Proper 13 -- Genesis 32:22-31; Psalm 17:1–7,16; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:13-21
A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois, on Sunday, July 31, 2011.
“ARE YOU SAVED ?”
(Homily texts: Romans 9: 1 – 5 & 10: 1)
“Are you saved?”
Perhaps we have occupied ourselves with this question at one time or another….Hopefully, we have!
Perhaps we’ve been asked this question by a friend or family member at some point in our lives.
The question has everything to do with our relationship to God.
In essence, it is a question that has to do with our acceptability to God, and our place in God’s plans, not only in this world and in this life, but in the world and the life which is to come.
The question of salvation is at the heart of St. Paul’s anguished comments, heard in our epistle reading for today. He says, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart….” Reading on a bit, we learn that the ones he is concerned about are his own people, the Jews.
And if we skip ahead to Romans 10:1, we find there the reason for Paul’s concerns: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them (the Jews) is that they may be saved.”
Paul’s great concern, the purpose of his four missionary journeys, was to make the saving power of Jesus Christ known to the entire world of the first century.
So, perhaps we can agree that the matter of “being saved” is central to an assessment of our relationship to God. It’s one of the main reasons why the Church itself exists in the first place: to bring people into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. (I must add, however, that bringing people to the point of making a profession of faith in Jesus’ saving power isn’t the only reason why the Church exists.)
If we can agree that the business of “saving” people is basic to all that we do, then what does the process of “being saved” look like?
Is a person saved once, at a specific time, date and place?
Or is there an ongoing nature to the business of being saved?
With these questions in mind, let’s explore the business of “being saved”.
We can begin by affirming what Christians generally hold to be truths concerning the saving process:
• God’s grace is necessary for a person to be convinced of the need for being saved in the first place. The Holy Spirit prepares the heart and mind for this step. Indeed, most Christians would say that, absent the Holy Spirit’s workings, we are unable on our own to turn to God and ask for His saving grace to come into our lives.
• The saving act of Jesus Christ, whose shed blood on the cross atones for sin, makes it possible for us to be justified in the sight of God. Essentially (and in line with Old Testament views of the atoning sacrifices of that era), it works like this: When God sees us as redeemed persons, He sees Christ’s righteousness, instead of our sinfulness. Christ’s blood atones (the Hebrew word for atones means to “cover over”) for our sins.
• Christ does the work of redeeming, saving us, and we accept His free gift by faith, becoming new creations in the process (see II Corinthians 5: 17)
Now, let’s look more closely at two common views of the salvation process.
We will begin with the views of evangelical, born-again Christians, for – oftentimes – it is they who focus most on this question of being saved:
Some Christians firmly believe that being saved is a one-time event that happens at some point in a person’s life. Often, these Christians are more firmly convinced that a person is saved if they can identify a specific time, date and occasion when a prayer of conversion was offered to God. Furthermore, such Christians often dismiss declarations of faith which are made at a very early age (before what is known as the “age of discretion”).
Though it is risky to broadly describe the views of Christians who insist that a declaration of faith is essential for a person to be saved, nonetheless, there is some validity in assessing their view of being saved as being a one-time, historical event. They may say something like, “I was saved on such-and-such a date at _____ church.”
Christians who focus on a “born again” experience firmly connect the salvation experience with future rewards in heaven with God.
So it seems fair to say that, among evangelical, born-again Christians, the focus is on the event of being saved itself primarily, and on the promises of God, which will be fulfilled in heaven, secondarily.
Being “saved” is seen as a done-deal, an historical event.
But are there other views of the saving process that Christians affirm?
The answer is “Yes”, there are.
Many Christians affirm a threefold process of salvation, viewing the process as one of:
• Justification: Having accepted Christ’s atoning sacrifice for sin, the new Christian is justified in the sight of God. The process can begin at baptism, which is normally followed by a mature expression of faith (the rite of Confirmation by a Bishop). Or, it can occur as a conversion experience which takes place after the age of discretion. This the aspect of being saved is the beginning point, an historical event (or realization).
