Sunday, February 28, 2016

Light in Our Darkness Wrecks Our Plans

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA
24 Dec. 2015, Christmas Eve Year C: Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14 [15-20]

The governing powers send a decree to take a census, & people have to put up with the inconvenience of traveling to their ancestral towns.
Our government's census taking seems simpler.
The emperor's decree must inconvenience Joseph & Mary. Instead of giving birth at home with family to tend to her1, Mary has to give birth in a stable & put her baby in the animal feed trough. Talk about inconvenience!
I wonder if the innkeeper literally has no room in the inn because of so many travelers or if the innkeeper has “no room” because Mary is about to give birth without being married to Joseph. Whatever the reason, this inconvenience reminds us of an inconvenient truth: God does not come to live among us to make us comfy. God comes to be born as a human, to live among us & to die at our hands to show us a new way to live, to shake up our perspectives, to wreck everything,2 as one preacher says, quoting a story from the late Bishop Thomas Shaw.
In a YouTube video, Bishop Thomas Shaw shares the story of wrecking everything in his encounter with a man & his 6-year-old son talking about what they will do on Christmas. The dad talks of opening presents, then going to church. His son asks: “Church?! On Christmas? ...” The dad says: “Of course, that’s what Christmas is all about. It’s about Jesus’ birth & God coming to us.” The child says, “I know, I know, I know! But Christmas! Church wrecks everything!”3

Tonight in the church that wrecks everything, we celebrate the child born “to wreck everything.”4 Wrecking everything, Jesus frees us from all real wrecking...we humans...[do]. We know...this wrecking personally & from the news. We know about the darkness we hear in our 1st lesson tonight. We know people still walk in darkness. People still need the light of Jesus Christ to shine in their lives.
We have work to do. Our Psalm reminds us: We are to sing a new song & proclaim the good news of salvation daily. Our work is to shine the light of Jesus into the darkness around us.
It is dark tonight. It is often dark in the daylight in many lives. Darkness & light remind me of encounters on our recent trips to Washington, D.C.
The day before Thanksgiving, sitting at a favorite restaurant's table beside the wall of windows that look onto one of DC's busiest streets, we notice street-side parallel-parked cars trapped by barricades & giant machinery & men digging deeply to remove the pavement on this day, one of the busiest travel days of the year.
Who decided this timing?
The sight spoke to me of how our well-intentioned decisions can be inconvenient at best, if not downright disastrous, adding to our darkness.
Last week in DC, with all the Christmas decorations, even the nights were bright. In the 21st century, we don't have to do much walking in literal darkness. Descending deep, deep, deep down in the earth to the metro station to catch the subway, we wait for the train in the light of electric lights underground. I notice a woman walking alone toward our stop: she wears a business suit, dark sunglasses & uses a white cane to guide her steps.
One night after enjoying a play, my husband, our son & I stop for photos in the theatre lobby. A man, who looks as if he could play The Incredible Hulk, storms into the lobby from the street, heads straight for me & shouts he needs my help, he's an ex-con, served time for drugs & murders [plural], has found the Lord & needs help for some food for himself – oh, yes & for his kids. Before I can respond, theater staffers escort him out as he yells belligerently & disappears into the night without waiting for me to go outside to help him.
Notice: the woman in the subway wears dark glasses & walks alone with a white cane. The man in the theatre shouts for help & disappears, not waiting for help. Which of them walks in darkness?
How do we walk in the light? We must, as one preacher says: “...dare not forget the scandal of both the cradle & the cross & be lulled by [our] culture’s attempts to sentimentalize Christmas.”5
We...let Christmas bring emotional pressures, unrealistic expectations, over consumption of food, drink & purchases.6 
Tonight, we gather “to pay honor to the one who [comes] to wreck all of that...This child’s birth [is] the plan of [God, who is] subversive [& comes] as one of us – vulnerable, poor, & powerless –...[comes] to upend the world as we have constructed it.7
“He [comes] to wreck our selfishness & narcissism, so that we [can]...love God & others &...receive that love [ourselves]. He [comes] to wreck our fear of death, so that we [can]...live more fully & freely in this life. He [comes] to wreck the political systems [that] choose who is in & who is out, so that all of God’s children [will] be included in the kingdom...He [comes] to break down our ideas of family to embrace a wider vision of God’s family [that] includes all people, not just the ones like us [so that we can live the truth: God loves you. No exceptions. All are welcome.]
“[He comes] to wreck every structure we try to build [that] puts us first at the expense of everyone else. As [Jesus]...tell[s] his followers, he [comes] not to be served but to serve...[He] calls us to follow in his path”8 of service.
Like people for 2,000 plus years, we “come together to mark [Jesus'] birth...[to celebrate] God’s subversive way of dwelling among us & wrecking everything for the sake of bringing about something greater than we [can] ask for or imagine. [We celebrate the] vision of [God's] kingdom unfolding right here” [among us in this happening community where we live God's love].9
God's love is unfolding among us despite
our fears or conflicts.
May this holy child, this holy, one-man wrecking crew, disrupt your life, plant & nurture God's grace in your heart so that you may know
[& share] more fully Jesus’ love.10

