Homily
by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA
24
Jan. 2016,
Epiphany 3 Year C:
Nehemiah 8:1-3,
5-6, 8-105,
Psalm 19, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a, Luke 4:14-21
This
late-arriving Christmas card looks like much of our mail1.
A
much different looking piece of mail arrived last week. I'll share it
with you in a bit.
Most
items we receive in the mail share the same purpose: to communicate
with us. Our scriptures share this purpose. Unlike our personal mail,
we share our scriptures in community when we come together to hear
what God has to communicate to us.
In
a public event, people hear Ezra read the scroll in our 1st
lesson. Paul sends his letter to be read when the Corinthians are
together. Jesus reads aloud to the community at Sabbath worship.
Notice:
We hear our scriptures in English instead of the languages of the
original hearers. Someone interpreted them for us. We use our sound
system to help us hear. We use these raised platforms to help voices
carry. Ezra reads from a wooden tower built for this occasion at the
Water Gate opposite the Temple.2
In
our 1st
lesson, we hear the leaders strive to communicate with all people who
can understand. On this special day they hear Hebrew words in the
newly discovered scroll that
we read about in 2nd
Kings.3
The
words tell the Sinai event when Moses speaks to his people, ancestors
of
the recent exiles to whom Ezra reads. Since many do not understand
Hebrew, the leaders have people translate what Ezra reads.4
Notice: when the people weep, the leaders say: celebrate “the joy
of the Lord [that] is your strength.” God's promise is sure &
something to celebrate.
Notice
the encouragement Paul offers the Corinthians to see their oneness as
the Body of Christ, the wealth of their many resources: their gifts
from the Holy Spirit that make the Body strong, gifted, able to
spread the Good News of God's abundant Love. We have this gift. This
Good News brings great joy – the kind of joy active here & in
our ECW as
was obvious at yesterday's meeting.
Jesus
reads the Good News of God's word at public worship & explains
that the prophecy has been fulfilled. The Good News is still being
fulfilled in us & through us as the Body of Christ. Central
to the Good News that we know through Jesus is that God keeps the
promises God makes.
We
all make promises.5
When we buy something with a credit card, we are promising to pay the
bill.6
As
my favorite children's sermon website notes:
The stamp the Postal Service sells us “represents [the
Postal Service's]
promise to deliver [what we mail] to the person to whom [it] is
addressed.”
I
hold this proof that the Postal Service strives to fulfill its
promise to deliver a stamped item – or at least as much of it as
possible. My husband found this partial envelope with 4 stamps on it in our
mailbox. The message imprinted in red reads:
Damaged
in handling.
Indeed.....Perhaps
this is a visual metaphor of our human brokenness & the great
efforts we humans make to deliver God's words of Love & healing
despite our brokenness. This work can take great effort.
Look
at the brokenness the postal employee had to work through with
admirable due diligence to deliver this half-envelope: the house
number & half our street name are torn off, as is the most of the
word Bainbridge. ZIP Codes do help interpret. Our last name does
show. Someone made the connection. What connections can you make in
this broken world through the power of the Holy Spirit?
[What
was inside the envelop remains a mystery.] This
mystery reminds me of our human brokenness & our call to live
God's reconciling love that restores relationships, unity, wholeness.
This
mystery is like the need for deeper understanding that we hear in our
scriptures as interpreters explain what Ezra reads, as Paul gives
insights to the Corinthians about the essence of unity of the Body of
Christ, as we hear Jesus say: the meaning of the scripture he reads
is fulfilled. How do we hear Jesus?
Jesus
speaks through the Holy Spirit in our hearts & through our
Brothers & Sisters in this Body of Christ & beyond. The Holy
Spirit inspires this happening community to live God's love.
The
abundance of God's Love guides us despite our continuing human sin.
God's Love gives us grace to move beyond anger, hurt, brokenness.
God's grace opens us to compassion, unity, wholeness. Gods love flows
to make us a healthy Body of Christ. God's Love frees us to savor the
Mystery of God's Love that unfolds sometimes at glacier speed, a
metaphor one of you recently used.
God's
Love active in this Body blesses us with abundant gifts of the Spirit
to equip us for our work of ministry, our
healing, reconciling work. We
can bring good news to the poor in what we say & do. You do this
in many ways. Your generosity & love overflow. Example: one of
you did this very efficiently & simply last week helping 2
homeless men get help from the Salvation Army.
In
word & action, you proclaim relief to captives, recovery of sight
& set the oppressed free. Example:
One of you did this very
effectively & generously by speaking compassionately & wisely
to a disabled veteran, giving him immediate assistance &
new
insight to see how to avoid his problem in the future.
In
this Body of Christ we embrace the wisdom
Paul shares: no one can say “I have no need of you”. God's
Love reveals itself uniquely in each of you, Beloved Brothers &
Sisters.
Your Vestry focuses on this in our Responsive Litany7,
part of which we use at our Annual Meeting, which we will read now.
Your part is
in bold.
Our
bodies have many different parts. God
created us that way. Even
the parts that seem the least important are valuable. God
created us that way. If
one part hurts, we hurt all over; and if one part does well, the
whole body benefits. God
created us that way. Our
group is like a body. Each
part is important. God
calls us to work together. And
to care about each other. The
world is like a body. Each
part is important. God
calls us to work together. And
to care about each other. Dear
God, Help us to work together, to see how important we are to one
another & to value our ministry together in this place. In Jesus’
name. Let
the words of our mouths & the whispering of our hearts be
according to your will, O God. Amen.
Bibliography
Harper’s
Bible Commentary.
General Ed.: Jams. L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row
Publishers, 1988.
Holy
Bible with the Apocrypha.
New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press.
1989.
http://vicarbill.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/devotions-for-congregation-leadership/
Accessed: 6 Dec. 2013.
Jewish
Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation.
New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Kesselus,
The Rev. Ken. “Parts
of the whole, Epiphany 3 (C) – 2016”. Accessed: 22 Jan. 2016.
http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2016/01/06/parts-of-the-whole-epiphany-3-c-2016/
1
Idea from “Promises
Fulfilled”. http://www.sermons4kids.com/promises_fulfilled.htm
Accessed:
22 Jan. 2016.
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid. P. 1700.
6
Ibid.
7
http://vicarbill.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/devotions-for-congregation-leadership/
Accessed: 6 Dec. 2013.
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