Gratitude
I’m preaching on John 12:1-8 this week and the piece of this story that continues to jump out to me is the extravagance of Mary’s gift. It was obnoxiously extravagant, and with one set of eyes Judas is right to complain, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold for a year’s wages and the money given to the poor?” Do you realize you just dumped like $100,000 on this guy’s dirty feet and then wiped it up with your hair? Do you realize what could have been done with that money?
But the extravagance was accepted by Jesus on two counts: it was a preparation for his imminent death and (I think, although this is admittedly going out on an exegetical limb) a fitting expression of gratitude for new life.
It was on that second count that I pulled off my shelf a copy of “Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude” (ed. Donald Bruggink) that used to belong to Dr. Richard Oudersluys. In the introduction–written by Bruggink–I read this regarding the third movement of the Heidelberg Catechism (Gratitude):
“Our tragedy has resulted from the fact that at some point we divorced ethics from redemption. That became the Pharisaism which was our undoing, which has resulted in our virtual abdication from the field of social ethics. Today we Reformed have almost become Lutheran in our passive acceptance of whatever takes place in government or the social order as ‘none of the church’s business. The church should stick to preaching the gospel and saving souls.’ Right enough. But here is our Catechism to challenge us with the fact that we have not really preached the whole gospel unless the souls that have been saved are sent out into the world with a tremendous passion to bring the total pattern of the world’s life into obedience to the kingdom of Christ. The social revolution with the Reformed witness could accomplish lies implicit in this third part of the Heidelberg Catechism.”
Bruggink nailed it.
This isn’t super on point for the sermon, but it needed to be shared.
I Need a Better Title... 