*Laurel Dykstra*

Imagery from the more-than-human world, river, seas, agriculture, wilderness, and liminal creatures, are used to convey God’s saving acts in Isaiah 43 and Psalm 126. In John’s version of the anointing of Jesus, the themes of abundance and impoverishment are part of a stark portrait of conflicts within the core of the resistance movement that follows the Way and seeks God’s Kingdom. The lectionary places these images and ideas adjacent to one another, offering preachers and teachers rich and relevant material with which to engage our current moment as we face rising fascism, accelerating climate crisis, and a connection between exploitation of humans and the more-than-human world that is older than our scriptures. The material below offers homiletic prompts rooted in queer- and body-positivity but also in the practicalities of resistance movements.

Commentary

In Isaiah references to the more-than-human world are rich and abundant. God is named as Creator and creation is witness to, and sometimes inditement of, Judah’s failure to honour the justice mandates of covenant. Creatures and landforms model for humans right worship and rejoicing in the Divine. Hillary Marlow says that in Isaiah, non-human creation has a separate identity and an inherent positive value, and that in some cases, God prioritizes the non-human world over humans.
The verses in today’s lection are part of a salvation oracle that in some sense credentials the Divine or identifies Them in terms of saving action. God is a god who acts…
Verses 16-17
A reference to the Exodus where God saves by both power over nature and a military foe. Or by power over a military foe through the control of nature. Or as Ched Myers interprets it, nature resists empire and Moses as a wilderness prophet demonstrates power with/over nature.
Verses 18-20
The “new thing” that “springs forth” is vegetal language.
Notice that the “way in the wilderness” (v 19) parallels the “way in the sea” and the “path in the mighty waters” (v 16). There is a wet/dry reversal here of God’s saving power through water: in verse 16 God makes a dry path in the waters, in verse 20 God makes a waterway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.
Jackals and ostriches are among the desert-dwelling, liminal, night-time and crepuscular creatures that serve as signs of woe and desolation in prophetic oracles and psalms. Their occupation of cities is a curse -but it is also an inadvertent testament to the inevitable rewilding of all empires. Here the implication is that even these creatures of desolation revere a God who brings water to the desert.
Ostriches are frequently paired with jackals, sometimes translated as foxes. -I suggest that ‘birds have their nests, foxes have their dens but the son of Humanity has no place to lay his head’ (Matt 8:10) is a riff on the trope of jackals as inhabitants of desolate places. Further is it a riff that misunderstands the species it relies on -because in both cases dens and nests are short term nurseries not permanent homes -so in fact Jesus is not more homeless than these symbols of woe, rather Jesus and Jackals exhibit interspecies solidarity in homelessness/nomadism.
This psalm is a community lament, which James L. Mays, says both remembers and anticipates joy. In the lectionary we proclaim this Psalm in Lent and in Advent and it conveys the “already/not yet” tension of salvation.

The “shouts of joy” or “ringing cry of rejoicing” which we hear 3 times in this 6-verse psalm (verses 2, 5 and 6), are not made limited to human beings. In Psalm 96:12, all the trees of the forest make this sound, and Psalm 98:8 the hills.
Verse 4
The plea to restore our fortunes “like the watercourses of the Negev” uses the powerful image of renewal brought by massive seasonal rainfall in a desert biome. Notice the parallels with waters in the wilderness in Isaiah 43:19-20.
Verse 5-6
In these parallel verses, sowing and reaping represent the start and finish of the agricultural year. The water of tears and the shouts of rejoicing offer a kind of reversal of the waters of the Negev.
Notice that both of these metaphors for the return of joy are recurring seasonal events-they are anticipated and desired, but also reliable.
The Gospel has less overtly ecological material than the readings from Isaiah and Psalm 126, but John’s telling of a woman anointing Jesus, is all about love, life, death, grief, bodies, power, and economics--themes which are at the heart of our ecological crisis.
A review of the four versions of Jesus’ anointing is always valuable for those preparing to preach, and can be used with study groups or in preaching. Brian Peterson charts it tidily here* (chart can be seen below).
The surrounding material in John emphasizes death: Lazarus dies, Thomas enjoins the disciples to go and die with Jesus, Lazarus is raised, religious leaders plot to kill Jesus, Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus, religious leaders plan to kill Lazarus.
Verses 1-2
Lazarus is introduced as “whom he had raised from the dead” while Mary in chapter 11:2 is introduced as “the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair,” assuming the reader’s familiarity with the story and the importance of both events. In the only gospel that mentions him, Lazarus never speaks but both Mary and Martha have significant speaking roles (11:21-39). Martha is describe as serving (or presiding) implying hospitality, discipleship and sacrament. Lazarus is reclining at table as does the disciple whom Jesus loved.
Verse 3
Nard or spikenard, a fragrant oil from a South Asian mountain plant used for healing and perfume.
Mary was at Jesus’ feet 11:32 in grief for her brother.
Does Mary model feet washing for Jesus?
Smell of dead Lazarus 11:39 contrasts with smell of perfume.
Consider the various power dynamics of this anointing, a woman not a priest or designated prophet, feet not head. Nowhere in Scripture are someone’s feet anointed, and never does a woman anoint anyone other than herself. Remember that the first anointing in scripture is of a stone (Gen 28:18)
Nichola Torbett calls this passage vividly sensuous. Feet are sometimes used as a euphemism in scripture for genitals in scripture and a woman’s unbound hair can have sexual implications.
Verses 4-5
Wes Howard-Brook and Sue Ferguson Johnson call Mary’s act one of outrageous intimacy and Judas expresses his outrage. His protest in verse 5 is in fact his only speech in the Gospel of John. In my experience, this conflict is a painfully accurate example of the kinds of conflicts that can divide the leadership of resistance movement’s under extreme pressure.
Verse 7-8
Some claim that Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy (15:11) “there will never cease to be some in need on the earth” and implies the second part of the verse: “I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land.’” The prevailing biblical mandate to economic justice.

