Sunday, June 29, 2014

How Can We . . . .

. . . . Sacrifice to God?

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, 29 June 2014, Proper 8
Year A RCL: Genesis 22:1-14; Psalm 13, 16-17; Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:40-42

God tests Abraham. Why?

Why would God test Abraham as shockingly as God does in today's lesson?

Let’s ponder this together. . . .

Abraham has been through so much. . . .
 He has left home & kindred to go to an unknown land God promises to give him.
He experiences much along the way. . . . .
 He trusts God's promise of a son & waits long years for that promise. . . . .
You recall from last week's lesson that during those long years, Sarah & Abraham improvise a solution. She gives her slave-girl Hagar to Abraham to be a surrogate mother.
 This reminds me of what actors experience in theater: We rehearse & rehearse. Eventually somebody forgets a line. So either that person improvises the line or another cast member does. . . .
Sometimes it works smoothly. . . . Sometimes it doesn't go so well.
  It worked well for a classmate, who had no idea he’d win an acting award for his very minor role. He had only 3 lines – until the night none of the other actors came on stage. . . .  He improvised the missing lines & the audience didn’t realize it.
Abraham & Sarah's improvisation is
less than smooth.
  You recall that it ends with Sarah’s throwing Hagar & her son Ishmael out of the family, sending them to the wilderness. Sarah wants her son Isaac to have no rival son in the family. So Abraham has already sacrificed his first-born son when we come to today’s dramatic scene on the mountain.
  How many of you have driven or ridden in a car on a narrow, winding mountain road with no shoulder guard? How did that feel? Dangerous? Tedious? Scary?
  What do you do on that road when you see a car stopped up ahead with the driver's door open?  Who is the driver?
Is it law enforcement protecting you from a giant tree that has fallen across the road just past that blind curve? What if it's an armed stand-off with bad guys? What if it IS
bad guys?
How will you respond to this test? 
Drive in reverse back down that twisting narrow road with cars coming behind you?
I wonder how Abraham feels as he walks with his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loves, up that mountain, carrying the fire & the knife; Isaac's carries the wood on his own back.
What does Abraham think?        Is he thinking?     What perplexity is in his mind (to use the words of today's Psalm)?
Notice how quiet Abraham & Isaac are.
There is very little dialogue.1 
What is there to say?
Abraham has trusted God a long time.
Perhaps he has inner peace.
Think about when you were in school being tested. Remember the quiet that testing requires. Silence gives us space to think, space to focus, to trust that you – that we – have learned.

Rehearsing gives actors confidence that they can do what they are supposed to do on stage.

Testing lets the student & the teacher know if it is time to move on to more topics or if there is more work to do on a particular skill.

Military boot camp builds the individual’s knowledge & skills.

It teaches the person “fortitude”.

It teaches what that person can do.

It teaches the group what it can do.

Like a test in school, there is very little dialogue during the physical stamina testing of boot camp.

Testing builds our courage.
It helps us know we are strong &
who’s got our back.

Abraham knows God listens &

God acts.

  You recall from last week how God listens to Abraham's son Ishmael as he & his mother Hagar are dying of thirst. God hears Abraham tell his men: “Stay here…; the boy & I will go over there; we will worship & then WE will come back…” God hears Abraham tell Isaac:
 “God...will provide the lamb for a burnt 

offering, my son.”
   
God provides Abraham that lamb.

God provides us the Lamb Jesus to

die so that we can live in God's love.
As Jesus’ disciples, our love overflows to draw others into God’s love. We live under grace, our lesson in Romans reminds us. We – you – have become (or are becoming) obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which we are entrusted. . . .
We are slaves of righteousness.
 What does this mean?
To be righteous is to act in accord with God’s law2 of love. 
 As slaves of righteousness we are loyal disciples of Jesus. This calls for sacrifices in our lives.  Jesus the Lamb of God tells us today about the rewards for our sacrifices as his disciples3:
"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me...(and by doing so) welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever…gives...even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones...will receive their reward.”
We are the welcomer & the one being welcomed,
the giver & the recipient of that cup of water.4 
We are Jesus’ disciples, Christian prophets, the righteous when we proclaim5 in word & deed the Good News of God’s love that Jesus offers by dying for us.

How can we do this work?

Rehearse! Study our lines – the Holy Scriptures.
Build our faith bodies in the boot camp of
prayer, worship & ministry in Jesus’ Name.

