This title comes from the song Today that has the familiar chorus line,

 Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine
 I'll taste your strawberries and drink your sweet wine
 A million tomorrows will all pass away
 Ere I forget all the joy that is mine today.

      For my birthday I received two books, plus the loan of a third. The first book is Marcus Borg's, The God We Never Knew. It is the clearest, most sensible, scholarly book on Christian theology and the idea of God I can think of. The loaned book is Paul: The Mind of the Apostle, which is probably very good because the author has been highly criticized by fundamentalist Christians. The third book is The Acts of Jesus: What Did Jesus Really Do? by Robert Funk and the Jesus Seminar.

       If you remember our discussions of The Five Gospels: The Authentic Words of Jesus, you will recall that a group of scholars analyze texts, discuss their authenticity, and vote by colored beads. Red is virtually certain reliable, Pink is probably reliable, Gray is possible but unreliable, Black is improbable…largely or entirely fictive.

       In their studies of 176 events in the story of Jesus, only 10 are in red. 19 made pink. The rest are gray (possible but unreliable), or black (largely or entirely fiction).

      You will not be surprised to realize that most of the stories in the Beginner's Bible turn out to be black. I was surprised to discover that tonight's story was not black, but gray. That means that the story is possible, but unreliable. There is more chance of some authentic basis for this story than for most.

      The discussion is about waste. Judas argues in favor of turning perfume into help for the poor. (He couldn't have been all bad). The tag line (in black, unfortunately) has Jesus saying: There will always be poor around; but I won't always be around.

      I want to ask, do you want to throw out these stories because you discover that they never happened? Do you want to forget these words because Jesus never spoke them?

      This story contains strong Christian faith. It makes a proclamation. Here is a humble person pouring out her wealth in honor of Jesus. It is a story made true 100's of 1,000's of times in the devotion of Christians. So a story that may not have been true has become true. And those words in black, do we erase them because they didn't come from Jesus' lips? Actually, they are common words, almost like proverbs. He could have spoken them, although they would not have been original to him. Variations would include the remark that there are always poor around. Righteousness in their behalf is certainly worthy, but it's not like you couldn't do for the poor any time you choose.

      The other point has to do with the present moment. We cannot imagine Jesus expecting attention for himself on any grounds. But the truth is, if you have something good to do or say for someone, the time is now. For now is my moment. I was telling the people at Vancouver, at Hayden's 9th annual pre-memorial service. Someday we won't be here as we are now. Hayden can't go on forever. If we haven't said it by now, we shouldn't be putting it off.

      You can write that in red. It is true regardless of whether the scholars color this story, red, pink gray or black. I can't be contented with yesterday's glories, I can't live on promises winter to spring, For now is my moment, today is my story. I'll laugh and I'll cry and I'll sing.