Monday, July 3, 2017

How Do We Sacrifice to God?

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae

St. Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC, 2 July 2017

Year A RCL Proper 8: Genesis 22:1-14; Psalm 13; Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:40-42

Notice: Jesus speaks to us today about welcoming & its rewards.

We hear this message of welcome & rewards in all 4 Gospels & other New Testament books, as one preacher says,^¹ so we are wise to offer a broad welcome. Hospitality builds up the Body of Christ.

Know this: We can be welcoming even when we disagree about aspects of our life together^², which may challenge & test our trust in God.

Why does God test Abraham as shockingly as God does in today’s lesson? Abe has been through so much, trusting God’s promise of a son, leaving home & kinfolk to go to an unknown land God promises.

You recall at one point in the years of waiting for this promised son, Sarah & Abe improvise a solution: Sarah gives her slave girl, Hagar, to Abe as a surrogate mother.

This reminds me of an actor forgetting a line on stage & another cast member improvising a line. Sometimes this works, sometimes not so well.

We know Abe & Sarah’s improvisation leads to Sarah’s throwing Hagar & her son out of the family.

Goodbye welcome. Goodbye family.

Goodbye unity.

Remember: When we encounter today’s dramatic scene on the mountain:

Abe has already sacrificed

his first-born son.

I wonder how Abe feels carrying that fire, that knife as he walks up that mountain with his only son, his beloved Isaac, who carries the wood on his own back. What is going through Abe’s mind? Is he even thinking? What does he feel?

How many of you have driven or ridden in a car on a narrow, winding mountain road with no shoulder guard? How did that feel? [Hands went up. Some shook their heads, others giggled awkwardly at memories, saying: “Scary”, “Unreal”, “Tedious”.]

I remember my handicapped dad [with one arm partly paralyzed] handling sharp turns in Mexico’s mountains with no guard rails & before cars had seat-belts.

What would you do on a blind curve on a road like that when you see a car stopped ahead with the driver’s door open?
Who is that driver?
Law enforcement protecting you from a giant tree fallen across the road?

An armed stand-off with bad guys?

Are these the bad guys?

How do you respond to this test? Drive in reverse down the narrow, twisting road? What about cars coming up?

What is going through Abe’s mind?

He has trusted God a long time. Perhaps he has inner peace. Notice how quiet Abe & Isaac are as they walk on to make the sacrifice. We hear little dialogue.^³

What is there to say?

Think about yourself in school & being tested. Recall the quiet testing requires. Silence gives us space to think, to focus, to trust that you / that we have learned.

Testing lets students & teacher know if it is time to move on to more topics or if there is more work to do on a particular skill.

Military boot camp builds the individual’s knowledge & skills & those of the group, the team. As a veteran friend of mine says: It teaches the person fortitude, teaches what the person can do & the team can do. Like a test in school, there is very little dialogue during the physical stamina testing in boot camp.

Testing builds our courage. It helps us know we are strong & who’s got our back.

Abe knows God listens & acts.

I wonder if that’s why he answers Isaac as he does.

Notice: Abe tell his team: “Stay here…; the boy & I will go over there; we will worship & then we will come back.”

“We will come back.”

Surely God hears this & hears Abe assure Isaac:

“God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering”

& God does.

God provides us the Lamb Jesus to die so we can live in God’s Love. As Jesus’ disciples our love overflows to others, drawing them into God’s Love. We live under grace, as our lesson in Romans reminds us: We / you have become / are becoming obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which we are entrusted…We are slaves of righteousness.

What does this mean?

To be righteous is to act “in accord with [God’s] law”^⁴ of Love. As slaves of righteousness, we are loyal disciples of Jesus. This calls for sacrifices in our lives.

Jesus tells us today about the rewards for our sacrifices as his disciples^⁵: “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me…[&…] the one who sent me…” Whoever gives just a cup of water to one of the little ones will receive their reward.

We serve as the welcomer & the one being welcomed, the giver & the receiver of the cup of water.^⁶

We are Jesus’ disciples, instruments of righteousness when we proclaim^⁷ in word & deed the Good News of God’s Love Jesus offers by dying for us.