Bibliography
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.
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.
Scarborough, The Rev. Anjel. “Wrecking Church, Christmas Eve C [2015]”. Note: A wife, mother, iconographer, writer and retreat leader, the writers is rector of Grace Church, Brunswick MD. http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2015/12/09/wrecking-church-christmas-eve-c-2015/ Accessed: 24 Dec. 2015.

1 Kautz, Richard. A Labyrinth Year: Walking the Seasons of the Church.
2 Scarborough, The Rev. Anjel. “Wrecking Church, Christmas Eve C [2015]”. Accessed: 24 Dec. 2015. http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2015/12/09/wrecking-church-christmas-eve-c-2015/
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid. Scarborough.
5 Ibid. Scarborough.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid. Scarborough.
9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.
Posted by at No comments:

Stones Teach Us to Be Ourselves

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA
13 Dec. 2015, Advent 3 Year C: Zephaniah 3:14-20; Canticle 9; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18


On a scale of 1-10 [10 being highest] where do you rate the energy level of one of these stones?
Know these facts: each of these stone is different, each bears a different decorative sticker, each of you may take one home, and this is not an attempt to bring back the Pet Rock fad.
On a scale of 1-10, I'll rate a stone's energy level 8-10. More of that in a bit.
On a scale of 1-10, I rate stones high for what they can teach us about our scriptures today.
We hear John in our Gospel say: God can raise up children from stones. Our other scriptures say nothing about stones & much about rejoicing, singing, ringing out joy.
Reading our canticle, the First Song of Isaiah, the words about God being our stronghold & sure defense bring to mind God as the “rock of our salvation,” that we hear in 2nd Samuel 22:47.
Rocks/stones are solid, strong. They live the holiness of being exactly what God designs them to be. They sit right where they are, right where you put them until you – or something – moves them. Maybe that was the appeal of the Pet Rock fad. Consider this fact: I have not seen one of these stones worry.
At this hectic time of year, stones may remind us to take time just to chill, just sit, &, as Paul says to the Philippians & us: not to worry about anything; God's peace that surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts & minds in Jesus Christ.
For us who find comfort sitting still, these stones may speak to us about resting in God's love. For us who find activity more satisfying, these stones can speak about relying on God's love. We just have to remember on a scale of 1-10 to rate a stone' energy level between 8 and 10.
Fact: it requires great internal activity for a stone to sit still.
A stone's apparent inactivity belies how busily it works to be what God has created it to be. To be a solid lump, a stone's atoms have to move very fast. A stone is very active on the inside, serving God’s will for its existance.
Remember:
Jesus is the cornerstone into which we are built.
You & I are stones that build up this happening community where we live God's love. God's love calls for us to be joyful, for us not to worry, & to take time to be still. This sounds so contrary to the action verbs in our scriptures with all their singing aloud, rejoicing, ringing out joy, proclaiming the Good News: Go loves you. No exceptions. All are welcome.
God's love is broad & many dimensional. We experience God's love in stillness & through activity. We experience God's love in our joyful sharing at this Holy Table where we celebrate God's love & the joy we know through Jesus' life, death for us, & resurrection & the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our 1st lesson today assures us God joins us in our joy.
When life events prevent our coming – your coming – to participate in our celebration, we can bring the celebration to you. [Thank you, Lay Eucharistic Visitors, for your ministry of sharing our feast, our celebration of God's love.]
We celebrate the feast God gives us
 for solace AND for strength,
for pardon AND for renewal.
Through the feast we gain strength for the work God gives each of us to do with our unique gifts.

