Where What You've Got Came From, and Where it Should Go

Matthew 26:6-13
The Anointing at Bethany
6 Now 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.’



Several years ago, Dave and I participated in a live recreation of the city of Bethlehem. Our post was at the manger where Jesus was born on the outside of the city. We played the rolls of Mary and Joseph for a night. There was a musical score at the scene, so we didn’t have any lines. We were just there: sitting in the places we all imagine the parents of Jesus to occupy moments after his birth—adoring the new baby and meeting the visitors who came to see him. After the music finished, we would pick up the baby doll swaddled in a blanket and carry him along the line of people lined up at the stable to see. It seemed silly to me the first time the director described the act of walking a doll around like a real baby. Won’t the people realize that this is not real? What kind of significance could this really have?

On one of the last rounds of the little drama we were portraying that night, there was a little girl standing in the line at the stable with her mom. As we passed by with the baby doll in our arms, trying not to let the children recognize that it was just a doll, this little girl dropped her mommy’s hand and reached in her pocket and pulled out a tiny plastic doll and tried to place it in the folds of the blanket wrapped tightly around the baby Jesus. Not wanting her to discover out secret, that it wasn’t really him, I reached my hand out in an attempt to help her find a place for the doll. She quickly pulled her hand back and the doll and looked at me and said—with some contempt, to be honest—“It’s not for you! It’s for Baby Jesus.”

What that girl had came to her as a gift, and just as freely as she received it, she gave it. As she was trying desperately to shove this tiny plastic doll into Baby Jesus’ blanket, her mother noticed what she was doing and gently tugged at her arm and asked if she was sure she wanted to give away the doll. “Mommy,” she said, “it’s for Baby Jesus!” You may not be close enough to see this little doll, but it looks to be part of something bigger than himself. I suspect that there is still a plastic family out there missing their baby son. It’s been obviously well-loved; and that all took place before he came to live in our house because ever since that night I’ve had this little guy in safe keeping for Baby Jesus. He came to her as a gift, to me as a gift, and is meant ultimately for Christ as a gift—a sacrificial gift that was likely missed in that little girl’s household.

Friends, for me there is not better telling of the Christmas story than that. And there is no better way to think about what it means to give in the United Methodist tradition. John Wesley’s sermon on giving titled “Serving God with Mammon” says it this way:

"I entreat you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, act up to the dignity of your calling! No more sloth! Whatsoever your hand find[s] to do, do it with your might! No more waste! Cut off every expense which fashion, caprice, or flesh and blood demand! No more covetousness! But employ whatever God has entrusted y[ou] with, in doing good, all possible good, in every possible kind and degree to the household of faith, to all [people]! This is no small part of 'the wisdom of the just.' Give all y[ou] have, as well as all y[ou] are, a spiritual sacrifice to God who withheld not from you [God’]s Son, [God’]s only Son.”

It is our calling, brothers and sisters, to give—not just what we have to spare but what is also a sacrifice for us. How can we begin to understand what that might be for each of us individually?

The obvious first answer is that we can give more money to the church, and I’m not going to lie to you: I like that answer. Not for my sake but for the sake of the people who need for us to give. If you think about what the world needs that we can provide, so much of that is dollars and cents. Churches, service organizations, non-profits all need us and our wallets right now. Did you know that United Methodists lead the way most of the time in financial response to disasters around the world? Giving through the United Methodist Committee on Relief to help the victims of the tsunami in Indonesia in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in the gulf coast of the United States in 2005 broke records in giving to these 2 relief funds, and those funds continue to be used today. On a more local level, your giving here makes us able to have diapers and toys for the children who spend time in our nursery on any given Sunday or to provide a place for senior citizens to gather during the week that is safe, cool and warm in hot and cold climates, and where there is the guarantee of a meal at least 2 days per week. But it’s not just even about the money.

Your gifts are shared and needed in so many ways. There are so many opportunities for you to give. It may even seem overwhelming sometimes. And there may even be more you could give if only you had the courage, or maybe even just the time. You may have gifts to share—voice, instrument, teaching, dance, caring for others—and you may be holding them back because you are honestly not sure that what you have to give can truly be useful to someone else. Or, you may simply be afraid that its just not good enough.

That night in recreated Bethlehem, when I dared to put on the costume of the mother of Jesus, I was converted again by the generosity and sacrificial giving of the little girl who wanted Baby Jesus to have her tiny plastic baby. That gift came to her out of generosity and love. And it was passed on to Jesus the same way. And it probably didn’t cost much money or even take very long to produce; how much more can our gifts be pleasing to God and nurturing to the world around us—those gifts which are hard to give or hard to give up?

You may know that the Methodist movement both in England and in America grew so quickly among the members of society who had the least. Wesley himself commented once on how he preferred the soft, velvet cushion of the pulpits throughout the beautiful church buildings across the English country but how God had called him to go into the fields to share the news of God’s love and mercy with those who had never heard. He gave it all, everything he had, even what had been given to him as a gift, and gave it to the people of God who needed him. And we continue to follow in his tradition today. We are United Methodists because we give. We can do more. When we give money or time that we miss, then we know we are on the right track.

So I encourage you, friends, to follow the example of our sister in today’s gospel lesson who gave what she had to the dying body of Christ so that the Body of Christ would continue to live. We can only assume she was saving the ointment for her own burial or that of someone she loved. But she gave it to Jesus because she recognized in some way that he needed it now. She saved it until just the right moment, and then she gave it, and we continue to tell her story every time we give something that we might need later, give until it hurts, give something that is very precious to us so that the Body of Christ can continue to live, grow, and thrive.

The little girl in Bethlehem with us that night saved her gift until just the right moment, and I continue to receive grace and blessing from that gift even today. May we never forget that as United Methodists we are not in this for what we can get out of it. We are in it for what we can give to it, and the grace and blessing we receive anyway—well, that is just a gift.

Amen.