This Sunday at Peace

Scripture: Luke 12:1-8

a note from Holly

In our lesson this Sunday, Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume and wiped them with her hair. That’s not every day—in Jesus’ time or our time. I don’t really know what to do with that. It’s tender, vulnerable, raw, generous, real…it’s just so physical, so bodily.

When I was in seminary in the 1980’s, and feminist thought was still in its earlier stages, this is the kind of text that would receive a lot of attention. We are bodies. While the church has tried to look away, we can’t separate our faith from the earthy needs of our physical selves.

No doubt there is a word for us in here, still—from Mary’s extravagant act to Judas’ twisted words about the poor. And, it begins and ends with how we care for one another—from the baby at our breast to a dying partner to Pete who lives in a make-shift tent at the end of my street.

Thankful, as ever, for the chance to wrestle with what it means to embrace this life with you all: my wisest teachers.

Holly