4 Epiphany, Year B

Deuteronomy 18: 15 - 20; Psalm 111; I Corinthians 8: 1 - 13; Mark 1: 21 - 28

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, January 29, 2012.

"POWER PERCEIVED, POWER DEMONSTRATED”
(Homily text:  Mark 1: 21 - 28) 

            Back in my high school years, our school had a first-rate Varsity football team.  For a number of years in a row, that team – under the leadership of a feisty coach (who was also the wrestling coach) – won our division championships.  Many times our games were shutouts, and the scores weren’t even close.

            Since I was always in the band, I attended all the home games, and many of the away games, too.

            But then one of our neighboring communities’ team began to rise in the standings.  Games with them got to be much more of a contest.  As we watched their tactics, it became clear that they had one player who was simply huge, and strong.  Their game plan seemed to be to simply manage to give this guy the ball, and let him steamroll his way forward, sometimes dragging half a dozen players with him.

            To those of us who were on the sidelines, we could perceive what the game plan was before many of the players could.  From our perspective, we could see the power that this guy had, and then we could see a demonstration of that power.

            Much the same sort of thing is happening in today’s gospel reading, from chapter one of Mark’s gospel account….there is a perception of power, and then a demonstration of that power.

            Let’s remember the scene….

            Jesus has entered the synagogue in the small town of Capernahum[1].  And as Jesus enters the synagogue, the worshipers there perceive that His teaching isn’t like that of the scribes, who were the religious experts of that day.  No, His teaching has a power that they could perceive, an authority that they hadn’t heard before.

            But then, Jesus’ power is demonstrated as a demon-possessed man cries out, “What had you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”

            The speaker knows something that the onlookers in the synagogue that day didn’t know.  The speaker has a perspective that they didn’t have:  that speaker knew Jesus’ identity.   That speaker knew Jesus’ power over evil.

            It’s worth noting at this point that we have the same perceptive powers that the demon who is speaking had…we know Jesus’ true identity and the extent of His power.  We know things about Jesus, looking back twenty centuries, that those who were present in the synagogue that day didn’t know.  (This is called “the reader’s perspective”.)

            And so the victory over the powers of evil and death are demonstrated.  It is the first public demonstration of that victory, as the demons are cast out of the possessed man. 

            And the victory will continue throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry.  The victory will take place when people’s lives are changed, when the sick are healing, when the demon-possessed are freed, when Jesus conquers that final enemy, death, and rises victorious from the grave on Easter Sunday morning.

            So, from all of this evidence, we can see that Jesus’ power was God’s gift, meant to roll back the forces of evil, and to allow us to be on the winning side of the struggle between good and evil, between God and the forces that would separate from that same God.

            We can claim that power for our very own.  That same power, seen in the incident that took place in Capernahum, is available to you and to me.  It is ours for the asking.

            For when we ask the Lord to make His power available to us, lives begin to change.

            Take the example of St. Paul the Apostle, whose conversion we remembered this past week.[2]

            If ever God’s power to change lives was evident in a single human being, then Paul’s conversion experience on the road to Damascus qualifies as Exhibit A.

            Here is a man whose singular determination to destroy the Christian faith was overcome by God’s power to change his direction, and to harness his passion and determination for good, and not for evil.

            “Saul[3], Saul, why are you persecuting me?” the voice from heaven asks.  “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asks in reply.

            “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting….” the voice replies.

            And so Saul’s life changed completely.  His former life – in which he was an accomplice to murder[4] – was turned toward a life which was devoted from that time forward into a life dedicated to restoring people to an intimate relationship with God through Christ.

            And, oh yes, it’s worth saying that that same power that Jesus had over disease and every sort of malady was evident in Paul’s ministry, as well.  Paul used the power of God to heal the sick, and to cast out the forces of evil from those who were caught in its grip.

            So you and I are called to be on the winning side, to fall in behind Jesus Christ, whose power we can sense, and whose power we can see, evident in changed lives today.

            Sensing Jesus’ power and seeing it in action gives us proof that Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, meaning “God with us.”

AMEN.

