Lent Week 5, The Labor of the Cross

A Woman Pours Perfume on Jesus

Mark14 

1The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for a clever way to arrest Jesus. They wanted to kill him. ² “But not during the Feast,” they said. “The people may stir up trouble.”

³ Jesus was in Bethany. He was at the table in the home of a man named Simon, who had a skin disease. A woman came with a special sealed jar of very expensive perfume. It was made out of pure nard. She broke the jar open and poured the perfume on Jesus’ head.
⁴ Some of the people there became angry. They said to one another, “Why waste this perfume? ⁵ It could have been sold for more than a year’s pay. The money could have been given to poor people.” So they found fault with the woman.
⁶ “Leave her alone,” Jesus said. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷ You will always have poor people with you. You can help them any time you want to. But you will not always have me. ⁸ She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body to prepare me to be buried. ⁹ What I’m about to tell you is true. What she has done will be told anywhere the good news is preached all over the world. It will be told in memory of her.”

¹⁰ Judas Iscariot was one of the Twelve. He went to the chief priests to hand Jesus over to them. ¹¹ They were delighted to hear that he would do this. They promised to give Judas money. So he watched for the right time to hand Jesus over to them.

Notes and quotes from Jessi Marcus' Sermon, Pouring Out a Life of Love

May we have this image in our heads as we head towards Passion Week.
"We carry the scent of Christ with us and it marks our interactions with others. And not only that but we also have our eyes open for the beauty that calls us beyond and further the broken pieces of ourselves." What a beautiful thing.

Prayer
Thank you God that you stand up on behave of your people that are broken.  And God we are broken people but may we still come to you with an offering. God grant us the grace to be more beautiful and that we would carry your scent with us and that we would be marked by you. That we would be people that are anointed by your death, your life, your resurrection, your  promise of new hope and new life.  God would you cover us and may we live beautifully and sacrificially before you. 

We pray these things in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Notes from DebSue (that's me)

Well, this week I am getting really excited about the end of this journey making this piece. I am finished with #5 and just got #6 tied on to my loom. #6 is black and gray for Passion Week and specifically for Good Friday. I am especially excited for Saturday before Easter. I am bring my loom into the chapel and weaving my last all white shawl for the cross during the whole day. There will be a Saturday Vigil Service from 7-12 open to the public. Each hour I will be taking one shawl off and at midnight I will be done weaving the Easter shawl and place it on the cross. I have never done something like this. Really looking forward to it.