerning and
thoughtful about how we respond to others and engage life. That tension pushes us to look within
ourselves at our motives and our desires. That tension reveals that Mary and Judas, gift
and economy are interwoven, and each has the possibility of the other. It reminds us that the fragrance of life can
be neither bought nor sold. It simply
exists and it is priceless.
I
don’t know if we ever truly live without a why. I can’t answer that but I know that’s the
direction I want to go. To live my life,
to fragrance the world, to bloom, to exist simply because that’s what I was
created to do. I know that’s how I want
to shape my life. What about you?
Thanks
be to God. AMEN
Offertory –
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
Your
gifts to us are abundant, O God. You
give light and life to your people, strengthening us for your mission in this
world. Receive from us, we humbly pray,
these offerings, that they may be used to both serve you and establish your
will within the body of Christ. We pray
in the name of your Son, Jesus. AMEN
Communion
Closing
Hymn – I Will Sing of My Redeemer #309
Brown
Benediction –
Go in peace
and may God’s peace go with you. Bring
hope and healing to all whom you meet. AMEN
Postlude
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