The Way in Relationship with Sinners, Outcasts and the Poor

Mark 14:3-9

March 13, 2016

Mark S. Bollwinkel

The story of the anointing of Jesus at Bethany in the gospel of Mark, which has variations in the other three gospels teaches us about Jesus' approach to the subject of "sinners, outcasts and the poor" (Matthew 26:6-13, Luke 7:36-50 [although place name is not identified], John 12:1-8).

Remember to his disciples Jesus says "I am the way, the truth and the life..." (John 14:6)  Over and over again he invites them to follow his "way", the word in the original meaning "path", "road", and “journey".  In fact one of the first names for the early Christians was "children" or "followers" of "The Way" (Acts 9:2, 19:9, 24:22).

This Lenten season we have been studying what it means to be followers of The Way of Jesus.  

So far we've learned that The Way begins in the desert as Jesus is tempted and tested by the devil.  We learn that The Way of Jesus is to face evil head on and call it out for what it is.  

Jesus then moves to Capernaum where he calls disciples, lives in the home of Simon Peter the fisherman and begins three years of ministry.  We learn from miracle after miracle that The Way of Jesus is healing; physical, emotional, spiritual healing.

In the Mountains, Jesus would retreat to pray and meditate.  He would also gather crowds of people to whom he would teach about the Kingdom of God; the reign of love, peace and justice in the world and in our hearts.  In the Mountains, he would invite any who would listen on The Way.   The Way of Jesus is Kingdom living.

Last week we were reminded us that The Way of Jesus includes finding those quiet places of renewal where we can recharge our physical and spiritual batteries.  Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat when he and the disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee running into a huge storm.  He offered them and the waves "peace"; something he offer us today as well.  The Way of Jesus is the gift of peace in the midst of the storms of life.

Today we consider the anointing of Jesus at Bethany.  Bethany was a small village in the mountains a few miles east of Jerusalem.  In the gospel of John it is the home of one of Jesus' best friends, Lazarus and his two sisters Martha and Mary.  Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which we will celebrate next week, began in Bethany (Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-38). In Mark and Matthew's version of the story Bethany is also the home of Simon the Leper of whom history knows very little.

This is an extraordinary and surprising story with many of the same themes as the story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well (John 4).

A respected Hebrew rabbi would not sit down for a meal at the same table with a leper; remember that the ill were considered sick because of some sin that they or a previous family member had committed (John 9:1-f).  And a respected rabbi, or any pious male for that matter, would never allow himself to be touched by an unaccompanied woman in public let alone allow her to anoint his head with oil.  In Luke's version of the story (7:36-50), the woman is identified as "a sinner", which means a "moral outcast" often referred to in tradition as a “prostitute”.  She anoints his feet with the ointment, kisses his feet in front of a bunch of Pharisees and then dries Jesus' feet with her hair.  In John's version Mary does the same, except the kissing part!

For first century Palestine this is scandalous stuff.   The pious in these scenes are outraged.  Jesus in each version defends the woman's actions as more than appropriate.  This moral/social outcast can see in Jesus something that the pious cannot.  She weeps.  She is in the presence of the God who can redeem even the most broken life.  She lavishes Jesus with attention out of gratitude and praise for the God within him that seeks and saves the lost; even people like her.   And she is preparing Jesus for the journey to the cross.

The anointing by oil was the official consecrating of Israel's king in the Hebrew Scriptures (1 Sam 10:1, 2 Kings 9:6).  The term "Messiah" in the original language means "the anointed one".  Just before his last supper, the betrayal by Judas and his arrest and torture, Jesus is symbolically anointed Messiah by none other than an outcast woman to the shock and offense of the pious.  In Mark's version of the story immediately after this scene Judas goes to the Temple officials to arrange for Jesus’ arrest.

It has been said that one’s character is defined "by the company you keep".   Along with his disciples, Jesus associated with all sorts of folk his religion would consider "unclean/profane"; the demon possessed, lepers, rich tax collectors, prostitutes, Samaritans, the poor, gentiles and even a Roman centurion, a leader in the military occupation forces of his country (Matthew 8:5-13, Luke 7:1-10).  In fact the religious law at the time would require that one be ritually cleansed in the Temple if one had come in contact with such people.

Who would we not welcome at our dinner table?

The heart of Jesus is reaching out to the outcast, sinners and the poor inviting them into relationship to God not in pity but empowering them into the fullness of life in the community of love and service.

Our commitment to the I-Help programs for the revolving men and women’s shelter here at Church of the Wayfarer is the opportunity for us who live privileged lives to be in relationship with those who are struggling.  I-Help isn't just about food for hungry people and a safe, dry place for people to sleep who spend most nights in their cars or on the street.  Providing such is a good and necessary thing.  I-Help is also about building relationships and expanding our world beyond normal expectations.