Prayer is central to this work – this testing. God says: “Be still & know that I am God.”6 

As one of my seminary professors, Martin Smith, says in one of his books: “We are conditioned to maintain control, to take charge of situations, to do the talking. Prayer means surrender & a readiness to return to a simpler state of openness & attentiveness to a God whose 'still, small voice' we tend to drown with our restless noisiness.”7
We see in Abraham a man who lets go of

control. Surrendered to God,

free of restless noisiness,

he IS attentive to God & can trust God will provide.

How can we – how can you – have 

that grace to let go &

trust God?

 

Bibliography
Book of Common Prayer. New York: The Church Hymnal Corp., and The Seabury Press. 1979.
Dios Habla Hoy: La Biblia. New York: American Bible Society. 1983.
Harper’s Bible Commentary. General Ed.: James. L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers. 1988.
Harper’s Bible Dictionary. General Ed.: Paul J. Achtemeier. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1971.
Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press. 1989.
Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Keating, Thomas. Open Mind, Open Heart. 20th Anniversary Ed. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc. 2006.
Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 6 June 2014.
Levenson, Jon D. Sinai & Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible. Minneapolis: A Seabury Book. Winston Press. 1985.
Merriam-Webster. Smartphone Dictionary app. Merriam-Webster Inc. 2012. Accessed: 27 June 2014.
The New American Bible for Catholics. South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.
Smith, Martin L. The Word is Very Near You: A Guide to Praying with Scripture. Cowley Publications. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Inc. 1989.
1 Levenson, Jon D. Sinai & Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible. Pp. 147-48.
2 Merriam-Webster. Smartphone Dictionary app. Accessed: 26 June 2014.
3 Note: Paraphrase of footnote in The New American Bible for Catholics. P. 1024.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Psalm 46:11. Book of Common Prayer. P. 650.
7 Smith, Martin L. The Word is Very Near You: A Guide to Praying with Scripture. P. 157.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

God Hears Us

God Hears & God Acts


Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, 22 June 2014, Proper 7
Year A RCL:Genesis 21:8-21; Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17; Romans 6:1b-11; Matthew 10:24-39

My Brothers & Sisters, St. Paul asks us: “How can we who died to sin go on living in it?” I don't know how! All I know is that I do.
Fortunately, in today's lesson Paul also tells us:
So you...must consider yourselves dead to sin & alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
 Jesus frees us from slavery to sin so that we can consider ourselves “dead to sin & alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
In our first lesson, the banished slave Hagar considers herself dead as she sits dying of thirst &
looking away so she won't see her son die.
Why does Hagar carry Ishmael, who is a good bit older than Isaac, & Isaac is at least 31. One idea is that Ishmael suffered something that has left him lame.2
Here are some details about lesson. . . . .

How embarrassing!
 Where are those details?
 I had them right here! . . . . . 
Oh! Here:
right here in front of me where I put them.

How many of you do this, too?

 You search & search for something

& later you see it right where you already 

looked.
I wonder if this is what happens to Hagar

in the wilderness when she gives up hope.

I wonder if the well of water has been in

plain sight & she has been so traumatized

by being thrown out of the family,

so filled with fear,

that she can't see the resource she needs is

 right there.
  The details:
  • God tells Abraham to do what he hears Sarah tell him to do.3 
  • The name Ishmael means “May God hear.”4 
  •  Notice the contrast: Abraham hears “the voice of Sarah in her lack of compassion”5 & in God's profound compassion, God hears Ishmael.6
Another detail: Why would Abraham send Hagar & his son away with so little provision? According to the Jewish Study Bible, Sarah would have decided on the provisions;
God tells Abraham to do what she tells him:
to give extra rations would be to disobey God.7
This is not the first time this family has experienced discord. It starts in Chapter 16 when Sarai has yet to bear a child. (Her name changes to Sarah later, as does Abraham's name. In Ch. 16 he is Abram when Sarai gives her Egyptian slave-girl to him to be a surrogate mother.
Hagar conceives Ishmael & looks down on Sarai, who gets miffed & complains to Abram, who says:
Do what you want with her.
She deals harshly with Hagar
& the slave runs away.
Today's lesson is not the first time Hagar has wandered in the wilderness
 & encountered God!
After she wanders this time, carrying her son & their scant provisions, she gives up when the provisions give out.
How can Hagar not remember encountering God in the wilderness when she ran away?
That time the angel of the Lord finds her by a
spring of water in the wilderness 
& tells her to return to her mistress & submit to her, that God will bless Hagar.
 She's been in the wilderness before & had a spring of water.
Perhaps this time despair wipes out hope. 
She lifts up her voice & weeps.
Ishmael has lifted up his voice – perhaps weeping, perhaps calling to God for help.
God hears & responds.

