SERMON OF THE WEEK First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu September 6, 2009 Mary of Bethany (Gospel of John Series) Rev. Dr. Dan Chun John 11:1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. John 11:2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord w/ perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. John 12:1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. John 12:2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. John 12:3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. John 12:4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, John 12:5 Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor? John 12:6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) John 12:7 Jesus said, Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. John 12:8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me. John 12:9 When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. John 12:10 So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, John 12:11 since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus. As many of you know, during the first two weeks of August I took my family to Bolivia to see my Compassion child as well as to see the ruins of the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru. Machu Picchu is hidden 8,000 feet high up in the Andes. It is believed to have been built around 1438 A.D., taking more than 30 years to build it. It is thought to have been a place for the families of priests and priestesses who would worship and study the stars, as well as an educational center for the future leaders of the empire. But sometime around 1537 the Incas abandoned it maybe because the Spanish Conquistadors were coming. Perhaps they didn t want the city to be found and destroyed by the conquistadors. 1 So there Machu Picchu lay hidden for about 400 years, overgrown by trees and vines. It remained hidden until one day, on July 24, 1911, when a peasant and a little boy took archaeologist and explorer Hiram Bingham to the site in his search of a lost city of gold. And that s when he discovered Machu Picchu. Hiram Bingham, the man after whom Indiana Jones was allegedly patterned, was born in Hawaii, a Yale graduate and a descendant of the missionaries that founded Punahou School. In fact, one of the buildings of the school was named after his family. (Gee, not only did Punahou produce President Obama but also Indiana Jones!) Hiram Bingham returned to the site the next year with National Geographic and Yale University expeditions, and they excavated Machu PIcchu. They opened tombs and uncovered buildings overrun by jungle growth. We spent the whole day up there walking around the ruins of Machu Picchu. It is situated 8,000 feet above sea level. To help us adjust to the high altitude, we had to take special pills and drink coca tea, which has some derivative of a leaf that I am not sure the Federal Drug Administration approves. I was high up in more ways than one! For me, it was no problem to go up and down hundreds of stairs, which were much higher than our average stairs even
though the average Inca Indian was only about 5 feet tall. In fact, the people there were so amazed at how I could run up and down the stairs of Machu Picchu, that they said, Wow, there goes a macho man! Whenever I would run by the Peruvians, they would all chant this song: (a part of the song Macho Man by the Village People is played). Actually, those were not the Peruvians singing that song but some Village People down below celebrating. (And you were wondering why the worship attendance went up while I was gone?) Now you may think that was a big celebration. But that wasn t a real celebration. Let me tell you about one of the greatest parties of all time, which leads to our Bible passage for today. Get this. At this party is Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords, the Savior, the King of Kings, the main man who can walk on water, the miracle man who can heal the sick and cast out demons. But not only is Jesus heading up the guest list, but Lazarus, too! Yeah, Lazarus. Last week s sermon told us that Lazarus was stone dead, but then Jesus brought him back to life! Lazarus was alive again! I m telling you that's a party I would never miss! Jesus, the Messiah, and Lazarus the dead guy who came back alive days later. Mama mia! That s a spicy guest list! The Bible says that there was a great crowd that gathered inside and outside the home. But that s not all! Jesus later said something so astounding happened at that party that it would be retold for thousands of years whenever the gospel is preached. And it s true, because we are retelling the story today! It s right in the Gospel of John. Let s watch and listen to this video of the 12 th chapter of the Gospel of John where Mary of Bethany caused quite a stir during the celebration. (A clip from the DVD Gospel of John is shown.) 1) It s hard to put a price tag on true worship. True worship is all out; nothing is held back. It is extravagant. When our lives are touched by Jesus, we want to worship Him. Worship transports us from just cognitively believing in Jesus. In worship we say, emote and act out our devotion to Him. Mary of Bethany goes all out in her adoration of Jesus. She breaks a bottle of perfume and pours it onto the feet of the Lord. The Bible says the perfume is worth 300 denarii (a denarii is worth a day s wages of a laborer.) To make it simple, in today s money if a person is making $10 an hour and works 8 hours a day for 300 days, that would be: $10/hr X 8hs X 300 = $24,000. Mary poured a bottle of nard or perfume on Jesus feet worth $24,000! Mama mia! Talk about the aroma of Christ being fragrant! Her worship of Jesus was all out. She has total devotion, no hands barred! No wonder Jesus said this story would be told over and over again whenever people talk of Jesus. It s extravagant! When we come to know Christ, we are willing to do anything whatever the cost. We become extravagant in our worship. Tithe 10% of our income to God no problem! Volunteer our time to serve Him -- no 2 problem! Use our business or our studies, for Him -- no problem! Serve Him with our time, talent or treasure -- no problem! When true love exists, we show it extravagantly. Some people build cathedrals to show their love for God. If that is the true reason, who am I to judge? It s an extravagant display of love for Christ. But yes, there are some of us who, like Judas Iscariot, might be more like bean counters and say, Why use that money for worship when we could have used that for the poor? Sounds right. Sounds holy. But for Mary of Bethany SHE WAS being right and holy. Plus, as we heard in the video, Judas was stealing money from Jesus so he was the worst person to tell others how money should be used for God. Here at Ko olau yes, we paid a high price for a worship center. We have a good sound system, great sound technicians, good lighting and beautiful aesthetics -- and they re all worth it because of our adoration and honor for Christ. Mary of Bethany teaches us another thing about worship. 2) True worship is Godcentered. It s all about pleasing God and honoring Him. Sometimes, as Jack Deere said two weeks ago, we often come to worship to make it all about us. We want our favorite songs, our favorite topics and our favorite jokes. We want to laugh and sometimes also to be entertained. But that is humancentered worship. It should always be God-centered worship.
