Lent 1, Year B

Genesis 9: 8 - 17; Psalm 25: 1 - 9; I Peter 3: 18 - 22; Mark 1: 9 - 15

 A homily by:   Fr. Gene Tucker

Given at:         Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, February 26, 2012

“HAPPY LENT!”

            Happy Lent, everyone!

            At first hearing, “Happy Lent” sounds a lot like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?  (Credit for this saying must go to my wife, if the truth be known.)

            Happy….Lent?

            Isn’t Lent a time to put on our sad faces, to look dismal?  Isn’t it a time to bewail our manifold sins and offenses (as the Prayer Book says)?

            Well, yes, Lent is a time for reflection, for sacrifice, for introspection.  It is all of these things.  It is also a time of preparation for Easter.

            But I am getting ahead of myself.

            Let’s look at the business of Lent, first from the perspective of liturgy, and then from the perspective of its relationship to Easter.  We should also look at the biblical foundations that form the background of our Lenten observances.

            We begin with the liturgical aspects of Lent.

            Liturgy is a word which comes to us from two words in Greek which mean “work of the people”.  So liturgy is worship which involves not only the person leading worship, but everyone who’s present for worship.  There can be no private Masses, if we are serious about doing liturgy correctly.  The celebrant or preside at worship isn’t the only one worshipping while others simply watch. There are no observers during worship, for everyone is a liturgical participant in creating worship.

            Liturgy serves several wonderful purposes:

            1.  It allows us to experience not only the heights of celebration, but also the depths of introspection as we prepare for the times of celebration.  That’s what the season of Advent is for, and – even more so – what the season of Lent is for.  As a liturgical Church, our Sunday celebrations (though they are all celebrations of the Lord’s resurrection) exhibit the ebb and flow of the seasons of the Church Year.  Now, in Lent, we find ourselves in a “violet” (purple) season, the color indicating a time of penitence and preparation.  There’s a richness to this ebb and flow, a richness not found in traditions in which nearly every Sunday celebration is pretty much the same (OK, I will admit that I’m boasting just a little about our wonderful Anglican tradition here.)

            2.  The liturgy forces us to do the “tough stuff”:  Each Sunday, a set table of Bible readings is put before us.  Sometimes, the readings force us to face hard teachings and to hear  tough admonitions.  They “hold our feet to the fire” of Christian living.  Although no method of reading Scripture is perfect, this method is preferable to a method in which the pastor or preacher selects the readings for Sunday worship….under such a system, it’s too easy simply to select favorite passages, over and over again, and maybe to select only those things that are pleasing to the ear and which fall easily on the soul and mind.

            3.  The liturgy saves us from the priest:  If liturgy is being done properly, Sunday celebrations will cease to be a “one man show”.[1]  The celebrant or presider has no need to try to invent clever schemes and to make use of gimmicks to keep some sort of an “edge” to worship in order to titillate the senses of the worshippers.  Liturgy allows the historical roots and depth of the Church’s worship has it has come down to us through time to carry the weight of coming into God’s presence to worship and adore Him.  Worship should never look or sound like entertainment.

            4.  Lent as a liturgical concept:  “You won’t find the word ‘Lent’ in the Bible,” you may hear some one of your evangelical friends say.  True enough…the word won’t be found there at all.  But Lent[2] is a liturgical concept, and, as such, is a tool to assist us in our worship of Almighty God.  Frankly speaking, everything we do in liturgical worship is simply a tool to allow us to express our adoration for God, and to enable us to see Him more clearly.

            Perhaps this is a good place to turn our attention to the matter of the function of Lent as it relates to Easter.  Some good comments can be made about that connection:

            1.  A balanced approach to/from Easter:  Lent is 40 days long (not counting the Sundays in Lent, which are always celebrations of the Lord’s resurrection).  So is the Easter season from the Day of the Resurrection until Ascension Day, 40 days later (see Acts 1: 1 – 3).  Easter is approached by a 40 day season of preparation, and it is followed by 40 days of celebration.

            2. A time in the wilderness:  Our collect for this Sunday mentions Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.  Our gospel reading from Mark, chapter one, also mentions the period of temptation.  Mark also mentions a period of 40 days, a period of time upon which Lent is based.

            Having mentioned the wilderness as the place of temptation, we ought to turn our attention to the biblical implications of being in the wilderness.

            Of course, one memory of the wilderness that will spring to mind is the wandering of the ancient Israelites in the wilderness following their exodus from Egypt.  There, the period of wandering is 40 years long.  The people of God, as they followed Moses out of Egypt, make a water crossing by passing through the Red Sea.  (Notice that today’s gospel text begins with an account of Jesus’ baptism, a water crossing.)  There, the people of God face temptations (hunger, thirst, threats to safety from serpents, etc.)  All along the way, God provides for them (manna and quail, water from the rock, a bronze serpent to heal the bites of the snakes that attacked the people).