Are we intentionally building relationships with the kind of people with whom Jesus associated?  Are we connecting with people outside the church...our beliefs, our traditions? With atheists, agnostics, "spiritual not religious" folk? Do we allow others to see the love of God shining through us? (Adam Hamilton, The Way of Jesus, Abingdon, pp.121-122)

He is not referring to some kind of "converting" technique.  It is not about "those people" becoming "people like us".  Do we share the spiritual passion and commitments we have with others?  Not in a false sense of superiority.  Because that is also Jesus' point in welcoming the woman's anointing.   Those outside of our circles may be getting the point we are missing.

Much has been made about Jesus' words, "...and the poor you shall always have with you..."   Those promoting free market capitalism have long heard a justification in those words of Jesus for the inherent inequality of income distribution in that economic system.  But The Lord wasn't making a social economic point.  He was trying to tell the pious and his own disciples that while a moral outcast, a sinner, could see the divinity within his life and celebrate the potential of it within her own, they could not!  While they were busy arguing doctrine and policy she was celebrating the Messiah in their midst.

Monterey County estimates that on any given night there are 2,308 homeless on our streets, an 11% decline in previous surveys (Monterey Herald 07/18/2015); most in Salinas, approximately 300-400 in Monterey, a handful in Carmel.  Along with collecting donations of clean socks for the homeless ministry of First UMC Salinas each first Sunday of the month, we are now collecting donations of non-perishable food items each week for the food pantry at All Saints Episcopal Church, Carmel, just down the street.  They daily offer donations of food to those in need and we are told that half of the recipients are residents of Carmel.  That reality may not conform to our expectations for our privileged community but indeed some of our neighbors are struggling to make ends meet.

For those of us who follow The Way of Jesus, participating in the promised future of God…where everyone will have enough, where everyone will live in peace, where everyone will know dignity and freedom…as important as it is to offer charity to the poor it is as important that we learn why they are poor in the first place.  And that happens as we grow in relationship to the lost, outcast and poor.

That's why we build houses with Habitat for Humanity in Santa Cruz, San Jose and Oakland.  It is why we serve dinner and breakfast with I-Help.  It is why we donate socks and cans of food.   Not just to pass out charity.   Those outside of our circles may be getting a point we are missing.  They may have something to teach us...like an outcast woman anointing the Messiah when the pious are about to plot his death.

Thirteen years ago, 17 members of the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church travelled to be in relationship with our brothers and sisters in the West Angola Conference of the UMC in West Africa.  Bonnie and I were included on the team.  We were the first United Methodist Volunteer in Mission team into Angola following the end of their 27 year civil war.  Bonnie and I had previously lived in India, Mexico, Kenya and Northern Borneo, yet we had never seen the level of poverty and squalor in any of those countries as we did during that trip to Angola after their civil war.

During our more than two weeks there, along with providing a medial assessment team, we split up our group each Sunday to visit and worship with churches in the West Angola Conference.  Bonnie and I were assigned to attend St. Paul’s UMC in a ghetto section of Luanda, the capital of Angola; a city with a infrastructure built for 500,000 people with a population 6 million fleeing the violence of the civil war.  When the taxi delivered us as close to the church as we could get, we walked about a half mile through dirt streets with open ditches of human sewage, houses made of mud and wooden board, tin roofs.  We arrived at St. Paul’s, a large building with benches for about 100 people with at least four times as many there eager to worship.  They stood outside by the windows to hear the words of the music and the prayers.

I was asked to preach and did so through an interpreter.  Before the service of Holy Communion began, three lay leaders came up to the altar to pray for us.  During our time in Angola the United States was invading Iraq.  After coming out of their own period of war, these good people knew what was in store for our nation and its families.   They prayed for us, for our people, for our nation and its leaders that we would find our way to peace.

Impoverished beyond any expectation, these good people prayed for us, citizens of one of the richest nations of the world, as our country embarked on yet another international conflict.  I will never forget the moment.  You see, we too have something to learn from the marginalized and poor if we will listen.

Roman Catholic Pope Francis, the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina is the first Pontiff from the Americas and the first Jesuit Pope.  He is described as a humble man with a passion for social justice and a practitioner of "the preferential option for the poor".   This is very exciting and encouraging for the entire Christian community.  We love a Pope who the day after his election paid his own hotel bill and then took a bus to the Vatican!  Would that all who follow The Way of Jesus find humility, a passion for justice and understand God's heart for those who suffer poverty and rejection.

Because.

The Way of Jesus is to seek and save the lost, "recognizing our own "lost-ness" in the process" (Hamilton).

Amen.