Judas Icon of Wealth and Misogyny...

A woman has a container filled with something costly.

A man is on a path of sorrow and despair.

The woman seeks to open up her container and bring joy to a man whose path is sorrow.

Another man, in many ways the proverbial man, wishes to maintain his wealth and privilege so he seeks to control what the woman can do with her container and deny the sorrowful man joy.

This is the story of Jesus in the weeks before his crucifixion, this is the story of Mary wishing to see joy on the face of Christ again, this is the story of Judas who would betray christ for the hope of further privilege and wealth.

The story of men wishing to deny others joy, the story of men seeking to control the containers of women, the story of men gaining wealth and privilege by bringing about such denial and control, however, is the one in which we currently live.

The Gospel is that we can look at such men and tell them "NO". No it is not your decision what a woman does with the container she owns. No it is not right to deny a moment of joy to those who are on a path of sorrow. We can fully denounce the attempts of men to maintain power by controlling women and denying joy to others. We can, in fact, recognize them as playing the part of Judas in this story from John's gospel.

The systems of our society are supposed to evoke Mary, breaking the costly jar of ointment for the sake of overcoming the sorrow faced by another. Instead the system of our society evokes Judas, seeking to maintain privilege and wealth by denying joy to others and hoarding and controlling every costly jar of ointment.

When legislatures attempt to control what a woman can and cannot do with her body... When they try to deny certain staple foods to those who receive food stamps... they are taking the role of Judas.

Judas questions a poor family being able to celebrate a birthday with a steak dinner. Judas decides what a woman should do around health issues with never listening to her doctor or her. Judas mocks a homeless person who struggles to maintain the use of a smart phone. Judas dictates that feminine hygiene is a luxury that should be taxed.

Jesus welcomes a moment of celebration in the midst of his sorrow. Jesus allows a woman to break open her costly jar of ointment. Jesus looks upon the one who would deny this moment and denounces his seeking to maintain wealth and privilege.

As christians our goal is to be with the poor, to be of the poor, to bring joy in the midst of sorrow by breaking open our costly jars of ointment. Our goal cannot be to become wealthy and privileged and to maintain wealth and privilege, especially at the costs of others joy and the controlling of others' bodies. We live amidst a system that moves towards making each of us a Judas and we must remember that what Jesus honored was not the man who sought wealth and privilege but the woman who broke her costly jar of ointment for a man homeless and soon to be sentenced to death. We need to work for a system that moves towards making each of us a Mary.

The Church Pregnant (Penitential Advent 1 of 2)

Mary Great with Child
St. Mary's, W Jefferson, NC

To the woman he said, many are the pangs, many are the throes I will give thee to endure; with pangs thou shalt give birth to children.
                                                                                    -Genesis 3:16b

We speak of Advent as a time of hope, and that is a true statement... but we must also speak of Advent as a time of pangs and throes that we must endure. When we seek to strip the penitential nature out of advent what we are in fact doing is abandoning the pregnant Mary to the desert. We want to gain the hope her trials have bought us but not share the cost of the act that brought that hope.

As a church we are the bearers of Christ in the world. We are the church pregnant with the expectation of Christ's coming again. That means to be church we should be in the midst of pangs and throes that we must endure. That means as individual christians we should be in the midst of enduring pangs and throes as we live lives in proclamation of Christ Crucified. These pangs and throes are at many points indeed our own, but we are equally called to enter into the pangs and throes of others. To be Christian is to be both the pregnant and also the supportive spouse to those around us. We are each others midwives.

For too many decades we have sought to shunt the pangs and throes out of church, this has been especially true in the transitions we have made around Advent, when the realities of such should be most pressing. We have erred toward making the church a place where we can bring and recognize our hope only but not our tribulations. We have erred in making the church a place where the tribulations of the world are given a momentary relief but not borne and brought to fulfillment in Christ. In our hopes to create a space of comfort for all we have failed to create a place that requires the comfortable to enter into the discomfort of others.

We have become, to readily the spouse that does not endure the pangs and throes of childbearing and childbirth. We too often refuse to be midwives for the pangs and throes of those around us... to aid in the bearing of them so that we may truly enter into the Hope of Christ. It is only by entering into these realities, by making them our own, that we can become the Church Pregnant and truly bear the Hope to the world. This is why we must live into the penitence of Advent because pangs and throes are being endured in our midst and in our lives and only by bearing them with each other can we truly find the Hope inherent to the season.