Reading: John 12:1-8
Last week as kids do, Patrick had a sick day so I rearranged my life so that I could stay home with him. In our house when you are sick but not too sick a movie can be watched and even though I was supposed to be working I watched it with him. It was the second instalment of Lord of the Rings, and after seeing it I was reminded at how sometimes we can learn a lot from a book or movie or both.

If you don`t know the story it goes something like this.

In the lands of Middle Earth, the Dark Lord Sauron forged a Ring of Power to control all the peoples and creatures of Middle Earth. The Ring was taken from him and fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit from The Shire - a place of complete innocence. The Ring was then passed onto young Hobbit Frodo Baggins, with one task set before him - to destroy the Ring of Power. Frodo begins his perilous journey through the lands with a Fellowship that will protect him on his mission. Their mission: to destroy the Ring of Power in the only place it can be destroyed - the fires of Mount Doom

In the second movie the fellowship becomes broken and Lord Sauron`s forces become stronger. It is left to Frodo and his fellow Hobbit Sam to get to Mordor and destroy the ring. Along the way they have to battle unprotected and at one point it all seems too hard for Froddo. Yet Sam, a jovial, simple Hobbit, who would rather be back in the Shire, than heading for Mount Doom, replies…

Sam: I know. It`s all wrong. By rights we shouldn`t even be here. But we are. It`s like in the great stories, Mr Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn`t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it`s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn`t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there`s some good in this world, Mr Frodo . . . and it`s worth fighting for.

Sometimes courage is found in the most unlikely places. Sometimes faith and hope are expressed by the most unlikely people.

The reading today is another example where we see such inner strength shown, this time not by a Hobbit but by a woman in first century Judea. And what she did showed Jesus her commitment and her faith and hope in him.

We hear the story through John who uses it in a different way from Matthew and Mark. In Mark the woman is unknown and anoints Jesus on the head; here in John we hear about Mary anointing his feet. Scholars believe there were in fact two separate stories about the anointing that over time have become mixed and recounted differently in the different gospels. Her act, whichever gospel you read, reveals that she alone among the disciples displayed an understanding of Jesus` mission and that it may lead to his death. In Matthew`s and Mark`s telling of the event, Jesus had made at least three predictions of the passion by the time of the anointing, and yet only Mary displayed her acceptance of Jesus` fate and her faith in his choice. The rest of the disciples just did not get it, and continued to fail Jesus. But not Mary. She got it, and she followed, realising that changing things takes sacrifice and commitment and may cost one`s life.

In Lord of the Rings, Sam the Hobbit got it and followed. But as Sam said, every darkness will pass. A new day will come. This is also our hope. Pity it took the other disciples a long time to get it. What about us, do we get it?