Oil
Lent in Plain Sight • Sermon • Submitted
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In our final gathering we get to talk about oil. No I’m not talking about the very delicious and very expensive oils that you can buy to spruce up your meats or salads from an oil company , we are talking about the anointing of oil that we see in both James 5 and Psalm 23. What is wonderful is that we also just read and talked about Mary anointing Jesus feet with oil in John 12. So, if we aren’t using the oil to cook with, what are we doing with this oil?
Well as I already mentioned, this oil is for anointing. There were two main but related ways that oil for anointing was used in the Old Testament. The first is for anointing the priests for their holy work, and the other is for anointing the kings over Israel. We see the priests were first told to be anointed in Exodus 30:29-30 and then Saul is anointed by the prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 10:1.
The reason for this anointing is to set them apart and mark them for the holy work they are doing. However, we see throughout both the Old and New Testaments that anointing is talked about frequently, and the way in which it is talked about is in reference to God’s favor.
Guess what? Psalm 23 is one of those very examples of how we see God’s blessing being shown to people. In that psalm we see see the present and future being talked about and how the psalmist is cared for in all instances of life. The psalmist is anointed with oil, or divinely blessed even when all these bad things are happening around this person.
There are other psalms as well as prophets in the Old Testament that talk about the symbology of pouring oil on one’s head. And in the New Testament we also see how there are acounts across the Gospels of Jesus’ feet being anointed with oil. We can see this anointing of Jesus’ feet as we talked about Sunday as symbolic of his being our King and Savior.
If we shift our focus to this one passage in James the common view of what James is suggesting with anointing oil is very different. Oftentimes we look at oil and we tend to put some curative properties to it. Olive oil is good for you. So is avocado oil and other kinds of oils, both for the skin, the body, and even in its restorative abilities. Lots of shampoos, face washes, and other ‘beauty’ products have oils in them. So when we look at the James text we tend to think that our prayer combined with the oil, it will somehow cure that person.
My ultimate question I guess is how do we interpret what the author of James is saying with anointing the sick if everywhere else we see oil anointing as a symbol of God’s divine favor for a person? I would say that we see it as exactly how the whole Bible sees it. When we are called to pray over this sick person (which doesn’t mention how sick they are) and anoint them with oil, it isn’t to pray and say our farewells. The anointing and praying is to let them know that God is with them and that God loves them. That they are cared for by a community of people who also love them. If being loved by God and a community who profess faith in God isn’t a sign of being blessed then I don’t know what is.
Oil is meant to be a symbol of God’s favor. Just like water is a sign of our baptism and inclusion into God’s family, and bread and wine are symbols in communion of God’s sacrifice and forgiveness. Through the anointing of oil we as a body of believers are reminding that person that they are being cared for by their community and that God notices them and loves them. So tonight during the prayers I invite you to not only light candles but to either anoint yourself with oil or see if someone else will place some oil on your forehead and remind them that God cares for them. That is the power of the symbol of our everyday cooking oil. Amen.