My Brothers and Sisters, BE who God designs you to be. You living stones are a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Just as these stones have different looks & messages, each of us is different.
The Rev. Chris Brathwaite of the Diocese of Central Florida, Rector of St. Mark's, Haines City, asks if we realize what we say when we call each other Brothers & Sisters in Christ. Writing about the work of the Anti-Racism Commission1, he says: Our starting point to discuss race relations, “should be acknowledging that we are created in [God's] image & stand before [God] as a rainbow – different colors, one entity.”2
I see this as a starting point in any human relationship. We are different. We are one human family.
Fr. Brathwaite reminds us: “In the beginning God created the first couple, none of us has any idea what color they were...[W]e do know that with every other thing [God] made – animals, birds, landscape, & more – [God gives] us many examples of the same species or kind, but different colors.”3
Our identity comes from being children of God,
not how we look.
Our unity is in our diversity.
As you take your special stone home & look at it, ponder what God is saying to you through this very busy, very solid part of God's creation.
What is God saying through you?


Bibliography
“The Real Thing”. http://www.sermons4kids.com/ Accessed: 10 Dec/ 2015.
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.
Matthews, Victor H. Social World of the Hebrew Prophets. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. 2001.
Nave, Orville J. Nave's Topical Index: A Digest of the Holy Scriptures. Nashville: The Southwestern Co. 1962.
The New American Bible for Catholics. South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.

1 Brathwaite, The Rev. Chris. “My Brothers and Sisters in Christ” Do we realize what we are saying? Central Florida Episcopalian. Nov. 2015. P. 6
2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.
Posted by at No comments:

Cookie-cutter Righteousness? What Shape Are You?

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA
6 Dec. 2015, Advent 2 Year C: Malachi 3:1-5; Canticle 16; Philippians 1:3-11; Luke 3:1-6

If I use this Christmas tree-shaped cookie cutter on a batch of dough, what will the cookies most likely resemble?

If we could ony make Christmas-tree shaped cookies the holiday season could seem uncreative. 
This cookie cutter holds 5 different shapes at once & has 10 different attachments, including angel, star, stable & king. This cutter's variety may help us see that God calls us to creative living & serving the world in Jesus' name through the power of the Holy Spirit that manifests in each of us as the Holy Spirit chooses.
Notice the variety of choices we have made for gift-giving in these items we will ask God to bless. We are one Body of Christ with many parts. God creates us this way & calls us to be our unique selves.
To begin our meetings, your Vestry acknowledges our uniqueness in our responsive devotional1 that uses the analogy of the human body. We say: God gives us work to do & calls us to use our talents for each other & the world. Like our bodies being one body with many different parts as God creates us, even the parts that seem least important are valuable. If one part hurts, we hurt all over. If one part does well, the whole body benefits.
YOU are important. God calls us to work together & to care about each other. We are more than a single cookie-cutter image of God, whose righteousness we are called to live into & to express in our lives to produce a harvest of righteousness. How do we produce this harvest? Philippians tells us: through Jesus Christ. Why are we to do this? Philippians tells us: For the glory & praise of God, who creates us uniquely. The Holy Spirit guides us in our unique work of sharing God's love.
God's love is filled with righteousness that today's scriptures emphasize. Righteousness straightens what's crooked & smooths what's rough.
God's love that flows over us in the water of Baptism gives us new birth.
God's love works through us & on us to refine us to respond, to do the work God calls each to do – our unique ministry in Jesus' name.
We see unique ministries in our scriptures today in 3 men, Malachi, Zachariah, & John the Baptizer. John serves as God's messenger in his day & time. We know his call came in the wilderness. How did he experience that call?
We know his dad, Zachariah, whose song we read, responded uniquely to God's call that came when Zachariah was serving in the temple. We know by reading Malachi, whose name is from a Hebrew expression meaning “my messanger”, that he responded uniquely in his day to be God's messenger.2
God calls each of us to be our unique selves in this fully functioning Body of Christ.
In all of creation, there is only one you,
my Beloved Brother, you, my Beloved Sister.
You are essential to & a blessed part of this Body,
this community.
What does your response to God's call look like? How do you serve in your unique role in this happening place where we live God's love?
With your unique gift, you help us live into the prayer we read in Philippians 1 verse 9, which some of us include in emails & pray daily. We say “our” & “us” instead of “your” & “you”, as we pray:
That our love may overflow more & more with
knowledge & full insight to
help us determine what is best.
This verse helps us to live into St. John's being “A happening community where we live God’s love”, where we help a child of God break free from cookie-cutter living to grow into the unique, blessed child God intends for that beloved brother, that beloved sister to be so that God's love may overflow more & more in the human family.