---

[1]   You can visit Capernahum today and see the ruins of the fourth century synagogue, which was built over the site of an earlier one, the one that Jesus would have known.  In one place, the archeologists have dug down a foot or so to expose part of the floor of the building that Jesus would have known…makes you feel as though you are right there with him on that Sabbath day

[2]   The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle takes place every year on January 25^th.

[3]   Saul’s name changed later on to Paul.

[4]   Acts 7: 58 names Saul as being present at the stoning of the first martyr, the deacon Stephen.

3 Epiphany, Year B

Jonah 3: 1 – 5, 10
Psalm 62: 6 - 14
I Corinthians 7: 29 - 31
Mark 1: 14 - 20

 A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, January 22, 2012.

“GOD’S CALL TO US IN CHRIST”

(Homily text:  Mark 1: 14 - 20)

             (Introductory remark:  This homily is a reflection on the text of the hymn “Jesus Calls Us, O’er the Tumult”.  This hymn is based on the parallel account to today’s gospel reading from Mark 1: 14 - 20 of Jesus’ call to Andrew, Peter, James and John as we read it in Matthew 4: 18 – 22.  There, Jesus calls these disciples, saying to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”)

            Verse one:       Jesus calls us, o’er the tumult

                                    Of our life’s wild, restless sea;

                                    Day by day his sweet voice soundeth,
                                    Saying, “Christian, follow me.”

            Reflection:  The image of the phrase “life’s wild, restless sea” is reminiscent of the account of Jesus’ walking on the water.  Remember that as Jesus made His way toward the disciples who were in the boat on the Sea of Galilee (see Matthew 14: 22 – 33), the water was beaten by the wind.  As Peter recognized Jesus, he called out, saying, “Lord if it is you, bid me come to you on the water.  At the Lord’s bidding, Peter got out of the boat and walked over the surface of the water.  He walked over the surface, that is, until he stopped looking at Jesus, and saw the wind and the waves.  He began to sink.

            Jesus calls us, saying to us, “Get out of the boat.”  Take the chance, like Peter, that once we leave the safety of the boat of life, we will overcome the restless and wild sea of that life, but only so long as we keep our eyes on the Lord.

            But we may be tempted to ask, “When did the Lord call us?”  The answer, of course, is in our baptisms…when we passed through the waters, being buried with Christ in a death like His (as St. Paul says in Romans 6: 3 – 9), and being raised to new life in a resurrection like His, we become new creatures in Christ.

            However, that first call isn’t the end of the calling…notice that verse one of our hymn says, “Day by day His sweet voice soundeth.”  There is the reality, that the Lord’s voice asks us to “Get out of the boat” and take the risk of following Him, day by day.

            Verse two:       As of old th’apostles heard it
                                    By the Galilean lake,
                                    Turned from home and toil and kindred,
                                    Leaving all for Jesus’ sake.

            Reflection:  Jesus’ call to “Follow me,” meant that the lives of Andrew and Peter, James and John, changed.  All of them were fishermen, engaged in what were most likely family businesses.  So Jesus’ call to them did mean leaving home, family and familiar surroundings.

            Jesus’ call thus became the most important reality in their lives from that day forward.

            In some cases, Jesus’ call means leaving everything behind in order to follow Him.  We can see this in the cases of missionaries who go to far away places to spread the Good News of the kingdom of God.  In other cases, men and women enter monasteries or convents to follow the Lord’s call.

            But for most of us, the choice to follow the Lord may not be so clearly seen, for most of us won’t sever our ties to family or location in order to live the Christian life.

            For us who make this latter choice, what changes is the nature of our relationships to loved ones and to familiar careers….Now, our choice to follow Jesus means that our ongoing relationships take on a different hue, for they are now colored by our allegiance to Jesus Christ, which becomes first in our lives.

            Verse three:     Jesus calls us from the worship
                                    Of the vain world’s golden store,
                                    From each idol that would keep us,
                                    Saying, “Christian, love me more!”

            Reflection:  Verse three follows naturally upon what we’ve said about our ongoing relationships with family, loved ones and careers.  In such cases, contact with those we love and with familiar surroundings means that the attractiveness that these relationships might have had before coming to Christ are still able to exercise their pull over us.

            When a person leaves home, family, career and location to follow the Lord into some sort of a ministry, eventually the contacts and the attraction of those persons and things begins to fade in their importance to us.

