precious tenderness

 Blessed be God who animates our lives and breaks our hearts open that we might anoint God with our deep love and devotion. AMEN

If this is Lent 5 then Next Sunday is Palm Sunday and Holy Week begins. Some of us ask are we ready? Some ask ready for what? We know intellectually that Easter is around the corner; we just have to hold on. And we know in our hearts that this is when the wilderness journey gets even tougher. We think we may have done enough, prayed enough, fasted enough, and yet our lectionary this morning calls us to ponder not just a counting off of days until Easter, but to contemplate any glimpses of a fullness of time which we might have encountered and to risk embracing them.

Our Gospel today reminds us that before death and before the Passion there may be an outpouring of precious tenderness to anoint resurrection life.

Marking calendars doesn’t change us; staying in this space and turning toward Jerusalem with a deeper devotion and resolve does.

And so I was struck this past week, especially when a little panic set in to prepare a sermon more quickly than usual, by this poem by Anne Lamotte. It speaks to our preparation for the holiest of times and to the Lenten reordering of priorities which opens possibilities.

How Easter Changed Me

When I was 38,
my best friend, Pammy,
died, and we went shopping
about two weeks before she died,
and she was in a wig
and a wheelchair.

I was buying a dress
for this boyfriend I was trying to impress,
and I bought a tighter,
shorter dress than I was used to.
And I said to her,
“Do you think this makes my hips look big?”
and she said to me, so calmly,
“Anne, you don't have that kind of time.”

And I think Easter has been about
the resonance of that simple statement;
and that when I stop,
when I go into contemplation and meditation,
when I breathe again and do the sacred action
of plopping and hanging my head
and being done with my own agenda,

I hear that, ‘You don't have that kind of time,’
you have time only to cultivate presence
and authenticity and service,
praying against all odds
to get your sense of humor back.

That's how it has changed for me.
That was the day my life changed,
when she said that to me.

to cultivate presence and authenticity and service 

praying against all odds to get your sense of humor back

Praying against all odds to get your sense of true self back…

I actually said similar words to someone two weeks ago when asked of my own mission in life. And I think of these qualities often when I think about what Lent is about: deepening our sense of true self and who we are called to be that we might be of service to God in the world.

It also strikes me as descriptive of Mary’s sacramental gesture in today’s Gospel, especially when I add precious tenderness to presence, authenticity and service. 

I envision Mary’s graceful gesture being surprising, gentle, and transformative.

When something is broken, something which held value, there is something startling which occurs. And when that which is broken reaps a fragrant, soothing, pastoral moment, directed at another there is a generosity which transforms. Not only does the room contain this atmosphere of tenderness but the recipient, Jesus, is offered exactly that which He came to give. Love, grace, mercy, kindness

This is precious transformative tenderness. This is authentic to Mary and to anyone who reaches down into that well of being and anoints another with unmitigated kindness. 

This gesture comes from a presence which is full and attending. 

I am always reminded of the Eucharist when I consider this passage of the sharing of precious nard. I am reminded of the complete generosity of the offering to every single person who comes to the table of the love of Christ who was broken for us that all mercy and grace might flow and anoint us. The Love of Christ the cup of salvation…

Where is this transformative anointing in today’s world? Well, faith tells me it is always there but I confess it is hard to see through the bombardment of horrific news which is the opposite of merciful and tender. All that is precious to many of us is being threatened.

The word “economy” is on everyone’s lips these days. But the economy which consumes our thoughts is one of scarcity. We watch graphs and count dollars and cents. We struggle to find some control of money for that is power.

But God’s economy well Gods economy has little to do with physical money or rational manipulation. God’s economy knows no scarcity only unfathomable generosity. Grace has no bounds. 

What if in God’s economy we are the currency? not to mention the current? What if we are the precious vessels which might be broken open for each other and for God’s mission of mercy and justice?

This realization might be the transformative awakening akin to Anne Lamotte’s. 

We are a people who are about to be Eastered; we are about to experience not just the return of Alleluias and color and light, but also we are offered the opportunity by God to witness resurrection life, small and large, fathomable and unfathomable. 

To appreciate this conversion we are still in the process of Lenting

We are still in the process of “cultivating presence authenticity and service in preciously tender ways.

Mary assists us in the process and invites us to offer what is precious to us that it might be precious to another and to offer it tenderly and genuinely, no ulterior motive.

My we open our hearts our souls and bodies that the deep well of mercy within pours without. May its fragrance sustain us through the Passion and endure even as we keep vigil on the holiest of nights.