13 Pentecost, Year B

Proper 16: I Kings 8:1,6,10–11,22–30,41-43; Psalm 84; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, August 26, 2012.

“LIVING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE:  LEARNING NOT TO BE A CASUALTY”

(Homily text:  Ephesians 6: 10 - 20)

“Don’t become a casualty!”

The voice of my Army drill sergeant still rings in my ears, “Don’t become a casualty,” he said.  His aim was to teach us the ways that we could survive in times of combat, in order that we could come home once the war was over, and – just as important – so that we could carry the battle to the enemy in order to achieve victory.

Soldiers in all ages and times have to learn to do two basic things:

• Survive on the battlefield
• Take the battle to the enemy

A soldier has to learn to do the first task, in order to be able to do the second….carrying the battle to the enemy is impossible if the soldier becomes a casualty.

So St. Paul instructs the Ephesian Christians in the tools which will allow them to survive on the spiritual battlefield that they face, given the pagan culture that they lived in.

Paul uses Old Testament images to describe the armor of God.  These are drawn from Isaiah 11: 5 (the belt of righteousness); from Isaiah 52: 7 (the shoes of peace); and from Isaiah59: 17 ( the breastplate of righteousness).  Elsewhere, in Hebrews 4: 12, the word of God is described as a sword.

It is interesting that Paul uses a common image to convey the message:  that of a fully equipped Roman infantry soldier, dressed and ready for battle.  The Ephesians would have known this image quite well, for the Roman military presence was everywhere in the Empire.

Yet Paul makes it clear that it isn’t the Roman army or government that is the enemy.  No, the enemy is the devil himself.  This is a spiritual battle, waged in a war that pits God against all the alien forces that would seek to invade and destroy God’s people.

Paul’s list of equipment allows the Christian soldier to withstand the attacks which cannot be avoided, and to move to get away from attacks that can be avoided.  His list also includes the tools that will be needed to carry the battle to the enemy.

Let’s have a closer look at Paul’s list.

We should begin with those things that will protect the soldier from direct attacks:

 

Body armor: The breastplate of righteousness, along with the helmet of salvation, protect vital parts of the Christian, so that attacks cannot penetrate to destroy the Christian’s life in God.

Moveable protection: The shield of faith allows the Christian soldier to protect against attacks by meeting them from whatever direction they might come. (The word that Paul uses here for the word “shield” is one that describes a large, rectangular shield which could protect the entire body from attack.)
Next, Paul outlines the need for being able to move quickly:

Mobility:  Footwear allows for quick mobility, not only to avoid threats, but to carry the battle to the enemy.  (Soldiers in all times are taught to carefully protect their feet.)  The waist is also girded with righteousness, allowing freedom of movement.

Finally, Paul places a weapon in the hands of the believer:

Offensive and defensive capability:  Finally, the sword is placed in the hand of the soldier.  The Roman soldier was equipped with a short sword (having a blade which was about 18 inches long), and which was designed for close combat.  The sword has two functions:  Defensive, to parry the thrusts and blows of the enemy, and offensive, to carry the battle to the opponent.

Paul’s military analysis is superb.

 

Notice, first of all, that he correctly identifies the enemy, and the nature of the enemy.

This is a struggle of the spiritual kind, as we said a moment ago, a struggle with the devil himself.  But, lest Paul’s hearers (and us) are tempted to lose heart, Paul begins by reminding his listeners that it is in God’s might that we fight.  “Ah,” we should respond, “We are already on the winning side!”

The soldier is in good hands when the general has made a careful assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy, and the nature of the way the enemy fights.  Along with that assessment must come a careful assessment of the power which the army itself possesses.

Next, notice that Paul issues the mobilization order:  “Therefore, take the whole armor of God….” That is the call to arms.

Now, Paul tells each soldier what they are to do:  “Stand!”

What naturally flows out of these instructions is the realization that the battle will be tough, hard fought, and it will involve a face-to-face, up-close-and-personal struggle with the enemy.  No soldier in this army should expect that the commander will simply wave his hand and wipe the enemy off of the battlefield.

