Overcome Evil with Good

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae

St. Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC, 3 Sept. 2017, Proper 17

Year A RCL: Exodus 3:1-15; Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c; Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 16:21-28

What challenges we hear in our scriptures today!

God's words challenge Moses. Paul's words challenge the Romans & us to live differently.

Notice Jesus' perspective & expectations for the disciples.

Remember: We are his disciples.

“To deny oneself is to disown [ourselves] as the center of [our] existence,”¹ as The New American Bible for Catholics notes. 

Think of people who are in love: Love is bigger than the individual. Denying self opens us to God's love, which casts out fear.

Remember: Fear is Satan's tool to keep us from doing God's work. Fear argues like Peter & Moses do worrying what might happen.

We must take one step at a time to do God's work, remembering God is with us!

As our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry says repeatedly: “If you want to change the world, follow Jesus.”²

“If you want to change the world,

follow Jesus.”

God is with us as we work to change the world & do God's work here together. Think of the good work being done together, week by week, ingredient by ingredient, as you prepare food for our annual Christmas In The Forest.

Look at the good work being done together, which we see daily in news coverage of Hurricane Harvey's aftermath. We hear the best of community, which contrasts powerfully to the worst we hear now of people looting & con-artists cheating survivors.

We hear amazing grace in a different news story of a prison community in action, a strong, grace-filled community of prisoners of war in North Vietnam*. The men in large holding cells in Hanoi during the Vietnam War know the truth of our Gospel. These men know the value of living in harmony & live to see good overcome evil.

They hold fast to what is good, are patient in suffering, & persevere in prayer, as we hear Paul tell us to do in Romans.

Without faith in God & trust in each other, how else could these American POWs overcome harsh punishments to gain freedom to pray together in the prison called the Hanoi Hilton?

The year is 1970 & just before Christmas 43 American prisoners seek to have brief worship. The guards prevent it.³ Ultimately, faith in God triumphs.

The New York Times tells this story⁴ of the test of their unity in community & their faith in God as they resist & endure their captors' harsh treatment:

“After worship is denied, Navy pilot Lt. Commander Edwin [Ned] A. Shuman III creates their resistance plan. He knows he will be the first to be beaten in a torture cell.

He asks the men:

"Are we really committed to having church Sunday? I want to know person by person."

One by one each man says "Yes."

At that moment [Shuman knows] he [will] end up in a torture cell.⁵

“That Sunday he steps up to lead the Lord's Prayer. The guards hustle him away to his beating. [He spends 17 months in solitary confinement.]

“One by one the next 4 ranking officers step up to lead the prayer & are taken away for beatings.

By then “the guards [are]...hitting P.O.W.s with gun butts & the cell [is] in chaos,”⁶ says one survivor.

“...[T]he 6^th ranking senior officer [says], 'Gentlemen, the Lord's Prayer.'”

This time they finish the prayer.

The guards have yielded. The enemy sees love of God in action, love of community in action.

By their faith in action, these prisoners work with God to change that shameful prison block into holy ground. These men in this faith-filled community stand on holy ground.

Their faith & fearless trust overflow into other cell blocks.

In a different cell block is the 1^st American pilot captured in the Vietnam War, Everett Alvarez Jr., captured in 1964, as the NYT article says. He says Shuman's defiance inspires senior officers in other cells to resist:

“It was contagious. By the time it got to the 4^th or 5^th cell” [the guards] gave up.”

Prisoners were praying & singing patriotic songs.

From that Sunday in 1970 until their release in 1973, the prisoners' right to pray together was established. They held church services each Sunday until their return home.

A pilot from Shuman's cell block, Air Force pilot & Medal of Honor recipient, Leo K. Thorsness says:

“42 men in prison pajamas followed

[Shuman's] lead.

I know I will never see a better example of

pure raw leadership

or ever pray with a better sense of

the meaning of the words [of the Lord's Prayer].”⁷

Praying these words together sustains the POWs for years. 

Praying these words together sustains us in community.

“Our Father...” God is our father, our “daddy”, “papa”. We are family. We live in community no matter what parts of our lives may be imprisoned.

