Wednesday, December 24, 2014

A homily given at a funeral



Isaiah 61: 1 – 3; Psalm 23; Revelation 7: 9 – 17

A homily given by Fr. Gene Tucker, on the occasion of The Burial Office for Gordon Longhta at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul the Apostle, Springfield, Illinois on Wednesday, December 24, 2014.

“LOVING AND LOSING”



            Not long ago, my younger daughter, Julie, and I had an email conversation that had to do with her two wonderful, young sons.  One of these two boys is five years old, and the other one is eight months old.
            Julie and her husband, Fraz, are loving the business of being parents.  They love every minute of parenting, just about.
            So Julie expressed the joys of loving these two boys.  But she also expressed the sorrow at losing them as they continue to grow, get older, move along with their own lives and then to be out on their own someday.  She expressed this sense of loss by saying something on the order of, “Don’t grow too quickly, let me savor these times and these days.”
            As I reflected on what she’d said, a quote from Alfred, Lord Tennyson, came to mind.  Tennyson reflected on loving and losing in this way:
                        ‘Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.[1]
            Love and loss are the two things that bring us together here this morning, as we celebrate God’s gift to us that was given in the life of Gordon Longhta.  It’s been our joy to love Gordon as a husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, friend, co-worker and associate, and church member.
            The ties of love that bind us together with him are indestructible.  The ties of love that bind us together outlive and outlast the separation that death brings.
            And yet, there is a profound sense of loss.
            For the curtain of death has been pulled between us.  We no longer see Gordon in the ways that we were able to before.
            Gordon’s death reminds us that, at life’s end, we will lose everything we have, except love.  We cannot separate ourselves from the love that God has for us, love which is seen most clearly in the person and saving work of Jesus Christ.
           
            St. Paul expresses this reality at the end of chapter eight of his wonderful letter to the early Christians in Rome.  He expresses the reality that nothing will ever separate us from the love of God this way:  “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
            Gordon learned about the depth and the long-lasting nature of God’s love here in this Cathedral Church.  Somewhere here this morning, a photocopy of an article from the Cathedral’s newsletter shows Gordon as a ten year old boy, being an acolyte for the blessing of the farm that was located south of where the Knights Action Park is now located, is circulating.  Gordon was involved in the faith life of this Cathedral from a very early age, and he was steeped in the business of learning just how much God loves us.  He learned that God’s love lasts through all eternity.  We can be thankful that Gordon now knows just how deeply and intensely God loves, for he stands in God’s very presence now.
            The spiritual foundation that was laid here in this Cathedral would carry him forward through life, as he finished high school, served in the Air National Guard, and then met and married Margaret on April 23, 1960 at Ware’s Grove Lutheran Church (which is located off Illinois Route 127 just south of Raymond, Illinois).
            Despite having a twelfth grade education, he became, in time, the Director of the Illinois Railroad Association, a position that caused him to meet Governors, Senators and other officials on a regular basis.
            Gordon never lost the common touch.  He loved gardening, and became a Master Gardener.  He loved animals.  (Margaret tells the story that each one of them had a heart for homeless animals:  One rescued dogs and the other one rescued cats.)
            He loved his family, and spent lots of time with them.  I am told that weekends in the Longhta home were often places where family and friends, often large numbers of them, gathered for fellowship and fun.
            Here is a man with a generous and loving heart.
            And yet, we meet this morning with heavy hearts and mixed emotions….we celebrate Gordon’s life – this morning – on the eve of what would have been his 77th birth anniversary (he was born on Christmas Day), even as the Cathedral in which we gather is decorated for the Christmas services that will take place here later tonight.  Yet we greet his death with a sense of mourning and loss, mixed with relief that the suffering of this life that marked the recent months of Gordon’s life are now over.
            Thank you, Lord, for the gift of Gordon to us.
            Thank you, Lord, for the gift of your love for Gordon and for us, made known in Christ Jesus.
            Thank you, Lord, for bearing us up in our sorrow and loss.
AMEN.


[1]   From In Memoriam XXVII

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Advent 4, Year B


II Samuel 7: 4, 8-16; Psalm 132: 8-15; Romans 16: 25-27; Luke 1: 26-38

The following is homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois on Sunday, December 21, 2014.

“WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE SAY ‘YES’?”
(Homily text:  Luke 1: 26 - 38)

            What happens when we say “Yes”?  

            In particular, what happens when we say “Yes” to God’s invitation?

            When we answer “Yes”, things change for us, and for the better.  When we answer “Yes”, God’s will comes into being in this world; things change, and they change for the better.  They change for all eternity.

            We have before us this morning the very familiar gospel reading which tells us of the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary, a reading tells us that she had found favor with God, and that God had chosen her to be the mother of a very special child.  Usually, this passage is known by the title “The Annunciation”.

            The Blessed Virgin is the ultimate example of saying “Yes” to God’s invitation.  And because of her willingness to be the agent of God’s will, we – along with all generations – call her “blessed”.  (See Luke 1: 49.)

