Christmas Eve, Year C

"Radically Different!"

Given on Sunday, December 24, 2006 at Church of the Redeemer, Cairo, IL; and at St. James’ Memorial Church, Marion, IL.

Radically different!....The Christian faith is radically different from every other religion in the world….

And it is this difference that we celebrate at Christmas…the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, sent by God the Father, to save us from ourselves.

To contrast Christianity with the religions of the world, let’s summarize some of the ways that human beings have thought about spiritual things, the things that are in the realm of the divine (we should remind ourselves that human beings, in almost every age and in almost every place have tried to explain or account for spiritual things – we are “hard – wired” to be aware of some spiritual reality beyond ourselves).

Some of the beliefs that we humans have had down through the centuries might be described this way (this is not intended to be a complete list, just some of the major ideas that have been formed):

1. There are a whole host of gods: This is called “pantheism”, and would describe the beliefs of ancient Greece and Rome…Many times, these gods would take on human form, and were often engaged in mischief…A person appeased these gods with offerings and sacrifices.
   
   
2. There is one god: This would characterize the beliefs of Judaism, and also of Islam….To each of these religions (though there are some major differences in the two religions), this one god has revealed his law, and people relate to god by keeping the laws that he has given.
   
   
3. Nature religions: Everything might be a god…the rocks, the trees, animals, and so forth….many times, this concept of the divine is very fluid, able to be adapted to many different circumstances.

These various beliefs have some things in common:

1. The gods are removed from human existence: Usually, there is a great gulf between the human race and the god that created it.
   
   
2. The gods are do not have human beings, or their welfare, in mind: Often, these belief systems think that the gods are following only their own self – interest, and do not have the interests of human beings in mind.
   
   
3. The spiritual world is so vague that everything is OK to believe: such a concept could aptly be applied to the New Age spirituality that is so prevalent in modern society today….As a result, many people create a “designer god” to suit their own needs, or become very “spiritual” without any one focus for their spirituality (which, again, often becomes quite self – centered).

But the Christian faith is radically different from all other beliefs….How is it radically different?

Our Gospel reading from John, chapter one, provides some answers…And it is to John’s retelling of God’s work in Jesus Christ that we now turn…..

John addresses the issue of the uniqueness of God and the specific action of God in the “Word”: He says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Wow! Do you get the sense that this is “cosmic language”? John is stretching to find words to describe the “Word”…..

We should stop right there and define “Word” (with a capital “W”)…..To us modern human beings, there is a separation between an idea (and the word that describes it) and the actual object being described….But to the ancient Hebrew people, the two were intimately intertwined…we can hear this unity in the description of the creation of the world, in Genesis, chapter one (verses 1 – 2): “In the beginning, (notice how John’s Gospel begins in the same way that Genesis begins – many Biblical scholars have noted the similarities between Genesis, chapter one, and the beginning of John)…In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light.” Notice how the speaking of the word and the reality of light are connected….this pattern will be repeated as God continues creating the world: a word is spoken and something is created. To the ancient Hebrews, speaking a person’s name was just as real, just as powerful, as actually having the person present with you….the ancient Hebrew conception of all of life was very holistic, that is to say, it viewed all of life as a unified whole (the idea of a separation between spirit and flesh, between ideas and physical reality, is an idea we get largely from the ancient Greeks).

So, for John, the “Word” is that force, which is God (notice John’s very explicit language: “the Word was with God, and the Word was God”), and which created the world: notice (in verse 3) that John now says “through him all things were made: without him nothing was made that was made”. Wow again! John is saying that Jesus Christ is one with God the Father, and that the entire world was created through this “Word”, which came from God the Father. So, the “Word” is eternal, without a beginning and without an ending….fully God.

But John goes on to say that this “Word” is life….notice verse four: “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” Here we have another parallel to Genesis, for in Genesis 1: 3 (quoted a minute ago), we note that light was the first thing that God created.

So Christianity maintains that:

1. God created the world, through His specific actions: Unlike a vague “spirituality”, Christianity maintains that God specifically acted in the “Word” to create the world, and in the “Word” to offer us a new life, a new creation (John 1: 12: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”).
   
   
2. God has not separated himself from the world that He created: John tells us very clearly (verse 14), “The Word became flesh, and made his dwelling among us. We have seen the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Here is the critical difference between Christian belief and all other ideas: God loved the world enough to send the very best – himself! God himself, sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to become fully human (yet fully divine)…..John, a little further on in 3:16 & 17 will say, “For God so loved the world, that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” Notice the emphasis on sending, love, and saving. Clearly, God has our best interests in mind!
   
   
3. God acted out of love for people: “For God so loved the world” we read a second ago….God’s relationship with people can’t be spelled out by a rigid set of rules and requirements, whereby we seek God’s favor (unlike the ancient pagan practices of offering sacrifices to the gods in order to appease them). Our relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, is based on love….since, in our modern world, the idea of “love” is so often confused with “permissiveness”, we ought to remind ourselves that the genuine concept of “love” involves seeking another’s welfare and good, not just our own….that means that our response to God is characterized by wanting to respond to God, wanting to respond by living our lives in accordance with God’s designs for us as human beings. We respond to God in love, living as God wants us to out of love, not out of rigid, legalistic demands.

So, let’s return to the question we began with: “How is Christian belief radically different from all other concepts of things spiritual and the things of God?”….

This question is at the heart of the Christmas message, because it dwells on the exact identity of the baby born in a cow’s stall in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago.

John supplies the answer, chapter one, verses 17 & 18: “….grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.”

In Jesus Christ, God’s light has shown among us….and just like the light of day in the created order of the world around us, God’s light makes possible life itself…without light, the world would be so cold that everything would be frozen. Without light, nothing could grow….What is true in the physical world is also true in the spiritual world: without the light of Christ, the spiritual world would be separated from the source of light and life, and would be spiritually frozen. Without the light of Christ, we cannot have life itself, spiritually.

But light also provides the means to see where we are going…without light, we would stumble around, bumping into things right and left….Without the spiritual light of Christ, we would stumble spiritually, as well.

Thanks be to God, for reaching out to us, and for sending us the gift of His only Son, born in Bethlehem, to save us from ourselves, and to offer to us life through belief in His name.

AMEN.

4 Advent, Year C

"God is Getting Ready, Too"
Given on Saturday, December 23, 2006 at Church of the Redeemer, Cairo, IL; and on Sunday, December 24, 2006 at St. Stephen’s Church, Harrisburg, IL.


God’s getting ready, too….

All through Advent, our readings have been preparing us for the arrival of Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate on Christmas Day.

Remember back with me to some of the major themes of our Advent Gospel readings:

On our First Sunday of Advent, we heard Luke 21, and the reading which called us to “wake up” for the “kingdom of God is near!”.[1]

For the Second Sunday, the theme was the witness of John the Baptist, the “voice crying in the wilderness, ‘prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”[2]

Then, last week, we heard John the Baptist tell the crowds who’d come out to see him to “bear fruit worthy of repentance.”[3]

All the while that our readings have been calling us to “get ready”, we recognize from our reading for today that God has been getting ready, too.

As we begin to look at the Gospel reading for today, Luke, chapter one, we should back up into the earlier part of this first chapter to see the various things that have taken place, which lead up to today’s encounter of Mary with her cousin, Elizabeth….look at the various pieces that God is putting together: Gabriel’s announcement to Zechariah (John the Baptist’s father) that his barren wife will bear a son,[4]and Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she will bear the “son of the Most High”.[5]

And now, in today’s reading, we see some more of the pieces coming together, God’s “getting ready”:

We should begin by remembering Gabriel’s work in telling Zechariah and then Mary that they would soon have baby boys coming into their families….God is making His plans known.

Then, we should take careful note that God is able to work around the impossible: Luke makes it clear that Elizabeth was old, and was also barren.[6] As if that wasn’t enough, Mary told Gabriel that she was a virgin, and without a husband.

Notice the work of the Holy Spirit[7] in the reactions of the baby in Elizabeth’s womb, as well as Elizabeth’s praise of Mary, which will be echoed in just a minute in Mary’s song, the Magnificat (“From now on, all generations will call me blessed”).[8]…God is “making connections” between the various persons who will carry out His will. We might call these reactions “divine encouragement” that God’s will was being carried out.

Of great importance to Luke is the fact that God works with the down-and-out, the humble of the earth.[9] Mary was most likely only a peasant girl, perhaps in her teens when Gabriel came to tell her the news of God’s plans for her and for the world.

Well, what lessons can we learn from “God’s getting ready” as we hear it today? Perhaps the following are important for us to look back over our shoulder to see God at work in each of our lives:

First of all, God is going to “get the word out” somehow…We might recognize God’s voice when we hear someone else say something to us that seems to “resonate” especially deeply (perhaps, in itself, the work of the Holy Spirit, working with our spirit?). We might hear God’s voice during our Scripture reading, perhaps a verse that seems to leap off the page at us….there are countless ways God speaks to us. How has He spoken to us in times past?

