Emily Schaming
There
is a wonderful children's novel many of you may have read by Lois Lowry called The
Giver. The book portrays a utopian future world in which there is no pain,
hunger, deceit or any other thing that might cause a person discomfort. Nothing
is a secret in this community, everyone is required to report on their dreams.
Nothing is a personal choice, everyone's future is determined by the community.
When a child of the community turns twelve, their future profession and place
within the community is decided. The protagonist of this novel, a young boy
named Jonas, is designated as the community's new 'Receiver of Memory'. Through
a gradual process, he is given the memories of all of the things the community
has chosen to forget in their quest for a perfect life. The old man who is
retiring from the post starts Jonas on easy things. The first thing he receives
is the memory of snow. And then sunshine. And colours. But then he receives pain
and suffering. And the Giver's most cherished memory, that of a family party
with a nice feeling to it that Jonas finds out is called, 'love'. The old man
and the boy discuss the memory and Jonas gives his conclusions, "'I liked
the feeling of love,' he confessed. He glanced nervously at the speaker on the
wall, reassuring himself that no one was listening. 'I wish we still had that,'
he whispered. 'Of course,' he added quickly, 'I do understand that it wouldn't
work very well. And that it's much better to be organized the way we are now. I
can see that it was a dangerous way to
live.'
"'What
do you mean?' [asked the old man]
"Jonas
hesitated. He wasn't certain, really, what he had meant. he could feel that
there was risk involved, though he
wasn't sure how."
Love
certainly is risky, and by no means clear-cut. We don't live in the sanitized,
colourless world of The Giver, and
neither did Jesus. He understood that with love came pain and fear, that it was
a dangerous way to live. Mary
understood this, and so did Paul, and the Psalmist felt it when pleading, "May
those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy". The Bible makes it clear
that it is our first duty as Christians to love God with all our hearts, souls
and minds. But is this our true priority? Or are we scared of love, preferring
the ease and comfort of a sanitized and painless world?
Have
you been saved?
I
don't know how many of you have been asked the question, "Have you been
saved?" But I certainly remember being asked, caught off-guard by a friend
at school. She knew I went to church, so I don't think she expected my reply,
"From what?" Well, we sorted out her actual meaning, and like any good
United Church kid I awkwardly mumbled my way out of the situation, not sure I
wanted to say "yes", but not sure the answer was "no".
I
was caught off-guard by the question again very recently while doing some
reading on today's scripture passages. A website had some discussion questions
listed on it and one was, "Have you been saved by Jesus?" This was not
a yes or no question as I have always heard it posed in the past. Rather it was
a discussion question, with follow-ups. The discussion continued outward from
the initial question: Has He raised you from despair into hope? Are you filled
with gratitude? Or are you nonchalantly accepting God's grace as a matter of
fact? Are you humbled by His love or expecting more because it is your due?
Mary
would most assuredly answer, "Yes! I have been saved and I am
grateful!" She showed her love and gratitude toward Jesus in a most
extravagant way. The perfume she poured on his feet was worth a year's pay for
an average person. She was so humbled by the experience of having Jesus there in
her house for Passover that she fell to his feet, poured expensive perfume on
him and wiped them with her hair in a manner that was out of keeping in that
time with her place as a woman, and seemed out of step in its extravagance with
the Christian community.
John
Wesley used to ask people another of these frank questions, ones that we should
be asking ourselves during Lent. Wesley would ask, "What is the state of
your soul?"
It
is quite a question - but it's not one we ask or are asked very often these
days. We can get so busy within the
church going to meetings and worrying about money and about human resources that
the central ideas get lost - and our behaviour - our words and actions - can end
up working against those ideas instead of for them. It is so simple to allow our
sense of what is right and what is wrong to get in the way of our seeing and
doing what is good and beautiful and loving.
Mary did not lose her sense of love and awe but Judas, another man who asks difficult questions, wanted her to justify her actions. Why would you waste a jar of perfume worth a year's salary on someone's feet when you could sell that same perfume and use the money to feed the poor?
What
are your priorities?
Judas wants to know where her priorities lie. Priorities. Always a word that makes me cringe. It seems like the buzzword for agitated parents who are always telling their children to 'Get your priorities straight!' or a subtle way of implying that there won't be funding in the budget for your project, 'It's just not one of our priorities this year'.
