18 Pentecost, Year C

Proper 21 -- Amos 6:1–7; Psalm 146:4–9; I Timothy 6:11–19; Luke 16:19–31

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, September 26, 2010

“AND HOW MANY WILL BE DINING?”
(Homily text: Luke 16; 19 – 31)

“And how many will be dining today?”

This could be the essential question which the parable which is before us today seeks to pose.

Put another way, we could say it this way: “Will you be sharing your table (and your food) with anyone else today?”

The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (or, as it’s also known “The Parable of Dives and Lazarus”) continues a long train of thought that has occupied Jesus’ mind and His teaching since the early chapters of Luke’s gospel account.

Significant themes which resonate throughout Luke are to be found here, including:

• A reversal of roles: The rich become poor, and the poor become rich (with the Lord’s favor)
• The mighty are cast down, and the lowly are lifted up (see Mary’s reference to this in the Magnificat, Luke 1: 52)
• The hungry are filled with good things, and the rich are sent away empty (Luke 1: 53)
• There is eating and drinking (as there are in so many places in Luke’s account)

So many possibilities of meaning present themselves in this parable. Indeed, it can truthfully be said that our Lord is a master storyteller: His parables resound with meaning and with depth. Their applicability to our daily lives in the 21st century is just as fresh and as urgent as was the applicability to the lives of Jesus’ original hearers.

What would be Jesus’ essential point in this parable?

Is Jesus giving us a theological treatise on the nature of salvation? (That is to say, is He making the point that the poor and the downtrodden in this world are assured of having a place in God’s kingdom once they pass from this life to the next?) I would say the answer to that question is “No”.

1. Jesus seems to be making a point about how we live our lives today, however.
2. He is also making a point about the urgency of doing the right thing, here and now, before it is too late.

I think those two points are the main ones He wants us to understand.

That said, we now turn our attention to the parable itself.

The drama of the parable unfolds in three acts:

• Act I: The earthly situations of the rich man and Lazarus are described. (Verses 19 – 21)
• Act II: The two men die, and their roles are reversed. (Verses 22 – 26)
• Act III: The rich man pleads for his brothers.

As we begin the drama, we see that the rich man and Lazarus (who is the only named person in any of Jesus’ parables, by the way) are separated by quite a few things: their social status, their wealth, their health, their mode of dress and by the wall which surrounds the rich man’s house (notice that Jesus refers to a gate).

Hunger is also a factor which separates the two men. The rich man has enough to eat so as to be able to use pieces of bread to wipe the grease off of his fingers, bread which is then thrown on the floor afterward. Jesus tells us that Lazarus would love to have had some of those pieces of bread to eat.

Instead, Lazarus is as unclean as the rich man is clean, for Lazarus is being kept company by the neighborhood dogs, who are his only friends, and who clean his sores by licking them. Associating with dogs indicates that Lazarus is unclean, for dogs were considered to be unclean animals in biblical times. By contrast, the rich man is finely dressed, and presumably, is also clean, physically and ritually. We can just imagine the rich man’s daily baths, taken with fine oils and perfumes.

The rich man is securely isolated from the world around him, and from its problems. He is isolated by virtue of the wall and its gate, which keep the world’s problems from encroaching on him, and he is isolated by being able, financially, to avoid those problems, as well.

The rich man’s isolation will play a role in the last state in which he will find himself, for in Hades, the rich man’s isolation from God will also be complete, ensured by his own selfishness and by the gulf which will separate him from Lazarus and from the Bosom of Abraham.

Now, we turn to Act II of the drama: The rich man and Lazarus are taken away to their eternal reward. Lazarus’ name now proves to be prophetic, for it means “God helps”.

Just as in life, the two men can see one another. Recall with me that Lazarus could see the rich man eating, and longed to have just some of the crumbs which were under the rich man’s table. Now, however, the tables are turned, forever.

But the rich man still expects Lazarus to be his errand boy. He says, “Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue.” But Abraham responds by saying, essentially, “Lazarus’ work is done.”
Moreover, the states the two men now find themselves in are permanent. “There is a great gulf fixed,” Abraham says.

The point of this comment is simply to say “The time for changing the situation is past, over and gone.”

Now, we turn to Act III.

Here, for the first time, the rich man begins to think about someone other than himself. He thinks of his five brothers, and wants to warn them to change their ways before it is too late for them, too.