Then, remember that God works around the impossible….the barriers and obstacles we face in life are nothing to God. How has God opened the closed doors in our lives?

God “makes the connections”….I used to have a spiritual director once who said, “We often know what God’s will is by what God makes possible!” How true! How true in my own life, as one closed door suddenly and unexpectedly opened to a wider and better view than I had ever been able to imagine….that’s how God works….And, God’s plans for us are always better than our plans for us: imagine how we might remember Mary, if she had told Gabriel, “No, tell God to get someone else.” (I think Mary could well have said, “No”.) But, we call her “blessed” exactly because she said “May it be to me as you have said.”

God can only work with the humble…the proud and the mighty, He will remove from their seats. For God to be able to use us for His purposes, we need to be like potter’s clay, moldable in God’s hands, just as Mary was.

So, God is also “getting ready” for the birth of His Son, working with the human beings who would be faithful to God’s plans.

God is also getting ready for the rebirth of His Son in our hearts. May we be blessed for answering, with Mary, “here we are, the servants of the Lord.”

AMEN.


[1] Luke 21: 25 - 31
[2] Luke 3: 1 - 6
[3] Luke 3: 7 - 18
[4] Luke 1: 5 - 25
[5] Luke 1: 26 - 38
[6] Note the parallels to Abraham’s wife, Sarah (Genesis 17: 15 – 19), who was also old and unable to bear a son.
[7] The work of the Holy Spirit figures very prominently in Luke’s Gospel, and also in the Acts of the Apostles, also written by Luke.
[8] Like 1: 48
[9] God’s care for and use of the humble is a consistent theme throughout Luke, as is God’s use of women to carry out His plans.

3 Advent, Year C

"Dead - or Alive?"
Given Sunday, December 17, 2006 at St. Mark’s Church, West Frankfort, Illinois; and at St. James’ Memorial Church, Marion, IL.

Dead, or alive?

That’s the choice that John the Baptist, whose voice roars out to us, even as it did to the crowds who’d come to see him baptizing in the River Jordan….

“You brood of vipers” (it’s clear that John the Baptist was no graduate of the Dale Carnegie course “How to Win Friends and Influence People”), he said, “who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”

“Produce fruit in keeping with repentance…” The choice that John the Baptist laid out before his listeners that day comes down to this: “do we bear fruit, or not?”….in other words, “are we dead, or alive?”

Let’s remember that John was the forerunner for Jesus….in last week’s Gospel reading, just in the verses which precede today’s lectionary, we hear Luke’s quotes from Isaiah, chapter 40: “a voice of one calling in the desert…prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him…”[1]

John prepares the way for the coming of Jesus Christ….John is announcing a new covenant, a new way of relating to God.

So, let’s look at today’s reading from the perspective of: dead –or- alive

We begin with what’s dead – or dying:

• A relationship to God based on birth: Notice that John tells the crowd (perhaps as if to read their minds), “do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’” In fact, God’s chosen people had come to regard their status in just those terms: if one was born into the chosen people, one had a relationship with God. It seems that this claim rested on something that was received, the benefit of God’s work (in choosing Abraham) and an accident of birth. It was a done deal, a past event that was looked back to with pride.
  
  
• Relationships that bear no fruit: Notice how John the Baptist ties together the claim of relationship with God through Abraham’s bloodline to the image of a tree which is firmly rooted in the soil, but which bears no fruit…..Picking up his earlier comments about “bearing fruit”, John continues, “The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” John is saying that a group identity (such as being a descendent of Abraham) is dead. Every individual is to bear fruit, and to cultivate a relationship with God so that fruit can be produced.
  
  
• Extreme individualism is dead: Desires that put ourselves first and others last are to be done away with….John responds to the crowd’s question, “what shall we do then?” with these words (paraphrased): “share with one another, do not steal from others, do not extort money using threats and force.”[2]

So, what’s “alive” then? How are people to relate to God in a new covenant, a new agreement, that comes into being with Jesus Christ? Luke provides the following answers:

• A relationship with God is accepted willingly: Just as people willingly came to John for baptism, and a cleansing of their sins, so those who come to God through Jesus Christ will come willingly. No accident of birth, no past relationship to God by some other person will suffice to make the children of the new covenant “children of God”.
  
  
• A relationship with God will be a one – on – one matter: Here again, we rely on John’s words, “every tree”.
  
  
• Concern for others will mark the fruits of this new relationship, this new covenant: Here we should pause for a moment, for Luke seems to be deeply concerned with the question, “how do we live out the Gospel, if we (the believers) are going to be here in earth for awhile (assuming that the Lord was not going to return in glory as soon as many in the early church had previously thought)?” Luke’s answer, found throughout his Gospel account, seems clear: 1. concrete, observable actions will prove that God resides within the heart and mind of those who claim to be God’s children; 2. actions which take care of others’ needs will be a significant part of those fruits; 3. a genuine repentance from dishonest, illegal or harmful actions which are associated with living in a pagan culture (like the first century – or increasingly, in our own times), will mark the actions of God’s children (here we come again to the ways in which tax collectors and soldiers often behaved in the first century).

Some final thoughts are in order here…..

1. Notice that this new covenant is conditional: In the Old Testament,
   some of God’s covenants with His people were conditional…usually, they could be summed up this way (this example is from II Chronicles 7: 14):
   
   “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble
   themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
   
   And so we hear John the Baptist saying today, “every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
   
2. If God can’t work with us, He’ll work with someone else: John’s message seems clear….”do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’, for I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham”.
   
   We are called to be living stones, being built into a spiritual house, whose foundation is Jesus Christ (this image is found in I Peter 2: 4 – 10).

John’s message asks us to take stock of ourselves, as we prepare for Jesus’ coming…..

• Does my claim to be a Christian come from something in the past, some past action (like being baptized), some association through some other person, -or- does in come from a deeply rooted relationship, freely chosen, willingly accepted, and frequently renewed relationship with Christ?
  
  
• Do I cultivate my personal relationship to God, even as I live it out in the community of the Church?
  
  
• What are the fruits which show that I am firmly rooted in Christ, and particularly, what are the fruits that are demonstrated in acts of love, generosity and kindness towards others?
  
  AMEN.
  

[1] The composer George F. Handel set Isaiah’s words to music beautifully in his “Messiah”.
[2] The tunic was an undergarment which was worn next to the skin. Tax collectors were usually Jews who collaborated with the governing Roman authorities, and so were hated for being a part of a hated regime….the tax system encouraged graft and corruption, for it allowed tax collectors to take additional amounts above and beyond the actual tax, which they could keep. Soldiers were probably poorly paid, /and often may have extorted money through threats of force to supplement their income.

2 Advent, Year C

"Baggage"
Given Sunday, December 10, 2006 at Church of the Redeemer, Cairo, IL.

Ever watch closely when the holidays roll around at the stories on TV of people traveling? The stories always show scenes of people in long lines, either at the airport, the train station, or the bus station, waiting to get on board in order to get to their destinations.

Ever notice how much “stuff” people carry with them?....Some carry just one small suitcase, leaving people like me to wonder how they can manage on so little in the way of needed supplies while they’re gone…Others, however, seem to be carrying absolutely everything they own with them….maybe they figure they just have to have all that “stuff” in case there’s the remotest possibility they’ll need it while they’re gone.

Today’s Gospel reading is all about “baggage”, it seems to me….

As the scene opens, we see John the Baptist in the country around the River Jordan, preaching a “baptism of repentance”. John’s call is one of preparation, in much the same way people get ready for a trip….in this case, however, John tells them to get ready for the arrival of God’s salvation.

Now baptism carries with it three images in the New Testament: 1. it is a ritual cleansing from sin; 2. it is dying to the old self, being “buried with Christ in His death”;[1] as St. Paul says; and 3. it is a conveying over the waters (like Noah’s ark) in safety to eternal life with God.[2]

John’s baptism, which Luke tells us is a “baptism of repentance” corresponds most closely to a “washing away of sin”, and also to a “death” to old ways of life.

Sin and our old ways can be like baggage…..in some cases, the old ways we carry around with us are like excess baggage that weighs us down, and gets in the way of our ability to meet God….in other cases, we carry sin around with us which prevents us from being able to prepare to meet God at all….much like trying to carry a pair of scissors on board an airplane, the sin we harbor will prevent us from getting on board with God.

Let’s look at two aspects of “getting ready”:

1. Old habits/ways that require cleansing: We live in a world that is full of images, full of information…one writer, Richard Lischer, describes our world as being “a sea of words”.[3] Lischer describes the information environment we live in as being full of “white noise”.[4]
   
   Is it any wonder, given those circumstances, that it’s difficult for God’s word to get any “air time” or attention at all?
   