God's angel calls to Hagar from heaven, to banish her fear & to reassure her that God hears the voice of her son & God acts.
God opens Hagar's eyes &

she sees the well of water.

She & Ishmael move on away from the family of Abraham, Sarah & Isaac.....
Sarah's banishing Hagar shows us family discord, rather than the peace Jesus proclaims.
 It shows not all people appreciate family as

“a school of perfection because of the endless opportunities it (gives us to) exercise...(brotherly love).”8
This story of Sarah & Hagar is one of many the Bible tells with the “recurring theme of family discord.”9 

What does it say to us who follow Jesus, the Prince of Peace, the one who willingly dies for us?
It reminds us that family discord is not new. In today's Gospel, it may sound as if Jesus encourages family discord! Jesus is telling us the cost of discipleship.10 Jesus tells us not to have divided loyalties.
We can love our families; we just have to love Jesus above all others.
We see what it costs Abraham to obey Sarah because God tells him to do as she says.
He loses his son.

 As disciples of Jesus, we owe God our first loyalty.

Jesus says “have no fear.” 

We must not let fear deter
us from proclaiming the Good News.11
 
The Good News is God loves you.

God's love lives in you.

Through the power of God's love,

living in us, we can proclaim the

Good News:

God loves us so much that Jesus

willingly dies for us, rises again,

& sends the Holy Spirit to be with

us always.

Empowered by love, we – you – can even

proclaim this Good News to our families.

Remember:

family IS a school of perfection

that gives us endless opportunities 

to unlearn hate & to learn love.12





Bibliography
Harper’s Bible Commentary. General Ed.: James. L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers. 1988.
Harper’s Bible Dictionary. General Ed.: Paul J. Achtemeier. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1971.
Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press. 1989.
Hughes, Robert Davis III. Beloved Dust: Tides of the Spirit in the Christian Life. New York: Continuum. 2008.
Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 6 June 2014.
Long, Thomas G. What Shall We Say? Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2011.
The New American Bible for Catholics. South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.
New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Eds.: Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger. New York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1977.
1 Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. P. 44
2 Ibid. Jewish Study Bible. P. 45.
3 Harper’s Bible Commentary. General Ed.: James. L. Mays. P. 99.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid. Jewish Study Bible. P. 44.
8 Hughes, Robert Davis III. Beloved Dust: Tides of the Spirit in the Christian Life. P. 128, quoting Francis de Sales' “Counsels to Married People” in Introduction to the Devout Life. Ch. 38. Pp. 270-81.
9 Ibid. Harper’s Bible Commentary.
10 Ibid. Harper’s Bible Commentary. P. 93.
11 The New American Bible for Catholics. P. 1024.
12 Paraphrase: Hughes. Beloved Dust. P. 128.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

We ARE Monotheists

Trinity Sunday Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, 15 June 2014
Year A RCL: Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Psalm 8; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20

Jesus says ...I am with you always, to the end of the age.
May we always remember this blessing.

Jesus gives us this blessing after he gives us our marching orders in today's Gospel: Go & make disciples of all nations, baptizing people & teaching them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us.
Jesus says to baptize “in the name of the Father & of the Son & of the Holy Spirit.” What he states clearly we commemorate today on Trinity Sunday. We worship the Holy Trinity – the Three in One, One God in Three.
To go & make disciples, baptizing & teaching them, we must know what we are teaching. We must be clear that the Holy Trinity we worship is ONE God.

 We are monotheists.

The One God we follow has “3 distinct personal expressions of the one, eternally rich God who is love...”1 

Simple analogies may help. Think of water:

We experience as it as flowing liquid, solid ice, hot steam.2 
Think of bread: 
Its ingredients are from the fruit of the earth God creates in the beginning. We experience its taste, texture,
nourishment.
We don't have to know all about how it nourishes us for it to nourish us.
The bread we eat at this Holy Table, we eat to remember Jesus, who comes to live among, to show us how to live, dies to save us, rises again & ascends, & by his departure increases his presence with us3.
He says: “I am with you always.”

Through the gift of the Holy Spirit,

Jesus increases his presence with us –
not decreases his presence.4

We ask the Holy Spirit to sanctify the bread we share at this Holy Table. Like the bread we eat at home, the bread we eat here transforms inside us to nourish our bodies. This holy bread also feeds our spirits. 

How?


How is part of the profound Mystery of God for which simple analogies are inadequate.

The Triune God who creates all, shows us how to live, & comes to dwell within us, wants to be with us. God’s love creates us to be “in a relationship”5 (with God & all God’s creation).
God makes us for relationship in community & draws us into God’s Holy Community.
We know God as Creator, Redeemer & Sustainer.  