            The immense implications of what Gabriel said might seem to escape our notice.  After all, we may have become so familiar with this event that it’s likely that most of us could relate the main points of the conversation between Gabriel and Mary quite accurately.  But the implications of this event ought to strike our consciences anew.  For God – in choosing Mary – had chosen to break into world history in a new and dramatic way.  The world would never be the same, as a result.

            To gain a sense of what saying “Yes” to God’s plan meant for Mary and for us, we ought to begin by thinking about the expectations that Mary may have had about the way her life would unfold prior to Gabriel’s visit.

            Mary was – quite likely – very young at the time of the Annunciation.  Some scholars think she may have been a young teenager.  In the Jewish culture of 2,000 years ago, young men and young women married quite early in life.  There were some good reasons for that:  For one thing, people didn’t live very long, in many cases.  For another, most couples lived within a community in which there was an extended family, so resources were often available to support a young couple.  Another reason for those early marriages was the reality that, for most, their career goals and aspirations were quite simple, so a long period of education and training such as we have today would have been unnecessary.

            This last point brings us to Mary’s life goals.

            In the culture of the time, the large majority of women harbored expectations that they would be married (hopefully, married to a good husband), that they would become parents, and that they would manage the household’s affairs and raise the children.  The culture of the time – in contrast to our contemporary culture in the western world – could be characterized as being a simple, agrarian culture.

            So Gabriel’s announcement shakes Mary’s life goals and expectations to the core.  I think we can see this in her response which says, “How can this (God’s plan) be, since I have no husband?”  Gabriel portrays God’s plan on a grand scale, invoking the name of David, the great and revered king who had lived 1,000 years earlier.  The child Mary will bear will inherit David’s mantle.  David’s kingdom will be the kingdom of this child.

            Cosmic stuff, this.

            And yet, God’s plan carries with it immense risk for Mary.

            After all, as we remarked a moment ago, Mary is living in a simple, traditional culture.  Moreover, she is living in Nazareth, which was – in those days – quite a small village.  People tended to know pretty much everyone else’s business, just as people tend to do in small towns today.

            And people knew that Joseph and Mary were engaged, but everyone also knew that they hadn’t been married yet.  So being pregnant with a child was a real problem for Mary and for Joseph.  (Matthew’s gospel account fleshes out the dilemma that Joseph faces when he finds out that Mary is expecting….see Matthew 1: 18 – 19.)

            Saying “Yes” to God’s plan involved change, and it involved risk.

            So, given that reality, it’s possible, I suppose, that Mary could have told Gabriel that her answer was “No”.

            But, she didn’t.  She said “Yes”.

            And as a result, the whole world changed, and the whole world benefitted from her willingness to be the avenue by which God would announce His love for the world and His plan to offer a way to the Father.  Jesus Christ is that perfect example of God’s love and He is the way to the Father.

            You and I have come into a relationship with God through the work of His Son, Jesus Christ.  Mary’s faithfulness leads to a direct benefit for us.

            It is also worth saying that, in saying “Yes” to God’s invitation, Mary found her truest and best self, for she had found herself to be perfectly in God’s will.  She set aside her life’s expectations and goals, assumed the risk involved in doing so, and in so doing provided an immense benefit to you and me.

            Mary’s “Yes” to God serves as a model for us.

            When God calls us to do something, we have the option to either say “Yes” or to answer “No”.

            When we say “Yes”, things will change for us and for others.  We may have to lay aside many or most of our previous ideas about what we would do with our lives, just as Mary did.

            Saying “Yes” might involve some risk.  We may have to learn a new skill or become proficient at a new ministry in order to be faithful to our willingness to follow God’s will.  People may have to get used to the idea that we will be different, somehow, from what we had been before.

            But when we say “Yes” to God’s invitation, God’s will comes into being, and others benefit.  After all, God’s main interest seems to be human beings and human affairs.  Those two realities seem to matter quite a lot to God.

            When we say “Yes”, things will change forever, for the things done in this life serve to shape us for an eternity we will spend with God.

            As we said a moment ago, this is cosmic stuff, indeed.

            May our prayer be this:  “Almighty God, may we – like your servant Mary – say ‘Yes” to your call when it comes, laying aside all expectations and plans that conflict with your call on our lives.  May we assume the risks involved in following your will, so that we may be faithful to you and be a benefit to others.  May we remember that saying ‘Yes’ changes things for the better, and for eternity.  We pray these things through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord.  Amen.”

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Advent 3, Year B



Isaiah 65: 17-25; Psalm 126 - or - the Magnificat; I Thessalonians 5: 12-28; John 1: 6–8, 19-28

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois on Sunday, December 14, 2014.

“SIGNS”
(Homily text:  John 1: 6–8, 19-28)

            Ever think about how important signs are?

            Signs warn us:  “Danger, road closed ahead.”

            Signs encourage us:  “Just two miles to the best restaurant in town.”

            Signs direct us:  “To I-55, second right.”

            Signs are meant to point to something greater or more important than themselves:  Consider what happens when we’ve been following sign after sign along the roadway, each one announcing some attraction or another.  The signs which have been encouraging us, mile after mile, lose their importance if the establishment they’ve been trying to get us to see is no longer in existence.

            The fact is that we rely on signs, all kinds of them, every day.

