Wednesday, December 27, 2017

The Journey Brings New Life

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC, 24 Dec. 2017, Christmas Eve
RCL: Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96:1-4, 11-12; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20

Merry Christmas!

How delightful to say this after weeks of
waiting & preparing.

When we say “Merry Christmas” we may have a mental picture of Mary with Baby Jesus, as if we say:
 “M-a-r-y” Christmas”,
overlooking Joseph or seeing him away in the back behind the manger.
I wonder how Mary AND Joseph felt on that
night of nights.

We know how each received & reacted to the unexpected news: Mary would have a child.
We know the emperor has demanded a census, requiring people travel to their family's hometown
– what a pain in the neck at Christmas!

Think how you would feel if the government demanded each of us go today to Asheville for a headcount. At least we could get there & back in a day.

I wonder about the stress Mary feels walking or riding a donkey on their 5-day/90-mile1 forced-march to Bethlehem with none of our amenities: no Greyhound bus, no welcome center, no restrooms.

I wonder how Joseph feels.
It would be tough enough if he could go alone, leaving his young, pregnant fiancé at home to be tended by family. But NO: the emperor insists:
“Everybody, report to your family's hometown.”

We know Joseph is a carpenter & his work demands planning. This trip demands planning. Joseph prepares carefully in case Mary goes into labor en route. He studies the route, packs plenty of supplies...2

How does he expect to find a place to stay? He can't call ahead to book a room. Joseph & Mary finally arrive & the inn keeper says:
“No room.”
Joseph has no hotel points card to flash his diamond status & demand the 1 room always kept available for the elite.
How does Joseph feel? He's planned so much. They've come so far. They're finally here.

Think of a time you traveled, when you would have preferred to stay home, & the journey was hard, inconvenient.

“There are times in our journey when we think the end is in sight. The hard part is over...we're about to [finish &] something happens...[It seems so hard, so unfair...Why can't this be easy?]”3

Our journey with God has times “of excitement, joy, & even rest, but it's unlikely...the journey will ever be easy.”4

Beloved Brothers & Sisters, Jesus comes to show us how to live especially when it isn't easy. Jesus comes as a human boy to show us how to look differently at our un-easy times.

Despite how difficult the emperor's demand is that makes Joseph go to Bethlehem, it is God's plan for Jesus to be born there. For Jesus to be born in a stable assures us God has down-to-earth, 1st-hand experience with the hard times of human life.

Joseph, this hands-on planner, this man of action, has done all he can to provide for Mary. As she gives birth to Jesus, so much is out of his hands5. The labor is Mary's work6:  Joseph can wipe sweat from her brow, help her breath, give her water.

Suddenly Mary's labor is completed. A new life is swaddled & cuddled in Joseph's arms.
What is the look on Mary's face as
Joseph hands her Baby Jesus?

What about Joseph's surprise as shepherds appear & this unexpected bunch crowds the stable entrance to see this precious infant?
As if Joseph needs one more surprise, these outdoorsmen tell him:
“So we're in the fields like always watching our sheep when – Schzaam!7 – an angel stands in front of us. God's glory shines all around us & we are terrified – scared stiff – until the angel says:
'Don't be afraid. I've got good news:
a brand new baby is born, &
this is great joy for everybody!
He's the Savior – God's Anointed One8.
You'll find him in a manger – no kidding – you'll see him
in an animal's feed box.'

“So there we are trying to take all this in & Schzaam! a whole bunch of angels joins in praising God! We just stand there open-mouthed....& then try to sing along.

“Then we say: We gotta go to Bethlehem & see this Baby! So we drop everything & here we are. We found you! And we're still amazed.

 “We're as amazed as you are & everybody who hears this Good News!

“I'll tell you how good this news is, we left our sheep & we're at peace about their safety on this
night of nights. What a night!”

“What a beautiful Baby. Did you see that? He smiled! He opened his eyes & looked right at me & smiled. . . . . . .Don't tell me newborns don't open their eyes. I saw him. Wow! What a night!”

What a night indeed!

This night is special, different. This amazing news calls the shepherds to be adventuresome. This amazing news calls us again to come & see Jesus, then to go & tell others about Jesus.

This night is special & different: God has called you & me here this night to come grow in grace, to be nourished with the gift Jesus gives us in Holy Communion, the gift of life & love, the gift of Jesus himself.

