Thursday, August 8, 2013

Life In Holy Relationship: A Mystery to Savor & Delight In

Life In Holy Relationship Is A Mystery:
Savor It, Delight In The Gift & Play!

Trinity Sunday Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
At St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, 26 May, 2013
Year C RCL: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Psalm 8; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15
Welcome back to St. John’s Sunday Mystery Series! We pick up from last week’s Mystery of the coming of the Holy Spirit to explore the Mystery we know as the Holy Trinity. I spell Mystery with a capital M – as if it were a name for God.
 As you can see from this small sample of books I have with me, I love a good mystery. How many of you do? (For those who don’t, we’ll get to some straight talk about this Mystery.) This Holy Book. The Bible,  is filled with Mystery. 
 Whether it’s Harry Potter or Sherlock Holmes, the main character faces a mystery, a contradiction, & strives to set things right. Mystery writers have a gift of giving us clues, but keeping us guessing until the right moment....The waiting is difficult.  . . . . . The waiting is playful.
For those who don’t like mystery stories, here's that straight talk about today's Mystery:
  • Today’s scriptures point us to the Mystery of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son & Holy Spirit – the 3 in One / One in 3. When we encounter Mystery words are inadequate.
  • We can say the Holy Trinity is like the Chapel at Honey Creek (our Diocesan Camp & Conference Center): its triangular shape IS one building with height, width, depth: 3 dimensions form one building.
  • We can use the analogy of family: I am my parents’ daughter, I am my husband's wife, I am our son’s mother: one person with 3 ways of being in relationship.
  • These simple analogies are inadequate to describe the profound Mystery of God.
God creates all. Jesus shows us how to live, dies to save us, rises again & ascends, & by his departure increases his presence with us1. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, Jesus increases his presence – not decreases his presences2 with us.
God’s love creates us to be “in a relationship”3 (with God & all God’s creation). God the Holy Trinity IS the essence of relationship. God makes us for relationship in community & draws us into God’s Holy Community.
As our lesson in Romans says, God’s love has been poured into our hearts. We have an abiding relationship with the Holy Trinity. In addition to relationship, God also puts into us aspects or characteristics of God. Our Psalm says we have God-given dignity4. God adorns us with glory & honor. It is a gift.
We have more value than we understand.
God cherishes us!
And God gives us Wisdom.

Proverbs poetically tells us about Wisdom, which comes from God, “is an aspect or activity of God...”5, & is available to all people.
Wisdom in Greek is Sophia – Holy Wisdom, sometimes called St. Sophia,6 for which our Daughters of the King Chapter is named.
Wisdom says we have to pace ourselves – especially when we encounter Mystery.
Jesus says in today’s Gospel that we have a limit to what we can hear, what we can understand.

It’s like a dream I remember. In the dream, my husband, John, gives me a gift; I open it. It’s a delightful trinket he with a note that starts a scavenger hunt for a series of gifts. Each gift is better than the preceding gifts. Each gift is the clue to finding the next gift.
At first, I do really well solving each mystery. By the 4th one, I’m clueless. It is a wonderful gift. I’d love to stop & enjoy, but I want to keep going & find the ultimate gift.
But this gift’s clue is a mystery.
John looks really disappointed. He’s pleased that I have found some gifts. He’s disappointed that I’ve run in all directions, finding them, tearing into the gift, saying “Ooo that’s nice; I really like it...” & running to the next.
He says: “I’m happy you like the gifts. I’m disappointed you aren’t giving yourself time to enjoy each one. I wanted you to have fun. I wanted us to play together & savor each gift...”

I think that was really Jesus talking to me in my dream.

How often do we forget to savor the moment? Forget to play? Proverbs tells us that Wisdom delights in humans... Some Bibles say Wisdom is beside God not as a master worker (as our version says), but as “a little child,”7 a “darling child”8 that plays with God while God does the work of creation.
There is Wisdom in being playful.
We do work hard here. Do we play? Do we do what Wisdom does? Do we delight in each other & all God’s creation?
Delight in the Mystery of 3 in One, One in 3.
Savor the Mystery that we are humans with God living within us.

Life in Holy Relationship IS a Mystery.
Savor it.

Delight in the gift
 & Play!