But Abraham responds by saying, “They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.”

With this comment, Jesus makes a searing point in the parable: He points out that the rich man also had access to Moses and to the prophets, whose wisdom would have served to change the rich man’s ways, had he any inclination to pay attention.

But Jesus now turns the matter of spiritual blindness into a wider issue: An unwillingness to pay attention to the sacred writings (Holy Scripture, we would say) can also lead to an equal unwillingness to pay attention to the one who arose from the dead, Jesus Christ.

By this final comment, Jesus points the way forward into the late first century situation in which the early Church found itself: Those early Christians encountered Jews who could not see the connections between Moses’ writings (known as the Torah) and Jesus’ identity as the one risen from the dead.

We said at the beginning of this homily that Jesus’ parables continue to have an impact on our daily lives as 21st century Christians.

How so?

What may we take away from the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus?

May I posit the following points, in the hope that some of them might spur your own reflection?

• Where are the walls of separation which prevent us from doing what we can to alter or reverse the circumstances of those around us who are in some sort of need? Those walls can be made of pride, selfishness (which is the root sin of the rich man), arrogance, or a sense of our own superiority before God, either morally or spiritually. We are called to identify such barriers, which prevent us from caring for those in need among us.
• The time for action is now! Death ends our ability to act in accordance with God’s will. Once death intervenes, it’s too late to change our record before the Lord.
• What we do in our daily lives has eternal consequences. Not only is our moral character formed by our actions and our attitudes, but our spiritual character is also formed by such actions and attitudes.
• The moral imperatives of the Torah remain. We find an example of the moral imperative of helping others in Deuteronomy 15:7, which reads “Do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor.” The early Church affirmed these moral imperatives by living communally in the early first century: People who became Christian believers sold what they had and brought the proceeds to the Apostles, where it was put into a common treasury, in order to meet the needs of all in the community. Though we no longer live this way as Christians, we are still under obligation to do all we can to improve the lot of those around us

One final thought comes to mind: One barrier to action might be a suspicion that a person who seems to be in need really isn’t in need at all. They’re might be “working the system” to gain a benefit they don’t really have a need of. In today’s society, the reality of such deception is real, and this reality imposes upon us the need to be as “wise as serpents and as innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10: 16). I think, in this regard, that Jesus is referring to helping a person (or persons) who are in genuine need. I take His description of Lazarus’ condition as an indication that Lazarus was in such bad shape that he could not work. Therefore, Lazarus’ need was genuine.

May God enable us, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to break down the walls which prevent our response to those in need. May the Holy Spirit enlighten us to see the urgency and the need to act. May the Holy Spirit assist us to meet people’s needs according to their true needs.

“And just how many will be at our table today?” Answer: “Surely more than one!”

AMEN.

17 Pentecost, Year C

Proper 20 -- Amos 8:4–12; Psalm 138; I Timothy 2:1–8; Luke 16:1–13
A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, September 19, 2010


“Don't Be Like This Guy, OK?”
(Homily text: Luke 16: 1 – 13)

“Don’t be like this guy, OK?”

That could easily be Jesus’ message for today, as He tells us the Parable of the Dishonest Steward.

Now I will admit to you that this parable can be very confusing.

There’s a lot going on in it. So perhaps we’d better begin by trying to put ourselves into the situation as best we can, in order to see more clearly what’s going on.

As Jesus tells the story, here’s what we know:

1. The dishonest steward, who is a manager of the rich man’s estate, has been caught being dishonest.
2. The rich man demands an accounting of the steward’s actions.
3. In haste, the steward calls together some of the rich man’s debtors, and reduces the amounts they owe as sharecroppers to the rich man.
4. The dishonest steward creates an “unholy alliance” with those whose debts he reduces, by making them complicit in his actions, and by creating a future obligation to him once he is dismissed by the landowner.

A few comments about some of the details in the story shed some light on the circumstances that Jesus uses to illustrate the matter of stewardship.

