Monday, December 26, 2016

What About the Sheep?

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC; Christmas Eve, 24 Dec. 2016
Year A RCL: Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14(15-20)

The shepherds hear astounding news from the angel & go in haste to Bethlehem to see this miracle baby.
On this night of nights, who watches over the sheep?
Our Gospel tells us:
v what the angel says to the shepherds,
v  what the heavenly host says &
v  what the shepherds say.
What do the sheep say?
[Yes, baa.]
What does this mean? . . . . Let's find out.
I have 2 distinct sheep. Use your imagination to hear this gray one say “baa”. [At right in photo]
How will this sheep's “baa” sound?



[Demo of sheep with colorful legs, at left in photo,
saying the Lord's Prayer.]
This colorful sheep [1] reminds us how Jesus teaches us to pray. We can pray the Lord's Prayer when we are living in joyful light & in difficult darkness.
We hear Isaiah say in our 1st reading: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”

There are many kinds of darkness. Some of us experience post-Christmas letdown, as author Tim Schenck reminds us in his book Dog in the Manger: Finding God in Christmas Chaos
Schneck asks: 
How does post-Christmas letdown impact your spiritual life?[2]

Beloved Brothers & Sisters, Jesus comes to redeem us & give us fuller life to draw us closer into God's love before, during & after Christmas.
Like a shepherd, Jesus comes to gather us straying sheep so we are safe in the flock. I know this is hard to remember when life is hard, when we are alone or separated, when we are in the grip of many demands.
Some demands we self-impose, striving to make Christmas “perfect”.
If the perfect Christmas means we have every detail taken care of, tell me:
Why on the 1st Christmas do shepherds
up & leave their sheep?

We know from our Nativity sets there are only 2 or 3 sheep with the shepherds!
[I asked some of you for a headcount of sheep in your Nativity sets. Only one family has more than 3: they have 4 sheep!]
How could the shepherds make haste to see Jesus & have time to gather all their flock into Bethlehem so crowded with people that Mary & Joseph have to stay in a stable?

What plan did God to have to protect the sheep the shepherds leave from lions & wolves?
I wonder if the shepherds laugh in the joy they experience after they get over being terrified. Joy & laughter are gifts from God. Laughter is healthy & can instill peace.

I wonder if the shepherd's laughter joins the joy of Mary & Joseph & the angels to fill the world with God's profound peace however briefly on this night of nights.

I wonder if this peace settles on the lion & the wolf & gives them deep sleep & freedom from worry about their next meal so the sheep are safe in the peaceable kingdom we glimpse on this night of nights.
How does this holy night come to be?
I wonder if one day God the Holy Trinity discusses the darkness we stumble in & starts brainstorming how to bring us Holy life-giving Light to restore us fully in God's image so we can live in righteousness & justice, as Isaiah says.
I wonder if the conversation goes like this:
God the Father says:
Y'all we've got a problem on earth.
The Holy Spirit says:
Yes! The people, especially the leaders, ignore what we say through the prophets about how to live.
Regular folk don't stand a chance to live fully & know us fully.
God the Father says:
We promised not to zap them again with a flood. They rationalize natural disasters & ignore their responsibility for caring for all creation.
If only we could talk to more of them more directly & walk with them through life.
Jesus says:
Hey, this could work!
What if I get born to one of them? Not as a prince but as a regular person.
Oh, what if I get born in a stable & sleep in a feedbox [3] !?
That's so funny it just might work!
At least it might give them some joy & a good laugh!
They are often so dreary.
God the Father says:
Son, if  you do this, many will remember & set up stables & decorate trees with
stars & angels to celebrate.
I love it!
The Holy Spirit says:
One thing wisdom demands: after you show them how to live & how to love, you have to show them how to forgive.
You have to love them until the end of life &
show them love never dies. [4]
God the Father says:
Son, you must realize they will betray you &
execute you, nailing you to a tree.
Jesus says:
I know. I love them so much I will do it! They can celebrate my birth & decorate all the trees they want. Those trees can remind them of the one tree only I can decorate. [5]
I will decorate the tree of death so they may have abundant life filled with joy & laughter,
peace & good will.
The Holy Spirit says:
Wonderful!
Y'all do remember we have given humans freedom to choose between good & evil.
Jesus says:
Yes. Some will choose right. They will be so filled with our joy & trust in us they will share the Good News that we love them
They will tell others that even in darkness, we shine great light.
They will be zealous to do good deeds
[as their holy scripture in Titus will say].
The Father says:
Son, who are they? How many?
Jesus says:
There are enough.
Look: I see a great group right now gathered in the far future in 2016 at St. Francis' in Goldsboro.
The Holy Spirit says:
These Beloved Children are so filled with our joy!
They will tell others that even in darkness, we shine great light!
These Beloved Sheep are strong in our love & zealous to do good!
Jesus says:
Yes. Ya gotta love 'em!
These Beloved Sheep ARE zealous to do good deeds!



