Homily
by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC, GA; 2nd
Sunday after Pentecost, 29 May 2016
Proper 4 Year C RCL: 1 Kings
18:20-21 (22-29), 30-39; Psalm 96; Galatians 1:1-12; Luke 7:1-10
What
stirs within you when you hear Jesus in our Gospel speak of the
profound faith of the Roman centurion, this official of the
conquering pagan authority? How do you react?
Answers
included: Puzzled.
Wondering. Confused. Surprised. Angry over something different.
Yes. Something different can feel threatening & we may react with
defensive anger or puzzlement, confusion, surprise.
What
amazement we hear Jesus express in our Gospel today! He
says: “Not
even in Israel have I found such faith.”
Ouch! How would you feel to hear that about you & your people?
Think
of when Jesus, [in Mark
6] after he preaches in
the synagogue in Nazareth his hometown & he
can do no deeds of power there except lay hands on a few sick people
to cure them.
Jesus is amazed at the unbelief. Today we hear him amazed at belief.
What
amazing trust & contradictions we hear in our readings!
We hear
the ebb & flow of faith & loyalty, of action
& stillness.
People follow God, fall away & return to God in the
multicultural, polytheistic world of Elijah, Paul, & Jesus.
We
live in a multicultural, polytheistic world.
All
kinds of people praise God & witness
to
God in many ways.
How
do
we sing a new song to this 21st
century world so that all
people
can ascribe to God / credit
God / recognize
that God is
Creator of all?
God
creates all, including the fire
& the water
that focus the power struggle we see today between the prophet Elijah
& the prophets of Baal, god
of rain & water1.
The land of Israel is
in drought.
The Israelites support both the God of Israel & Baal. The
Jewish Study Bible notes: they
do not see this as deserting God.2
Elijah
sees this differently.
A
“radical monotheist,”3
Elijah asks: “How long will you go
limping
with 2 different opinions?” He sounds like Paul writing to the
Galatians:
“I
am
astonished
you are
so quickly deserting
(God)...”
The Galatians go limping with different opinions.
What
challenges make us go limping with different opinions?
When are we
like the people in our scriptures who have divided loyalties?
Notice
what Paul says: “Am I now seeking human approval, or God's
approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing
people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Remember
how Paul pleases people early in Acts?
He
tends the coats of people stoning Stephen.
Paul
has changed for the better & is making a positive difference,
working with God for the sake of God's beloved children for whom
Jesus willingly died. Paul trusts God in a new way like
the faithful centurion.
What
does it take for us to believe like the faithful centurion & to
trust God will act?
The
people Elijah speaks to, the people Paul writes to seem like children
learning
to walk, holding
onto something with each hand, afraid
to let
go & trust.
We can securely hold God's “hand” & let go of what we
fearfully grasp, even
when it means we have to change: change zip code, change work, change
who we have been to be who God calls us to be.
Brothers &
Sisters, God is calling us in this Body of Christ that is St. Francis
to something new, to grow, to change. As
God's beloved children, we are always works in progress, growing in
grace.
Notice
this perspective from a monk of the Society of St. John the
Evangelist in Massachusetts: “God
is always being revealed & the revelation is never complete. The
Spirit who leads into all truth continually proceeds both from the
divine nature in terms of revelation & from the human nature in
terms of reception. There
is no end to the process.”4
There
is no end to the process.
As
works in progress, you & I can understand why people
are
afraid to let go & trust God’s Good News in Jesus. People are
afraid to
establish this relationship. Relationships
require
the hard work of balancing action & stillness.
Elijah
does the hard work of balancing action & stillness, waiting for
God to act in the challenge with Baal's bunch. Totally trusting God,
Elijah prays simple words that contrast
with his noisy opponents. His
pouring water on everything contradicts
what seems logical.
You
pour water on something you want to burn?!
God
sends
fire that consumes the drenched offering, the altar AND the extra
water. So much
for Baal’s power. The people see, believe & turn to God [at
least for a while].
We
see amazing grace & steadfast faith in Elijah. We see this in the
centurion who sends for Jesus & says, “Don’t come all the way
to my house, just say the word & let my servant be healed.”
Like
Elijah, the centurion is “under authority” & does the bidding
of others, & people under his authority do his bidding.
Notice:
Elijah says: “O Lord...let it be
known...that you are
God...that I have done all these things at
your bidding...”
Brothers
& Sisters, what is God bidding us to do
as the people of St.
Francis?
Both
Elijah & the centurion show us the balance of action &
stillness, quiet trust that waits. The centurion balances active life
on active duty in the world & a life of faith in close
relationship with the people of God.
Balance
requires times of action &
times of stillness.
In
our scriptures we see “action springs from stillness”5
This
sounds like a contradiction.
This kind of contradiction is at the heart of the spirituality of St.
Benedict that
author Esther de Waal discusses in her book Living
with Contradiction: An Introduction to Benedictine Spirituality.
When
we balance working
with
God & waiting
with
God, we grow & gain insight for what’s next in active
ministry.6 It
is hard to hold opposites in balance7. Yet without this balance, our “(a)ction is more likely to grow out
of confusion..., fear or self-interest; it is less likely to be
grounded in God.”8
We
live in a world limping with different opinions. In this noisy, busy
world “that is angry, fear-ridden, distracted...”9,
we can
live with contradiction.
We
can
balance action & stillness.
As
de Waal says, & I paraphrase parts: “(E)ven
in...the most busy & active daily life...[we]
can...carry
a heart of stillness, an awareness of God’s presence...”10
Let's
take time now for stillness to ponder:
Even
in...the most busy & active daily life,
we
can carry a heart of stillness.
We
can carry an awareness of God’s presence.
Bibliography
Boadt, Lawrence. Reading
the Old Testament: An Introduction. New York: Paulist Press.
1984.
Chittister, Joan. The
Monastery of the Heart: An Invitation to a Meaningful Life.
www.bluebridgebooks.com:
(United Tribes Media Inc.) BlueBridge. 2011.
De Waal, Esther. Living
with Contradiction: An Introduction to Benedictine Spirituality.
Harrisburg: Morehouse Publishing. 1989.
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.
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.
Matthews, Victor H. Social
World of the Hebrew Prophets. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson
Publishers. Inc. 2001.
Merriam-Webster.
Smartphone Dictionary app. Merriam-Webster Inc. 2012.
New Oxford Annotated
Bible with the Apocrypha. Eds.: Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger.
New York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1977.
Partnoy, Frank. Wait: The
Art and Science of Delay. New York: Public Affairs (Perseus Book
Group). 2012.
6
Ibid. P. 105.
7
Ibid. P. 107.
8
Ibid. P. 108.
9
Ibid. P. 112.
10
Ibid.
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