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How much money did you make last year? By now all of us should have
received the ever-important W-2 that answers that question in Line 1.
Were you surprised? Would you be any good at tracing where all that
money went? I have to say, I have always been a little surprised that
over the course of a year I spent that much money. Even when I was
making one dollar an hour at Kentucky Fried Chicken, I was shocked
that in one year, as a 16-year old, I spent nearly $2,000. On what?!
I lived at home. I paid $50 for my car. I did have a couple of pairs
of elephant bell-bottom jeans and some sweet blue suede Puma tennis
shoes. Outside of that, I ate chicken for free and smelled too much
like grease to get many dates. Where did all that money go?
One year’s worth of income always seems like a lot of money. Can you
imagine blowing it all in just one moment? Now that you have that
shocking proposal in your mind, allow me to take you to Bethany, where
that very thing happened. Come with me to Matthew 26:6-13 where we
will find a Thank You Gift of enormous proportions. Hear now the Word
of the Lord:
6Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon
the leper, 7a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of
very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the
table. 8But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and
said, “Why this waste? 9For this ointment could have been
sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.” 10But
Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She
has performed a good service for me. 11For you always have
the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12By
pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial.
13Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the
whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”
The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to
God. In this passage Matthew recounted for his readers an act of
unforgettable extravagance.
The last several weeks we have focused on Giving
Thanks. We have talked about the importance of saying “Thank
you,” of sending Thank You Cards and Thank You Notes. Then there are
those occasions when we are so grateful for the act and love of
another that we simply have to offer a “Thank You Gift”.
Gifts are Tangible Expressions of our Gratitude
Matthew does not tell us how much the ointment cost, he only tells us
that it was very costly and that it came in an alabaster jar. These
are two huge hints. First of all, the other three gospels also
include this story and report that the ointment was valued at about
300 denarii, or 300 days’ wages. Now if a person took off one day a
week as the law instructed and celebrated the holidays prescribed in
the law, that person would work about 300 days a year. So we have
established that this was about one year’s worth of earnings.
Secondly, the container of alabaster was a pretty fancy container,
which was sealed to prevent any evaporation of the expensive
ointment. It had to be broken to be opened. One commentator wrote,
“Alabaster is a stone-like material. She did not take off a lid
from the flask, but broke open that sealed bottle. There was the sound
of breaking as well as the smell of that ointment in the room. And
Jesus sat there quietly, absorbing her affection as the men in the
house stared in disbelief.” This was certainly a tangible
expression of gratitude.
Years ago I gave a friend of mine a shillelagh after he preached a
sermon, “A Long Fight with a Short Stick.” A shillelagh is an Irish
walking stick made from a Blackthorn and used in a few 19th
Century brawls. The next week a man in the congregation gave me this
stick, which humbled me. He told me that he was touched by my thank
you gift for my friend and he wanted to replace my lucky stick with
his. Then he handed me this stick and this note, “Short Timer’s
Stick, made by hand on a foot pedal lathe by a Vietnamese Montgard
Native in 1966. The stick represents the length of tour during the
Vietnam War.” He was instructed to remove one section each month. He
said he thought the stick was so beautiful, that he never wanted to
reduce it. So he brought it home with him and kept it for nearly four
decades. He gave it to me with tears in his eyes and all he could say
was, “Thank You.”
I know what this stick cost my friend. I know what it meant to him.
I did not know what to say, except “Wow” to this tangible expression
of gratitude. What was the last Thank You gift that you gave or
received? Gifts are tangible expressions of our gratitude.
Gifts are Tangible Reminders of Our Gratitude
The disciples didn’t get it. In fact, they
were indignant, according to the New International Version,
angry according to the New Revised Standard Version, furious
according to The Message. One commentator said, “They were
exasperated, hostile, incensed, and seething; filled with venom,
anger, and a sense of ownership.” Then he pointed out that this
is a curious response, since the ointment wasn’t even theirs. It
belonged to the woman and she was free to do with it what she wanted
and she wanted to say, “Thank you” to Jesus. Then Jesus told his
audience that this would be the closest he would ever get to a proper
burial and what she did would be remembered everywhere the good news
is preached. Two thousand years later, we are still telling her
story.
Twenty years ago I saw a movie that reminded
me of this story. It was a movie entitled, “Babbette’s Feast.” The
movie was a story of a French woman who has found refuge in a small
village on the Jutland coast of Denmark. There she cared for two
unmarried sisters who had given most of their lives in devotion to
their father and the religious community he had founded. They were
preparing to celebrate what would have been his 100th
birthday. The sisters had always been too poor to pay Babbette, but
they provided her a home as she provided the home with care. Then one
day Babbette won the lottery from a ticket her friend renewed for her
annually in France. She received 10,000 francs, more than a year’s
worth of income. Everyone in the village wondered what she was going
to do with her windfall. Most figured she would return to France.
They were all surprised to find that she used her newly found wealth
to buy the most costly ingredients for a fine French meal - to be
served on exquisite china, silver ware and crystal glasses. The
napkins were of the finest linen. The feast cost all she had won.
As we watch the solemn guests of this little sect eat this meal slowly
they realize that something extraordinary was before them. It was a
meal they would never forget given out of love and gratitude to a
village that had given so freely to her.
We come together today to Give Thanks. We
give thanks to God for all that God has lavishly bestowed on us and we
give thanks to this church that God has used to minister to so many.
As you prepare to offer a Thank You Gift this morning I encourage you
to see your gift as a tangible expression of your gratitude and as a
tangible reminder of your gratitude. Amen. |