Bibliography
The Catholic Company Christmas Gifts for Everyone. CatholicCompany.com. Charlotte, NC.
Harper’s Bible Commentary. Gen. Ed: James L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers. 1988.
Harper’s Bible Dictionary. Gen. Ed: Paul J. Achtemeier. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers. 1985. p. 851.
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.
New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger, eds. New York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1977.
Robinson, Barbara. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. New York: Avon Books. 1972.
Schenck, Tim. Dog in the Manger: Finding God in Christmas Chaos. Forward Movement. 2013.
Voyle, Robert J. “Blue Christmas Meditation: How Shall We Remember”. www.appreciativeway.com.

 [1] Toy by WeeBelievers.com purchased at The Christian Soldier book store in Goldsboro, NC.
[2]  Schenck, Tim.  Dog in the Manger: Finding God in Christmas Chaos. P. 77.
[3]  Note: Influenced by Barbara Robinson's The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
[4]  Voyle, Robert J. “Blue Christmas Meditation: How Shall We Remember”. www.appreciativeway.com.
[5]  Note: Influenced by information from Christmas Catalog of The Catholic Co. (Charlotte, NC). P. 30. CatholicCompany.com.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

What's in a Name?

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC; 4 Advent, 18 Dec. 2016
Year A RCL: Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew1:18-25
What's in a name?
Shakespeare has Juliet tell us:
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."1

You may recall Romeo & Juliet discuss the blight their last names put on their relationship. The 2 families are sworn enemies. It helps to discuss a problem. It helps to name a problem. If you can name it, you can claim it!

A variation of this saying tells us we can't solve a problem until we identify the problem. We have to know what our challenge is to resolve it. Knowing the name of something matters. In the Bible, a name matters big time.

To know someone's name is to have some control over the person. You recall when Moses encounters God at the burning bush, he asks God's name. God says “I am who I am.” Names have meaning.

Our scriptures today have more than 12 references to names.
In the reading from Isaiah, Ahaz sounds really upright when he refuses to put God to the test. This sounds as if he's living into the meaning of his name: “he was grasped”2 – as if grasped by awe of God.

Ahaz isn't upright. He is up-tight, grasped by fear. Fear of change, fear of invasion lead him to trust another ruler's intervention instead of trusting God,3 giving us yet another story in the Bible of humans doing things our own way, not fully trusting God, messing up, creating one more mess only God can redeem.

You & I are blessed to know God redeems us through Jesus' birth & his sacrifice on the cross. We read our Isaiah passage knowing the Good News of Jesus. Through Jesus [as one Bible commentary says of this passage] “God...[fulfills God's] promise that God would be with his people...”4

God is with us. We know this because of Jesus. We know God is also with us through each other. God works through Jesus to redeem the messes we make AND, because we belong to Jesus, God works with us through the power of the Holy Spirit to solve some messes.

As co-workers in God's clean-up crew, we help God create beautiful “newness” in renewed life. We see God working through people so clearly in our Gospel:

As Jesus' mother, Mary obviously is a key worker. Her name may mean “beloved”5. She is beloved by many. What kind of Christmas could we have if she had said “NO” to God's call? We are thankful for her “Yes.”

We must be thankful for Joseph's “Yes” in this difficult situation. Joseph, whose name means “may God add,”6 is vitally important in God's plan. Through him, God adds grace to life, like we see in Joseph's his ancestor, Joseph, whose brothers sell him into slavery & years later he saves them & many who would have starved in the famine.

God adds security, wisdom, & strength to Mary & Jesus through Joseph, a good man, who trusts God, who makes sure the family is safe & does what is right. He makes sure they observe religious requirements. When Jesus is 8-days-old, Joseph & Mary take Jesus to the temple to do what is expected with the first-born: present him to be dedicated to God.

