Easter 2, Year A

Acts 2: 14a, 22–32; Psalm 16; I Peter 1: 3–9; John 20: 19–31

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, April 27, 2014.

“FOUNDATIONS”

(Homily texts:  Acts 2: 14a, 22–32 & John 20: 19–31)

As we remember the Lord’s appearance to His disciple, Thomas, on the first Sunday following the first Easter, let’s talk a little this morning about foundations, for the Lord, in appearing to Thomas, is providing Thomas with the foundation that Thomas will need in order to believe in the Lord’s resurrection.  Let’s consider this event from the perspective of the foundation that the Lord provided for Thomas.

Foundations affect just about everything:  Foundations support the things we build.  Foundations support the ways in which we think.  Foundations support the ways we believe.  If we think about it, nearly everything in our lives has some sort of a foundation.

Consider, for example, our Trinity church building….when the contracts were signed and the builders began work, just about the first thing they did after having cleared the land was to begin digging for the foundation.  And, since this building was built in the first decade of the last century, it’s a pretty good guess that the work was done the hard way, with picks and shovels.  That’s a lot of work.  But that hard work had to precede what would come later, the building of the walls and the installation of the roof.  Without a good foundation, the building would not be stable, and its life span would be considerably shortened.

As the work on our church building continued, the workers would have had to erect scaffolding so that they could stand at the level that the walls had reached.  In essence, then, the scaffolding that became part of the work later on also served as part of the foundation that the builders needed in order to have a base from which to work.

In the area of thinking and behavior, our country’s Constitution serves as a foundation for the ways in which our country’s government will function.  Its enduring importance can be seen in the ways in which the courts are asked to determine if certain actions are in accordance with the Constitution.  Nearly every civic organization (and many churches) has a constitution, and some also have some sort of bylaws, which serve as the basis for the way in which the organization will function.

The Christian faith also has a foundation.  That foundation rests, primarily, on all the things having do to with Jesus Christ.  (Of course, the Old Testament parts of the Bible also form part of our foundation.)  The Christian faith is built on the witness of Jesus’ disciples, as we hear Peter relate in our reading from the Book of Acts this morning. These disciples are the ones who would become Apostles once He had sent them out to tell the Good News of God in Christ to the world after He had ascended into heaven.  So the New Testament is the written record of the eyewitnesses to all that Jesus did, but especially to His resurrection on Easter Sunday morning.  The New Testament is also the record of the beginnings of the Church, and of letters to those early Churches that often deal with specific problems and challenges.  So our foundation, the thing that supports how we think, what we believe, and how we will act, is the Bible.  For us as Anglican Christians, the Bible is the most important part of our foundation as Christian believers.

However, in addition to the Holy Scriptures, there are two other important parts of the foundation that allows us to believe in God, to come to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and to know how to act:  That second source upon which we base all these things is our ability to think, or, as the 16th century Anglican priest, Richard Hooker,[1] would call it:  Right Reason.  Hooker made it clear that the Bible was the most important part of our foundation.  Right Reason would help support what we can understand about the Bible, but Right Reason cannot replace the Bible’s primary place as the foundation for faith.  Our ability to think allows us to understand at least some of what the Bible has to say.  Our ability to think allows us to make wiser choices than we might otherwise make, the Holy Spirit being our helper, counselor and guide.

But then there is a third part of our foundation for belief, and that is what Richard Hooker called Tradition.  Tradition consists, to a large extent, of what the Church’s founders believed, and by what has been affirmed by Christians everywhere and in every age.  That may be a somewhat simplistic explanation of what Tradition is, but I think it does justice to the concept.  It is worth adding here that tradition stretches back into time, transcending local customs in a local church.  Those customs and ways of doing things that we, at the local level, do may be part of our local tradition, but Tradition in the truest sense takes in all of Christian history.

We would do well to back up, at this point, and take a look at the disciple Thomas’ demand for a foundation for believing.  Remember that, in our gospel reading this morning,  John tells us that Thomas was not present when the Lord appeared to the other disciples.  So when Thomas was told that the Lord had come and had appeared to them, Thomas told the others that he would not believe unless he had physical proof of the Lord’s resurrection.  Thomas’ words were, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

We might characterize Thomas’ demand as a demand to have some basis, some foundation, for faith in the Lord’s resurrection.  Thomas wants to be sure that the Lord had really come to life again.  He wanted to be so sure that he demanded physical proof of the Lord’s risen state….he not only wanted to see the mark[2] of the nails, but he also demanded to touch the mark of the nails and the spear wound in the Lord’s side.

Notice that the Lord offers Thomas just what Thomas demanded, as He said, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it into my side.  Do not doubt,[3] but believe.”

In response, Thomas exclaims, “My Lord and my God!”

Thomas now had the foundation he needed to go and tell the world that he had seen the risen Lord.  Tradition tells us that Thomas went as far as the subcontinent of India, telling that Good News.

These many years later, we Christians today have a foundation for our faith:  That foundation rests on the eyewitness accounts of the Apostles, who saw the risen Lord, and whose lives were completely changed as a result of their encounter with the risen Christ.  The four Gospel accounts of the New Testament serve as a written record of the things that Jesus did, and of the disciples’ experience of those things.  These things are the primary foundation for our Christian faith.

Our basis for believing also rests on our ability to see God in action in the world around us, and in the lives of those we know.  Our ability to think (Right Reason) allows us to understand what God is doing as people’s lives are changed, and as those we know come to new life in their faith walk with God.