How can we do this work? Rehearse! Study our lines – the Holy Scriptures. Build our faith bodies in the boot camp of prayer, worship, fellowship & ministry in Jesus’ Name.

Prayer is central to our work, our testing. As one of my seminary professors, Martin Smith, says in his book, The Word is Very Near You: A Guide to Praying with Scripture:

“We are conditioned to maintain control, to take charge of situations, to do the talking.

Prayer means surrender, & a readiness to return to a simpler state of openness & attentiveness to a God whose ‘still small voice’

we tend to drown with our restless noisiness.”^⁸

We see Abraham let go of control.
Surrendered to God, free of restless noisiness, he is attentive to God & can trust God will provide.

And he recognizes what God provides.

How do we sacrifice to God?

How can we / you

have the grace to
let go & trust God?

Bibliography

Blasdell, The Rev. Machrina. “Whom Ought I Welcome?” Accessed: 28 June 2017. http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2017/06/05/whom-ought-i-welcome-fourth-sunday-after-pentecost-a-july-2-2017/.

Cunningham, David S. “What Do We Mean By God?” Essentials of Christian Theology. ED: William Placher. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. 2003.

Dios Habla Hoy: La Biblia. New York: American Bible Society. 1983.

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.

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

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

Levenson, Jon D. Sinai & Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 1985.

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

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

Smith, Martin. The Word is Very Near You: A Guide to Praying with Scripture. Lanham, MD: Cowley Publications. 1989.

1 Blasdell, The Rev. Machrina. “Whom Ought I Welcome?” Accessed: 28 June 2017. http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2017/06/05/whom-ought-i-welcome-fourth-sunday-after-pentecost-a-july-2-2017/

2 Ibid.

3 Levenson, Jon D. Sinai & Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible. Pp. 147-48.

4 Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/righteous Accessed: 20 June 2017.

5 Note: Paraphrase of footnote in The New American Bible for Catholics. P. 1024.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Smith, Martin. The Word is Very Near You: A Guide to Praying with Scripture. P. 157.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Bear with Me

Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae

St. Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC, 18 June 2017, Pentecost 2, Proper 6

Year A RCL: Genesis 18:1-15; Psalm 116:1, 10-17; Romans 5:1-8; Matthew 9:35-10:8

Notice the sense of urgency^¹ & specific details we hear in our Gospel today &

in our lesson from Genesis.

Notice how Paul's words pouring out to the Church in Rome & to us

complement the hope & trust we hear

in Genesis & in Matthew.

Remember: what we hear in Matthew is before Jesus' death & resurrection. After his resurrection, Jesus broadens the scope of ministry for the disciples / for us to share the Good News of God's Love with all people.

Today we hear hope & trust as Matthew tells of Jesus' positive impact & the huge workload he shares with the disciples / us.

Paul tells us of hope & peace we have through the power of God's love, which we have through the Holy Spirit.

“Hope is not wishful thinking,...

[it is] certainty about the future [and] is grounded in God’s faithfulness to keep [God's] promises,” as one writer says.^²

How do we live in hope & not wishful thinking?

Notice how Abraham & Sarah respond to words of hope for promised joy of Abe becoming a father by Sarah. [It is interesting to have this lesson on Father's Day.]

I wonder why we hear laughter so soon after our encountering God's playfulness on Pentecost. Maybe this is God's way to drive home a point:

We need more laughter.

With laughter, we bear up better under the stress of life's demands.

We hear Sarah laugh & then lie, denying she laughed. We sometimes respond to unexpected news by laughing. In Chapter 17 Abe laughs when God says old Sarah will bear him a child. Sarah does bear Isaac, whose name means laughter^³.

What is it about us humans that makes it so hard for us to embrace something different,

something new?

We acknowledge in our lesson from Romans: life can be tough, yet we speak of peace & hope & how Jesus died for us when we were a hopeless mess. Jesus bore our sins on the cross. Now we have work to share, to bear one another's burden.

Maybe we need to laugh more to lighten our loads.

