Homily
by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC; 3rd
Sunday after Epiphany, 22 Jan. 2017
Year
A RCL: Isaiah
9:1-4; Psalm 27:1, 5-13; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18; Matthew 4:12-23
Who
is it Jesus recruits to work with him? Professional marketers?
[Congregation
answers.]
In
our Gospel Jesus calls regular people to join in his work. The Jesus
Movement relies on regular people. Peter & Andrew, James &
John are regular people, who catch fish to make a living. As far as
we know, these fishermen are not even tournament winners.
A
fly fisherman friend says his experience in a fishing competition was
a lot of fun without his winning anything. He says:
You
don't have to be famous or win competitions to enjoy fishing. You
don't even have to catch anything to enjoy a special relationship
with God's creation. He says:
Catching
fish is not a given.
If
it were, we'd call fishermen “catchermen.”
Working
to accomplish God's purpose, Jesus calls us as part of his fishing
crew. Our call is to work with Jesus as best we can & trust the
results to God. We are a 21st
century part of the process God set in motion & declared
accomplished.
Notice
the Good News we hear in Isaiah:
The Jewish Study Bible says Isaiah writes of a future hope & uses the past tense because [these events] “are as good as done.” 1
We
read in Genesis: “in the beginning, God said...& it was so.”
The perfection God calls into being in the beginning is being
accomplished.
As people of faith, guided by the Holy Spirit, we can accept God's
promises & not
wring our hands
in fear about the size of our catch.
Not
wringing our hands gives us strength to hold the flashlight, the
torch, the floodlight
to
shine the Light of God's Love into darkness.
Notice:
Our scriptures today emphasize light overcoming darkness. Jesus'
death & resurrection make it possible for people in darkness to
see great light. Jesus says in his dying breath: “It is
accomplished.”
As
God's adopted children, you & I use our gifts & abilities in
our lives, our work, our interactions. We do this individually &
in our worship, study groups, social events, & business meetings
[such as our Vestry Retreat just completed yesterday],
using our gift of love to see & love Jesus in each other.
Notice:
the Corinthians Paul writes to have quit seeing & loving Jesus in
each other, basing quarrels & claims of self-importance on
relationships to So-&-So.
Feeling
proud Paul baptized you? How do you feel to hear him say:
I
thank God I didn't baptize any of you except So-&-So &
So-&-So.
Oh,
I did baptize So-&-So's household;
other
than that, I don't know if I baptized anyone else.
So
much for your feeling great about being baptized by the famous
apostle Paul. Puffed up one minute because you know he baptized you &
deflated the next by Paul himself!
Paul
knows priding ourselves on status causes divisions. It keeps us from
seeing & loving Jesus in each other. Paul knows a lot about
divisions: Corinth has lots of divisions, as
author Luke Timothy Johnson says in The
Writings of the New Testament.
Multi-cultural
Corinth has a variety of people, including some with Jewish
backgrounds, some pagans. People focus on differences instead of
their common life 2
& unity in Jesus.
Our
unity in Jesus defines us.
Paul
says: “I appeal to you, brothers & sisters, by the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ...be
united...”
Our
unity in Jesus compels us to share the Good News, to shine the Light
for people in darkness.
Our
unity in Jesus relies on our diversity.
Our
diverse gifts make us a whole & fully functional Body. Consider
our gifts in light of what author Anthony Shadid
says of the specialness of creative arts in his book
House
of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East.
He says, creative arts
produce beautiful & functional items – items he describes as
“the
products of peaceful hearts,
hands long practiced & trained.” 3
He
says:
“I
believe . . . the craftsman, the artist, the cook, . . . are peacemakers. They instill grace; they lull the world to calm.”4
. . . the craftsman, the artist, the cook, . . .
are peacemakers.
They
instill grace; they lull the world to calm.”
I
see craftsmen, artists & cooks differently now. I see them as
peacemakers.
We
are a body strong in peacemakers, in individuals with grace to lull
the world to calm. I see this Body of Christ has unity to do the work
God gives us: to share the Good News of Jesus & draw others into
this “net”, this fellowship in this Body, others who may be
different & have new gifts God wants us to have here.
Remember:
Jesus calls regular people to join in his work of transforming the
world. Our unity in Jesus defines us & strengthens us. God calls
us to be a fully functioning Body of Christ, using our diverse gifts
which make us whole.
The
Holy Eucharist we share is a gift that unites us as one Body.
As
we share this holy meal today, may we give God thanks for our
diversity & our unity to guide us in our life together so that
our love may overflow more & more with knowledge & full
insight to help us determine what is best.5
What
is God calling you to do so
that our love may overflow more &
more with knowledge & full insight to help us determine what is
best?
Bibliography
Brown,
Raymond E. An
Introduction to the New Testament.
New York: Doubleday. 1997.
Brueggemann,
Walter. The
Prophetic Imagination.
2nd
Edition.
Minneapolis: Fortress Press. 2001.
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.
Johnson, Luke Timothy. The
Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation.
Revised Ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. 1999.
New Oxford Annotated
Bible with the Apocrypha. Herbert G. May,
Bruce M. Metzger, eds. New
York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1977.
Shadid,
Anthony. House
of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East.
New York: Mariner Books Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
4
Ibid.
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