Homily
by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC; 22nd
Sunday after Pentecost, 16 Oct. 2016
Proper
24 Year C RCL: Jeremiah
31:27-34; Psalm 119:97-104; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8
Why
have I titled this sermon
“Expect the Unexpected”?
[Congregation
responses included: last week's hurricane & the power outage we
had before our 10:30 worship today, which caused us to move worship
from the sanctuary to the Parish Hall after our 8:30 a.m. worship!]
Yes, we have had the unexpected
recently!
Last
week's sermon [which
Hurricane Matthew prevented you from hearing]
is titled “Expect
the Unexpected”
to emphasize last week's Gospel's message & the unexpected
miracle in our life together we were to celebrate.
Today
we celebrate so many blessings & this parish's miracle we
couldn't celebrate last week, a miracle 30-plus years in the making!
It
is hard to know what to expect
when
you expect the unexpected!
The
judge in our Gospel knows what to expect every
day from the
determined widow. Like him, we may work to resolve a constant demand
for attention. Unlike the judge, we fear God, have a sense of
awe of God. Unlike the judge, we may fear the unexpected in life.
This
4:1 ratio makes fear seem more real to us than peace,
Fear
numbs our brains' creativity & keeps us stuck in situations.
Yet
situations change. Hurricane Matthew has gone. We work creatively,
diligently to rebuild & renew. Each week we gather here to
rebuild & renew our spiritual lives, to feed on God's holy word &
holy gifts at this table.
- Today we celebrate our survival & blessings of many kinds flowing into our lives & flowing through us as we combat the storm's aftermath.
- We celebrate the great news we didn't know last Sunday of health for our wonderful Parish Administrator's husband.
- We celebrate the miracle which frees one stuck in fear for wrong another person did to this Body of Christ years ago. This person now has God's peace, which surpasses our understanding.
We
thank & praise God for the great miracle of restoring most
unexpectedly the silver Communion items stolen from this Body of
Christ in 1983. Today we will use these items made especially for us
in England.
Through
the power of the Holy Spirit, God's hands & feet & voice have
acted through many individuals in this miracle of restoration that
only God could pull off!
We
say “THANK
YOU, GOD!”
in a BIG
way
for renewed life, for trusting God, God's timing, God’s amazing
ways of answering prayers, & our responding to God’s call.
Our
responses about the stolen items have included intense prayers for
all concerned, especially in the last 3 months, & have helped
free those stuck in fear.
[Thank you all who have worked as God's
hands, feet, voice & heart to bring about this blessing.]
Why
do we fear proclaiming the Good News of God's love for us?
Paul
tells
us in our lesson from 2nd
Timothy to proclaim the message. In our Psalm, the message is God's
law gives us wisdom to live as we should.
Most
of our living is in ordinary times,
not scary times.
Know
this: Psalm 119 was composed not
for life's big events but for the 90 percent of life that “is
uneventful, even monotonous...,”3
as
one author says.
It gives us a “prolonged contemplation of God's presence.4
Prolonged
is right!
With
its 176
verses,
this is the
longest Psalm
& the
longest chapter
in the entire Bible!5
In
our Prayer Book, it starts on page 763 & ends on 778.
What
we read today is one of 22 stanzas, each with 8 verses. The Hebrew
version is written in an acrostic
style:
each verse in a stanza starts with the same Hebrew letter as the
succeeding letters are used. Almost all verses contain the word “law”
or its synonym:6
decrees, word, commandment, judgments.
What
creative skill this shows! What discipline!
Within
this framework, the writer remains creative & flexible: You can
read
this psalm in random order & it still makes sense.
You an even read it backward!7 Let's
do this!
I'll read the last verse 104, then you read the top verse 97, then
I'll read 103, you read, 98 & so on until we meet in the middle!
Priest:
104
Through
your commandments I gain understanding;
therefore
I hate every lying way.
Congregation:
97
Oh,
how I love your law! all the day long it is in my mind.
Priest:
103
How
sweet are your words to my taste!
they
are sweeter than honey to my mouth.
Congregation:
98
Your
commandment has made me wiser than my enemies,
and
it is always with me.
Priest:
102
I
do not shrink from your judgments,
because
you yourself have taught me.
Congregation:
99
I
have more understanding than all my teachers,
for
your decrees are my study.
Priest:
101
I
restrain my feet from every evil way,
that
I may keep your word.
Congregation:
100
I
am wiser than the elders,
because
I observe your commandments.
Whichever
way we read this Psalm, it reminds us God
is
with us when we move forward, when we move backward, when we are
tossed by life's storms.
This is a message of hope, like Jeremiah's message of future
restoration & reconciliation.
Our
hope rests solidly on God's promise to create a new covenant God
writes on our hearts so that we can
obey.8
We
carry God's law in our hearts as a living part of us.
This is the
divine spark9
we Christians know to be the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in us
guides us from fear to faith so that we can remain faithful &
persistent in prayer, no matter what challenges us.
Jesus
asks in our Gospel today: Will the Son of Man find faith on earth?
I
assure you: Jesus does
find faith on earth. We gather here today because we are
faithful & persistent in prayer.
Be
faithful & persistent in sharing the Good News we know in Jesus:
God
loves you! No exceptions!
God
loves you! No exceptions!
Bibliography
Barclay, William. The
Daily Study Bible Series: The Letters to Timothy, Titus, and
Philemon. Revised Ed. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. 1975.
The Book of Common
Prayer. New York: Church Publishing, Inc. 1986.
Davidson, Robert. The
Daily Study Bible Series: Jeremiah Vol. 2 and Lamentations.
Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. 1985.
Dios
Habla Hoy: La Biblia.
2da
Ed.
Nueva York: Sociedad Bíblica Americana. 1983.
The
Four Translation New Testament.
Minneapolis: World Wide Publications. New York: The Iversen Assocs.
1966.
Harper’s Bible
Commentary. Gen. 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.
Matthews, Victor H. Social
World of the Hebrew Prophets. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson
Publishers, Inc. 2001.
The New American Bible
for Catholics. South Bend:
Greenlawn Press. 1970.
The New Oxford Annotated
Bible with Apocrypha Expanded Edition. New York: Oxford
University Press. 1973.
La
Sacra Bibbia Versione Riveduta.
Dott. Giovanni Luzzi. Roma: Società Biblica Britannica &
Forestiera. Libreria Sacre Scritture Roma. 1990.
1
Information from notes taken at conference presentation by The Rev.
Dr. Robert J. Voyle.
2
Ibid.
4
Ibid.
6
Ibid.
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