Have you ever rented one of those billboards that Jim Pattison owns all over BC?

Maybe you did it to announce for all the world to see how much you love your life partner?

Or maybe you rented one of those stork signs to announce your joy at the birth of that child impatiently awaited?

Or maybe you splurged and bought a fine piece of jewelry, a treasured painting or an exquisite sculpture for a person you love deeply?

Or maybe you went to heroic efforts to create a gift distinctively yours even if creating doesn’t come easily for you?

There are times (at least I hope there are) when we are driven to something that is totally irrational, perhaps big-hearted and generous to express the depth of our feeling for another.

An unself-conscious act of almost ridiculous proportions – almost bizarre. But we know that if we don’t seize that moment, the time will go by and the opportunity lost.

We grasp the chance when it comes our way.

That’s what we are dealing with in this little story of Mary anointing Jesus. It’s a true to life story.

I can imagine it. Can you?

Sensing that Jesus is on the slippery slope that will result in his unjust death, she lets her passion for him overflow by pouring a totally unnecessary amount of perfume over Jesus.

If that wasn’t enough, she then wipes his feet with her long, unbound hair – a very radical act for any woman then and now, and even more so when the man wasn’t her husband. In her time loose flowing hair in public was the sign of a loose woman, as we say.

Given how patriarchal our scriptures are, it is a measure of the little story’s significance that we find it in the Bible at all.

What makes people go to grace-filled excesses like Mary’s extravagant act?

I can imagine that at some point, it’s simply a matter of introducing some excitement into an otherwise boring routine.

A couple may be deeply in love, but even they can get tired with their day to day, week by week patterns.

We are all creatures of habit, but uninterrupted habit dulls our spirits and diminishes relationships.

If you don’t introduce some zing into the relationship every now and again, fatigue and boredom lurk at the edges.

So couples need to have lost weekends and risk the unusual and dramatic as a way of giving themselves to each other in love.

Mary’s action was not rooted in this reason. There was no concern that her relationship with Jesus was drowning in routine. Her’s was a spontaneous expression of deeply grounded love for Jesus far beyond the need to break routine.

So another reason for such extravagant action then, is to signal concern about a future possibility. When there are clouds on the horizon, we seize the moment to express deep-felt feelings. We know that when we accompany people toward death. We want to express our heart’s concern to them. The future tells us to seize the present.

I was speaking with our younger son, Jeremy, this past week. He told me that many students at Carleton University are organizing to express their concern about the agenda of the Summit of the Americas to be held later this month in Quebec City.

Their concern is that the heads of government meeting will so focus on expanding trade in the Americas, that they will neglect other values.

Will they think about how current economic policies are continuing to widen the gap between the poor and the rich?

Will they consider the high cost of restricting sovereignty as multi-national corporations gain more power to determine government policy?

Will decision-making processes be transparent and citizens really be involved in choosing our common future?

Or will our shared future be determined in walled fortresses shielded from popular concerns?

The radical act here is that the students are so concerned about the future possibilities that they are willing in their exam-writing period to take time to express their passions and concern.

So it could cost them academically, but they feel this is a crucial, opportune moment to take the risk.

They simply need to speak up for the common good – the future of all.

But there is deeper significance to such a moving, expressive act.

Mary sensed that Jesus’ coming execution meant more than just a sad ending to a good life. I believe Mary understood that this approaching tragedy had awesome significance and its meaning was transforming her life. She understood herself better as she comprehended what Jesus was doing.

And so in response to Jesus’ incredible self-giving, Mary was herself moved to express her deepest gratitude and love.

Jesus’ steadfast dedication to God’s reign of love and justice for all people – Jesus’ gift of himself for the well-being of all, that becomes for Mary the reason to express her heartfelt appreciation in her own extravagant act of love.

This is not news to us. Mary is just the first of a long 2000 year procession of people – the church - giving dramatic testimony to the meaning of Christ for their lives.

At its core, the church is not some system of unbelievable doctrine. Instead it is a community of people who are friends and companions of Christ.

A Christian is a believer – shaky or firm, novice or experienced –

who lives, gets caught up, identifies with the life that Jesus embodied,

with Jesus’ way of self-giving love for God and for the neighbour.

A Christian is a person who remembers Jesus’ way and lives this way to be close to God.

That’s why we tell the stories of Jesus and remember his death and celebrate his rising.

That’s why we break bread and drink from the cup – that simple – almost trivial, but incredibly profound activity.

We do it because we know that our life story makes most sense when linked to Jesus’ life story.

We remember that self-seeking destroys, but self-giving brings God’s life.

We remember that reaching out to heal the world in the spirit of Jesus is not a side-line, but the essence of God.

So through the centuries, Christians do bizarre acts to demonstrate their love of Jesus.

Julian of Norwich decides to become an anchorite – renouncing her life in the world in order to devote her life to praying for the world. Other Christians go around the world to share their faith.

to keep the frail elderly in the circle of life,

to give time and energy and money to make Christ’s self-giving presence more real for people locally and around the globe.

These are amazing actions responding to Christ’s love.

Sometimes we need help to risk acting extravagantly. Listen to this story about Brazil Christiana told by Dorothee Soelle. (p. 78. in Stations of the Cross, Fortress Press, 1993)

Like Mary, we are given special moments when it is absolutely essential to give full expression to Christ’s meaning for our lives.

We don’t worry about what others will think. We just go for it – rejoicing in this self-giving divine love that heals the broken and transforms death in to life.

There are moments, when bold and extravagant acts reveal how deeply rooted in us is the love given by the Other.

Thanks be to God.