Today has not been the most exciting day of my life. It hasn't been the most invigorating or the most thrilling. I was running late to work, stepped in stray cat poop taking the trash out in the rain, and came home to the smell of dirt permeating my home. My cat had finally murdered the houseplant I keep in the kitchen window. There was and is potting soil in the kitchen rug, the kitchen sink, and it's just generally a giant mess.
I didn't even sell anything at work today---which is depressing and worse---boring. It was so slow I'm actually caught up. I can't even think of anything I could do if I went in for overtime Saturday night now. I also got un-friended without explanation by someone. It's not particularly devastating but it is annoying and a little rude. I get home and there it is. Right there on facebook. I knew it was coming but I didn't foresee the source.
It was the annual "Easter is Pagan!" article. Only four days left till Palm Sunday: I thought it might keep until Holy Week. I don't mean to pick on my friend. Someone had to do it. Someone always does. I suppose it might as well be him. One thing that struck me in the comments (I'll admit I didn't read the article. I read it the first time it appeared in my life and every one since has been a repeat so I've stopped.) was the remark about ritual rather than closeness to God.
Sunday's gospel reading features Mary's bizarre display of affection just prior to Jesus' final journey into Jerusalem. She takes a jar of nard, an expensive perfume, and anoints his feet with it. Then she dries it with her hair. Judas, flabbergasted and a little frustrated she didn't let him sell that to "feed the poor" (the aside in the gospel suggests he was likely to pocket it) stupidly rebukes her for it. Jesus' response is telling, "You will always have the poor with you. You will not always have me."
It's okay to be extravagant about our worship of God. We want to do it. More than that, we need to do it. Sometimes, even in this world of electric lights and smells emanating from "plug ins", we need to light a candle. We need to have extraordinary beauty in our worship spaces. If it's a choice between feeding the poor and putting in a stained glass window--by all means, feed the poor-- but if you can afford to do both--let yourselves love God lavishly.
I'm sure Judas was embarrassed by Mary's display. I'm also sure he wasn't the only one. The story has always struck me as a bizarre one. I'm not sure what to make of it. I only know this weird ritual was an act of love and submission. I know that Jesus did not ask for it. I also know that he accepted it for what it was and rebuked the people who would have scolded her for it.
Sometimes I feel like people are still scolding her for it. When I see the comparisons, when people tell me that I can have rituals or a personal relationship with God, I balk. I stop. I feel like a little kid telling her mother "but but but but I didn't mean it that way!" It's not either/or. It's and/or. You don't have to do this---but if it helps---go ahead. Use the good china! Wear your new dress! Eat the chocolate bunny---ears first of course. My mother buys me that not as some bizarre pagan symbol of fertility (new life, resurrection? Did anyone else make that non-idolatrous connection besides me?) but because she loves me. I have a few Easter rituals of my own. Every year I go to Wal-Mart (for shame!) and buy a cheap bouquet of flowers. Then I go to church and I give them all away to the other folks whose yards aren't blooming yet either. I love this... and I keep the big flower for myself.
Because it wasn't always certain he was going to come back from that. We didn't always have him. He had to surrender to us before he could save us. He had to do something bizarre and extravagant.
Quid pro quo?
I know I'm not going to succeed, but I can try, can't I?
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