Bibliography
Behind the Name: the etymology and history of first names. http://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/biblical. Accessed: 23 May 2013.
Chittister, Joan. The Monastery of the Heart: An Invitation to a Meaningful Life. www.bluebridgebooks.com: (United Tribes Media Inc.) BlueBridge. 2011.
De Waal, Esther. Living with Contradiction: An Introduction to Benedictine Spirituality. Harrisburg: Morehouse Publishing. 1989.
Dios Habla Hoy: La Biblia. New York: American Bible Society. 1983.
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.
Holy Bible with the Apocrypha. New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press. 1989.
Hughes, Robert Davis III. Beloved Dust: Tides of the Spirit in the Christian Life. New York: Continuum. 2008.
Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Landinsky, Daniel. The Subject Tonight is Love: 60 Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafiz. New York: Penguin Compass. The Penguin Group. 2003.
Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 10 April 2013.
Long, Thomas G. What Shall We Say? Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2011.
New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Eds.: Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger. New York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1977.
La Sacra Bibbia. Versione Riveduta. Roma: Società Biblica Británica & Forestiera. 1990.
Seeing God Everywhere: Essays on Nature and the Sacred. Ed.: Barry McDonald. Bloomington: World Wisdom, Inc. 2003.
VOX: Modern Spanish and English Dictionary. Compiled by the Editors of Biblograf, S.A. Chicago: NTC Publishing Group. 1986.
1 Harper’s Bible Commentary. General Ed.: James. L. Mays. P. 1070.
2 Ibid.
3 Hughes, Robert Davis III. Beloved Dust: Tides of the Spirit in the Christian Life. P. 59.
4 New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Eds.: Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger. P. 660.
5 Ibid. P. 778.
6 Behind the Name: the etymology and history of first names. Accessed: 23 May 2013. http://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/biblical.
7 New Oxford Annotated Bible. P. 778.
8 Harper’s Bible Commentary. P. 508.
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Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Some Things Surpass Our Understanding

Easter 6 Homily By The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, 5 May 2013
Year C RCL Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5; John 14:23-29
Jessica is a busy executive in Washington, DC, who handles chaos at the office by getting (her tutu) on1. What does that mean: she is getting (her tutu) on?
 What image comes to your mind?. . . . .

Getting her Tutu on means Jessica is in her office, finding that still place within. She is practicing “The Habit of Stillness” that author Ed Bacon (who grew up in Georgia) writes about in his book, 8 Habits of Love: Open Your Heart, Open Your Mind.

Bacon (who preached at the National Cathedral on Easter) says that Jessica was inspired to practice stillness when she heard Archbishop Desmond Tutu preach – so her tutu is capital T-u-t-u. When work gets chaotic, she reminds herself to get her Tutu on – to find that stillness Archbishop Tutu preached about at All Saints Episcopal in Pasadena, Calif.

Reminding herself to get her Tutu on is a handy prompt to engage the "Habit of Stillness" – her positive response to stress. The author, who is rector at All Saints, says Jessica knows the value of stillness; it helps her not waste valuable time in problem-solving.2 It reminds her to find her stillness.
Some of us call this Centering Prayer.

Whether we are getting our Tutu on, finding our stillness, or practicing centering prayer, our concepts come from experience, from something we understand.

Our Collect (which you recall “collects” our thoughts to focus on what the Scriptures say) tells us God has prepared for us such good things that they “surpass our understanding.”  The writers of today’s scriptures tell us about good things that surpass their understanding.
They use imagery of what they do know.

The writer of Revelation tells us about his vision. He bases his descriptions on what he knows from the Hebrew Bible - from Isaiah 603 and from Genesis 2. As he describes the heavenly Jerusalem, we hear echoes from the Garden of Eden: the tree of life, the river flowing from Eden4.

 In Revelation the tree of life grows on both sides of the river of the water of life – the river that  flows from God.
 The tree provides everything we need for life & healing. We lack nothing. We need no light. The glory of God’s face shines & lights all....like we hear in Psalm 67:
“May God...show us the light of his countenance & come to us.” The Jewish Study Bible says this literally means “make his face shine”... (it is) 
“the visible expression of (God’s) benevolence”5 
 This Psalm & Revelation give us a vision of God’s love spreading throughout the world to all people, all nations.

We see God’s love spread as Paul responds to the vision he has & goes to Philippi. Apparently that city has so few Jews they have no synagogue, so they gather at the river for prayer6. Lydia is a Gentile worshiper of God, who worships with the Jews. She has a habit of prayer, a habit of stillness in God’s presence.

