Inner Light Reveals Love

Like Stained-Glass, Love is Revealed by

 Light from Within

Homily By The Rev. Marcia McRae

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, Pentecost, 8 June 2014

Whitsunday; Year A RCL: Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-35, 37; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13; John 20:19-23

On this special day when we celebrate the birthday of the Church, please join hands with each other & sing with me. (You know the lyrics: “Happy birthday to us, happy birthday to us, happy birthday, Dear Church, happy birthday to us!”

 Thank You! Now for a Birthday Question & Answer exercise.

Q. What images come to mind when you sing Happy Birthday?

A. (candles, cake, gifts, smiles, fun)

Q. What images come to you about the coming of the Holy Spirit?

A. (fire, dove, smoke, joy)

Q. What images come to mind about God?

A. (holy, creative, lamb)

How about laughter?

Anyone thing of laughter when you think of God?

 

Our Psalm today tells of God's playfulness – having fun with creation:

“Yonder is the great & wide sea...& there is that Leviathan, which you have made for the sport of it.”

God makes something just for fun!

I don't know if I have seen a Leviathan. I have seen the humorous-looking duck-billed platypus & the silly blue footed booby.

God makes things to enjoy.

God who creates with such delight & gives in such abundance yearns for us to celebrate life, to live in harmony with God, God's creation, & each other.

How?

  God gives us the Holy Spirit so that our love may overflow more & more with knowledge & full insight to help us know how.

God, in whose image of Holy Community we are made, breathes the Holy Spirit into us & gives us new life because Jesus dies for us, forgives us & erases our sins.

On that cross Jesus says: “Father, forgive them.” The disciples hear this.

In today's Gospel, after Jesus says “Receive the Holy Spirit,” the disciples hear him say: you have a choice – we as Jesus' disciples have a choice – to forgive or not.

How can we not forgive when we hear our loving Jesus in his dying breaths ask God to forgive us?

 

What abundant love! We worship the God of love & wholeness who generously pours God's Spirit on all kinds of people & gives us gifts for the common good, gifts to share.

  

God entrusts us with the work of spreading God's love.

Notice: in today's Gospel Thomas is not with the disciples. There are other disciples/followers absent in that room when Jesus breathes on them & says “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Thomas & others ARE there on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes in such a powerful way that some observers think they are drunk.

 

When we encounter something new & powerful, we struggle to make it fit what we know. Something new & powerful can be like looking from outside the Church at the images in our beautiful stained glass windows. We don't see clearly.

Here's another Q & A....

Q. What makes stained glass images sparkle & shine?¹

A. (light)

Q. How does stained glass look in here at night?

A. (dark, unclear)

 

To make them shine when it's dark, rig up floodlights outside like two parishioners did for our Easter Vigil! They are an example of people working together in the Body of Christ to let light shine - literally.

 

We are like stained glass windows. We are made in the image of God. We are crafted to live & to love in Holy Community, to shine the Light of Jesus Christ so that our Brothers & Sisters in the human family can see Jesus more clearly.

 

When darkness sets in, our beauty is revealed by the Light within us.² When we shine the Light of God's Love on our Sisters & Brothers, we work with God, bringing light into their darkness.

That darkness may be something hard to forgive.

My Brothers & Sisters, the Holy Spirit has given this Body of Christ the gift of healing. One way you express it is through your Habit of Forgiveness³ that I have witnessed.

 

On Pentecost, God sends the disciples what is needed to share God's Good News. God gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us in our Habit of Forgiveness, in our work sharing it so that our Sisters & Brothers can develop this gift.

God speaks through authors, who tell amazing experiences of the grace of forgiveness. This grace brings the Light of God's Love that people need, like stained glass needs light.

For inspiring looks into this inner light, I commend to your reading The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas, which I quoted recently; Ed Bacon's 8 Habits of Love, & Eric Lomax's book (now also a movie) The Railway Man “A POW's Searing Account of War, Brutality & Forgiveness”⁴. 

You will read real experiences such as this one Ed Bacon shares from South Africa's Truth & Reconciliation Commission in the post-Apartheid era with President Nelson Mandella & Archbishop Desmond Tutu.⁵ 

he author tells of an elderly black woman & the white policeman who forced her to watch as he tortured, murdered & cremated her son & her husband.