Theologian & author David Cunningham offers this fluid analogy of God: Source, Wellspring & Living Water.6 He says:
 “...imagine a spring of water coming up out of the ground &...flowing out to nourish the surrounding landscape...

The wellspring that comes forth from the ground is different from the water that flows out away from the spring,
 yet we would be hard pressed to say
where one stopped & the other started.”7

Scriptures in Jeremiah & John refer to God & the Holy Spirit as Living Water (see Jer. 2:13, 17:13 & John 4:10-14; 7:38-39).8 
The holy scriptures use analogies to help us know something about God.
The Holy Trinity is One. This Mystery hard to comprehend IS ONE. You & I proclaim faith in this Mystery. We declare our faith when we say the Apostles Creed & the Nicene Creed, the result of centuries of work by wise Christian thinkers to clarify that we are monotheists.9 
We worship ONE God, not 3.

The doctrine of the Trinity is to explain the range & variety of divine action,”10 says priest, author & scholar Ian Markham, who serves as Dean & President of Virginia Theological Seminary & has led a Clergy Conference for us.
The Creeds help us express the Mystery of the One God, whom we know through different aspects of our relationship with God: creation, following Jesus as our redeemer, & through the guidance of the Holy Spirit that we experience personally & through our unity in the Body of Christ.

Notice: Our Creeds & Scriptures speak of God “concretely & specifically”
rather than generally & indefinitely.11

We “Christians affirm (our) faith in God as sovereign Lord of all creation who has done a new & gracious work in Jesus Christ & who continues to be active in the world through the power of the Spirit.”12

We declare “God to be the source, the mediator, & the power of new life. God is the majestic creator of the heavens & the earth (as our lesson in Genesis says), the servant redeemer of a world gone astray, & the transforming Spirit who empowers new beginnings of human life & (an expected)...new heaven &...a new earth.”13

You & I proclaim faith in One God,

“...the one, eternally rich God
who is love...”14

As we ponder this Mystery, we can take heart that some 
on that mountain with Jesus doubted.
 It is OK to question, to wonder. As Albert Einstein says:

"The important thing is not to stop 

questioning. Curiosity has its own 

reason for existing.

One cannot help but be in awe when 

(one) contemplates the mysteries of 

eternity, of life, of the marvelous 

structure of reality.

It is enough if one tries merely to 

comprehend a little of this mystery 

every day.

Never lose a holy curiosity."15


Bibliography
Cunningham, David S. “What Do We Mean By God?” Essentials of Christian Theology. ED: William Placher. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. 2003.
Dios Habla Hoy: La Biblia. New York: American Bible Society. 1983.
Harper’s Bible Commentary. General Ed.: James. L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers. 1988.
Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press. 1989.
Hughes, Robert Davis III. Beloved Dust: Tides of the Spirit in the Christian Life. New York: Continuum. 2008.
Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 6 June 2014.
Markham, Ian S. Understanding Christian Doctrine. Malden, ME: Blackwell Publishing. 2008.
Migliore, Daniel L. Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology. 2nd Ed. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2004.
New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Eds.: Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger. New York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1977.
Placher, William. Editor. Essentials of Christian Theology. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. 2003.
Van de Weyer, Robert. Celtic Praise: A Book of Celtic Devotion, Daily Prayers and Blessings. Nashville: Abingdon Press. 1998.
Voyles, Robert J. Restoring Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment. Hillsboro, OR: The Appreciative Way. 2010. www.appreciativeway.com.
1 Migliore, Daniel L. Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology. 2nd Ed. P. 69.
2 Note: Water imagery suggested by my husband, who remembers from his youth a priest using that analogy.
3 Harper’s Bible Commentary. General Ed.: James. L. Mays. P. 1070.
4 Ibid.
5 Hughes, Robert Davis III. Beloved Dust: Tides of the Spirit in the Christian Life. P. 59.
6 Markham, Ian. Understanding Christian Doctrine. P. 84.
7 Cunningham, David S. “What Do We Mean By God?” Essentials of Christian Theology. ED: William Placher. P. 83-84.
8 Ibid. Cunningham. P. 84.
9 Note: This point Ian Markham emphasizes in Understanding Christian Doctrine. P. 83.
10 Ibid. Markham. P. 84.
11 Migliore, Daniel L. Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology. 2nd Ed. P. 66.
12 Ibid. P. 66.
13 Ibid. P. 67.
14 Ibid. P. 69.
15 Quoted P. 59 of “The Three Faces of Compassion.” based on Voyles, Robert J. Restoring Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment.