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
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
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,
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.catholic.org/clife/jesus/jesusname.php.
Accessed: 19 Dec. 2017.
http://www.inspirationalchristians.org/biography/lillian-trasher/.
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.
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.
11
Ibid. Holy
Women, Holy Men.
And
http://www.inspirationalchristians.org/biography/lillian-trasher/.
Accessed: 19 Dec. 2017.
13
Ibid.
15
Ibid.
16
Ibid.
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