Homily
By The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA
2
Aug. 2015
Proper
13 Year
B:
2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a; Psalm 51:1-13; Ephesians 4:1-16; John 6:24-35
Impossible
Pie is a dessert that might satisfy a poet.
Impossible
Pie serves as an appetizer today to feed our understanding of our
scriptures. I have 2 different recipes for Impossible Pie1.
Each has one common ingredient missing: the crust. As it bakes, the
pie transforms & creates the crust. That's the kind of amazing
fact that sounds like the creativity of a poet. Poets
understand transformation.
Poets
understand that “life
(is) a journey to transformation – a journey of uncovering the
dream that God has sown deep within us.”2
Poets
understand the difference between the literal-just-the-facts edible
pie & the figurative pie, the metaphor that feeds the spirit with
something more, the difference between existence & life-giving
living.
The
people who chase after Jesus in our Gospel want the facts. They seek
literal, physical food.
They remind me of the cat that comes near our house. It fearfully
seeks the food I set out for it. I seek a fuller relationship with
the cat. This will be a process for it to grow from fear to trust &
a process for me to wait patiently [for literally
I don't know how long]
for there to be a cat purring on my lap. The cat receives abundance
yet fear remains in control: This
traveler does not seek a fuller relationship.
The
people traveling to seek Jesus have eaten an abundance of bread &
fish that grew from meager resources. They
want literal bread like their ancestors ate with Moses.
They remind me
of the woman in John 4:15 who asks Jesus to give her living water so
that she won't have to come to the well to draw water.3
We
see this kind of literal understanding in our first lesson
when King David hears Nathan's story of the rich man who steals the
poor man's sheep to feed the traveler who comes to his house. King
David flies into a rage4
& declares the robber deserves to die, although,
as the Jewish
Study Bible notes,
Israel's law
does not impose the death penalty for robbery5.
The
prophet Nathan knows how to speak truth wisely so that the king can
hear anew & see with new eyes his abuse of power, his disregard
of God.
Nathan
uses the poet's skill6
to
show that life can be handled differently.7 Like
the prophets Elijah & Amos,
he “(operates)
on the astonishing notion
that
the claims of...God who created heaven & earth
From
poets we can learn to speak the truth in love to people in power, to
friends, to people in our families. We hear truth &
love in Paul's words to the Ephesians. To speak truth in love, we
must grow up, we must see that we are part of something greater than
ourselves: the Body of Christ of which each of us is an integral,
vital part.
This
Body of Christ is integral in the work of transformation where we
live & beyond. Together & individually we have work to do to
build up this body in love. Love leads us to transformation.
One
important fact you must know for your part in our work of
transformation: I am a sinner:
“I
confess to God almighty, before the whole company of heaven,
&
to you, my beloved brothers & sisters,
Now
that you know this, when I talk about sin, you will know that I know
what I am talking about.
What
I don't always know is the why of my sin.
I think that's why Dierks
Bentley's song “What
was I thinkin'”10
appeals to me. He sings about consequences “that
crossed my mind a little too late”.
He sings: “I
know what I was feelin'. But what was I thinkin'?”
I
used to wonder what my
wonderful, saintly Sunday School teacher was thinking when she talked
about the joy of our being forgiven. How
could she possibly know how it feels to be forgiven? She was perfect
in every way & genuinely nice, helpful, kind, gentle.
That's why she always was cast to be Mary in the Christmas pageant.
I
felt sorry for her about one thing: I was sure that, in her
perfection, she could not fully grasp the joy & wonder a sinner
like me knows of the beauty & compassion Jesus shows by dying to
blot out our sins.
“We
all sin against God, the members of our communities, & against
our better nature. Sometimes...we
have a hard time believing that God’s love in Jesus...does wipe out
our sins. The grace we receive is costly grace.”11
God
freely offers us this costly grace.
Jesus
dies for us to live fully.
Jesus
dies to feed us, to encourage & nourish us at this holy table.
We
come to the holy table after we acknowledge our sins in our general
confession, which helps us gain comfort & strength to come &
receive the Body & Blood of Jesus that nourishes us in ways we
cannot understand. This grace is more
nourishing than physical food. This grace is a Mystery.
We
have a mystery in today's scripture. In his story to David, Nathan
mentions the traveler who visits the rich man.
We
know the rich man is David, the poor man is the now-dead Uriah killed
by David's order, the lamb is Uriah's widow, Bathsheba, who is now
David's wife.
Who
is the traveler?12
Is
the traveler in need of food? Does the traveler know about living
bread? What if the traveler carries the ingredient for Impossible
Pie?
What
if the traveler is the stranger we stand near in the store checkout
line or as we pump gas?
Is
the traveler one of our brothers or sisters who does not know fully
God's love, a brother or sister stuck in literal, uncreative
existence or stuck in poverty of spirit?
Is
the traveler like a cat that comes fearfully near you?
Beloved
Brothers & Sisters, Beloved child of God, we are blessed to know
the truth: each of us is a sinner freed to be good, faithful servants
of God's kingdom.
The
Holy Spirit is with us to guide us to live into the fullness of
life-giving living. God's grace nourishes us for love. How do you
love? How do you remember to love yourself? You are God's beloved
child.
God
embraces you, Beloved Child, with costly grace.
Bibliography
Barclay,
William. The
Gospel of John: Volume 1.
Revised Edition. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. 1975.
Brueggemann,
Walter. Journey
to the Common Good.
Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. 2010.
Gamber,
Jenifer. With Bill Lewellis. Your
Faith, Your Life: An Invitaton to the Episcopal Church.
New York: Morehouse Publishing. 2009.
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.
Klein,
Ralph W.
“Commentary
on 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a”. Accessed:
1 Aug. 2015.
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2529.
The
New American Bible for Catholics.
South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.
Richter,
The Rev. Amy E. Rector of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, Annapolis,
MD. Bread
of Life – Proper 13(B)
Accessed: 1 Aug. 2015.
http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2015/07/15/bread-of-life-proper-13b/.
"What
Was I Thinkin'" Written by Brett Beavers, Dierks Bentley, Deric
James Ruttan. Accessed:
1 Aug. 2015.
1
Flatlanders Cook Book: A Collection of
Recipes from Lanier County, Georgia.
Compiled & Edited by Helen L. Strickland in Cooperation with the
Lakeland Jaycees. Tifton, GA: Lang Printing Co. 1976. Pp. 167-168.
2
Gamber,
Jenifer. With Bill Lewellis. Your
Faith, Your Life: An Invitaton to the Episcopal Church.
P. 2.
5
Ibid.
7
Ibid.
8
Ibid.
9
Confession for preaching today's lesson from 2 Samuel is suggested
by Ralph
W. Klein, Christ Seminary-Seminex professor emeritus of Old
Testament at Lutheran
School of Theology, Chicago, IL. Accessed: 1 Aug. 2015.
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2529
10
"What
Was I Thinkin'" Written by Brett Beavers, Dierks Bentley, Deric
James Ruttan. Accessed:
1 Aug. 2015.
http://www.metrolyrics.com/what-was-i-thinkin-lyrics-dierks-bentley.html.
12
Note: This question is inspired by footnote statement “nobody
corresponds to the traveler.” Jewish
Study Bible.
P. 638.
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