            Not so in the case of most of us who don’t sever our ties in such dramatic ways.  Things we used to care about still invite us to restore them to their former prominence in our lives. 

            That road is a much harder one to walk, it seems to me.  It takes diligence to be aware of the “pull” of these former things, and a daily renewal of our vow to make the Lord first in our lives.  After all, anything that takes the first place that the Lord ought to have qualifies as an idol.

            Verse four:      In our joys and in our sorrows,
                                    Days of toil and hours of ease,
                                    Still he calls, in cares and pleasures,
                                    “Christian, love me more than these!”

            Reflection:  The “business” of life (or perhaps I should say the “busyness”) often threatens to engulf us.  There’s always so much to do, so much to be accomplished, so many demands on our time and attention.  This says nothing about the distractions that the contemporary world offers…we are a distracted culture, enamored by more toys and gadgets than any other in human history.  (A wonderful book entitled “Amusing Ourselves to Death” makes this point clearly and forcefully.)

            Immersed as we are in a culture that seeks, above all, to be entertained (yes, even many church services today are geared toward entertaining its members, using secular tools from the entertainment world as means to advance what is wrongly perceived to be worship), it is difficult not to allow the waters of the culture in which we sail to seep into the ship of faith.  For there is always some water in the bilges of that ship, water that, if left unattended to, will destabilize the ship of faith.  So Jesus’call to “Love me more than these,” is a call to see that destabilizing presence, and to get the pumps in motion to pump these distractions out of our ship of faith.

            Verse five:       Jesus calls us!  By thy mercies,
                                    Savior, may we hear thy call,
                                    Give our hearts to thine obedience,
                                    Serve and love thee best of all!

           Reflection:  Just as each verse of the hymn renews Jesus’ call, asking us to hear His voice, again and again, so now this last verse seeks Jesus’ mercies to enable us to hear His voice.

            Without God’s power, a power which comes to us and is within us even before we can act or respond, we are unable to turn to God in Christ.  This is true of our baptisms….we cannot respond to God’s love without that grace of God which comes into our hearts in the first place, a grace which allows us to respond.

            But as we said near the beginning of this reflection, God’s grace and presence also allows us to respond again and again to that call of Christ which comes, day by day, year by year.  The call comes, again and again.

            And when we respond, we come into an intimate and loving embrace, and into that sort of obedience which arises out of love, not because of threats, nor out of compulsion, but out of love.

            Thanks be to God!

AMEN.

2 Ephiphany, Year B

I Samuel 3: 1 - 20;  Psalm 139: 1 – 5, 12 - 17; I Corinthians 6: 12 – 20; John 1: 43 - 51

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, January 15, 2012.

“MARKERS OF GOD’S PRESENCE IN JESUS CHRIST”

           We are working our way through the season of Epiphany.  Epiphany is a word which comes to us from the Greek, meaning “appearing”.  So a key theme of this season of the Church’s year is a consideration of the ways in which Jesus appears to us, becomes known to us.  Put another way, we could say that we ask ourselves, “What are the markers that tell us that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God?”

           Set that question aside for just a moment, and allow me to make an excursis into the meaning of Epiphany.  This Feast in the Church Year (and the season which follows it) also carries another title, which is “The Manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentiles”.  During this season, we begin by celebrating (on the Feast of Epiphany itself, that is, January 6th) the visit of the Magi to the young Jesus, when they presented gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to him.  These were the first Gentiles to recognize Jesus for who He is, the promised One.  Then, last Sunday, we heard the account of Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan by John the baptizer.  On that occasion, as Jesus came up out of the water, the Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove, and a voice was heard, saying, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:4 –11)

           So, to summarize what we’ve just said, we could say this:

• On the Feast of Epiphany, we mark the first occasion of the coming of Gentiles to Christ.
• On the First Sunday after the Epiphany, we see evidence that God is at work in the person of Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit descends, and the voice is heard, saying, “You are my Son….”  Here we have evidence of the fullness of the Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

           Now, let’s return to the text before us today, and notice how the distinctive attributes of God are present in the encounter between Jesus and Nathanael….