Maybe it will help our work if we bear in mind a few of the disciples Jesus calls to work with him:

Matthew the tax collector works for Rome, which rules the people of Israel.
Simon the Cananaean is a zealot, one who opposes Roman rule^⁴.
Peter will deny knowing Jesus after Judas Iscariot betrays Jesus.

What is Jesus thinking in calling this bunch of ornery bears?!

Like real bears, the disciples have strengths & gifts, God-given power to do the work Jesus gives to minister to harassed & helpless, people, who are like sheep without a shepherd.

Remember the skills a shepherd needs to protect sheep. Think of when David offers to fight Goliath in 1 Samuel 17 & tells of his experience fighting off & killing lions & bears.

We don't see a lot of lions in North Carolina. We do see bears, which are more positive than we may think. Like us, bears are social creatures^⁵ that can work together & offer us a bit of wisdom for our work as disciples:

Bears don't work 24-7.

They know to rest.

We know we should rest & have “me-time”. You're “smarter than the average bear” [to borrow words from cartoon star Yogi Bear]. You're smart enough to know the wisdom of intentionally giving yourself time to play & rest just as you are intentional in our work of ministry.

Soldiers know the importance of working together & of rest. We see this in a special way in a World War II Polish soldier, Wojtek [pronounced Voytek], whose name means joyful warrior^⁶.

A fellow Polish soldier with the same 1^st name, tells BBC News: “I felt like he was my older brother.”^⁷ He “liked play-fighting & boxing...He helped keep up the troops' morale,” serving from the Middle East to Scotland.^⁸The troops fought with the British 8^th Army in Italy.^⁹

As a corporal with the 22^nd Artillery Supply Company, Voytek served at the Battle of Monte Cassino, moving crates of ammunition, never dropping one.

“(H)e became a celebrity with visiting Allied generals & statesmen,” as Wikipedia says.^¹⁰

After the war & out of the army, he lived the rest of his life in Scotland, appeared often on BBC television, was visited by journalists & former Polish soldiers.

Statues in Poland & Scotland & many memorials, including in London's Imperial War Museum, honor this quiet hero, who demonstrated how to live positively in community, sleeping in tents with his fellow soldiers.

His statue in Krakow was unveiled on the 70^th anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino. The monument in Scotland shows Wotjtek walking in peace & unity with a fellow soldier:

Wotjtek walks on all fours . . . . .

as a proper bear often walks. . . .

He's a Siberian brown bear.

[He lived in the Edinburgh Zoo after the was ended & he left military service.]

If a bear can serve in war alongside humans,

if Jesus' mixed group of flawed disciples can make a positive difference in the world,

if Paul who harassed & imprisoned Christians can change into the positive force to advance Christianity,

how can we possibly let anything scare us from our work of ministry here?

Our God is the God of surprises.

As we read in Genesis:

Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?

Bibliography

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

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.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-15736812. Accessed: 17 June 2017.

http://www.bearsmart.com/about-bears/general-characteristics/ Accessed: 16 June 2017.

https://www.behindthename.com/name. Accessed 14 June 2017.

https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/bears Accessed 15 June 2017.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_(bear). Accessed: 15 June 2017.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary. Accessed: 15 June 2017.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/11/131122-polar-bear-migration-in-hudson-bay-

science/ Accessed 14 June 2017.

https://whatismyspiritualanimal.com Accessed: 15 June 2017

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

#.WUGRwpLyvIU.

The New American Bible for Catholics. South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.

Shively, Elizabeth. “Commentary on Romans 5:1-8”. Accessed 14 June 2017. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3297

Yuckman, Colin H. “Commentary on Matthew 9:35-10:8 [9-23]. Accessed 14 June 2017. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3299

1 Yuckman, Colin H. “Commentary on Matthew 9:35-10:8 [9-23]. Accessed 14 June 2017. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3299

2 Shively, Elizabeth. “Commentary on Romans 5:1-8”. Accessed 14 June 2017. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3297

3 https://www.behindthename.com/name. Accessed 14 June 2017.

4 Yuckman, Colin H. “Commentary on Matthew 9:35-10:8 [9-23]. Accessed 14 June 2017. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3299

5 http://www.bearsmart.com/about-bears/general-characteristics/ Accessed: 16 June 2017.