One man in prison trusts God to BE with him in the harshest of times, denies himself, is patient in suffering, & does not repay evil for evil.

One man, then the next man, then the next lead many to overcome evil with good.

Look what a positive difference one person at a time makes.

Look what a positive difference one cell block community makes to the other cell blocks.

Look at the positive difference one man makes for each of us as he willingly dies on the cross before we ever say “I'm sorry”.

How can we not work to overcome evil with good? How can we possibly miss the connection between working to make the world a better place, our family better, & following Jesus?

How can we fear doing what God calls us to do?

God promises: I AM with you & I WILL BE with you no matter what. No matter how big a hurricane is in our life.

Our faith in God overcomes fear.

God's love wipes out fear.

God's love is great.

Our task is small.

The importance of our task is

HUGE.

Bibliography

Douglas-Klotz, Neil. Prayers of the Cosmos: Reflections on the Original Meaning of Jesus's Words. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 1990.

Farr, Curtis. “Pivoting, Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost (A) – Sept. 3, 2017”. Sermons That Work. http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2017/07/31/pivoting-thirteenth-sunday-after-pentecost-a-september-3-2017/ Accessed: 28 Aug. 2017.

Goldstein, Richard. “Edwin Shuman, 82, Dies; Defied Hanoi Hilton Guards”. The New York Times.

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.

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.

Voyles, Robert J. Restoring Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment. Hillsboro, OR: The Appreciative Way. 2010.

* The 2014 news of the death of of Ned Shuman at age 82, who led fellow prisoners to defy the "Hanoi Hilton" guards, I used in my 2014 homily on the scriptures we have next Sunday [Proper 18], but found the information fitting for this week's scriptures.

1 The New American Bible for Catholics. P. 1036.

2 Farr, Curtis. “Pivoting...” Sermons That Work. Accessed: 28 Aug. 2017.

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2017/07/31/pivoting-thirteenth-sunday-after-pentecost-a-september-3-2017/

3 Goldstein, Richard. “Edwin Shuman, 82, Dies; Defied Hanoi Hilton Guards”. The New York Times. P. A15.

4 Ibid. Goldstein. New York Times.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid. Quotation of Air Force pilot & Medal of Honor recipient, Leo K. Thorsness.

7 Ibid. NYT.

God's Expansive Love

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae

St. Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC, 20 Aug. 2017, Proper 15

Year A RCL: Genesis 45:1-15; Psalm 133; Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28

When someone throws you a ball,

do you have to catch it? Notice how Jesus handles what's thrown at him

in our Gospel.

[At this point, I literally threw 3 balls into the congregation at both services. Our early birds caught some.]

Not everything life throws at us is immediately clear.

[Folks at both services caught on, as I tossed & caught the furry ball & revealed its true identity as a toy porcupine puppet.]

In Romans we hear Paul struggle with the tension between God's sovereignty, our human responsibility¹ & our freedom to accept or reject God's love.

How expansive God's love is! Through Jesus' dying for us, God's love reaches out to all humans – even us Gentiles.

We Gentiles are the dogs Jesus refers to in our Gospel.

Notice: Jesus says plainly “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Only after his dying on the Cross & his Resurrection does Jesus send the disciples to every nation.

Today we see him focusing on the work he has to do among his people – not the neighborhood dogs.

The disciples want Jesus to say something to this yapping dog of a woman to send her away. I hear anger in their words.

I hear determination & quick wit in hers².

Notice: Jesus responds differently than the disciples.

How do you respond to a yapping dog?

What do you do with a lizard, spider or roach that belongs OUTSIDE your house, not in it?

It's easy to chase the lizard out with a broom, stomp on or squirt insecticide on the spider & the roach. It takes time to hum & be peaceful with them so you can catch them in a bug bottle 

[however creatively you make one] & return them outside where they can do the work God created them to do to help the earth.

The 1^st reaction to stomp or chase brings out the creatures' natural defenses. The 2^nd transforms the dynamic, shifts perspective & outcome.

The 1^st offers more death in the world.

The 2^nd offers more life.

Jesus didn't come to offer us less death.

Jesus came for us to have more life.