• Sanctification: This is the process of being transformed into the image and likeness of Christ. For most Christians, this is a life-long process, which is marked by positive steps forward, but also by failings, as well. The Holy Spirit’s presence and guidance is mandatory for this process to unfold. The Church’s role, too, is critical, for the Church becomes a sort-of “spiritual laboratory” where we see God at work in each other’s lives, a process that enables us to see God at work in our own lives in similar ways.
• Glorification: When this life is done, then it is time to accept God’s promises for His children. It is then that we can claim God’s assurances, made in Christ, that where He (Jesus Christ) is, there we will be, as well.
This three-fold, lifelong process of salvation is framed quite well by the Roman Catholic apologist James Akin, who describes it this way:
“I have been saved, I am being saved, and I shall be saved.”
We cannot come into the Lord’s family as Christians if we do not engage the question “Am I saved?”, for this question is the beginning point of our new life in Christ.
We begin with our need to admit our own unworthiness before God, we accept Christ’s work of salvation, and we are saved.
Then, the work of salvation continues as we are shaped and molded into the Lord’s image, one day at a time.
Finally, we will enter into God’s promises, made in Christ Jesus, and we will see Him face-to-face, and not as a stranger.
Thanks be to God for His saving power and mercies!
AMEN.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
6 Pentecost, Year A
Proper 12 -- Genesis 29:15-28; Psalm 105:1-11; Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31–33,44-52
A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois, on Sunday, July 24, 2011.
“RECIPROCAL, INSEPARABLE LOVE”
(Homily texts: Romans 8: 26 – 39 & Matthew 13: 31 – 33, 44 - 52)
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
These words are some of the most powerful that St. Paul ever wrote. They are part of one of the most powerful set of verses that ever came from his mind.
As we look at our epistle reading from Romans chapter eight, this morning, we see that Paul goes on to name a whole series of absolutely awful possibilities that might try to separate us from the love of Christ. He names them thusly, saying, “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” Shall these things separate from the love of Christ?
Then, he appends another list of things that might try to separate us from Christ’s love a few verses further down, adding these to the list: “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Distilling Paul’s second list down a bit, we might say that nothing at all will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing! Nothing at all!
With Paul’s convictions in mind, let’s consider the business of our relationship to God, through Christ Jesus. Specifically, let’s look at:
• What it means to be in a relationship with God the Father, through God the Son,
• How can we understand the hardships that come our way, in light of our relationship with God.
Let’s begin, then with the matter of our relationship with God, through Christ.
As a way of understanding that relationship, we can use – as an illustration – our human relationships.
When one person seeks to establish a deep and lasting relationship with another, usually some sort of love is offered (this could be any of the sorts of love that the Greek language provides for love: Eros: romantic love; Phileo: brotherly/sisterly love; Agape: self-giving love). The person to whom this love is offered can reject it entirely, or can accept it. Only when the person loved accepts the love offered is the relationship established.
So, we can deduce that, for a love relationship to be established, it must be offered, must be accepted, and must be returned.
(I think that I am generally right in my assessment of how a loving relationship works.)
Now, it is entirely possible for an individual to love another, but for the other person to refuse to accept or return the love offered. It is also possible for two persons to enter into a loving relationship, only to have one partner reject the love and the relationship later on. In such cases, the relationship either ceases to exist, or becomes impaired.
Now, let’s apply this understanding to our relationship to God, through Christ:
1. Love offered: God the Father loves us, and proves His love for us in the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ, to come among us as one of us (truly God and truly human). The supreme expression of God’s love is seen most clearly in Jesus’ death on the cross.
2. Love accepted: We come to accept God’s love in Christ through faith. It is this sort of faith that the Lord describes in today’s gospel reading. He says that, if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, then our relationship with God will blossom and grow into maturity (see Matthew 13: 31 – 33). Believing that what Jesus did for us through His death and resurrection, we accept God’s love, and become children of God in the process. Baptism is the portal through which we come to enter into a covenant relationship with God. The relationship of love offered and love accepted is established, and we are “marked as Christ’s own for ever.”