In a vision Paul sees a man asking him to come to Philippi “and help us”.     Us?    Who?    God?    The Holy Trinity?
God has laid the ground work for Paul’s message that opens Lydia’s heart. She is the first Christian convert there. Notice:
God opens Lydia’s heart to listen
to what Paul says.

God is active before we have a vision. God is active as we act on it. God is active in & through us. Jesus says in today’s Gospel that God sends the Holy Spirit to teach us & remind us what Jesus has said. Jesus says:
“Peace I leave with you; my own peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.
 Do not let your hearts be trouble,
& do not let them be afraid.” 
Fear is rampant in our world, in our culture, in in our news, in our lives. We live lives of clinched fists. Clinch your fist & hold, hold, hold. Now: slowly,     slowly,   very s-l-o-w-l-y  relax the grip.   Let it go.    Feel the difference.

The loosening of a clinched fist is how Ed Bacon describes the feeling as his shoulders & upper arms relax when he practices "The Habit of Stillness"7.
In the stillness we find peace.

The Habit of Stillness, the habit of Centering Prayer – finding that quiet place to be with God – readies us for chaos that is part of life.
Stillness increases our sense of peace.
In it we find the peace Jesus promises.
The peace that surpasses our understanding.

It is the peace that we read in Martin Rinkart’s hymn, “Now thank we all our God.” He wrote it in 1636 during the turbulent 30 Years War8, whose atrocities & suffering sound like news from Syria today: refugees fleeing to a safer place, crowding into a walled town, besieged, fearful.9 
As pastor in the besieged city, Rinkart (also Rinckart), weakened by famine & the pestilence that are part of such overcrowding10 “maintained his belief in mercy even as he buried the dead, conducting funeral services for as many as (40) to (50) people (daily) – including his wife & some of his children.”11

Please open your Blue Hymnals to #396, Rinckart’s Hymn. Look at Verse 2:
“O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us! With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us; and keep us in his grace, and guide us when perplexed, and free us from all ills in this world and the next.”
Please read Verse 2 with me: 
“O may this bounteous God through all our life
be near us!
With ever joyful hearts & blessed peace to cheer us;
& keep us in his grace,
& guide us when perplexed,
& free us from all ills in this world & the next.”

 
This man has just buried his wife & children & 40 other people.
He is suffering from famine & filth.

Yet he has grace, stillness, peace.
He writes of peace – peace that the world cannot give.

 

Bibliography
Bacon, Ed. 8 Habits of Love: Open Your Heart, Open Your Mind. New York: Grand Central Life & Style. Hachette Book Group. 2012.
Behind the Name: the etymology and history of first names. http://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/biblical. Accessed: 2 May 2013.
Book of Common Prayer. New York: Church Publishing Inc. 1986.
Hallelujah: The Poetry of Classic Hymns. Ed: Anna Marlis Burgard. Berkley: Celestial Arts. 2005.
Dios Habla Hoy: La Biblia. New York: American Bible Society. 1983.
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.
Heidt, William G., O.S.B. The Book of the Apocalypse. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press. 1962.
Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press. 1989.
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.
Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 10 April 2013.
New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Eds.: Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger. New York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1977.

1 Bacon, Ed. 8 Habits of Love: Open Your Heart, Open Your Mind. Pp. 37-38.
2 Ibid. P. 38.
3 Heidt, William G., O.S.B. The Book of the Apocalypse. P. 121.
4 Harper’s Bible Commentary. General Ed.: James. L. Mays. P. 1318.
5 Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. P. 1353.
6 Harper’s. Pp. 1100-1101.
7 Bacon. P. 36
8 Hallelujah: The Poetry of Classic Hymns. Ed: Anna Marlis Burgard. P. 12.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid. Hallelujah. Burgard. P. 12.
11 Ibid.
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Tuesday, August 6, 2013

The Home of God is among Mortals

Easter 5 Homily By The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, 28 April 2013
Year C RCL Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35

“See, the home of God IS among mortals.” Look around. You
are sitting in the home of God. You are the home of God.
You & the Brothers & Sisters sitting here are where the Holy
Spirit dwells.

Our scriptures tell us God dwells among all people: those 
who are like us & those who are different. This is hard to 
swallow for the believers who hear that Peter is eating with 
Gentiles – outcasts of society. We are Gentiles in Peter's 
world.
 
