The Fire of God's Love

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, 31 Aug. 2014, Proper 17

Year A RCL: Exodus 3:1-15; Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c; Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 16:21-28

What changes a Rock like Peter into a stumbling block?

Remember Peter last week boldly declaring that Jesus is the Son of the Living God? Jesus calls Peter the rock on which Jesus will build the church. So how does that rock turn into this stumbling block that Jesus calls Satan!

Fear.

 Fear is Satan's tool to keep us from doing God's work.

Fear argues. Fear quibbles.

Peter argues with Jesus like Moses quibbles at the burning bush. Both react from fear about possible problems. They are at Point A & worry about Point Z. They forget to take one step at a time to do God's work.

They do learn to take one step at a time because God IS with them & WILL BE with them. Like Moses & Peter, we can learn to deny ourselves of worry because of Who IS with us & Will BE with us as we do God's work here together.

“To deny oneself is to disown (ourselves) as the center of (our) existence.”¹ It's like being in love. To love something – a book, a golf score, a painting is a small love. Being in love is BIG. Being in love is bigger than the individual: It opens the individual to God's love.

Being in love lights up your life.

Our candles remind us of the fire of God's great love. They can remind us of the burning bush, which gives us insight into what God is like²: We know fire exists. We know it is unsubstantial, not solid, but strong. We can feel its presence. We can't hold it. It gives us light to see by.

It is powerful, dangerous, & purifying.

Fire helps us. Fire changes things, as Paul tells us in Romans. Paul's imagery of burning coals that we heap on an enemy's head refers to an Egyptian ritual of carrying a bowl of lighted coals on one's head for repentance.³  

The person has changed.

We light the fire of love when we show kindness to enemies. Just as God calls Moses & Peter, God calls us to be change agents to increase God's love in the world, to burn off hatred & make way for new life, to turn a stumbling block like Peter into a rock that builds up the Church – the community of God's love.

When we work with fire we handle it with respect – like we do when we build a campfire or do a control burn. I am fascinated as I drive by burning forests & drive by later & see new green growth.

Fire purifies & makes way for new life.

New life is what we receive through Jesus. God's love constantly offers us new life. God's love accepts us unconditionally. We know this because Jesus dies on the cross for us before we ever say “I am sorry.”

As Rob Voyles says⁴: God's love is irrepressible. No matter what happens, God keeps giving life throughout the world.

It is amazing that after all the horrors & murders at Auschwitz & the other concentration & extermination camps where Hitler's culture of death ruled the grass started growing after the surviving prisoners were freed.

No matter what atrocities we inflict, life keeps springing up. Life does not give up & abandon the places of our atrocities.

God's will IS life. Good WILL triumph over evil. We know this because of Jesus' death, Resurrection & the Holy Spirit's whispering the fire of God's Love in our hearts.

How can we fear doing what God calls us to do? We know God promises: I AM with you & I WILL BE with you no matter what.

Our faith in God overcomes fear. God's love wipes out fear. God calls us to trust that our labor of love will bear fruit.

Look at the example of Mother Teresa of Calcutta: She worked long years, trusting the outcome to God. Among the insights she has left us is this:

“We cannot do great things on the Earth,

only small things with great love.”⁵

God's love is great.  Our task is small.

The importance of our work IS HUGE.

Bibliography

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.
Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 4 Aug. 2014.
The New American Bible for Catholics. South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.
Voyles, Robert J. Restoring Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment. Hillsboro, OR: The Appreciative Way. 2010.

1 The New American Bible for Catholics. P. 1036.

2 Note: Paraphrase of Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. P.110.

3 Harper’s Bible Commentary. General Ed.: James. L. Mays. P. 1162.

4 Voyles, Robert J. Restoring Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment. P. 60.

5 Quoted P. 68 by Voyles, Robert J. Restoring Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment.

Binding & Loosing are Fullness of Life Issues

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, 24 Aug. 2014, Proper 16

Year A RCL: Exodus 1:8-2:10; Psalm 124; Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20

Genesis reads like today's news: 

brutal murders of the innocent.

