Pentecost 14, Year C

Proper 16 -- Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; Hebrews 12:18-29;  Luke 13:10-17

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, August 25, 2013.

 

“FOLLOWING THE RULES, LIVING LIFE DAILY”

(Homily text:  Luke 13:10-17)

 

All of us are familiar with rules. 

We live with the rules of the road as we drive a vehicle, for example.  Failure to follow these rules can cause accidents, injury, or even death, to ourselves and to others.

The same can be said for most of the rules, the laws, of our society.  They are meant to allow us to live with one another in safety and with security.

The Ten Commandments[1] fall into this pattern….the first four commandments allow us to live with God. The remaining six allow us to live with one another.

In today’s gospel reading, Luke shares with us an incident that took place in a synagogue on the Sabbath day.  There, Jesus heals a woman who was bent over for 18 years.  Touching her, the Lord heals her.  The ruler of the synagogue upbraids the Lord for doing this act of mercy on the Sabbath, saying, “There are six days in which work ought to be done.  Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”

Jesus’ response falls into what scholars call a “lesser-to-greater”[2] category, as He cites provisions in Deuteronomy 22: 1 - 4 which allow relief to be given to an animal on the Sabbath day.  The Lord says that, if someone is allowed to care for an animal on the Sabbath day, then shouldn’t someone be allowed to care for a human being on the Sabbath day, as well? 

Of course, the answer to this question is obvious:  Yes, in this case, human need trumps the requirement to keep the Sabbath day holy.

In Jesus’ day, many Jews seemed to be consumed with relentless passion to keep every little aspect of the Law of Moses.   The rabbis of Jesus’ day spent hours and hours debating just how the Sabbath regulations and the other provisions of the Law were to be applied in daily life.

More than once, Jesus and His disciples came into conflict with the Pharisees and others for breaches of expected behavior on the Sabbath day.  For example, in Luke 6: 1, we read that the Pharisees noticed that Jesus’ disciples plucked heads of grain and ate them on the Sabbath day.  In another instance which is quite similar to the healing we read about in today’s gospel, the issue of healing on the Sabbath would come up again in Luke 14: 1 – 6, as the Lord heals a man with dropsy on the Sabbath.

Such a scrupulous concern for proper behavior was a source of national identity for pious Jews whose identity was threatened by the Roman occupation of their country.  Oftentimes, when human beings’ identities are being threatened, the identifying markers of nationality, race, or associations assume very prominent places in their thinking and their behavior.   So we shouldn’t be too hard on the Jews of Jesus day for behaving the way they did….they were simply doing what most human beings would do, given similar situations.

But what about the rules?

What about living with the complexities of daily living?

How do these two realities fit together? 

Do they fit together at all?

Perhaps one way to explore the relationship between keeping the rules and the living of daily life would be to look at what happens when one of these two realities are separated from the other, when one reality is the sole focus of life.  We will begin by looking at what happens when the rules, and the rules alone, matter.

Here, we see the prevailing attitude of the ruler of the synagogue and the Pharisees….Their attitude was that no work, none at all, was to be done on the Sabbath day, period.  Their approach to living seems harsh, uncompromising and inflexible. 

In contemporary art, this is the attitude of the uncompromising Inspector in the musical (and play) Les Miserables, as he relentlessly pursues Jean Valjean.  The Inspector’s approach is that the requirements of the law must be completely fulfilled, regardless of any other consideration.

This attitude places the structure that the law, the rules, provide, above and before any human need.

Now, let’s turn the tables and look at the other end of the spectrum of human life:  living without rules at all, allowing human need (or whims) to dictate behavior.

Here, we come to what scholars call an antinomian attitude toward living, a word that comes to us from the Greek, where it means (literally) “against laws”.

At some times in Christian history, such an attitude has manifested itself.  We need only look at some Gnostic behaviors in the early centuries of the Church’s life to see that some Gnostics believed that, since they believed that our physical nature was only a mirage, it didn’t matter what we did with their bodies.  Some, in response, engaged in all sorts of immoral behavior.

As Christians, we might be tempted to think that, since we have received God’s grace, mercy and love, we should be able to do whatever we want, since God will forgive us anyway.  St. Paul addresses this reality, as he asks, in his Letter to Romans[3], that if we are freed from the Law, shouldn’t we sin all the more so that we may enjoy God’s grace?  (I am paraphrasing Paul’s argument.)  The answer Paul provides is the obvious one:  No, God expects us to live holy and upright lives.

Sometimes, the rules are sacrosanct, and are binding in all circumstances.

One such example would be the first of the Ten Commandments, which reads, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.  You shall have no other gods before me.”[4]

The commandment to put God first, and to have nothing in life that would take God’s place, is binding in every situation.