   So, maybe one old habit we could wash away is some of the hectic nature of our lives….allow God some quiet time with a devotional booklet, a Bible reading, or the Book of Common Prayer.
   
   Maybe the hustle and bustle of life, the many tasks and duties we all carry, drown out God’s deepest desire for a two – way relationship with us. Perhaps we could “slow down” a little, washing away the old ways of running hither and yon.
   
   
2. Dying to sin: In our Baptismal Covenant, [5] we answer this question, “Will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?” Our answer is, “I will, with God’s help.” Notice the word whenever….We are realists! We recognize that, once we are claimed as Christ’s own in baptism forever, there will be occasions when sin creeps into our lives, separating us from God and making it impossible to greet the coming of God’s salvation as it unfolds in our lives, day by day. Whenever that happens to each of us (no one is exempt from the certainty of sin’s presence in their lives!), we need to “die to self” and “die to sin” again, seeking God’s renewing of our minds, souls and bodies.
   
   Sin can make it impossible to pass the security checkpoint to relationship with God….seeking forgiveness restores the relationship by removing the offending items in our lives.

So, “get ready” John seems to be saying…the “voice of one, crying in the wilderness, ‘prepare the way for the Lord.’”

“Take stock”, John seems to telling us…. “take stock” of our lives, to decide what will simply weigh us down as we greet the coming of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords…. “take stock” to determine what will prevent us from entering into a full relationship with God.

AMEN.

[1] Romans 6: 1 - 10
[2] See I Peter 3: 18 – 22.
[3] From his book “The End of Words” (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005) page 11.
[4] Ibid, page 18
[5] Book of Common Prayer, 1979, page 304

All Saints, Year B

“THE HEAVENLY TRAIN”
Ecclesiasticus 44: 1 – 10, 13 – 14; Psalm 149; Revelation 7: 2 – 4, 9 – 17; Matthew 5: 1 – 12
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at Church of the Redeemer, Cairo, IL; and at St. Stephen’s Church, Harrisburg, IL, by Mrs. Linda Nelson, Licensed Lay Worship Leader; and at St. John’s Church, Centralia, IL, by Mr. Jeffery Kozuszek, Licensed Lay Worship Leader; on Sunday, November 5th, 2006

“After this, I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out in a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb.’”[1]

Every time I hear these verses, something in my heart leaps!

Why?......because they describe the wonderful, cosmic vision of the saints of God (saints with a big “s” – like St. Peter or St. Paul, and saints with a little “s”, people for whom there is no memory – as our reading from Ecclesiasticus says), saints who are gathered around the heavenly throne, praising God.

So, who are the saints? (You know, I think we often use terms we don’t often take the time to define – “saints” would be one of them.) The title “saints” comes from a Latin root word meaning “holy”. So, a saint is a person who shows forth some of the holiness of God, the power of God to transform hearts into God’s image.

The next question that might come to mind is: “how does a person become a saint?”. I think, in many cases, a person begins to show forth some of the holiness of God when they “catch” that holiness from someone else who shows it in their own lives…now, that isn’t true in all cases, but, many times, the saying goes, “Christianity is often ‘caught’ from someone else.”

But, I am getting ahead of myself….

To return to the basic image from Revelation, we see this wonderful, countless throng of people, the saints, gathered around God’s throne……So, in this sermon, let’s explore three things about sainthood:

• The “pull” of God in a person’s life that leads to sainthood
  
  
• The ways in which God’s moving and tugging at our hearts leads us to follow Him
  
  
• The ways in which we pass along God’s moving in our lives to others

It seems like a good way to illustrate these three things is by using the image of a train, with the locomotive at the front, pulling the train forward….each car, coupled securely to the locomotive, passes along the power of the locomotive to each car behind it.

The first thing we should describe is the “pull” of God in Jesus Christ: Jesus Christ is like a powerful locomotive, pulling us from the place where He finds us into new ways, new directions. Without the power of God, working in Christ, we would be like a lifeless railroad car, useless, stuck in one place. But God, working in the person and work of Jesus Christ, compels us to follow Him (“compel” is a word St. Paul often uses to describe God’s power, working in our lives).

The “pull” of God is strongly countercultural…look at the Beatitudes, read from Matthew this morning….where the world is tempted to say “blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be disappointed”, Jesus says, “blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”[2] Where Jesus tells us, “blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”,[3] the world is likely to add, “yeah, six feet of it”.

Secondly, let’s look at the ways in which “saints” become saints: Like a railroad car, “saints” link up to the power source that compels them along…they remain firmly coupled to the Lord, maintaining an active prayer life, diligently searching Holy Scripture so that the power of God, the pull of God, can be more and more easily seen in their lives.

They recognize that anything that would uncouple them from the Lord also cuts off the power of God, without which they are helpless and useless for God’s purposes in the world. They follow God, working in Christ, in new directions, carrying the good news of God’s saving grace as they go through life.

Then thirdly, we should look at the ways we are able to pass along God’s power to others….We are closely linked with others (as Form IV of the Prayers of the People says),[4] through family relationships, friendships, coworkers, and casual acquaintances. Even the people we meet in the store or on the street are people with whom we are linked (“how often do we think in those terms?” is a good question to pose to ourselves now and again), and to whom we can transmit the power of God that is active and at work in our lives.

So, in what ways might we show forth God’s movement in our lives, transforming us, leading us to new places of understanding about God and the work of Jesus Christ? The old saying says, “preach the Gospel…if necessary, use words!” Everything we do, from the reaction we exhibit when something goes wrong, to the kindness we show toward others (especially those we do not understand or with whom we might disagree), the selfless, self-giving love we show when times are easy and when circumstances are tough, are all ways we can show to others the transformed heart that God desires in Jesus Christ….a heart that has been moved to new understandings.

‘Christianity is often ‘caught’” we said a couple of minutes ago.

That saying might prompt some reflection in our own hearts and minds this morning.

Maybe that reflection could go something like this:

• How easily is the “pull” of God, the power of God, seen in my life? In my everyday actions and reactions, could I be “convicted” of the accusation that I am a Christian, on the evidence available?
  
  
• Who has been the link for me, from whom I “caught” the Faith? Was it a parent, a relative, a friend? What were the circumstances, and how was their faith evident in their lives, so that I was helped to see the reality of the power of God at work in their lives?
  
  
• How well do I pass along the transforming power of God to others with whom I am closely linked? How well do I show the “pull” of God in my life, so that others might be tempted to link up to God through me?

So, this morning, we praise God for His saints, those with a big “s” and those, like us, who are little “s” saints, in the age in which we live, and in ages past, who have been faithfully linked to God through Jesus Christ.

May God bring us all, through the power and the saving grace of Jesus Christ, to that heavenly throne, where with all the saints in ages past, we may say, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb.”

AMEN.

[1] Revised Standard Version translation
[2] Matthew 5: 6
[3] Matthew 5: 5
[4] BCP, p. 388

5 Easter, Year B

“THE KEY TO THE PUZZLE”
Deuteronomy 4: 32 - 40; Psalm 66: 1 - 11; I John 4: 14 - 24;John 14: 15 -21
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at Church of the Redeemer, Cairo, IL, by Mr. Eugene Sandow Myers, Licensed Lay Worship Leader; Sunday, May 14th, 2006

My wife, Deb, loves crossword puzzles….Every day, as part of the routine that begins the day, I carefully open the newspaper to the crossword puzzle page, and put it in front of her….She revels in the New York Times crossword puzzles, especially the Saturday editions, because they are more difficult than the other days (or so I’m told).

Now, especially when she’s trying to solve the New York Times puzzle I am told they are consistently the most difficult to solve), she will struggle for quite awhile, trying to figure out the key to the puzzle….Apparently, there is a common thread that one must discover in order to see how the major clues in the puzzle are to be answered: and, they all fit together, following a theme….From there, it’s relatively easy to fill in the remaining blanks.

Many times, Deb will struggle for quite awhile, trying to decipher the meaning behind the clues (no doubt, the puzzle designers go to great lengths trying to make the clues as devious to figure out as possible!). She will ponder this angle, and then that one, trying to see just what might be the meaning behind the mysterious words….

Finding the key to the puzzle: that’s a major part of our Gospel reading from John, Chapter 14, for today….

In it, Jesus says to His disciples, “on that day (that is, the day that they will see Him again, raised to new life) you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” In other words, Jesus is essentially saying, “the things you’ve been wondering about will make sense on the day that you see me alive again.”

But, we are getting a little ahead of the story…..Perhaps it might be best if we put ourselves in the shoes of those original disciples, as they sat and heard Jesus’ discourse, His “last will and testament” as Biblical scholars often nickname it, as we find it in Chapters 13 – 17 of John…..

