What Happens...

What Happens to the Sheep?

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA; Christmas Eve, 24 Dec. 2013

Year A RCL: Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14(15-20)

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, Isaiah tells us in tonight's reading.

There are many kinds of darkness.

I remember the darkness at Christmas when we'd lost a good-paying full-time job. My part-time work supplemented my self-employment as a free lance writer. I remember deciding to take a break from dismal financial figuring to read a cheery- looking note in the stack of mail. The message from United Thank Offering encourages me to save loose change to give to the poor. I cry. Right now, we ARE poor. Every bit of loose change goes to the next week's groceries at the discount store.

I feel more depressed as I drive to my part-time job. I tell God I feel really bad about not giving, but I have to use loose change to feed our son. I can't see any hope, any way to help except to pray. I can't look up. Eyes downcast as I get out of the car, I see a penny on the ground & pick it up. As I put it in my pocket, I think darkly: this won't do any good.

On my desk are 2 pennies. Hmmm. I pick them up & put them in my pocket. I push open the curtains. On the floor sits a pile of pennies!. . . . I inquire of co-workers. "No, they don't belong to anyone. Guess, they're yours!"

God knows I am slow to catch on, but light starts to break into my darkness. I laugh a little & save the pennies to send to United Thank Offering – someday – when I have more to send.

More comes sooner than I expect. For weeks I find stray coins in the oddest of places! . . . . I KNOW God IS in charge. God DOES provide . . . in unexpected ways. God meets us where we are.

 Even when we are downcast & cannot look up, God comes down to where we are &

looks us in the eye with God's eyes of love.

The question is . . . . do we see God's love?

My Brothers & Sisters, Jesus comes to redeem us & give us fuller life & love. I know from experience this is hard to remember when life is hard, when we are in the grip of many demands. Some demands we self-impose as we strive to make the perfect Christmas.

We can be so busy (as Glennon Doyle Melton writes in “A Christmas Miracle,”)  

that we have no room in our hearts for Jesus¹ 

& we send him away to the manger to get out of our way.

 

If the perfect Christmas means we have every detail taken care of, tell me: Why at the first Christmas do the shepherds leave their sheep? How could they possibly herd all of them into Bethlehem that is so crowded Mary & Joseph have to go to the stable? Why didn't God didn't have a plan to protect the sheep from lions & wolves & bears?

I wonder . . . . .if the shepherds laugh in joy they after they get over being terrified. . . . . Joy & laughter are gifts from God, who creates us in God's image. . . . We laugh, so God must laugh. One good belly laugh raises the immune system for 3 days. So laughter is healthy. It can instill peace.

Maybe the shepherds' laughter & joy join the joy of Mary & Joseph & the angels & fill the world with God's profound peace – however briefly on this night of nights. So that peace settles on the bear, the lion, the wolf – peace that gives them deep sleep & freedom from worry about their next meal. So the sheep are safe in the peaceable kingdom we glimpse on this night of nights.

How does this night come to be? I wonder . . . . if one day the Holy Trinity discusses the darkness we stumble in & brainstorms how to bring light to us – Holy life-giving Light – that will restore us fully in God's image so that we live in justice & righteousness, as Isaiah says. . . . . Maybe the conversation goes like this:

God the Father says:

Y'all we've got a problem on earth.

 

The Holy Spirit says:

Yes! The people – especially the leaders – ignore what we say through the prophets about how to live.

The regular folk don't stand a chance

to live fully & know us fully.

God the Father says:

We promised not to zap them again with a flood. They rationalize natural disasters & ignore their responsibility for caring for all of creation.

If only we could talk to them one-on-one.

Jesus says: Hey, that could work!

What if I get born to one of them? Not as a prince but as a regular person.

Oh, what if I get born in a stable & sleep in a feedbox²!?

 That's so funny . . . . it just might work!

At least it might give humans some joy & a good laugh!

They are so dreary.

The Father says:

Son, IF you do this, many will remember &

set up little stables & decorate trees with stars

& angels to celebrate.

I love it!

The Holy Spirit says:

 One thing wisdom demands after you show them

how to live & how to love:

you have to show them how to forgive.

You have to love them until

the end of life

& show them love never dies.³

The Father says:

 Son, you must realize they will betray you

 & likely will execute you, nailing you to a tree.

