Monday, November 16, 2015

Wake Up Call!

Homily By The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA
15 Nov. 2015 Proper 28 Year B: 1 Samuel 2:1-10; 1 Samuel 1:4-20 (as canticle); Hebrews 10:11-14; Mark 13:1-8


A father knocks on his son’s door, saying: “Son, wake up!”
His son answers: “I don't want to get up, Papa.”
“Get up! You have to go to school!”
“I don't want to go to school.”
Why not?”
Three reasons: 1st, because it is so dull;
2nd, the kids tease me;
& 3rd, I hate school.”
His father responds: “I am going to give you 3 reasons you must go to school.
 1st it is your duty.
2nd you are 45 years old
& 3rd you are the headmaster.1
With headlines such as this weekend's carnage in Paris, many of us may want to stay in bed with our heads under the covers. The ostrich with its head in the sand has its appeal.
It reminds me of my elementary school days [in a location near open water] where we feared Russia & its ally, Cuba, could launch an atomic attack so very close to us. We drilled at school what to do in case of an atomic attack:

 At the alarm, we hid under our wooden desks.
  
What kind of protection is that?!
 
Disaster preparedness is a good thing. It can be like an annual physical for us. For the church & for us in our homes, disaster preparedness is a matter of stewardship of the assets entrusted to us. Yet we can overdo & let fear rule our lives, as I see in a woman implementing extensive plans from fear that has grown reading Ted Koppel's book Lights Out.
Jesus assures us in our Gospel that we are not to be alarmed by wars & rumors of wars
&
to beware that no one lead us astray by
claiming to be Jesus.
Our impressive structures, like those that wow the disciples do get destroyed. In fact, the Temple that impresses them with its outstanding masonry work, far greater than what they see in Galilee,2 is “the reconstructed temple begun under Herod the Great [about] 20 B.C. [& which gets] completed [just]...7 years before [the Romans] destroy...[it] by fire in A.D. 70.”3
What if the disciples had wrung their hands worrying over the Temple & the what-ifs of people coming in Jesus' name? How much ministry could they effectively do stuck in what-ifs?
We can worry so much & use our precious, limited asset of time
hiding under wooden desks that we miss the joy of living.
We can be so preoccupied by having everything perfect to make oodles of money at our Bazaar that we miss the joy of working together.
Fact: The amount of money raised at the Bazaar is a blessing to our budget & many ministries beyond our red doors.
Fact: More important than the Bazaar bringing in revenue is our exercise of stewardship of our relationships, our energy, our health, our love, our sharing the Gospel truth: God loves you. No exceptions. All are welcome.
To exercise our stewardship [including our stewardship of relationships] we can learn from Hannah in our 1st lesson. She knows God is in charge. Praying silently, which is unusual in her day4, Hannah asks God to give her a son. God says “Yes”. She names the son Samuel, which means “asked of God”5.

What do you ask of God?
   
Notice: Despite the spiteful way Peninnah treats Hannah, Hannah does not respond in kind. She kindly refrains from lashing out, refrains from complaining to her adoring husband to do something about mean Peninnah. Hannah shows us grace, gratitude & generosity.
What else but grace, gratitude & generosity would lead this barren woman to ask God for a gift & then return the gift to God?
Her selfless act, as one preacher says6: can remind us that all things are God’s gift to us & can remind us of the truth many congregations say at the offertory:

All things come from you, O Lord,
& of your own have we given you.”
You do give so generously to God, to each other & to our brothers & sisters beyond our red doors.
 
These items represent the abundance of your gifts, your creativity, your generosity of time, resources & skills. We will ask God's blessing on these items, the many in the Parish Hall that they represent, & all the laborers involved in their production & the Bazaar.

Blessing of Items for St. John's Bazaar7
Reader 1: Many there are who rely upon their hands and are skillful in their own work.
Reader 2: Prosper, O Lord, the work of our hands.
Reader 1: Prosper our handiwork.
Celebrant: Let us pray. (Silence) O God, your blessed Son worked with his hands in the carpenter shop in Nazareth: Be present, we pray, with those who work in this place, that, laboring as workers together with you, we may share the joy of your creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
All: Amen.
Reader 2: We present these items for the Bazaar, and other items they represent, and all our labors to God's glory and in the hope and expectation that God's grace may enfold us and all whose lives are touched by the Bazaar.
Celebrant: Let us pray. (Silence) O God, whose blessed Son has sanctified and transfigured the use of material things: receive these works which we offer, and grant that they may proclaim your love, benefit your Church, and minister grace and joy to those who see and use them. As you have blessed the hands and the hearts that have created them, so may your blessings + be abounding among their recipients; Holy God, we may all our work serve to your glory and the welfare of your people, through Jesus Christ our Lord. All: Amen.

Bibliography
The Book of Occasional Services 2003. New York: Church Publishing. 2004.
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 with the Apocrypha. New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press. 1989.
Howell, The Rev. Miguelina. “Holy Ground, Holy Spaces, Proper 28(B) – 2015”. Accessed: 14 Nov. 2015. http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2015/11/06/holy-ground-holy-spaces-proper-28b-2015/
Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 22 July 2015.
The New American Bible for Catholics. South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.

1 Parts rephrased from: Howell, The Rev. Miguelina. “Holy Ground, Holy Spaces, Proper 28(B) – 2015”. Quoting from Anthony de Melo’s story. http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2015/11/06/holy-ground-holy-spaces-proper-28b-2015/.
2 Ibid. Howell, The Rev. Miguelina. “Holy Ground, Holy Spaces, Proper 28(B) – 2015”. Accessed: 14 Nov. 2015.
3 The New American Bible for Catholics. P. 1083.
4 Jewish Study Bible. P. 562.
5 Ibid. Jewish Study Bible. P. 562.
6 Howell, The Rev. Miguelina. “Holy Ground, Holy Spaces, Proper 28(B) – 2015”. Accessed: 14 Nov. 2015. http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2015/11/06/holy-ground-holy-spaces-proper-28b-2015/
7Adapted from The Book of Occasional Services. Pp. 152, 211, 207; 246-250, 104. And from Prayer Shawl Blessing “Blessings Are Thrown across Our Lives”.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

What Can You Get for A Penny?

Homily By The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA
8 Nov. 2015 Proper 27 Year B: Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17; Psalm 127; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44
Did everyone receive a penny when you came in today?
What can you get for a penny?
A reduction to your dental bill!
But more of that later!
We see the haves & the have-nots in our scriptures today. We see God's loving grace to all people. We see in action:
God loves you. No exceptions. All are welcome!
We see God's loving grace in action in our Gospel & in the Book of Ruth, the story of this foreigner who becomes an ancestor of Jesus. Ruth's story opens with Naomi, her husband & their 2 sons leaving their home in Bethlehem during a famine to go to Moab, a foreign country where Ruth lives & where Naomi's husband & sons die.1 This story is one of active loyalty.
Active loyalty, the fidelity in the lives of Ruth, Naomi & Boaz, as the Jewish Study Bible notes,2goes beyond law & duty. We see fidelity when Ruth, the outsider, commits herself to her mother-in-law & becomes part of Naomi's people who worship God3. It is fitting that Ruth & Boaz's son is named Obed, which means “worshipper”.4
We see loyalty beyond law & duty in our Gospel. Jesus' people-watching skills give him examples for the lessons he teaches in the Temple. Today he tells us clearly: appearances can be deceiving. How the well-to-do look & the actions of the crowd pouring loads of money into the collection plate appear righteous. The poor widow puts in 2 puny coins: Jesus says her gift is the most generous.
How much difference in your life could that penny you received make? How much difference could a penny you see on the ground make if you pick it up?
What kind of reminder could it be for your
spiritual growth in God's love?
  • Maybe it will remind you: In God we trust.
  • Maybe it can remind you that, in Jesus' eyes, you are important no matter how little you may have.5
  • Maybe it can remind you that Jesus sees what's in our hearts when we do what we do.
Jesus sees what's in your heart when you do what you do.6
 Perhaps the penny will remind you to pray & give God thanks.
That's what picking a penny off the ground 45 years ago did for Otha Anders of Louisiana,7 whose story is in a recent edition of USA Today.
The 73-year-old former in-school suspension supervisor gives us an example of the ideal commitment & fidelity we hear in our scriptures – fidelity that goes beyond duty.
In October, Anders turned his penny collection into the bank because homeowner's insurance no longer covers the value of his 500,000-plus pennies that filled 15 five-gallon plastic water jugs. [This is a 1-gallon jug. His were 5 times as large & 15 times as many!] The $5,136.14 worth of pennies will help pay a recent dental bill.
Anders says: "I became convinced that spotting a lost or dropped penny was an additional God-given incentive reminding me to always be thankful...There have been days where I failed to pray & more often than not, a lost or dropped penny would show up to remind me."
Anders knows a penny's value is greater than its monetary worth.
Collecting pennies, he says, gave him: “the inner satisfaction that God & I acquired this collection."
What are you acquiring with God's help?
What puny gift, what small grace have you overlooked?
Notice: Jesus sees differently. Instead of seeing the poor widow as an outcast, a problem to attack or to ignore, Jesus sees vast human worth.
Jesus sees with God's Love.
The poor widow gives all she has. Her action, as one commentator says, is like Jesus' self-givingthe pouring out of his love, his life for us8, dying for us on the hard wood of the cross, forgiving us as he dies so that we may have eternal life – the joy of full life in right relationship with God & each other.
How do we live in Jesus' self-giving love when times get stressful?
How do we exercise stewardship of our time &
care of ourselves & each other?
How do we see like Jesus sees?
God's love sees how you offer what you offer of your money, time, & skills.
Jesus doesn’t compare what you give to what another person gives.
The Holy Spirit will guide you in
your stewardship of love.

At the heart of the matter,

what matters is

what's in your heart.9


Bibliography
Benoit, The Rev. Arlette. “Penny for Your Thoughts, Proper 27(B) – 2015”. Accessed: 5 Nov. 2015. http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2015/10/19/penny-for-your-thoughts-proper-27b-2015/
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 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.
Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 22 July 2015.
Man cashes in pennies he's been saving for 45 years”. http://www.usatoday./story/news/nation-now/2015/10/28/man-cashes-pennies-hes-been-saving-45-years/74727160/ Accessed: 2 Nov. 2015.
What's in Your Heart?” http://www.sermons4kids.com/ Accessed: 3 Nov. 2015.
Wines, Alphonetta. “Commentary on Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17”. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2617 Accessed: 7 Nov. 2015. Note: Author is Pastor, Bible Scholar, and Theologian, Dido United Methodist Church, Fort Worth, TX. She quotes from Kristen Nielsen, “Other Writings (Ruth, Song of Songs, Esther, Daniel)” in The Hebrew Bible Today: An Introduction to Critical Issues.” Eds: Steven L. McKenzie, M. Patrick Graham. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998.

1 Jewish Study Bible. P. 1578.

2 Ibid.
 
3 Wines, Alphonetta. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2617.
 Accessed: 7 Nov. 2015.

4 Harper’s Bible Dictionary. P. 717.

5 “What's in Your Heart?” http://www.sermons4kids.com/ Accessed: 3 Nov. 2015.

6 Ibid

7 “Man cashes in pennies he's been saving for 45 years” Accessed: 2 Nov. 2015.

8 Benoit, The Rev. Arlette. “Penny for Your Thoughts, Proper 27(B) – 2015”. Accessed: 5 Nov. 2015. http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2015/10/19/penny-for-your-thoughts-proper-27b-2015/

9 Idea from “What's in Your Heart?”

Monday, November 2, 2015

Saints: Dangerous & Necessary1

All Saints' Day Homily By The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA
1 Nov. 2015 Year B: Isaiah 25:-9; Psalm 24; Revelation 21:1-6a; John 11:32-44

Ever notice that the bills & coins we put into our
United Thank Offering boxes & our wallets have portraits of dead people on them?
Even in our secular life we intentionally recognize the lives & contributions of the dead.

Beloved Brothers & Sisters, on this All Saints' Day we give God thanks for the great cloud of witnesses to our faith in Jesus! Among those witnesses are well-know Saints & our local saints of St. John's, whose icons & photos we see around us...& Lazarus, whom we see gain new life through Jesus in our Gospel. We know this is not the ever-lasting life of eternity: We know Lazarus died or we'd see regular interviews of him in our frenzied media world.
Frenzy is life out of balance. Frenzy is part of that shroud Isaiah assures us in our 1st lesson that God will overcome. Instead of “shroud”, The Jewish Study Bible says “covering”, “the illusions that befuddle us will disappear” when God destroys evil & sorrow2.
Frenzy & befuddlement show in our lack of stewardship of time & energy. Our scriptures point us to balance, to the gifts God gives us: hope that calms us in life's storms, peace in our befuddled world, new life that we know through Jesus, who has lived among us, has wept with us, & helps us see anew.
Revelation tells us: “See, the home of God is among mortals....See, I am making all things new”. Notice the positive reinforcement in Revelation: The home of God is among mortals...I am making all things new: not stuck in past tense was & isn't now, not future tense will be but isn't yet; not made as in over & done with, not will make as in yet to be accomplished. “It is done.” Day by day we live into this reality.
It is like Lazarus: Jesus calls him forth, he is raised from the dead, now the work is to unbind him & let him go: set him free from what holds him back.
What holds you back?
The gift of eternal life is at work in you – in us – to live fully & faithfully now, knowing we will know the gift of eternal life completely when we join the Saints after our own deaths. Until then, we have much to learn.
All Saints Day teaches us much, including about stewardship.
We see stewardship of relationships in our Gospel. We see Jesus' relationship with his friends, cherishing Lazarus & his sisters, sharing in grief. We know grief doesn't end with a funeral. It doesn't end when we get all the paperwork done: the thank yous written, the death certificate sent to the bank, to the insurance company & to Social Security. [At least Martha & Mary don't have these details to handle. They have more freedom to focus on grief.]
Lazarus has been buried 4 days & his sisters & friends grieve together/in community. Grief is a process that calls us to stewardship of time, energy & emotions. This process can be long & can come at different, unexpected times, sometimes years after the death. [That's why we offer our Blue Christmas Service of Solace & why your Daughters of the King pray daily by name for a year for those who mourn. This is a gift of stewardship of time & skills that your Daughters of the King exercise.]
Stewardship, as the dictionary says3, is “the activity or job of protecting & being responsible for something...; especially:...careful & responsible management of something entrusted to one's care.” Jesus shows us careful & responsible management of what's entrusted to him. He shows us stewardship of skills & time – gifts that God gives us so generously day by day.
Why does Jesus delay going to Lazarus? Maybe to shows us the stewardship of his energy, the need for him to rest for the hard work to come. Maybe to nurture stewardship of the faith & trust of his friends, to give Martha & Mary an opportunity for faith grow through his delay.
Notice the stewardship Jesus shows us in his use of his time & energy: he says “Take away the stone.” He relies on others to work with him in this miracle. He doesn't do everything himself. If Jesus can call a dead man to life, he can easily tell a stone to scoot out of the way, or move it himself. [Someone who grew up working in his dad's carpenter shop, is surely strong enough to move a stone. I hear an echo of Jesus' days fasting in the wilderness when Satan tempts hungry Jesus to turn stones into bread: Jesus turns him down.]
Jesus shows us stewardship of physical resources. These include our skills & our finances. We see stewardship in this great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us: local saints & Saints from other times & places. We see skills in singing, hospitality, teaching, wisdom, creativity, generosity, courage.
Saints call us to our true vocation, as our Bishop says in his latest eCrozier.4 Catching our attention & “reminding us of our true calling...saints are both dangerous & necessary. They're dangerous in that they can upset the best-laid plans for our lives. And they're necessary because, without them, we wouldn't know of the hope we have in Jesus....”
He says: “In my office, saints surround me...Every time I go out the door, Martin Luther King, Jr. & the Blessed Virgin Mary stare me down reminding me of the cost of discipleship.”
As our lives & situations grow & change, we are wise to check with God about how we are to live into our new reality, to pray for grace in this costly work of discipleship.
We see living into a new reality in the life of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, who died at Auschwitz during the frenzy of life out of balance, that shroud called World War II.
The only Saint to have an amateur radio license, he applied modern technology to his work of ministry as a missionary in Japan, where he used a printing press in his work with the poor & later in Poland opposing the Nazi regime against which he also used his radio skills to combat the Nazi cause. AND he sheltered Polish refugees, hiding 2,000 Jews.”5
Arrested & imprisoned by the Gestapo, he endured beatings because he answered honestly “Yes” to the repeatedly asked question: “Do you believe in Jesus.” Branded as prisoner 16670 & dressed in prison stripes he was put to work hauling blocks to build a crematorium. In the dark cell, Maximilian shined the Light of Christ, spoke of God's infinite love & waited to eat until others had food.6
When 3 prisoners escaped, the prison commander chose 10 men to be starved to death to deter others from escaping. One of the 10 men cried out: “My wife! My children!”
Maximilian took his place.7
In the starvation cell he celebrated Holy Eucharist daily & led the men in prayers & hymns.” Calling him “the patron saint of our difficult century,” Pope John Paul II canonized him in October 1982. Among the crowd gathered, the Pope embraced Francizek Gajowniczek, a man in his 90s, the man who had cried out “My wife! My children!”8 The man in whose place Maximilian died.
Bishop Benhase says:
It's dangerous to surround ourselves with the Church's saints.
They keep coming at us &
calling us to saintly lives ourselves...