            There was a time when each of us first came to this Cathedral….Try to think back to that time (yes, I know that, for some, it’s been quite awhile!).  If your experience was anything like mine, I knew that I had to find my way to the corner of 2nd Street and Lawrence.  So, once I’d gotten on 2nd Street, I continued until I saw the sign for Lawrence.  By then, of course, the Cathedral had come into view, and so, I suppose, I probably looked at the sign out front just to be sure I was at the right place.

            Newcomers to the Cathedral might use the sign out front to be sure that they’ve found their way to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, and to be sure what time Mass is celebrated.

            So putting all of these things together, the street signs, the sign in front of the Cathedral, and the sign that tells us when services are held all serve to assure us that we are in the right place at the right time.

            Even in this age of GPS hand-held devices, which can direct us right to the place we’re trying to go, signs still help to confirm what that wonderful, small device is telling us.

            John, the one who was baptizing in the River Jordan, was a sign.  He was a sign of warning, a sign of encouragement, a sign that pointed to the ultimate destination, Jesus Christ.  He was a sign that pointed beyond himself to one who was greater than he.

            These observations bring us to our gospel reading for this morning, which is taken from the first chapter of the gospel account according to John.

            Several aspects of our reading deserve closer attention.

            First of all, notice that the gospel writer does not tell us what John was doing.  Matthew’s gospel account, for example, names John as the “Baptist” or the “Baptizer.”[1]  Mark and Luke tell us that John was baptizing with a baptism for the repentance of sins.  However, this gospel account tells us that John (the Baptizer) was a witness to the light, which is Jesus Christ, the light that was coming into the world.  So, we might conclude that John (the Baptizer) was a sign, a sign of warning to get ready for the coming of the one who was mightier than John was.

            As we jump ahead to the next mention of John in this first chapter of the Fourth Gospel, we notice that a group of priests and Levites have come to see what this man was doing.  They ask him, “Who are you?”  Instead of asking him, “Are you the Prophet, or are you Elijah, or are you the Messiah?” they simply ask, “Who are you?”

            John cuts straight to the heart of the matter and says, “I am not the Christ.”[2]

            In response, these emissaries from Jerusalem ask two further questions that are related to John’s denial…they ask if he is Elijah, or if he is the Prophet.

            We would do well to pause here for a moment and examine the connections between John’s first answer and these two succeeding questions.

            In Jesus’ day, many Jews were looking for the Christ, the Messiah, to come.  Allow me to digress just a moment…..I suspect that those who had made their way from Jerusalem to seek John out weren’t looking for the Messiah.  Most likely, they were checking John out, since the John had become a well-known sign of warning to the complacent people of God in Jesus’ day.  It’s likely these visitors had come to see if John’s activity and ministry was a threat to their monopoly on the religious life of the Jewish people.

            But now, let’s return to the matter of the connection between the Messiah, Elijah and the Prophet.

            Many Jews took an oracle which is found in Malachi 4: 5 as a sign that Elijah would return before the coming of the Messiah.  Malachi’s prophecy reads this way:  “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.” 

            So since John had mentioned that he was not the Messiah, it was, most likely, a question which naturally follows John’s denial.  So, they ask John, “Are you Elijah?”  The point seems to be that, if John wasn’t the Messiah, then could he have been (or think he was) the Messiah’s forerunner.

            The next question also follows in the same line of thinking….they then ask, “Are you the Prophet?”  Here, the words of Moses come into view, as we find them in Deuteronomy 18: 15, which reads, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers – it is to him you shall listen.”  Many Jews expected the Messiah to be one like Moses, a great prophet.

            Notice that John consistently points beyond himself to another One.  John is merely a sign, and as we have observed, signs are meant to point us to something other than the signs themselves.

            In the verse which next follows the end of our gospel reading for this morning, John will exclaim as Jesus passes by, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”[3]  (John 1: 29)  With this statement, it is as if John is saying, “Here is the one you’ve been looking for.”  Taking John as a sign, with this declaration, John is saying, in essence, “You’ve arrived at your destination.”

            You and I are called to be signs.

            We are called to bear witness to the light of Christ that has come into the world with the coming of Jesus Christ.  We received that light when we entered the waters of baptism.

            We are called to be signs of encouragement, bearing witness to the reality that, with Christ, all things are possible.  We are called to be signs of the truth that God can make all things new, no matter the circumstances or problems of life that seem to choke off any possibility of a new or better life.

            We are called to be signs of God’s love in a very unloving and cruel world.

            We are called to be a sign, along with John, that the Messiah is here among us, full of grace and truth.

            We are called to be a sign that says, “When you have found Christ, you are home!”

AMEN.


[1]   I sometimes think that the term “Baptist” is replaced with “Baptizer” so as to avoid confusion with the Christian denominations that are known as “Baptists”.
[2]   The word “Christ” comes to us from the Greek.  It is equivalent to the word which means the same thing, “Messiah”, which comes to us from the Hebrew.  Both terms mean the “Anointed One”.
[3]   It is worth noting that John’s statement has found its way into our liturgy, where we say or sing, “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world.”  This is known as the Agnus Dei.