Jesus says: I know. I love them so much & I will do it!

They can celebrate my birth & decorate all the trees they want to. All those trees can remind them of the one tree only I can decorate.⁴ 

I WILL decorate that tree of death so that they may have life – abundant life filled with joy & laughter, peace & good will.

It will become the tree of life!

The Holy Spirit says:

Wonderful! . . . .

Y'all do remember we have given them

freedom to choose between good & evil.

  

Jesus says: Yes. Some WILL choose right.

They will be so filled with our joy & trust in us that they

WILL share the Good News that we love them.

They WILL tell others that even in darkness,

we shine great light.

They WILL be zealous to do good deeds

– as their holy scripture will say. 

The Father says:

Son, who are they? How many? 

Jesus says: There are enough. Look:

There's a great group gathered right now at St. John's

in Bainbridge. They ARE so filled with our joy!

They WILL tell others that even in darkness, we shine

great light. They ARE zealous to do good deeds.

Bibliography

The Catholic Company Christmas Gifts for Everyone. CatholicCompany.com. Charlotte, NC.

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

Harper’s Bible Dictionary. Gen. Ed: Paul J. Achtemeier. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers. 1985. p. 851.

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: 20 Nov. 2013. Publications. 2007.

Melton, Glennon Doyle. “A Christmas Miracle.” FamilyCircle. December 2013. New York: Meredith Corp. 2013.

New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger, eds. New York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1977.

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

Voyle, Robert J. “Blue Christmas Meditation: How Shall We Remember?” www.appreciativeway.com. Accessed: 31 Oct. 2013.

1 Melton, Glennon Doyle. “A Christmas Miracle.” Family Circle. December 2013. P. 90.

2 Note: Influenced by Barbara Robinson's The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

3 Note: Influenced by Voyle, Robert J. “Blue Christmas Meditation: How Shall We Remember?” www.appreciativeway.com. Accessed: 31 Oct. 2013.

4 Note: Influenced by information from Christmas Catalog of The Catholic Co. (Charlotte, NC). P. 30. CatholicCompany.com.

You Viper's Brood! . . . May You Abound in Hope....

By The Rev. Marcia McRae & edited for this blog from Homily for

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA; 2 Advent, 8 Dec. 2013

Year A RCL: Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12

"You viper's brood!

Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?!"

I can't preach like John the Baptist that fiery outdoor prophet. I preach in this climate controlled building. These purple vestments over a white alb look very different from what our Gospel says John wears: camel's hair clothing with a leather belt around his waist. What would he look like today?

 Can you see him with his hair long & unruly?

He wears a crocker sack tied with twine.

As he walks down this center aisle to sit on the front pew, you read the slogan scrawled

on the back of his denim jacket:

“Jesus Saves!”

If this character comes in here & sits on your pew will you bear fruit worthy of the repentance we speak at every Eucharist as we seek God's forgiveness so that we can live new lives? Will you welcome this strange stranger?

Will you, dear Beloved Child of God, dear little child, welcome this lion to eat with us at this Holy Table?

Will you offer your hand at the peace to shake his – like a child putting its hand over the adder's den?

(as Isaiah describes of the peaceable kingdom)

Will you (as Paul encourages the Romans to do) welcome one another just as Christ has welcomed you?

 If you do, then we can – with one voice – glorify God. That one voice is a harmony of many voices.

Paul reminds the Romans (& us) that with God's help we can live in harmony with one another. Harmony has many parts, many sounds. It is so different & much richer than a monotone, than all sounding exactly alike. Our many voices blending together speak God's love & unite into a glorious chorus of praise to God.

I am convinced that you – that we – have such great unity, such ability to live in harmony. Yes, you would do as Paul encourages the Romans to do. You WILL welcome one another just as Christ has welcomed you. You will welcome a John the Baptist here as he marches down the center aisle in his crocker sack, trailing a scent of body odor like incense floating in procession on a festival day.

I am convinced that you – that we – can reflect the unity we know of God's Mystery: Unity that is Holy Community, the Holy Trinity – 3 in One, 1 in 3 – Unity that welcomes all sorts & conditions of people.