Jesus demonstrates how to have more life by shifting perspectives & expected outcomes. 

Among the ways he does this is through compassion. Jesus applies the 3 types of compassion we talked about in our Forgiveness Forum: tender, fierce & mischievous.³

The type he uses depends on the situation:
tender letting little children come to him,
fierce telling Peter: “Get behind me, Satan”,
& mischievous in today's encounter with this outsider who wants her daughter healed.

Jesus simply says: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This gives her an opportunity to speak so Jesus can gain her perspective & see as she sees.

She says simply: “Lord, help me.”

Her body language speaks respect as she kneels to ask. Jesus speaks to her & crosses a cultural divide by speaking to this outcast.⁴

He says he has important work that has limits. Life is short, & he does not have too much time to take food from the mouths of hungry sheep & throw it to dogs.

I wonder if the woman suddenly sees herself in new ways with this playful word picture. I wonder if she sees her life more clearly in a new light, the Light of Christ, so she can respond about being worthy to share crumbs.

I wonder what the disciples learn from this encounter & how they react to the grace which comes as her daughter is instantly healed because of this mother's faith.

The disciples want to get this dog – this lizard, this roach, this spider of a woman – out of their house of Israel & away from them.

Jesus playfully speaks peace so she can return to where she belongs to do the work God has created her to do on this earth.

God has created you / us Beloved Brothers & Sisters, to tend this earth & to tend lost sheep where we are.

God has created this Body of Christ – this image of God's Love⁵ – to work so that all manner of thing shall be well.

God calls us to see the needs of God's hungry children here,

to offer God's healing grace,

& to speak peace to trembling dogs

who are lost & hungry

for God's love.

Bibliography

Barclay, William. Letter to Romans: The Daily Study Bible. Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press. 1971.

The Book of Common Prayer. “An Outline of the Faith”. New York: Church Publishing. 1986.

Brueggemann, Walter. The Prophetic Imagination. 2^nd Edition. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. 2001.

Freeman, Lindsay Hardin. Bible Women: All Their Words and Why They Matter. Forward Movement. 2015.

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.

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.

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

Voyles, Robert J. Restoring Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment. Hillsboro, OR: The Appreciative Way. 2010. www.appreciativeway.com.

Voyles, Robert J. “The Three Faces of Compassion”. Forgiveness Forum: Teach Your Congrgation How to Forgive. www.appreciativeway.com. 2014.

1 Barclay, William. Letter to Romans: The Daily Study Bible. P. 163.

2 Freeman, Lindsay Hardin. Bible Women: All Their Words and Why They Matter. P. 368.

3 Note: Voyles, Robert J. lists the 3 types, quoting Psychlogist Stephen Gilligan on p. 55 of “The Three Faces of Compassion”. Forgiveness Forum: Teach Your Congrgation How to Forgive.

4 Brueggemann, Walter. The Prophetic Imagination. Pp. 85-86.

5 The Book of Common Prayer. “An Outline of the Faith”. P. 845.

What Beautiful Feet!

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae

St. Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC, 13 Aug. 2017, Proper 14

Year A RCL: Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28; Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b; Romans 10:5-15; Matthew 14:22-33

When we hear today's Gospel, we tend to

focus on Peter's sinking in fear & 

Jesus asking, “...why did you doubt?”

Notice what else Peter does.

Peter is the only one among his fellow terrified disciples

to take the big step out of the boat

in that storm to be with Jesus.

He does walk on water,

however briefly.

 In his book, If You Want to Walk on Water You've Got to Get Out of the Boat, John Ortberg sees Peter's “Getting out of the boat [& walking as] Peter's great gift to Jesus...[and] the experience of walking on water [as] Jesus' great gift to Peter.”¹

While Peter keeps his eyes on Jesus, he walks on water. When he notices the strong wind, fear takes over. He starts sinking.
We have to keep our focus on Jesus.

When life's storms arise, we, like the disciples, may forget: Genesis 1 says: God moves in the beginning of creation, sending a wind over the waters of chaos; Exodus 15 says God sends wind to part the Red Sea & turn it into dry land.

We have to rely on the great gift God gives us:

the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide us

through life's storms.