3. Love returned: As we go through life, from the day of our baptism forward, we return God’s love by coming to know more and more about the Lord, and by showing forth in our lives, by the things we do and the ways we live, that we are God’s people, inheritors of God’s promises made in Jesus Christ. Most clearly, we demonstrate this love when the hardships of life come along. Here, we look again at St. Paul’s “short list” of possible hardships – hardships that the early Christians of his day faced – that might come our way.
This relationship of love cannot be dissolved. We are “marked as Christ’s own for ever”, as our baptismal service says (see the Book of Common Prayer, page 308).
God’s people down through time have recognized that God is a covenant-making God. That is to say, God enters into binding agreements with His people. (Some of these covenants are unconditional, while others are conditional.)
An example from the Old Testament period would be the covenant that God made with the people at Mt. Sinai, as the Ten Commandments are given. God, in this case, enters into a covenant with the ancient Israelites, offering them His love, His blessings, and His abiding presence. In this covenant, God tells the people that they can choose to return His love and be faithful to Him, or they can reject His ways and His commandments. They are free to choose either path. (So the covenant which was established at Sinai is a conditional covenant.)
Alas, God’s people in those ancient times often chose to ignore Him. They chose to follow after the pagan deities of the Canaanites in the land where they had come to live. In choosing to disobey, they brought curses upon themselves, instead of blessings.
Eventually, those ancient Israelites came to understand that the hardships that came along with their disobedience amounted to nothing less than God’s testing of them, to see if they would be faithful or not.
The hardships that Paul enumerates for us today, are ours to endure, as well.
Yes, it is true that some items on the list that Paul provides for us are less likely to be the ones that we will face in the 21st century.
But an abiding truth is that life’s hardships often amount to a test, a test to see if we will be faithful to God, living life as faithful, covenantal Christians, in a pagan world which is often indifferent to the love of God, offered in Christ.
If hardships are a certainty, then how do we get the grain of faith that is as small as a mustard seed that Jesus talks about? I think one way we can get that sort of faith is by looking back over our shoulders into our own life’s history to see those times when God’s guiding and stead hand was present. We often see His working most clearly during times when hardships and challenges appear.
Can you see such times in your own life in the light of God’s continuing, abiding presence?
I surely can!
Knowing that God was present in those times makes it possible to face the future, yes even its hardships, with the knowledge that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Thanks be to God!
AMEN.
A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois, on Sunday, July 24, 2011.
“RECIPROCAL, INSEPARABLE LOVE”
(Homily texts: Romans 8: 26 – 39 & Matthew 13: 31 – 33, 44 - 52)
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
These words are some of the most powerful that St. Paul ever wrote. They are part of one of the most powerful set of verses that ever came from his mind.
As we look at our epistle reading from Romans chapter eight, this morning, we see that Paul goes on to name a whole series of absolutely awful possibilities that might try to separate us from the love of Christ. He names them thusly, saying, “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” Shall these things separate from the love of Christ?
Then, he appends another list of things that might try to separate us from Christ’s love a few verses further down, adding these to the list: “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Distilling Paul’s second list down a bit, we might say that nothing at all will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing! Nothing at all!
With Paul’s convictions in mind, let’s consider the business of our relationship to God, through Christ Jesus. Specifically, let’s look at:
• What it means to be in a relationship with God the Father, through God the Son,
• How can we understand the hardships that come our way, in light of our relationship with God.
Let’s begin, then with the matter of our relationship with God, through Christ.
As a way of understanding that relationship, we can use – as an illustration – our human relationships.
When one person seeks to establish a deep and lasting relationship with another, usually some sort of love is offered (this could be any of the sorts of love that the Greek language provides for love: Eros: romantic love; Phileo: brotherly/sisterly love; Agape: self-giving love). The person to whom this love is offered can reject it entirely, or can accept it. Only when the person loved accepts the love offered is the relationship established.
So, we can deduce that, for a love relationship to be established, it must be offered, must be accepted, and must be returned.
(I think that I am generally right in my assessment of how a loving relationship works.)
Now, it is entirely possible for an individual to love another, but for the other person to refuse to accept or return the love offered. It is also possible for two persons to enter into a loving relationship, only to have one partner reject the love and the relationship later on. In such cases, the relationship either ceases to exist, or becomes impaired.
