The Eve of the Nativity, Year A

Isaiah 9: 2 – 7; Psalm 96; Titus 2: 11 – 14; Luke 2: 1 – 20
A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2010.

“HUMBLE AND QUIET BEGINNINGS”
(Homily text: Luke 2: 1 – 20)

Perhaps it might be good for us to reflect on the ways in which God works, as we consider the very familiar passage we have before us tonight from Luke’s gospel account.

No doubt, many of us could recite from memory (maybe even in the King James Version) Luke’s account of Joseph and Mary’s trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, his being wrapped in swaddling cloths, and the manger. We could also fit into our recitation the account of the shepherds in the fields, and the angelic host which said, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men.”

As I have said on more than one occasion, sometimes I think that the pages of Holy Scripture tend to “flatten out” when we read them. Especially that might be true with a very familiar text that we hear again and again, such as Luke’s text tonight. The fact that the persons in the account were real people, people like us with hopes, dreams, problems, troubles, and challenges, often tends to get lost in our understanding of the meaning of the text. Put another way, the text often tends to lose its real, human dimension.

So, as the theme for this homily, allow some reflection on the ways that God works with people, allowing people who have been chosen by Him to be the agents of His will.

By reflecting on the people who are in tonight’s account, we can gain some insight into the ways God works, and we might learn something about the nature of God, as well.

We begin with Joseph.

We know from Holy Scripture that Joseph was a carpenter. It was a trade which his son would also take up as time went along. I think we’re safe in assuming that Joseph probably ran a small, family business, working with wood. What is certain is that Joseph worked with his hands. I believe we can be relatively sure that Joseph was not a member of the upper classes of society. Indeed, in the social strata of the time, he was probably closer to the lower end of things, than the upper end.

Of Mary’s stature, we know little from the pages of Scripture, though I think we can assume that she was of a similar station to Joseph. Usually, one did not marry too far outside one’s own social station in ancient times.

The community in which they lived, Nazareth, was apparently not well regarded. Recall with me Nathanael’s words to Philip, on learning that Jesus is from Nazareth, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1: 46).

So, despite the fact that Luke tells us that Joseph is “of the house and lineage of David”, Joseph is probably either a member of the lower class, or perhaps the lower end of the middle class, and he lives in a place that seems to be a little bit like “the other side of the tracks”.

Now, we turn to the matter of the shepherds in the field.

Most of us probably have an idyllic image of shepherds. Maybe the famous painting of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, carrying a sheep around His shoulders, influences our thinking. But the truth is that shepherds in biblical times weren’t well regarded. They were definitely of the lower and less desirable classes of people.

But it was through Joseph and Mary, who came from that less-than-desirable place Nazareth, and through the witness of the less-than-desirable shepherds, that God worked His will in bringing Jesus Christ into the world.

Hmmmm……

Why did God choose to work this way, through people who were of little or no account, at least in worldly terms?

Could this tell us something about God’s very nature itself?

I believe so.

Here, I offer some personal reflection (or maybe even a confession): Oftentimes, as I consider the problems and situations we face in the world today, and as I contemplate the challenges that are part of being a Christian in the year 2010, I often find myself wanting God to do something. Perhaps I ought to clarify: I want God to do something big!

My thoughts could be summed up in the following phrases:

“Come in and solve our problems, please,” is how I often find myself wanting to pray.

“Do it all for us, please.”

“Usher in a golden age for the world, and for your Church.”

“Solve the seemingly unsolvable problems, won’t you?”

Does any of this sound like your desires, as well? Maybe so.

I will admit to you that my hopes are often shaped this way, as I express them to God.

But what does the Christmas story tell us about God?

Just this:

1. God works with ordinary, fully human people to carry out His will. Joseph, Mary and the shepherds in the fields are all good examples of this truth.
2. More often than not, the beginnings of God’s great plans have humble beginnings that go unnoticed at first. Surely, the coming of Jesus Christ had humble beginnings (He was born in an animal barn), and His arrival was marked by very few people (Joseph, Mary, those who attended Mary at the birth, the shepherds, and perhaps a few others). Yet the great plan of God’s salvation began in just this quiet and humble way.

So, in closing, I offer some ideas for your own reflection, as God’s plan of salvation unfolds in your own lives, and in mine.