And yet, there are times when the reality of human need asks us to make difficult choices between the requirements of law and the welfare of others.

One such example might be the reality of those who sheltered Jews during the period of the Second World War.  Many, when the Nazis came looking for Jews, lied to the Nazis about the presence of Jews in their homes.  Here, the need to protect innocent human lives from destruction took precedence over the requirement to be truthful.

When conflicting needs meet one another, we are asked to make mature judgments, using the gifts God has given us, the gifts to be able to reason, the gifts to weigh the importance of one need against another, the gifts apply the rules we live by to the realities of daily life with compassion and wisdom.

In so doing, we uphold the importance of keeping the rules, and the importance of recognizing human needs, holding both in tension.

Jesus seems to summarize this relationship when He said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  (Mark 2:27)

 AMEN.

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[1]  See Exodus 20: 3 – 17.

[2]   The term in Hebrew for this sort of a lesser-to-greater comparison is qal wehomer.

[3]   Romans 6: 1 – 7: 6

[4]   Exodus 20: 2 - 3

Pentecost 13, Year C

Proper 15 -- Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:1–2, 8-18; Hebrews 11:29–12:2; Luke 12:49-56

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, August 18, 2013.

“PEACE, BUT NO PEACE”

(Homily text:  Luke 12: 49 - 56)

Jesus says (in today’s gospel reading), “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.”

The gospel text we have before us today is probably one we’d rather skip altogether.  Perhaps we might be tempted, like Thomas Jefferson, to take our razor blade in hand and cut out this part of Luke’s gospel account because it offends our sensibilities.

 But the truth is that, nearly 2,000 years after the Lord spoke these words, they still hit us in the face, striking our consciences and searing our ears.  These words of the Lord constitute what scholars call one of the Lord’s “difficult sayings”.

(We can be thankful, however, that our cycle of lectionary readings forces us to face the “tough stuff” of the gospel by putting difficult texts in front of us.)

The truths of God that the Bible contains are meant to draw us into an ongoing life with God.  As part of that life, two realities emerge:

• There will be peace, the sort of peace that the Bible describes as the “peace that passes understanding”.  (Philippians 4:7)

• But this new reality will also bring division – a lack of peace – to those who come into a new life with God through Christ.  The division that results from this new allegiance to God will even divide families, the Lord says.

How can this be?  How can there be peace and discord, all at the same time?

An explanation of these two realities, which can exist side-by-side, arises from the new and governing reality of an intimate, ongoing relationship with God.  Let’s look at them, one-by-one, from this perspective:

• When we come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we find our truest and fullest self.  Consider the two realities that the Lord describes in today’s gospel text:  Fire and baptism. 

The Lord’s use of the word “fire” evokes biblical images of God’s judgment (a traditional association in the Bible).  Fire also purifies and refines.  But we would do well to remember that when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit’s power came like tongues of fire, alighting on each one gathered that day.  When we come into a relationship with the Father through the Son, we come, claiming God’s mercy through the purifying and refining fire of the Son’s sacrifice on the Cross.  We come, through the waters of baptism, to claim God’s offer of peace through Christ.  We come to claim the power of the Holy Spirit to energize and equip us to live out our life in Christ.

We come, having passed through the waters of baptism in a death like the Son’s, rising to a new life in a resurrection like His.  (See Romans 6: 3 – 9 for St. Paul’s explanation of this connection.)  We are now one with God.

A new and governing reality emerges from our former life.  Everything that went before now changes, forever.  We are at peace with God, for our sins have been put away by Christ’s redeeming work on the Cross.

• But this new reality will also change our relationships with everyone and everything in our lives:  Our relationships with others will take on a different hue, now that God’s place has become central to our life.  For those in our lives who are already believers, new bonds of identity and affection will emerge, as the common ground of a common faith emerge.  For those in our lives who are not believers, a lack of common ground in matters of faith will cause differences to emerge.  In many cases, this new reality won’t bring about a complete break of relating to others.  In some cases, however, that will be the new reality as non-believers disown the new Christian.

As Luke was writing his gospel account, sometime in the late first century, Christians were already living out this new reality as their new-found faith caused non-believers to disown them, often completely.  As time went along and the Roman persecutions of the Church became more and more severe, even family members would disclose the identities of their own family members as Christian believers.  Once the individual’s Christian identity became known, the risk of martyrdom became real. (Consider the case of Perpetua, who was martyred in 202 AD, as an example.)

