During this Lenten season,
First Church is focusing on health and recovery.
Each week we're taking one word from the beginning of the creation story in the Book of Genesis,
Chapter 1.
It has been our guidance and focus for our own spiritual health and collective recovery.
During this Holy Week,
We are taking each day as it comes.
As the life of Jesus unfolds from Palm Passion Sunday to Easter,
Realizing that there is something in this process of becoming one together with the story of Christ,
And we find ourselves relying and responding on God's providence and presence,
Even in the most challenging times.
Today,
Our focus is the word call.
Call.
Before we enter into our time of meditation,
I'm going to read the first few verses of John,
Chapter 12.
It's a story of Martha and Lazarus and Mary.
Six days before the Passover,
Jesus came to Bethany,
The home of Lazarus,
Whom he had raised from the dead.
There they gave a dinner for him.
Martha served and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.
And Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard,
Anointed Jesus's feet and wiped them with her hair.
The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
Our word today is call.
So I invite you now to find yourself in a seated posture with your feet on the ground,
And if possible and accessible to you with your back on the back of a chair.
In a dignified posture,
I invite you to rest the palms of your hands on the tops of your thighs,
Or if you're comfortable,
Place your right hand in your left,
Hands open,
Expecting presence.
And if you're comfortable,
I invite you to close your eyes or find a restful gaze and begin to breathe.
Find the rhythm of your breath.
Our meditation today will be focused on that tiny room where Jesus and Martha and Lazarus and Mary all were,
Where the disciples were gathered,
And a call was met.
You see,
Jesus is always the focus.
But what if this time,
This time in our hearing,
This story,
Mary in that tiny house becomes the focal point of the story,
Of our story.
Imagine that you are Mary.
Mary is watching her sister Martha dutifully,
Faithfully in the act of service,
Giving her very best to the guests that are there.
The sweet sesame bread,
The roasted lamb,
The gift of laughter,
Remembrances.
And Lazarus is sitting at the table,
The embodiment of all of those remembrances,
Of the sweet touch of life,
Taking in each morsel of bread and lamb,
And feeling the richness of the laughter even to his diaphragm.
But Mary,
Mary is there,
Eating and laughing like everyone else.
But there's something more,
Something more she feels called and compelled to do.
Mary took this beautiful jar,
Pours out the oil,
The perfume,
Anointing Jesus' feet,
Wiping the perfume,
The oil with her hair.
If we dwell long enough on the aroma filling the house,
Mary becomes our devotion.
We become Mary's devotion.
She is taking our place in this tiny house in Bethany,
Dropping to our knees,
Breaking the clay jar,
Shattering all expectations,
Unmooring the sweet bouquet onto the teacher's feet and releasing the essence of this act of praise.
Strangely and beautifully,
It is the act of praise and not the material that moves the teacher to call you to rise,
To mend,
To form,
To breathe,
To embrace the love that compelled you in the first place.
You are called just as you are,
Just like you are with all that you are.
This is the story of Mary.
This is the story of you and your devotion,
Your call in this moment.
You are called just as you are,
Just like you are with all that you are.
Take a moment to breathe in that sweet aroma of truth.
And as we set our intention on what is before us,
The hard question we must ask ourselves in this first weekday of Holy Week.
The question is,
What may be keeping you from sensing your call?
What may be keeping you from sensing your call?
Because you are called just as you are,
Just like you are with all that you are.
Whatever came up for you,
Can you be with it?
Can you name it?
Can you call it out so it no longer has power over you or on you?
Because what's keeping you from sensing your call is much weaker than the call itself.
The call to be just as you are,
Just like you are with all that you are.
You are called precious one to this moment right here and right now.
So let's make a commitment with ourselves and with God that God's voice of call on our lives will be far greater than what may be keeping us from sensing that call.
Rest,
Bask in that sweet aroma.