No, this struggle will be hard fought, and it will involve absolutely every soldier available for the fight.  The commander will need every one in order to prevail.

The Ephesian Christians, as we’ve remarked in recent weeks, faced a constant, daily struggle with the forces of evil as they lived in the pagan culture of the Greco-Roman world of the first century.  Historians remind us that Ephesus was the center of the cult of the pagan god Artemus, and a large temple to this pagan deity stood near the city.  Moreover, Ephesus was also a place which dabbled in magical and occult practices, so the presence of evil must have been quite powerful, in addition to being pervasive.

Our contemporary situation isn’t quite so stark:  We don’t have temples to Artemus in our communities anymore.  But we have plenty of other sorts of temples at which people worship the various idols of our own day. 

And the world is still a place in which evil is found, a place where people hurt and harm each other, a place where addictions still rob people of the life that God intends for each one of us.

So our task is to stand, fully equipped to survive the threats that we will face, fully equipped to deftly avoid those threats that we can avoid, and to survive those threats that we cannot avoid.

These actions will allow us to avoid becoming a casualty.

 Having done so, we can stand upright on the battlefield and carry the battle to the enemy, so that victory can be achieved, one soldier at a time.

For we are on the winning side, God’s own chosen soldiers, who carry with them the gospel of peace.

May we, through God’s strength, be dressed and ready for battle, able to survive in the day of the contest, able to carry the battle to the enemy, for the victory is the Lord’s.

AMEN.

 

12 Pentecost, Year B

Proper 15: I Kings 2: 10 – 12; 3: 3, 3 - 14; Psalm 111; Ephesians 5: 15 - 20; John 6: 51 - 58

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, August 19, 2012.

“LIVING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE:  IN THE WORLD, BUT NOT OF THE WORLD”

(Homily text:  Ephesians 5: 15 – 20)

Not long ago, I was chatting with someone I know, who said to me, “I don’t understand the young men I work with.  They are all in their early 20s, and all they talk about is the party they are going to attend this weekend, the women they will meet there (and go home with afterward), and the big trucks they drive. That’s all they seem to be interested in.  Mind you”, he said, “They are all good workers, but the things they really live for are foreign to me.”  He then added, “I try to witness to them about Jesus Christ, and about the new life that could be theirs, if they would only listen and accept it.”

His comments struck me, in part because that particular fellow is, himself, in his late 30s, and so he seems quite young.  (I guess things like a person’s age is relative to your own age and perspectives.)

But his comments struck me for another reason:  The behavior and the attitudes he was describing are a good description of the attitudes of much of our contemporary American culture.  The attitude can be boiled down to a phrase we used in last week’s sermon:  “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die.”  Or, we could state this widespread attitude another way:  “Grab for all the gusto you can get.”

Before we immerse ourselves in today’s passage, from Ephesians, chapter five, let’s take a moment to remind ourselves of the things we talked about in last week’s homily. 

There, we came to the conclusion that living the Christian life is a hard and difficult thing to do, given the surrounding culture that the early Church in Ephesus found itself living in.  We remarked that our surrounding culture today isn’t all that different from the one of 2,000 years ago, the one in Ephesus.  We came to the conclusion that St. Paul’s address to the believers in the Church was motivated by the fact that pagan attitudes and pagan ways surrounded those early believers much like a raging sea that surrounds a ship…the dangers of being overrun by the waves of pagan practices was, for them, an ever-present reality.  Those same dangers threaten believers today, too.

If we analyze the report that we began this homily with, we could easily come to the conclusion that the values of first century Ephesus are the values of much of our American culture today….”Eat drink, be merry, grab for all the gusto you can.”  It seems as though everything in our culture has to be fun, or entertaining…yes, even Church.

Now in today’s reading, St. Paul reminds the early Ephesian believers that they are not to behave like the world around them.  He does so by means of two statements that begin with the words, “Do not be…”, which is conjoined to the conjunction “but”.

Thus, we find Paul saying, “Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”  He then adds, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.”

Here, Paul picks up on some specific things he’s just mentioned in the verses which fall between last week’s reading and this week’s.  For clarity, we ought to examine some of these.