1. In what ways is God quietly working to bring us more and more into the image of God?
2. What humble beginnings can be found in our hearts and minds, in which God has begun a new thing?
3. How has God used people, ordinary people, to be agents of His will for our lives, as we interact with them.
4. How have we, as servants of Christ, been agents of God’s working in others’ lives?

May God bless our reflection, as we receive His only Son, Jesus Christ, into our hearts anew in this holy season. AMEN.

4 Advent, Year A

Isaiah 7: 10 – 16
Psalm 80: 1 – 7, 16 – 18
Romans 1: 1 – 7
Matthew 1: 18 – 25

A homily by: Fr. Gene Tucker
Given at: Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, December 19, 2010

“HARDSHIP, BEWILDERMENT, AND JOY”
(Homily text: Matthew 1: 18 – 25)

Hardship, bewilderment, and joy.

Each of these three realities are present in today’s gospel text, our very familiar reading from Matthew, chapter one.

Now perhaps many, if not most, of you, can recite the basics of this text from memory. Though it’s not as familiar a text that we hear at Christmas time as is the passage from Luke, chapter two (where we hear about the shepherds in the field, the angelic hosts saying “Glory to God in the highest”, and so forth), this text is still quite familiar to most of us. We can recall, for example, that it is here that we hear about way God informed Joseph about the events that were to take place via a dream. Indeed, if Luke’s focus in telling us about the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth is on Mary’s role, then Matthew’s focus is squarely on the work God had to do in getting Joseph ready for Jesus’ arrival.

So, let’s look at this very familiar passage from the perspective of: hardship, bewilderment, and joy, for all these of these realities are present in the text before us today.

Before we consider these three aspects of our reading, we should begin by noting an important aspect of the cultural situation that Mary and Joseph found themselves in.

We begin with the matter of pregnancy and betrothal. In the culture of Judaism 2,000 years ago, a couple who were bound for marriage first became betrothed to one another. In our terms today, we’d say they were engaged. This was a formal, legal arrangement, which could be broken only by undertaking a divorce. However formal the arrangement was, in contrast to our contemporary practices today, it did not permit consummation of the partnership, however. We’ll have more to say about this subsequently.

Now, we turn to the three aspects before us today:

Hardship: When Jesus’ arrived in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, the world was a harsh and foreboding place. There was no scarcity of hardship, especially for God’s people living in the Holy Land.

For one thing, there was the matter of the Roman occupation of the Promised Land. Brutal, oppressive and harsh, the Roman overlords exacted a high price for their presence among the Jews in blood, economic slavery and high taxes. Partly in response, God’s people reacted by asserting their uniquely God-given role as His people, putting a high priority on the strict observance of the Law of Moses, the place and priority of the construction of the Temple (which was ongoing by the time of Jesus’ birth for about 20 years or so), and on maintaining Jewish identity by erecting walls of separation between Jew and Gentile in matters of social custom and other transactions.

For another, it seemed as though God’s voice had grown silent. The last of the prophets had long ceased to be, and their voice, which had cried out in years past, “The word of the Lord came to me, saying,” was not to be heard in the land. Moreover, God was seen to be so remote and so unapproachable that it had become the custom not to be able to even utter the Sacred Name at all.

In short, times were tough, life was short and filled with hardship, and God seemed to be distantly removed from the struggles of everyday life.

And what of Joseph and Mary? Their predicament is even harsher, for they live in a small hamlet in Galilee known as Nazareth. Most likely, everyone knew them, and knew their circumstances. But Mary is pregnant, and most everyone would have known that no marriage had yet taken place between the two. Abiding by the demands of the Mosaic law meant death by stoning for Mary. This reality is in the background of Joseph’s consideration of what to do about this situation. Obviously, he cares for and loves Mary, and wishes to divorce her quietly, thus ending the relationship, and sparing Mary the awful consequences that her situation would normally bring with it. There is no shortage of hardship where Joseph and Mary are concerned. They have hardships in abundance!

Bewilderment: Into this very bleak landscape, breaking in as the first ray of sunshine on a golden morning, is the voice of God, delivered to Joseph via an angel in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

What now?

Perhaps Joseph might have wondered a couple of things at this point. (I will admit I am conjecturing here, for Matthew does not tell us what Joseph’s reaction was beyond his willingness to obey the voice of the angel who had appeared to him in a dream.) Perhaps Joseph might have wondered, first of all, just how it could be that a woman could become pregnant without a man to assist in the process. Joseph and Mary lived in a very traditional, honor-and-shame culture, a culture in which the procreation of children was reserved for marriage alone. That culture had what we would call “zero-tolerance” for any deviation from that expectation.

