Sermon for Passion Sunday – ‘Dinner Party’ preached at the Eucharist, Sherborne Abbey on Sunday 6 April 2025 by The Reverend Rebecca McDonnell (Isaiah Ch 43: v 16 – 21; John Ch 12: v 1 – 8)

I’m sure we could all tell a story of a dinner party that’s gotten out of hand, the wrong mix of people, too much food and drink, and tensions, drama and arguments can erupt. Today’s Gospel reading is the story of a dinner party gone wrong, or at least that’s how it seems. But what do we have to learn from this mix of characters gathered together at the table and their different points of view. This story takes place just after the raising of Lazurus, and along with his sisters Mary and Martha they are throwing a party in Jesus’ honour. The miracle of the raising of Lazurus, Jesus’ greatest sign to date, causes an absolute frenzy to erupt around him, both with those wanting to follow him and the authorities wanting to arrest Jesus and put Lazarus back in the tomb. Today is Passion Sunday, which is a turning point in our Lenten journey as we turn our minds towards Holy Week and Easter. And in John’s Gospel this story also acts as a hinge, turning the narrative from the signs and wonders of Jesus’ ministry, to his passion, death and resurrection.

There is a change in smell here too, from the stench of death after Lazurus’ death (remember how Martha implored that there will be a stench as the body has already laid in the tomb four days) to  the smell of Mary’s sweet perfume. We are given visceral clues of the whole sensory experience of these events. How do we like our homes to smell when people come over? The whole atmosphere is changed by what our senses detect, and this is such a big part of how we communicate too. When we have people into our homes, we like to offer hospitality in this way. In church we are in the presence of God, and our liturgy and prayer is the hospitality we offer to that greatest of guests. We are aided in our worship by the whole experience of church, including the smell of old stone and incense hanging in the air. This feels like an opportune moment to plug our new candles in the shop with exclusive Sherborne Abbey scents!

But the scent and scene setting lend this whole passage a cinematic air. Martha, the owner of the house, is serving, Lazarus is reclining with Jesus; they have been transformed into disciples by recent events. And then there’s Mary; the disciple who gets it right and is so fully given over to Jesus. She is overflowing with gratitude to Jesus and holds nothing back in her adoration and love for her Lord. As divine love for us is over the top and outrageous, so is Mary’s response. She shows passionate, relational, emotive love for Christ. Her example teaches us if we stop at the point of just looking up to Jesus, then we are missing the full technicolour rainbow that can be found in this loving relationship.

The word used for the anointing can also be understand as washing and is used as a foreshadowing of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. The pure nard is from India or China; she is massaging this into his feet and wiping it, not just dotting it here or there as you would with some Channel No5. Then, in an act of passionate love, she lets her hair down. It may be hard for us to understand how subversive this was. This is an act normally done behind closed doors, and it’s being done in the open with men around the table. The nard would have been worth 300 denari- about 300 days wages. This highlights the extravagance of what Mary is doing. She pours out about a year’s salary, withholds nothing, overflowing and exuberant, mopping up the excess with her hair.

So now enters the other main character in this story onto the stage. Judas, shown not in a good light by Gospel writer John. Judas is the most scandalised by this act, but it is indicated by John that he is virtue signalling, he doesn’t really care about the money as he simply sees this as a way to line his own pockets. Is Judas a zealot? A thief? Or has he been taken over by the devil as we have in Luke? We have this awkward exchange where Jesus say’s ‘you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’ This might come across as uncaring by Jesus, but let us not forget that Jesus was born into poverty, was a refugee, and spent his adult ministry with the poor, tending to them, healing them, and teaching. He is not being unkind, but indicating what Mary is doing in the time he is with them.

What was more important in that moment is Mary anointing him and preparing him for his death and burial. Jesus will enter Jerusalem as a King, anointed not on the head but on the feet, and anointed not by a High Priest but by a woman. A King like no other earthly King seen before or since. A king of love and service, and a King who came to die. We can be inspired by Mary’s love and devotion for Christ, and that sets the example that sends us out to care for the poor and vulnerable. The poor are with us, and our faith is what guides us.

Our Isaiah reading is a salvation oracle. As I said today lent turns a corner; God is doing a ‘new thing,’ and that new thing is Jesus. Our hope and our salvation are in his sacrifice and resurrection. The next dinner party will be the last supper with Jesus and his disciples, and that is a dinner all are invited to each week at the altar. That is the shared meal that feeds not our bodies but our souls and ties them to the past, present, and future of God’s saving love. That is the new thing springing forth. God will ‘give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.’ Even in the dry places, and there are many arid places in our world at present, spiritually dry and wrung out of all compassion, mercy and love. Even there, God will make water spring up. God is always at work in the world, and we need to be looking out for where he is creating an oasis.

Our churches should be one of these watery, life-giving places, where all who thirst can come to drink. If we first come to Christ as Mary did, sitting at his feet, desiring to be in relationship with him, prioritising time set apart in worship, then we will be all the better equipped and sustained to transform our churches into an oasis. And beyond that to go out into the world in service. To extend the bricks and mortar of our beautiful buildings into blossoming life.