1. The amounts of oil and of wheat that are owed show that the farming operation involved is a large one. 100 measures (in the Greek: batos = baths) of oil is about 900 gallons of olive oil. 100 measures (in the Greek: kors) could be anywhere from about 650 – 1200 bushels of wheat. The large scale of the operation will be reflected in Jesus’ comments, heard a little later, when He says “He who is faithful in very little is faithful also in much.”
2. What is going on with the reduction in the amounts owed? People have struggled with that aspect of the parable over the years. Three possibilities offer themselves as the dishonest steward reduces the amounts owed:

a. The steward is simply cheating his master out of what he is owed,
b. The steward is merely taking his commission out of the amount owed (an amount that was already figured into the total),
c. The steward is removing the interest that was figured into the debt. This last point needs some explanation: Deuteronomy 23: 19 – 20 forbids the charging of interest on a debt. In order to get around that requirement, people in Jesus’ day would pad the total amount owed, including in it the actual amount expected, plus an additional amount, which was really the interest. However, the agreement would show that there was no interest charged on the amount, only the total amount. In this way, the requirements found in Deuteronomy are shrewdly avoided.

I will leave you to choose which of the three ways the dishonest steward is using to guarantee his future.

Whatever the steward’s means, the intent is quite clear: “You owe me for the favor I did you by reducing the debt you owed my boss” is what he’s trying to do. By changing the amounts owed in writing, he also obligates his boss to honor the written documents.

“He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much,” Jesus says.

But the converse is also true: “He who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.”

Jesus is getting at the issue of integrity, and at the matter of stewardship.

We would do well to unpack each of these concepts as they apply to our walk with God. We begin with the matter of integrity:

Integrity can be defined in this way (a way that fits the circumstances of the story quite well): Integrity is when we do what we would do if everyone could see what we were doing, when no one is looking. Put another way, we could say that we act the same way, with the same honesty, in every situation, whether people know about it or not.

As to the matter of stewardship, we are reminded by today’s parable that to be a steward is to take care of someone else’s property. We don’t own it, we are simply tasked with managing it for the welfare of someone else.

Applied to our faith walk, the matter of integrity means that our insides must match our outsides. What people can’t see must be the same as what people can see.

Applied to our faith walk, the matter of stewardship asks us to realize that all that we have: our time, our talents, and treasure, are all gifts from God, to be used for His purposes in advancing His kingdom here on earth. We don’t own any of these gifts, we are simply the managers of them.

For the Church, whose purpose is to be the bearer of the kingdom of God in this world, the matter of integrity affects the Church’s ability to witness to the world. When the Church’s leadership, or its members, do not act in ways that match the words they say, then integrity is destroyed, and the Church’s witness is also destroyed.

Small wonder then, that the Parable of the Dishonest Steward has often been applied to the Church’s leaders down through the years.

“He who is faithful in a very little, will also be faithful also in much, and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.”

AMEN.

16 Pentecost, Year C

Proper 19
Exodus 34: 1, 7 – 14
Psalm 51: 1 – 11
I Timothy 1: 12 – 17
Luke 15: 1 – 10

A homily by: Fr. Gene Tucker
Given at: Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, September 12, 2010

“THE ECONOMY” (Homily text: Luke 15: 1 – 20)

Let’s talk about the economy this morning, shall we?

As I say this, I can just imagine the thoughts that are now running through your head. Maybe they’re something like this:

1. “OK. The economy’s not very good right now. It’s about all we hear about on the news these days.”

2. “Yeah, my personal economy isn’t too good, not at all. I could use some extra money.”

3. “Oh no, here goes our annual stewardship sermon! Father’s gonna give us a pep talk about giving to the church.”

No, by using the word “economy”, I wouldn’t be talking about the economy, meaning money, not at all.

What I am talking about is God’s economy, God’s plan for you and for me, personally, each one of us.

Perhaps I’d better explain my peculiar use of the word economy.

You see, the English word economy comes from the Greek word oikonomia, where it means “management of a household, a task, or a work.” In theological terms, it is used to describe “God’s plan”.

So, what we are talking about this morning is about God’s plan of salvation, God’s plan to seek and to save everyone of us who respond to God’s seeking with faith.

(A sidebar is in order here: In recent weeks, we’ve heard a series of very tough, very challenging gospel texts, in which Jesus clarifies the high demands of being His disciple. This morning, though, we get a welcome break from such demanding texts. Instead of laying before us the high costs and demands of discipleship, this morning we are shown a glimpse of God’s reaching out to us with love.)

Now, back to the issue of economy.

In today’s text, we hear the reaction of the Pharisees and the scribes, as they mutter to themselves, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

Put into economic terms, the Pharisees and the scribes are saying that these tax collectors and sinners are “worthless currency”. They are like counterfeit bills, in essence. They are as suspect as three dollar bills, and just as useless.

