Reflections from the anointing woman's closest female friend

Mark 14: 6-9

Reflections from the anointing women’s closest female friend
- Kathy Buist

When she asked me to come along to Simon’s house for a social gathering of friends, I eagerly accepted the invitation. I didn’t have anything else going on and was eager to meet this Jesus and his disciples that she kept talking about.

As we walked to Simon’s house, I noticed she was carrying a jar but didn’t think much of it. She often brought gifts when invited to someone’s home. For all I knew, most of the people who associated with Jesus brought one of these jars to these gatherings. So, I didn’t ask any questions.

When we arrived, she introduced me to many of the women. When I got involved in a conversation, she slipped away. After a few minutes, all of the conversations in the house stopped and a strange tension filled the house. Everyone slowly moved toward the source of the tension, the table where Jesus was sitting. I couldn’t believe what I saw. My friend’s jar was empty and Jesus’ hair was greased with ointment. Everyone just stared. Silence filled the room. I could sense that everyone wanted to crawl out of their skill.

I thought, “She’s done it again.” She never shies away from expressing herself and her emotions. You could tell that she adored Jesus and wanted to show him so. In a tight-chested community like ours, people never knew how to respond to her outpouring of emotions. I could tell that most of the people in the room felt embarrassed for her, as if she had just made a social fopa.

Have you ever been in a group conversation when someone says something inappropriate and the conversation just ends? Nobody knows how to respond. That’s how it felt at Simon’s house that day. Not only did others feel embarrassed for her, you could tell that they were judging her; saying to themselves, “How could she do such a thing?”

Then Jesus broke the tension and spoke. He defended her actions and rebuked all of us for our thoughts about what she did. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had been in situations like this before with my friend always felt a sense of embarrassment to be associated with her. The interesting thing was that she never seemed to care to much what other people were thinking of her. If she did, she wouldn’t keep getting herself into situations like this. Now Jesus freed her from any public humiliation for her act and from any she had experienced in the past. His tone was such that I sense him communicating, “It’s o.k. She’s a beautiful person. You all have something to learn from her.”

How would you have reacted that day? What would your attitudes and feelings been like? Would you have judged her for her overt expression? Would you have noted her discernment? Could you have performed an act such as hers, giving everything you have to the Messiah? I think Jesus was right. We all have something to learn from my friend. I think I will continue to accept her invitations to social gatherings and embrace her beautiful expressions.

leadership as a contemplative movement

The following is from Len over at Resonate. The full article can be found with this link.

Tonight I watched as my wife sat down on the couch. Within minutes of her resting her body there, one of our cats came and curled up on her lap. There is something irresistibly hospitable about a warm and restful person.

When I intentionally seek quiet and restful space, I encounter the Spirit of God. When we separate ourselves from busyness and distraction, He comes to brood over us. In that place of shared rest I have nothing to prove, no one to influence, no way to "succeed" except to be loved. Restful people become a welcoming place for the Spirit of God, and in turn can offer peace and rest to others.

The only way forward to a new kind of church is to become people of restfulness and contemplation. So long as we are driven to bring change, driven to be effective, we will only recreate the driven, oppressive, addictive and compulsive systems we have always known.

The greatest hope of influencing change is not our compulsive activity to shape a world different than the one we know, but to become the change we seek. That means becoming still.. risking the quiet and empty spaces... It means facing our own fears that there will be no one to offer approval.. no voice in the silence... no one to clap us on the backs to say "well done." I doubt if there is any greater challenge for an active people, any greater challenge for those who are passionate to see change, any greater challenge for those called to lead. But the only way we will see lasting change is if we become the answer we seek.

A Few Thoughts on Vocation

1. What you are called to do depends on who you are and where you are. The shape of active missional engagement for a particular community is determined by the giftings and passions of that community, the deep needs in the social and geographical location of that community, and a shared awareness of and commitment to the direction of the Spirit for engagement.

2. The shape of active missional engagement should not arise out of negative pressures such as personal guilt-feelings, sources of fear, or envy of the particular activities of another community.

3. We must not fail to acknowledge the places we already are as the primary places for our missional engagement. Our jobs and our families and our neighborhoods are where we need to be doing what Jesus commanded, first and foremost.

4. Because of this (#3), the nature of discipleship in a missional community will necessitate regular practices of discernment. Specifically, critical questions of how to resolve conflict, demonstrate love, act as agents of peace, etc., in the workplace, the home, the market, and the neighborhood should be talked about with prayer and biblical/theological reflection, and, where appropriate, decisions made regarding specific steps of action.

5. We must recognize the assumptions we have received from previous church experience regarding the corporate activity of a believing community, and identify whether those assumptions are fair or not.

Previous Assumption A: Missions work done by a church must be organized and accomplished by the church.

Previous Assumption B: A church needs programs that are oriented in service to others.

Practical Result: Such work and programming places missional engagement within a parenthesis outside of “the rest of my life.” At the same time, it dismisses “the rest of my life” as the primary place into which I am sent as an agent of the kingdom (see #3).

6. We must pay more attention to the places we already are, and the responsibilities we already have, and help each other to be faithful agents of the kingdom in those situations. I don’t think we honor enough what we’re already doing where we already are as kingdom work (actual or potential).

7. Living from vocation demands that we spend time in prayer and in theological/biblical reflection so that we will have imaginations that are shaped by the resources of the scriptures through which the Spirit teaches and directs us.

A Prayer over a Paycheck

Almighty God, Maker and Savior of the entire world,
You have provided for us in much and in little.
You have entrusted us with the care of this world,
Both through our work and in the fruit of our work.
We lay no claim to the resources represented on this paper.
Not just a tenth—All is Yours.
Not just three-tenths—All is Yours.
Let us use for our needs what you have provided for our needs.
Let us use for sharing what you have provided for the needs of others.
Teach us to live appropriately;
Not chasing the next and the new, but content with life in Your kingdom,
Not grasping for possession, but willing to sell all and follow Jesus,
Not succumbing to greed, but acting with generosity toward all.
Keep us from doing evil by withholding what You mean for others,
And deliver us from the fear of insecurity.
For You are the only Security there is.
Amen.

Sigh...

Sigh & a huff... I stayed up late last night watching the developing story on CNN with the miners. I nearly woke up my wife with my excitement that 12 men were alive. This morning I feel more like a lament, and yet I won't go 'there' this morning.

I'm saddened that 12 families know grief this morning. I am saddened that we are incapable of getting a story of life and death correct. I am saddened that executives and leaders knew the news to the families was wrong, and nobody had the courage to tell them the real news. I am saddened that nobody said "Sorry, we @#$% up."

Lord, if you are reading this, "May your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Because we've got a long ways to go."

12 miners alive!

After a day of bad news for those 13 trapped coal miners, 12 have been discoverd alive! You've likely read or heard that news already, but!

Let us take a moment to thank God for his grace, his goodness, and the protection of 12 of the 13 miners trapped for several days. A week ago we celebrated the birthday of Christ - God coming to earth and dwelling among us. And tonight let us celebrate that 12 families have not lost a son, a husband, a dad... they are alive!

I sense those disciples 33 years later shouting to their friends... "He is NOT here. He is risen. Come and see!"

From the solitude of the coal mine contemplating if life would continue to the jubilation of family who will be celebrating long after you read this...