15 Pentecost, Year A

Proper 21 -- Exodus 17: 1 – 7; Psalm 78: 1 – 4, 12 – 16; Philippians 2: 1 – 13; Matthew 21: 23 – 32

A homily by:   Fr. Gene Tucker

Given at:         Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, September 25, 2011

“BY WHAT AUTHORITY?”

(Homily text:  Matthew 21: 23 – 32)

            “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” the chief priests and the elders ask Jesus in today’s text from Matthew.

            Put another way, their question comes down to this:  “What right to you have to do what you are doing, and where did that right come from?”

            Of course, the chief priests and the elders ask this question because Jesus has become a direct threat to their power, their position, and their authority.

            The reason for this is clear:  before now, Jesus was teaching and performing miracles in other places, place like Galilee.  To those in Jerusalem, Galilee might have seemed a long way away.  But now, Jesus has come to Jerusalem itself, and has driven the moneychangers out of the temple with a whip of cords.  As if that wasn’t enough, He is also teaching in the temple.

            Things are coming to a head as we move toward Good Friday.  A showdown is coming between these religious leaders and Jesus, and today’s exchange is only one of the preliminary skirmishes between these two opposed forces.

            The chief priests and the elders question Jesus’ authority because He has directly challenged their authority.

            But let’s put ourselves in the place of the crowds who had gathered around Jesus to hear His teaching and to see Him heal.  For they, too, must have asked this question to themselves, “Where does this man get this authority, and who gave it to him?”       

            Jesus’ growing popularity shows that many had come to believe in the authority He possessed.  Many had answered the question about His authority and His believability.  After all, the gospel writers make it clear that Jesus taught “with authority”, and not like the scribes.      

            This question has everything to do with a response to Jesus’ teaching, for if Jesus’ teaching does not rest on God’s authority, then there is no reason to believe Him at all.

            But if Jesus’ teaching does rest on God’s authority, then we are compelled to respond to it.  If we respond to Jesus’ teachings, then we must amend our lives to bring them into line wit what He says.

            Is God at work in Jesus Christ, in His teachings, in the miracles, in the way which He lived and died and rose again.

            Can we trust Jesus’ leadership?  Can we see that He has authority from God the Father?

            For an answer to those questions, we should consider the integrated life that Jesus led.

            Jesus leads an integrated life in three ways:

1.      By showing that He has authority from the Father:  Jesus’ miracles show that He has the same creative power as God has.  When He healed a person, He restored them – recreated them – by conquering the destructive powers of disease.  When He calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee, He demonstrates the same power over nature that was evident at the creation of the world.  When He taught, His teaching is consistent with the wisdom of God which had been given ages before.

2.  By living an integrated life:   Jesus’ manner of life matched what He said.  He put into practice in daily living the things He taught.  So the way He lived encourages us to live the same way.

3.  By encouraging others to live the same way He did:  Jesus seeks to bring His disciples into the same lifestyle that He lived.  An example of this can be seen from His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount:  He said, “You have heard it said, ‘You shall do no murder.’  But I say to you that if you hate your brother, you have already committed murder in your heart.”  Jesus seeks integration of the inner life and outer actions.

            By all these measures, the chief priests, the elders, the scribes, and the Pharisees all flunk the test:

-          They lacked the power to heal and to control the forces of nature.  Moreover, their teaching wasn’t consistent with the teaching and the tradition they’d received.  Their teaching was lifeless, formal, and legalistic.

-          They didn’t live out what they taught.  Jesus criticizes them for that disconnect.  He said that they loved their places of honor at banquets, they loved going about in long robes and being greeted in the marketplaces, they made the garments look like they were especially religious and devout people.  But Jesus called them “whited sepulchers”.  Put another way, Jesus said they looked good on the outside, but were full of dead bones on the inside.

 -          Worst of all, they didn’t encourage people to live the way they did.  Jesus said that their teaching laid heavy burdens on others’ shoulders that they themselves didn’t carry.

            Can we trust the Lord to have the same authority today that He claimed 2,000 years ago?

            I believe the answer is “yes”, for these reasons:

-          Jesus’ teachings remain consistent with the truth of God that He received, and which He passes on to us.