In response, Jesus doesn’t answer the comments of these Pharisees and scribes directly. Instead – and as is typical of His teaching – He responds by giving two parables, which are known today as the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin.

Both parables turn our normal, human expectations on their heads, for both point out the extraordinary steps that God will take to seek out just one person, one individual.

In normal, economic terms, these sorts of actions don’t make any sense at all.

Normally, we attempt to protect as many of our assets as possible. We seek to minimize our potential losses and to maximize our gains.

Not so with God.

In God’s economy, God’s plan, every single person is of inestimable worth.

God will take unbelievable steps to go after us, seeking us out.

That’s the point of Jesus’ two teachings.

You see, salvation – that is, God’s ability to save us from our sins, and to guarantee our presence with Him in this life, and in the life of the world to come – is both a very personal and a very corporate matter.

Today, we hear a text which assures us that God cares deeply for each one of us, each one of us. No matter how insignificant we may seem to be to society, no matter how worthless we might feel we are, God loves each of us, God cares deeply for each of us, and God seeks to establish with each of us a personal and ongoing relationship.

This last point is well worth saying again: God seeks to establish with each of us a personal and ongoing relationship.

The relationship of which I speak is deeply personal, a matter of a one-on-one, intimate relationship with God.

If we think about that relationship for just a moment, it can easily become an awesome, God-filled moment to realize that each individual, human person is of infinite worth in God’s economy, and that the God who created all that is, the God who sent His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be the offering for our sins, is also a God who wants to be in a close, ongoing relationship with you and me, personally and individually.

The cosmic nature of this relationship is echoed in Jesus’ comments, heard today: “Just so,” He says, “I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

But the corporate nature of our relationship with God is also seen in the first parable we hear this morning: Notice that the body of the sheep is mentioned. The one who’s strayed from the flock is still a member of that flock, just one of the flock of ninety nine.

Just so, we are all members of God’s flock, the body of Christ, the Church. Each one of us, collectively and together, make up that great company of the saints who are those who have been redeemed by Christ, and who have been presented to God the Father as a sweet offering.

So, what’s your worth?

In your own estimation, how much are you worth? (Be honest with yourself!)

How much are you worth, in God’s economy?

Today’s gospel text says you’re worth a whole lot, worth seeking out and going after, a prize that cannot be evaluated for all of its great worth.

That ought to be great, good news, to know that, in God’s eyes, we are worth a whole lot. We are worth the effort to be found by God.

Thanks be to the God who seeks us out, each one of us!

AMEN.

15 Pentecost, Year C

“WHAT TO YOU MAKE OF THIS?”
This homily by Fr. Gene Tucker was given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois, and St. John's, Centralia, Illinois, on Sunday, September 5, 2010.
Proper 18 -- Deuteronomy 30:15–20; Psalm 1; Philemon 1–20; Luke 14:25–33

What do you make of this statement, made by Jesus in our gospel reading for today:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

Jesus surely has a meaning, a message, in mind as He says this, doesn’t He?

He has a meaning for His original listeners, those in the large crowd that were following Him on their way to Jerusalem. He also has a meaning for us.

So, what is the meaning?

Is it a literal meaning?

Or, is it a figurative statement, meant to provoke a soul-searching reaction?

How would you answer those questions
As you ponder that, let me welcome you to the world of hermeneutics.

Hermeneutics is the science of interpretation, especially the interpretation of Holy Scripture.

If you guessed that the word “hermeneutics” comes from the Greek, you’d be right. It is a word that gets used quite a lot in seminaries around the world. But it isn’t a word that has much usage outside the seminary’s walls.

But we all engage in the science of hermeneutics whenever we approach the Bible. Regardless of whether we admit it or not, we all bring tools with us with which to study God’s Word written, the Bible.

Even those Christians who are the most strict in their approach to the Bible, who might tend to understand what it has to say literally (at least most of the time), bring interpretive tools to their work of understanding what the Bible has to say, and what it’s importance and meaning are for us.

I cite such an example of hermeneutical analysis: Jesus says (in Matthew 5: 29ff), “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

Now we don’t see many one-eyed, one-handed Christians walking around.