“The last words she (hears) her husband (speak) before he finally (dies are) 'Father, forgive them.'”⁶  

When the commission asks her: What would justice look like to you? She lists these 3 things⁷:

• She wants the policeman (Mr. Van de Broek) to go where 
   he cremated her husband & gather the dust so she can give him a decent burial.
  
  
• She says: Mr. Van de Broek has taken away all my family 
  
  
  from me & “...I still have a lot of love to give. Twice a 
  
  
  month, I would like for him to come to the ghetto & spend a day with me so I can be a mother to him.”⁸

She wants this murderer “to become her son

so she (can generously) pour

her remaining love into him.”⁹ 

• Then she says: “I would like Mr. Van de Broek to know
  
  
  that he is forgiven by God, & that I forgive him too.”
  
  
  Then she asks someone to lead her across the courtroom because, she says:

  “I would like to embrace him so he can know that he is truly forgiven.”¹⁰ 

This widow is 

a stained-glass window,

the image of God's Love,

 shining with God's Light from within.¹¹

Bibliography

Bacon, Ed. 8 Habits of Love: Open Your Heart, Open Your Mind. Boston: Grand Central Life & Style. Grand Central Publishing. 2011.

Giridharadas, Anand. The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 2014.

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.

Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 31 May 2014.

Lomax, Eric. The Railway Man. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 1995.

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

1 Note: Influenced from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross quoted by Robert J. Voyles, p. 44, “Teaching Forgiveness” based on his Restoring Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment.

2 Ibid.

3 Note: Term from Bacon, Ed. 8 Habits of Love: Open Your Heart, Open Your Mind. Pp. 119-144.

4 Note: Quoted from book jacket cover & inside title page.

5 Bacon. Ibid. Pp. 119-121.

6 Ibid. P. 120.

7 Bacon. Ibid. P. 120.

8 Ibid. Emphasis mine.

9 Ibid. P. 121.

10 Ibid. P. 120. Emphasis mine.

11 Ibid. Paraphrase of Kubler-Ross. P. 44.

Ascencion Homily...

A Quagmire or a River?

Homily By The Rev. Marcia McRae

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, 7^th Sunday of Easter, 1 June 2014

Year A RCL Acts 16:1-14; Psalm 68:1-18, 33-36; 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11; John 17:5-11

I wonder what the disciples are thinking as Jesus is lifted up & that cloud takes him out of sight.

 They are staring up & suddenly 2 men in white robes bring their minds back down to earth. They have work to do here....as Jesus has just told them!

Jesus says in Acts: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; & you will be my witnesses here & to the ends of the earth. Then Jesus ascends.

The disciples are staring, trying to figure out

what just happened!?

We do this, too. We yearn to make sense out of life.¹ Certainly seeing the Lord Jesus, so recently risen from the dead, ascend into heaven is a life issue they – perhaps we – would like explained, so that life can make sense.

The 2 men in white who suddenly appear might have been unnecessary if the disciples had our advantage: either of these 2 books! (Or other similar books.)
Then they could have understood this event that leaves them staring upward.

Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms & Faith Seeking Understanding ² tell the essentials of the ascension:
Jesus’ earthly ministry is accomplished; he returns to God the Father so the Holy Spirit can come & minister through the Church – that’s you & me; Jesus reigns & will come again (which we declare in the creeds).

After the encounter with the men in white, the disciples go to Jerusalem & wait in prayer for the Holy Spirit. They start living into their new Christian freedom: “freedom from the bondage of sin (AND freedom) for partnership with God & others.”³

We have work to do in partnership with God & in this Body of Christ. We share in this work to bring our brothers & sisters in the human family into the joy of knowing Jesus. Our faith & love strengthen us & empower us to work with & for the powerless, to live in confidence & joy, to overcome self-hatred & debilitating doubt.⁴ . . . . How?

How do we satisfy this yearning to have life make sense, especially in life’s hard times? We see this struggle regularly on the news when tragedy, disasters, human-inflicted cruelties grab our attention 24/7. We hear all kinds of details & expert opinions about the situation, its ramifications & damage to psyches….until the next big event starts a new cycle of reporting.

 So much of our reporting focuses on damage & victimization.

I remember my first Associated Press newspaper editor's critique of an article I had written. I had focused on the good news of the 100 survivors. He said I missed the point:

the one who died would grab the headline.

