The Rev. Frank Logue
King of Peace Episcopal Church
Kingsland, Georgia
March 21, 2010

Engineering, Faith and the Master Plan
John 12:1-8

I love seeing things come together to create something new. I love construction. That’s why I have been more intrigued and less bothered by the construction project those of us who attend King of Peace have been traveling through lately. Many of you coming to church this morning likely ran the gauntlet, passing right through construction at the intersection of Laurel Island Parkway and Gross Road. Yes, I have been a bit bothered by needing to leave sooner to get to work and back, but this has been more than compensated for in seeing the construction itself. 

I am fascinated by not just the end product, which is easy enough to imagine. I enjoy watching how the engineers plot and plan the order of the project. They have mapped out what must happen when for it all come together. The master plan is evident, but also a plan for the steps necessary to get the project brought to completion.  

If it’s anything like my putting together furniture or machinery that needs assembly, they might have some false starts and some times when they need to back up a few steps in order to move forward. Of course, we have to trust that the construction company is actually looking at the plans and taking into account the directions, where I don’t like being bothered with such trivialities when those three magic words appear, “Some assembly required.” 

I come by this love of watching a construction project come together honestly enough. I grew up as the son of a son of a contractor. My dad was a civil engineer who spent his working career (after the Marines) in building roads, bridges and tunnels. His parents were both paving contractors who spent their careers paving primarily roads and parking lots. I love the smell of fresh asphalt. It should probably remind me of an Alabama summer before college when I worked as a PhD—pine handle driver.  

Instead, I am reminded of the golden days of my preschool youth when I loved traveling with my grandfather to see projects underway. The smell of asphalt reminds me of those days spent with my grandfather and later similar outings with my dad. Well, the taste of a small green glass bottle of Coke with Tom peanuts poured in also reminds me of those trips. But there is nothing like the smell of hot asphalt to connect me immediately to my childhood. 

I have a brother who inherited the engineering gene. He can do the math and actually help create and implement the plans. I didn't get that math gene, but did inherit the vision that comes with construction. I like to imagine things as they could be and so thoroughly enjoy how engineers work to bring vision to reality. And I often benefit from some practical experience I have had in construction with knowing how important the sequence is to a given project. As we were building King of Peace, I oversaw construction as a general contractor working with the invaluable assistance of my fellow priest Jim Parker. He kept me on track with the order of things while I worked with sub contractors on the many day to day details. 

We see this same importance of the sequence of events in every area of life. Some times you have to accomplish one thing before you can tackle something else. A given job requires training or even a college degree and so those must be secured first; the sequence of events matters. 

Our Gospel reading today shows us an important link in the chain of events that will lead to Jesus’ death on a cross. This is not some random happening in Jesus’ life, but an essential step. 

Jesus is in Bethany, a little town then just outside of Jerusalem, but today well within the larger city. He is at the home of sisters and a brother, Mary, Martha and Lazarus. This is his usual home base when in Jerusalem. Lazarus is Jesus’ good friend who died. Jesus wept at his tomb and then raised Lazarus from the dead. John’s Gospel makes it clear that raising Lazarus from the dead set in motion the sequence of events that leads Jesus to Calvary. 

Lazarus’ death was well attested. His being raised to new life, therefore, caused a big stir in the little community of Bethany which spilled over into nearby Jerusalem just as pilgrims were flooding into town for the Passover. Many were seeking out Lazarus to see for themselves the man raised from the dead. Many more were seeking out Jesus the one who with a word could bring life to a corpse dead for four days. 

Then we come to our passage for this morning. Mary of Bethany makes an extravagant thank offering to Jesus. She takes pound of costly perfume in hand, let’s down her hair, which in a gathering with men present was scandalous enough to get the town talking. Then she pours out the perfume on Jesus’ feet, which she wipes with her hair. The perfume was worth 300 denarii. As a denarii was the usual pay for a day laborer, it would take most of those who heard of this incident nearly a whole year to earn enough money to buy the perfume. To today’s dollars, the perfume would have been worth roughly $17,400. That would be the amount a minimum wage worker would make in the same amount of time. So think of a more than $17,000 bottle of perfume being poured out on someone’s feet at a party. This is extravagant even for the wealthy. 

