Homily
by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
Francis' Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC; 4 Lent, 26 March
2017
RCL
Year A: 1 Samuel 16:1-13; Psalm 23;
Ephesians 5:8-14; John
9:1-41
How
many of you play or played a sport or musical instrument? Other than
equipment & lessons, what does your sport or instrument require?
[Practice. Dedication. Time.] A coach / a
teacher?
Think
of when you 1st
started playing. How much practice did it take?
[A lot.]
What
about a time the coach/teacher guides you to a new technique you just
can’t grasp? . . . . Suddenly you get it! You see clearly! What is
that like? Like being in the dark & someone turns on the light?
Like being blind & suddenly you see?
When
things are tough & we face challenges we just can’t grasp, we
may want to give up, quit our “sport” & go home.
Notice
the last sentence in our 1st
lesson after Samuel has anointed David: “Samuel . . . set out &
went to Ramah.” Samuel goes home to Ramah, his hometown.1
He isn’t giving up. He is a team player on God’s team & has
just secretly anointed David to be King – to be team captain since
Saul has proven to be an unfit leader.
Not
a team player, Saul doesn’t follow the play book & is in the
dark about how he’s pulling down the team. He’s blind about how
to work as a team. He’s blind to trusting God.
Like
many of us when we just don’t “get it” & lose sight of how
to play the game, fear
enters the game. Fear
plays a part in some Pharisees’ reactions when Jesus gives sight to
the blind. They are loyal to God’s law & are sure
the rule book says: You can’t heal on the sabbath.
Steeped
in law, the Pharisees miss God’s Love which gives the law. Caught
up in rules, they can’t play the game in a new way.
They can’t
see the Light of God’s Love.
They can’t learn the new technique:
Compassion.
The
Pharisees hear what they do not want to hear & react negatively.
It takes God’s grace for us to hear what we don’t want to hear &
accept it as truth.
Think
of the disaster Jesus’ disciples will soon hear him talk about &
then see as he hangs on the cross. What looks like disaster brings a
new beginning of abundant life. Jesus forgives us from the cross.
Forgiveness is
essential to healing in this life.
Forgiving
is to do what Paul tells us in Ephesians: Live as children of
light…expose works of darkness to the light. This includes past
dark deeds.
We
want past hurts, broken relationships to be different. This
can challenge us. Remember: you can forgive someone without
continuing a relationship. Forgiveness is not reconciliation.
You can forgive without speaking to the person. You
can forgive a dead person. Forgiving frees you.
Trusting
Jesus, we can forgive. This frees us from holding onto resentment
like the Pharisees & Saul, who have a tight hold on resentment &
anger about anyone not doing things their way. As
Nelson Mandela said:
Resentment
is like drinking poison & . . .
Resentment
lives in the dark past when things didn’t go as we wanted them to
go. Resentment is living today & demanding the past should have
been different, that someone would have behaved differently. This
is a good way to stay miserable.
An
elder is teaching his grandchildren about life & says: “A fight
is going on inside me. It’s a terrible fight between 2 wolves.
One
wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance,
self-pity, resentment, guilt, inferiority, jealousy & lies.
The
other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity,
humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity,
truth
& compassion.
This
same fight is going on inside each of you & every other person.”
The
grandchildren think about this. One asks: “Which wolf will win?”
The
wise one replies: The
one I feed.
We
can stop feeding the negative wolf & start feeding the positive
wolf when we accept the fact we can’t change the past. We can see
the past in the Light of God’s Love & re-frame how we
think of past hurts. We can change our
demand for things to have been different into a preference that they
would have been different. This frees us.
Re-framing
my complaint loosens my hold on anger & makes it easier to let go
of hurt.
In
its confession, the Lutheran liturgy offers a deeper sense of this
than our general confession. Our Lutheran brothers & sisters say:
“forgive us, renew
us, & lead us so that we may delight in your will & walk in
your ways.”4
Renew
us, Jesus!
Forgiveness
renews us & reaches beyond just my life / your life. Forgiveness
shines new light: the Light of God’s Love.
Our
coming together regularly to worship keeps us fit as a team &
strengthens each of us in God’s love so that fear does not
rule us when we face a challenge.
This
strength is why one father [who has heard what no parent wants to
hear] can speak to the young driver who caused his child’s death while crossing a busy street, carrying a book bag.
The
young driver is a friend & doesn’t see this friend while
shifting the big vehicle & runs over the friend, catching the book bag, dragging the body as a witness frantically
signals the driver to stop.
The
body is mangled. The victim dies days later. Although
charged in the death, the driver attends this friend's funeral.
Family members speak with people afterward. The
bereaved father [a lawyer] sees the young driver, goes & says the
driver needs a lawyer. The young friend acknowledges this & is
working on it.
The
father says: Stop looking. I will represent you. I will stand with
you.
This
level of forgiveness reflects years of living in God’s grace,
years
of practicing, practicing, practicing the love Jesus teaches us.
Bibliography
Fever, Kyle. “Commentary Ephesians
2:1-10”. Accessed: 23 March 2017.
http://www.workingpreacher.org_/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2393
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. 1985.
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 Amerian
Bible for Catholics. South Bend:
Greenlawn Press. 1970.
New Oxford
Anontated Bible with Apocrypha. Eds:
Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger. New York: Oxford University Press,
Inc. 1977.
Voyles, Robert J.
Restoring
Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment.
Hillsboro, OR:The Appreciative Way. 2010. “Teaching Forgiveness”.
www.appreciativeway.com.
2014.
2
Quoted by Voyles, Robert J. “Teaching Forgiveness”. P. 54.
3
Ibid. Voyle. P. 54
4
Fever, Kyle. “Commentary Ephesians 2:1-10”. Accessed: 23 March
2017.
http://www.workingpreacher.org_/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2393
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