            Similarly, as we look at Jesus’ temptation – and here I must rely on Matthew’s account of it, for Mark’s account is very brief (see Matthew 4: 1 – 11[3]) – we see that Jesus is tempted in very similar ways:  A temptation to take away His hunger by changing a stone into bread, and an appeal to safety by having angels bear Him up if He were to thrown Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple.

            The wilderness is a place to meet God, for it is a place with few distractions.  In the Exodus period, it was in the wilderness – on Mt. Sinai – that God gave the Law to His people.  The wilderness was a place where one could concentrate on God, for there were fewer things there in the wilderness environment that could take away one’s ability to concentrate on divine things.

            In the wilderness, God provides sustenance.  In ancient times, it was the manna, the quail and the water which sustained the people.  As Jesus undergoes His temptation, angels come and minister to Him.

            As we enter the holy season of Lent, we, too, find ourselves in the wilderness. 

            It is a time for us to set aside the distractions which can so easily cloud our vision of God.  It is a time to be sustained by God’s word, by God’s Holy Spirit. 

            It is a time to face squarely our own mortality, and especially the threats to life and living that separation from God often entails.

            It is a time to see that we are dependent on God, dependent for our spiritual wellbeing, dependent on God for our material wellbeing.

            Welcome to Lent, welcome to the wilderness.

AMEN.

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[1]   Our Clergy Prelenten Retreat leader recently quipped that priests should be careful not to regard the altar as their personal possession…he said that the altar isn’t “your personal, pietistic playpen”!

[2]   The word Lent comes to us from the Old English, where it meant “to lengthen”, as in the lengthening of the time of sunlight as spring approached.

[3]   For a comparison, see also Luke’s account of Jesus’ temptation, Luke 4: 1 – 13.

6 Epiphany, Year B

II Kings 5: 1 - 14; Psalm 30; I Corinthians 9: 24 - 27; Mark 1: 40 - 45

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois, on Sunday, February 12, 2012.

“THE ‘OUTSIDER’ IS RECEIVED INSIDE”(Homily texts:  II Kings 5: 1 – 14 & Mark 1: 40 - 45)

Who’s “in” and who’s “out”?

Such a question is often the concern of high school students, as they vie for acceptance.  In the process, groups get formed, and sometimes, they are groups made of people who think that they are “insiders”.  They may think of themselves as being superior in some way to “outsiders”.

We probably shouldn’t be too hard on high school students.  After all, I suspect that, if we are honest with ourselves and each other, we should probably admit that we might tend to engage in this sort of activity throughout much of our lives.

Belonging to a group is an important human need.  We are, after all, created to be in communion with one another, and with God.  That is our basic “design”, if you will, instilled by God into every human heart and mind at our creation.

As part of expressing and fulfilling this need, we identify a group that we would like to join, and then we do all that we can to remain a part of the group.  We might even adopt attitudes of superiority as we regard other groups or other individuals who aren’t in our group.  (One way this gets expressed in the Church is by claiming that “our” Church is better than others….what an arrogant attitude!)

Today’s gospel text is all about who’s “in” and who’s “out”.

Unfortunately, much of the context which existed in those ancient times for determining who falls into which category is lost to our 21st century ears and minds.  In order to recapture the sense of what society was like when Jesus’ earthly ministry took place, we need to back up a bit and examine the attitudes and behaviors of the Jews of His day.

The practices and attitudes which were found in Judaism 2,000 years ago had everything to do with being “clean” or “unclean”.

Cleanliness didn’t have to do so much with one’s physical cleanliness (I say this to a congregation whose expectations of cleanliness have much to do with the availability of clean water and plenty of soap!  After all, our society expects that people will bathe regularly), although the Law of Moses did prescribe bathing rituals at various times, such as before attending worship in the Tabernacle or the Temple.

No, cleanliness had much to do with a person’s physical infirmities, or the lack thereof.

Cleanliness in this sense made it possible for a person to attend public worship, or - conversely - a lack of cleanliness excluded a person from worship.

Put another way, if a person was clean, that person was “in”.  If the person was unclean, they were “out”.

This key aspect of life in that ancient time brings us directly to the matter of the healing of the leper in today’s gospel passage, which is before us.

Leprosy in the ancient world was one of the most feared physical conditions that afflicted humankind.  The Law of Moses’ directions for dealing with a person who was afflicted with it were clear.  And – to be fair – we need to remind ourselves that it wasn’t just the actual disease which is known as leprosy today (generally known as Hansen’s Disease), but a wide range of skin disorders and conditions that fell under the Law’s requirements.

We don’t know exactly what condition the man had who came up to Jesus, seeking Jesus’ healing ministry.