Jesus’ makes clear to the disciples what His relationship is to the Father, and the Father’s relationship to Him. He also makes clear that the disciples are going to share in that relationship. Jesus’ instructions to them are critically important, for these disciples will soon be transformed into apostles, as they are “sent out” into the world to keep the commandments of Jesus, showing the love that the Father has for the Son, and that the Son has bestowed upon them.

To Jesus’ original hearers, a whole lot of what Jesus had to say probably didn’t make much sense….it must have been pretty much like looking at the clues in a New York Times crossword puzzle, trying to understand how the words they were hearing fit the meanings that are intended.

Most likely, it was the first time they’d heard words like, “I am going away, but will come again to you,” or, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”

Perhaps these first hearers of Jesus’ “last will and testament” figured that He was trying to be really difficult to understand….It may also have dawned on them that if Jesus was about to leave them, that perhaps Jesus’ instructions ought to be as clear as possible.

But, in retrospect, Jesus’ words make perfect sense….they make perfect sense in the light of the resurrection on Easter Sunday morning….They also make sense in light of the giving of the Holy Spirit, poured out on the disciples as they huddled behind closed doors on Easter Sunday evening, and then a little later, on the infant Church at Pentecost.

For the resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit are the keys to knowing the meaning to the major clues in the puzzle that we call “faith”….

Why call faith a “puzzle”? The reason is that we humans are engaged in trying to understand the workings of God….so long as we are human and God is divine, there will be a sense of mystery, a sense of incompleteness to our knowing…As St. Paul says in I Corinthians 13: 12, “now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

If we grant that we know what God does and why God does what He does only in part, then the question remains, “do we know enough to base our hope and faith on God, and in Jesus Christ, His Son?”

The answer to that question has to be “yes”….For, if we understand only this one fact of Jesus’ death and rising to new life again, then we have found the key to the “puzzle of faith”, for we can understand that, if God raised Jesus Christ to new life, then God will also raise everyone who is in Christ to new life. Death is no longer the final word, for in Christ, we have found the key to solving the puzzle of death.

How do we know that God offers us new life, beginning with this life and leading into eternity? What proof do we have that Jesus resurrection is the key to understanding God’s mysterious workings? The apostles, those who were transformed by their encounter with the risen Jesus, face – to – face, offer us proof…as a result of their encounter with Jesus, being able to touch Him and to watch Him eat, they knew that new life had become a reality. By the working of the Holy Spirit, they were enabled to understand more and more of the puzzle that seemed to hard so understand when they heard Jesus originally tell them how the plan of salvation was to be worked out in Him.

As we grapple with the mysteries of faith, we have the experience of the Apostles, the witness of the Church Fathers, the martyrs of every age, and the witness of faithful believers to help us see the proof of Jesus’ power to grant new life…..We are also blessed with the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Helper, to assist us in understanding the key parts of the spiritual puzzle that life spreads before us.

Thanks be to God for the new life that is our in Christ, and for the gift of the Holy Spirit, Advocate and Guide, to assist us in this life to see new life in God.

AMEN.

4 Easter, Year B

“GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY”
Ezekiel 34: 1- 10; Psalm 23; I John 3: 1 – 8; John 10: 11 – 16
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at St. James’ Church, McLeansboro, IL; and at St. Stephen’s Church, Harrisburg, IL, by Mrs. Linda Nelson, Licensed Lay Worship Leader; Sunday, May 7th, 2006


Today in our lectionary cycle we encounter “Good Shepherd Sunday”….In each of the three lectionary cycles, A, B & C, we have a Gospel reading from John, Chapter ten, and each of these three readings contains a portion of Jesus’ teaching about his role as founder and protector of the group that will gather around Jesus, those whom God has given Him. Each reading centers on Jesus as the Good Shepherd.

In today’s reading, Jesus describes the “Good Shepherd” who lays down his life in order to protect the sheep from the dangers that exist outside the sheep fold.

We are reading only a portion of chapter ten of John today….But since John’s writing style tends to “spiral”, that is, John tends to record something that Jesus said, and then it is repeated, adding a new factor in as the text unfolds, we ought to begin with a brief reminder of what Jesus has said in the first ten verses of chapter ten….then, we can begin to draw some conclusions about today’s Gospel passage.

In verses 1 – 10, Jesus begins by saying that one who enters by the gate is the true shepherd….anyone who attempts to enter by any other way is a thief. Jesus then adds that He calls his sheep by name, and they listen to the shepherd’s voice, as the true shepherd leads them out of the sheep fold. So then, Jesus adds, the sheep who follow the true shepherd will go in and out, finding pasture. Along the way, Jesus adds that He is also the gate to the sheepfold.

Thus, Jesus makes it clear that He is the true shepherd, which is proven by the fact that His followers not only know the shepherd’s voice, but they also follow him.

Now the stage is set for the passage we read today….

Jesus now alters the image significantly….He now says that the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, interceding for the sheep by preventing the threat posed by the wolf from reaching them. By contrast, the hired hand runs away when danger appears, since he has no stake in the sheep’s welfare, caring nothing for the sheep’s welfare.

Note now, in verse 14, that Jesus’ earlier statement about the sheep knowing the shepherd and the shepherd knowing the sheep is repeated, with the addition of the comment that this is a reflection of Jesus’ knowledge of the Father, which the Father also shares with Jesus….The frame of reference is now significantly larger than it was a minute ago, and we now know that Jesus has divine and eternal things in mind.

Jesus now makes one more move to widen the meaning a bit more: He now says that there are “other sheep” that are not of this sheep fold. They, too, will be called by the good shepherd, so that there may be one flock and one shepherd.

With this basic framework in mind, let’s reflect a bit on the meaning of Jesus’ teaching about being the Good Shepherd. What can we learn from Jesus’ teaching today?

These comments come to mind:

1. The flock owes its existence to the work of the Shepherd: The early Church referred to itself as the “ecclesia”, that is, those who had been “called out” by God to gather around the leadership of Jesus….Without the leadership of the Shepherd, giving the flock its identity, leading it to pastures where its life can be nurtured and restored, the sheep will be scattered, and the flock will be no more.
   
   
2. The health of the flock is the proof of the Shepherd’s identity: the Good Shepherd has the flock’s welfare first and foremost in mind. The Shepherd exists to ensure the welfare of the flock. By contrast, those who would claim to be worthy leaders will prove themselves by their conduct when the going gets rough and the challenges to the group begin to mount – they will run away.
   
   
3. The Shepherd’s work is a” servant ministry”: In Biblical times, a shepherd was a lower class person, a person who got little respect from society. Far from the idealized images we see of Jesus carrying a lamb around His shoulders, in reality, a shepherd is a person with little regard….Roles are reversed when Jesus uses the image of being a Shepherd…Not only is Jesus saying that He, as a shepherd, is willing to be identified with the lowest rungs of society, but He deepens the image by saying that He will serve the flock, even if it means giving up His life in the process.

Why read this passage from John, chapter ten? Jesus must have had some enduring messages in mind when He gave this teaching. What might He be asking us to reflect on, as 21st century Christians?

In the first place, it’s easy for us to forget who we are, and whose we are….Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, its founder. We, as Christians, are to focus on Him, on His teachings, proclaiming His death and resurrection, and the eternal life that is ours as a result. Since we, as individuals, know our own experience best, we can very easily substitute ourselves as the reason for the Church to exist, making ourselves the center of our own (and others’) universe. Jesus’ example of sheep is apt in illustrating this point: left to their own devices, sheep will inevitably cater to and follow their own desires, usually with disastrous results. The Shepherd’s role is the call the sheep back, reminding them again and again of the safety and welfare that will be theirs, if they remain in the Shepherd’s care.

Secondly, the way the world which looks at the flock, the Church, will know if the flock is following the Shepherd faithfully, is by the way that flock behaves….If the flock shows that it hears the Shepherd’s commands (a frequent theme in John’s writing, by the way), then those outside the flock will know that the relationship is healthy, because the flock is healthy, reflecting the leading of the Shepherd.

Finally, the Church follows a Servant Leader, the one who washed His disciples’ feet at the Last Supper,[1] and the one who laid down His life for those He loved.[2] It follows then that the Church will show forth a Servant quality in whatever it does, recognizing the price that has been paid by the Good Shepherd in order to guarantee the lives of its members.

May God’s Holy Spirit enable each of us to know Christ as the Good Shepherd and as Lord, so that we may reflect His presence in our lives, in order that the world around us may come to believe that Jesus is God’s anointed, who came to offer life eternal to all who believe.

AMEN.



[1] See John 13: 1 – 17 for the account of the foot washing.
[2] John 10: 17 – 18.

