Homily
by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC; 17th
Sunday after Pentecost, 11 Sept. 2016
Proper
19 Year C RCL: Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Psalm 14;
1 Timothy 1:12–17; Luke 15:1–10
Jesus
says: “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner who repents.”
It
took a storm at sea to help slave ship captain John Newton to see
that what we do matters, to see himself as a lost sheep & to
repent.
He
tells us of God's amazing grace in the hymn he wrote in 1773.2
“Amazing
Grace!
How
sweet the sound that saved
a wretch like me!
I
once was lost but now am found,
was
blind but now I see.”3
Now
I see differently his words about this sweet sound4.
As a ship captain, the “sweet sound” may not be a sound he hears. A sound may be an inlet he sees in the sea5,
a safe harbor in the storm.
This amazing grace lets Newton see with
new eyes that how he was living6
separated him from God, despite its being acceptable in his day.
God
uses many ways to find & save the lost. We
may help the lost one. We may misplace something valuable, like the
lost coin, putting it where it accidentally falls into a dark corner.
We may be the sheep mindlessly, merrily munching grass & getting
lost. However unintentionally our lost-ness may happen, what we do
matters – individually & to our brothers & sisters in the
human family.
God
uses people, including St. Paul, to help the blind to see. St. Paul
sees with new eyes after his dramatic encounter with Jesus literally
blinds him. He has been violently persecuting his fellow Jews who
follow Jesus. Paul struggles to keep them in line with God's law –
as he understands it.
When
Paul sees with new eyes, he repents & returns to God in a new
way.
All
Paul's learning, knowledge of scripture, devotion to God are
transformed & useful in his new work teaching God's Good News of
Jesus' saving life, death & resurrection.
We
hear this Good News in Jesus' parable: God cherishes being in holy
relationship with us. God seeks us for holy relationship. God holds
back from breaking our relationship.
In
our 1st
lesson, Jeremiah’s poetic description of disaster may sound like
hyperbole describing ancient troubles far away. Think of current news
& pictures of earthquakes in Italy, Peru, Oklahoma & of
destruction in Syria. Remember images from 15 years ago on Sept.
11th.
Remember
the joy, the relief of learning someone special to you has survived a
tough situation, perhaps missed it entirely by not being there, such
as missing a flight that crashes. Think of people late for work &
not in the Pentagon or the Twin Towers on 911.
I
know the relief of learning loved ones in DC are safe & the grief
colleagues in New York shared of friends who did go to work in the
Towers & their own fear as they ran to safety in the city under those
clouds of smoke.
I
remember our joy of being returned to relationship when the
earthquake in Mexico City separated my family & me when I was a
child asleep upstairs & my family were downstairs playing. When
the shaking stopped, Daddy tested the stairs, quickly gathered his
scared lost sheep & returned me to the family.
Think
of the joy we have seen as survivors have been pulled to safety from
rubble in Italy’s recent earthquakes.
Imagine the delight when
Romeo, the golden retriever, was rescued 9 days after the quake & the cat, Pietro, was
pulled free 15 days after the quake.7
Such
stories may help us understand what Jesus says about “joy...over
one sinner who repents.”
If we feel such joy over the rescue of pets,
maybe we have some idea of the joy in heaven when one more beloved
child of God in the human family is pulled from separation in the
rubble of sin & returns to full relationship.
Whether
our choices are deliberate or inadvertent, God is ready to redeem us.
“God seeks healing & wholeness [for us]...,not an end to (our)
relationship.”8
God
extends grace to us AND
through us.
God calls Jeremiah & Paul in their days. Now God
calls you & me to find the lost sheep.
You
& I are among the 99 sheep the Good Shepherd can leave. We are
safe. We are in community.
In
this holy relationship, we help & protect each other. We promise
this in our Baptismal Covenant. We are asked: “Will
you...do all in your power
to support these
persons in
their
life
in Christ?” We promise: “We will.”9
All
in our power includes our prayers, our wisdom, sharing, listening,
caring. This is stewardship, giving of our time, our abilities, our
resources. We offer this in many ways, for example at the Soup
Kitchen where we speak with our guests, & offering gifts to
Dillard School, some of which we will bless today.
We
know divisions exist, including in Goldsboro. Remembering the deaths
& destruction on 911 & seeing continuing destruction &
violence in in many places [including Goldsboro, Raleigh, Durham &
Fayetteville] remind us of our divisions, anger, hate, prejudice.