Why?
Because Christians have applied hermeneutical tools to Jesus’ words. Even those churches whose signboards say they are “Independent, Fundamental” (also possibly they might add, “King James Bible” ) would interpret Jesus’ words about plucking out eyes and cutting off hands figuratively.

They would understand that Jesus is engaging in hyperbole.

Hyperbole, the dictionary says, is “obvious and intentional exaggeration” and “an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally.”

(OK, I can’t resist: The word “hyperbole” also comes from the Greek, where it literally means to “place above”, as in HYPER = above + BOLE = to place/throw.)

So, it seems, Jesus is engaging in hyperbole.

He’s trying to wake up His original audience, which was made up (most likely) of observant Jews. The picture we get from the four gospels is that the Judaism of 2,000 years ago was perfunctory, legalistic, and formal in its relationship with God.

Put another way, the picture the Gospels give us of the Jews of Jesus’ day is that many of them were simply going-through-the-motions.

Jesus seems to be trying to shock them into a new life and a new way to relate to God.

“Count the cost,” is one way of seeing Jesus’ shock-value in action. This point seems clear in the two very short parables that Jesus tells, the one about the guy who builds a tower without counting how much it will cost, and the one about the king who goes to war without enough of an army to prevail in the coming battle.

“What’s first in your life?” is another way of understanding Jesus’ message.

Or, perhaps we ought to rephrase that last comment, and say this: “Who’s first in your life?”

Allow me to make a side trip for a moment: When a person is about to be confirmed, and as I take them through the training process that precedes confirmation, I like to tell them that the Bishop is known for being a “slapper”.

Immediately, the person who’s about to be confirmed asks, “What does that mean, ‘he’s a slapper?’”

I then tell them that the Bishop, after he’s laid hands on you, is going to slap your face.

The instant reaction to that is usually something like, “Does he hit really hard?”

To which I answer, “Well, no. I’ve seen him redden a cheek now and again, but he never leaves a permanent mark.”

By now, you can tell that I’m engaging in a bit of humor with the person, and am also teasing the person, just a little.

But after the kidding and the humor is set aside, I then tell them why the Bishop applies a light touch to the cheek as part of the confirmation process, and the meaning is this: “Being a Christian is tough stuff, and you are hereby warned that the road ahead, as you follow the Lord, will have its share of difficulties and challenges. Fair warning!”

Now we come to the central meaning of Jesus’ harsh statements, heard this morning.

The meaning is clear. We can draw these implications out of Jesus’ teaching, using the hermeneutical tools available to us as we consider Jesus’ three statements about the cost of discipleship:

• Our relationship to God, through Jesus Christ, must come first: This relationship surpasses all other relationships of family and friends. Indeed, the early Church lived this central reality out in practical, literal terms as family members renounced those who had become Christian believers. Down through history, other Christians have applied Jesus’ statement to their lives literally, forsaking all human relationships to enter monasteries and convents. So, for some, Jesus’ instruction was/is taken literally.
  
• Self denial leads to new life: Jesus makes a comment about “bearing one’s cross” to follow Him. What might that mean to us? Perhaps this: bearing a cross means being willing to suffer loss, shame and degradation. It means having a single-minded willingness to follow Jesus, all the way to our own, personal Calvary. But we must remember that Jesus’ road to Calvary is also the very road (the only road) to new and eternal life, for the tomb is empty! Here again, many early Christians saw Jesus’ statement in literal terms, being willing to suffer a martyr’s death (often likened to sharing in Christ’s sufferings), rather than to forsake the Lord.
  
• Be willing to lose everything: Jesus’ last statement has to do with “renouncing all we have” in order to be a disciple. Jesus is obviously referring to our possessions. Here again, as in other times throughout history, many early Christians either walked away from their possessions, or suffered the fate of having their possessions confiscated (Hebrews 10: 34 mentions this reality).

So, Jesus is engaging in hyperbolic, exaggerated speech, speech that is designed to shake us out of our slumber, and out of our habit of going-through-the-motions in our relationship with God.

The plain meaning of Jesus’ words does not disappear, even though the literal meaning may not be the foremost in its importance to us today.

We are called from our haphazard ways of relating to God, into a new and vital way of discipleship with Him through Christ.

We are called to put God first. We are called to follow the way of self denial, which leads to a new way of life. We are called to be willing to put everything else aside in its importance in order to follow Christ.

AMEN.