The short list of things that Paul mentions in chapter five, verses three through fourteen, read like a lesson in Ephesian culture and behaviors….Let’s look at Paul’s list:

He mentions fornication, impurity, covetousness, and adds that no one must take part in   these “unfruitful works of darkness”.

All of these are descriptions of the pagan ways of Ephesus, indeed of the entire eastern Mediterranean world of the first century.

 Instead, Paul encourages the Ephesian Christians to be children of light, as he adds that “the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.”

All along the way in this passage, Paul has used the word “walk” three times.  Here are those three statements:

“Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”  (Verse two)

 “Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.” (Verse eight)

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.”  (Verse fifteen)

 Essentially, Paul is drawing a contrast.  Paraphrased, we could summarize Paul’s exhortation thusly:   “Don’t be like the pagan Gentiles among whom you live, but live according to the way of Christ.” 

I think this is a fair description of Paul’s intent.

As we noted last week, living according to the way of Christ will be a constant, never-ending struggle.  It will be, as we said last week, a continual slap-in-the-face to the Christian believer.

We, ourselves, are much like a ship which sails the hostile sea….the forces which seek to destroy or to swamp our ship of faith constantly beat against the vessel.  Seams that should prevent the foreign waters of pagan belief and practice separate slightly, and allow seepage inside, destabilizing the ship of faith.

Be on your guard!  That seems to summarize Paul’s warning to the early believers in Ephesus and to us.  The threat to the Christian life will be constant and destructive.

It will also be seductive.

Here we come to a reality about the nature of sin that is as old as Adam and Eve:  Sin appeals, quite often, to some naturally-occurring desire or need that is deep within us.  For Adam and Eve, it was the natural desire to eat good food.  It was also the naturally occurring desire to be in control, to be like God.

The desires of the young men that my friend described to me are all naturally-occurring ones:  The desire to have a good time (nothing wrong with that), to be in relationship (nothing wrong with that, either, under the right circumstances), and the desire to do things that feel good, and which avoid hardship (nothing wrong with that, either, under the right circumstances).

These good things we’ve just mentioned can, however, take on a life of their own.  Living a life in which pleasurable things are enjoyed is a desirable thing.  I think we can be reasonably sure that our Lord Jesus Christ knew how to have a good time.  After all, some of His adversaries accused Him of being a drunk, or, in the terms of our own age, they accused Him of being a “party animal”.  I think the Lord knew how to have a good time with His friends.

But the Lord also knew how to walk the walk of a Godly life, allowing God’s truths to inform all other truths and all other choices.  That is true spiritual maturity.

One final comment is in order:  Many Christians yearn for the time when the Lord will take all believers out of this challenging world, either at the time of death, or when the Lord’s purposes for us and for the world are complete.  Such a reality takes place when the believer departs this life and enters into eternity.  Such a reality is one that we affirm each Sunday as we recite the Creed, acknowledging that the Lord will come again to judge the living and the dead.

But until that great and final day comes, it is our task to walk the walk of faith with the Lord, carefully seeking His will, carefully weighing every choice that we are forced to make so that we may walk as children of light.

AMEN.

11 Pentecost, Year B

Proper 14:  II Samuel 18:5–9, 15, 31-33; Psalm 130; Ephesians 4:25–5:2; John 6:35, 41-51
A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL, on Sunday, August 12, 2012.

“LIFE IN THE CHURCH, WITNESS TO THE WORLD”

(Homily text:  Ephesians 4: 25 – 5: 2)

Whenever I have the wonderful opportunity to act as Spiritual Director for our youth retreat weekends, I often have the chance to talk about what it is like to be a Christian.  As a way of introducing the idea that living the Christian life is going to be difficult, I ask these young people how many of them have been confirmed by a Bishop….many hands usually are raised in response.  Then, I ask them to remember that day and to try to remember exactly what happened.

