Life is full of paradox, contradictions and dangers which requires wisdom to navigate. And wisdom can only be defined when it is confirmed. As the Hebrew saying goes – wisdom can only be justified by her children.

Isaiah spells the process out beautifully in the Lectionary reading for this morning: it requires great care, careful word by word translation – but more even than that it demands an openness and an honesty of heart:

For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.’ Truly, with stammering lip and with alien tongue he will speak to this people, to whom he has said, ‘This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose’; yet they would not hear. Each will be like a hiding-place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land. Then the eyes of those who have sight will not be closed, and the ears of those who have hearing will listen. The minds of the rash will have good judgement, and the tongues of stammerers will speak readily and distinctly. Isaiah 28:10-12; 32:2-4

It is a wisdom which has the ability to endure and to survive under the most unfavourable conditions:

19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. 20 The wild animals honour me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, 21 the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise. Isaiah 43.

I don’t think anyone would disagree that this morning in these times we are living in that they are dire. An international rule of law and freedom of trade and movement which has taken over 80 years to build, however imperfect, has virtually overnight been turned into a Wild West Wilderness of uncertainty and vulnerability and danger on every front.

What has our Gospel reading (John 12. 1-8) to teach us this morning on how we should live, conduct ourselves in such apocalyptic times. I will curate our investigation by suggesting that these are times when we should

(1) Take care to learn to observe, reflect and test our assumptions of what we think is going on

(2) Having done that, engage intelligently, extravagantly with what is actually going on even when all the indications are that this seems to be a great foolishness, a nonsense

(3) And having adopted that ‘left-of-field’ mindset, to not so much adhere to the international rule of law which, of course, is beyond us, but to embrace the law of love, see others and ourselves through the eyes of love

(4) And finally, enabled by the rule of love, to impart to others the strength and the confidence to endure hardships if and when they come

1. The Apparent Occasion (what we think is going on)

To an acquaintance to these parts it was ostensibly, a dinner given in Jesus’ honour. Yes, Lazarus had been miraculously spared a terrible death – literally had stepped out of the first physical indications of being very dead to the point where the stench of his rotting flesh had become offensive. Yes, Lazarus was at table… but it was an open secret that the authorities were not only after Jesus to kill him, they wanted to kill off the evidence of his Messiahship itself – Lazarus. Potential doom and gloom hung over everything like it does today over us. Their only hope – was a Messianic one. A triumphalist one.

2. The Real Occasion (what’s actually going on)

(whom Jesus had raised from the dead) was among those reclining at the table with him. – memento mori

But the real occasion was, as Mary knew – quite the opposite. They were here to prepare themselves mentally, spiritually, for the worst. The resurrected Lazarus sitting there serving as a momento mori – and Jesus here for what she had been preparing for a long time – A Messiahship of a different kind – his, an anointing not for a royal enthronement, but for an atoning death enshrined in the Passover soon to be celebrated in Jerusalem.

3. Father Forgive Them For They Know Not What They Do (what’s actually going on) – such a hard lesson to learn – a discipline

4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 ‘Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.’ 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

· Because they are angry

· Because they are self-deceived

· Because they don’t know themselves

· Because people are always better than their worst moments

7 ‘Leave her alone,’ Jesus replied. ‘It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.’

= leave “it” alone

= know what’s going on – it’s love

= love of self, love of others

= openness to the possibility of change in myself and others

6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

= this is revealed by the way Jesus knowing what the beloved disciple knew, discards that knowledge

4. The Great Silence In Which All Is Made Clear (reality as it is not as we want it to be)

· Mary took

· She broke

· She poured

· She wiped 

= the house was filled with the fragrance of perfume

What does all of that look like? Sound like?

SCHUBERT’S ‘MY DREAM’ (1822/timeless)

YOKO AND JOHN’S ‘IMAGINE’ (1971/timeless)