Peter is steadfastly following Jesus. Following Jesus is the 
way that leads to eternal life, & it leads Peter to do 
something he never imagines: to eat with Gentiles. 
Following Jesus leads Peter to a heap of trouble. Peter takes 
the heat for eating with Gentiles – for eating with you & me. 
Then he teaches the believers – & us – that God’s love  
reaches far. The way that leads to eternal life is open even to 
outcasts.
 
Peter says that the Holy Spirit’s falling on the Gentiles
“fulfills the promise Jesus himself has made & by which we (also) are blessed.”1 By the grace of the Holy Spirit, Peter’s
words lead the believers in Jerusalem to see this new way, 
this truth, this new life.
 They react with silence, then praise: 
WOW! “...God has given even to the Gentiles
 the repentance that leads to life.”
WOW! That's us!
They praise God! They praise God like all creation 
praises God, as we hear in our Psalm. Like Peter, they see 
that God does make all things new.
How does Peter come to believe this? How does he see with 
new eyes? He prays. Peter tells us plainly “I was in the city 
of Joppa praying...” 
This sudden new perspective about who is acceptable to God 
comes to Peter through his habit of prayer. He is ready to 
understand how far-reaching God’s love is.
  Jesus tells the disciples: “love one another”.
This kind of love reveals God’s holy love, which is the essence of the Holy Trinity.2
Holy love is essential to the unity of the Church”3.
 
What does holy love do? Stay self-focused? Exclude 
others? Holy love spreads – even to the “Gentiles” of our day:
individuals our society declares outcasts. Like all humans, 
outcasts thirst to know God. God says: “To the thirsty
 I will  give water as a gift from the spring of the 
water of life.”
 
One place we see the spring of the water of life is the 
baptismal font. In Holy Baptism we ask that God “Teach  
(those who will be baptized) to love others in the power of the Spirit.”4
We see love in the power of the Spirit when Peter eats with 
Gentiles. We see love in the power of the Spirit when Pope 
Francis washes a Moslem woman’s feet on Maundy 
Thursday.
What does love in the power of the Spirit look like
if  you are not the pope & there are no Moslem 
woman’s feet to wash?  
It looks like active ministry: feeding, clothing, sheltering right here. These are easy to see – like our baptismal font.
 
What is hard to see is the silent, inner work of the 
individual, who takes time to be in God’s presence, time to 
listen. It’s what Peter does as he prays in Joppa.
 
If we are always busy “doing” it is hard to hear God tell us 
something new. Like Peter, we must live with the habit of 
prayer, the habit of holy silence. This silent work looks 
like doing nothing. It is essential.
It is as essential as water is to the body.
  God says:
 “To the thirsty I will give water
as a gift from the spring of the water of life.” 

The spring of the water of life is where we can drink deeply 
the living water of God’s love. Time alone with God
strengthens the individual to do what God calls that unique 
person to do.

Time alone with God is time to connect the deepest part of you to God.

This prayer from a diocesan retreat speaks of this deep connection:

Give me a candle of the Spirit,

O  God, as I go down to the deep

of my own being.

Take me down to the spring of life

 & tell me my  nature & my name.

 

Show me the hidden things, 

the seed of which . . .

you planted in me at my making5

 
When I tend the seed God planted in me at my making, I can
hear God better. The seed receives living water. Only  
you can tend the seed God planted in you at your making:
  • Go with God down to the spring of life.
  • Listen as God tells you your nature and your name.
  • Look as God shows you the hidden things – the beautiful hidden surprise – the seed of which God planted in you – & only in you – at your making.

Tend that thirsty seed.

Drink deeply from the spring of the 

water of life.

 

My Brothers & Sisters, drink deeply

from the spring of the water of life.


Amen.
Bibliography
Book of Common Prayer. New York: Church Publishing Inc. 1986.
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.
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.
Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 10 April 2013.
New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Eds.: Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger. New York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1977.
1 Harper’s Bible Commentary. General Ed.: James. L. Mays. P. 1094.
2 New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Eds.: Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger. P. 1308.
3 Harpers. P. 1067.
4 Book of Common Prayer. P. 305.
5 Note: I learned the prayer from the leader of one of the annual silent retreats for women at Honey Creek, (Episcopal
             Docese of Georgia's Camp & Conference Center), but do not recall the year, the leader, nor do I know the prayer’s
             origin.
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Monday, August 5, 2013

My Lord & My God...

