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.

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.

.

The Orchid: A Story of God's Wisdom, Creativity & Hope

The Orchid: A Story of God’s Wisdom, Creativity & Hope in a Year of Waiting

Orchid gift blooms long

Ceases – a bare stick – friends: “Pitch it!”

I see differently…

 

Orchid stick supports

vine plant - both get water, love

new buds, hope arise!

 

 

3 blossoms connect

proffer 4th bud like a gift:

Life in Unity

Pentecost Homily: We have words from God to speak

We Have Words from God to Speak

Text for blog adapted from Pentecost Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae

For St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, 19 May 2013

Year C RCL: Acts 2: 1-21; Psalm 104: 25-35, 37; John 14:8-17, (25-27)

What a wonderful gift we have this Pentecost as we celebrate the Birthday of the Church! What a wonderful gift God offers us through each other. Thank you readers for sharing your gift of languages, for giving us a sense of the sounds on that first Pentecost – when God the Creator of all creates the Church: God’s gift to us of new life in Holy Relationship.

The verses in Acts tell us God’s gift sounds like the rush of a violent wind. It looks like divided tongues of  fire. 

This IS something so new the disciples cannot say exactly What.

They can just say it is like wind, like tongues, like fire.

When we encounter Mystery, words are inadequate.

The tongues come from the One Tongue that speaks in Genesis. God says: “Let there be light.” God speaks life to all creation. On the cross, Jesus says: “It is accomplished.” Jesus speaks love and gives us the peace the world cannot give, peace when we are in chaos.

On Pentecost God creates anew.

The Holy Spirit births the Church &

reverses the Tower of Babble.

God’s gift of languages at Pentecost (as Bible commentators note) reverses that confusion of sounds, the chaos that separates us.

God creates something new on the ancient Feast of Pentecost, which commemorates God’s giving the Law through Moses[1]. The Holy Spirit comes, writing a new law in our hearts, speaking love, peace, life in all languages to draw all people into unity.

One Holy Tongue shares ITSELF among us so that we can speak, so that all can hear the Good News of God’s love. God’s love creates us for relationship with God & all God’s creation. The mystic poet, Hildegard of Bingen, puts it this way (and I paraphrase):

O human...you have within yourself Heaven and Earth.[2]

You have within yourself Heaven and Earth. You are where God resides. You ARE created for Holy Relationship. God makes us for relationship with God & each other.

AND God gives the gift of the church.

Spell it: C-H – UR – C-H.  UR the Church. It is the people, not the building....wherever we are. God gives us this gift.

You can reject a gift.

You can accept it & leave it prettily wrapped on a shelf & never enjoy the beautiful gift inside.

If you open it, you will have some tissue paper & other wrappings.

What to do with the stuff that comes with the gift?

Rely on the Holy Spirit.

“...(I)n Christian community we don't find perfect people, but folks like us struggling to live into the love God has shown in Jesus,[3] says the Rev. Canon Frank Logue in his column, “The Loose Canon: Teaching the Language of Jesus”. He notes that we are not perfect “...but we must seek to be faithful and then remain honest and open when we fall short (and we will).” [4]I like the fact that he emphasizes we will fall short.[5]

We do fall short in many ways. The Church gives us relationship, not perfection. We are works in progress. God gives us each other. God gives us love, peace & life that transform us – slowly at times. We are the Church – God’s Holy People.

We have words from God to speak & to share:

Words of love

Words of peace

Words of life!

Bibliography

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.

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

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary Year A. Vol. 3. Eds: David L. Bartlett, Barbara Brown Taylor. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. 2011.

Guillém, The Rev. Canon Anthony, the Episcopal Church’s missioner for Hispanic-Latino ministries. The Diocese of Georgia’s Hispanic-Latino Workshop. Honey Creek, the Diocese of Georgia’s Episcopal Camp and Conference Center, Waverly, GA. 9 May 2012.

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

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

Holy Bible. 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.

Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints. New York: Church Publishing. 2010.

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

The Hymnal 1982. New York: Church Publishing. 1985.

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

Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 10 April 2013.

Logue, Frank. “The Loose Canon: Teaching the Language of Jesus.” From the Field: News & Events of the Church in Georgia. Volume 3, Number 38. http://georgia.anglican.org/?page_id=1239. Accessed: 14 May 2013.

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

Seeing God Everywhere: Essays on Nature and the Sacred. Ed.: Barry McDonald. Bloomington: World Wisdom, Inc. 2003.

Wonder Love and Praise: A Supplement to the Hymnal 1982. New York: Church Publishing. 1997.

---

[1] Harper’s Bible Dictionary. General Ed.: Paul J. Achtemeier. P. 769.

[2] Seeing God Everywhere: Essays on Nature and the Sacred. Ed.: Barry McDonald. P. 131.

[3] Logue, Frank. “The Loose Canon: Teaching the Language of Jesus.” From the Field. http://georgia.anglican.org/?page_id=1239. Accessed: 14 May 2013.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

Post-Pentecost Ponderings 3

Photo by Cathy Stevens used with permission

My haiku below reflects thoughts in my Pentecost homily, which I will post here.

Church?

Spelling Church aloud

Teaches us its unity

Church: U-R the Church

Pentecost is a joyous celebration: the Birthday of the Church. St. John's Episcopal in Bainbridge, GA, makes this clear & puts it in writing....

Delicious writing!

Post-Pentecost Ponderings 2

Profound Grace

Photos by Cathy Stevens used with permission

I thank God for my wonderful husband, John, who applied his artistic creativity to his bread-making for the Pentecost Bread.

Dove-shaped Bread broken,

divided to unite us

like those fiery tongues