April 6, 2025

Lent 5, Year C/II

John 12:1-8

“You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

So Jesus said to Judas after he asked why the perfumed ointment Mary used to anoint Jesus was not sold for three hundred denarii.

Judas was thinking in terms of the circumstances of his time.  Putting aside the commentary by the author of John, using the sale of the nard to help the poor would be something of which Jesus would approve because that is what the Kingdom of Heaven is about.

However, Mary was enacting a sign of things to come: preparing Jesus for burial.

Jesus’ rebuke echoes the eleventh verse of the fifteenth chapter of Deuteronomy: “Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’”

The disciples would have many opportunities to help the poor, but they wouldn’t always have Jesus present with them. They needed to understand what would happen at the end of the week, what Jesus had been talking about all along, and in John’s Gospel, Jesus gave them seven signs and miracles, such as raising Lazarus from the dead, that pointed to and culminated in the cross and resurrection. Reasons for they, you, and I, all of us, to be here. It’s why we proclaim ourselves Christians.

The poor are with us.

A nation that once invited the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free now deports first and doesn’t bother to ask about citizenship. Jobs are cut, people are fired, agencies gutted, and a great many of our elected leaders ignore our cries for justice and mercy; in spite of having the space and the means to convert empty buildings for housing, people are still sleeping on the streets, under freeways, in camper vans parked in rows against curbs, and here in Berkeley, not far from here, down on the western end of Virginia Street. Families who are housed line up at food banks because it takes most of their paycheck to pay the rent, leaving little for groceries. Some individuals work two low-paying jobs to cover the costs of prescriptions, food, and rent.

Justice.  Mercy.  And love. 

A trinity Jesus would expect us to proclaim and show. Further along in John’s gospel, Jesus says to his friends, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

What better way to show our love for one another and Christ than by serving the poor, sick, and marginalized? I’m preaching to the choir, aren’t I? What keeps me returning to Good Shepherd Berkeley is how we serve. Pan de Cielo is a gift.

I know about being poor.

I grew up in a housing project north of here, and my mother was one of the first in our building to receive what was called food stamps. Nowadays, people don’t bat an eyelash about food assistance, but in the mid-sixties . . . ? I used to beg my mother not to make me use the stamps at the grocery store in case one of the kids from school saw me. On Christmas Eve, one of us would quickly grab the six plain-wrapped packages left on our doorstep by a local agency. And then there were the summons to the school office, where shoes and coats were left for one of us by a PTA member.

I’ve since thanked those who sought to help my mother during those dark times and thanked God for sending them to her. What I experienced made me acutely aware of the need to assist those who require it. That includes showing love and giving respect.

Finally, yesterday, my youngest son Nicolas and I walked up to the North Berkeley BART station and stood in solidarity on Sacramento Street near Delaware with the thousands and thousands of people who are concerned, if not downright frightened, about what is happening to our country. I heard similar stories – that people were motivated to speak up and protest by what’s going on in Washington, DC, and finding encouragement from the AOC/Sanders tour and Cory Booker’s astounding 25-hour call to right action. Calls to save Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, stop the deportations, end the DOGE, and rehire those who have lost their jobs were on our lips and written on the signs many carried. I think the best one read, “Today is what HOPE looks like!”

Yes, it certainly does when it begins and continues with loving one another as Christ loves us.

Lord, thy will be done.