Remember that in worship it is really an audience of One. God is the only One in the audience, and maybe some of His angels. We are the only performers. He comes to hear our worship, hear us sing, pray, read, confess or promise things to Him. He doesn t perform for us. We, in the best sense of the word, perform for Him. He s the only One in the audience. For Mary her kneeling down and washing Jesus feet was to honor Him, and, as some scholars believe, she was also accomplishing Jesus mission. Jesus was going to be crucified and then buried. And she, the sister of Lazarus, was in worship preparing Jesus body for death, burial for a few days and then resurrection up into heaven. She probably just did Lazarus burial preparations. She knew what she was doing, assisting Jesus in His ministry. Worship is all about accomplishing Jesus mission? When we feel good in a worship service, that s great, but that is just an after effect of worship. Worship is about honoring God, glorifying Him, and also getting in line with His mission here on earth. Totally giving oneself to God in worship also involves the next principle. 3) Worship is different for different people. God didn t use a cookie cutter to make us. We all have different ways of expressing our faith. Some like to worship with eyes closed, others with eyes opened. Some with arms up, others with arms down. Some loudly, others softly and pensively. Some with tongues, others without. Some with an organ, others with a band. Some with hymns, others with praise songs. So you see, it s not all about us! There is no standard either internationally, nationally, locally or ethnically of how worship must be. 4) If I am truly worshipping God, I should not be judging others. And we may think, That s not me, Dan, not me. I m not judgmental at all of other people s worship. I just figure my way is the best way. Hmmm, let s look at judgmental worship. This was such a concern for Jesus because it can creep up to us He created a whole parable to teach us about the subject. Luke 18:10 Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Luke 18:11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. Luke 18:12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income. Luke 18:13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner! Luke 18:14 I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted. 3 Friends, that s us. It can happen very subtly. Whenever we think, Well, they don t really worship like I do, Lord, so please help them. For look at how I pray, how I sing, how I fast, how I tithe unlike that poor sinner over there. What s amazing is that the hero of the parable is the tax collector whose worshipful prayer is, God, be merciful to me, a sinner! It was not, Lord, I wish others could worship as authentically as I! Jesus made it really clear that f you exalt yourself, He will oppose you again and again. The Bible says God opposes the proud (James 4:6). But if you are truly humble, you will be exalted by the God the Most High and given victory (Psalm 149:4). How are we doing on the worship meter with 10 being the highest? All out or hardly any? God cares about how you worship from your heart. Now here it is the kicker. When we really understand God s unconditional love for us, it is very easy to worship like Mary of Bethany. In fact, until we understand God s unconditional love and accept it and believe it, worship and healing will always be hard because 5) We worship a God who loves unconditionally, unlike us. Let me close with a Bolivia story. As I mentioned earlier, my family went to Bolivia to meet one of our Compassion kids, 11-year old Nelly Condo. I was so excited to meet Nelly. The family and I brought her gifts: stuffed animals, pens, pencils, flashlight, and beddings, even an inexpensive pendant.
