[Propertalk] Homily on Proper 19 B for Sept. 13 - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

Here's my first draft for Sunday, Part 1: 

Bob Morrison


THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY, OREGON            
THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
PROVERBS 1:20-33                                                                                                              
PROPER 19 b
JAMES 3:1-12                                                                                                                            
PSALM 19
MARK 8:27-38                                                                                                        
13th SEPTEMBER, 2015
 
A woman in a supermarket is following a grandfather and his badly behaved 3 year-old grandson. It's obvious to her that he has his hands full with the child screaming for sweets in the sweet aisle, biscuits in the biscuit aisle; and for fruit, cereal and pop in the other aisles.
            Meanwhile, Granddad is working his way around, saying in a controlled voice, “Easy, William, we won't be long, easy, boy.”
            Another outburst, and she hears the granddad calmly say, “It’s okay, William, just a couple more minutes and we'll be out of here. Hang in there, boy.”
            At the checkout, the little terror is throwing items out of the cart, and Granddad says again in a controlled voice, “William, William, relax buddy, don’t get upset. We'll be home in five minutes; stay cool, William.”
            Very impressed, the woman goes outside where the grandfather is loading his groceries and the boy into the car. She said to the elderly gentleman, “It’s none of my business, but you were amazing in there. I don't know how you did it. That whole time, you kept your composure, and no matter how loud and disruptive he got, you just calmly kept saying things would be okay. William is very lucky to have you as his grandpa.”
            “Thanks,” said the grandfather, “but I'm William. My little grandson's name is Kevin.” 1


            Sometimes we need encouragement, and sometimes we have to give it to ourselves.


            There are so many of things that are less than attractive to face, yet we know that we have to respond in one way or another. And we know that we have to live with the consequences of our decisions also, no matter what we choose. So it’s great to have someone whom we can trust, someone who won’t just give us the easy answer, the one we think we want to hear. It’s great to have someone whom we can trust implicitly who’ll tell us her or his opinion, in a way that we understand and accept, no matter how difficult things are. When that person is unavailable, for whatever reason, then, we have to fall back on ourselves. We have to be able to listen to our inner being, to our heart and soul, and depend on our experience and our conscience to help us. In fact, even when our friend IS present, we must weigh what we hear against what our heart of hearts speaks to us.
The same thing goes, of course, when we’re the voice of reason, the voice of compassion, the voice of counsel to those who trust us.
In other words, we need to have some resource on which we can draw, whether it be to guide ourselves or guide others. After all, Jesus did.
Thinking back for a second to last week, I wonder if the problem Jesus faced in His interaction with the Syrophoenician woman was because He DIDN’T listen to His heart and soul. Perhaps He was trying to skate by on His own. Possibly He was tired. Possibly He thought He knew what the law said, just as Peter did, probably, when he told Jesus to forget that idea about suffering and dying. Jesus, Peter, we ALL need that inner voice, and we ALL need someone against whom we can measure what we think we ought to think, and say, and do. We ALL need the Spirit of Wisdom, otherwise, on our own, we flounder and fall. Maybe that’s where grandfather William found the insight to counsel himself while his grandson was being a brat.
 It’s interesting to think back on the history of the Church. We here follow a pattern going back many centuries. We named this congregation after our city and the saint whose life and witness gave this and other cities their names. This makes sense, so you might expect there to be many buildings and congregations named to honour Jesus. But I can’t find any record of that in the life of the early and post-Nicene period. What we DO have, however, is that absolutely stunning, awe-inspiring building in modern day Istanbul.
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