But we do know how the Law regarded these various skin conditions.  Among its provisions were these:

·          The Law’s provisions are laid out in the Book of Numbers, chapters 13 and 14.

·         Leprosy was regarded as a punishment for sin (see Numbers 12: 10 – 15).[1]

·         The person so affected was to wear torn clothing, have disheveled hair, to live outside the camp or town, and to cry out, “Unclean, unclean” if anyone approached (see Numbers 13: 45 – 46).

·         Physical contact with a person who was affected also rendered the other person as being unclean, as well.

·         A cure from leprosy was regarded as being as marvelous as being raised from the dead (see Numbers 12: 10 – 12, and II Kings 5:7[2]), for having leprosy was seen as a “living death”.

And so, as we look closely at the diseased man’s request of Jesus, we see that he says to Jesus, “If you will, you can make me clean” (italics mine, of course).

Notice that he doesn’t ask Jesus to heal him.  He asks to be made clean.

I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb to suggest that the man’s request probably had something to do with being “in” again.

After all, the man couldn’t enter the Temple in Jerusalem to worship.  He couldn’t live in town.  He couldn’t associate with family members or former friends.  He couldn’t shop in the marketplace.  He was “out”, entirely “out”, of the community, outside of the ability to enter the holy place where God’s presence dwelt, and “out” everywhere else, too.

Such a world seems strange to us, doesn’t it?

But, if we reflect a little, I think we can see that we harbor some of the same attitudes as existed in the Judaism of Jesus’ day….Don’t we shy away from a poorly dressed person, or someone who could use a good shower, for example?

I will admit, I do that on occasion.

We might do the same thing with a person who has an obvious medical condition that is debilitating.

But what does Jesus do?  Instead of complying with the Law’s demands, Jesus crosses the boundaries, touching the man, and saying, “I will, be clean.”

Wait a minute….didn’t Jesus become “unclean” by touching the diseased man.

By the Law’s standards, yes, He did.

But He did it anyway.

Mark tells us that Jesus was “moved with compassion” for the man.

Compassion.  Love.  Concern for others.  All of these are hallmarks of Jesus’ ministry, His teachings, and His healings.

You see, if we consider the attitudes that the Mosaic law encouraged, we can see that its major concern was for the welfare of the group.  The individual was expected to honor the welfare of the group by separating him/herself from the group if they became unclean.  The other major concern of the Law was borne out of respect for God’s holiness.  That is to say, the cleanliness codes which we find in the Law existed to remind God’s people that He is holy, so holy, in fact, that no unclean thing or person could approach His presence.

So, in the Law, we have two major concerns:

            1.  God’s holiness, which demands cleanliness,

            2.  God’s people’s welfare, which demands that unclean persons separate themselves from the group.

But Jesus restores the concern that’s missing:  A concern for the individual’s welfare and wellbeing.

And He does so by bridging the gap, being willing to go “against the grain” of the normally-accepted Jewish behavior of His day, reaching out to touch the leprous man.  Instead of avoiding the man, He is willing to risk physical contact with the man in order to restore the man to the community, and to God.

So what does this incident teach us?

Perhaps these observations will serve to prompt our own reflection on the possible implications:

            1.  Jesus has a very holistic concern for God, for the welfare of God’s people, and for the welfare of the individual.  All three matter to Jesus.

            2.  Jesus conquers and bridges the gap between being “clean” and “unclean”.  In the process, Jesus conquers the “uncleanliness” and renders it “clean.” Just as Jesus accomplishes this feat with the diseased man in today’s text, so He will do with the matter of sin as He sacrifices Himself to make atonement for our sin.  In both instances, the gap which separates us from God is closed.

            3.  Jesus’ entire purpose is to bring those who are “outside” into fellowship with God and with God’s people. 

            4.  In bringing us “inside”, Jesus never leaves us where He finds us.  Movement toward cleanliness and wholeness takes place, as these conditions are removed by the power of Jesus Christ to heal, and by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, who convicts us of sin and empowers us to make amendment of life, that we might become “clean”.  Jesus doesn’t call what is “unclean” “clean”….He removes the dirt (sin)!

As we enter this period just prior to the beginning of the holy season of Lent, perhaps a reflection on our own spiritual condition is in order.  May the Holy Spirit enable us to have the strength to examine our own lives, hearts and minds.  May the Holy Spirit enable us to see clearly those places which are “unclean”, and which are therefore unworthy to enter the presence of the holy God.

AMEN.

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[1]   But so were any number of physical maladies and conditions.  For an example, see John, chapter nine, where a man’s blindness is attributed to either his sin, or the sin of his parents.

[2]   In our Old Testament reading for today, the account of the healing of Na’aman.