-     Jesus continues to heal today, just as He did long ago.  Just this past week, I heard of a situation in which a young person now shows no signs of the precancerous cells that the tests had shown she had.  God is at work!

-          Jesus integrated life stands as a model for all of us.  No one else lived the integrated, sinless life that He led.

-          Jesus’ power recreates the lives of those who believe in Him.  We become new creations, as St. Paul said, the old has passed away.

             So the proof that Jesus continues to have authority from God is seen in His ability to heal, in the record we have in Holy Scripture of His teachings and His perfect, sinless life, and in His power to bring new life into our lives, day by day.

            May God’s Holy Spirit enable us to ask the question, “By what authority do you do these things, Lord Jesus Christ?”  May that same Holy Spirit bring us to know with clarity that the Lord Jesus Christ has all authority from God the Father, even today.

 AMEN.

14 Pentecost, Year A

Proper 20 -- Exodus 16: 2 - 15; Psalm 105: 1 – 6, 37 - 45; Philippians 1: 21 - 30; Matthew 20: 1 - 16

A homily by:   Fr. Gene Tucker

Given at:         Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, September 18, 2011

“FAIRNESS - OR - GENEROSITY?”

(Homily text:  Matthew 20: 1 - 16) 

            “But it’s not fair!”

            Can’t you just hear the reaction of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day as He tells the parable of the laborers in the vineyard?  Perhaps if any of the Pharisees who’d come to test Him earlier (see Matthew 19: 3) were still standing around, they might have reacted with just the sort of statement with which we began:  “But that’s not fair.  It’s not fair to reward those who worked just one hour with the same wage as those who’d worked all day.”

            And the point, of course, is precisely that:  In God’s reckoning of things, it isn’t fair at all.  But, God’s standard of fairness and yours and mine are entirely different things. 

             You see, God tends to be much more generous than we are. 

           For we live in a world which operates on the basis of contracts.  Contracts are everywhere!  We agree to work for such-and-such an hourly rate, with time-and-a-half for overtime, or perhaps double pay for even more overtime.  And if workers aren’t paid on that basis, they often are paid in some other sort of an exchange, such as so much pay for a certain amount of piece work.

           Contracts existed in the spiritual mindset of the Jewish people 2,000 years ago.  For the picture we get from the four Gospel writers is that people back then tried to scrupulously keep all the various commandments of the Law of Moses.  And, the expectation was, if you kept all those, you earned your way into God’s favor.

            We should remind ourselves that that’s the sort of world we live in:  so much reward for a certain amount of work.

            It’s no wonder that people in those ancient times thought that by their efforts alone, they could curry favor with God.

            The early Church wasn’t immune from that sort of thinking.  A British monk named Pelagius, in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, taught the same thing.  Boiled down to its essentials, Pelagius’ teaching maintained that people were capable of earning their own salvation.  We didn’t need God’s grace and generosity to come into favor with God, Pelagius said.  “Pull yourselves up by your own spiritual bootstraps,” is a good way to characterize Pelagianism, which the Church wisely branded as being a heresy.

            But let’s return to Jesus’ parable.

            The point seems to be simply this:  God, our generous and gracious God, showers blessings on people who don’t deserve them at all!

            God showers His blessings on people who respond to His call to come into His service very late in the day, or very late in life.  Answering God’s call, even then, carries with it a reward which is never equal in any way to the length of service rendered.  That is one point that Jesus makes in today’s parable, for sure.

            God showers His blessings on people who weren’t born into His family.  That seems to be another point that Jesus is making in today’s parable, and one that might have meant a lot to the Church that Matthew seems to be addressing, an early Church, located perhaps in modern day Syria, and which was composed of both Jews and Gentiles.  To those who weren’t born Jewish, this parable says, “Never mind.  You have answered God’s call to come into relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.  That’s all that matters.”

             And what does the parable have to say about those who answer the call? 

           I think that’s an important part of the lesson Jesus wants us to get today, and we should make a point of it.

            Notice that Jesus says that the workers who were standing around in the marketplace until the eleventh hour (that’s 5:00 PM), were standing there “idlely”.  They had no purpose.  And the landowner asks them why they are standing around, to which they reply, “Because no one has hired us.” The landowner responds, “You go into the vineyard, too.”

