From the Bishop’s Desk: Extraordinary Extravagance
Find excerpts from Bishop Graham’s sermon based on the 12th chapter of John shared with rostered leaders at the Lenten Eucharist Service (3/23/10) below or link here to read the sermon text in its entirety:
Do we patiently and carefully gather our resources, save things and hold onto stuff, so that in the right situation we can give it all away in joy and in a heartbeat? Or are we careful and frugal just because it seems safe, and because really we don’t know any other way to be? I wonder sometimes if care and caution, ours and other people’s too, aren’t slowly driving the joy and excitement out of the churches we love. 
I wonder if we are the kind of people who would pour perfume on Jesus’ feet, or if we’re the kind of people who would stand at the edge of the party and figure up the expense.
Whatever is the case with us, we should know that we worship a God who is on the side of extravagance. When God chose to redeem us, God did not do this carefully or from a safe distance. God redeemed us by coming here among us, born in exactly the same way that each of us was born, and then dying worse than almost any of us will have to die. God chose the grand, messy gesture, the cross, the empty tomb. God did not hold back with us, and if our Lenten seasons are sometimes very quiet and thoughtful, we know what lies behind Lent is the memory of a horrible battle that gave way to a wonderful, wild victory.