On March 17th, Gwen and Allie went down to Christ Episcopal Church in Kent and guest-preached .
The Gospel for that Sunday was John 12:1-8:
Six days before the
Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from
the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one
of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of
pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was
filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his
disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, "Why was this
perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the
poor?" (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he
was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)
Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for
the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always
have me.
Here is their sermon!
GWEN: Hi, I’m Gwen Stembridge.
ALLIE: I’m Allie Thompson.
ALLIE: And we are a part of the Trinity Cleveland Urban Service Corps.
TCUSC serves under the umbrella organization of the Episcopal Service Corps, a federation of young-adult service programs across the United States. ESC is designed to provide young adults the time, space, and resources to discern one’s future and growth both spiritually and as a leader while living in a simple, sustainable, Christian community and working in local social-service agencies.
GWEN: There are eight of us participating in this yearlong service immersion program in Cleveland. We live together and work at various non-profit organizations throughout the Greater Cleveland Area. Reverend Fisher kindly invited us to come and share about our program, who we are, and how our community is a living example of the gospel.
ALLIE: After reading this gospel, my first thought to myself was, “What the heck is nard oil?! Is it an ancient way of saying lard?” I immediately went online and typed “nard” into the Google search engine. Not surprisingly, I was wrong. Nard comes from the word: spikenard. It is a plant that is similar to lavender, but only grows in the Himalayas of India, China, and Nepal—making it harder to harvest and thus a luxury item. Once it is harvested, the underground stems can be crushed and distilled into a thick brown and highly fragrant oil.
Over the span of history, nard has had many purposes for many cultures. For example, in the Hindu culture, nard is used for medicinal and healing purposes; in medieval Europe it was used as a spice to put in food and wine; and many Middle Eastern cultures still used nard for burial preparations. AND not only does the scent of nard attract cats, but it also supposedly eases the transition from life to death and relieves misery of the past. What’s more, nard is commonly associated with the ambiguous concept of affection. While the cat-loving person that I am secretly wants to believe that Mary used the nard oil to attract some feline friends, I know that her gift of anointment was truly a costly act of love on multiple levels. On the fiscal level, Mary spent approximately a year’s wages on that single bottle of perfume. But on a deeper level, Mary’s devotional act of kindness was an expression of her love. Although expensive, the oil serves as something that she treasures and is willing to sacrifice because Jesus has given her the most incredible gifts: redemption and an everlasting life with Him.
Despite the fact that we do not bow down and rub oil all over each other’s feet, our community is quite familiar with concepts of love and sacrifice. This year of service comes as a great cost to all of us. Every single one of us has experienced opposition from our own personal Judases. Materialistically, the cost of living together means less closet space and having to give up my queen-sized bed. Financially, we are making less than minimum wage and struggle with the ever-present anxiety of how to spend our money wisely. Why would we give up a year of our lives giving time rather than making money? My response is that the cost of this year is rewarded with immeasurable gains that are not visible to an outsider. Like Mary, our faith propels us to release sacrificial gifts of love, time, and money.
GWEN: “The poor will always be with you” A controversial phrase used in so many ways to support arguments sometimes even on separate sides. The 8 of us are taking a year of service, many of us because we want to “help the poor, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless…etc” We are placed at non-profit organizations that work with at-risk populations, low income individuals and families that deal with food and other types of insecurity and lack of resources. We recognize that we are very privileged and have been given much. We, individually, and as part of a movement of our generation, feel called to give of ourselves to these populations who seem to have less access to these resources, in an effort to make the world a better place. The interesting part of this program is the fact that we have to balance this call and this work with the needs of the 7 housemates with whom we have made a commitment. It’s easy to go and volunteer once or twice, serve the homeless, donate a book for a child and go home feeling great! These 7 “used-to-be-strangers”, while privileged in many ways, also have needs and insecurities and we are called to be with them at least for this year. We spend long days working in organizations which are strapped for money, short on staff, and constantly seeing more need, and come home to face dirty socks on the couch, crusty pots in the sink, and someone blaring Justin Beiber songs from upstairs. And I’m supposed to be NICE to these people!?!? I have found that community can be both a source of great aggravation and a great balm of peace. It sometimes only depends on how I look at it. There will always be opportunities for me to serve the homeless, tutor children, and donate to a worthy cause. But if I do those things and don’t treat the people around me with equal patience, kindness, and truthfulness, in what ways am I growing and becoming?
ALLIE: Through doing this program and living in a our very unique community, we are all forced to reflect on our pasts, confront our futures all while remaining present and loving to each other. We have discovered that to make us a functioning intentional community, we have to recommit ourselves every single day. We have to recommit ourselves to every individual in the house and to be loving, respectful, and kind toward each other. We constantly have to tune out that annoying static noise coming from people outside our community that is telling us about what could have been and accept our sacrifices.
Yes, we will all admit that we are crazy. I mean, let’s be honest, not very many people would choose to live in a house with seven other people and only have two bathrooms. And even though it has certainly been a whirlwind, I can confidently say that these past seven months been the best times of my life. We’ve all seen each other at our best and our worst. My housemates have become my best friends and I cannot imagine my life without them. We are not always extravagant with our material items, but the goal of our love for each other is endless and extraordinary.
Additionally, Gwen and I cannot help but wonder what would happen if the world (or at least our country) would hate less, sacrifice a little and love bit more. What would happen if everybody chose to recommit to their family, friends, surrounding community? What if we all adopted a more positive attitude and a commitment to making the world a better place?
GWEN: By pouring oil on Jesus’ feet, this woman is treating Jesus pretty extravagantly. As I think about this concept within the context of community, I see that it is easy to treat others the way that we feel they treated us. “Well, someone didn’t do the dishes this week when she was supposed to, so I won’t do them on my day either.” Or “somebody is playing music loudly in her room so I’ll blast mine even louder in the kitchen” While we might never say these things, these thoughts sneak in and we are confronted on a daily basis with how to respond to them. With almost no effort, we can return equal treatment, tit for tat, if you will. What is harder is to rise above the way we are treated and respond with extravagant and “ seemingly undeserved” love. We see examples of this in the story of the prodigal son or Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables when the priest gives the silver candlesticks to the man who has just stolen from him, proving that giving someone “what they deserve” or “what we think they deserve” is not always the same as treating them with extravagant love.
ALLIE: To conclude, we’d like to share a favorite passage of our community.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.
GWEN: It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
ALLIE: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
GWEN/ALLIE TOGETHER: Love never ends.
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