Specifically, I ask them if they can remember being slapped by the Bishop.  (Usually, at this point, most of them can’t remember that part of the ceremony.)  So, I tell them that our Bishop always slaps people when they are confirmed.  (The young eyes that are looking at me are getting a bit bigger now, and any who were nodding off are beginning to awaken a bit more.)  Then, to those who are not confirmed yet, I say, “Well, you know, come to think of it, I’ve never seen the Bishop slap anyone so hard that they had a mark on their cheek after the service was over and when the reception began.”  (More eyes are now open a bit wider than before, and nodding heads are no longer nodding at all…by now, I have everyone’s attention.)

Then I heighten the drama a bit more, and I say, “I’ve known some Bishops who are real slappers…but, I assure you (those of you that aren’t confirmed yet) that I’ve never seen a single Bishop slap anyone so hard that it left a permanent mark on their cheek.”

And, now that everyone’s attention is in hand, I ask this question, “Why does the Bishop slap a person being confirmed?”

Usually, at this point, many of my listeners who are not yet confirmed are focusing in  on the possibility of some sort of hardship which they are associating with the rite of confirmation…..Their thinking might go something like this:  “OK, so I’m going to be confirmed…I’ll be all alone up there, in front of everyone, kneeling before the Bishop…it will be so embarrassing.  And now, you’re telling me that the Bishop is going to slap me!”

So I try to point their thoughts away from all these concerns, and to ask them again why the Bishop administers a slap on the cheek at the time of confirmation.  It isn’t often that some one of these (normally) astute young people can tell me exactly why the Bishop gives them a gentle blow to their cheek, so I have to tell them:  “It’s not easy being a Christian in the world we live in, and so the Bishop slaps you to remind you that following Jesus Christ won’t be easy.”

 It wasn’t easy being a Christian in the first century in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea regions, either…..Life in this pagan culture for a Christian was a constant slap-in-the-face.

 For one thing, the Greco-Roman world of the Roman Empire in the first century was a dog-eat-dog culture:  For those of high station and wealth, life was pretty good.  But for everyone else, slaves and free citizens alike, life was uncertain, highly competitive, and short.  To survive, many took to stealing or engaged in other sorts of dishonesty.  Acceptance of these sorts of behaviors to be able to cope with the economic realities of those times was high. 

Righteous and upright behavior was in short supply, and a tendency to try to forget the hardships of life led many to seek hedonistic pleasures.  We might capture the sense of the times by saying that many believed that they should “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we (might) die.”  Put into today’s language, we might hear people say, “We’re going to grab for all the gusto we can get.”

The possibilities for falling into serious moral decay and sin abounded….cult prostitution in the pagan temples was commonplace and rampant, and those who had the means often engaged in sexual sin outside of marriage.

To turn to Christ and become a Christian believer meant that the overwhelming tide of the culture in which they lived was a constant threat, something to be resisted.

The relationship between pagan values and Christian values was stark….Living by Christiana values was hard to do, and easy to see….as a Christian, following Christ, people could easily see the difference in behavior, in speech, and in attitudes.

And it is this difference in behavior, speech and attitudes that St. Paul is driving at as we turn to our reading from Ephesians this morning.

In the verses which immediately precede today’s passage, Paul reminds these Ephesian believers of the lives they used to lead before they became Christians….He reminds them that they lived immoral lives, that they – along with the pagan culture - were “greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”

So Paul tells them that they have “put off their old selves,” and have “put on the new self, created after God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Paul has now set the stage to remind the Ephesians of the necessity of living out their faith by the way they talk and by what they do in their daily lives.  Paul’s concern is that the Ephesian Church will be united to God through Christ, and will be united by the purifying work of the Holy Spirit into union with each other, as well.

Gone is the dog-eat-dog, “me first” behavior of the pagan culture they had come out of.  Such behavior has no place in the body of Christ, the Church.  True concern for others replaces the dog-eat-dog mentality, and putting God first as all grow into unity with Christ, the head of the Church, replaces the “me first” attitudes that went before.

The task before these early believers is also our task today….

We must be able to love each other so well and so completely that we can be angry with each other when it is truly called for, and to follow up our anger with the ability to speak the truth, always in love.  Then, we are called to put limits on that anger, not allowing (in Paul’s words) to allow the sun to set on our anger.