2 Easter, Year B

“TEARING DOWN – AND BUILDING UP”
Acts 3: 12a, 13 – 15, 17 – 26; Psalm 111; I John 5: 1 – 6; John 20: 19 – 31
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at St. Stephen’s Church, Harrisburg, IL; Sunday, April 23rd, 2006


Back when I was in the Army, many times we used to close our programs with a cute little song (which actually came from a 1930s Broadway musical), part of which went like this:

I wouldn’t give a bean, to be a fancy-pants Marine,
I’d rather be a Dogface Soldier like I am.
I wouldn’t trade my old ODs[1] for all the Navy’s dungarees,
For I’m the walkin’ pride of Uncle Sam.
On all the posters that I read, it says “the Army builds men”,
So they’re tearing me down to build me over again…..

Now despite the fact that it was fun to sing that song to an audience that might have had Marines and Navy personnel in it, the reason I began this sermon with those lyrics was because of the last line, “so, they’re tearing me down to build me over again.”

Every person who’s ever been in the military remembers their initial training, where the person who came to boot camp begins to be reshaped into a useful member of the organization.

Actually, most every human organization operates pretty much in the same way: new members are trained and indoctrinated so that they can become effective members of the team. In the process, some old stuff within the individual is removed, only to be replaced by something new and more useful. That way, the mission can be accomplished.

So, my premise is that, in today’s Gospel reading about the familiar encounter “Doubting Thomas” had with the risen Jesus, Our Lord is “tearing something down” that’s within Thomas, only to turn around and “build him up again” into something new and useful for the Kingdom of God.

Furthermore, what was an issue for Thomas is also an issue for us: the issue of the reality of the resurrection.

So, we should begin with a look at the Gospel reading itself….

It’s clear that Thomas has an issue: the issue is that he demands physical proof that Jesus is alive: “unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in His side, I will not believe.” Thomas’ demand isn’t all that much different than the demands the Jews made of Jesus, especially in the first 11 chapters of John’s Gospel account,[2] when they demanded to know “by what authority He was doing these things”, demanding a “sign” to prove what He was saying is true.

Thomas’ issue is our issue: we want proof!...we want proof that the resurrection is real. We want proof in scientific terms. But, I am getting ahead of myself.

So, let’s return to the Gospel account….eight days later, gathered in the same place as they were earlier, we see that Jesus gives Thomas exactly what he demands, saying, “put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt, but believe.”

Now, note a couple of things about this story:

1. Jesus gives Thomas exactly what he needs in order to believe: Notice the wording of Jesus’ instructions to Thomas in their encounter….they answer exactly the demands that Thomas made.
   
   
2. Jesus answers Thomas’ demands in Jesus’ timeframe: No doubt, Thomas had an agonizing time between the time that he made his demand to the other disciples, and that encounter with Jesus behind those locked doors. It’s probably safe to say that Thomas wondered if he would have the proof he needed in order to become an effective Apostle.

Now, let’s turn to our situation, applying some of the lessons from Thomas’ encounter to ourselves….

First of all, it was the transforming encounter that each disciple had with the risen Christ that empowered them to become Apostles,[3] We can see this most clearly in the case of Peter, whose bumbling ways were torn out by his encounter with the risen Jesus, only to be built up into a powerful and persuasive preacher…see Peter’s sermon from Acts, chapter three, read today, as proof.

Secondly, each disciple, in order to become an apostle, had to have the power of the Holy Spirit working within him….In today’s Gospel, Jesus breathes on the disciples and says, “receive the Holy Spirit.” In connection with that sending, He then says, “as the Father has sent me, so I send you.” The Holy Spirit’s work is to tear out of us what is unhelpful to the work of the gospel, that which might even totally block the work the Lord has for us to do, in the same way that Thomas’ doubts may well have prevented him from every becoming an Apostle.

We began with a military analogy, that of a person entering boot camp to have some old things torn out, only to have them be built up into something useful for the organization.

If the person entering the military had training that only consisted of reading histories of the army they’d joined, then they wouldn’t be ready for the battles that are to come…..No, the training they receive as a new recruit consists not only of learning the history of the army they are now a part of, but of the training they receive now, which has a lot in common with the training that might have existed a 100 years ago or more, yet which has the battles of today in mind as well.

Scripture functions in this way: John reminds us in our reading today, that “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in His name.”

As we read Holy Scripture, the proof of the transforming power of the risen Christ to change the lives of those early disciples, building them up in order to be sent out as Apostles, comes alive with the aid of the Holy Spirit.

And so, we have a face – to – face encounter with the risen Jesus, as the Holy Spirit aids us to see Him in all His fullness. To each believer, the story ceases to be only a story of something that happened 2,000 years ago, as it is replaced by the upbuilding experience of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and now ascended into Heaven.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN.


[1] “ODs” were an early form of fatigues, which were Olive Drab in color.
[2] The first 11 chapters of John are often nicknamed by Biblical scholars “The Book of Signs”, since the things that Jesus did were intended to be signs to those who saw them.
[3] The title “Apostle” comes from the Greek word for “sent out”…”apo + stello” = “away + sent”.

Good Friday, Year B

“A BLOOD SACRIFICE FOR SIN”
Isaiah 52: 13 – 53: 12; Psalm 22: 1 - 21;Hebrews 10: 1 – 25; John 18: 1- 19: 37
A homily by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at St. Mark’s Church, West Frankfort, IL; and at St. Stephen’s Church, Harrisburg, IL; Friday, April 14th, 2006

“Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9: 22 NRSV)

On this Good Friday, when we remember our Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, His precious blood spilled on the hard wood of the cross, it might be well for us to reflect a little on the meaning of that sacrifice, made once for all time on this day.

“The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you for making atonement for your lives on the altar, for, as life, it is the blood that makes atonement.” (Leviticus 17: 11 NRSV)

Why is shedding blood necessary to cleanse us from sin? The pattern is very clear in the Old Testament, as we can see in the passage from Leviticus, quoted above. And the New Testament picks up the theme, particularly in Hebrews, beginning at Chapter nine, and continuing into the passage we heard tonight.

The Leviticus passage makes clear that a life is given up (in Leviticus, the life of an animal – for Christians, the life of Jesus Christ) in order to restore another life to full life , lived according to God’s purposes.

There’s a clue as to the reason for the shedding of blood: that sin destroys life.

So, let’s reflect briefly on the nature of sin, and how it destroys life:

We should begin by saying that sin is often quite attractive, appealing in some way to one or more of our natural senses, or to one or more of the basic needs that we all have in order to be able to continue living….Look, for example, at the Temptation in the Garden of Eden: The Tempter came, saying, “did God say ‘you shall not eat from any tree in the garden?’”[1] Then, having been led to the forbidden tree, Eve notices that it was “good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.”[2] Sin is often just like that….it looks mighty good at the beginning.

Sad to say, we are all “fully trained sinners”. We know how to sin very easily, and most of us need absolutely no coaching in being able to be very good at sinning.

But where does sin lead us? Beyond the surface attraction or pleasure, what then?

That’s what a blood sacrifice – animals in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ in the New Testament – was designed to do:

1. To remind us that life is fragile. The animal whose blood was spilled on the altar of the Temple in Jerusalem died quickly, its lifeblood pouring out over the great stone altar. Likewise, Jesus’ blood poured from His body, and His breath with it, and in just six hours on the cross, He was dead.[3]
   
   
2. Secondly, the shedding of blood reminds us that sin leads to death. The dying animal became the substitute for the deadly effects of sin in the ancient Israelites. Jesus’ death becomes the substitute, done once for all time on the cross, as a substitute for our sins. Jesus died so that we don’t have to, if we accept the benefits that flow from His passion, death and resurrection.

The events of this day ask us to reflect on the ways in which our own sins destroy life….They destroy life by alienating us from God, and from each other. Alone in our sinful isolation, we become easy prey for the Prince of Darkness, who seeks to claim us as his victim in the ongoing struggle of good with evil.

May the blood of Jesus Christ stand between us and our sins, restoring us to God by the death and sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

AMEN.

[1] Genesis 3: 1
[2] Genesis 3: 6
[3] Contemporary accounts of crucifixions tell us that victims often were on the cross for a day – and in some cases, up to three days – before death ensued. Jesus’ death in just six hours was a short length of time, by comparison (see Pilate’s reaction to the Centurion’s report that Jesus was dead – Mark 15: 44 – 45).

Maundy Thursday, Year B

“PRESENT WITH US”
Exodus 12: 1 – 14a; Psalm 78: 14 – 20, 23 – 25; I Corinthians 11: 23 – 32; Luke 22: 14 – 30
A homily by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at Church of the Redeemer, Cairo, IL; and at St. James’ Memorial Church, Marion, IL; Thursday, April 13th, 2006


Have you ever thought about the Sacrament of Holy Communion? Have you ever wondered about what actually is going on during this service, which we celebrate because our Lord commanded us to? Since it was on the evening of this day that Our Lord instituted this Sacrament, it is particularly appropriate that we pause for a few minutes to reflect more deeply on our communion with the Lord in this service.

