Homily
by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC; 7th
Sunday after Epiphany, 19 Feb. 2017
RCL
Year A: Leviticus
19:1-2,9-18; Psalm 119:33-40; 1 Corinthians 3:10-11,16-23. Matthew
5:38-48
Jesus
says: Be perfect.
Be
perfect? Be perfect!!
If
you are
perfect, remain standing for the sermon.
What
does Jesus expect of us? He tells us: Love your enemies. Pray for
those who persecute you. Jesus
takes to a whole new level the framework Leviticus gives us for our
personal responsibility to live a holy life. AND Leviticus takes to a
whole new level how people treat each other. The
Jewish Study Bible says about today's reading: God “transforms social legislation into a sacred act.”1
God
says how
we treat people is
holy business, including how we treat the vulnerable: the poor, the
alien, special needs persons. Since we are God's beloved children,
how we treat others is supposed to reflect God's love & holiness. Our
interactions are
to be
holy & sacred. Leviticus
gives us plenty of details about overt acts people can see &
inner stuff we stuff
inside to keep secret – whether it is
cheating
an employee of wages or harboring
anger. God
says: Love
your neighbor as yourself.
I find this can be hard sometimes: not because of the neighbor but because of me. I can be so down on myself that treating an irritating neighbor like I treat myself would be easy: I could treat the neighbor with the great disdain I dish out to me!
To
love our neighbor as God commands,
we
must love
ourselves!
How
well do
you love
yourself? How well do
you acknowledge
you are
beloved by God? Try it. Then do the same for the person you have
a hard time loving. Acknowledge the person as God's beloved child.
A
wise priest taught me this years ago. He also suggested I say
one nice thing – something true – to this person I saw every day
at work.
What
a challenge! But I did it.
I
recall not seeing any change in this un-churched person. Over time, I
grew to see him as a beloved child of God. Years later, I am
dumbfounded to learn he has discovered God AND has joined the church! [We
don't always know when the seeds we plant will sprout.]
Living
in God's love, we may not know where God's grace will lead us.
Leviticus gives us more than a moral compass. The
Jewish Study Bible notes2: “holiness
does not refer to superior moral qualities. God's holiness is [God's]
essential 'otherness'...” We are not holy like God is. We
are “holy” because we belong to God & are set apart for God.3
Jesus
takes this to a new level. He tells us not just to love
neighbors, but to love
enemies, turn the other cheek.
I
remember a young woman in Sunday school telling us a woman had
slapped
her. She had offered
the other cheek. The woman slapped
her again. The “slapee” simply left
the room in peace.
She
says Jesus doesn't tell
us what will be
the outcome when we offer
grace & peace. We know
what happens to Jesus: he dies
on the cross for us.
Leviticus
gives us rules
for holy living. Jesus gives us grace
for holy living. In
our reading from Corinthians,
Paul reminds us we are
vehicles of God's grace.
You
are God's temple.
You are
where the Holy Spirit dwells.
You are
a vehicle for God's grace to spill
over into hurting lives – including those who
slap
you figuratively or literally!
When
we/you live
intentionally aware of being God's holy temple, aware of our
potential as God's grace-givers, then we help the Body of Christ
function more fully in love & in spreading God's grace.
God
needs
each of us to make the Body of Christ whole. God has graced us with
many gifts & diversity to enhance our unity. With our
diverse gifts, each of us helps complete the whole as God's holy
people.
As
our work for God's vision grows, please ponder prayerfully the
mystery of our unity in diversity.
In his book Behold the Beauty of the Lord: Praying with Icons, Henri
Nouwen ponders
the
mystery of the church's unity in our diversity in his meditation on
the 15th
century Russian icon “The Descent of the Holy Spirit” by
Andrei Rublyov4. Nouwen notes Peter & Paul among the apostles. Peter denies Jesus. Paul persecutes Christians until his blinding encounter with the light of God's love. We ARE diverse.
It is the God-within who brings us into communion with each
other & makes us one.”5
God
does this for our well-being AND “for the liberation of the
world.”6
Nouwen points out the icon's “urgent appeal to action...(for the
many) in darkness (who) wait for the light of the word of God.”7
Jesus
calls us to work for the liberation of the world.
Beloved
Brothers & Sisters, you know there is liberation work to do here
to continue Jesus' healing work. Jesus calls us in our diversity to
work in unity for the liberation of God's children who are in
darkness, living with brokenness.
You
know brokenness exists. Jesus knows well our brokenness & our
need for each other. A friend
from seminary shares this vision of liberating people who live in
darkness: “What if
we are the church that doesn't confront? What if
we become the nurturing people of God? What if
we embrace the opportunity for the church to move on the strength of
embracing differences?”
Beloved
Sisters & Brothers:
What
if we are the church that doesn't confront?
What
if we become more fully the nurturing people of God?
What
if we embrace the opportunity for this church to move on our strength
of embracing differences?
How
do you, how will you work
to liberate people from darkness?
Bibliography
Dios Habla Hoy: La
Biblia.
2da
Ed.
Nueva York: Sociedad Bíblica
Americana. 1983.
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.
Nouwen,
Henri J.M.
Behold the Beauty of
the Lord: Praying with Icons.
Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press. 1987.
The New American Bible
for Catholics.
South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1970.
New Oxford Annotated
Bible with the Apocrypha. Eds: Herbert G.
May, Bruce M. Metzger. New
York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1977.
Westerhoff,
Caroline A. Make All
Things New: Stories of Healing, Reconciliation, & Peace.
Harrisburg: Morehouse Publishing. 2006.
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid.
6
Ibid. P. 67.
7
Ibid. P. 69.