When we do this, the adversary, the devil, will have no opportunity to try to divide the flock and to attack it.

Coupled with this admonition is a reminder that we, as Christians, are to be honest in our daily tasks, doing everything we do to the best of our ability, giving fully of ourselves.  Paul’s address to this aspect of living an honest, sober and upright life takes the form of his reminder that everyone is to “do honest work with their own hands.” 

Paul says that everyone is to do “honest work with their hands,” so that the Christian way of life is set apart from the ways of the pagan culture.  Paul adds that some of the fruits of our honest work are to be devoted to the needs of those who cannot provide for themselves.  As we said a moment ago, gone is the “me first” culture of the pagan past.

The first way of living the Christian life has to do with our speech, its faithfulness to our emotions and concerns.  The second concern has to do with our behavior.

Now, Paul turns to another matter having to do with speech:  He reminds the early believers (and us) that our speech is to be used to edify and build up the body of Christ, showing concern for others and for their walk with the Lord.  In a way, being able to be anger, to express that anger as we speak the truth in love, and to put limits on our anger, are all ways in which the body of Christ is built up.  So we see that Paul’s concerns for our manner of speech and interaction with each other have as their basis a concern for contributing to the welfare of all.

All of these practical concerns, which visibly demonstrate that we Christians are living a new and different life, cannot be incorporated into our common life without the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul says that we are not to “grieve the Holy Spirit,” that is, to shun the Holy Spirit’s power by denying and ignoring that power.  The reason is that, in this admonition, we are dealing with the matter of holiness, which is different than goodness.

    Many people, by earnest practice and intense schooling, can master the techniques of being “good”.  In secular terms, we might say that such a person could be a graduate of a fine finishing school, or perhaps someone who’s attended the Dale Carnegie Course, and has become – as a result – able to “win friends and influence people.”

But holiness can only begin – and continue – with the enlightening and empowering work of the Holy Spirit.  For the Spirit alone has the ability to overcome our “default positions” of thought, expectation and behavior.  It was against these things that the Ephesians are called to struggle.  It is against these things that we Christians today are called to struggle, with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Living the Christian life is a slap-in-the-face.  To live such a life means that we will be swimming against a mighty and powerful tide, a tide which our surrounding culture produces, a culture which values many of the things the ancient Greco-Roman pagan world also valued.

If new Christians are to be born again into the family of God, that is, the Church, many times the way that they will learn about this new way of believing and living will be as they read the Good News of Christ in the ways we talk and the ways we acts….As has been wisely said, “Sometimes, the only Bible many people will ever read is our way of life.”

May God’s Holy Spirit enable us to swim successfully and powerfully against the tide which flows against us, for a faithful witness to God, and for the welfare of the family of God and the world.

AMEN.

10 Pentecost, Year B

Proper 13: II Samuel 11:26–12:13; Psalm 51:1–13; Ephesians 4:1–16; John 6:24–35
 

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, August 5, 2012.

“UNITED TO CHRIST AND ONE ANOTHER IN LOVE”
(Homily text:  Ephesians 4: 1 – 16)

My wife and I have a small garden, ten foot by sixteen foot, in our back yard.  We’ve tried tending it – with various levels of success – in the past few years.  This year, however, we decided we’d devote some time and effort to improving it, building a new border for it, and by adding topsoil and other materials to lighten up the soil.

Since our previous experiments with sweet corn didn’t work out too well, we decided we’d plant green beans this year.  So three rows of seeds were sown.  Frequent weeding and watering followed, and while I was away at General Convention, Deb went out and took pictures of the plants as they broke through the surface of the ground.  We were excited to see visible proof that our work was paying off.

It didn’t take long for some creature or another (as yet unidentified) to find these tender shoots, as well, for as soon as many of them came up, this mysterious visitor came along and chewed some of them off.  We decided we needed to install a low fence around the new plants.  That seemed to help, but more steps were needed, so we made a scarecrow and put that in the middle, next to the middle of the three rows of plants.

We seemed to be winning the battle…the chewing dropped off dramatically, and now the plants, some of them, are quite tall.  Some others are developing flowers, which will attract the bees (we hope) that will pollinate the plants, producing beans for the dinner table.

