Dear St. Lukers,
As we prepare our hearts and minds for worship in the wilderness this Sunday, we hope you are using your Lenten Guide along the way to Learn the story of Mary and Jesus in John 12. I love the power of the story of Mary anointing Jesus because it holds so many complex layers of culture, ritual, and faith. I invite you to read it and pray on it as you ready yourselves to come to worship, because it is a story of what worship looks like.
As Mary pours out the extravagant perfume and washes Jesus feet, she is emptying herself in devotion to who Jesus is as Messiah. It is a story of intimacy as she lets her hair down and washes his feet. It’s a story of what it means to empty ourselves and be vulnerable to show our worship and adoration, our devotion to our Lord, no matter who is there and watching. That is why we ask you to prepare yourselves for worship – to allow your heart, mind, body, and soul to be ready to come before God, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, with the communion of Saints who have gone before and Saints in the making (that’s us by the way), and ready to lay your hearts, your hopes, worries, and questions before Jesus. To be that open and vulnerable feels bewildering for many of us – and yet, it is how we honor God with our trust and our full selves. What is it that gets in your way of allowing yourself to worship with the abandon and devotion of Mary? Because even though we may not see him, Jesus is right there, the center and subject of our worship, whether the songs are hymns or praise songs, whether the preacher is male or female, whether the room is light or dark. Our call to worship is to bring forth our extravagant abundance to lay at his feet – OURSELVES.
Pray over and read the story of Mary and Jesus over the next few days. Consider the role of Judas who judges and interrogates Mary’s authentic offering of self. Put him aside – and let’s go into the woods together this Sunday to understand what it means to be obedient.
Jenn.