Christians down through the centuries, and especially ever since the Reformation of the 16th Century, have pondered just what the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist[1] signifies.

And, they have come down on various positions, in response to their reflections….

For example, following the teachings of the great Swiss reformer, Ulrich Zwingli, some believe that the Lord’s Supper (as they would generally call communion) is simply a memorial to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. So, coming to the Lord’s Supper is merely a response to Jesus’ command to “do this in remembrance of me.” It’s probably fair to say that Baptists, Methodists, and others, take this view of Communion.

Others take the position that the bread actually becomes the body of Christ, and the wine actually becomes the blood of Christ. Somehow, the appearance of the two elements doesn’t change, at least as far as our eyes can see, but there is a true change in the substance of the elements, even as the accidents[2]have not changed. This process is called Transsubstantiation, and is reflected in the Eucharistic theology of the Roman Catholic Church.

Quite naturally, we Anglicans take a “middle road”. Simply put, we don’t believe that Communion is something that we do merely to remember Jesus by. Jesus’ own words, recorded in their earliest written form by St. Paul in Chapter 11 of First Corinthians,[3] seems to indicate that something more than a simple memory is indicated…Otherwise, why would Jesus say “this is my body…this is my blood” as He distributed the elements to His disciples on that first Last Supper? We Anglicans believe in something called real presence[4], that is that, in Holy Communion, Jesus is actually present with us in a way that is unique to any and all of the other ways He is present with us in our lives. But, we don’t believe that the bread actually changes into His body, nor do we believe that the wine actually changes into His blood. As a friend of mine once said, “if we try to explain what actually happens too carefully, we get into trouble.” Yet, Christ is present with us, actually present just as if His physical self were in the room with us, in the Sacrament. Jesus’ own words seem to indicate that real presence is the correct way to regard the Last Supper, the Holy Communion, the Mass.

So, if Jesus is “really present” with us as we eat and drink, what might the implications be for us as we do so?

Two thoughts come to mind:

1. The past, present and future are all collapsed into one: time disappears as we unite with the Saints down through the ages, from those first disciples down to the newest Christian, in sharing Jesus’ body and blood. Furthermore, since Jesus took on our flesh and blood, and arose with a resurrection body, taking the tokens of our humanness with Him when He ascended into heaven, we are united outside of time with those who will come to know the Lord in the years to come. We share in the heavenly banquet that the saints of old now have a part in as they see the Lord face-to-face in heaven. Isn’t that awesome?
   
   
2. “We are what we eat”: If Jesus is really present with us in this Sacrament, then, as we partake of Him, our whole self is transformed, slowly but surely, more and more into His likeness. Just as the physical food we eat directly determines what sort of a physical body we have, so does the spiritual food that Jesus offers us in the Communion of His body and blood transform us more and more into His likeness. It is food that sustains us in the wilderness of this life, just as the Chosen People were sustained by manna in the wilderness during their 40 years of wandering.[5]

Jesus said to His disciples, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the ages.”[6] One of the ways Jesus is with us, “wherever two or three are gathered together in His name”,[7] is in His gift of Himself to us in Holy Communion.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN.

[1] Eucharist comes from the Greek word for “thanks”. Note how many times the word “thanks” appears in the Eucharistic prayers.
[2] Accidents is the technical terms which refers to the actual bread and the actual wine.
[3] Most scholars agree that the first letter to the Church in Corinth was written in the early 50s, AD.
[4] Other Christians also accept the concept of the Real Presence. Lutherans are an example.
[5] John Chapter six makes an excellent comparison of manna to the living bread that Jesus offers.
[6] Matthew 28: 20
[7] Matthew 18: 20

4 Lent, Year B

"MYSTERIES"
Jeremiah 31: 31 - 34; Psalm 51;Hebrews 5: 1 – 10; John 12: 20 – 33
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker given at St. Mark’s Church, West Frankfort, IL; and at St. James’ Memorial Church, Marion, IL; Sunday, April 2nd, 2006

Have you ever thought about the mysteries we encounter in life every day? Sometimes, we experience things we think we really understand, but when we think about it a little, we see that we really don’t know all that much about them at all.

For example, growing up in Nebraska farm country, I used to stand as a young boy by the windmill that pumped water up from the ground into the tank where the cattle came to drink. I would watch the stiff Nebraska wind drive the windmill’s fan around and around, raising and lowering the shaft that made the pump work.

Now, even at that early age, I knew about the force of the wind, and I think I even knew a little about air molecules and so forth. But to tell you the truth, I don’t think I know, even today, much about how the wind is created, and how the various high and low pressure systems interact with one another to create wind. Even the most knowledgeable scientists will admit that there are still many mysteries to be unraveled about the wind and the weather.

But, even if we don’t understand all the deep mysteries that surround us, we can observe enough to know that something works the way it does. We can see the effects, even if we don’t know why or how of it. Going back to the illustration of the wind, we may not understand everything about the wind, but we can see very well what the wind can do.

That is a very basic definition of a mystery: “something that’s true, but we don’t know exactly why.”

Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins is a truth that we Christians proclaim in our faith….Sunday by Sunday, we say so in the Nicene Creed, which we will say in a few minutes this morning. But, we don’t know everything there is to know about the “ why” and the “how” of Jesus’ passion, as it relates to our salvation. Hold onto that idea for a minute, and let’s turn our attention now to our Gospel reading from John, chapter 12….

Jesus describes His coming death, now just a few days away (we are near the beginning of Holy Week), by offering two examples that will describe something about the reason for Jesus’ death, and the effects this death will have on the world….

Using the example of a seed which is planted in the ground, Jesus makes it clear that the reason for His death is the same as the function of a seed: the seed’s entire reason for being is to be planted, to give up its own identity and its own life in order to give new life to the world. So, Jesus’ entire reason for coming to this earth is to give up His life, in order that new life may come into the world.

Turning to the effects that Jesus’ death will have on the world, He makes a mysterious comment, saying, “I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to myself.”

This is not the first time Jesus has used this phrase, “lifted up.” Back in John, chapter three, verses 14 – 15, in speaking to Nicodemus, Jesus says, “just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”

Jesus is making a very clear connection to an incident that happened during the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Since it may help us to understand the effects that Jesus’ death will have, let’s remind ourselves about this incident, as we read it in The Book of Numbers, chapter 21….

The Israelites were being attacked by poisonous snakes. So God told Moses to make a snake out of bronze and put it on a pole. Anyone who had been bitten would be saved from the effects of the bite and from certain death if they only looked at the bronze snake.

Having to look at the snake on the pole produced several effects on the Israelites:

1. They were driven by their need for deliverance…As we used to say in the Army, “there are no atheists in foxholes.” If the danger is great enough, people will overcome their natural tendency to doubt.
   
   
2. But that wasn’t the only thing they had to do: having been driven by their extreme circumstances, they then had to have faith that this piece of metal on a stick could deliver them. Although Scripture doesn’t tell us so, it’s reasonable to think that the Israelites probably thought to themselves, “what sort of a nutty thing is this?....that piece of bronze can’t possibly save anyone who’s in need of deliverance from the bite of a snake.” And, no doubt, that line of thinking prevailed until someone got bitten, and, in the extreme distress of feeling the snake’s poison beginning to work on their body, they decided to look at the bronze snake on the pole. It was then that they knew that looking at the pole worked….One by one, as they saw a person, and then another person, and then another being delivered, they knew it worked just as God had told them it would.
   
   
3. Finally, as the effects of the snake-on-a-pole’s ability to save spread throughout the camp, this bronze symbol became the focal point for the entire camp. People could be saved only if they could see the pole, and only if they remained in visual contact with it. The pole not only gathered the people around it, but it also unified them in the process.

One final note before we leave this story: it’s worth noting that the symbol that had the power to save was in itself a reminder of the very thing that was destroying the people.

What lessons can we draw from this Old Testament account, so as to understand Jesus’ death? Since He connects the two so clearly, and since John records not only the Nicodemus conversation where Jesus used the phrase, “lifted up”, but also another incident in chapter eight, verse 28, where the phrase appears again, there must be something significant to the image, “lifted up”, especially since, in today’s reading, Jesus begins to use the first person, saying, “I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to myself.”

To answer that question,, it seems sensible to apply the lessons from the Wilderness experience to Jesus’ death and to its effects on us:

1. Many times, we are driven to the cross of Jesus and to a realization of our own need for deliverance, by extreme danger that threatens not only our physical life, but our immortal soul, as well….”There are no atheists in foxholes”, remember? Many persons have come to a personal faith in Jesus Christ after a lifetime of running away from Him….Often, these conversions come after a life of crime, or addiction to some destructive lifestyle or another. Failure after failure mounts us, threatening to poison us into physical death and into eternal separation from God.
   