For another, perhaps Joseph wondered just who the Holy Spirit could be. God’s people had long had an understanding about the spirit of God, the one who had been present at the creation of the world (see Genesis 1: 1), but God’s spirit was regarded as being something that went forth from the presence of God. Their understanding was far different from our Christian understanding of the nature of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity. So, it seems possible that Joseph might have wondered about the identity of the Holy Spirit. Again, we are speculating, though it seems normal to suspect that Joseph might have had some of these thoughts. Nonetheless, that same creative ability that the spirit of God demonstrated at the beginning of creation is again present within Mary, for the angel says, “….that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”

Joy!: But the news of Jesus’ arrival must have been an occasion for joy, as well.

Initially, it might have been an occasion of deep joy, mixed with hardship and bewilderment, for Mary and Joseph alone. Then, perhaps close family members and friends were also told about the dream Joseph had had, and perhaps Mary had related the visit of the Archangel Gabriel, too.

For hardships lay ahead: An arduous trip on the back of a donkey from Nazareth, in the north of the Holy Land, to Bethlehem, in the south, and this when Mary was nearly full term in her pregnancy. Then there was the plot to kill Jesus by King Herod, and the subsequent flight into Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath. And all the while, there were the suspicions of their neighbors back in Nazareth to reckon with.

But the central message of the announcement of Jesus’ birth is this: God had not forgotten His people, God’s voice was to be silent no longer!

The ancient prophecies were coming true, as Matthew takes great pains to confirm for us, time and again, in his gospel account. Matthew wants us to understand that God’s timeless plan was unfolding, that what God had promised centuries earlier was being put into reality, in the person of Jesus, the one who had come to save God’s people from their sins. (Jesus’ name in Hebrew (Yesh’ua) means “God saves”.)

And so, all three realities are present together, side-by-side, in Mary and Joseph’s lives, as God’s plan to save His people come to being through their agency.

All three realities: hardship, bewilderment and joy, are also present in our own lives today.

The world is still, for most of us, a dark, foreboding and difficult place, filled with more than its share of disappointment, loss and challenges.

Moreover, as we read the sacred pages of Holy Scripture, we might, as Joseph might have done, scratch our heads in bewilderment, asking ourselves, “How can these things be?”

And yet, we have cause for joy, tremendous, lasting, deep-down joy, for we know the entire account of Jesus’ life, His suffering, death and resurrection, and His eventual coming again in power and great glory. We know, as Mary and Joseph didn’t know at this point in their lives, the “rest of the story”, its power to save, its power to change lives, and its power to bring hope into hopeless situations.

And so, in this season of Advent, how are all of these three realities present in your life and mine? How do we experience hardship? How do we see bewilderment as we struggle to understand the mysteries of God? How do we find occasions of joy in what God has done in Jesus Christ, and continues to do?

For all these things, thanks be to God!

AMEN.

3 Advent, Year A

Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 146:4-9; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2–11
A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, December 12, 2010.

“THE FRUITS OF IDENTITY”
(Homily text: Matthew 11: 2 – 11)

What a difference a week makes!

Last week, we heard John the Baptist say this about the Messiah: “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

This week, we hear John’s question, posed to Jesus through some of his own disciples. They come, asking the Lord, “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

The progression in John’s relationship with Jesus doesn’t seem to make much sense.

The first statement\ (which was made at the time of Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan River) seems to show that John is quite sure of Jesus’ identity. As the scene unfolds following this statement, John seems to be aware of Jesus’ identity (at least in part), for John says to Jesus that “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

But the second statement, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” seems to indicate a desire for confirmation of Jesus’ identity, or perhaps even doubt on John’s part.

At first glance, John’s question is unsettling.

Upon further reflection, however, we can take a good lesson from John’s inquiry, making his quest to know exactly who Jesus is our quest, as well.

In due course, we will consider that quest.

However, we should take a closer look at the nature of Jesus’ response to John’s disciples.

Notice, first of all, that He does not give a direct answer. Oftentimes in the gospel accounts, we find that Jesus makes indirect answers, answers that often ask the questioner to do some work.

Here, as well, is an answer that requires the other party to do some work.

Jesus says, in response, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”

A side note is in order here: Jesus’ statement is a summary of the miracles He has been performing in chapters eight and nine of Matthew’s gospel account.