Rewrite it: people pay attention to tragedy.⁵

Our news tends to make survivors into victims, focusing with credentialed experts on possible long-lasting emotional damage. We keep people stuck in the bad situation. We keep people stuck in a quagmire of the past. We forget what Peter says in today's Epistle:

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you...rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad & shout for joy when his glory is revealed... the Spirit of God, is resting on you. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.”

 So that God may exalt you....

What does that mean?

Exalt means more than glorify & magnify. It also means “to enhance the activity of, to raise in rank, power, or character, to raise someone...to a higher level.”⁶ 

Exalt is a gift. Exalt is grace.

Jesus calls us to be a river of grace, restoration & freedom for ourselves & for our hurting sisters & brothers who do not yet know Jesus.
As a river of grace, we can buoy our brothers & sisters – exalt them – up from the quagmire of being stuck, of being victims.

In the river of grace, victims become survivors

& thrivers.

Survivors are what the news media interview & ask questions about their being victims. Survivor Tori Amos says: 

“The last thing I want to be known as is

'The Girl Who got Raped'. 

The big turn around you make in your head is

from victim to survivor.”⁷

She says:

“The idea is to rescue myself from the role of a victim.

That I have a choice left.

Though I can't change what has happened,

I can choose how to react.

And I don't want to spend the rest of my life

being bitter and locked up.”⁸

This survivor is a thriver: out of the quagmire of resentment & in the river of grace.

She is exalted. God has raised her character, raised her to a higher level of living.

May we, by God's grace, be exalted!

May we work with God to exalt

our Brothers & Sisters who are hurting.

 

Bibliography

Bacon, Ed.8 Habits of Love: Open Your Heart, Open Your Mind. Boston: Grand Central Life & Style. Grand Central Publishing. 2011.

Grenz, Stanley J. David Guretzki. Cherith Fee Nordling. Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. 1999.

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.

Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 8 May 2014.

Markham, Ian S. Understanding Christian Doctrine. Malden, ME: Blackwell Publishing. 2008.

Merriam-Webster. Smartphone Dictionary app. Merriam-Webster Inc. 2012. Accessed: 30 May 2014.

Migliore, Daniel L. Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology. 2nd Ed. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2004.

The New Complete Works of Josephus. Revised, Expanded Edition. Translator: William Whiston. Commentator: Paul L. Maier. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications. 1999.

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

Wright, N.T. For All The Saints? Remembering the Christian Departed. Harrisburg: Morehouse Publishing. 2003.

1 Bacon, Ed. 8 Habits of Love: Open Your Heart, Open Your Mind. P. 126.

2 Grenz, Stanley J. David Guretzki. Cherith Fee Nordling. Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms. Pp. 15-16.

Migliore, Daniel L. Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology. P. 404.

3 Ibid. Migliore. Faith Seeking Understanding. P. 160.

4 Ibid. Pp. 160-161.

5 Note: It was a writing practice exercise that I wrote, not local news that was published.

6 Merriam-Webster. Smartphone Dictionary app. Merriam-Webster Inc. 2012. Accessed: 30 May 2014.

7 Quoted P. 39 of “Teaching Forgiveness” based on Voyles, Robert J. Restoring Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment.

8 Ibid. P. 40. “Teaching Forgiveness” based on Voyles, Robert J. Restoring Hope: Appreciative Strategies to Resolve Grief and Resentment.

How Do We Respond in Love?

Homily By The Rev. Marcia McRae

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, 5^th Sunday of Easter, 18 May 2014

Year A RCL Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14

Stones are scattered throughout our

scriptures today:

stones that kill, stones that protect,

stones that build a spiritual house,

stones that live.

The stone (in the photo) with its gentle flame reminds us (as we read in 1 Peter) that we are called out of darkness into God's marvelous light.

The small stone (sitting atop the light-bearing stone) is a gift from a young person in the 

Episcopal Diocese 0f Georgia, who 

decorated it to remind me to have faith & to trust in Jesus.

Stephen, the first Christian martyr, trusts in Jesus. We hear his trust in today's lesson. His words echo our Lord, Jesus, on the cross. As Stephen is being murdered by the enraged crowd throwing stones to stone him to death, Stephen says to Jesus: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”.

As we murder Jesus on the hard wood of the cross, Jesus says: “Father forgive them.”