I couldn t wait to see her, hug her and laugh with her. When we got to the Compassion project, the kids were all full of energy, but they were all wearing masks as a precaution against the H1N1 virus. And so we did too. Meeting Nelly for the first time was not great because the mask covered a part of her face. But no problem, we thought. Once the masks are off we will see a smiling kid. But that was not the case. After lunch, she took off her mask and she looked so unhappy. But she was also sick, so that may have been a lot of it, we thought. We gave her a picture of us. We gave her three stuffed animals, including a Minnie Mouse, which we heard was popular with the kids there. But no smile. But as we visited with her she just did not seem appreciative of anything, not even the gifts we had given her. No smiles. No hugs. No thanks. It seemed that she couldn t wait for us to leave. She is the sixth Compassion child we support and she is so different. I suppose all of us fantasize of the time when we meet our sponsored child. We imagine that it will be like a slow motion video of us running toward our Compassion child in the distance and the child running toward us yelling, My sponsor! Then in our minds that child would end up in our arms speaking English and telling us what a wonderful person we are. Actually, I was traveling with someone on the trip and I saw her meet her child almost like that the day before. Stella Matsuda joined my family and others on the vacation because she wanted to meet her Bolivian child whom she had been writing for eight years. When they saw each other in the airport their meeting was just like how we wanted our meeting to be. They had never met and so they ran to each other and hugged. There was laughter, smiles and tears. But that didn t happen to me when I met Nelly. She was not happy to see me or the gifts I brought her. And in my humanness, I, your pastor, who has asked you to sponsor more 500 Compassion children, for one millisecond thought, I want to change my sponsored kid and get another one! Isn t that horrible of me? By God s miracle, we were able to see Nelly again, which rarely happens when meeting a Compassion child. Normally you see your child one day and that was it! But four days later, due to the cancellation of plane flights and other project visits due to an H1Ni1 scare, we were able to have another day with Nelly at a park. I had a good time of prayer with God before that day and it was clear to me that I was to love Nelly unconditionally. No matter what her response to me I was going to pour love and affirmation on her even though not much may be coming back. Just before we visited Nelly on that second day, I spoke with her project director and he told me that Nelly s father abandoned her when she was five, and after that she became withdrawn. She only has three friends in school and two friends at the Compassion project. Her only other sponsor before me never ever wrote her. She saw other kinds get letters and gifts, while she got none. She was lonely and fearful of abandonment. Kids tease her for being so withdrawn. 4 Her mother left her to work in another city as a cook so she can make money. Nelly only gets to see her 3 or 4 times a year, including the time that we were there. Nelly s sister, who was supposed to live with her, is now living with her boyfriend somewhere else and has her own two kids to take care of. Nelly just turned 11 years old and lives alone in a one-room shack with a dirt floor measuring about 10 feet by 10 feet. She has to cook for herself, take care of herself every day. She is very lonely and fearful. She could ve been wondering if I would leave her like her dad, her mom, her sister or her last Compassion sponsor who never wrote. When I heard all of that I said, That s it! I am going to love her no matter what her response. I would write her and say that I believe in her. I would affirm her. I would never leave her. I would continue to send gifts. We met her for the bus ride to the park, and she was still very quiet and withdrawn. When we got there she was scared to do anything, but we managed to gently encouraged her to try everything. We rode a horse-drawn carriage, which she didn t want to at first but eventually liked it. We played soccer even though she didn t want to at first but liked it, too. Eating with her did not seem friendly or fun. But something happened that turned things around. She picked up my camera and took a picture of me. Then my older son, Dylan, walked behind her, looked at me and said, Ridiculoso! And suddenly Nelly laughed! I couldn t believe it!
She laughed and she smiled! She thought it was funny that my son called me ridiculoso. which is kind of Spanglish for ridiculous looking. She took more pictures with my camera and then more. I let her have my camera for the next two hours as she took more and more pictures. It opened up a whole new universe for her as she could see on my digital camera screen the shots she took. And looking at the shots she took, the girl has talent! And by the end of the day, no longer was this a sad, scared child from a poverty project. She was now happy. When she went into the swimming pool, which at first she didn t want to, we saw her melt from a scared and sad girl to a happy and smiling child. On he bus ride home to the hotel, Nelly fell asleep in my arms feeling loved for who she is. And by the time we dropped her off to her Compassion project director, she was all smiles. Pam and I gave her a big and long hug before we left. What does this mean for us? God is in the business of before and after shots of taking Nellys like you and me who may be sad, confused, hurt, abandoned, feeling like failures --- and transforming us to loved and accepted people. Here is the gut-wrenching truth. God loves us even when we don t perfectly love Him. He is the God who would never, ever, reject us even if we don t love Him and show appreciation to Him. He will never abandon us. He would never for a millisecond think about switching us for someone else. His unconditional love is so great that He chooses us, even during times when we don t choose Him. He loves us even when at times we want to run. He loves us so much that He would be willing to appear ridiculoso in order to win our love. And in the end, we can fall asleep safe and loved in the arms of a Father who adopted us! For the Bible says God is the Father who adopts us, just like a sponsored child. No matter how bad our friends, relatives or parents may have been, we have been adopted by our Father God. This is the God we worship. The God who was willing to be tortured, made fun of, made to look ridiculoso by being forced to wear a makeshift crown of thorns, a silly robe, and then later crucified. And even in the face of soldiers gambling at the foot of the cross where He was crucified, Jesus showed unconditional love by saying, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And that is why we do Communion. We willingly, eagerly want to remember Jesus, who was fully man and fully God and One who loves us unconditionally. If we could believe that we are worthy of His love, inner healing will happen for there is nothing we can do or had done that would separate us from the love of God. * * * * * * * Sunday worship sermons can also be heard on Strength for the Journey, First Prez s weekly radio show. Sunday mornings at 10 on KGU 760 AM. You can also download the sermons on itunes or fpc.posterous.com. 5