Now, let’s apply this understanding to our relationship to God, through Christ:
1. Love offered: God the Father loves us, and proves His love for us in the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ, to come among us as one of us (truly God and truly human). The supreme expression of God’s love is seen most clearly in Jesus’ death on the cross.
2. Love accepted: We come to accept God’s love in Christ through faith. It is this sort of faith that the Lord describes in today’s gospel reading. He says that, if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, then our relationship with God will blossom and grow into maturity (see Matthew 13: 31 – 33). Believing that what Jesus did for us through His death and resurrection, we accept God’s love, and become children of God in the process. Baptism is the portal through which we come to enter into a covenant relationship with God. The relationship of love offered and love accepted is established, and we are “marked as Christ’s own for ever.”
3. Love returned: As we go through life, from the day of our baptism forward, we return God’s love by coming to know more and more about the Lord, and by showing forth in our lives, by the things we do and the ways we live, that we are God’s people, inheritors of God’s promises made in Jesus Christ. Most clearly, we demonstrate this love when the hardships of life come along. Here, we look again at St. Paul’s “short list” of possible hardships – hardships that the early Christians of his day faced – that might come our way.
This relationship of love cannot be dissolved. We are “marked as Christ’s own for ever”, as our baptismal service says (see the Book of Common Prayer, page 308).
God’s people down through time have recognized that God is a covenant-making God. That is to say, God enters into binding agreements with His people. (Some of these covenants are unconditional, while others are conditional.)
An example from the Old Testament period would be the covenant that God made with the people at Mt. Sinai, as the Ten Commandments are given. God, in this case, enters into a covenant with the ancient Israelites, offering them His love, His blessings, and His abiding presence. In this covenant, God tells the people that they can choose to return His love and be faithful to Him, or they can reject His ways and His commandments. They are free to choose either path. (So the covenant which was established at Sinai is a conditional covenant.)
Alas, God’s people in those ancient times often chose to ignore Him. They chose to follow after the pagan deities of the Canaanites in the land where they had come to live. In choosing to disobey, they brought curses upon themselves, instead of blessings.
Eventually, those ancient Israelites came to understand that the hardships that came along with their disobedience amounted to nothing less than God’s testing of them, to see if they would be faithful or not.
The hardships that Paul enumerates for us today, are ours to endure, as well.
Yes, it is true that some items on the list that Paul provides for us are less likely to be the ones that we will face in the 21st century.
But an abiding truth is that life’s hardships often amount to a test, a test to see if we will be faithful to God, living life as faithful, covenantal Christians, in a pagan world which is often indifferent to the love of God, offered in Christ.
If hardships are a certainty, then how do we get the grain of faith that is as small as a mustard seed that Jesus talks about? I think one way we can get that sort of faith is by looking back over our shoulders into our own life’s history to see those times when God’s guiding and stead hand was present. We often see His working most clearly during times when hardships and challenges appear.
Can you see such times in your own life in the light of God’s continuing, abiding presence?
I surely can!
Knowing that God was present in those times makes it possible to face the future, yes even its hardships, with the knowledge that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Thanks be to God!
AMEN.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
5 Pentecost, Year A
Proper 11 -- Genesis 28:10-19; Psalm 139:1–11,22-23; Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:24–30,36-39
A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois, on Sunday, July 17, 2011
“RECEIVING A GIFT, TO GIVE A GIFT”
(Homily text: Matthew 13: 24 – 30, 36 - 43)
Are you a gift to others, to the world?
I’ll admit, this isn’t an idea that we probably give much thought to in our day-to-day lives, though there are circumstances that might prompt us to think of ourselves in just this way.
For example, if another person is very ill, we might help them or support them in some way or another, and maybe we might reflect on what we’ve done and realize that our actions are a gift, given in love and with care, to that other person.
The Church is a gift.
The Church is God’s gift to the world, meant to bear fruit in the world, for God’s glory and for the welfare of the world.
Now hold that thought for a moment, while we consider the setting for this statement.
Jesus is telling us today the second of two parables that have to do with sowing seeds and reaping a harvest. The first one we heard last Sunday, the very familiar “Parable of the Sower”. In that parable, Jesus tells about the various things that happen when seed is sown on rocky ground, on thorny ground, on hardened ground, and on good ground.