We only get one reaction from the onlookers and that is from Judas Iscariot, who will betray Jesus before the week is out. The gospel writer saw this as a significant step for Judas. Jesus’ defense of Mary’s action as prophetic apparently got the wheels turning in Judas mind. Judas wants the perfume sold so the money can be given to the poor. John thinks this is because Judas pilfered funds out of the common purse and so liked it when the group was flush with money. In any event, Judas will take a tenth of that amount as the price for turning in Jesus to the authorities.

We had an interesting discussion this past Wednesday on Judas role in the crucifixion as we watched a Tales from the Madhouse episode on his betrayal. I offered that I believe firmly in free will and feel that is well supported by scripture. So Judas had a choice in betraying Jesus. In any given group of twelve, it was almost a given that someone would betray him. In fact, on the night of his arrest 11 out of 12 disciples will run away. Only Peter will follow, but then he too would deny Jesus and run out into the night. 

So given that Judas had a choice, this event in Bethany becomes one of the many things Jesus does that lead Judas to have a change of heart and mind. Whether he was disappointed with his Rabbi or wanted to force his hand into taking action rather than just talking, Judas anger over the waste of perfume was significant. The betrayal later that week would require this sort of event preceding it. 

Whether Mary of Bethany saw her actions that night as prophetic, they were used by Jesus to once more predict his death. In some way her extravagant use of the perfume might have also propelled Judas toward his betrayal. What happened the very next day was Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And within a week of this celebration as Mary, Martha and Lazarus’ home, Jesus would be dead and buried. 

We can see with hindsight how God was working through human choice to bring Jesus’ life and ministry to its conclusion. Like the construction project happening at the Laurel Island intersection nearby, the events were not unrelated, but there was a given sequence that was needed. John’s Gospel, in the previous chapter, told us that the high priest Caiaphas already stated that Jesus is a threat to Israel’s tenuous relationship with Rome and “It is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” Caiaphas placed a call for anyone who was connected to Jesus to help them find him away from the crowds. Next someone would need to turn against Jesus and betray him, then others would flee, then he would die, and finally he would rise to new life. I jump ahead of the story just to say that there is a trajectory here. God’s plan is working through human actions, and while we can wreak havoc, cause pain, and even thwart God’s will for our own lives, God’s plan proceeds. 

I am convinced that if Judas had not betrayed Jesus, then the betrayal would still have occurred. It’s not that God made Judas betray Jesus, but that Judas was always the one who would choose willingly to do so. God’s view takes in all time as well as place and so Judas always would make that choice. 

None of this is merely academic, or theological speculation. How we live our lives day to day depends on these very issues. There are times when you or I beat our heads against a wall wondering why God doesn’t make this or that thing happen. Yet, with the wisdom of hindsight we can see again and again how something else needed to occur first. God is working on the issue, but there are steps and the steps are not incidental, but essential to the ultimate success of that very thing God wills. Often we are looking for a “yes” or “no” answer from God when the true answer is “not yet.” 

Equally often, there are ways in which, through our own free will or that of others lots of unnecessary suffering comes into the world. This is not because God willed it or wants it, but because love demands a choice and so we and others have the ability to choose the evil as well as the good. But just as surely as Judas choice to betray led not just to death, but also resurrection, so too can and will God weave all things together for the good. God always works on the edge of tragedies to bring light and love, redeeming those things for the good that were done with intentions of evil. 

I can go to the construction site down the road and pull every stake out of the ground. It will not help the contractors who need the stakes placed by surveyors to make the planned road widening a reality. Yet even if I do pull all the stakes, the job will get completed. I can come back day after day in fact and try to sabotage their efforts. But I grew up with contractors and I know that they will see the job through. It would get finished according to plan despite my efforts to through a monkey wrench in the works. 

Like some vast construction project with plans unseen by us, God works through and in spite of human choices toward an ultimate plan. We can make our own choices, live out the consequences of our own actions, but we can not thwart God’s ultimate plans our purposes any more than individual choices could have caused or prevented either Good Friday or Easter Sunday if they had not been God’s will. For the master engineer leaves much to your own choice, but the master plan is God’s alone. He is working out that plan of salvation in and through our actions. Our choice is not whether God will redeem, but whether we will live into that redemption through our own actions and take our part in working things together for the good. 

Amen.