           When God calls us, at whatever time or at whatever point in our lives, that call gives us a purpose we would not have had otherwise.  For, you see, God’s call brings us into line with His plan and His purpose for our lives.  When we respond to that call and go into the vineyard to work for Him, we will find our truest and deepest selves.  When that happens, the talents God has given to each of us will find their highest purpose in serving our generous and gracious God, and in serving others.

            So, to repeat the comment with which we began, we might say, “It’s not fair!”  Yes, from a human point-of-view, we can.  But God is the Lord who acts according to His standard of fairness, and according to His generous and gracious nature.  When we respond to His call to come into a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ, we will find our truest selves and our highest calling.

            May God’s Holy Spirit enable us to look upon God’s generosity and not on our ideas of fairness, for all of us have been blessed by His grace and His favor.

            AMEN.

           

13 Pentecost, Year A

Proper 19 -- Exodus 14: 19 – 31; Psalm 114; Romans 14: 1 – 12; Matthew 18: 21 – 35

A homily by Fr. Gene  Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, September 11, 2011. 

“JUDGMENT AND THINGS ADIAPHOROUS”

(Homily texts:  Romans 14: 1 – 12 and Matthew 18: 21 -35)

            “Adiaphora.”

            I know this is a word that is constantly on your lips and in your thoughts.  Perhaps, right now, as you sit listening to the opening of this homily (or are reading it in hard copy or online), you are saying to yourself, “I wonder if that concern I had this morning is adiaphorous or not.”

           OK, I’m a realist….I know you probably weren’t thinking about the word adiaphora at all, but, no doubt, you’ve concerned yourself with the issue of what falls into this category or not, as you’ve walked the faith walk with our Lord.

             Adiaphora comes to us from the Greek (naturally), where it refers to things that are non-essential.

            So, with this clear understanding of what the word means, let’s venture into the matter of essentials vs. non-essentials in the life of faith, and let’s examine as we do our Lord’s teaching about forgiveness and judgment.

            For today we hear His words, “So my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother (or sister) from your heart.”

            Chilling words, those.

            They were spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ in response to Peter’s question, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?”

            From the wording of Peter’s question, we can tell that his question is posed in direct response, in direct connection to last Sunday’s gospel reading (which immediately precedes today’s), where Jesus teaches His disciples about sinning and forgiving. 

            In that gospel text, (recall with me) Jesus says that, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.”  I can’t resist saying, at this point, that the beginning of Jesus’ teaching here and the wording of Peter’s question show that last week’s and this week’s gospel texts are tied together.

            As Jesus unfolds His teaching last week, we see that He indicates that by going to the offender, one-on-one, you have the opportunity to regain that offender.  If the offender doesn’t listen, then take others with you as witnesses.  Finally, if that doesn’t work, then the matter may be brought to the attention of the Church.

            In last week’s text, Jesus then says that the purpose of bringing the matter to the entire Church is so that the offender may be to the Church as a “Gentile and a tax collector.”  Although one approach to treating someone like a “Gentile and a tax collector” is to shun them, or to kick them out of the Church (excommunication), there is another approach to Gentiles and tax collectors, one that we see in Jesus’ own example:  He sought them out, continually offering them the chance to repent and to come into the fullness of life that He alone offers.

            One key reason for Jesus’ teaching – both last week’s and this – is to foster unity within the Body of Christ (the Church).  Consider what would happen if people harbored grudges and bitterness, one toward the other.  Quickly, the Body of Christ would splinter.  That was precisely a major problem with the Corinthian Church.

            So today Jesus says that we are to forgive our brother (or sister), not seven times, but seventy-times-seven.  Essentially, He is saying that we are to have an endless reservoir of forgiveness available.

            But there’s an aspect to last week’s teaching and this one:  judgment.

            For sin to be detected, there must be a standard against which to judge behaviors.  Implicit in the case of sin is a recognition of what constitutes sin.

             And that brings us to St. Paul’s teaching to the Roman Churches in the middle of the first century.  He admonishes those early Roman Christians by saying, “Why do you pass judgment on your brother?”

            But wait a minute….how can we reconcile the need for judgment (in order to know what is sin and what isn’t), and Paul’s proscription of passing judgment?