Bibliography
Grenz, Staney J. David Guretzki. Cherith Fee Nordling. Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. 1999.
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.
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/patronal-service-abbotswood/. Accessed: 6 Dec. 2014.
http://vicarbill.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/devotions-for-congregation-leadership/ Accessed: 6 Dec. 2013.
The New American Bible for Catholics. South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.


2 The New American Bible for Catholics P. 991 notes the name Malachi is from a Hebrew expression meaning “My Messanger”.
Posted by at No comments:

How Do We Brighten Dismal Lives?

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA
29 Nov. 2015, Advent 1 Year C: Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25:1-9; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36

As we greet this Advent season, this season of anticipation, we say goodbye to this Thanksgiving weekend & ask:
Q: Why can't you take a turkey to church?
A: They use fowl language!*


* Joke is from a cracker like this at left, which our family enjoys popping open at holidays to find jokes & prizes  inside.
Life would be dismal without laughter. Without laughter, life would be unhealthy. One good belly laugh raises the immune system for 3 days, as I learned long ago at a stress awareness workshop in Tifton.
The joy we express in laughter dispels despair & shines light into dismal places, shines light & God's grace into distressed lives & fearful hearts.
Jesus says in our Gospel today: There will be distress among nations & people will faint from fear. We hear much distress & fear daily in the news: fleeing refugees & harrowing events like Friday's standoff & deaths in Colorado. In our news we hear less about the hope, joy, love & courage that we hear in our scriptures today.
This range of emotions from dismal expectations to hope & joy reminds me of our blessed Thanksgiving visit in Washington, D.C., where the weather was perfect for outdoor dining, & where we paid attention to the news & were alert but not fretful about our surroundings.
Plus we enjoyed a beautiful trek there & back home under blue skies & fluffy clouds, seeing glorious rolling green hills surrounded by deep blue mountains, sleek horses, peaceful cattle grazing on hillsides near bright evergreens & other trees some with shiny yellow leaves still clinging. Red barn roofs & white silos peak above hilltops. Artwork of red & green apples painted on a water tower speaks of the quality of life & creativity of people. Ooooo.
We dip down a hillside. At the shadowy, monochromatic looking bottom, I see rusting remains of bygone days. A large sign points the way to Dismal Hollow. The contrast is as stark as what we hear in the news & the hope you & I have in Jesus.
Jesus frees us from “Dismal Hollow”. Jesus calls us to be change agents, to carry on his work freeing our brothers & sisters from “Dismal Hollow” beyond our red doors. How do we do this work? How do we brighten dismal lives? The “how” varies among us according to our God-given gifts. The “how” remains grounded in God's love.
Beautiful Brothers & Sisters, you do do what Paul hopes for the Thessalonians, as we hear today. You DO respond so that the Lord makes you increase & abound in love for one another & for all. That's why it is easy for me to do what Paul does: “abound in love for you”.
You are a beautiful, love-overflowing Body of Christ. You ARE change agents for our Brothers & Sisters living in “Dismal Hollow”. Sometimes it helps to be reminded of this to remain strong in the Lord & confident in your work as agents for positive change.
God's love & guidance through the Holy Spirit will strengthen you so that you do not faint from fear & foreboding as you do the work God gives you to do: the work to rescue our brothers & sisters held hostage in “Dismal Hollow”.
May God strengthen you in holiness.

May you remain strong in sharing God's love.
Posted by at No comments:

Listen to the King of Kings

Homily for Christ the King Sunday by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA
22 Nov. 2015, Proper 29 Year B: 2 Samuel 23:1-7; Psalm 132:1-13; Revelation 1:4b-8; John 18:33-37

Jesus says:
“Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Jesus encourages us to listen to what he says.
I wonder if Jesus intends for us to recognize the subtle difference between
“to hear” Jesus' voice
&
“to listen” to Jesus.
The dictionary1 says: Hear means, among other definitions, “to listen to with attention”. Listen means “to hear something with thoughtful attention”.
When we give thoughtful attention to Jesus' voice, we gain insight into God's compelling love & grace. As we give thoughtful attention & follow Jesus, God's love & grace compel us to go & share the Good News:
God loves you. No exceptions. All are welcome.
This is one way we do what our Lord Jesus does: one way we testify to the truth.
On this Christ the King Sunday, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry reminds us: “God came among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth to show us the Way...the Way to life, the Way to love. [Jesus] came to show us the Way beyond what often can be the nightmares of our own devisings & into the dream of God’s intending.”2

We hear & see the nightmares of our own devising in our news. Thinking of the dream God intends, I hear echoes of the 1971 commercial hit song: “I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.” Despite its plug for Coca-Cola, I hear echoes of God's dream when I focus on its “positive message of hope & love” sung by young people from around the world.3

