When we come to Church, no matter what day, we are always looking to ‘get something’ from God. Unfortunately, we never ask ourselves what we are coming to Church to give to God. On Palm Sunday we hear about a woman who showed such profound love for God that she spent an entire year’s wages on ointment to wipe His feet. That is the sort of love we should want to show to God.

Transcript:

My brothers and sisters, on Palm Sunday I have a question. Why did we come to church today? What are we looking for? I don’t know if you realize this, but Palm Sunday is the highest day of attendance in the entire year in the church for liturgy. Now, Friday night, we’re going to have a couple thousand people here. They’re going to be sitting out in the Platia. Saturday night, we’re going to have even more. They’re going to come and light their lambada and then they’re going to go home and we’re going to have liturgy. But today, Palm Sunday for divine liturgy is the highest attended liturgy in the entire year. And so I have to ask myself, why do we come to church today?

Is it because we’re going to get a palm? Is it because at the end of church we’re going to bring a palm cross home and we’re going to give it to our friends, we’re going to put it in our car, we’re going to put it on our altar? And then I think to myself, what would happen if we gave the palms out during the Orthros? And then I realized that maybe nobody would stay for church because we have to be honest. When we come to church, we always want something from God and something from the church.

Today it happens to be a palm. And then we hear the gospel. We see that the crowd, thousands of people, the whole city came out, but they didn’t simply come to see Jesus. They came to see Lazarus. They couldn’t imagine that the guy who everyone heard was dead, suddenly was alive again. But they didn’t come to see Jesus. They came to see Lazarus. Now, the other side of that coin, Maria, who was at this beautiful dinner with Christ, she has very expensive perfume and ointment. And with that perfume, she anoints the feet of Christ.

Even in 2024, feet can be pretty nasty. That’s why we wear socks and shoes because we don’t want to see people’s feet. But when Christ was walking the earth, do you know what their feet were like? Do you know that they didn’t have indoor plumbing at the time of Christ? Do you know that when they emptied their chamber pots, they threw them in the streets? And so that if you were walking through the streets, imagine just for a moment what their feet were like, walking through all of that. And Maria, she shows up to Christ with such expensive perfume and ointment, and she anoints his feet, not his head. That’ll come later, but his stinky, smelly, nasty feet. That’s what Maria was looking for. Love of Christ. What are we looking for?

And then there’s Judas. I feel sorry for Judas. I really do. The gospel helps us see that Judas, of course, was a thief. And he challenges Mary. He says, “Why are you wasting that ointment on his feet? It should have been sold.” And the gospel says, “300 denarii.” Now, do you know how much money that is? That’s one year’s salary. She spent one year’s salary on his feet, his smelly, dirty, nasty feet. But Judas wasn’t looking for love. He wasn’t looking to worship Christ. He was looking for money for himself. As the gospel says, he used to steal the money from the money box.

So what are we looking for Christ for? Are we here just for a palm tree? Are we here though to give Christ the kind of love that Maria gave to him? Are we willing, my brothers and sisters, to show our love for God with such exuberance, such profound love, spending an entire year’s salary just to anoint his feet? Are we willing to give God that kind of love? This is what Maria did, and it’s what God asks of us, to have the kind of love, not like the people looking for Lazarus, not like Judas looking to stuff his pockets with money, but the kind of love that we would stop at nothing to show our love and devotion to God.

This is why the church invites us to come today, not to get something, but to give something, to give God our everything. Not just our money, but our love, our devotion, our time. And in a society like ours that has very few examples of love, the example that the gospel offers to us today, my brothers and sisters, if we can show that kind of love to God, then all of the Judases of the world will fail in trying to betray him because love conquers betrayal.

So I invite you, don’t look for what you can get from God. Search for what you can give to him in love. Yes, and even in resources to the church that continues his work. Our work in Tarpon Springs, my brothers and sisters, has only just begun after 117 years. There are thousands of our neighbors who do not know Christ. Let’s show them and be the example of Maria and not the crowd. Let us be an example of profound love instead of selfishness.

Have a blessed and productive and blessed holy week. And as I have been reminding everybody, make the time for God this week. Plan and make the time to come to church every night, to walk with him and each other and to show God that profound love that we have for him. Glory to God for all things.