John 12:1-11

Lent 5 - Year C 

John 12:1-11

We are behind on our postings. The snow pack, rain, and warm temperature conspired this past Sunday to find a weak spot in a basement window and the flood waters rose. All in all not the worst flood, but it does bring opportunity to reconfigure the basement and finally toss some things that have simply been carried along. If we take advantage of this, we will lead a less cluttered life. If we don’t, we will be plotting against Lazarus who scares us with his witness to the uncertainty of our certainties and the possibility of a next chance to evaluate and modify.

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Have you had a resurrectional experience? One that shifted your ground of being toward receiving the gifts of people as they are able to share their gifts? One that re-evaluates our usual responses in light of the preciousness of time and energy?

If so, you are on someone’s “hit list”.

Your covert or acknowledged adversary might be a supposed comrade or some level of competitor. All you can be certain about is that someone thinks they have a better response to life or a particular occasion than you do.

Given that generalized reality, the poor have remarkable gifts to give that no one would expect. When given wholeheartedly they are highly valued. If we lived only in an economic world, we would say they were costly or expensive. We would also know that you don’t give gifts away as that would lessen the total assets we have without an in-hand quid pro quo.

When we get caught up with the details of this story it is mostly to excuse ourselves from generosity similar to Mary’s. Our details would be different, but not the desire to give the best we have to the creative process in order to encourage it onward.

So, why are gifts from the poor to the poor denigrated? They confront the rich with the reality that they won’t even share with the rich, much less the poor. We so don’t like our certainties to be questioned.