Today, Christians in many part of the world where there is outright and severe opposition to the truths of the Christian faith risk disassociation of family members when a person becomes a believer.  In some cases, funeral rites are even held for the family member who abandons their earlier beliefs to take up their new life in Christ.  In the most severe circumstances, Christians are martyred for their faith.

Our Christian experience is somewhat different from the situations I’ve just described, I suspect, for we live in a country where freedom of religion is the governing reality of our common life together.  Furthermore, our expression of the Christian faith isn’t likely to cause us to become unpleasant or obnoxious persons to be around (no Christian ought to exhibit either of those qualities as a result of their faith!), so the reactions to our identities as Christians are likely to be mild by comparison with some places in the world where opposition to Christianity is pronounced.

And yet, just as we find in God that peace which the world cannot give, we will find that a new way of relating to others, even loved ones, will emerge.  As has been said a moment ago, we will find a new, common ground with family and friends who are already believers.  For others who are either only nominally Christian, or who are not believers at all, the basis we have had for sharing values and perspectives in common will change.  By our living, by the ways in which we love even those with whom we differ in our allegiances and in our perspectives, may we show forth in our lives the “new and more excellent way” (I Corinthians 12: 31) that knowing Christ brings.

AMEN.

 

           

Pentecost 12, Year C

Proper 14 -- Isaiah 1:10-20; Psalm 50:1–8, 23-24; Hebrews 11:1–3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40

 

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, August 11, 2013.

 

“A PRIMER ON FAITH”

(Homily text:  Hebrews 11:1–3, 8-16)

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

This wonderful verse opens what is, perhaps, the most well-known and best-loved part of the Letter to the Hebrews.  What follows throughout all of chapter eleven is a wonderful treatise on faith.  It is loaded with examples of the wonderful saints of ancient times who were known for their faith – and for their faithful living. 

We read only a portion of the list provided in chapter eleven.  Our lectionary concentrates only on the mighty works of Abraham and Sarah.  Responding to the reality – the unseen reality – of God’s presence in their lives, they obey God’s leading.  Their obedience to the Lord takes visible shape as their lives and the deeds done in their lives are seen.

But I am getting ahead of myself, I think.

We ought to back up a little, back to the opening verse of chapter eleven, with which we began this homily.  Let’s look at it again:

The verse centers around two key words.  I will highlight them in italics, and will provide alternative translations of the two Greek words, to show how translators have struggled to capture the sense of the author’s intent:

 

Let's read the various translations to get a sense of the difficulty involved:

 

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  (Revised Standard Version) [1]

 

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see.”  (New International Version)

 

“Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen.”  (The Jerusalem Bible) [2]

 

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  (The Authorized – or King James – Version)

“Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see.”  (Common English Bible)

It is, perhaps, this last version cited, the Common English Bible, that comes closest to capturing the sense of the two key words in the first verse….

Those two key words are:        Reality              Proof

And yet, if we look more closely at that first verse, we see that the author tells us that the proof is not seen, and that the reality is hoped for.

Following on this opening, the author confirms the seen and unseen aspects of faith by citing the creation itself as being evidence of this key to understanding the mystery of faith…the author says (in verse three) that “By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.”

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews states that the visible creation was made from things that cannot be seen.  And, of course, that same creation was made by the God who cannot be seen.

So, let’s look at the seen and unseen aspects of our walk of faith with God.

The first observation we might make is that the reality of God’s presence in our lives often constitutes an unseen presence.  God’s presence is no less real, as a result, however.  If we look back over our shoulders at the road of life which lies behind us, hopefully there is evidence of God’s presence, side-by-side on the road of life, to know and to see, if only by the eyes of faith.

It is no wonder that people of faith recite God’s saving acts in their prayers, giving thanks to God for His mighty works and His consistent presence in their lives.  In our own Eucharistic prayers, we recite God’s saving act in sending the Lord Jesus Christ to take on our humanity, to live and die as one of us.[3]

It is a good – and a necessary – thing for us to remember God’s great and wonderful acts in the times that now lie behind us.  We do this in a corporate sense in our Sunday morning worship as we recite God’s saving acts at the beginning of every Eucharistic prayer.  But we need to do it privately, too, as we take stock of God’s presence and action in our lives.

Such a retrospective on our lives together as God’s people and our in our own individual life as a child of God nurtures us, confirming the basis for our faith.  It strengthens us, enabling us to face the uncertain present and the unseen and unknown future.  Uncertainty is thus overcome by God, the God who has been there in the past, the God who sustains us in the present, the God who will stand by us, step-by-step, into the future.