   We would do well to pause here for a moment to acknowledge a widespread belief that permeates the society in which we live. It even permeates the church: it is the idea that “we really don’t need saving.” “We really aren’t all that bad, and certainly not bad enough to need redeeming from anything.” Surely, if we are honest about it, human history proves that we are all “fully trained sinners”, who cannot save ourselves from our own wicked and destructive ways.
   
   
2. We might be tempted to look at Jesus on the cross, and react just the same way the ancient Israelites did when they were told to look at the bronze snake: “how can a man on a cross save anyone?”, we might ask…..It makes about as much sense as a bronze snake on a pole being able to deliver someone from the venom of a poisonous snake. At this point, we return to the issue of mystery, the mystery of Jesus’ death on a cross being able to save….The reason it does save is because that is God’s design. We don’t completely understand it, but we know it’s true, because we can see it working….working in people’s lives.
   
   Now the deliverance that Jesus offers is not just for the eternal life that is ours
   when we accept Christ as Savior. It isn’t just “pie-in-the-sky, someday”. The salvation that comes through Christ begins in the here-and-the-now. It changes people from the inside out, in ways that no Dale Carnegie Course or etiquette school ever could. There is a marked change in every person who genuinely comes to faith in Christ.
   
   
3. Jesus’ cross becomes the focus of our faith life, just as that snake-on-a-pole drew the Hebrew people those thousands of years ago. No wonder Jesus said, “I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to myself.” Every church is a group of people who have gathered around the cross of Christ, each one in direct relation to Christ and to His cross, passion, death and resurrection. Church unity is dependent on each member of the church being unified around that cross. Whatever convictions we might have on any number of issues, all of them must take second place to our primary relationship to Jesus Christ, lifted high on the cross to take away our sins in order to give us new life.

And so, we come full circle, realizing we are dealing with the mystery of God’s plan for salvation, for delivering us from ourselves and from the power of sin. We don’t know all the “whys” and “hows”, but we know Jesus delivers us by the effects of His working in people’s lives. Seeing God work in another person’s life through the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we become united in gratitude to God for His most precious gift, freely given to them and to us. And so, we become brothers and sisters in Christ, united in our focus on Him, and indebted through all eternity for the life that is ours in His death.

AMEN.

5 Lent, Year B

"MYSTERIES"
Jeremiah 31: 31 - 34; Psalm 51; Hebrews 5: 1 – 10; John 12: 20 – 33
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at St. Mark’s Church, West Frankfort, IL; and at St. James’ Memorial Church, Marion, IL; Sunday, April 2nd, 2006

Have you ever thought about the mysteries we encounter in life every day? Sometimes, we experience things we think we really understand, but when we think about it a little, we see that we really don’t know all that much about them at all.

For example, growing up in Nebraska farm country, I used to stand as a young boy by the windmill that pumped water up from the ground into the tank where the cattle came to drink. I would watch the stiff Nebraska wind drive the windmill’s fan around and around, raising and lowering the shaft that made the pump work.

Now, even at that early age, I knew about the force of the wind, and I think I even knew a little about air molecules and so forth. But to tell you the truth, I don’t think I know, even today, much about how the wind is created, and how the various high and low pressure systems interact with one another to create wind. Even the most knowledgeable scientists will admit that there are still many mysteries to be unraveled about the wind and the weather.

But, even if we don’t understand all the deep mysteries that surround us, we can observe enough to know that something works the way it does. We can see the effects, even if we don’t know why or how of it. Going back to the illustration of the wind, we may not understand everything about the wind, but we can see very well what the wind can do.

That is a very basic definition of a mystery: “something that’s true, but we don’t know exactly why.”

Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins is a truth that we Christians proclaim in our faith….Sunday by Sunday, we say so in the Nicene Creed, which we will say in a few minutes this morning. But, we don’t know everything there is to know about the “ why” and the “how” of Jesus’ passion, as it relates to our salvation. Hold onto that idea for a minute, and let’s turn our attention now to our Gospel reading from John, chapter 12….

Jesus describes His coming death, now just a few days away (we are near the beginning of Holy Week), by offering two examples in our text for today that will describe something about the reason for Jesus’ death, and the effects this death will have on the world….

Using the example of a seed which is planted in the ground, Jesus makes it clear that the reason for His death is the same as the function of a seed: the seed’s entire reason for being is to be planted, to give up its own identity and its own life in order to give new life to the world. So, Jesus’ entire reason for coming to this earth is to give up His life, in order that new life may come into the world.

Turning to the effects that Jesus’ death will have on the world, He makes a mysterious comment, saying, “I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to myself.”

This is not the first time Jesus has used this phrase, “lifted up.” Back in John, chapter three, verses 14 – 15, in speaking to Nicodemus, Jesus says, “just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”

Jesus is making a very clear connection to an incident that happened during the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Since it may help us to understand the effects that Jesus’ death will have, let’s remind ourselves about this incident, as we read it in The Book of Numbers, chapter 21….[1]

The Israelites were being attacked by poisonous snakes. So God told Moses to make a snake out of bronze and put it on a pole. Anyone who had been bitten would be saved from the effects of the bite and from certain death if they only looked at the bronze snake.

Having to look at the snake on the pole produced several effects on the Israelites:

1. They were driven by their need for deliverance…As we used to say in the Army, “there are no atheists in foxholes.” If the danger is great enough, people will overcome their natural tendency to doubt.
   
   
2. But that wasn’t the only thing they had to do: having been driven by their extreme circumstances, they then had to have faith that this piece of metal on a stick could deliver them. Although Scripture doesn’t tell us so, it’s reasonable to think that the Israelites probably thought to themselves, “what sort of a nutty thing is this?....that piece of bronze can’t possibly save anyone who’s in need of deliverance from the bite of a snake.” And, no doubt, that line of thinking prevailed until someone got bitten, and, in the extreme distress of feeling the snake’s poison beginning to work on their body, they decided to look at the bronze snake on the pole. It was then that they knew that looking at the pole worked….One by one, as they saw a person, and then another person, and then another being delivered, they knew it worked just as God had told them it would.
   
   
3. Finally, as the effects of the snake-on-a-pole’s ability to save spread throughout the camp, this bronze symbol became the focal point for the entire camp. People could be saved only if they could see the pole, and only if they remained in visual contact with it. The pole not only gathered the people around it, but it also unified them in the process.
   
   One final note before we leave this story: it’s worth noting that the symbol that
   had the power to save was in itself a reminder of the very thing that was the cause of their destruction.

What lessons can we draw from this Old Testament account, so as to understand Jesus’ death? Since He connects the two so clearly, and since John records not only the Nicodemus conversation where Jesus used the phrase, “lifted up”, but also another incident in chapter eight, verse 28, where the phrase appears again, there must be something significant to the image, “lifted up”, especially since, in today’s reading, Jesus begins to use the first person, saying, “I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to myself.”

To answer that question, it seems sensible to apply the lessons from the Wilderness experience to Jesus’ death and to its effects on us:

1. Many times, we are driven to the cross of Jesus and to a realization of our own need for deliverance by extreme danger that threatens not only our physical life, but our immortal soul, as well….”There are no atheists in foxholes”, remember? Many persons have come to a personal faith in Jesus Christ after a lifetime of running away from Him….Often, these conversions come after a life of crime, or addiction to some destructive lifestyle or another. Failure after failure mounts us, threatening to poison us into physical death and into eternal separation from God.
   
   Of course, for most of us, the saving that God does in our lives isn’t so dramatic as all that….most of us don’t live extraordinarily evil or destructive lives. But God’s salvation, made available through Jesus’ cross and passion, is real, nonetheless.
   
   We would do well to pause here for a moment to acknowledge a widespread belief that permeates the society in which we live. It even permeates the church: it is the idea that “we really don’t need saving.” “We really aren’t all that bad, and certainly not bad enough to need redeeming from anything.” Surely, if we are honest about it, human history proves that we are all “fully trained sinners.” We cannot save ourselves from our own wicked and destructive ways.
   
   
2. We might be tempted to look at Jesus on the cross, and react just the same way the ancient Israelites did when they were told to look at the bronze snake: “how can a man on a cross save anyone?”, we might ask…..It makes about as much sense as a bronze snake on a pole being able to deliver someone from the venom of a poisonous snake. At this point, we return to the issue of mystery, the mystery of Jesus’ death on a cross being able to save….The reason it does save is because that is God’s design. We don’t completely understand it, but we know it’s true, because we can see it working….working in people’s lives.
   
   Now the deliverance that Jesus offers is not just for the eternal life that is ours
   when we accept Christ as Savior. It isn’t just “pie-in-the-sky, someday”. The salvation that comes through Christ begins in the here-and-the-now. It changes people from the inside out, in ways that no Dale Carnegie Course or etiquette school ever could. There is a marked change in every person who genuinely comes to faith in Christ.
   
