Homily
by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC, 3 Sept. 2017, Proper 17
Year A RCL: Exodus 3:1-15; Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c; Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 16:21-28
What
challenges we hear in our scriptures today!
God's words challenge Moses.
Paul's words challenge the Romans & us to live differently.
Notice Jesus' perspective & expectations for the disciples.
Remember: We are his disciples.
“To
deny oneself is to disown [ourselves] as the center of [our]
existence,”1
as
The
New American Bible for Catholics
notes.
Think
of people who are in love: Love is bigger than the individual.
Denying self opens us to God's love, which casts out fear.
Remember: Fear is Satan's
tool to keep us from doing God's work. Fear argues like Peter &
Moses do worrying what might happen.
We must take one step at a time
to do God's work, remembering God is with us!
As
our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry says repeatedly: “If
you want to change the world, follow Jesus.”2
“If
you want to change the world,
follow Jesus.”
God is with us as we work to
change the world & do God's work here together. Think of the good
work being done together, week by week, ingredient by ingredient, as
you prepare food for our annual Christmas In The Forest.
Look at the good work being
done together, which we see daily in news coverage of Hurricane
Harvey's aftermath. We hear the best of community, which contrasts
powerfully to the worst we hear now of people looting &
con-artists cheating survivors.
We hear amazing grace in a
different news story of a prison community in action, a strong,
grace-filled community of prisoners
of war in North Vietnam*. The men in large holding cells in Hanoi
during the Vietnam War know the truth of our Gospel. These men know
the value of living in harmony & live to see good overcome evil.
They hold fast to what is good, are patient in suffering, &
persevere in prayer, as
we hear Paul tell us to do in Romans.
Without
faith in God & trust in each other, how else could these American
POWs overcome harsh punishments to gain freedom to pray
together in the prison called the Hanoi Hilton?
The
year is 1970 & just before Christmas 43 American prisoners seek
to have brief worship. The guards prevent it.3
Ultimately, faith in God triumphs.
The
New York Times
tells this story4
of the test of their unity in community & their faith in God as
they resist & endure their captors' harsh treatment:
“After
worship is denied, Navy pilot Lt. Commander Edwin [Ned] A. Shuman III
creates their resistance plan. He knows he will be the first to be
beaten in a torture cell.
He
asks the men:
"Are we really committed to having church Sunday? I
want to know person by person."
One by one each man says "Yes."
At
that moment [Shuman knows] he [will] end up in a torture cell.5
“That
Sunday he steps up to lead the Lord's Prayer. The guards hustle him
away to his beating. [He
spends 17 months in solitary confinement.]
“One
by one the next 4 ranking officers step up to lead the prayer &
are taken away for beatings.
By
then “the guards [are]...hitting P.O.W.s with gun butts & the
cell [is] in chaos,”6
says
one survivor.
“...[T]he
6th
ranking senior officer [says], 'Gentlemen, the Lord's Prayer.'”
This
time they finish the prayer.
The guards have yielded. The enemy sees
love of God in
action,
love of community in
action.
By
their faith in action, these prisoners work with God to change that
shameful prison block into holy ground. These men in this
faith-filled community stand on holy ground.
Their faith &
fearless trust overflow into other cell blocks.
In
a different cell block is the 1st
American pilot captured in the Vietnam War, Everett Alvarez Jr.,
captured in 1964,
as
the NYT article says.
He
says Shuman's defiance inspires senior officers in other cells to
resist:
“It was contagious. By the time it got to the 4th
or 5th
cell” [the
guards]
gave up.”
Prisoners were praying & singing patriotic songs.
From
that Sunday in 1970 until their release in 1973, the prisoners' right
to pray together was established. They held church services each
Sunday until their return home.
A
pilot from Shuman's cell block, Air Force pilot & Medal of Honor
recipient, Leo K. Thorsness says:
“42 men in prison pajamas
followed
[Shuman's] lead.
I know I will never see a better example of
pure raw leadership
or ever pray with a better sense of
the meaning
of the words [of the Lord's Prayer].”7
Praying
these words together sustains the POWs for years.
Praying these words
together sustains us in community.
“Our Father...” God is our
father, our “daddy”, “papa”. We are family. We live in
community no matter what parts of our lives may be imprisoned.
One man in prison trusts God
to BE with him in the harshest of times, denies himself, is patient
in suffering, & does not repay evil for evil.
One man, then the
next man, then the next lead many to overcome evil with good.
Look
what a positive difference one person at a time makes.
Look what a
positive difference one cell block community makes to the other cell
blocks.
Look
at the positive difference one man makes for each of us as he
willingly dies on the cross before we ever say “I'm sorry”.
How
can we not work to overcome evil with good? How can we possibly miss
the connection between working to make the world a better place, our
family better, & following Jesus?
How can we fear
doing what God calls us to do?
God promises: I AM with you
& I WILL BE with you no matter what. No matter how big a
hurricane is in our life.
Our
faith in God overcomes fear.
God's love wipes out fear.
God's
love is great.
Our
task is small.
The
importance of our task is
HUGE.
Bibliography
Douglas-Klotz,
Neil. Prayers of the Cosmos: Reflections on the Original Meaning
of Jesus's Words. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 1990.
Farr,
Curtis. “Pivoting,
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost (A) – Sept. 3, 2017”. Sermons
That Work.
http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2017/07/31/pivoting-thirteenth-sunday-after-pentecost-a-september-3-2017/
Accessed: 28 Aug. 2017.
Goldstein,
Richard. “Edwin Shuman, 82, Dies; Defied Hanoi Hilton Guards”.
The New York Times.
Harper’s
Bible Commentary. General Ed.: James. L. Mays. San Francisco:
Harper & Row Publishers. 1988.
Holy
Bible. New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University
Press. 1989.
Jewish
Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. New
York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
The
New American Bible for Catholics. South
Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.
Voyles,
Robert J. Restoring Hope: Appreciative
Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment.
Hillsboro, OR: The Appreciative Way. 2010.
* The 2014 news of the death of of Ned Shuman at age 82, who led fellow prisoners to defy the "Hanoi Hilton" guards, I used in my 2014 homily on the scriptures we have next Sunday [Proper 18], but found the information fitting for this week's scriptures.
3
Goldstein,
Richard. “Edwin Shuman, 82, Dies; Defied Hanoi Hilton Guards”.
The
New York Times.
P. A15.
4
Ibid. Goldstein. New York Times.
5
Ibid.
7
Ibid. NYT.
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