Children
who lost a parent on 911 & loved ones of people around the world
killed by violence may help us overcome divisions.
These young people
participate in a camp [part
of Project Common Bond begun in 2008]
at Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania.10
Participants
who shared their stories & insights this year include:
◦ a Palestinian,
◦ an Israeli,
◦ a
Muslim girl dressed in hijab,
◦ an
American teen, son of a first responder who died at the
Twin Towers,
◦ a
war weary Middle East participant who wants to work for peace but
feels discouraged,
◦ a
participant from Northern Ireland says: “Don't give up...we've
gotten there. It's not perfect; we didn't think it was going to
happen but it did.”11
A
therapist at the camp says, “sharing their stories & seeing
across cultural divides” leads to better understanding to help
“break the cycle of anger & violence.”12
Understanding
someone more fully, we can think differently about them.13
“[These
young people] recoil every time there is news of another bombing,
another massacre...They weather each attack with empathy &
wisdom. And a visceral desire to build a more peaceful world.”14
A
participant posted on a bulletin board this note about peace:
“It
does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or
hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things & still be
calm in your heart.”15
Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or
hard work.
Peace means to be in the midst of those things
&
still be
calm in your heart.
Bibliography
“Another
deadly quake hits northern Italy”. Accessed: 09 Sept. 2016.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9297715/Another-deadly-earthquake-hits-northern-Italy.html
The
American College Dictionary.
ED-in-Chief: C.L. Barnhart. New York: Random House. 1966.
Basu,
Moni. Wayne Drash. “ Camp for young people touched by terror”.
CNN Updated 12:20 PM ET, 8 Sept. 2016.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/06/world/children-of-terror-camp/
Accessed: 9 Sept. 2016
Brown,
Raymond E. An
Introduction to the New Testament.
New York: Doubleday. 1997.
Brueggemann,
Walter. Journey to the
Common Good.
Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. 2010.
Brueggemann,
Walter. The
Prophetic Imagination.
2nd
Edition.
Minneapolis: Fortress Press. 2001.
http://earthquaketrack.com/quakes/2016-09-10-10-08-19-utc-6-0-114
Accessed: 10 Sept. 2016.
Eberhart,
Christian A. “Commentary on 1 Timothy 1:12-17”. Accessed: 08
Sept. 2016.
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1768.
Hallelujah:
The Poetry of Classic Hymns.
ED: Anna Marlis Burgard. Berkley: Celestial Arts. 2005.
Harper’s
Bible Commentary.
Gen. Ed: James L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers.
1988.
The
Hymnal 1982. New
York: Church Publishing, Inc. 1985.
Jacobo,
Julia, “Cat Pulled From Rubble 15 Days After Italy Earthquake”.
Accessed:
9 Sept. 2016.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/cat-pulled-rubble-15-days-italy-earthquake/story?id=41959208
Macpherson,
James. “'Our cause is just,' says tribal leader in protest”. The
News & Observer.
4 Sept. 2016.
Malcolm,
Lois. “Commentary on Luke 15:1-10”. Accessed: 8 Sept. 2016.
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1782.
Miller,
Ken. “Quake opens new doubts on fracking”. The
News & Observer.
4 Sept. 2016.
Wines,
Alphonetta. “Commentary on Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28”. Accessed: 8
Sept. 2016.
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1763.
2
Newton, John. Hymn #671. The
Hymnal 1982. New York: Church Publishing,
Inc. 1985. Note: Idea re this hymn for this week's lesson is from
Christian A. Eberhart's “Commentary on 1 Timothy 1:12-17”.
Accessed: 8 Sept. 2016.
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1768.
3
Ibid.
4
Note: This perspective I discovered in a Daughters of the King study
when we delved into the different meanings of familiar words.
6
Ibid.
Hallelujah.
7
Jacobo, Julia,
“Cat Pulled From Rubble 15 Days After Italy Earthquake”.
Accessed:
9 Sept. 2016.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/cat-pulled-rubble-15-days-italy-earthquake/story?id=41959208
8
Wines, Alphonetta.
“Commentary on Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28”. Accessed: 8 Sept. 2016.
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1763.
10
Basu, Moni. Wayne Drash. “ Camp for young people touched by
terror”. CNN Updated 12:20 PM ET, 8 Sept. 2016.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/06/world/children-of-terror-camp/
Accessed: 9 Sept. 2016.
11
Ibid.
12
Ibid.
13
Ibid.
15
Ibid.
16
Ibid.
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