When we present a person for baptism, dedicating them to God, we do so for them to receive the Holy Spirit, to become a living temple for the Holy Spirit. Through baptism each of us has been transformed, to shine the light of God's grace, to shine the light of Christ to the people in our lives.

To paraphrase from Paul's letter to the Romans: As servants of Jesus Christ, set apart for the Gospel to share the Good News in our generation, each of us is called to share the news of Jesus through whom we receive grace to bring about the obedience of faith among others for Jesus' sake.
As a Christian, you are “a little Christ,” anointed or bearing Christ,7 a sign of God's saving grace & love in this hurting world. You are a sign of God's life in holy community, a reflection of the Mystery we call the Holy Trinity. It is this Beloved Unity in whose image we are made & by whose grace we live as Brothers & Sisters.

As Beloved Sisters & Brothers in Christ, we are to pray for each other & help each other live into God's love. May we have the grace to help each other live into “friendship with Jesus.8

In our lesson from Romans, Paul reminds us we are called to be saints. Saints are friends with Jesus Christ.


As we hear in Celtic Praise,
Friendship with Christ cannot be claimed, but only received.

It is not a right, but privilege.

Open your heart to Christ,
he will enter.

Come to him on your knees,
& he will raise you up.






Bibliography
Handy Dictionary of the Bible. Gen. Ed: Merrill C. Tenney. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House. 1973.
Harper’s Bible Commentary. Gen. Ed: James L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers. 1988.
Harper’s Bible Dictionary. Gen. Ed: Paul J. Achtemeier. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers. 1985. p. 851.
Holy Bible with the Apocrypha. New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
http://www.bartleby.com/70/3822.html Accessed: 16 Dec. 2016.
http://www.behindthename.com. Accessed: 16 Dec. 2016.
http://www.ourbabynamer.com. Accessed: 16 Dec. 2016.
http://www.sheknows.com/baby-names. Accessed: 16 Dec. 2016.
Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger, eds. New York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1977.
Van de Weyer, Robert. Celtic Praise: A Book of Celtic Devotion, Daily Prayers and Blessings. Nashville: Abingdon Press. 1998.


1 http://www.bartleby.com/70/3822.html Accessed: 16 Dec. 2016.
2 Handy Dictionary of the Bible. Gen. Ed: Merrill C. Tenney. P. 5.
3 Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. P. 798.
4 Harper’s Bible Commentary. Gen. Ed: James L. Mays. P. 952.
5 http://www.behindthename.com. Accessed: 15 Dec. 2016.
6 Handy Dictionary of the Bible. Gen. Ed: Merrill C. Tenney. P. 85.
7 http://www.behindthename.com. Accessed: 16 Dec. 2016.

8 Van de Weyer, Robert. Celtic Praise: A Book of Celtic Devotion, Daily Prayers and Blessings. P. 33.

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Rose Sunday: A Gift of Joy & Wonder

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC; 3 Advent, 11 Dec. 2016
Year A RCL: Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 146:4-9; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11

We see reminders everywhere that Christmas is around the corner. Among these reminders, we see the pink candle lighted on the Advent wreath to mark today as Rose Sunday, the half-way point in our Advent journey to Christmas.

Christmas is our special opportunity to give joyful thanks to God for God's coming to live among us to show us how to live fully with love, with compassion, how to live in Holy Community, as we hear James say in today's lesson: “Beloved, do not grumble against one another...”

When we live in Holy Community – reflecting God's Holy Unity – we work with God to fulfill what Isaiah tells us:
The desert...shall blossom abundantly,
& rejoice with joy & singing.”
How lovely does this sound to you?
Sometimes that desert lives next door to you as a grumpy, sad person, thirsting for fuller life to blossom. Maybe this person sits near you in church!
What if you invite this person to sit with you?

Today’s scriptures take us centuries back in time & far away geographically, yet the information fits us in this century & in this place. We still have problems in the world & individually. We still have hopes. We still see glimpses of us “getting it right,” of finally learning how to live as God calls us to live humbly, with mercy, loving God fully, loving others as we love ourselves.

When we do this, we work with God, as we joyfully say in our Psalm, so that:
The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
The LORD loves the righteous; the LORD cares for the stranger,...sustains the orphan & widow, but frustrates the way of the wicked.

As the Body of Christ here, we are one way God does this work of justice & freeing, of bringing sight to the blind, lifting up those who are bowed down, loving the righteous, caring for strangers, orphans & widows. When we do this, we frustrate the wicked!