Know this: “...It's not how you [plan for the journey] that's important, it's being willing to take the journey & go wherever God leads you.”9

As you journey with God, remember Joseph with his rough, practical carpenter's hands holding Baby Jesus. Think of the awe filling him as Jesus breathes his first breaths of earth's air.

We know God is awesome & far other than we are. Joseph knows this. Yet here he holds Baby Jesus, God's Son, God Incarnate, God In Human Flesh. Awesome.
Holding new life is awesome.

“Awesome & above being possessed by mere mortals, this mighty God calls us friend & beloved child. God's fearsome love for us [leads Jesus] to the cross where Jesus dies for us.”10 

“Once we have truly known God, [this] same fearsome love compels us to lay our life on the line, pick up our cross, & follow.”11

As we follow Jesus, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we have abundant opportunities to share the Good News to people who are in darkness. Shine the light on them.

How you shine the light depends on your personality & your unique gifts.

The “how” may be different.

Our work is the same:

share the Good News.

As St. Francis tells us:
Always preach the Good News
 &
use words
when you must.




Bibliography
Holy Bible with the Apocrypha. New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press. 1989.
Kautz, Richard. A Labyrinth Year: Walking the Seasons of the Church. Harrisburg: Morehouse. 2005.
The New American Bible for Catholics. South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.

Robinson, Barbara. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. New York: Avon Books. 1972.

Tenney, Merrill C. Handy Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House. 1965.

1 Kautz, Richard. A Labyrinth Year. Pp. 6, 5.
2 Ibid. P. 6.
3 Ibid. P. 9.
4 Ibid.
5 Note: Thought from Ibid. P. 13.
6 Note: Ibid.
7 Note: Schzaam! From Robinson, Barbara. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
8 Note: Messiah means Anointed One. Tenney, Merrill C. Handy Dictionary of the Bible. P. 101.
9 Ibid. Kautz. P. 6.
10 Ibid. Kautz. P. 15.

11 Ibid.
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Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Names Carry Meaning

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. Fancis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC, 24 Dec. 2017, Advent 4
Year B RCL: 2 Samuel 7:1-1, 16; Canticle 3; Romans: 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38

Names carry meaning.
In our Gospel from Luke, whose name means “bringer of light...”1, we hear God's messenger, Gabriel, whose name means “man of God”2, bring new light to Mary's life as he says:
“Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

He says she will have a son & to name him Jesus, which means "Savior" or "God saves"3 
He also brings good news about her old, barren cousin Elizabeth, whose husband, Zechariah, has heard from Gabriel 1st-hand that his wife will have a son & to name him John, whose name means “Jehovah [God] has been gracious; has shown favor”4
You may remember from our Advent study about Mary: her
unspoken response & wondering are as important as what she says, showing her to be thoughtful, practical, trusting5.

Long before this, Gabriel is the messenger to the prophet Daniel. So Gabriel has been God's man, God's messenger, from the Hebrew scriptures to the Christian scriptures.
I wonder if Gabriel is still bringing God's message to people.
I wonder if God has fewer messages for Gabriel to deliver because God counts on Christians – you & me – to assure people: “The Lord is with you.”

Part of the Good News we are called to deliver is this:
Jesus is Lord.
Because of Jesus we can trust that God loves us. As one source says about Jesus: “His name expresses his identity & his mission. Since God alone can forgive sins, it is God who, in Jesus his eternal Son made man,...save[s] [us] from [our] sins".6

This name “is given to our Lord because 'He saves His people from their sins.' This is His special role...[By] cleansing [us] in His own atoning blood.., by putting in [our] hearts [God's] sanctifying Spirit...[he] will save [us] from all the consequences of sin...”7

This is Good News we are called to share. How we are called & how we share it can be as varied as the meaning of our names. It may be big or small, near or far.