I am convinced of this because I have seen you welcome strangers & make them our Beloved Brothers & Sisters. I have seen your grace & determined unity under fire & in stressful times. I am convinced because my husband & I have witnessed such an encounter among Episcopalians not too far from here. We remember that Sunday when the lessons we have today have just been read:

The preacher has just started her sermon, focusing on John the Baptist. In walks this character that I have just described: the crocker sack guy with denim Jesus Saves jacket strides to the front pew.

Most of us think he's the preacher's prop,

a theater student from across the street

here to help illustrate her sermon.

We think this until we whiff the scent of him & see people shift uncomfortably nearby. One woman on the pew scoots closer to him after the sermon & opens the Prayer Book to the Creed for him.

He doesn't use it.

He knows the Creed by heart.

He's an Episcopalian.

He knows when to stand, sit, & kneel. He has drifted into our community, ill & far from home.

He becomes part of parish worship & fellowship. He chastises us for throwing out food left on plates after the parish supper & rescues it for a meal. He chastises me for shaking crumbs from the table cloths into the yard behind the kitchen; however, he stops when I remind him they are for the ants & the birds.

This Beloved Child of God teaches us much & gives us new perspectives. God has put him among us for us to learn from him,

& for us to bless him:

The head of a health organization happens to be a parishioner & eventually locates his family, gets him needed medicine & helps him return home.

When we see someone who is different or someone who irritates us, what assumptions do we make? He assumed I was thoughtlessly wasting food when (in fact) I was careful not to throw crumbs into the trash but was feeding God's creatures outside.

Jesus meets us where we are.

Our scriptures remind us that God constantly reaches out to us in love, peace & mercy. Sometimes God wears a crocker sack to do this.

God does this to bring us into closer relationship

with God & into fullness of life.

We know that Jesus dies for each of us before we ever ask forgiveness. Jesus dies for each of us while we are still trailing the odor of our sins. Jesus dies for us while we are still a disheveled mess.

Jesus reaches out his hand to us while

we are a brood of vipers & lets us bite his 

hand over & over.

Eventually we will run out of venom.

Eventually we will curl up in peace, wrapping ourselves around Jesus, hearing his heart beating,   beating in harmony with God's love.

 Jesus does this just because....just because...just because God loves you.

YOU, Beloved Child,

God invites to feast in peace

& in unity

in God's Holy Community of love.

Bibliography

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: 20 Nov. 2013. Publications. 2007.

The New American Bible for Catholics. South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1970.

How Do We Live...?

How Do We Live in This Time of Waiting?

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA; 1 Advent, 1 Dec. 2013

Year A RCL: Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44

Something is different here today: We see purple candles, purple hangings & vestments, so we know this Sunday is different from recent Sundays when we have had fewer candles & green accoutrements.

With our color-coded worship,¹ even if we lose track of time, we have visual cues in church to remind us of the season of the year. Today we mark the 1^st Sunday in Advent. Advent is our annual countdown to Christmas and the start of the new church year².

So: Happy New Church Year!

Like any new year, Advent gives us a chance to reflect on the past, anticipate the future, and make a resolution for change. Most of us make well-intentioned resolutions for the new year that may last a bit of time. When we forget or fail to follow through, we can get discouraged and drop our failed plan.

When we decide to do something different, something new, we can be more successful if we give ourselves room to experience the change: do it for a while, then reflect on it.

What worked? What didn't? Why?

How can we adjust it as we do it again but differently?

So we do it, we reflect on it,

& we do it anew.

How can we live differently today? Can we learn (as a friend of mine did) to do a simple task to honor God? She teaches others that a menial task – like cleaning toilets in the parish hall – can be done as if you were doing it because Jesus is coming to be with us. . . 

So you want things clean & presentable, right? 

What is something to do differently this year in Advent & Christmas & beyond that will help us to grow closer to Jesus? What will help you to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”? as St. Paul writes to the Romans.

Advent's purple color reminds us of the purple we use in Lent, the season of penitence³. It is good to be reminded that we have aspects of our lives that we can improve & may need to confess to God to ask forgiveness.

This can help us do something differently

& live in a new way.

Advent's purple is a royal color⁴ that reminds us Christ the King will come again.

Jesus tells us in our Gospel: the day & hour will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night.

 What an interesting contrast Jesus gives us:

he will come like a thief in the night!