5 Epiphany, Year B

Isaiah 40: 21 - 31; Psalm 147: 1 -12, 21c; I Corinthians 9: 1 - 13; Mark 1: 29 - 39

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, February 5, 2012 by Mr. Barney Bruce, Lay Worship Leader

 

“WHICH IS MOST IMPORTANT?”
(Homily text:  Mark 1: 29 - 39)

            (Introductory note:  Greetings, everyone, from Hillsdale, Michigan.  I am here to sing an Evensong for our former Bishop, Peter Beckwith, later on today.  I am deeply thankful for Barney’s leadership this morning as he leads service and delivers this homily to you.)

            Today’s gospel text follows immediately on last week’s reading.  There, we heard that Jesus taught in the synagogue in Capernahum, and there people marveled at His teaching, which had an authority that the scribes of His day didn’t have.  And then, a demon-possessed man confronted Him, identifying Jesus as the “Holy one of God”.

            Now the things that we heard last week are happening again this week:  Jesus is teaching.  He is casting out demons. 

            But He is also doing something new:  He is preaching the good news.  He is healing.  He is praying (alone).

            Now, the shape of Jesus’ earthly ministry has taken shape.  The things that He will do during His ministry are plain to see.  His ministry will consist of:

·         Miraculous healings
·         Casting out the forces of evil
·         Teaching
·         Preaching
·         Praying

            Now, let’s ask ourselves a question:  Of all of these things, which is the most important?

            I think we need to reflect on that question for a moment.    

            We often remember Jesus’ earthly ministry for the miracles and the healings that He did.

            We remember His victories over the demons and the forces of evil.

            We remember His teachings, especially some of the parables, like the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 29 – 37).

           We remember the times He went away to pray, alone.  (Hopefully, we will remember those times that He spent in prayer…for prayer is the necessary support for any ministry that God assigns to us.)

            We  remember His preaching, especially the sermons He gave like the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters five through seven).

            In order to determine which part of Jesus’ ministry that was the most important, we might analyze each of the things we’ve just listed from this perspective:

            Which part of His ministry has the most lasting effect?

            If we look at Jesus’ ministry from that angle, I think we have to conclude that Jesus’ preaching is the most important.

            In today’s reading, Jesus affirms this, as He says, “Let us go on to the next towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is why I came out.”  (Italics mine, of course)

            In fairness, I think we have to say that Jesus’ teaching is a close second to His preaching in terms of its importance.  After all, Jesus’ preaching as a strong teaching element to it.  (In fact, all preaching ought to have a strong teaching aspect.)

            Jesus’ preaching and teaching has the most lasting effect, for it is the transformation of the heart and soul which will last into eternity.

            As important as Jesus’ healings are, as important as Jesus’ exorcisms are, their effects will go away once the person healed or delivered passes from this life into the next.

            But the effects of a transformed heart and soul will last forever.

            So, we might ask ourselves, “Why did Jesus heal and why did He defeat the demons, then?”

            I think the answer is simply this:  Jesus’ miracles and His other mighty acts are all proof that the power of God is His power, also.  They are meant to affirm the origin of His preaching and His teaching.  That origin is God the Father.

            No sermon would be complete without asking ourselves the question, “How is this important to me?”

           As I reflect on that question, the following thoughts come to mind:

1.      Jesus is still in the business of mending broken hearts and saving lost souls: The arena in which Jesus’ activity takes place, ultimately, is the human heart.  Of course, God’s truth reaches us through our minds, quite often times. So Jesus’ preaching and teaching remains important for us to hear, to learn, and to apply to our lives.  Hearts are transformed in the process, as God’s truth passes through our minds and into our hearts.

2.      God is still concerned for our physical well-being:  The Lord still has the power to heal.  He still has the power to defeat the forces of evil, whose intent is to separate us from the love of God.  But remember that nothing can separate us from God’s love!  (See Romans 8: 28 – 39 if you need some confirmation of this truth.)  It’s important for us to remember that God the Father sent Jesus Christ into a world which was filled with pain, loss and heartbreak.  Jesus was not exempt from all of these things, for He suffered and died on a cross.  In the process, He was vulnerable to the deepest sort of pain and loss that the world can offer.  And yet, on Easter Sunday morning, He defeated all of those things.  But by entering this world, Jesus sanctifies the suffering of this world.  He takes it on His own self, and then defeats it, too.

3.      In the end, only our relationship to God through Christ will remain:  All of the experience of this world will pass away when our life in this world is done.  All of the pain, the disease, the loss, the heartbreak, will disappear.  God’s ultimate healing of body, mind and spirit will be complete at that time.  We will know God’s love completely and directly, as we see Him face-to-face.

            Thanks be to God, that loving God who sent His only-begotten Son to teach us, to proclaim God’s truth, to save us in this world, and to bring us to eternity with Him.

AMEN.