This news goes beyond international borders such as Iraq & Russia, beyond religious clashes among Christians, Jews, & Moslems, beyond ethnic clashes in Africa & in Missouri. Brutal murders happen right here: for example, last Sunday my friend's brother died from multiple gunshots.

Why does human brokenness still exist?

Why do brutal murders still happen?

Why do we repeat this sin generation after generation?

What guides such cruelty?

Fear. 

Look at the fear in Pharaoh. Look at what Pharaoh, the new King, says in Genesis: “...in the event of war they may join our enemies & fight against us & escape from the land.” (He contradicts himself! He worries about having too many of them in the land & he worries that they may leave!)

This new king has studied his country's strategic sites & not its history. He doesn't know the blessing Joseph brought to the kingdom during the famine. He doesn't rely on wisdom to get to know “those people,” to build a mutually beneficial working relationship, to discuss “a non-proliferation treaty” that would address his fear that their growing numbers threaten his power. Fear, not wisdom, guides his decisions.

We know that centuries later King Herod will do the same & slaughter the Holy Innocents after Jesus is born. We know holy innocents have been slaughtered in all centuries, throughout the world & by all kinds of leaders & nations that take matters into their own hands.

At yesterdays' funeral, one preacher spoke of the mess we make when we take matters into our own hands.

We have to trust Jesus. 

We have to let God guide us

through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul tells us in Romans: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good & acceptable & perfect.”

The Good News that we know in Jesus gives us the strength

to live through tough times,

to pray & work for peace,

for the spread of God's reign of

love & unity.

Like Peter in today's Gospel, we sometimes get it right. Peter is the first to declare Jesus as God's Son.¹ So Peter is the first member of the Church of which God is the foundation & Jesus is the cornerstone.² Peter is the first rock of the many rocks & stones that build up the Church, the Body of Believers.

You & I are stones that make up this living community that is part of God's universal Church.

We have work to do to bind ourselves in love,

to loose & let go of fear &

whatever else can lead to brokenness in

the human family.

One way we do this is prayer, as one of us who lives elsewhere in summer reminded me yesterday in a phone call. This person called to assure me of prayers for me & my friend whose brother was murdered. This beloved child of God said more: they pray daily for you – for St. John's.

 Even while we are apart,

love binds us & helps loose sorrow & pain.

Binding & loosing are easier when we know members of

the Body of Christ are

working with us.

Laboring alone can be hard especially when fear is in the mix like it is for Pharaoh. It can be hard when we have a conflict between what the boss (Pharaoh) tells us to do & what our heart tells us to do.  

May we have the grace to be wise

like the midwives who thwart

part of Pharaoh’s murderous plan.

When we fail to get it right, we can remember Peter who will desert Jesus when Jesus is arrested & will deny Jesus 3 times. We don't always get it right.

We must rely on God's grace & forgiveness

& try again to be centered in God's will.

Doing so increases peace & decreases brokenness & so may decrease sad headlines.

Headline news usually gives some insight into what has led to the headline.

What is going on in Pharaoh's time that gives him fear?

The Jewish Study Bible shares these insights³: This may be “the rise of the 19^th Dynasty...founded by military officers...(who work) to protect Egypt's vulnerable coast & northeastern & northwestern borders from the Sea Peoples, the Libyans, & infiltrators from the Sinai, & to protect access to Egypt's empire in western Asia.”

That's a lot of worry for Pharaoh, who may be Rameses II, ruling some time about 1279-1213 BCE.⁴ He worries about possible invasion with possible allies from within Egypt.  As the Jewish Study Bible notes⁵:

• Israelites come from Canaan & live in Goshen;
• Canaan & Goshen are adjacent to the Sinai;
• Both have access to the Mediterranean Sea.⁶

(The supply cities of Pithom & Rameses, are strategic sites, “(g)arrision cities...that usually (serve) military purposes...at strategic points, guarding the entry to Egypt from the north & northeast.”⁷

Pharaoh sees a potential problem & reacts in fear, trying to stop the growing numbers of Isrealites by implementing successively more oppressive efforts for his safety.

As the Jewish Study Bible says:⁸ Pharaoh tries forced labor, then slavery, then turns to secret attempts to murder newborn boys.

