[Propertalk] Homily for Proper 20 B - Draft -- Part 2 of 3

[Joe Parrish]

Forwarded:Part 2 of 3




From
robertpmorrison robertpmorrison at charter.net




THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY                            
THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
PROVERBS 31:10-31                                                                                                                                
PROPER 20 B
JAMES 3:13 -4:3, 7-8a                                                                                                               
20th SEPTEMBER, 2015
MARK 9:30-37              






            Thewoman who is beyond praise, says God, is the one who doesn’t take, “No!” for ananswer, but who finds a way to engage the merchants in town. She doesn’t simplylook at a piece of property or land and sigh about how nice it would be to ownit. This woman negotiates with the owner. She breaks all sorts of rules andcustoms; she puts herself at risk of ridicule or worse. She faces contempt. Shetalks straight with the owner and is sharp enough to know if she’s the objectof pandering. Even if she’s the only woman in the village to be willing toengage people, she works and works to make sure that no one tries to cheat her,or denigrate her, and she ends up by being an incredibly shrewd business woman,who, no doubt, had to face down bigotry, stupidity and lies in order to ensurethat the best deal was obtained.
            Iremember meeting, many years ago, a woman who had an extremely gentle voice andmanner. She was delightful; she had a terrific sense of humour; she waswell-informed and read voraciously. When she met her husband, they were both inmedical school, on track to become MDs, but she decided, late in her studies,to take on pharmacology, saying, “One physician in the household is enough.”But it was she who planned, designed, developed and ran the pharmacological departmentof a hospital which didn’t have one. And it was she who was among the firstclass of women to attend General Convention as a Deputy the first year theycould do so.
            Thisquiet, unprepossessing woman was leaving a trail of broken glass just abouteverywhere she walked. Yet she wasn’t above coming along with a dustpan laterto gather up the shards to make sure that it was safe and possible for otherwomen to join and follow her. She saw the gifts with which God had blessed her,and she ran – she didn’t walk – she RANwith them to make sure that everyone would benefit.
            Wherewould she have been, though; where would WEbe, if, for once, the church didn’t do something right, and praised andencouraged people like her, instead of saying, “Get back to the sink, and knockoff the alcohol!”
            Takea look sometime at the first picture in the bulletin this morning. 
            “TheIndian woman here may or may not be married. Her husband may or may not beknown in the city gates. She may or may not have a household, but she is noble.She has wrapped herself in purple and adorned her figure with dignity. Herhands are worn and her face weathered, but she does not appear to be suffering.She is the beautiful elder, not forgotten. Even if she were forgotten by men —her husband, or sons, or government — she will not be forgotten by God.” 2
            Godtouches EVERYone, to blessand to stimulate us, regardless of our gender. The only thing that God seeks isa willingness to try, It doesn’t matter whether we’re from one part of Albanyor another – or out of Albany altogether. God chooses ALL of us to minister in the vineyard.
            Wefail when we are unable or refuse to see the utterly unbiased way in which Godseeks to engage us and to have us minister to others. We fail – and the historyof the church is full of failures – when we won’t allow our imaginations tosoar, and we don’t say to ourselves, “I can do that.” Or “At least I can trythat.”
            But we get so bogged down with theexternals. Who’s first? Who’s going to lead?” Who can get the most money? Whohas the greatest reputation or prestige? – you know, everything the disciples were arguing about,running everyone else down, saying whatever they liked, whether it were true ornot – yet none would admit it. So Jesus slipped His arm around the waist of achild,, or took hold of her hand, and looked her in the eye while He said toeveryone else, “If you do anything to hurt the powerless, or the fragile, orthe at-risk, the ignored, the despised, no matter who she may be and what hercondition; if you do ANYTHINGto hurt or malign, heaven help you!”
            Ofcourse, we all mess up. That’s part of the challenge of being human. We forget;we’re distracted; we’re blinded by our socialization. Fortunately, Jesus stillpulls children into our midst and says, “For Pete’s sake – ’scuse me about thatPeter! But, for Pete’s sake, look! Listen! See what you can learn!”


===Continued in Part 3
- - - - -




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20150919/0552739d/attachment.htm>