Not Working

Mark 14- Jesus Anointed at Bethany

            I heard a sermon about Jesus getting anointed by the sinful woman and the pastor pointed out a nice bit of irony. The expensive perfume that this adulterous woman had in the alabaster jar was probably what she used to entice men into her bedroom or what she used afterwards to get rid of the stench of her sin. Either way, there she was, pouring it out on Jesus’ feet, mixing it with her tears, and wiping it with her hair.

            The people at the party had the snide, Christian comment of, “If He knew what kind of woman she was He wouldn’t let her do that.” Hooray for missing the point. Jesus knew what kind of men they were and He was eating food with them. At least she was real. At least she came in with a humble heart, the truth of her situation, and all that she clung to.

            What’s in your alabaster jar? Mine is the desire to be accepted. I need to know people like me and care about me. I’m really an insecure egomaniac. That’s what I bring to the Master’s feet. That’s what I use to get what I want or cover up the stench of my failure. I’m in constant need of “Ataboys.” Whether it is kudos from my boss, followers on my blog, obedience from my kids, or affection from my wife: I vainly thrive on affirmation.

            This woman was probably similar to you and me in this respect. Yes, I’ll lump you in too. I only know you because you’re human and you do stuff to fill voids just like I do. This lady probably became a floozy because it’s easy to get quick love and affection from sex. I would even be as bold to say that like the rest of us, the more she received it, the more she needed next time to get her fix.

            So she did what all us posers and fakers deem unthinkable. She took the very symbol of her biggest issue, regardless of the cost, and poured it out as an offering to Jesus. She was admitting that she couldn’t fake it anymore. She was admitting that it wasn’t working.

            I bet she was the only non-divine being who left that dinner with peace, joy, and fulfillment. She had an epiphany, a salvation moment; she had a true interaction with God. She was surrounded by bullshitting hypocrites who were trying to put her down and she said, “No, I’m going to Jesus!”

            Here I am plowing through all this again. It feels like I’m dealing with it for the zillionth time. I can’t wait ‘til these distractions go away. I can’t wait ‘til my doubt because obsolete and my faith becomes sight. I put some much time and effort into these things that I will one day just lay at the feet of Jesus. I can’t wait until the day I don’t have to worry about filling my life with stuff that I know doesn’t work but I do it anyway.

Picture originally found at http://www.jrdkirk.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/jesus-feet.jpg

           

            

We are all Exiles

“For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” -Romans 8:20-21

“We all long for [Eden], and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with the sense of ‘exile’.”
-J.R.R Tolkien
       
        Do you ever feel like you don’t belong? Do you ever feel like the more you buy into society, professionalism, religion, materialism, or the American Dream the less you have? I see a lot of band-aids on bullet wounds. I see a lot of smiling faces that cannot afford honest questions. I see a lot of people buying into things and not being satisfied. I see a lot of people creating strongholds to defend because, by god, they need something to pour their lives into.
        We all want success. We all want to be part of something big. We all strive for fulfillment. We pay a lot of money, spend a lot of time, sacrifice a lot of people just to get a head only to find that there are still people ahead of us and crap still rolls down hill. We don’t know where we belong. Nothing seems to fulfill long term. It’s almost like we’re living in a body that doesn’t like us, and a world that is just waiting to spit us out.
        This is exile.
        Read through Genesis 1. When God created the world He said it was good. Don’t believe in Creation? Okay, when things evolve they are supposed to get better. Everything is supposed to be on the up and up right? It was on the up and up until man came into the picture and started goofing things up. Let’s take it from the Biblical standpoint that we had a perfect planet with a perfect society, with perfect people and then we chose something else. We chose to disrupt that perfection for a “better way.”
        We now live in a world that is so far from Eden that the very thought of paradise is considered a myth. It’s such a myth that we look at the world around us and assume that this is all there is. We look at our broken relationships and assume this is as good as it gets. We know we were made for something better but, dammit, that is so hard to see and so far off that it must not exist.
This is all of our own choosing. Every good thing, every good feeling, every smile, comes from God and is just a poor reflection of Eden’s perfection. Every bad thing, every pain, every sorrow, comes from somebody going against God’s perfect plan and trying to re create Eden without that pesky God guy.
Now that you know you’re in exile you have a choice to make. Will you make a home here or will you look to your future home? Most people just pitch a tent and live in the confines of exile. This is easy. Its all there is. It’s not fully satisfying but nothing is. Nothing is perfect but if we try really hard we can create a good life for us here.
The other choice is to remember our father and that we don’t belong here. That feeling of emptiness is natural because we are broken.  That feeling like we don’t belong is because this world is not how it is supposed to be. You can doll it up, you can create a nice life but deep down we all know this place is not why we are here and it is not going to last.
Does that sound crazy? Read the tabloids. Check out how many celebrities are in rehab, are getting divorced, or killing themselves. You can have everything you want and still want more. Does that sound like freedom? Does that sound like paradise? That sounds like exile to me.
        It’s a hard choice to make. We all want to belong. We all want to know and be known. The fleeting success that comes from work, sex, religion, and everything else this world offers is like heroin; you never get back that feeling of the first time but you keep trying.
This is not our homeland. Do we fight to assimilate into this mouse wheel of an existence or do we rebel and fight for our homeland? Either way it’s a knock-down drag-out.