Extravagance or Enough?

When I was serving on the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Central Florida, we had need to meet with one of our clergy.  He arrived at the Diocesan office in a very nice, very new Cadillac.  Without anyone saying a word, he felt the need to explain to us that he drives this car because his brother owns a Cadillac dealership and provides him a car for almost nothing.  But he was uptight about it and felt the need to apologize for or explain this extravagance.

What is too much?  It’s a question that is still asked today.  In lots of forms.  When the church spends what some deem to be “too much” on some construction or beautification project.  When missionaries enjoy a nice dinner out or a night in a nice resort.  When clergy drive an expensive car.

Jesus got it when Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, not his mother, washed his feet with a bottle of perfumed ointment valued as 300 denarii.  A denarius was the standard day’s pay for a laborer, so this was nearly a year’s earnings.  Outrageous!  If it is to be wasted, people thought, better to sell it and use the money to feed the poor!

But Jesus accepted her gift.  An uncomfortably extravagant gift.  Was it because Jesus was a closet hedonist?  No, I don’t think so.  That flies in the face of everything else we know of him.

So what made this extravagance a good thing?  Is extravagance always the right choice?  I don’t think that works either.  The Scripture is too clear about the need to care for the poor, the hungry, widows, orphans and more.

How do you decide when extravagance is appropriate and when not appropriate?

This column appeared in the April 3, 2022 edition of St. John’s weekly eNews. Click here for the complete issue.

If you are reading this at a different time, you may click here for the current eNews.