You’ll remember that last week’s parable had an explicit, clear explanation of its meaning, provided by the Lord Himself. The same is true of today’s parable, which is usually entitled “The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares”.
So these two parables have lots in common: agricultural themes having to do with sowing seeds, and a clear explanation, provided by Jesus, following the telling of the parable.
Today’s parable provides a clear picture of the circumstances in which the “sons of the kingdom” find themselves, in a world which is hostile to the will of God. Jesus likens the situation to that of a weed-infested field, in which the roots of the weeds and intertwined with the roots of the desirable plants.
With this background in mind, then, let’s look at some of the main points which are made by Jesus in this parable, and then let’s draw some conclusions from our observations.
The Church: In the parable, the landowner deliberately chooses, and then casts, the good seed onto the field, which Jesus says, is the world. If the good seed is the “sons of the kingdom” then, we might surmise that Jesus could be referring to the Church. After all, Matthew is the only gospel writer to actually record the world “Church”. Remember that the Church isn’t an institution, but the assembly of God’s people.
Here, we ought to pause for a moment. It might be easy for us to think that the Church is brought together by the free will of the people who are in it. Put another way, we might say that the Church is “our” doing, brought into being by the choice of those in it. But the image here is something else which is entirely different: It is the landowner who chooses the good seed, the “sons of the kingdom”. So then, the Church comes into being because of the will of the Son of Man (Jesus), and we (the seeds) are deliberately chosen to be in it.
Jesus will amplify this point as He speaks to His disciples in John 15: 16, when He says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit and that your fruit should abide…”
The world: Without the presence of the good seed on the land, the field would simply be worthless. Weeds would abound, and there would be no good purpose to the field at all.
The presence of the good seed gives value and worth to the field.
So the good seed (the members of the kingdom, that is, the Church) is meant to be a blessing, to bring worth, to the field (the world).
In this sense then, the Church’s members are meant to be a gift, a blessing, to the world.
Opposition: Jesus is a realist….He knows that the sons and daughters of the kingdom are in an environment in which there is opposition to their presence. Jesus identifies this opposition as being the work of the “evil one”, an “enemy”, the “devil”.
As we look back into the Old Testament, and go to Genesis, chapter three, we see that this has always been so throughout history. There, in the Garden which was in Eden, the serpent had access to Adam and Eve, and the access that the serpent had allowed him to tempt them both into eating from the forbidden tree.
So evil has always been a part of the world in which we find ourselves. We can expect opposition from the forces which are opposed to God. We can expect this opposition to endure until the end of the age, at which time the landowner will come and pluck out everything that is opposed to God and to His will for the world.
Living with the bad seed: The Lord delivers an important lesson for the Church in this parable: We will have to live among the presence and the opposition from the seeds of the wicked one.
This realization will cut across our desires to live in a world where evil has been taken away. The Lord makes clear that the sorting out will come, but not until God is ready to do the sorting.
To do the sorting ourselves risks the possibility that the good seed will be uprooted along with the bad, and the blessings that the good seed’s presence brings will be lost.
So then, let’s draw some conclusions from our observations.
First of all, we would do well to remember that it is God who calls us to become citizens of His kingdom. “You did not choose me, but I chose you,” we read a moment ago. So, the gathering of the citizens of the kingdom is the gathering of God’s people, the Church. The Church itself is God’s possession and is meant to be God’s gift to the world. We are blessed if we have been chosen by God to be a part of His family.
Secondly, since we have received a gift from God to be a part of His body, then we are meant as recipients of that gift to be a gift to others, bringing purpose to the world and life to it. We can only be a blessing and a gift if we are physically present in the field (the world).
Then third, we ought to remember that, as we live our lives day in and day out, there will be opposition to God’s purposes. But God has placed us in this environment to bring worth to what would otherwise be worthless, and God will reap the harvest in His own good time. The harvest is guaranteed!
May we be a blessing and a gift to others, just as we have received God’s blessings and God’s gifts, that we might go and bear fruit for the kingdom.
AMEN.