If he's worried about over-population, why kill only boys? The Jewish Study Bible says:⁹ killing boys eliminates potential future soldiers & a “potential Israeli military power.”

After the wise midwives thwart Pharaoh’s secret murder edict, he goes public with his decree. Think of movies of this story that have Egyptian guards throwing babies into the Nile River. Reality may have looked different.

Rather than throw the babies into the river, the idea is to “expose (them) in the Nile,”¹⁰ to put them into baskets that float down the Nile & sink so the babies drown.

This adds a new perspective to what we read about the actions of Moses' resourceful mother.

She, Pharaoh's daughter who raises Moses, & the wise midwives fiercely & deftly defy the ruler's orders.

They say NO to death & YES to life.

The wise midwives look at life differently from Pharaoh. They are fierce in respecting life. They may be Isrealites who are midwives, OR they may be midwives who tend to Hebrew women in childbirth.

If the latter, these women are “righteous Gentiles”¹¹ who defy their leader

to save the babies, 

not from loyalty to their own people,

but out of fear of God.¹²

Awe, respect for God is the only fear they have. I am intrigued that they lie to do this & that the Bible stays silent about their lie.

What would Jesus say?

Jesus is the Way, the Truth & the Life that we murder on the Cross. We crucify God's Living Word, who forgives us as he willingly dies for us to open the way to new life.

Our new life can be lie-free, sin-free, when we confess & God forgives us & blots out our sin so that our old sins do not exist.

With this Good News – that we must share with those who do not know it – we can do as Paul exhorts us to do in Romans:

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers & sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy & acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good & acceptable & perfect.”

Amen.

Bibliography

Barclay, William. The Gospel of Matthew: Vol. 2 . Revised Ed. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. 1975.
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.
Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 4 Aug. 2014.
The New American Bible for Catholics. South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.
Sandel, Michael J. Justice: Whats The Right Thing To Do? New York: Farrar, Straus and Girooux. 2009.
'Voyles, Robert J. Restoring Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment. Hillsboro, OR: The Appreciative Way. 2010. www.appreciativeway.com.
Voyles, Robert J. “The Three Faces of Compassion”. Forgiveness Forum: Teach Your Congrgation How to Forgive. www.appreciativeway.com. 2014.

1 Barclay, William. The Gospel of Matthew: Vol. 2 . P. 141.

2 Ibid. Pp. 139-142.

3 Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. P. 107.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid. Map 2.

7 Ibid. P. 108.

8 Ibid. Jewish Study Bible. P.107.

9 Ibid. Jewish Study Bible. P.108.

10 Ibid. Jewish Study Bible. P.108.

11 Ibid. Jewish Study Bible. P.108.

12 Ibid.

How Good It is to Live in Unity!

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, 17 Aug. 2014, Proper 15

Year A RCL: Genesis 45:1-15; Psalm 133; Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28

Ecce, quam bonum!

“Oh, how good & pleasant it is,

when brethren live together in unity!”

The Book of Common Prayer uses the Latin I just quoted like a title for today's Psalm (p. 787 ). This Psalm always takes me to the holy mountain where I went to seminary at The University of the South in Sewanee, TN. It takes me to the view from the Dining Hall of the green lawn & lush garden the chef planted to provide us fresh veggies. Birds, bunnies, deer & insects enjoy the garden too.

Just beyond the garden sits one of the school's old stone buildings. Above the front door it proclaims in big letters: Ecce quam bonum to remind students & faculty how good it is when we live in unity.

Our Psalm obviously speaks to our lesson from Genesis when Joseph & his brothers, who sold him into slavery, finally live in unity. Perhaps less obvious is how it speaks to Paul's writing in Romans & Jesus' actions in today's Gospel.

In Romans Paul struggles with the tension between God's sovereignty & our human responsibility:¹ God's calling Israel as a chosen people, human freedom to live in the unity of God's love, to accept or reject God's love.

How expansive God's love is!

Through Jesus' dying for us, God's love reaches out to all humans – even us Gentiles.

We Gentiles are the dogs Jesus refers to in the Gospel.