Our scriptures tell us: across the ages, across the globe, God keeps reaching out to God’s creation, reaching out to all people to draw them into God’s love. God calls us to reach out in Jesus' name to draw more people into God's love – this gift of joy & wonder we know through Jesus.

Know this:
It is easier to SAY “the Good News of Jesus is for everyone” than to live this truth. It may be harder to share this Good News at this sometimes hectic season with all our to-do lists, traditions to uphold, & activities to attend.

How many have your house decorated for Christmas? How many have your tree up? What kinds of decorations do you have on it? Lights? All the same color lights? Tinsel? What kinds of ornaments? Angels? Snowflakes? Candy canes? What else? A star?. . . .[Other answers included: cats, dogs.]
Who has hung a nail on your tree as an ornament? Why? Why not?

I read in a gift catalog some people place a nail on their tree as an ornament to serve as a reminder “that the Christmas tree...foreshadows the Christ-tree [the Cross on Calvary that] only [Jesus] could decorate for us.”1

Only Jesus can decorate the Christ-tree of Calvary for us. For US – each of us: you, me, the irritating neighbor, the stranger, the widow, the orphan, the prisoner, the blind, the lame.
You & I know this Good News. You & I have this Good News to share – EVEN in this hectic season & all seasons.

This Good News is why Jesus says in today's Gospel John is the least in the kingdom of heaven.2 Wonderfully faithful as John is obeying God's call & speaking God's truth, he lacks the whole story of the depths of God's love.3 While he is still alive, John does not know the profound depth of God's love Jesus expresses on the Christ-tree. The saints in heaven know the whole story & live in God's profound love.

Even without having the full picture, John helps prepare the way for people to hear the message. Throughout the ages, God sends people as messengers to prepare the way for people to hear God's Good News & to learn God loves them.

Who prepared the way for you? Who helped you hear God's Good News: God loves you so totally, so profoundly that he dies for you on that decorated Christ-tree? Who prepared the way for that person so he or she could share God's Good News with you?

YOU have Good News to share. You & I individually & corporately as the Body of Christ have a message of Good News to share. Our message is: Jesus is risen & works among us & through us & LOVES us – LOVES us BIG time!

This is Good News to share.
Blessed are you when you share this Good News.
Blessed are you when you prepare the way for a person to hear God's Good News.
Blessed are you because Jesus’ works through you & this means, as our Gospel today says, the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead live again, & the poor have Good News.
And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at our message!

You have this Good News!

How can you keep it to yourself?






Bibliography
Barclay, William. The Gospel of Matthew: Vol. 2. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1975.
Barclay, William. The Letters of James and Peter. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976.
The Catholic Company Christmas Gifts for Everyone. CatholicCompany.com. Charlotte, NC. Christmas Catalog of The Catholic Co. (Charlotte, NC). Also http://www.catholiccompany.com/ Accessed: 6 Dec. 2016.
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.
Howard, Katherine L. Waiting in Joyful Hope: Daily Reflections for Advent & Christmas 2005-2006 Year B. Harrisburg: Morehouse, 2005.
Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
The New American Bible for Catholics. South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1970.
New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger, eds. New York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1977.
Villapando, José Manuel. La Virgen de Guadalupe: una biografía. México, D.F.: Editorial Planeta Mexicana. 2004.

1 Note: Information from Christmas Catalog of The Catholic Co. (Charlotte, NC). P. 30. Also CatholicCompany.com. http://www.catholiccompany.com/ Accessed: 6 Dec. 2016.
2 Barclay, William. The Gospel of Matthew: Vol. 2. Pp. 6-7.

3 Ibid. P. 6.

Sunday, December 4, 2016

You Viper's Brood! . . . . May You Abound in Hope!

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC; 2 Advent, 4 Dec. 2016
Year A RCL: Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12
You viper's brood!
Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?!

I can't preach like John the Baptist, the fiery outdoor prophet. I preach in our climate-controlled building!
Even wearing this woolly-looking jacket, the white*1 alb underneath looks very different from what our Gospel says John wears: camel's hair clothing, a leather belt around his waist.
What would he look like today?
Can you see him with long, unruly hair? Around his waist he wears a burlap bag tied with twine. As he strides down this center aisle to sit down front, you read the slogan scrawled on the back of his denim jacket:
Jesus Saves!”
If this distinctive person comes in here & sits on your row will you bear fruit worthy of repentance, which we seek at Eucharist so we can live new lives? Will you welcome this strange stranger?