            When Jesus greets Nathanael, He says, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

            Here is evidence of divine omniscience….God’s power to know all things.  Jesus possesses this power, to see and to know things that human beings’ limited powers cannot see and cannot know.

            God is at work in the person of Jesus Christ.

            This divine quality will be seen throughout John’s gospel account….time and again, Jesus will see and will know things that ordinary human beings cannot know.

            Ah….this is a “marker” that tells us that God is at work here.

            And, in case Nathanael (and Philip) wondered how Jesus could possibly have seen Nathanael under that fig tree, Jesus confirms that God’s power is at work here by His comment (verse 51), which says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” (John 1: 51).

            What could Jesus’ statement possibly mean?

            The answer lies in the Book of Genesis, chapter 28, in the account of Jacob’s dream at Bethel…There, Jacob lies down and dreams that there is a ladder between earth and heaven, and the angels of God ascend and descend on it (Genesis 28:12).  Notice that Jesus uses the same language as we read in Genesis.  Nathanael and Philip would (most likely) have made the connection.

            Then Jacob says this, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” (Genesis 28:16)

            So the meaning of Jesus’ comment seems clear:  Jesus is telling us that the Lord is present in the person of Jesus Himself, and that He will be the connection between earth and heaven.

            These conclusions seem quite safe to make, I think.

            Well, what application might we make to our own lives in the 21st century from the encounter between Jesus and Nathanael?  What lesson is there for us in this incident?

            Perhaps this:  Jesus Christ remains the One whose divine wisdom and divine insight continue to enlighten us.  When we come into an intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ, God’s free gift which we receive by faith, we become sons and daughters of God, and heirs of God’s promises, made in Jesus Christ.

            (That is the heart of the Christian faith!)

            Once that relationship is established, we then are guided by God’s wisdom, God’s ability to see into the future, and to know things that we mere human beings cannot know.

            If we allow God’s guiding to be the foundational principle of our lives, then His will will be done in our lives, and His will will be done on earth through our actions (as the Lord’s Prayer says).

            Allow me to make a personal observation as I close:  As I reflect on my own life experience, I can see times when I have followed God’s will, oftentimes not knowing exactly how each step in my life would unfold.  When God’s will was followed, things turned out much better than if I’d followed my own will and my own desires.

            Alas, the opposite is also true in my own life’s experiences…there have been times when I didn’t follow God’s will, and the result was either disastrous or less-than-good.

            So the lesson to be gleaned here is that we are called to take time to listen for God’s voice and God’s leading…..that may mean that we will have to take time away from our own deliberations and our own desires to wait until God’s leading is clear.

            We can trust God’s leading us, as we continue to follow Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

            Thanks be to the God whose wisdom surpasses our own, and whose will for us brings about more than we can desire or ask for.

AMEN.

Year B, The Baptism of Our Lord

Genesis 1: 1 - 5; Psalm 29; Acts 19: 1 - 7; Mark 1: 4 - 11

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, January 8, 2012.

“SIGNPOSTS”

(Homily texts:  Acts 19: 1 – 7 & Mark 1: 4 - 11) 

            “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people for the forgiveness of their sins.” (Luke 1:76 – 77)

            Those were the words of Zechariah as he looked at his young son, John (who would later be known as “the baptizer”) on the occasion of John’s circumcision and naming.

            John the baptizer was a signpost, pointing to the one who would come, that is, Jesus.

            Zechariah’s words capture that sense as he said, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways….) (italics mine, of course).

            As we read all four gospel accounts, we see clearly that John understood himself to be the forerunner, the one who prepared the way for the Lord Jesus Christ.  Here, today, we hear Mark’s account of John’s self-assessment:  “After me comes one who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.  I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1: 7 – 8)

            John points the way to Jesus.  Like a good signpost, John lets us know the direction we must go to find the Lord, and to know what to look for when we have arrived at that destination.

            Each morning, I read  Zechariah’s words when I pray the Daily Office, that is, Morning Prayer (found at the very front of the Book of Common Prayer….I commend praying the Daily Office to you…plan to make a New Year’s resolution to pick up this wonderful habit of praying Morning and/or Evening Prayer daily…your life will be the richer for it!).  The words sink into my heart:  “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways….”