A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois, on Sunday, July 17, 2011
“RECEIVING A GIFT, TO GIVE A GIFT”
(Homily text: Matthew 13: 24 – 30, 36 - 43)
Are you a gift to others, to the world?
I’ll admit, this isn’t an idea that we probably give much thought to in our day-to-day lives, though there are circumstances that might prompt us to think of ourselves in just this way.
For example, if another person is very ill, we might help them or support them in some way or another, and maybe we might reflect on what we’ve done and realize that our actions are a gift, given in love and with care, to that other person.
The Church is a gift.
The Church is God’s gift to the world, meant to bear fruit in the world, for God’s glory and for the welfare of the world.
Now hold that thought for a moment, while we consider the setting for this statement.
Jesus is telling us today the second of two parables that have to do with sowing seeds and reaping a harvest. The first one we heard last Sunday, the very familiar “Parable of the Sower”. In that parable, Jesus tells about the various things that happen when seed is sown on rocky ground, on thorny ground, on hardened ground, and on good ground.
You’ll remember that last week’s parable had an explicit, clear explanation of its meaning, provided by the Lord Himself. The same is true of today’s parable, which is usually entitled “The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares”.
So these two parables have lots in common: agricultural themes having to do with sowing seeds, and a clear explanation, provided by Jesus, following the telling of the parable.
Today’s parable provides a clear picture of the circumstances in which the “sons of the kingdom” find themselves, in a world which is hostile to the will of God. Jesus likens the situation to that of a weed-infested field, in which the roots of the weeds and intertwined with the roots of the desirable plants.
With this background in mind, then, let’s look at some of the main points which are made by Jesus in this parable, and then let’s draw some conclusions from our observations.
The Church: In the parable, the landowner deliberately chooses, and then casts, the good seed onto the field, which Jesus says, is the world. If the good seed is the “sons of the kingdom” then, we might surmise that Jesus could be referring to the Church. After all, Matthew is the only gospel writer to actually record the world “Church”. Remember that the Church isn’t an institution, but the assembly of God’s people.
Here, we ought to pause for a moment. It might be easy for us to think that the Church is brought together by the free will of the people who are in it. Put another way, we might say that the Church is “our” doing, brought into being by the choice of those in it. But the image here is something else which is entirely different: It is the landowner who chooses the good seed, the “sons of the kingdom”. So then, the Church comes into being because of the will of the Son of Man (Jesus), and we (the seeds) are deliberately chosen to be in it.
Jesus will amplify this point as He speaks to His disciples in John 15: 16, when He says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit and that your fruit should abide…”
The world: Without the presence of the good seed on the land, the field would simply be worthless. Weeds would abound, and there would be no good purpose to the field at all.
The presence of the good seed gives value and worth to the field.
So the good seed (the members of the kingdom, that is, the Church) is meant to be a blessing, to bring worth, to the field (the world).
In this sense then, the Church’s members are meant to be a gift, a blessing, to the world.
Opposition: Jesus is a realist….He knows that the sons and daughters of the kingdom are in an environment in which there is opposition to their presence. Jesus identifies this opposition as being the work of the “evil one”, an “enemy”, the “devil”.
As we look back into the Old Testament, and go to Genesis, chapter three, we see that this has always been so throughout history. There, in the Garden which was in Eden, the serpent had access to Adam and Eve, and the access that the serpent had allowed him to tempt them both into eating from the forbidden tree.
So evil has always been a part of the world in which we find ourselves. We can expect opposition from the forces which are opposed to God. We can expect this opposition to endure until the end of the age, at which time the landowner will come and pluck out everything that is opposed to God and to His will for the world.
Living with the bad seed: The Lord delivers an important lesson for the Church in this parable: We will have to live among the presence and the opposition from the seeds of the wicked one.
This realization will cut across our desires to live in a world where evil has been taken away. The Lord makes clear that the sorting out will come, but not until God is ready to do the sorting.
To do the sorting ourselves risks the possibility that the good seed will be uprooted along with the bad, and the blessings that the good seed’s presence brings will be lost.
So then, let’s draw some conclusions from our observations.