How
do we prioritize the way we use our resources, how do we use what we have with
love? Reading the story, it is easy to sympathize with Judas' argument, though
perhaps not his motive.
Joseph
Fletcher's book Situation Ethics, has
been a controversial one since its publication over 40 years ago. Fletcher would
say that love is putting your resources where they do the most good. Or in his
words, "Love must work in coalition with utilitarian distribution."
Using that argument we would certainly side with Judas, sell the perfume and
give to the needy.
On
the youth's March break service trip we had the privilege of being in the
community that was the birthplace of Habitat for Humanity. We were able to tour
a village of houses they have built there to demonstrate their work around the
world. Before our tour, we were introduced to the types of housing that people
might live in before they receive a house, shacks and shantytowns, built of tin
and plastic. These rough shelters looked much the same in each country. The
woman who was introducing us to the work told us that even when Habitat does a
large build in an area, the population of the shacks and shanties remains the
same. People who have been living in tents or landfills or on the streets simply
move in to the vacant slums, glad to have a roof overhead.
Here
we reach the problem with utilitarian giving. As Jesus pointed out, the poor
will always be with us, and although he lived out a life that showed his love,
compassion and financial commitment to the poor, he also demonstrated that
loving God first and showing the world that love was an even higher priority.
Judas
did not understand this priority. All too
easily we too find ourselves with mixed-up priorities. If we are honest with
ourselves, we will realize that we can relate to Judas' way of thinking. Our
relationship with Christ and how His love is reflected to the world through us
is an issue of the heart. We Mennonites tend to be good with our hands, we like
to show our love and commitment through our actions. But when our hearts are
focused on God with a passion that expresses our gratitude for God's love, then
the result is passionate acts of worship through which our priorities in life
align with our Christian beliefs.
Going
forth with Gratitude
The
story is told that one day a beggar by the roadside asked for alms from
Alexander the Great as he passed by. The man was poor and wretched and had no
claim upon the ruler, no right even to lift a solicitous hand. Yet the Emperor
threw him several gold coins. A courtier was astonished at his generosity and
commented, "Sir, copper coins would adequately meet a beggar's need. Why
give him gold?" Alexander responded in royal fashion, "Copper coins
would suit the beggar's need, but gold coins suit Alexander's giving."
God
has given us the most extravagant gift we could imagine in the form of his son.
We have a world that is far more than we need for mere survival. It is full of
natural and human resources so vast that we can barely imagine them. And yet we
have used our gold coins, our world, so poorly. What
is the most valuable thing that you have? Can you imagine pouring it out in
humble gratitude to God? As we approach holy week, the shadow of the cross falls
across this scene in Bethany. Jesus, who is preparing to pour out his life for
us, is the recipient of a foretaste of self-giving love. A few hundred denarii
worth of ointment is not the equivalent of Christ's priceless blood, but it
does begin to demonstrate the selfless generosity that true love shows. This
anointing is an act of pure worship, declaring through action that Jesus is
worthy of the very best that anyone could offer. He still is.
Jesus
said, "the poor will always be with you". Today marks the 200th
anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. But there are
still slaves in the world, many of them children, who will never escape their
condition. The poor will always be with us.
Jesus so identified himself with the poor, we can worship Christ and follow his
example when we ourselves give gratefully and with humility to the poor.
When
we recognize God's gifts to us, we learn gratitude. What great things has God
done for us? Do we record them? Do we tell other people about our blessings? I
know I spend a lot of time telling other people about my problems, but sometimes
talking about our gratitude is harder. Psalm 126 says, "Though we go forth
weeping, we shall come back rejoicing!" When we recognize the things that
God has done for us, we can create joy in our lives through our gratitude.
Following Jesus is
not a safe way to live. But love never is safe, it's always a little risky,
as the little boy in the book pointed out. Christ has provided a new path for
our lives, and as we begin to approach Easter we look forward, pressing on with
Paul and Isaiah. We try with Mary to honour Jesus' love and sacrifice with an
expansive display of love and gratitude so that we may join with the Psalmist in
saying, "The Lord has done
great things for us, and we rejoice."