Jesus says, a person who stays awake can prevent a thief from breaking into the house. When Jesus comes, I want to welcome him into my house. If I am asleep, I hope he breaks in & wakes me up! 

Advent gives us time to consider the future. 

• What can we do that will make God's kingdom of peace more accessible to others?
• What can we do – where we are – to reach out as Jesus' hands & heart to individuals who do not know Jesus?
• What can we do to help people beat swords into plowshares? To help them learn violence – & war – no more?
• How long does it take people to learn something? How long does it take us to unlearn an old habit? How can we learn to live in peace?

According to the Jewish Study Bible, Jeremiah “does not imagine a future without borders or distinct nationalities.”⁵ “International conflicts will still occur, but nations will no longer resolve them through warfare. Instead, nations will submit to the arbitration at Mount Zion. The Temple will become the headquarters of a divine Security Council with the membership of one [that one being God!] & (with) unsurpassed ability to ensure compliance.”⁶ 

God will ensure the peace that surpasses all understanding.

How long will this take? We do not know. As author Luke Timothy Johnson says:

“God's time seems long to us.”⁷ 

We are like children waiting for Christmas: it takes so long! 

 As we have pondered here recently, our perspective of time is so different from God's. I remember a perspective on time in a favorite book of mine, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar...⁸ (& I adjust the text in parts)

A person prays to God: “I would like to ask you a question.”

God says, “Go ahead.” The human says,

“Is it true that a million years to you are but a second?”

God says: “Yes, that is true.”

The person asks:

“Well, what is a million dollars to you?”

God says: “A million dollars to me is but a penny.”

 

“Ah, Lord,” the person says, “may I have a penny?” God replies:

“Sure! Just a second.”

God lives in eternity. We live in clock-watching time. We can get impatient & confused when things don't happen with the timing we expect.

Right now we live in Advent that gives us time to prepare for Christmas & anticipate Jesus' coming again in God's good & perfect time.

In perfect time, we will see the fulfillment of what Isaiah tells us of the time of peace:

we will see peace in its fullest sense –

prosperity, happiness⁹,

justice, absence of war.

Advent offers us time to pace ourselves differently. We can slow the hectic pace of this season with simple things, like making time for a brief reflection on scripture & a quiet time to pray to God.

 

Whether you live alone or with family,

this can be a gift to yourself. 

Many of us use an Advent wreath to help us focus on a daily time-out. Lighting the Advent wreath candles gives us specific time to thank God.

In this time we can take time for a much-needed deep breath to slow our hectic pace.

This helps us make room for peace

in our hearts & minds.

With peaceful hearts & minds, we can be more attuned to the needs around us. Needs can be simple. We may give a smile or kind word to a harried store clerk or offer a hectic shopper to move ahead of us in the check-out line.

Jesus says: My Beloved Brother, My Beloved Sister, when you do this for the one of the least of these, you do this for me.

 Can you give Jesus that much-needed smile or kind word?

Can you let Jesus break in line in front of you?

Can you?

Will you?

Bibliography

Cathcart, Thomas. Daniel Klein. Plato and a Platpus Walk into a Bar...:Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes. New York: Books. The Penguin Group. 2007.

English, June A. Anglican Young People's Dictionary. Harrisburg: Morehouse Publishing. 2004.

The Episcopal Handbook. Church Publishing. New York: Morehouse Publishing. 2008.

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.

Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters. New York: Doubleday. 2003.

Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 20 Nov. 2013. Publications. 2007..

Levenson, Jon D. Sinai & Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible. Minneapolis: A Seabury Book. Winston Press. 1985.

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.

Wall, John. N. A Dictionary for Episcopalians. Chicago: Cowley Publications Book. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2000.

1 The Episcopal Handbook. Church Publishing. New York: Morehouse Publishing. 2008. P. 51.

2 Ibid.

3 Wall, John. N. A Dictionary for Episcopalians. Chicago: Cowley Publications Book. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2000. P. 2.

4 English, June A. Anglican Young People's Dictionary. Harrisburg: Morehouse Publishing. 2004. P. 2.

5 Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004. P. 788.

6 Ibid.

7 Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters. New York: Doubleday. 2003. P. 501.

8 Cathcart, Thomas. Daniel Klein. Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar... P. 173. Note: I have paraphrased parts.

9 The New American Bible for Catholics. South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1970. P. 622.