Wes Howard-Brook and others argue that Jesus statement is prescriptive not descriptive, a call to solidarity. That the poor must be included in the discipleship community.

Teaching and Preaching Ideas

Abominable Creatures

The ostrich of Isaiah 43:20 makes for compelling preaching either as a stand-alone focus or together with the gospel themes of extravagance, particularly for Queer and Trans communities and others who have been told they are “too much.” The purity codes in Leviticus and Deuteronomy call ostriches unclean and Leviticus states explicitly that the ostrich is an abomination. (Lev 11:13)

Some of us have been called an abomination or been told that who we are or what we do is unclean. And we can take back a lot of the power of that language to hurt when we have some more background, when we know in whose company we stand and what else the bible says about them.

Ostriches are associated with desolation, mourning, wilderness/and wilderness, lack of wisdom and cruelty (often paired with Jackals, hyenas, owls, dragons). Scattered throughout the oracles of prophets and the lyrics of psalmists are warnings of the woe and desolation that await those whose faithfulness is lacking. The fate of those fail to care for vulnerable members of society, neglect the minutiae of prescribed worship practice, or whore after other gods, is occupation. Ravens, jackals, thorns, owls, jackals and ostriches will occupy their cities.

The creatures that the prophets name are scavengers and co-existers: liminal and feral like crows, coyotes, and Himalayan blackberry, they are the ones who will expand to fill the vacant niche when we have self-destructed. While night creatures’ and carrion eaters’ occupation of the city is intended to demonstrate how the wicked will be annihilated, to me it gives subversive hope. It is an inadvertent testament to the resilience of creations, proclaiming that whatever humans do, the more-than-human world will inevitably reassert itself.

Then in Job—the passage that is most clearly about the ostrich, God answers questions about suffering by speaking out a whirlwind a multi-versed hymn of the power and wonder of non-human creation Job 39:13-18. It badmouths a bit the ostrich but still concludes:

When it spreads its plumes aloft it laughs at the horse and rider

Not human, not serving humans but surpassing them,

This passage while profoundly misunderstanding their biology and behavior exults in the unapolagetic, badass in your face ostrichness of the ostrich as a sign of the incomprehensible god-ness of god.

The ostrich being its wild misunderstood self is a sign of god.

Their plumes fan pharaohs and popes, and adorn the necks of drag queens –the ostrich is, dare I say it, fabulous!

And in our lectionary passage the fabulous, fierce, misunderstood is praising god. –Now I think that might have relevance for a lot of communities

What is Poured Out

In preaching on this passage, it is always worth mentioning the other Gospelers’ anointing by women, the uses they put them to and the dangers in conflating the stories. It can be particularly challenging if you want to include music that honours women, and makes reference to one of the passages or conflates them. In Mark and Matthew—unnamed woman comes to Simon leper’s house in Bethany, anoints his head (as a priest does for a king or prophet)

In Luke and John the feet are anointed and in the bible feet are frankly sexual. When Ruth uncovers the feet of Boaz the clear implication is that she uncovers a whole lot more. Because after all, feet are connected to ankles, to calves, to knees, thighs and we all know where that leads.

In Luke there is even more to engage with critically around sin, sex, gender and power, but that fortunately, is for another lectionary cycle.