6 Note: Facts of his story are from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_(bear). Accessed: 15 June 2017.

7 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-15736812. Accessed: 17 June 2017.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid. wikipedia.

10 Ibid. wikipedia.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Who is Always with You?

Trinity Sunday Homily by The Rev. Marcia McRae

St. Francis Episcopal Church, Goldsboro, NC, 11 June 2017

Year A RCL: Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Psalm 8; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20

Jesus says

“...I am with you always, to the end of the age."

May we have the grace to remember this blessing!

Jesus gives us this blessing after he gives us our marching orders in today's Gospel: Go & make disciples of all nations, baptizing people & teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded us.

Jesus says: baptize “in the name of the Father & of the Son & of the Holy Spirit.” Today, Trinity Sunday, we focus on the Holy Trinity we worship: the 3 in One, One God in 3.

To go & make disciples, baptizing & teaching people, we must know & be clear what we are teaching: the Holy Trinity we worship is ONE God. We are monotheists.

The One God we follow has

“3 distinct personal expressions of the one, eternally rich God who is love...”^¹

Simple analogies may help us with this reality:

Think of music^². We play it, sing it, dance to it. We don't have to know all about it to enjoy it. We don't have to know all about the Holy Trinity to worship this Unity.

Dance offers an analogy. Think of folk dances with a circle of participants holding hands, as the Rev. Richard Rorh describes in The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation, his book my colleague from Episcopal Communicators, Katerina Whitley, speaks of in her Trinity Sunday sermon.^³ [We'll explore Fr. Rorh's book on the Legacy of St. Francis after Labor Day.]

Think of water: flowing liquid, solid ice, hot steam.

Think of bread: We experience its taste, texture, nourishment. We don't have to know all about how it nourishes us for it to nourish us.

The bread we eat at this Holy Table, we eat to remember Jesus, who comes to live among to show us how to live, dies to save us, rises again & ascends, & by his departure increases his presence with us^⁴. He says: “I am with you always.”

Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, Jesus increases his presence with us – not decreases his presence.^⁵

The Triune God who creates all, shows us how to live, & comes to dwell in us, wants to be with us. God’s love creates us to be “in a relationship”^⁶ [with God & all God’s creation]. God makes us for relationship in community & draws us into God’s Holy Community.

We speak of God as Creator, Redeemer & Sustainer. Theologian & author David Cunningham writes of God as Source, Wellspring & Living Water.^⁷ He notes a number of scriptures in Jeremiah & John refer to God & the Holy Spirit as Living Water (see Jer. 2:13, 17:13 & John 4:10-14; 7:38-39).^⁸

The holy scriptures use analogies to help us grasp truths about God, this hard-to-comprehend Mystery, which is ONE.

You & I proclaim faith in this Mystery & declare our faith in the Apostles Creed & the Nicene Creed, the results of centuries of work by wise Christian thinkers to clarify the fact we are monotheists.^⁹

“The doctrine of the Trinity is to explain the range & variety of divine action,”^¹⁰ says priest, author & scholar Ian Markham, who serves as Dean & President of Virginia Theological Seminary & spoke about the Trinity at a conference I attended.

Our creeds help us express the Mystery of the One God we know through different aspects of our relationship with God. Notice: Our creeds & scriptures speak of God “concretely & specifically” rather than generally & indefinitely.^¹¹

We “Christians affirm [our] faith in God as sovereign Lord of all creation who has done a new & gracious work in Jesus Christ & who continues to be active in the world through the power of the Spirit.”^¹²

We declare “God to be the source, the mediator, & the power of new life. God is the majestic creator of the heavens & the earth [as our lesson in Genesis says], the servant redeemer of a world gone astray, & the transforming Spirit who empowers new beginnings of human life & [an expected]...new heaven &...a new earth.”^¹³

You & I proclaim faith in “...the one, eternally rich God who is love...”^¹⁴

As we ponder this Mystery, we can take heart in the fact some on the mountain with Jesus doubted. It is OK to question, to wonder. As Albert Einstein says:

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when [one] contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.”^¹⁵

Be wise & do as Einstein says:

“Never lose a holy curiosity”!