Through Jesus' love & sacrifice for us, God equips us: to be able to live into the reality of God's far-reaching Love; to find joy & freedom in forgiving those who hurt us; to find joy & freedom by forgiving ourselves.

How easy is it to forgive?

 It can be hard.

On the Sunday after the September 2001 bombings, Episcopal priests & other preachers reminded us to love & forgive & have faith. What else do you expect a priest to say?

What do you expect a country singer/songwriter to say or a Muslim to say when they have suffered attacks & near death?

 

Devout Muslim Rais Bhuiyan & “avowed American terrorist Mark Stroman” are the central people in TheTrue American: Murder & Mercy in Texas¹ by Anand Giridharadas. 

After the 911 attacks, Stroman killed 2 men he assumed were Muslims & shot Rais Bhuiyan in the face, leaving him for dead². Stroman was sentenced to death row.³

 

Ten years later, Bhuiyan acted on inspiration from his Islamic pilgrimage & his family's upbringing that led him to forgive Stroman publicly⁴ & to work “to have his attacker spared from the death penalty.”⁵

This is amazing grace.

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

that saved a wretch like me...”

 

Country music singer/songwriter Sam Baker has quite a perspective on the sounds he heard in his near death experience in 1986 before he became a song writer, as I learned listening to Terry Gross' interviiew with him on NPR's Fresh Air⁶.

  http://www.npr.org/2014/05/06/310089151/sam-baker-finding-grace-in-the-wake-of-destruction

Baker was traveling on a passenger train in Peru & almost died from the terrorist bombing of the train. The blast from the bomb in the compartment directly overhead instantly killed a couple sitting there. Their 7-year-old son took hours to die.

Since then, Baker has gained a renewed perspective on life & people that he expresses in song, teaching us about our common humanity, about mercy & grace. He emphasizes empathy, sees each person as a sinner & a saint,⁸  & has gained faith “in us as a group, as humans" (as he says in the NPR interview).

 

His perspective of humans as a group echoes what we hear Peter say in today's Epistle:

“Once you were not a people,

but now you are God’s people.”

Beloved Brothers & Sisters, you are a people. You are a royal priesthood to serve God, to draw others to God so that they become God’s people, living stones, fitted into Christ, the cornerstone.

 

What a difference it is to choose between

throwing stones in anger &

being living stones

fitted into Christ Jesus:

the way, the truth, the life.

 

May we have the mercy & the grace

to live as Jesus calls us to live,

(& as Sam Baker reminds us to in his album, “Say Grace,” when he sings:

“Go in peace. Go in kindness. Go in love.

Go in faith...Go in Grace.

Let us go into the dark. Not afraid.

Not alone...⁹ 

 

Remember: we go bearing

the Light of Christ into that darkness.

 

Bibliography

Barclay, William. The Gospel of John. Vol 2. Revised Ed. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1975.

Baker, Sam. BlueLimeStone Publishing. Sambakermusic.com. Produced by Walt Wilkins & Tim Lorsch Bull Creek Productions. 2004.

Book of Common Prayer. New York: The Church Hymnal Corp., and The Seabury Press. 1979.

Giridharadas, Anand. The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 2014.

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.

Lectionary Page. http://www.lectionarypage.net/. Accessed: 8 May 2014.

Sam Baker: Finding Grace In The Wake Of Destruction. http://www.npr.org/2014/05/06/310089151/sam-baker-finding-grace-in-the-wake-of-destruction. 6 May 2014.

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

1 Giridharadas, Anand. The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.

2 Ibid. Pp. 26-29.

3 Ibid. P. 109.

4 Ibid. Inside cover flap.

5 Ibid.

6 Sam Baker: Finding Grace In The Wake Of Destruction. NPR “Fresh Air” Interview with Terry Gross. http://www.npr.org/2014/05/06/310089151/sam-baker-finding-grace-in-the-wake-of-destruction. 6 May 2014.

7 Baker, Sam. BlueLimeStone Publishing. Sambakermusic.com. Produced by Walt Wilkins & Tim Lorsch Bull Creek Productions. 2004.

8 Ibid. Baker. Paraphrase from “Angels." BlueLimeStone Publishing.

9 Baker, Sam. NPR interview. http://www.npr.org/2014/05/06/310089151/sam-baker-finding-grace-in-the-wake-of-destruction. 6 May 2014.

10 Ibid. Baker. NPR interview.