Notice: Jesus says plainly “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Only after his work on the Cross & his Resurrection does Jesus send the disciples to every nation. This man is focused on the work he has to do among his people – not the neighborhood dogs.

The disciples want Jesus to say something to that yapping dog of a woman that will send her away. I hear anger in their words, not compassion.

Notice: Jesus responds differently.

How do you respond to a yapping dog?

What do you do with a lizard, spider or roach that belongs
OUTSIDE your house, not in it?

It's easy to chase the lizard out with a broom, stomp on or squirt insecticide on the spider & roach.

It takes time to hum & be peaceful with them so you can catch them &

return them outside where they can do the work God created them to do that helps the earth.

The 1^st reaction to stomp or chase brings out the creatures' natural defenses. The 2^nd transforms the dynamic. It shifts the perspective & the outcome.

The 1^st offers more death in the world. The 2^nd offers more life.
Jesus didn't come to offer us less death.

Jesus came for us to have more life.

  Jesus demonstrates how to have more life by shifting perspectives & expected outcomes. Among the ways Jesus does this is through compassion. He applies the 3 types of compassion: tender, fierce & mischievous.² Which type he uses depends on the situation.

We are most familiar with tender compassion, such as when a child falls & skins the knees. You remember Jesus blessing & healing children.

It can sound unsettling to hear compassion can be fierce! Think about how fierce Jesus is when he tells Peter: “Get behind me, Satan” & when he remains silent before Pilate. Fierce is tough love.³ It can be calm & emotionless.⁴ Fierce compassion has grown beyond anger at injustice, & has become single-minded work to transform life into justice.

We see Jesus use mischievous compassion in the story of the woman caught in adultery. Mischievous, playful compassion, switches things up to change our usual thinking & elicit a new understanding, a new perspective. Jesus doodles in the sand, then suggests: the person without sin in the group should throw the first stone.

He shifts the mob's perspective from following the letter of the law to following the heart of God's love, God's compassion.

Jesus uses mischievous, playful compassion in today's encounter with the woman who wants her daughter healed. The problem is, she is an outsider, not a member of the house of Israel.

So Jesus makes a simple statement: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This gives her an opportunity to speak so he can gain her perspective & see as she sees.

She asks simply: “Lord, help me.” Her body language speaks respect as she kneels down to ask.

Jesus makes a straightforward statement about the work he has to do & its importance. Life is short & he does not have too much time to take food from the mouths of hungry sheep & throw it to dogs.

I wonder if the woman suddenly sees herself in new ways with this playful word picture. I wonder if she sees her life more clearly in a new light – the Light of Christ – so that she responds about being worthy to share the crumbs.

I wonder what the disciples learn from this encounter & how they react to the grace that comes instantly when her daughter is healed because of the mother's faith.

The disciples want to get this dog – this lizard, this roach, this spider of a woman – out of the house of Israel & away from them. Jesus playfully speaks peace so that she can return to where she belongs to do the work God has created her to do on this earth.

God has created you – us – Beloved Brothers & Sisters, to tend this earth & to tend lost sheep where we are. God has created this Body of Christ – this happening place where we live God's love – to work so that all manner of thing shall be well. God calls us to see the needs of God's hungry children here, to offer God's healing grace, & to speak peace to trembling dogs who are lost & hungry for God's love.

Bibliography

Barclay, William. Letter to Romans: The Daily Study Bible. Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press. 1971.

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.

Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.

Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 4 Aug. 2014.

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.

Voyles, Robert J. Restoring Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment. Hillsboro, OR: The Appreciative Way. 2010. www.appreciativeway.com.

Voyles, Robert J. “The Three Faces of Compassion”. Forgiveness Forum: Teach Your Congrgation How to Forgive. www.appreciativeway.com. 2014.

1 Barclay, William. Letter to Romans: The Daily Study Bible. P. 163.

2 Note: Voyles, Robert J. lists the 3 types, quoting Psychlogist Stephen Gilligan on p. 55 of “The Three Faces of Compassion”. Forgiveness Forum: Teach Your Congrgation How to Forgive.

3 Ibid. Voyles. P. 56.

4 Ibid. Voyles. P. 56.