Easter 2 Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
At St. James Episcopal Church, Quitman, GA, 7 April 2013
RCL Acts 5:27-32; Psalm 118:14-29; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31
One day at the office coffee pot a colleague regales us with what she has seen on her pre-dawn drive down our main street on her way to work:
Her headlights show a cowboy on horseback as he twirls his rope overhead, trying to lasso a run-away calf. . . . . . She slows down.
I know her as a sober, reliable coworker, so I don't doubt her story. But I am glad to have the local paper's details: A cattle truck overturned, cattle escaped all over the place, & emergency responders called local cattlemen to help Public Safety round 'em up. The report has no mention of what my friend has seen. Yet, I still believe her account. I know her well.
My college biology professor did not know me well & did not accept what I told her about a natural phenomena that happens on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay where I had lived. (It IS hard to accept what contradicts what is logical.)
In that part of Alabama, we have “jubilees”. I've been to one & benefited from the bounty of others. Jubilees are natural events that scientists have studied for years; yet cannot fully explain. I have read in several publications that scientists do know there is less oxygen in the bay's water during a jubilee.
Sea creatures of all kinds – flounder, mullet, shrimp, crabs – leave the water, flopping or crawling onto the beach, or float listlessly near shore. Crabs climb cypress tree trunks. Sometimes a jubilee has several species, sometimes one or two. This usually occurs at night & pre-dawn.
Once, a neighbor gave us 12 croker sacks full of crabs from his pre-dawn bounty. He also had many buckets of flounder & mullet. A jubilee has no “game limit” . . . . Imagine the stench IF we leave all those sea creatures to die on the beach!
A practical, fact-based scientist, my biology professor does believe the evidence when I bring her newspaper clippings & Chamber of Commerce brochures with photos. This evidence balances my experience so that she can believe. She knows it's true that jubilees happen, although she has yet to experience one, as she has said in our recent conversation.
It IS hard to accept what contradicts what is logical. (All four Gospels report some disciples doubt the reports that Jesus has risen.) Thomas' doubt about Jesus' Resurrection comes naturally to him. He is a witness to Jesus' miracles:
  • He sees Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead.

  • He sees Jesus raise Jairus' daughter.

  • He sees Jesus raise the Widow of Nain's son.
He also sees Jesus die on that cross & run through with a spear. So who is there to raise Jesus?
When Thomas encounters the real thing, his doubts vanish.
There is no report that he actually touches Jesus' hand and side. Jesus' words are the real thing. The words Thomas' friends report are not “newspaper clippings”. They are not “real enough” evidence. The Disciples' reports to Thomas remind me of the famous Pablo Picasso painting students studying Spanish always encounter: Guernica.
I remember it from my student days & my years as a teacher:
Small in textbooks. Famous (enough about that...move on with our lesson). So easy to dismiss. . . . until my husband & I see the real oil on canvas: 11½' high x 25' 8” wide1: black, white, gray, in “varying temperatures & values”2.  I see the real thing:
My Lord & My God.....

forgive us the evil / the horrors we do!
As a teacher, I returned home to bring that experience to life for my students: No more glib glance & cursory treatment. Seeing Guernica teaches me why it is in textbooks. (Textbooks give reports of facts.)
The Bible gives reports of creation, God's work, Jesus, the Holy Spirit. You & I can bring the Bible to life. We can balance reports & experience.
You & I are the way these reports can become more real to fellow humans who do not know Jesus, who do not believe Jesus lives, people who are running, scared in life.
We are God's Emergency Responders, rounding up scared, running, scattered cattle.
There is a jubilee of people, gasping for the Holy

Spirit, people ready to be gathered into this fellowship.

 We just have to go & reach out to them.
Amen.
 
Bibliography
Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press. 1989.
Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 7 March 2013.
Picasso: Masterworks from The Museum of Modern Art. Ed: Barbara Ross. Kirk Varnedoe, Exhibition Chief Curator. Pepe Karmel, Adjunct Assistant Curator. Exhibition organized by The Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with the High Museum of Art. Printed in Milan. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. 1997.
1 Picasso: Masterworks from The Museum of Modern Art. Ed: Barbara Ross. P. 16.
2 Note: Technical terminology re temperatures and values is from my friend & colleague Deacon Sally Shovar, Teaching 
            Artist, Moultrie, GA.
.
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