First of all, we would do well to remember that it is God who calls us to become citizens of His kingdom. “You did not choose me, but I chose you,” we read a moment ago. So, the gathering of the citizens of the kingdom is the gathering of God’s people, the Church. The Church itself is God’s possession and is meant to be God’s gift to the world. We are blessed if we have been chosen by God to be a part of His family.
Secondly, since we have received a gift from God to be a part of His body, then we are meant as recipients of that gift to be a gift to others, bringing purpose to the world and life to it. We can only be a blessing and a gift if we are physically present in the field (the world).
Then third, we ought to remember that, as we live our lives day in and day out, there will be opposition to God’s purposes. But God has placed us in this environment to bring worth to what would otherwise be worthless, and God will reap the harvest in His own good time. The harvest is guaranteed!
May we be a blessing and a gift to others, just as we have received God’s blessings and God’s gifts, that we might go and bear fruit for the kingdom.
AMEN.
Sunday, July 03, 2011
3 Pentecost, Year A
Proper 8: Genesis 24:34-49; Psalm 45:11-18; Romans 7:15-25; Matthew 11:16-30
A homily by: Fr. Gene Tucker
Given at: Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, July, 3, 2011
“PAUL’S LAMENT”
(Homily text: Romans 7: 15 - 25)
Back in seventh grade, all of us in a shop class made small hammers. We started with a six inch length of mild steel, which was one inch square. We had to first cut the shape of the back of the hammer in a slope with a hacksaw. Then, we had to use a file to round off the corners and to get the desired shape of the hitting edge. Following that, we had to drill holes so that the handle could be fitted. The next step was to temper the steel to make it hard, so that it would not deform when used. We put the finished product into the furnace, heated it up until it was red hot, took tongs and pulled it out so that we could put the hot metal into a cooling vat. As it chilled rapidly, it got hard. (We may have repeated that process over again, I can’t remember.) Once that process was done, the remaining tasks consisted of putting a finish on the metal and then fitting the handle into the head.
It was a good project for us to do. I don’t think my work was of the same quality as some of the others, but nonetheless, I was pleased with what I’d accomplished. In the process, I learned a lot about handling steel, and about tempering it so that it would form a good and useful tool. (Alas, I do not know what became of the hammer.)
As we look at St. Paul’s writing that is before us today, from the seventh chapter of his letter to the Romans, the image that comes to mind is of a man who is keenly aware that the shaping and tempering that God has been doing with him is far from complete, and it is far from being high quality work.
Notice that Paul laments the fact that he knows what characteristics and qualities he ought to have, in order to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and to be an effective tool for spreading the Good News (the Gospel).
He says this: “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.” (Verse 21)
A little earlier on, he had said this: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me.” (Verse 18).
Paul is aware of his faults and shortcomings.
So the two, good and evil, are both to be found in Paul’s character and in his thinking.
Paul, like all of us, is a mixture of the awareness of the standards to which God calls us, and an inclination to do just the opposite of what we know we ought to do, and all at the same time.
So, if we might return to the image with which we started, that of a hammer which is a fitting and fine tool in God’s hands, we might say that Paul knows that he fails the test when it comes to the critical work to which God has called him. The shaping process which began with Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus (see Acts, chapter nine, for this account) has, thus far, failed to produce a well rounded messenger of the Gospel…there is still much work to do.
And the tempering process which Paul has been undergoing as he gained the knowledge of God that would be necessary to be an effective witness to Jesus’ resurrection, and the hardships which he had faced along the way, had, thus far, failed to drive out the soft spots in his character which were the openings that sin needed in order to invade his thinking.
Paul is keenly aware of the poor quality that he presents to the Lord as a follower of Christ and a tool to be used by God.
Well, if there’s hope for Paul, there is hope for us all!
As painful as it probably was to Paul, personally, the realization that Paul presents to us today should provide us with a measure of comfort and assurance.
For when we admit that we fall short of God’s standard of righteousness, when we disclose to God and to others that sin always seems to lurk, close at hand, then we are laying the groundwork for God to enter into this troubled situation and redeem it.