The song's creation came during a forced layover at Ireland's Shannon Airport where tempers had flared. An advertising executive got the idea the next day...as he & colleagues noticed “fellow travelers...talking & joking while drinking Coca-Cola. [On a napkin, the man] wrote the line 'I'd like to buy the world a Coke'...The [ad] ended with [this] statement: "On a hilltop in Italy, we assembled young people from all over the world to bring you the message from Coca-Cola bottlers all over the world. It's the real thing..."4

Maybe Coke is the real thing in your soft drink choice. Beloved Brothers & Sisters, you know Jesus is the real, real thing. We commit ourselves to the real, real thing, who is “the way, the truth & the life”:
Jesus, the King who is a servant, as one priest notes & adds: “[Our servant King is the One who]...comes, teaches, heals, reconciles, dies & rises again, who lives through us & who will return.”5
Listen to his voice – hear with thoughtful attention.
What does life look like when we hear with thoughtful attention when Jesus speaks?
Life looks like people Jesus loves & frees from our sins by his blood, as we read in Revelation.
Life looks like a kingdom of priests – you & I, guided by the Holy Spirit – serving God our Father, the Alpha & the Omega, who is & who was & who is to come, the Almighty.
The Almighty is why Jesus can stand before Pilate & say: “My kingdom is not from this world...I came into the world to testify to the truth.”
To testify to the truth in the power of the Holy Spirit is part of our calling, our work as members of the royal priesthood.
As one priest says: “...We are given the task of mediating between God & humanity & creation. We are God’s agents of reconciliation. At home, work, school, play, in social interactions – even on Facebook – we echo God’s plea, 'Come to me all you who [labor] & are burdened & I will give you rest.' We speak & act...as a priesthood invested with royal authority, a royal status epitomized in servanthood.”6
When we hear with thoughtful attention as Jesus speaks, we can see more clearly how to serve in our work in the royal priesthood.
The priest says: “...[T]he royal priesthood works for justice & mercy, tells of God’s forgiveness & unfathomable love, & lifts up the Cross as the sign & symbol of [Jesus'] redeeming work [& looks] forward in hope to the end times...when...the world will be put right, Eden restored & 'sorrowing & crying will be no more'...”7
I see much sorrowing & crying in the news. I see much hope in human goodness right here in this Beloved Body of Christ, this happening place where we live God's love. I see much hope in human goodness beyond our red doors.
In the news I see much hope in human goodness in the exchange of real hugs, heartfelt hugs, last week in a square in Paris, where a Muslim man blindfolded himself & stood with a sign saying: “I'm a Muslim...I trust you. Do you trust me? If yes, hug me.”
Throughout the day & into the night, person after person of different ages & races hugged the blindfolded man. A woman who spoke after hugging him is Jewish.
God's grace releases us from fear so that we can embrace our brothers & sisters in the human family.
Our Presiding Bishop urges us to remember: Jesus has already gone ahead of us – ahead of you. “Now is our time to go...into the world to share the good news...To go into the world & help to be agents & instruments of God’s reconciliation. To go into the world, let the world know that there is a God who loves us, a God who will not let us go, & that that love can set us all free.”8

Bibliography
Clavier, The Rev. Anthony. “Christ the King, Proper 29 – 2015.” Accessed: 18 Nov. 2015. http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2015/11/06/christ-the-king-proper-29-2015/ Note: Author is Vicar of St. Thomas’ Church, Glen Carbon, with St. Bartholomew’s, Granite City, IL and Co-Editor of The Anglican Digest.
Curry, Presiding Bishop Michael. “A Word to the Church from Presiding Bishop Curry.” http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2015/11/04/bulletin-insert-last-sunday-after-pentecost-b/ Accessed: 16 Nov. 2015.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hear. Accessed: 21 Nov. 2015.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/listen. Accessed: 21 Nov. 2015.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'd_Like_to_Teach_the_World_to_Sing_%28In_Perfect_Harmony%29 Accessed: 21 Nov. 2015.
Marquina, Sierra. “Blindfolded Muslim Man in Paris Asks Strangers for Hugs, Trust After Attacks...” 19 Nov. 2015. http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/muslim-man-in-paris-asks-strangers-for-trusting-hugs-after-terror-attacks-watch-w158027 Accessed: 20 Nov. 2015.
Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 22 July 2015.
4 Ibid.
6 Ibid. Clavier
7 Ibid.

8 Ibid. Curry.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)