Homily
by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, 1 Feb., 2015, Epiphany 4
Year
B RCL:
Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1
Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28
The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Our Psalm today tells us this fear we have – our reverence1 – for God is a beginning for us from which we gain a good understanding.
Beginnings
run through
our scriptures today:
Our Gospel tells us of the beginning of Jesus'
public ministry, which manifests God's power over evil, suffering &
illness.2
Deuteronomy tells us of a new way God will interact with God's
people, speaking to them through prophets who will succeed Moses.
God's prophets will be different from pagan soothsayers3
who practice divination & magic4.
Pagans
cause difficulties for Corinthian Christians in the beginning of
their life in Christ.
Having turned from pagan idols, these Brothers
& Sisters in Christ face social challenges: Meat
offered at social events would have undergone a pagan rite.5
Events range from family celebrations & private associations to
clubs & public festivals.6
[In
our world, think of civic associations such as the Lions, private
places such as the Country Club, public events such as the 4th
of July, Rattlesnake Roundup & Swine Time.]
How do
Corinthian Christians handle this?
In
his wisdom, Paul urges the Corinthians to focus on community-building
instead of individual freedom7
to build up Brothers & Sisters in the beginning of their lives as
Christians.
What does this look like today in Bainbridge?
What is it like to be a new Christian, the 1st person in your family to accept Jesus as your Lord & Savior?
What if you are a teacher & the only Christian
where you teach?
How would it feel to know some parents are reluctant to send their kids to you
because you are a Christian?
How would it feel to have your dad threaten to burn
your Bible because your Christianity offends
your family members, who just don't understand it?
How
hard is it to imagine this situation?
I have just described the
situation of a man referred to as “P” in an article in the
January issue of Central
Florida Episcopalian,8
my husband's home diocese.
P is
a member of an ethnic minority in a poor village in China for which
Florida Episcopalians are praying. In P's village subsistence farming
& school dropouts are the norm. He has had the blessing to leave
the village for university studies & returned to the village to
teach.
While
at university, he learned about Jesus, accepted him as Lord &
Savior, & returned to his village as the only person there ever
to hear of Jesus.
Like
the pagans who have other gods in the days of Moses & the days of
the Corinthians, P's people live in fear of spirits that they believe
are in all of nature. There is an abundance of altars for offerings
to appease the spirits when bad things happen. P's people have the
added burden to figure out which spirit they have offended. This can
cost subsistence farmers lots of money.
How
does P live as a Christian in his village? He is the only Christian.
He is a new Christian. He has no Body of Christ to support him as you
& I have.
P wants his father to discover how much God loves him & freedom faith in Jesus gives us.
What is P to do? Accept the
job offered him in a city where he could be with the 20 others of his
minority who are Christians?
Think
what it would be like if Tallahassee had 20 Christians & you were
the only Christian in Bainbridge where our poverty rate is so high
that all our students are eligible for free breakfast & lunch &
our dropout rate must relate to our having a low graduation rate. Are
we so different from P's village? Would you stay or would you take
the job in Tallahassee to be with its 20 Christians?
As
the article says, being one of 20 is a whole lot more than being the
only one. P knows, if he leaves his village, “he takes away the
villagers' only chance to encounter Jesus. P doesn't want to see his
fellow people have no choice but to live their lives in fear &
die in despair. What should he do?”9
My
Brothers & Sisters, Beloved in Christ,
what should he do?
What
should you do – we do – to support this new & lone Christian?
[Pray]
What should we do for the people in this neighborhood who do not yet
know Jesus?
How
do we begin to meet the challenge where we are to minister to our
brothers & sisters in the human family who do not know Jesus?
Look
at the abundant resources we have
here in this room:
We have each
other.
Not one of us is the only Christian in Bainbridge!
Bibliography
Dios
Habla Hoy: La Biblia.
2da
Ed.
Nueva York: Sociedad Bíblica Americana. 1983.
Fox,
Linda. Central
Florida Episcopalian.
Vol. 116. No. 11. January 2015.
Harper’s
Bible Commentary.
General Ed.: James. L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row
Publishers, 1988.
Holy
Bible with the Apocrypha.
New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press.
1989.
Jewish
Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation.
New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
The
New American Bible for Catholics.
South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.
The
New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha.
Expanded Ed. Revised Stantard Version. Eds: Herbert G. May. Bruce M.
Metzger. New York: Oxford University Press. 1977.
5
Ibid. P. 1180.
6
Ibid.
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