            Every time I read those words, I think they apply to me just as much as they applied to John the baptizer nearly 2,000 years ago.

            These words apply to every one of us, for we are all called, each and every one of us, to prepare the way for the Lord, to point others to Jesus Christ.

            How might we do that, exactly?

            For a possible answer to that question, allow me to use as an illustration the signs that we use in everyday life.

            The first observation would be that signs are extremely important….ever think about just how lost a person could be without signs?  We wouldn’t know for sure, for example, if we were on the right road, or if we were in the right town (unless we knew the area quite well for some reason).

            The second observation is this:  signs are important, but only when they point to some other reality.  Maybe that statement doesn’t make sense at first reading, so allow an explanation to clarify the statement….For example, the sign at the edge of town that says “Mt. Vernon” isn’t all that important.  What’s important is that, once you’ve reached that sign, you know that you’ve reached your destination.

            The third observation is that signs must be factually accurate.  It wouldn’t do to have a sign which read, “20 miles to Mt. Vernon” when the truth is that, from where we are currently, it is really 200 miles to Mt. Vernon.

            Now, let’s apply these observations to our life in Christ.

            Our first observation was that signs are extremely important.  But do we ever think of our lives as signs which point to God, or away from Him?  That thought ought to make us sit up and think, and to reflect on our lifestyle.  We might reflect on the things we say, the things we do, and the way we regard others.

            To reflect on all of these aspects of our daily lives is to go beyond simply being a “nice guy”, one who has mastered all the social skills that one might learn from taking the Dale Carnegie Course. 

            The issue is much deeper than the superficial social interactions of daily life.  The heart of the matter is how we love one another in the Lord, especially when the challenges and hardships of life might prompt us to pull into ourselves and let others cope with the burdens that come their way.

            Looking back into history, we read that outsiders looked at the early Church and said, “See how these Christians love one another.”  There is no higher praise than that.  That sort of self-giving, self-emptying love that we experience in Jesus Christ ought to be the most noticeable sign that Jesus Christ has taken up residence in our hearts and in our minds.

            The second observation had to do with the fact that signs, in-and-of-themselves, aren’t all that important.  It’s the reality that they point to which is important.

            For the early Church, apparently John the baptizer’s popularity caused a problem, for many followed him, rather than Jesus.  We have evidence that John continued to have a significant following for sometime after Jesus’ death and resurrection in our reading from Acts 19 this morning.  Notice that Paul encounters some of John’s disciples in the city of Ephesus (which is located in the western part of modern day Turkey).  They were John’ disciples, not Jesus’ disciples.

            Somehow, these disciples of John missed an important part of John’s message, that part which said, “He must increase, and I must decrease.”  Paul had to correct their information, telling them that John’s baptism was for repentance of sins, and that they should believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.

            So we can safely conclude that John pointed away from himself and toward Jesus.

            Applying this truth to our own lives, we might reflect on the motivations which lie behind our reasons for doing things within the Church….Do we do what we do in order to seek personal recognition?  Or are we fulfilling the ministries that we carry out because they allow us to empty ourselves in service to the Lord and to others?  (Remember that the word “ministry” has the same Latin root as the English word “minus”.)

            Speaking personally as a priest, it troubles me greatly whenever I hear accounts of a person who’s in ordained ministry who encourages the formation of a “cult of personality”.  Anyone in ordained ministry ought to do everything possible to discourage personal adoration and attention, for the one who deserves our adoration and attention is Jesus Christ.  Those things belong to Him, and to Him alone.

            Then finally, the third observation was that a sign must be factually accurate.  Our lives as Christian believers must accurately portray the distinctive markers of Christ’s indwelling presence.  Paul, writing to the early believers in Galatia, identifies some of these markers.  Calling them the “fruits of the Spirit”, here is his list:  “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”  And after this list, he adds, “Against these things, there is no law.” (Galatians 5: 22 – 23).

            It is a New Year.  Perhaps we might resolve to seek to be better signposts, better prophets of the Most High, who will prepare the way of the Lord in 2012.  As we make that resolution, may we pray for Christ’s indwelling presence to be made known to us, that the power of the Holy Spirit may enable us to keep the commitment we have made to the Lord.

AMEN.