We may have to get our feet wet to do the work

God calls us/calls you to do.

Sometimes it takes time to find our new calling in life's changes. A long ago friend's new life after retirement comes to mind. After his success as owner of a restaurant & bar, he worked with Habitat for Humanity in Valdosta, GA. My husband & I were reminded of this in a newspaper tribute after his death in June.

[Tribute by The Valdosta Daily Times Executive Editor Dean Polling at

http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/news/local_news/remembering-the-man-that-habitat-built/article_6677c42b-d285-5f31-8298-e16d616aa744.html

includes parts below adapted from the original:²]

Stuart Mullis was a big man in his positive impact on people & literally broad & over 6 feet tall. After selling his business, he volunteers at Habitat & is not initially impressed working in 100-degree summer heat pushing a wheelbarrow full of sod. Then he encounters a boy from the Habitat house next door & becomes a believer in Habitat's effectiveness.

The children & their mother come outside to play. Stuart cuts his hand. The little boy with 2 front teeth missing comes over, looks at his hand & asks what's happened. Stuart says he cut it & playfully asks the boy what happened to his teeth. He says, “My daddy knocked them out" & he wraps his arms around Stuart's legs & says, "Thanks to you for our house, he'll never do that again."³

Stuart hadn't worked on their house. This was his 1^st Habitat experience. But the child knew Habitat helped him & his family have a home.⁴

That little boy walked on water to Stuart.

On that 1^st project, Stuart learned Habitat needed a local executive director. He applied, was hired, & served well, being generous & firm with Habitat's required sweat equity as the way people pay for their homes.⁵

Stuart did a lot of walking on water.

A blind man wanted a house for his disabled wife. Stuart offered a creative opportunity for sweat equity: Habitat had received about "a million nuts & bolts”, which a store couldn't sell because they were mixed in damaged boxes.

Day by day in the cold winter, the blind man came to Habitat's storage facility & stood sorting nuts & bolts by hand to fulfill his sweat equity for the house he wanted because he loved his wife.⁶

That's walking on water.

Building houses is work.

Building relationships is work.

Building up the Body of Chris is work.

Work requires rest.

In our Gospel today notice: Jesus is alone with God, taking a rest after feeding the 5,000 & sending the disciples off in that boat. Early in the morning he comes to the disciples walking on the water.

Life's storms distract us.

May we have the grace to take time

to rest

&

take time

to walk on water.

Bibliography

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

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.

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.

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

Ortberg, John. If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 2001.

Polling, Dean. Executiv Executive Editor. The Valdosta Daily Times. “Stuart Mullis” http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/news/local_news/remembering-the-man-that-habitat-built/article_6677c42b-d285-5f31-8298-e16d616aa744.html Accessed: 30 June 2017.

1 Ortberg, John. If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat. P. 78.

2 http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/news/local_news/remembering-the-man-that-habitat-built/article_6677c42b-d285-5f31-8298-e16d616aa744.html Accessed: 30 June 2017.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

Reality Check

Homily By The Rev. Marcia McRae

St. Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC, 6 Aug. 2017, Transfiguration

Year A, RCL: Exodus 34:29-35; Psalm 99; 2 Peter 1:13-21; Luke 9:28-36

What's going on today?

We're in the church's green season,

yet we use our white hangings

like we do for All Saints, Christmas, Easter, weddings & funerals.

Today is Aug. 6, the day we focus on Jesus' Transfiguration. [It was last on Sunday in 2006.] We use white to remind us of the brightness of God's Love we see in Jesus, the Love & purity which shines so brightly in our Gospel & our 1^st lesson, which tells us how people react when they see Moses' shining face after he encounters God & brings the covenant to the people. [The Jewish Study Bible calls the covenant the Pact ¹.]

Our scriptures shine with God's glory. In our 2^nd lesson, Peter reminds us of the Holy Spirit's work & his own first-hand experience we hear in our Gospel.² Notice how our Gospel demonstrates life in community: Jesus takes disciples with him to do the work of prayer.

Jesus relies on us to work with him.