So, be careful when you come forward &
receive the sacrament...
God may be calling you to be much more
than you are right now.”
Bibliography
Barfield, Ginger. “Commentary on John 11:32-44”. Accessed: 30 Oct. 2015. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2660 Note: Author is Professor of Theology & Executive Director of the Academy of Faith & Leadership, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary of Lenoir-Rhyne University, Columbia, S.C.
Benhase, The Rt. Rev. Scott A. “Saints, Dangerous & Necessary”. eCrozier #278. Oct. 30, 2015. http://ecrozier.georgiaepiscopal.org/ Accessed: 23 Oct. 2015.
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 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.
Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 22 July 2015.
Rice. The Rev. Whitney. “All Saints’ Day, Year B – 2015”. Sermons That Work. Accessed” 30 Oct. 2015. http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2015/10/18/all-saints-day-year-b-2015/ Note: The Rev. Rice of the Diocese of Indianapolis is Priest-in-Charge of the Shared Ministry of St. Luke’s Shelbyville and St. Thomas Franklin. A native of Lee’s Summit, MO, she comes to ordained ministry by way of the University of Kansas & Yale Divinity School. More of her work is at www.roofcrashersandhemgrabbers.com.
Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Martyr of Charity”. Monastery Icons website. http://www.monasteryicons.com Accessed: 3 Aug. 2015.


1Benhase, The Rt. Rev. Scott A. “Dangerous & Necessary”. eCrozier #278. Oct. 30, 2015. http://ecrozier.georgiaepiscopal.org/.
2 Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. P. 832.
4 Benhase, The Rt. Rev. Scott A. “Saints, Dangerous & Necessary”. eCrozier #278. Oct. 30, 2015. http://ecrozier.georgiaepiscopal.org/ Accessed: 23 Oct. 2015.
5 “Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Martyr of Charity”. http://www.monasteryicons.com Accessed: 3 Aug. 2015.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.