             I think the answer lies in the overall shape of Paul’s comments on the matter of judging:  He is pointing to things that are adiaphorous (remember that word?), things like what holy days to observe, what to eat, and what to drink.

            All of these things are adiaphorous, that is to say, they are non-essential part of the Christian faith and life.  They do not affect a person’s spiritual health or the welfare of their souls.  (Practices such as keeping certain holy days or refraining from eating or drinking may act as valuable spiritual aids for some believers.  That is important to acknowledge and affirm.)

            Now, let’s return to the matter of judging others.

           This matter is one of serious concern to the contemporary Church.  How often do I, as a priest, hear people say, “Well, I can’t judge that person,” or “It’s not my place to judge.”

            Sometimes, in this connection, people will quote part of Jesus’ teaching about passing judgment on others by repeating what He said in Matthew 7: 1, which reads, “Judge not, that you be not judged.”

            But what is left out is the second part of Jesus’ teaching, which reads, “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”

            So, taken together, Jesus’ two comments don’t proscribe passing judgment at all.  What they do is to say that, if we judge others, we’d better be aware that we will be judged by the same standard that we apply.

            Put another way, it indicates to us that we’d better be willing to “walk the walk and talk the talk” if we are to assess whether others are doing so, as well.[1]

            Considering all that Jesus had to say about judgment and passing judgment, I think it’s safe to come to the conclusion that we are not barred from making judgments about what is right and what is wrong in God’s eyes, no, not at all.

            For if we refrain from assessing what standards apply to the Body of Christ and its members, then we run the risk of dropping our standards entirely.  When that happens, then, the body ceases to have its core identity, and, like purely secular groups, ceases to have any purpose for existence.

            Even a cursory review of the state of much of the Church today will show that this is an enormous problem.  What is essential to the faith is compromised in the name of “not passing judgment.”  Pretty soon, the Church becomes some sort of amorphous, spiritual blob, lacking in standards, lacking the ability to mirror the holiness and righteousness of Jesus.

            So the key issue here is the matter of determining what is essential and what is not.

            I would be remiss in my duty as a preacher and as a priest if I didn’t offer some sort of indication of what is essential for a Christian to believe in order to be a truly worthy of the name.  Here’s a short list:

·        The Holy Scriptures, which are the word of God, written, and which contain “all things necessary for salvation.”[2]

·        The faith as it is expressed in the Creeds (Nicene, Apostles, Athanasian).

·        The moral teachings as the Church has received them from our forebears in faith.

            These things, I maintain, are essentials.

            Much else that affects our lives as Christians is adiaphora, non-essential.

            So let us be wise in our discernment of what is central to the faith, and maintain that in fidelity to the deposit of faith which was “once for all delivered to the saints” (see Jude 3).  About these things, we are called to judgment and discernment, in order that the faith “once delivered to the saints” is recognizable from one generation to another, maintaining fidelity in beliefs and in moral practices that spring from God’s indication as we have it in Holy Scripture.

            About all else, let us be charitable and let us be loathe to pass judgment on a Christian brother or sister.

AMEN.

---

[1]   Jesus further illustrates this point in His teaching about plucking the log out of one’s own eye in order to be able to see the speck in someone else’s (see Matthew 7: 3 – 5).

[2]   This phrase comes from the vows which are taken when a person is ordained.  See the Book of Common Prayer, 1979, page 526).

12 Pentecost, Year A

Proper 18 -- Ezekiel 33: 7 – 11; Psalm 119: 33 – 40;  Romans 13: 8 – 14; Matthew 18: 15 – 20

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s Church, Centralia, Illinois on Sunday, September 4, 2011.

“LOVE FOR THE INDIVIDUAL, LOVE FOR THE CHURCH”

(Homily texts:  Romans 13: 8 – 14 & Matthew 18: 15 – 20)

            “Owe no one anything except to love one another,” St. Paul said to the Christians who were members of the churches in Rome nearly twenty centuries ago.

            The admonitionHHHHH we hear today follows on a series of short, to-the-point statements that we’ve been hearing on the past two Sundays as we’ve made our way through chapter twelve, and now into chapter thirteen of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans.