Our Gospel's focus on Jesus' transfiguration we also read in Mark 9 & Matthew 17³. It shows us a range of activity & reactions:

• The men go up the mountain with Jesus.
• Jesus prays. His face changes. His clothes shine. [The Revised Standard Version says, his clothes become white as a flash of lightning.⁴
• Moses & Elijah appear & talk with him about his departure, which sources call his exodus⁵.
• The disciples feel tired.
• A cloud comes over them.
• They feel terror & hear God say Jesus is God's Son, listen to him.

What about the building project

Peter suggests?

How rash does he sound?

Offering to build dwellings for Jesus, Moses & Elijah shows Peter, who will be a leader of the church, “grasps the theological significance of the event...”⁶ from his experience as one who observes the feast of booths specified in Deut. 16:13.  

[You can read about the feast, with an interesting twist, in The Year of Living Bibilically by A.J. Jacobs⁷, which we will use as a monthly study starting in September.]

How do we respond when we encounter significant events?

What makes your face, your eyes shine?

How do we build & enhance community?

How would you handle yourself working in outer space & seeing 16 sunrises & 16 sunsets in each 24-hour period?

I learned about this reality reading about Astronaut Andrew Feustel, who will be commander on his 3^rd mission to space, orbiting 6 months in the International Space Station with his team conducting “over 250 research investigations & technology demonstrations that can only be performed in...space.”⁸

Preparation with fellow astronauts, including a Russian cosmonaut, is spread over 2 years, including time in Russia, to enhance teamwork, and, the article notes, language is one challenge.

The commander says they really “are learning the language of spacecraft.” “With the amount of time the crew spends together . . . [before] their launch, a bond develops . . . they develop a blend of nonverbal communication, anticipation & trust.”⁹

How do we, how can we develop

& enhance verbal &

nonverbal communication,

anticipation & trust?

Think of the bond we have in worship. Like the reality Peter, John & James see on the mountain, our worship “fundamentally is about the definition of reality,” as John Ortberg says in If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat:¹⁰

“[In] worship, at its heart,

we magnify God.”¹¹

"In our daily life's distractions, we may tend to see God like looking through the wrong end of a telescope [very small & distant.]"¹²

“In worship [we] declare...God is real...our perception of reality is changed, ... sharpened...[We] remember...reality is more than what [we] can see & touch.”¹³

Like the reality of seeing 16 sunrises

& 16 sunsets in 24-hours

[which most of us will never experience],

reality is more than we can see & touch.

Bibliography

Barclay, William. The Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Luke. Revised Edition. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. 1975.

Boadt, Lawrence. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction. New York: Paulist Press. 1984.

DeMoss, Michael C., J.D. Bible Briefs of the Old and New Testaments: The Bible Made Easy. Minneapolis: Light & Life Publishing. 1999.

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.

Hughes, Robert Davis III. Beloved Dust: Tides of the Spirit in the Christian Live. New York: Continuum. 2008.

Jacobs, A.J. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2007.

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.

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

Ortberg, John. If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 2001.

Smith, Robert Lawrence. A Quaker Book of Wisdom: Life Lessons in Simplicity, Service, and Common Sense. New York: Harper. 1998.

Thompson, E. Scott II. “Commander Feustel prepares for third mission to space.” SigEp Journal. Summer 2017. Vol. 114. No. 2.

1 Jewish Study Bible. P. 191.

2 DeMoss, Michael C., J.D. Bible Briefs of the Old and New Testaments. P. 120.

3 Note: Aug. 6 is the day we commemorate Jesus' Transfiguration. It falls on a Sunday in an odd sequence of years. Internet search shows it was on Sunday in 1972, '78, '89, 2000, 2006 & now.

4 Scripture quoted by: Barclay, William. The Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Luke.P. 123.

5 Harper’s Bible Commentary. P. 1028. The New American Bible for Catholics. P. 1109.

6 Hughes, Robert Davis III. Beloved Dust. P. 260.

7 Jacobs, A.J. The Year of Living Biblically. Pp. 77-80.

8 Information from cover story by E. Scott Thompson II. SigEp Journal. Pp. 24-25. [My husband's fraternity.]

9 Ibid. P. 25.

10 Ortberg, John. If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat. P. 201.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.