Homily
by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC; 23rd
Sunday after Pentecost, 23 Oct. 20116
Proper
25 Year C RCL: Joel 2:23-32; Psalm 65; 2
Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14
We
say please to God about many hopes, dreams, issues. How
often do we remember to say “Thank you”?
Notice
how the Pharisee says “Thank you” without
asking God for anything.
He's
standing by himself, saying, “God, I thank you” that I'm better
than other people. In
The
New American Bible for Catholics,
this verse says:
The
Pharisee took up his position &
I
wonder how the tax collector responds to God after he prays. Does
he stay stuck in his dark perspective of himself as worthless or
does he embrace God's forgiveness & say “Thank you”?
I
wonder what stirs deep inside the Pharisee as he watches that
grovelling tax man. Does the Pharisee stay stuck in a different
kind of darkness in which he cannot see himself or others in the
light of God's love?
Like
the people Joel addresses in our 1st
lesson, the overly
self-reliant, prideful people Jesus tells today's parable to are
stuck in narrow perspectives, stuck in fearful situations.3
People fear change, fear exile, fear getting things wrong, fear
having to trust someone who is different, fear letting go &
trusting God.
Fear
keeps people stuck.
Fear
keeps 21st
century people stuck.
Fears
breeds resentment.
When
we resent, we hurt ourselves.
It is as if we have sent ourselves back into the bad situation4.
Spell resent: RE SENT.
We
have re
- sent
ourselves back
instead
of moving ourselves forward & deeper into God's love & peace.
God
promises us peace which surpasses our understanding.
We have seen this kind of peace in our beloved Brother in Christ...,
whose life we celebrated yesterday. God's peace gives us creativity
to envision new life now & future joy living in grace.
God's
peace frees us to live in God's love.
In
today's parable, Jesus shows us two perspectives on how humans
interact with God when we are stuck like the self-absorbed Pharisee &
the fearful tax collector. It can be hard to see life from a
new angle, to see ourselves anew, to see ourselves as Jesus sees us.
Jesus
sees us – sees you – as worth dying for
on
the cross.
Jesus
dies for us trusting God's love that is greater than we can
understand. The Holy Spirit guides us so that we can live confidently
in the present & trust God's grace for the future as we let go of
the past.
Freed
from the past, we can see positive results from the garbage of life.
Those
of us who compost garbage know garbage can transform into a positive
force. It takes time to see positive results from garbage. One writer
says this about composting for her garden:
“Garbage, properly treated,
becomes food.”5
Garbage
in a compost pile eventually gains new life to nourish plants.
Properly treating the garbage of our lives, turning the garbage over
to God & letting the light of God's love transform us, we can
embrace God's
forgiveness & love & share it!
God's
love gives us peace,
which surpasses
our understanding.
Living
with inward peace, nourished by God's love at the holy meal we share,
we can leave worship strengthened to serve God's people whether they
are the Pharisee or the tax collector.
How
will we do this?
What
is God calling you to do to share the good news?
Remember
this good news:
God
loves you. No exceptions. All are welcome.
Bibliography
The
Four Translation New Testament.
Minneapolis: World Wide Publications. New York: The Iversen Assocs.
1966.
Harper’s
Bible Commentary.
Gen. Ed: James L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers.
1988.
Hitchcock,
Janet. “On Reflection: Ten Things I've Learned in the
Garden”.Women's
Uncommon Prayers: Our Lives Revealed, Nurtured, Celebrated.
EDS: Elizabeth Rankin Geitz;
Marjorie A. Burke; Ann Smith. Harrisburg: Morehouse Publishing 2000.
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.
Levenson,
Jon D. Sinai &
Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible.
Minneapolis: A Seabury Book. Winston Press. 1985.
Matthews,
Victor H. Social World
of the Hebrew Prophets.
Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. 2001.
The
New American Bible for Catholics.
South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1970.
“The
Thankful Leper” http://www.sermons4kids.com/
and “Please and Thank You”.
http://www.sermons4kids.com/please_and_thank_you.htm.
Accessed:
4 Oct. 2016.
Voyle,
Robert J. “An Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry”. Diocese of
Georgia Clergy Conference. Oct. 2013.
1
Inspiration from a previous sermon I wrote & from “The
Thankful Leper” http://www.sermons4kids.com/
Accessed: 4 Oct. 2016.
4
Note: From Voyle presentation.
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