Of course, as we move forward on the pathway of life, we are moving toward the final fulfillment of God’s promises for us, for once this life is ended, we will see God in all His wonderful glory, face-to-face.  What we see through a glass darkly now, will be seen with clarity at that time (to paraphrase St. Paul’s wonderful characterization of our life now and our life in the world which is to come in I Corinthians 13).  The life we live by faith will no longer have a need for faith, for what we see only by the eyes of faith now will be fully revealed to us.

Faith allows us to make a visible reality of the presence of God as we act out of the faith we have residing within us.  Put another way, faith make the unseen seen in people’s lives.

To act in this way, living faithfully and in faith, allows us to make God’s Kingdom a visible and concrete reality in this imperfect and fallen world.  Heaven breaks in, and God’s will is done in earth even as His will is done in heaven (as the Lord taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer).

May God’s gift of faith be deeply rooted in our hearts and minds. May it be fully nurtured so that it may grow to maturity, bearing fruit for God’s Kingdom in this world, until – in God’s good time - we see God face-to-face.

AMEN.

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[1]  The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translates the verse in exactly the same manner, as does the English Standard Version (ESV).

[2]   This translation obviously takes more words – almost in a paraphrase fashion – to communicate the sense of the author.  However, this translation captures much of the exact sense of the two key words of the Greek quite well.

[3]  The technical term for this sort of remembrance is called the Anamnesis.  The term, of course, comes from the Greek, where it literally means the “not forgetting.”

Pentecost 11, Year C

Proper 13 -- Hosea 11:1-11; Psalm 107:1–9, 43; Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 12:13-21

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, August 4, 2013.

“MATERIALLY RICH, SPIRITUALLY POOR”

“The one who dies with the most toys, wins!”

Perhaps every one of us has seen or heard this statement…maybe we’ve seen it on a bumper sticker in the car in front of us, or perhaps we’ve heard someone say it.  We may have even said it ourselves.

All humor aside, the statement characterizes the attitudes of many in our society today...living out that attitude, many accumulate and acquire all sorts of things.  Many of these acquisitions are designed to amuse us or to offer opportunities for recreation.  Other acquisitions fall into the “bigger and better” category.  Our society is surrounded with “stuff”!

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus captures the spirit of the age in which He came to be with us.  In the story that has come to be known as the “Parable of the Rich Fool”, He portrays a highly successful man who reflects on his accomplishments and his successes, saying, “I will do this:  I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods….”

To Jesus’ original audience, the rich man would have been regarded as a devout, religious man who had lived an upright and holy life, piously following the commandments of God as they are found in the Law of Moses.  The attitude in those days might be captured this way:  Live a righteous and holy life, and you will be successful, for God will bless you for your good deeds and your obedience. 

These ancient attitudes were based on a person’s being able to earn God’s favor and blessings.

But Jesus continues by saying this about the rich man:  “Fool!  This night your soul is required of you, and the things that you have prepared, whose will they be?”

Jesus’ statement is meant to shock.  It is meant to awaken the slumbering consciences of His audience into seeing the truth of the man’s spiritual condition.

In so doing, He turns the expectations of his hearers on their heads.

(It is worth noting that Luke delights on passing along parables like this one, in which Jesus reverses the normal course of events and expectations.)

The attitudes that were common in Jesus’ day persist today.  Oftentimes, when we see someone who has a lot of “stuff”, we might tend to think that they are blessed for what they have.  Maybe we might think that they have all that “stuff” because they’ve worked hard, or because they’ve created good opportunities in life.

The bottom line of the attitudes that are common today, and those that were common 2,000 years ago, have something in common:  Both are based on a person’s ability to earn the things they possess.

Earning a place in God’s favor lies at the heart of the attitudes of many in Jesus’ day, as we said a moment ago.  So Jesus’ parable, seen in this light, strikes at the suppositions of the Judaism of those days….Jesus is saying to them (and to us) that we cannot earn our way into a relationship with God.

Our relationship with God cannot be a matter of “If I do this for you, you (God) will do that for me.”

No, our relationship with God must be based on God’s goodness and graciousness towards us, and our response, made in faith, to God’s goodness and graciousness.

So we live faithfully and in faith, not keeping score with God of the things we do, in expectation that God will respond, deed for deed.

To be rich spiritually is to live faithfully in relationship to God through Christ, showing our thankfulness for God’s goodness, God’s graciousness, God’s generosity seen in Jesus Christ.

The spiritual reality is that we cannot earn God’s favor.  But we can respond to God’s presence in our lives, for He is the giver of all good and perfect gifts, especially the gift of Jesus Christ.  To live this way is to live in a relationship of love toward God.  To live otherwise is to live a life based on duty.

May we, by the power of the Holy Spirit, be enabled to live thankfully and faithfully in relationship to God the Father through God the Son.

AMEN.