            Paul has much to say about the business of “loving our neighbor”.  But what he has to say doesn’t come out of thin air, it comes from the wisdom that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself imparts.

 
            And as we look at our gospel text for this morning, we can easily see that what Jesus has to say about discipline within the Body of Christ, that is, the Church, has much to do with the business of a deep, abiding love and concern for the welfare of the individuals who make up the Church, and for the Church’s welfare, as well.
 
            So let’s explore what Jesus has to say as Matthew has relayed it to us.  We’ll do so in a quite methodical fashion:
 
            1.  The first principle is one of confidentiality:  Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone” (italics mine, of course).  So the principle here is that the matter which has caused strain and stress between two persons is to be resolved privately, between the party who seems to be at fault, and the one who knows about the matter.  Explicitly excluded is any possibility of creating gossip, or of “triangulating” the individual by drawing others into the matter.  Jesus’ instructions make it clear that the source of trouble or disagreement is to be resolved at the smallest level possible, that is to say, involving only those who are immediately concerned with the issue at hand.
 
            2.  Restoration of broken or impaired relationships is the aim of dealing with perceived wrongdoing:  Notice how Jesus puts this aim:  “If he (your brother) listens to you, you have gained your brother.”  Presumably, the person who is the offender would make restitution (if there is harm to another person), and would seek forgiveness from God and from others, as appropriate, once the offender has become aware of the offense.  The object here is to seek amendment of life for the offender and restoration of relationships that have been threatened between the two persons involved.  The welfare of the Body of Christ is protected as well, for divisions within the body are healed before further harm can occur.
 
            3.  Having begun with the smallest number of persons, Jesus now says that, if the initial encounter between the two principle parties has not met with success, then two or three witnesses are to be brought along so as to confirm the evidence against the offender.  Jesus’ principle here comes straight out of Jewish law, where at least two or three witnesses were required to establish the guilt of a person (see Deuteronomy 19: 15).  Hopefully, then, the offender will repent of his sin.  Notice that Jesus has enlarged the circle of those who know about the matter at hand, but only slightly.
 
            4.  If this intermediate step does not solve the problem, then the Church is to be brought into the matter.  We should pause here for just a moment to notice Matthew’s use of the word “Church”.  His is the only gospel account to use this word, which is taken from the Greek (ekklesia).  The Greek word refers to those who have been “called out” (its literal meaning).  Applied to the Body of Christ, this word has come to mean those who have been called out of the world into a new relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  In Matthew’s understanding, it is the entire body which is the final authority to “bind and loose”, that is, to declare what is acceptable and what is not, within the body. 

                       It is also worth noting that, in Matthew’s gospel account, there is no hierarchy of Church leadership which is to make decisions about matters of discipline.  The entire body acts as the authority as Matthew presents Jesus’ teaching to us.  Matthew’s understanding of Jesus’ teaching is that every member of the Church has a role to play in the leadership of the Body of Christ, each one responsible to the Father as the model of Christ is followed.

            What, then, is the aim of this process of Church discipline?

            It seems that there are two aims:

            1.  To protect the Body of Christ from the effects of sin and wrongdoing.

             2.  To restore every individual who goes astray to a wholesome and holy relationship with God and with others.  (Notice that Jesus states this aim quite clearly as the process of seeking amendment of life in the offender begins:  “You have gained your brother,” He says.)

            Sometimes, parts of the Body of Christ (the Church) have focused on the first of the two goals in the disciplinary process, to the exclusion of the second goal.  Some Church groups have practiced “shunning” whereby a person is to be avoided by members of the Church.  Other Churches have formal procedures for “excommunication” from the group.

            But the Church is also called to seek amendment of life among those who seem to have gone astray, and seeking such amendment is to be done on a continuing basis. At least that’s the impression I get from Jesus’ own example.  Noticing that the Lord says that the offender is to be treated like a “Gentile and a tax collector”, we can see (especially with the latter category) that Jesus continually sought out the tax collectors, offering them His love, first of all, and also the opportunity for amendment of life and a wholesome and holy relationship with the Father.

            May the Holy Spirit enable us to lead holy and wholesome lives, may we seek to do no wrong to a neighbor, may we seek to enable others so to live, as well.

AMEN.