All in all, the goal for us is to enjoy the process.  If food finds its way to someone’s table (animal or human), so much the better.

I don’t claim to be a master gardener.  But I do know enough to know that every gardener has to have a master plan.  Once the plan is in place, some basics are needed to have a successful crop:  1.  Good, well-prepared soil; 2.  Protection from things that would destroy or damage the crop:  a fence to keep animal poachers out;  3.  Frequent removal of the weeds;  5.  Plenty of water to promote growth; and 5.  Bees to pollinate the plants.

With the image of a garden (or field) in mind, let’s turn to our reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

God’s master plan is in view here….God’s call and God’s gifts are evident as God’s plan for His garden, His field, unfold…..
God plants the seeds of new life in our hearts when we are baptized.  We are buried with Christ in a death like His, and are raised to a new life in a resurrection like His (as St. Paul says in Romans 6: 3 – 9).

As these seeds of new life emerge, they will be watered by hearing the Word of God read each Sunday, and by receiving the Body and the Blood of Christ in the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  Like a garden, the new plants of our life in Christ need frequent, regular watering and nounrishment.

And as we begin to grow into the full stature of Christ, we can also see threats to good growth emerge…sometimes, the weeds of daily life choke off good growth (as Jesus explains in the “Parable of the Sower”… Matthew 13: 3 – 10).  At other times, hostile invaders try to snip off the growth and kill the planting of God.
So we see that we need the protection of God, the master gardener, to save us from the cares of life and from the threats which emerge from outside God’s plan.  We need the hedge of protection that regular Bible reading, an active prayer life, and regular attendance at Church can provide.  We need to ask for the protection of the Holy Spirit to keep our hearts and minds focused on Christ, and to preserve us from every evil way.
God, in His goodness, not only protects us from the things that would choke off or destroy growth, but He gives us gifts that will encourage us to grow into the full stature of Christ.  Paul’s list of these good gifts are that some should be “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.”

It is worth our time to take a moment or two to consider some of the ways that each of these ministries promote good growth in Christ:

• Apostles are those who are sent out, bearing the Good News.  They spread the seed of the Gospel, laying the groundwork for the harvest.
• Prophets are those who speak the truth of God, reminding us of the things that God has told us about Himself, and about the ways that God wants us to live.  So the prophet’s task has much more to do with tending the garden, day-by-day, and much less to do with predicting future harvests or events in some distant time.
•  Evangelists share with the apostles in sharing the Good News.  Evangelists can help sow the seeds of God’s plantings in a local place, a local community, a local Church, and do God’s will without much traveling.  The evangelists’s field is often the immediate area in which they live.
• Pastors are, like a good shepherd, those who care for the Lord’s own, walking with them through hard times and good times, through times of growth and times of spiritual drought.  Pastors show the fruits of God’s growth, having grown into the full stature of Christ themselves, so that they can help others to do the same.  Pastors function a  little like bees in a garden, connecting others to God, and enabling a harvest.
• Teachers help make the wisdom of God understandable.  Theirs is the task of being able to understand the deep things of God, and to make them easier.  In a sense, they function a little like the root systems of a plant, which take the nutrients from the soil and make them available to the stem and the leaves above.

Paul says that these gifts are given so that each of us may withstand the threats to good growth that each of us as Christian believers will face.  The Lord’s wish for us is that we will grow into the full measure of Christ, fully mature, completely able to not only withstand the challenges that will always come in one form or another, but to grow in spite of them.

Of course, that’s why we’re here this morning, in the Lord’s house, hearing the Lord’s Word read, and receiving the Lord’s Body and Blood….
We come to be fed by God’s Word and by God’s table.
We come to examine ourselves to see what things are crowding out God’s voice in our lives, and to seek forgiveness for those things that, like an intruder, threaten to remove the possibilities for growth that God wants us to have.

For God’s desire is that we will bear a good harvest, each of us working together with God and with each other in unity.  Then, the harvest will be plentiful indeed, plain for all to see.

AMEN.