Consider one saint born in 1887 in Georgia, who served 3 years as an “assistant at Faith Orphanage in Marion, North Carolina, mending, cooking & changing diapers.”8

Remembered Dec. 19 in Holy Women, Holy Men is Lillian
Trasher, who died in 1961.9 Her name is from the flower we call the lilly, which symbolizes innocence, purity, beauty.10
The story of her work as a missionary in Egypt
is one of beauty.
She tended more than 25,000 children in the orphanage she founded & ran in Egypt, the 1st orphanage established there, which continues to minister today & for which 85% of its support is from Christians in Egypt.11

Any of us may be called to action far away like Lillian or much nearer.....Whatever ministry God calls each of us to, wherever God leads us to bring the Good News, remember:
God – not you or I – sets the time & agenda.12
“God is the caller; you are the receiver...When God extends a hand to you, it's in God's time, not yours.”13

Whatever calling you receive from God, ultimately you are called to be like Mary: a God Bearer....
And this includes you,
my Beloved Brothers in Christ!

God calls each of us in a unique way to this highest of callings to carry God's Son, Jesus, into this world.14
“God is calling you to be pregnant [filled] with the Holy Spirit.”15  God calls each of us to be pregnant/filled with the Holy Spirit.

“God is calling you to put aside all the
plans the world has for you & to follow
a different plan...
How obedient are you right now?
Are you ready to say,
'Here I am, Lord. Use me.'”​16


Bibliography
Dios Habla Hoy: La Biblia. 2da Ed. Nueva York: Sociedad Bíblica Americana. 1983.

The Four Translation New Testament. Minneapolis: World Wide Publications. New York: The Iversen Assocs. 1966.

Freeman, Lindsay Hardin. Bible Women: All Their Words and Why They Matter. Forward Movement. USA: 2016.

Harper’s Bible Commentary. General Ed.: James. L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1988.

Harper’s Bible Dictionary. General Ed.: Paul J. Achtemeier. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers. 1985.

Holy Bible with the Apocrypha. New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press. 1989.

Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints. New York: Church Publishing, Inc. 2010.

http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Gabriel.html#.VJW-_drABg. Accessed: 19 Dec. 2017.

http://www.behindthename.com. Accessed 19 Dec. 2017.

http://www.biblical-baby-names.com. Accessed: 19 Dec. 2017.

http://www.catholic.org/clife/jesus/jesusname.php. Accessed: 19 Dec. 2017.

http://www.inspirationalchristians.org/biography/lillian-trasher/. Accessed: 19 Dec. 2017.

http://www.meaning-of-names.com. Accessed: 19 Dec. 2017.

http://www.sheknows.com/baby-names. Accessed: 19 Dec. 2017.

http://www.sheknows.com/baby-names/name/nathan Accessed 19 Dec. 2017.

http://www.thinkbabynames.com. Accessed 19 Dec. 2017.

Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.

Kautz, Richard. A Labyrinth Year: Walking the Seasons of the Church. Harrisburg: Morehouse. 2005.

The New American Bible for Catholics. South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.

Ryle, J.C. http://www.jesus.org/is-jesus-god/names-of-jesus/what-does-the-name-jesus-mean.html. Accessed: 19 Dec. 2017.

Tenney, Merrill C. Handy Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House. 1965.

“You Shall Call His Name Jesus”. http://www.sermons4kids.com/. Accessed: 19 Dec. 2017.


2 Tenney, Merrill C. Handy Dictionary of the Bible. P.58.
4 www.sheknows.com/baby-names/name/john Accessed: 19 Dec. 2017.
5 Freeman, Lindsay Hardin. Bible Women. Pp. 399, 401.
7 Adapted by http://www.jesus.org/is-jesus-god/names-of-jesus/what-does-the-name-jesus-mean.html from J.C. Ryle's The Gospel of Matthew. Accessed: 19 Dec. 2017.
9 Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints. P. 126-127.
11 Ibid. Holy Women, Holy Men. And http://www.inspirationalchristians.org/biography/lillian-trasher/. Accessed: 19 Dec. 2017.
12 Kautz, Richard. A Labyrinth Year: Walking the Seasons of the Church. P. 1.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid. Kautz. P. 2.
15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.
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Sunday, December 17, 2017

How Do We Reflect the Light of Christ?

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC, 17 Dec. 2017, Advent 3
Year B RCL: Isaiah 61:1-4,8-11; Psalm 126; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28

There was a man sent from God,
whose name was John.
There is a man/a woman/a child sent from God, whose name is “Phil” . . . .
Fill-in-the-Blank-with-YOUR-Name.