What do all of these acts which are mentioned by Jesus have in common? Two answers pop into my mind:

1. They all operate on a personal level;

2. They all restore a person’s ability to come into God’s presence.

To expand on the two points made above, we should reflect on what we’ve just said.

As to the matter of the personal level of each of Jesus’ actions, we note that each of the miracles involve Jesus and one person. Even where two persons are healed (as in the healing of the two blind men in Matthew 9: 27 – 31), the interaction is still, essentially, one-on-one, Jesus and one other person. This point will be important to us in our consideration of the importance of today’s text to us.

Furthermore, each of the acts Jesus mentions removes an impediment to being able to worship God in the Temple. Recall with me that the Law of Moses (the Torah) made it impossible for a person with a skin disease, who was lame, or blind, or deaf, to enter the Temple. Jesus restores the individual’s place among God’s people, in essence. In addition, in biblical times, many regarded a person who was poor as being one whom God had abandoned for some reason or another (often, the assumption was that a person was poor because of some gross sin in their lives). (I guess it goes without saying that a dead person was also excluded.) So all of these are restored to an ongoing relationship with God.

Now, we return to the matter of our consideration of the importance of today’s text for us, as we live out the Christian life today.

First of all, notice the difference in John’s two statements. The first statement, the one about the Messiah being the one who will “clear his threshing floor,” seems like a large-scale description of the workings of the Messiah. No doubt many in Jesus’ day expected the Messiah to come in with a grandiose arrival (perhaps riding into Jerusalem on a white horse, his sword raised in triumph), a monumental plan of action, and a forceful demonstration of power. Perhaps many expected a new “golden age” of national prominence such as had existed a thousand years earlier under King David and King Solomon’s reigns. But notice the nature of the second one, the question which asks, “Are you the one?” This statement seeks clarity and confirmation. It may, as we noted above, have been motivated by some doubt.

But perhaps John’s question, asked later on, was prompted by the nature of Jesus’ ministry, a ministry that was unfolding in small, often unnoticed acts, a ministry that spread the kingdom of heaven one person at a time. Though Jesus’ popularity grew as His ministry progressed, and though there were, at times, large crowds who followed Him (we think of the feeding of the 5,000 as an example), for the most part, there is no great and grand scheme (by worldly standards) present in Jesus’ ministry.

Earlier in this homily, we made a remark about John’s quest to ascertain exactly who Jesus is. John’s quest serves as a model for us, for we are also called to be certain of Jesus’ identity. “Are you really the one?” we should ask.

How might we come to know that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ ?

We will come to know Jesus as Lord through the evidence of His working in our lives, and in the lives of others. We will come to know Him through the witness of Holy Scripture. As we compare the witness we find there with the witness of a changed life, we come to know that Jesus is the one who has come. There is no need to look for another.

Jesus comes, offering wholeness of being, which is the bottom line of the miracles He recounts to John’s disciples in our text today.

Restoration of a relationship with God is made possible through Jesus’ acts. The impediments which make a relationship with God possible are removed. Put into our contemporary context, we might say that oftentimes, it is hardness of heart, indifference, and sin that require the Lord’s healing today.

And where will we find the evidence of the Lord’s working? The answer is: In our lives, as God works individually with each one. For it is there that the mission field is to be found.

The kingdom of heaven is built, one person at a time. The kingdom comes slowly, sometimes imperceptibly. It can be seen in the changes which sometimes occur only over a considerable length of time.

But God’s working within us and through us bears an unmistakable stamp of divine power at work. Sometimes we see God’s power as individuals are freed from addictions that they themselves are powerless to conquer. Sometimes it is seen in miraculous healings which go beyond our human powers to achieve. (In this regard, I think of the miraculous healing of a priest whose eyesight was deteriorating, and whose circumstances no medical power could address, but who was healed through the laying-on-of-hands and prayer.) Oftentimes, it is seen in the uniquely divine qualities that shine through a person who has come to know that the answer to the question, “Are you the one?” is “Yes, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God”.

May we continue our personal quest to ascertain with certainty that Jesus Christ is the “one who has come” to save us, and to restore us to right relationship with God.

AMEN.

2 Advent, Year A

Isaiah 11: 1 – 10
Psalm 72: 1 – 7. 18 – 19
Romans 15: 4 – 13
Matthew 3: 1 – 12

A homily by: Fr. Gene Tucker

Given at: Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, December 5, 2010

“JUST WHERE IS THE HOLY-OF-HOLIES?”

