What do you hold precious?

     As we creep ever closer to Holy Week and Easter, our texts point more boldly to the death of Christ.  This Sunday we are taking a departure from Luke and going to the 12th chapter of John where we come into a scene of a dinner.  Not the last dinner, but a significant dinner at that.  Mary uses expensive perfume to anoint Jesus, washing his feet and drying them with his hair.  Judas Iscariot has a huge issue with this - that was a years' worth of wages and she could have spent it on the poor!  Yet Jesus defends Mary, foretelling his death and reminding them that they would always have the poor but he would not always be with them.
     In thinking about this text, I find it an interesting one, and there are many questions.  Some wonder at the ritual of foot-washing.  Why was it significant?  Some wonder at Jesus' arrogance.  Why should he benefit from a year's wages?  Some wonder at Judas.  Was he really a thief?  Well, I find it helpful this week to look to our other passages for the day, and to look at the conversation between different parts of Scripture.
     The Old Testament lesson is from Isaiah 43, and the New Testament lesson is from Philippians 3.  In each of these texts, there is talk about what God is doing.  In Isaiah the prophet reminds Israel of what God did for the people in Egypt, bringing them through the water and providing salvation in the desert.  Yet, the prophet writes, do not remember this marvelous and miraculous thing that God did.  God is doing something new - now!  Open your eyes to see it!  Even the wild animals can see what I am doing - yet you are clouded by preconceived notions. 
     And again in the Philippians text, Paul talks about what Christ has done for him.  He was a perfect, upstanding Jewish man, and had gained salvation in the sight of all.  Yet, Paul writes, he considers all these things gained as loss now, because they are meaningless compared to what God has done in Christ. And, Paul says, "this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."
     The theme of these two readings seems to be, therefore, that God is always making new life in new ways.  For the Israelites in Isaiah, it was deliverance from captivity in Babylon.  For Paul, it was deliverance from laws and regulations to new life in Christ.  So does this apply for Mary?
     Perhaps Mary is so in tune with Jesus she is able to perceive the new thing that God is about to do through Christ's death.  Perhaps Mary is so in tune with God's salvation and work in the world she is willing, like Paul, to give up that which she held most dear and precious in order to take part in God's new work in the world.
     And if this is the case, wow.  What does that mean for us?  Could it be that there is something we are holding dear and precious that hinders our ability to see God's new work in the world?  Maybe it isn't necessarily holding on to the past (though it is fun to remember the 'good old days when...'), and maybe it isn't holding on to tradition, laws, and 'the way things should be'.  But maybe it is something.  What is it you hold most precious?  Is it family?  A hobby?  Your ability to do something - work, sports, etc.?  Is what you hold most precious a vision or a goal?
     And, does this precious thing get in the way of your ability to see God's salvation in the world?  Maybe God is trying to tell you something - a new insight, or a new way of being, or a new way of life - and you're so busy being occupied with all you hold precious that you're missing it! 
     We might see this story as an awkward moment between Judas and Jesus.  Or we might look at Mary and wonder at the waste of such a large amount of money.  But what if this text is inviting us to ponder what we hold dear and how it gets in the way?  So I ask you, as you continue to live the mystery of faith and life, what do you hold precious?  And, when you answer that, would you be willing to give it up in order to hold Jesus that close?