The Difference a Letter Makes

This is the last in a sermon series using selections from chapters 9 through 14 in the Gospel of Mark, and today’s reading has Jesus in the home of Simon the leper in Bethany when a woman, unannounced and defying all custom and convention, comes in and anoints his head with some very expensive ointment. Some of the guests complain that this was a waste and that the ointment could have been sold for money to help the poor. Today is “Christ the King Sunday” or “Reign of Christ Sunday,” and this could be viewed as a coronation, the coronation of a different king, one who, rather than establishing a “kingdom,” establishes a “kindom.” What are the implications for how we are to live in this kindom?