It is precisely because of Paul’s openness about his own spiritual condition that he can come to the conclusion that praise and thanks are due entirely and solely to God. Paul puts it this way: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Verse 25)
For, you see, the process of shaping our lives and the spiritual tempering that is necessary as we live out our lives, day by day, is essentially God’s work to carry out. But we must allow God to carry out that work and that process within us. We can easily say “No” to God, and not allow Him to do that work.
However, Paul’s example, before us today, provides us with the example of openness which is always the beginning of the process.
May we imitate Paul by openly admitting our shortcomings and faults, that God may shape us and fit us for His service in the world, in this life, and in the life of the world to come.
AMEN.
A homily by: Fr. Gene Tucker
Given at: Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, July, 3, 2011
“PAUL’S LAMENT”
(Homily text: Romans 7: 15 - 25)
Back in seventh grade, all of us in a shop class made small hammers. We started with a six inch length of mild steel, which was one inch square. We had to first cut the shape of the back of the hammer in a slope with a hacksaw. Then, we had to use a file to round off the corners and to get the desired shape of the hitting edge. Following that, we had to drill holes so that the handle could be fitted. The next step was to temper the steel to make it hard, so that it would not deform when used. We put the finished product into the furnace, heated it up until it was red hot, took tongs and pulled it out so that we could put the hot metal into a cooling vat. As it chilled rapidly, it got hard. (We may have repeated that process over again, I can’t remember.) Once that process was done, the remaining tasks consisted of putting a finish on the metal and then fitting the handle into the head.
It was a good project for us to do. I don’t think my work was of the same quality as some of the others, but nonetheless, I was pleased with what I’d accomplished. In the process, I learned a lot about handling steel, and about tempering it so that it would form a good and useful tool. (Alas, I do not know what became of the hammer.)
As we look at St. Paul’s writing that is before us today, from the seventh chapter of his letter to the Romans, the image that comes to mind is of a man who is keenly aware that the shaping and tempering that God has been doing with him is far from complete, and it is far from being high quality work.
Notice that Paul laments the fact that he knows what characteristics and qualities he ought to have, in order to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and to be an effective tool for spreading the Good News (the Gospel).
He says this: “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.” (Verse 21)
A little earlier on, he had said this: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me.” (Verse 18).
Paul is aware of his faults and shortcomings.
So the two, good and evil, are both to be found in Paul’s character and in his thinking.
Paul, like all of us, is a mixture of the awareness of the standards to which God calls us, and an inclination to do just the opposite of what we know we ought to do, and all at the same time.
So, if we might return to the image with which we started, that of a hammer which is a fitting and fine tool in God’s hands, we might say that Paul knows that he fails the test when it comes to the critical work to which God has called him. The shaping process which began with Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus (see Acts, chapter nine, for this account) has, thus far, failed to produce a well rounded messenger of the Gospel…there is still much work to do.
And the tempering process which Paul has been undergoing as he gained the knowledge of God that would be necessary to be an effective witness to Jesus’ resurrection, and the hardships which he had faced along the way, had, thus far, failed to drive out the soft spots in his character which were the openings that sin needed in order to invade his thinking.
Paul is keenly aware of the poor quality that he presents to the Lord as a follower of Christ and a tool to be used by God.
Well, if there’s hope for Paul, there is hope for us all!
As painful as it probably was to Paul, personally, the realization that Paul presents to us today should provide us with a measure of comfort and assurance.
For when we admit that we fall short of God’s standard of righteousness, when we disclose to God and to others that sin always seems to lurk, close at hand, then we are laying the groundwork for God to enter into this troubled situation and redeem it.
It is precisely because of Paul’s openness about his own spiritual condition that he can come to the conclusion that praise and thanks are due entirely and solely to God. Paul puts it this way: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Verse 25)
For, you see, the process of shaping our lives and the spiritual tempering that is necessary as we live out our lives, day by day, is essentially God’s work to carry out. But we must allow God to carry out that work and that process within us. We can easily say “No” to God, and not allow Him to do that work.
However, Paul’s example, before us today, provides us with the example of openness which is always the beginning of the process.
May we imitate Paul by openly admitting our shortcomings and faults, that God may shape us and fit us for His service in the world, in this life, and in the life of the world to come.
AMEN.
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