News flash! Today is Light of Christ Sunday: notice the pink candle lit in our Advent Wreath. How do you shine the Light of Christ?
We – each of us – is called to testify to the light. We are not the light, but you/we are to testify to the light.

Light shines in darkness & in brightness. How do you shine your light? Shining the Light of Christ is like shining a flashlight1 for others to see in the dark.
 A flashlight is NOT the light. It shines the light.
What can block the light?.....
....You must turn on the flashlight.
....You must shine it in a way that doesn't cover,
 hide or block the light.
....If we let something distract us, we may forget the flashlight & then others can't see the light.
....We may may forget the flashlight & leave it on so the batteries die. Then we have to renew the batteries or put in new batteries.

Questions:
  • How do you shine the light of Christ that is within you?
  • How do you renew your “batteries” so you shine brightly?

One way is accepting the gifts & grace Jesus offers at this Holy Table. From here we can go out into the world and shine the Light of Christ.

As important as what we say to testify to the light is how we say it.2 Notice how John testifies:3 I am not the Messiah, not Elijah, not the prophet. Notice his positive testimony about Jesus.4
Notice the leaders keep asking John about himself, yet he maintains his focus & turns them away from him to Jesus.5

What do you say about yourself to others?
What do you say about yourself to yourself?

How do you claim & embrace this truth:
God loves you! No exceptions.

God knows all about you. Live into this great love & love yourself – or learn to love yourself. No exceptions.

Like the man whose name was John, you & I are sent into the world as witnesses, as one Bible commentator notes6, & that makes many uncomfortable since much of the 21st century mindset sees religion as a private matter...7 That mindset shuns certainty: who can really know what's true?8

You & I are audacious: We believe the Gospel is true & that you & I must proclaim it boldly...9 How?
  • Be prepared....When you talk about Jesus, expect the kind of distraction John confronts: people will want to change the subject, often by asking us to talk about ourselves.10
  • Resist their leading questions.
  • Focus on Jesus. Focus on the simple truth:
 God loves you! No exceptions.

Jesus died for you. Jesus washed away all your sins. Jesus loves you. Jesus holds you close to his heart. LIVE in this great LOVE.

Claim this truth: YOU ARE GOD'S BELOVED CHILD.
Claim this so you can proclaim it: God loves you! No exceptions!

Proclaiming, witnessing to this love is like a dance. Let Jesus guide your steps.

Our scriptures today dance to the music of God. They dance the same steps with some variations, an added accent, a shift of tempo & rhythm. Isaiah & our Psalm set the basic movements:
God acts, saves, restores; we respond & rejoice.

Our lesson in Thessalonians emphasizes how we respond to live in holy community, trusting God acts now & will act in our lives.

Our Gospel repeats the focus on God's action through humans, with John responding to God's call to testify to the Light. John the messenger announces good news: God will act through Jesus.

Like Isaiah & John, you & I are called by God to join this dance, to be messengers of the Good News:

Jesus loves you. No exceptions.

God loves you! No exceptions.

Jesus comes to liberate all of us from the oppression of sin & self-focus.

Jesus welcomes all to come to him.

Thanks be to God!



Bibliography
Dios Habla Hoy: La Biblia. 2da Ed. Nueva York: Sociedad Bíblica Americana. 1983.
Harper’s Bible Commentary. General Ed.: James. L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1988.
Holy Bible with the Apocrypha. New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press. 1989.
http://www.sermons4kids.com/reflecting_the_light.htm. Accessed: 15 Dec. 2017.
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.
Powell, Mark Allen. “Commentary on John 1:6-8, 19-28.” Accessed: 12 Dec. 2014. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2267
Voyle, Robert J. Restoring Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment. Hillsboro, OR: The Appreciative Way. 2010.
Voyle, Robert J. “The Art of Resolving Resentment”. Forgiveness Forum: Teach Your Congrgation How to Forgive. www.appreciativeway.com. 2014.



1 Note: Idea from http://www.sermons4kids.com/reflecting_the_light.htm. Accessed: 15 Dec. 2017.
2 Powell, Mark Allen. “Commentary on John 1:6-8, 19-28.” Accessed: 15 Dec. 2017. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2267
3 The New American Bible for Catholics. P. 1138.
4 Ibid. The New American Bible for Catholics. P. 1138.
5 Ibid. Powell.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid. 
9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.
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