The house was filled with the smell of perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who would betray him), said: “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the silver given to the poor? (John 12:1-6)

Why wasn’t this ointment turned into money? Don’t the poor deserve it?

One of the anecdotes I heard from my mom, probably passed down from her dad, was about the Tortilla Flat episode where John Steinbeck’s rascals found something good to do with their money in addition to pool for a dollar gallon of California Red.

They buy a candlestick for the church altar.

Why did they do this? Poor deluded souls, led astray by the authorities. They could have spent it on themselves, maybe getting out of the kickback life they were leading.

Instead, they choose to do something beautiful for God.

And I think, now that I’ve thought about it, they’ve put something beautiful into their own lives. For them, the church sanctuary was the most permanent interior they knew. And so it was a refuge for them, a home.

On a Wednesday night, while I was volunteering as a counselor at the evening homeless shelter, it was movie night. The screen was therefore installed and a film was chosen. I noted, and pointed out to one of the customers, that the videotape said on it, only for home use, not for public display. And he replied, this is our living room.

Jesus finds us where we are and makes his home with us. It becomes our living room. And if we find space in our hearts, they can be the doorway to the living room, the safe place to dwell, that has room for all of us to share, all of us to call home.