Homily
by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA
13
Dec. 2015,
Advent 3 Year C:
Zephaniah 3:14-20;
Canticle 9; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18
On
a scale of 1-10 [10
being highest]
where do you rate the energy level of one of these stones?
Know
these facts: each of these stone is different, each bears a different
decorative sticker, each of you may take one home, and this is not an
attempt to bring back the Pet Rock fad.
On
a scale of 1-10, I'll rate a stone's energy level 8-10. More
of that in a bit.
On
a scale of 1-10, I rate stones high for what they can teach us about
our scriptures today.
We hear John in our Gospel say:
God
can raise up children from stones. Our other scriptures say nothing
about stones & much about rejoicing, singing, ringing out joy.
Reading
our canticle, the First Song of Isaiah, the words about God being our
stronghold & sure defense bring to mind God as the “rock of our
salvation,” that
we hear in 2nd
Samuel 22:47.
Rocks/stones
are solid, strong. They live
the holiness of being
exactly what God designs them to be. They sit right where they are,
right where you put them until you –
or
something –
moves
them. Maybe
that was the appeal of the Pet Rock fad.
Consider this fact: I have not seen one of these stones worry.
At
this hectic time of year, stones may remind us to take time just to
chill, just sit, &, as
Paul says to the Philippians & us:
not to worry about anything; God's peace that surpasses all
understanding will guard our hearts & minds in Jesus Christ.
For
us who find comfort sitting still, these stones may speak to us about
resting in God's love. For us who find activity more satisfying,
these stones can speak about relying on God's love. We just have to
remember on a scale of 1-10 to rate a stone' energy level between 8
and 10.
Fact: it requires great internal activity for a stone to sit
still.
A
stone's apparent inactivity belies
how busily it works to
be
what God has created it to
be.
To be a solid lump, a stone's atoms have to move
very fast. A stone is very active on the inside, serving
God’s
will for its existance.
Remember:
Jesus is the cornerstone into which we are built.
You & I are
stones that build up this happening community where we live God's
love. God's love calls for us to be joyful, for us not to worry, &
to take time to be still. This sounds so contrary to the action verbs
in our scriptures with all their singing aloud, rejoicing, ringing
out joy, proclaiming the Good News: Go loves you. No exceptions. All
are welcome.
God's
love is broad & many dimensional. We experience God's love in
stillness & through activity. We experience God's love in our
joyful sharing at this Holy Table where we celebrate God's love &
the joy we know through Jesus' life, death for us, & resurrection
& the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our 1st
lesson today assures us God joins us in our joy.
When
life events prevent our coming – your coming – to participate in
our celebration, we can bring the celebration to you. [Thank
you, Lay Eucharistic Visitors, for your ministry of sharing our
feast, our celebration of God's love.]
We
celebrate the feast God gives us
for solace AND for strength,
for
pardon AND for renewal.
Through the feast we gain strength for the
work God gives each of us to do with our unique gifts.
My
Brothers and Sisters, BE who God designs you to be. You
living
stones are
a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Just as these stones have
different looks & messages, each of us is different.
The
Rev. Chris Brathwaite of the Diocese of Central Florida,
Rector
of St. Mark's, Haines City,
asks if we realize what we say when we call each other Brothers &
Sisters in Christ. Writing
about the work of the Anti-Racism Commission1,
he says: Our
starting point to discuss race relations, “should be acknowledging
that we are created in [God's] image & stand before [God] as a
rainbow – different
colors, one entity.”2
I see this as a starting point in any human relationship. We are
different. We are one human family.
Fr.
Brathwaite reminds us: “In the beginning God created the first
couple, none of us has any idea what color they were...[W]e do know
that with every other thing [God] made – animals, birds, landscape,
& more – [God gives] us many examples of the same species or
kind, but different colors.”3
Our
identity comes from being children of God,
not how we look.
Our unity
is in our diversity.
As you take your special stone home & look at it, ponder what God
is saying to you through this very busy, very solid part of God's
creation.
What is God saying through you?
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.
Matthews,
Victor H. Social World of the Hebrew
Prophets.
Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. 2001.
Nave,
Orville J. Nave's Topical Index: A
Digest of the Holy Scriptures.
Nashville: The Southwestern Co. 1962.
The
New American Bible for Catholics.
South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.
1
Brathwaite, The Rev. Chris. “My Brothers and Sisters in Christ”
Do we realize what we are saying? Central
Florida Episcopalian.
Nov. 2015. P. 6
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid.
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