Pentecost 5, Year C

I Kings 19:1-15; Psalm 42; Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 8:26-39

Given by Fr. Gene R. Tucker at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, June 23, 2013.

 

"A STRING OF VICTORIES"

(Homily text:  Luke 8:26-39)
 

I confess to you all that I am a “news junkie”.  Every day, I need to watch or listen to the news casts.  I also read at least two newspapers every day (yes, I realize that is a more and more rare practice among our citizenry these days!).

As I get my daily fill of the news, it amuses me to see the creative ways that writers describe sports events….Consider just a few ways these sportscasters tell us who won and who lost: 

• “The Mt. Vernon Rams defeated the Centralia Orphans last night.”  (OK, that headline is pretty tame, I’ll admit.) 
• “The Washington Redskins ‘KO’d’ the Dallas Cowboys at Redskin Park on Sunday afternoon.” 
• “The Washington Nationals ‘blew out’ the Philadelphia Phillies in an 11 inning game yesterday.” 
• “The Nebraska Cornhuskers ‘annihilated’ the Oklahoma Sooners in Lincoln last Saturday.”          
• "The New York Yankees ‘took total control’ of the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium this afternoon."

(Please notice that I have carefully avoided the use of any imaginary headline involving the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs!)     

In sports, it is all about winning, isn’t it?  Alas, even among young people, the emphasis has shifted from learning good sportsmanship to winning, at all costs.

In our daily life, we are used to winners (and losers).

So it might be refreshing if we were to look at our Lord Jesus Christ, to see the ways in which He was victorious over every challenge, difficulty or obstacle which lay before Him.

These victories constitute a string of victories, whether the challenges fall into such categories as: 

• Accepted social customs and norms,
• Disease,
• Demon possession,
• The false teachings and poor leadership of the priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees, or even
• Death itself.

Just last week, we heard the account of the sinful woman who came to the dinner party that Simon, the Pharisee, had invited Jesus to attend. The unnamed woman was stuck in her social position (that of being a sinner, a person to be avoided at all costs), but Jesus loosed her from the bonds that kept her locked in the unacceptable category of being a sinner, and freed her from her sins, allowing her to regain her rightful place as a forgiven person in society.

Many times, Jesus’ victories make it possible for those who cannot help themselves to be helped….Diseases are cured, the lame walk, the blind see again.

And in today’s gospel reading, a demon-possessed man is freed from the control of the forces of evil.  So complete was this man’s helplessness that he was unable to even ask the Lord for help.

No condition, no challenge overcomes the Lord’s power to gain the upper hand, to secure complete and total victory.

Down through time, the Lord has made the power of His ability to get the victory available to all who come to Him in faith.  We see this in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, which we are celebrating today…..

St. Paul, writing to the churches in Rome (Romans 6: 3 – 9) describes the process of baptism….summarizing his argument, he says that we are buried with Christ in a death like His.  And if we are buried with Christ in His death, then, St. Paul goes on to say, we shall rise in a resurrection like his to newness of life.

So today, Aaron Matthew Perdue becomes the world’s newest Christian.  As he descends into the waters of baptism, he dies to his old life, and rises to a new life in Christ.  He becomes an heir of all of Jesus’ promises, and especially the promises that carry with them the guarantee that Jesus’ victories are Aaron’s to claim as his very own inheritance.

Thanks be to God!