(Homily text: Matthew 3: 1 – 12)

Just where is the Holy-of-Holies, anyway?

I speak, of course, of the most holy place, a place where God can dwell.

To the Jews of 2,000 years ago, those who had come out to the Jordan River to hear John the Baptist preach his message of repentance, and to enter into the waters of baptism in the river, their answer would have been, “In the Temple in Jerusalem, that’s where the Holy-of-Holies is.”

Indeed, they were right.

That most sacred of places, the Holy-of-Holies, was located at the heart of the most sacred of places, the Temple Mount itself. The very presence of God was understood to be present in the Holy-of-Holies, even as the entire complex was seen by the people of 2,000 years ago to be God’s dwelling place. Its imposing size (even today, if you go to Jerusalem and see the mount itself, the massive platform that survived the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, the size and height of the mount is deeply impressive) signified that God was present with His people.

So, by its imposing presence, God seemed to be near, near to His Chosen People.

And yet, God was hidden, hidden behind the veil that separated the Holy-of-Holies from the lesser areas surrounding it. Only the priest was able to enter into the Holy-of-Holies, and then only infrequently.

For all of God’s nearness, seen in the physical presence of the Temple complex, God’s presence in people’s daily lives seemed remote. Or at least that’s the image we get from the New Testament.

We may be sure that the Jews of ancient days did all of the prescribed sacrifices, went to the Temple, having ritually cleansed themselves beforehand, and sought to apply all of the hundreds of rules and regulations that the Law of Moses required to every aspect of living. Rabbis of that time debated the ways in which that sacred Law was to be applied to daily life. Intense scrutiny was applied to each and every action. Leading this sort of minute examination were the Pharisees, who appear in today’s Gospel text, coming (we may suppose) to observe what John was doing there in the wilderness in the River Jordan.

“This is the way we draw near to God,’ they may have thought.

And yet, the picture drawn for us by Holy Scripture is one of nearness to God in the formal, rigid, legalistic sense, and yet God was removed, far removed from people’s hearts. As evidence of the godless condition of many in John’s day, we may point to the plot to murder Jesus which was hatched by the leadership of the Temple. That action was led by the “holy men” of Jesus’ day, who, outwardly at least, were righteous and holy in every respect. Yet inwardly, they were capable of crafting an evil plot to rid themselves of that pesky preacher from Galilee.

And so John the Baptist’s voice rings out, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near!”

Now, at first hearing, perhaps some in John’s audience might have said to themselves, “Why do I need to enter into the water to receive a baptism for the repentance of sins? I’ve already washed myself in preparation for my visit to the Temple, just the other day.”

We don’t know for sure, but perhaps some who might have thought that way needed a short course in repentance.

If so, then what might a short course in repentance look like?

It might look like this:

• The Temple which God seeks to occupy is located in the human heart: In the truest sense, it is not, cannot be, a physical building, no matter how imposing and glorious it might be.

• God cannot take up residence in a sinful place.

• The human heart, which is the Holy-of-Holies which God seeks to occupy, must be cleansed of all impurities, and it must be wholly dedicated to the sacred purpose of being God’s throne room, even as the Holy-of-Holies which was located at the top of Mount Zion in Jerusalem was cleansed of all impurities, and was set apart (consecrated) for sacred use.

Hence the need for repentance.

By confessing our sins, and by allowing God to wash them away in the waters of baptism, we allow God to do the cleansing and the consecrating. Both actions are necessary in order for God to become resident in our hearts.

By now, you’ve probably guessed that repentance is a key Advent theme. We hear it in our Collect for the Day today, as we ask the holy and merciful God to “give us grace to heed their (the prophets) warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer….”

The Collect sets before us the purpose of our repentance, for in addition to creating the cleansed and dedicated conditions that are necessary for God to take up residence within, these actions also prepare us to receive God’s only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as He comes anew to us at the great Feast of the Incarnation (Christmas).

For the Lord seeks to relate to us in an intimate, ongoing, face-to-face relationship. To have such a relationship is to experience the relationship that Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden before their disobedience removed them from God’s presence. Such a restoration of intimacy is possible only through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, whose death on the cross makes possible the peace with God that He alone offers. We accept His sacrifice on our behalf, claiming its benefits even as we deplore and confess our sins.

Then, God comes to take up residence in a cleansed, renewed, and sacred space, our hearts.

AMEN.