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David Orendorff        Mark 14:1-10        March 29, 2009

You know the story:

Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race. The tortoise and hare both agreed on a route and started off the race. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he’d sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ. The hare woke up and realized that he’d lost the race.[1]

Now what does that fable have to do with today’s lesson? When the woman pours nard over the head of Jesus there are two meanings to her action.  Costly perfume is poured over the head of the one anointed king.  Costly perfume is also poured over the head of one who has died.  By her one action the unknown woman[2] proclaims Jesus to be the king/messiah who will die to free God’s children.

There are those there who don’t get it (as usual) and mumble about how the costly perfume (a year’s wages for a laborer) might have been better spent to alleviate the suffering of the poor.

The question before Jesus is whether it is better to spend money on the worship of God or on the poor.  It is a conflict of values which, like the race between the tortoise and the hare, can have only one winner.  So let’s visit the tortoise and the hare again and hear more of the story.

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realized that he’d lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there’s no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed.

This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.

Still, there is only one winner.  I am reminded of when two years ago we were developing a capital campaign to alleviate the heavy burden of our mortgage payment.  At the time it was 25% of our operating cost.  There were those who asked why we would raise money for a building when there were so many homeless and hungry on the eastside.  Why not raise a large fund to care for the poor?  There seemed to be only one possible winner in this debate.  Back to the tortoise and the hare:

The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there’s no way he can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted. He thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route. The hare agreed. The tortoise and hare started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river.

The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.

Again there is only one winner.  When we get into races for position, conflicts of values, we tend to operate on the one winner theory, hoping it will be me.

When the Worship Effort group did its listening to us for what makes worship good and what would make it better they got conflicting values.  The obvious ones were over music, whether it should be more traditional hymns or whether we should sing more contemporary music and was the contemporary music contemporary enough.  Then there is the whole thing about the Doxology, whether we should sing it during the offering or whether we should be kind to the seekers among us and not force in their mouths words they don’t know, may not understand and don’t have attached warm childhood emotions. There is the perennial conflict over the music’s volume, whether it is too loud or too soft.  Some think we pray too much and others not enough.  Some want less Bible or less of one part of the Bible and more of another.  Some like to hear about Jesus others want practical advice on life.  Some think worship should be later in the day and others (a very few) think it should be earlier.  In all these value conflicts, like whether to spend money on worship or the poor, there seems to be only one possible winner.  Let’s visit the tortoise and the hare one last time and see how they are doing.

The tortoise and hare, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together. Both realized that the last race could have been run much better. So the tortoise and hare decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.

They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back. On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. Both the tortoise and hare felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they’d felt earlier.

I think the tortoise and the hare found religion.  As friends they sought to find a way for both of them to win the race.  It is a Christ-like thing to do.  That the friendship grows, that the race is run its best, that both are winners become the most important values and it can only be achieved as a team.  An obvious comparison is in sports where it is teams that win games.  Tiger Woods is so successful because of his team, his doctors, his coach, his father and a host of friends.

When asked about whether it is better to worship God or serve the poor, Jesus rejects the one winner answer.  He chooses both the worship of God and the serving of the poor, each in its proper time.  I call and have preached this as the “Genius of the Spiritual AND.”[3] It is to be contrasted with the win/lose, either/or, of the faithless.

As I have frequently mentioned lately, the Kingdom of God as Mark’s gospel teaches, does not have winners and losers.  Jesus teaches and lives against a patronage system designed to tell us who are the greatest and who are the least and where they stand among us and with God.  In the Kingdom of God the greatest are those who serve the least, in other words, it is a flat earth society where everyone stands on level ground.

This seeking the good that is above any one good has very practical applications in our shared living.  When the capital campaign planners sought the genius of the spiritual AND, a way to both meet our need to lower debt service AND our need to serve the poor they modified the campaign so that while we raised money for our building we also raised money for a Habitat building, home, in Redmond.  And with those funds and many, many volunteer hours we are nearing dedication of a home with the Ly family.

As the worship study team considers all they have heard they seek “AND” as a Christ-like way, recognizing that there is no right or wrong, good or evil, in what folks have said and feel. Instead of individual winners or losers they seek a way in which we as Bear Creek win together.  They seek a way to worship that is of the Kingdom of God.

Our response to their decision will largely depend on whether we wanted to win for ourselves (like the pre-religious tortoise and hare) or whether we want to win for the body of Christ.  Winning for the body of Christ means seeking the good for the whole of the body and not just for the eye or toe (to paraphrase Paul).  If any one part of the body insists on being the most important, the most powerful, the rest of the body (the whole of the body) suffers and that part of the body that “won” in the end “loses.”[4]

When I am working with couples in preparation for marriage I sneak religion into their preparation. I give them a simple exercise that has saved many a marriage. In their decisions about what the ceremony will be (I have a form that guides them) I asked them to:

1.  Read a section and make a personal decision about what they want to have happen in that part of the ceremony.

2.  Before sharing their decision, I ask them to take on the listening role and ask the other person what decision they have made (they of course have to alternate who asks first)

3.  As a listener they repeat what their beloved has said and why they said it in their own words until the one speaking believes they are truly understand.

4.  Then the listener becomes the speaker.

5.  Only when both feel they have been fully heard and understood do they discuss what decision they will make together.

Almost always the decision that is good for both, that makes both of them winners and the marriage a winner, emerges in the listening.  Almost never does a decision that is good for the marriage and thus truly good for the couple come from arguing to win.  Whenever one or the other becomes entrenched and has to have their way no matter what, “the what” is a broken relationship and the beginnings of a broken marriage. Couples who care enough to listen and are committed to each other in marriage find the solution in which they cross the finish line together and this is the Kingdom of God.

As we live our life together at Bear Creek, I encourage us to seek the spiritual AND.  When confronted by someone who thinks we are going the wrong, even the very wrong way with money, worship, the building, program, staff and wherever else our values may conflict, I encourage us to listen to the issue without judging the person; listen not to win but to understand; listen not to prevail but to care.

Speak of the values important to you without judgment of another’s values.  Speak not to convince the other of how right you are, but to help the other understand why this matters to you.  And then listening deeply to the soul of each other pray for guidance so that whatever the finish line, we cross it together.

This religious advise, seeking the spiritual AND, is good not only in the church, but in our job as parent or child, as boss or employee, in our wars and in our economy.  If we sought ways in all we do that made the vast majority the winner (we are never going to please everyone - some folks just need to be contrary no matter what and no matter the cost) then we would more fully have our prayer “thy kingdom come” answered.  That the whole body wins (even the contrarians whether they get it or not) is the Christ-like way of the Kingdom of God.

Shalom and amen.

[2] In his gospel John (12:1-8) identifies the woman as Mary, Martha’s sister, and tells the story quite differently though the conflict is essentially the same.

[3] “The Genius of the Spiritual AND,”  John 12:1-8, March 18, 2007  http://www.bcumc.org/downloads/sermons/20070325TheSpiritualAnd.htm

[4] I Corinthians 12:12-26