By
The Rev. Marcia McRae & edited for this blog from Homily for
St.
John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA; 2 Advent, 8 Dec. 2013
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 that fiery outdoor prophet. I
preach in this climate controlled building. These purple vestments
over a white alb look very different from what our Gospel says John
wears: camel's hair clothing with a leather belt around his waist. What
would he look like today?
Can you see him with his hair
long & unruly?
He wears a
crocker sack tied with twine.
As he walks down this center aisle to
sit on the front pew, you read the slogan scrawled
on the back of his
denim jacket:
“Jesus Saves!”
If
this character comes in here & sits on your pew will you bear
fruit worthy of the repentance we speak at every Eucharist as we seek
God's forgiveness so that we can live new lives? Will you welcome
this strange
stranger?
Will you, dear Beloved Child of God, dear little child,
welcome this lion to eat with us at this Holy Table?
Will you offer
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 the Romans to do)
welcome one another just as Christ has welcomed you?
If you do, then
we can – with one voice – glorify God. That one voice is a
harmony of many voices.
Paul
reminds the Romans (& us) that with God's help we can live in
harmony with one another. Harmony has many parts, many sounds. It is
so different & much richer than a monotone, than 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 that you – that we – have such great unity, such
ability to live in harmony. Yes, you would do
as Paul encourages the Romans to do. You WILL welcome one another
just as Christ has welcomed you. You will welcome
a John the Baptist here as he marches down the center aisle in his
crocker sack, trailing a scent of body odor like incense floating in
procession on a festival day.
I
am
convinced that you – that we – can reflect the unity
we know of God's Mystery: Unity that is Holy Community, the Holy
Trinity – 3 in One, 1 in 3 – Unity that welcomes all sorts &
conditions of people.
I
am convinced of this because I have seen you welcome strangers &
make them our Beloved Brothers & Sisters. I have seen your grace
& determined unity under fire & in stressful times. I am
convinced because my husband & I have witnessed such an encounter
among Episcopalians not too far from here. We
remember that Sunday when the lessons we have today have just been
read:
The preacher has just started her sermon, focusing on John the
Baptist. In walks this character that I have just described: the
crocker sack guy with denim Jesus Saves jacket strides to the front
pew.
Most of us think he's the preacher's prop,
a theater student
from across the street
here to help illustrate her sermon.
We
think this until we whiff the scent of him & see people shift
uncomfortably nearby. One woman on the pew scoots closer to him after
the sermon & opens the Prayer Book to the Creed for him.
He
doesn't use it.
He knows the Creed by heart.
He's an Episcopalian.
He
knows when to stand, sit, & kneel. He has drifted into our
community, ill & far from home.
He
becomes part of parish worship & fellowship. He chastises us for
throwing out food left on plates after the parish supper &
rescues it for a meal. He chastises me for shaking crumbs from the
table cloths into the yard behind the kitchen; however, he stops 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 a health organization happens to be a
parishioner & eventually locates his family, gets him needed
medicine & helps him return home.
When
we see someone who is different or someone who irritates us, what
assumptions do we make? He 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 remind us that God constantly
reaches out to us in love, peace & mercy. Sometimes God wears a
crocker sack to do this.
God does this to bring us into closer
relationship
with God & into fullness of life.
We
know that Jesus dies for each of us before we ever ask forgiveness.
Jesus dies for each of us while we are still trailing the odor of our
sins. 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 in harmony with God's love.
Jesus does this just because....just because...just because God loves you.
YOU, Beloved Child,
God invites to feast in peace
& in unity
in God's Holy Community of love.
Bibliography
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.
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