In John, Martha serves a meal, and in a room full of (mostly male?) disciples Mary pours expensive sweet-smelling ointment on the feet of Jesus and wipes them with her hair. Mary offers this sensual outpouring at the feet of a male savior. That is a loaded dynamic that can make us uncomfortable.

Nicola Torbett, writing for Enfleshed (spiritual resources for collective liberation) says, “The church cannot stand Mary’s level of sensuality. It needs us to stay numb, to separate body from mind, because it knows that if we are embodied, we will not abide this violence and we will not be controlled.”

In this story Mary and Judas offer us two contrasting versions of what God is like.

Judas says: there is an equation, there will be an accounting, things have relative value, we must not come up short.

And Mary takes the role that Jesus took in the wedding at Canaan with those gallons of wine. Rooted in relationship, her sensual outpouring is an expression that she sees all that is good and beautiful and beloved in Jesus. And that extravagance, that ridiculous gift, that priceless flowing out is not just for Jesus, it is for you and me and Judas (and every ostrich and so-called abomination).

Are we worthy? By Judas’s calculations we can’t possibly be.

And by Mary’s God, we can’t not be.

So let us close with words from saint and sinner Oscar Wilde:

Where there is no extravagance
there is no love,
and where there is no love
there is no understanding.

Conflict in Resistance Communities

In the church we approach Holy Week, in the Gospels Jesus approaches Jerusalem and in North America and elsewhere in the world unmasked fascism on the rise and human rights and environmental protections are being trampled -with particularly violent impacts on migrants, racialized groups and individuals, Indigenous communities, Queer and Trans people, our more-than-human kin and fragile ecosystems.

While hindsight and centuries of interpretation tell us to take Mary’s side I see in the conflict-exchange among the people in the home of the siblings Lazarus, Martha and Mary and material in the surrounding passages, offer a complex portrait of conflict in resistance communities. Especially given the particular ways in which Christians read that material during the Easter season.

In the John passage an outpouring of love is bracketed and threatened all round by the machinery of death. And in a home, over a meal, the core members of a community trying to live a different way, argue about what is the right way, the best way:

Service and hard work?

A beautiful, compelling dramatic action?
A little good for the greatest number?

Love of and devotion to a charismatic leader?

I’ve been in more than one community where “the person who holds the money bag” sometimes helps themselves. It happens.

Bringing a “resistance community” lens to this passage can help us understand what happens next. It prevents us from falling for the popular (anti-Jewish and anti-activist) idea of the “fickle crowd.” That modest street action, that wild interspecies revel where humans, trees, unbroken donkeys and even stones cry “Hosanna” in praise of love and mockery of Rome, cannot be conflated with those (in Jesus’ time or ours) call for death.

Land, Place and Dis-placement

Nancy deClaissé-Walford suggests that the agricultural, sowing and reaping imagery of Psalm 126 is a powerful reminder of the importance of place and home for human thriving, and as such offers the opportunity to reflect on the experiences of migrants and displaced persons. Eco-preachers should consider the way that hunger, drought and extreme weather events -all related to human-caused climate change, are drivers of displacement and migration.

Sources and Resources

Nichola Torbett https://enfleshed.com/products/liturgy-that-matters-april-6-2025-john-121-8/

Outrageous Anointing Wes Howard-Brook and Sue Ferguson Johnson
https://radicaldiscipleship.net/2016/03/10/outrageous-anointing/

Commentary on John 12:1-8 Brian Peterson
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-in-lent-3/commentary-on-john-121-8-6

Commentary on Psalm 126 Nancy deClaissé-Walford
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-in-lent-3/commentary-on-psalm-126-12

Nature Against Empire: Exodus Plagues, Climate Crisis, and Hard-Heartedness, Ched Myers
https://directionjournal.org/49/1/nature-against-empire-exodus-plagues.html

Contributor Bio

Laurel Dykstra (they/them) is the founding priest of Salal + Cedar Watershed Discipleship Community, a church that worships outdoors and seeks to help Christians in the lower Fraser watershed grow their skills for Climate Justice. They also serve as vicar of St. George’s, Fort Langley. Laurel’s latest book Wildlife Congregations is on interspecies loneliness, and finding hope in an age of mass extinctions.

Image Description
Photo by H. Zell Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
The grey head and neck of an ostrich appear against pale blue sky. The bill is dark pink, the eye is brown and the bird is in profile facing left.

Lent 5, Year A: Abomination and Abundance

Isaiah 43: 16-21

Psalm 126

John 12:1-8

The Prodigal Parent: Lent 4C