John 12:1-8: Jesus anointed at Bethany

John 12:1-8 (Please read first)

Mary anoints Jesus.

All of the gospels have the account of Jesus being anointed.

How many of us would agree that this was a powerful act of worship?

When we hear the word worship what comes into our mind?

Music, Singing, Going to church,

But we can do all these things and not really be worshipping can’t we.

I think this beautiful act embodies many dimensions of what true worship looks like and I would like to focus on 5 things I think true worship is.

Scandalous, shocking, prophetic, Beautiful,and Simple

Scandalous:

The Truest worship of Christ is an emptying of self. It flies in the face of the dominant value of our society which is protect yourself at all costs. Protect your money, your security, your family etc.

Yet here we see another value, the value of Christ above all.

The word worship comes from the old English term, Worth Ship. It was a statement of value. Something so precious and valuable that it was worth risking a ship to get it and bring it home.

The Bible and the History of the church is full of stories of people who gave all for Christ and who did amazing and world changing things.

However many of them today would be considered at best fanatics and at worst lunatics.

This type of worship is scandalous.

One Scandalous act of worship was by a man named William Wilberforce who in the name of Christ took on the Parliament of England over the issue of slavery.

Shocking: She seems to upset the mood of the room. They are reclining at the table, just having a god time maybe enjoying a glass of wine and a cheese board, when all of a sudden this incredibly sensuous act happens.

Perfume, feet, hair. It seems she has no sensitivity.

See we like our worship to be neat and tidy and orderly, something best left at church. We tend to leave it to the professionals. But worship is not something can be limited to particular time or place. Worship involves all of us all the time. Doesn’t it.

But to worship God openly in town at the pub would seem shocking.

I think of St. Francis in the middle of the town in front of the church. All the clergy and townfolk gathered around him, he strips naked for gives his clothes away and walks out of town all as an act of worship.

Prophetic:

Whether she realizes it or not, Jesus understands that she is preparing him for his burial. She is making a prophetic statement. It is a statement that is unpopular.

There was a day in NZ when Synod was covered by all the press. Today it hardly gets a mention unless we are voting about something like homosexuality.

It’s so sad that the Church is mostly known for what it stands against than what it stands for.

The Church is called to a prophetic voice in our world. For example the economic crises facing the world today is an opportunity for the church to worship God by showing what it looks like to live lives that aren’t consumed with greed and money. Ives that show that it is better to give than to receive. When

Beautiful:

There is something so amazingly beautiful about this act of worship.

All she wants to do is to show him how much she cares. How much she is concerned for him. The room was filled with aroma of her worship.

The children in Elizabeth Hokes school class who shaved their heads so their friend wouldn’t feel strange and uncomfortable.

Simple:

She simply took the best that she had and gave it to Jesus.

We Anglicans sure know how to make worship complicated. When in the end I am convinced that all God really wants are people with hearts that really desire to love and be loved.

We have so many symbols and rites in our worship, but you know when I talk to people who are really struggling in life, they never ask me about my alb, or my stole or whether or not the sacraments were on the corporal when they were consecrated.

None of this comes up, what do they do want to know is, is there hope, can they be loved, forgiven, healed and accepted.

What people really want to know is Can I find life in worship of Christ?

When we consider Mary and her perfume we don’t see an elaborate ritual with songs and organs and prayers and altars, we simply see a woman showering Jesus with her love. Someone just telling Jesus how much he means to her. Its so simple.

I wonder how our worship measures up today?

How scandalous and shocking is our worship.

How Beautiful and simple?

What has worship become to us?