   
3. Jesus’ cross becomes the focus of our faith life, just as that snake-on-a-pole drew the Hebrew people those thousands of years ago. No wonder Jesus said, “I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to myself.” Every church is a group of people who have gathered around the cross of Christ, each one in direct relation to Christ and to His cross, passion, death and resurrection. Church unity is dependent on each member of the church being unified around that cross. Whatever convictions we might have on any number of issues, all of them must take second place to our primary relationship to Jesus Christ, lifted high on the cross to take away our sins in order to give us new life.

And so, we come full circle, realizing we are dealing with the mystery of God’s plan for salvation, for delivering us from ourselves and from the power of sin. We don’t know all the “whys” and “hows”, but we know Jesus delivers us by the effects of His working in people’s lives. Seeing God work in another person’s life through the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we become united in gratitude to God for His most precious gift, freely given to them and to us. And so, we become brothers and sisters in Christ, united in our focus on Him, and indebted through all eternity for the life that is ours in His death.

AMEN.

[1] The full account is found in Numbers 21: 4 – 9.

3 Lent, Year B

"THE BREAD OF LIFE"
II Chronicles 36: 14 – 23; Psalm 122; Ephesians 2: 4 – 10; John 6: 4 – 15
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at Church of the Redeemer, Cairo, IL by Mrs. Deborah K. Tucker, Licensed Lay Worship Leader; Sunday, March 26th, 2006;

“Open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world around us. Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal…:

Eucharistic Prayer C, (though I must admit it isn’t my most favorite communion prayer), is where we pray these wonderful words….they’re found in your prayer books on page 372….

Can we hear them again?....”deliver us from the presumption of coming to this table for solace only, and not for strength, for pardon only, and not for renewal…”

Ever since the “new” prayer book came into use, almost 30 years ago now, Holy Communion, Holy Eucharist, or the Mass (as it’s variously known) has become the principle service for most Episcopal Churches on Sundays and Holy Days….Those of you who’ve been Anglicans for awhile can perhaps remember the “good old days” when Morning Prayer was the usual Sunday morning service, and when it was rare (maybe four times a year or so) when there would be Holy Communion.

Receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of Holy Communion can become a commonplace thing, you know, something “one” does on Sunday morning….That is especially true if we do it regularly, week by week.

So these powerful words are designed to dig into our hearts a little….What can it mean, “deliver us from coming to this (the Communion) table for solace only, and not for strength?” What is the intent of asking God to pardon us for coming to Communion for solace only, and not for renewal?

This sermon will offer some reflections to those questions, as we look at John’s recounting of Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000, in our Gospel reading for today.

Before we get to some of those reflections, let’s take a minute to look at John’s account….We need to look at not only the actual report of the feeding of the crowd near the shores of the Sea of Galilee, but we need to look further along into Chapter Six of John’s Gospel to see what connections John makes for us to this miracle of Jesus.

First, though, we should recall that all four Gospel writers report this miraculous multiplication of the five loaves and two fish. In fact, Matthew and Mark also report another feeding of a large crowd, that one composed of 4,000.

John’s account differs in some ways, but they are relatively minor. So, if you’ll take your insert for today, let’s look at some of the specifics that John records for us, which are unique to John, and then we’ll look at the conversation with Jesus that followed the feeding itself…

John is the only one to mention the boy who has the five loaves and two fish. A side note is worthy of mention here: in Biblical times, barley was the grain of choice for poor people, so it’s possible that the boy who carried his lunch that day was from the lower classes. Barley was pretty common stuff, for the common people.

Notice then that Jesus tests His disciples, asking Philip, “where are we going to buy bread for these people to eat?” Philip answers with a completely practical response, “six months’ wages wouldn’t be enough for each of them to even get a little.”

Notice also that Jesus gives the bread and the fish directly to the people….In the other accounts, Jesus gives the bread and the fish to the disciples, who, in turn, give it to the people…..

Then, before we move into the conversation that ensued with those who witnessed this miracle, note that John tells us that Jesus withdrew from the crowd, because He knew that they were going to seize Him by force and make Him king.

Following this miracle, Jesus withdraws further up the mountain, while the disciples get into a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. During the night, Jesus comes walking to them on the sea, an event that is also reported in the same sequence in Matthew and in Mark.

Now, John tells us that the crowds follow Jesus, and a conversation begins about the miraculous feeding…Jesus tells the crowd that He knows that they have come, not because they saw a sign, but because they had had their fill of the loaves and the fish. So, He says to them, “labor for the food that endures to eternal life.” (John 6: 27)

Still, the crowd doesn’t seem to get it….they bring up the Manna that their ancestors had eaten in the desert during the 40 years of wandering…..Again, Jesus tries to get them to see the larger picture, reminding them that it wasn’t Moses who gave them the manna, but Jesus’ Father, who is in heaven.

Now, the crowd begins to see the larger picture, asking Jesus to “give them this bread always.” (Verse 34)

Over the next 16 verses, Jesus will tell those gathered around Him that “He is the bread of life,” the “bread that came down from heaven.” Finally, in verse 52, He will tell them that “the bread that He will give is His flesh.”

Naturally, those first century Jews are mystified by Jesus’ words….So, they ask themselves, “how can this man give us his flesh to eat?, to which Jesus responds, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”

Perhaps we shouldn’t be too hard on Jesus’ audience. After all, any contact with blood made a Jew ritually unclean, and the idea of cannibalism was as repugnant to them as it is to us.

But we have the advantage that 2,000 years of Christian thought and teaching, which can shed light on these words….So, when we hear Jesus saying, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you,” we immediately make the connection to the Holy Communion….

Recall the Words of Institution from the Communion service…The Celebrant, taking up the bread, says, “take, eat, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Then, taking up the cup of wine, he says, “drink this, all of you, this is my blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.”
Now these words are Jesus’ own, and they come from His Last Supper on Maundy Thursday night.

We’ve become so accustomed to them that they might just roll into our ears, and out of our minds.

So, our Eucharistic Prayer C asks God to “open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world around us.” It asks God to “deliver us from the presumption of coming to the Communion Table for solace only, and not for strength, for pardon only, and not for renewal.”

These words embody thoughts that ask God to make it “all about Him”, and not “all about us.” They ask God to ponder what it is that God is doing in the work of Jesus Christ, and not what we can get out of God’s gifts.

It’s worth saying that last sentence again: we are being challenged to ponder what God is doing in the work of Jesus Christ, and not what we can get out of God’s gifts…..That brings us back to John’s report, read today….

Notice that the crowds are intent on making Jesus a king…..Perhaps they figured that, if Jesus could feed this many people so easily, that would make for some good economics….Maybe they figured that, if Jesus could feed this small army of people, perhaps He could also raise an army and drive the Romans out….John doesn’t tell us, and we can only speculate, using our own life’s experiences as a guide.

But it’s clear that the crowd was willing to use Jesus for their own purposes, to subvert God’s workings in Jesus Christ to suit their own ends. In that sense, they were doing what the ancient Israelites did when God gave them the manna in the desert: they hoarded it, taking more than they were told by God to take….the result was that the extra that they had stuffed into their pockets turned rotten.

Given the age in which we live, with its unbridled individualism, seeking after the easy answers and the immediately available thrills, we, too, can be tempted to seek in Holy Eucharist just what meets our own needs, and, at that, only those that are the most comfortable and easily fulfilled.

But, like Philip, we can be expected to be challenged and tested in our faith walk….The bottom line for Philip’s test was to see if he was willing to trust the Lord to provide in the situation at hand. We, too, are asked to trust God to provide as we present our concerns and cares before Him in faith. We know from the Biblical accounts, that trusting in the Lord and following in His footsteps did not lead to a life of ease and comfort for the disciples. On the contrary, the road ahead for all of the disciples as they became Apostles was difficult, hard, and long. For most, it ended in a martyr’s death. But at the end of the road, the crown of glory awaited them all. We should expect testing, challenges, and hardships as we follow the Lord. But, we will never be abandoned along the way, for God will provide.

God is willing to use the common stuff of life, like the barley loaves of 2,000 years ago, for his purposes….God takes simple bread and wine, common stuff of life, and transforms it into the agents of a marvelous and mysterious dining experience with God himself in Christ.

God Himself is the provider, as Jesus is in today’s reading, directly feeding those in need. It’s no mistake that John tells us that Jesus gave the bread and the fish directly to the crowd. For us, the Holy Communion to which we come has its origins in the Lord Himself.

So, we pray that God will open our eyes to see His hand at work in the world around us, and in our own lives….We pray for the gift of His Holy Spirit to quicken our hearts, that we may not come to the Holy Table for our own comfort only, but for strength for the spiritual journey. And, we ask God to grant us pardon for our offenses, and renewal of spirit so as to walk in His ways, that we may be made one body, one spirit with the Lord, and that we may worthily serve the world in His name.

AMEN.