The story we heard today from Acts gives us a glimpse into the experience of Jesus’ earliest disciples, in the months closely following his resurrection. We don’t know how she heard about or encountered the risen Jesus, but however it happened, Tabitha is a disciple – one who has committed her life to following Christ. She is, in fact, the only person in the New Testament to be named a “mathetria,” that is, the feminine form of disciple. Before we even know her name, we know her identity – a woman who has given her life to Jesus Christ.

Growing up, I was not in the habit of making the sign of the cross during worship. Our church was Lutheran, and although our worship was formal and liturgical, crossing ourselves was simply not the practice. It was not actively condemned or discouraged; I just never saw anyone do it. Perhaps our omission was, somewhere in the distant past, connected with wanting to avoid anything too Roman Catholic. Perhaps it had to do with Martin Luther’s emphasis on inner faith rather than outward works. My parents came from solid Midwestern Lutheran stock – none of these extra flourishes in our family piety. Whatever the reason, we just never did it.

We have begun a liturgy together that will last over four hours, spread over three days.

If you look in your bulletin, you will see that our time tonight ends, but the service itself doesn’t have an ending. The same is true for tomorrow. No real beginning and no real ending.  We won’t hear a blessing or dismissal again until the end of the Easter Vigil when our three-day observance of what is called the Paschal Triduum comes to a glorious and joy-filled sending forth on the other side of the empty tomb.

Today we embark on a journey, a journey that we take every year. Because the route is so familiar, our attention sometimes falters, and we are traveling on auto-pilot. We know how it goes: Jesus is arrested, and sentenced to die by crucifixion. We have to get through this part in order to get to Easter. The details smudge and blur like a landscape viewed through a window streaked with rain.

This is a difficult Gospel text, particularly for those of us from this part of the world, particularly this part of the country.

Our worship of restraint and subtlety causes many of us to bristle at Mary’s extravagant gesture.  Our pride in being thrifty creates, in our minds, an either/or in this Gospel story.

Either we can help the poor OR we can lavish abundance in our worship of God.

This is a story and a choice St. Paul’s Brookline knows all too well.

Paul writes to the church in Corinth:

“No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and [God] will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing [God] will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”

When most of us hear this passage from Paul, we hear the phrase, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.”  I don’t know if anyone has ever said that to you, but when they’ve said it to me, I’ve had to hold myself back if not physically, then at least mentally -- trying desperately not to let my words say what my mind was thinking.