Will you, Beloved Little Child of God, welcome this lion to eat with us at this Holy Table? Will you put out your hand at the peace to shake his – like a child putting its hand over the adder's den, as Isaiah describes of the peaceable kingdom?

Will you, as Paul encourages us to do in our lesson from Romans, welcome one another just as Christ has welcomed you? If you do, then we can with one voice glorify God. This one voice is a harmony of many voices.
Paul reminds the Romans & us of this fact: With God's help we can live in harmony with one another. Harmony has many parts, many sounds. It is much richer than a monotone: all sounding exactly alike.

Our many voices blending together speak God's love & unite into a glorious chorus of praise to God.
I am convinced you/we have such great unity, the ability to live in harmony. Paul says in our lesson: “May the God of hope fill you [us] with all joy & peace in believing, so you [we] may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Abounding in hope & by the power of the Holy Spirit, yes, you would do as Paul encourages us to do. You do welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. You will welcome a John the Baptist here as he marches down the center aisle in his burlap bag.

I am convinced you can reflect the unity we know of God's Mystery. This Unity is Holy Community, the Holy Trinity: 3 in One, One in 3 – Unity which welcomes all sorts & conditions of people.

I am convinced of this because I have seen you welcome strangers. This is not new to you. Beloved Brothers & Sisters, in the 7 months I've been with this beautiful Body of Christ, I have seen your grace & purposeful unity in stressful times.

I am convinced of this also because my husband & I have witnessed such an encounter among Episcopalians in another church. We remember the Sunday when the lessons we have today have just been read. The lay preacher has just started her sermon, focusing on John the Baptist.
In walks this burlap bag guy wearing the denim
“Jesus Saves” jacket. He strides toward the front.
Most of us think he's helping illustrate her sermon, the preacher's prop, a theater student from the college across the street where she teaches.
We think this until we smell the scent of body odor trailing him like incense lingers after a procession. We see people shift away uncomfortably.
After the sermon, one woman on the pew scoots closer to him & opens the Prayer Book to the Creed for him. He doesn't use it. He knows the Creed by heart. He knows when to stand, sit & kneel. We learn later he's an Episcopalian. He has drifted into our community off his medications & far from his home in a state far away.

He becomes part of parish worship & fellowship. He chastises us for throwing out food left on plates after the parish supper & rescues it from the trash for his next meal. He chastises me for shaking crumbs from table cloths into the yard; however, he stops picking them up when I remind him they are for the ants & the birds.

This Beloved Child of God teaches us much & gives us new perspectives. God has put him among us for us to learn from him, & for us to bless him. The head of mental health happens to be a parishioner & eventually locates his family, gets him the medicines he needs & helps him return home.

When we see someone who is different or someone who irritates us, what assumptions do we make? The burlap bag man assumed I was thoughtlessly wasting food when, in fact, I was careful not to throw crumbs into the trash but was feeding God's creatures outside.

Jesus meets us where we are. Our scriptures tell us of “the knowledge of the Lord”, which some translate as “devotion”2 to the Lord. They tell us of “fear of the Lord”, which some translate as “reverence.”3 Our scriptures remind us: God constantly reaches out to us in love, peace, mercy. Sometimes God wears a burlap bag to do this.

God does this to bring us into closer relationship with God & into fullness of life.

We know Jesus dies for each of us before we ever ask forgiveness. This knowledge should create devotion in us & replace fear with reverence & gratitude.

Jesus dies for each of us while we are still trailing the odor of our sins, while we are “off our meds” & have no idea where we are, where we come from, where we're going.
Jesus dies for us while we are still a disheveled mess.

Jesus reaches out his hand to us while we are a brood of vipers & lets us bite his hand over & over.
Eventually we will run out of venom.

Eventually we will curl up in peace, wrapping ourselves around Jesus, hearing his heart beating, beating, beating in harmony with God's love.

Jesus does this just because. . . .
. . . . just because God loves you.

Beloved Child, God invites YOU to feast in peace & unity in God's Holy Community of Love.

Share this feast.

Share this feast.


Bibliography
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. 1970.


1 * An alb is white! So I am being redundant.
2  Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. P. 808.

3  Ibid. P. 807. Note: The New American Bible for Catholics translates it as “piety.” P. 756.