In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I realised yesterday before I wrote this sermon that I have no idea what spikenard smells like.
That it is basically an essential oil derived from the root of a plant related to Valerion which grows in the Himalayas was fairly easy to establish. But what does it smell like.
And what does Christianity smell like, for that matter.
This woman, Mary of Bethany appears in two significant places in the gospels and in both stories, smell is one of the most important features. Firstly she is there when Lazarus is raised from the grave – with the fear of the stench of his rotten body a distinctive and memorable part of the story. And now she pours her perfume on another body – a living body. For she anoints Jesus with her spikenard and wipes his feet with her hair. And her actions are in strong distinction from her sister who serves the meal.
There are so many questions to ask of this gospel reading. Who was she? Why did she do what she did.
And what does spikenard smell like? And why do we read this right now, on Passion Sunday when by tradition and habit our thoughts turn towards the cross.
I decided yesterday afternoon that the most fundamental thing I needed to know was what spikenard smells like.
(It is amazing what a preacher is prepared to do in order to put off actually writing the sermon).
I came to the conclusion that the West End was the perfect place to buy spikenard – if you can’t buy it round here, where can you buy it.
Well, an hour trudging around in rain soon proved to me that it is probably pretty hard to come by anywhere. Health Food shopkeepers shook their heads. Herbalists gazed at me with regret. Even the woman in the esoteric crystal shop up on Queen Margaret Drive admitted to her sadness that spikenard was not something she could help me with. (And she seemed to have answers to problems I’d never even thought of).
I came wearily home. And I turned to the internet. And quickly I found some information. I managed to get a description. I found it on an aromatherapy website, so as any of the many medics in the congregation will affirm, it must be 100% true.
It said… (more…)
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