Our basis for believing also rests on the Traditions of the body of Christ, known as the Church.  Like scaffolding that surrounds a building, this body of Tradition rests on the foundation of the Holy Scriptures.  It cannot stand on its own, but rests on the apostolic witness to Christ.  Tradition rises, like scaffolding around a building, as the years roll along.  Tradition must rest on the foundation of Holy Scripture.

So, though we have not seen the Lord as Thomas saw Him, physically present, may we be blessed in coming to belief in the risen Lord through the witness of John’s gospel account, as the Lord commends us this morning. 

May we come to exclaim, with Thomas, “My Lord and my God!”

AMEN.

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[1]   Richard Hooker, 1554 – 1600, is the author of a large work called The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity.  He is remembered for his explanation of the three sources of authority for Christian belief.  Sometimes, Hooker’s explanation is called the “three legged-stool”, as if to suggest that the Bible, Right Reason and Tradition are equal parts of our foundation for belief. That is a mischaracterization of what Hooker maintained, for he made it clear that the Bible was primary, and the Bible was followed by Right Reason and then by Tradition in their order of importance.

[2]   The Greek word which is usually translated as “mark” (topos – from which we get the English word “topography”) literally means “place”.

[3]   The word usually used in the translations of  this part of Jesus’ statement is “doubt”.  The better translation of the Greek word would be “faithless” (Greek:  apistos).  Of course it is the use of the word “doubt” which has given rise to the phrase “Doubting Thomas”.

The Feast of the Resurrection (Easter Sunday), Year A

Acts 10: 34 - 43; Psalm 118: 1 – 2, 14 - 24; Colossians 3: 1 - 4;  John 20: 1 - 18

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, April 20, 2014.

“WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE? – PART IV”

(Homily texts:  Acts 10: 34 – 43 & John 20: 1 - 18)

All through this Holy Week, our homilies have focused on the question, “What difference does it make?”

We’ve explored the difference that Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, His institution of the Lord’ Supper on Maundy Thursday evening, and then His suffering and His death, on Good Friday, all have made for everyone who comes to faith in Him.

Now we stand at the moment of rejoicing, as we remember that the Lord rose from the dead and came out of the tomb on Easter Sunday morning.

As we conclude our homily series, asking ourselves the question we’ve been exploring during this past week, let’s pose the question, “What difference does it (the Lord’s resurrection) make, anyway?”

As we ponder an answer to that question, let’s also pose another, closely related question, to ourselves: 

Do we believe that Jesus Christ actually, physically rose from the dead on Easter Sunday morning?

This question usually prompts the following three main responses, which are:

            1.  No, Jesus did not actually rise from the dead.  Events such as this are impossible.

            2.  Well, maybe Jesus did – or did not – rise from the dead.  The answer is impossible to know, because what we are relying on is the witness of some ancient persons whose religious perceptions are different from ours, and whose sense of reality might also be different from ours.

            3.  Yes, Jesus actually did rise from the dead.

How we answer the question will make a difference in our relationship with God, it seems to me.

Perhaps it would be good for us to consider these three possible responses, and as we do so, to consider what outcomes might proceed from each answer.

The first response, “No, Jesus did not actually rise from the dead,” is the response of many in the world today.  Most non-believers fall into this category, but so do some who are happy to be called Christians.  We can understand this response, for the Easter event isn’t one that takes place in normal, everyday human experience.  Many who hold this view of the Easter story struggle to accept the idea that miracles such as Jesus’ coming to life again happen at all.

The second response, which cannot affirm or deny that Jesus rose from the dead, holds that the people who were involved in the original event may have had such different perceptions of reality that it is difficult for those of us who now live 2,000 years later to sort out what is reality from what is perception.  Those who share this view of the Easter event include non-believers and some Christians.

Perhaps a common thread connects these two responses to our question, for both responses place a great deal of weight on the possibilities that lie within our human ability to experience.  Those who dismiss the possibility that Jesus rose from the dead do so because of the belief that a person simply can’t come back to life again.  Those who are skeptical of the written record of the first Easter event aren’t sure of the truth of it because they do not trust the perceptions of those who were involved in it.

The third response, however, accepts the reality of the Lord’s resurrection.  It is fair to say that those who respond in this way do so by faith.  The fact is that the Easter event does, indeed, lie outside the realm of normal, human experience.  Faith is the avenue which allows us to accept the resurrection as actual, physical reality, and to become believers in what God has done in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Yes, faith is the avenue which allows us to accept the idea that God has the power to work outside the limits of normal, human experience.  And if this is so, then it’s possible that the record of Jesus’ mighty deeds in healing the sick and raising the dead are also true.  If God’s mighty acts, done through Jesus Christ, are faithfully mirrored in the pages of Holy Scripture, then we can say with assurance that God is not only interested in human beings’ lives, but that God also has the power to change things, and to intervene in human affairs for the betterment of the human condition.

Many times in His earthly ministry, the Lord commended those who had come to Him for help, telling them that their faith had made it possible for God to do a mighty work in their lives.

Now, the Lord stands before us, and commends us for believing that God has the power to raise Jesus from the dead.  That same Lord stands before us today, asking us to look for the ways in which He will work miracles in our own lives, and in the lives of others in the day in which we live.

For if we respond in faith, our response holds all the possibility that it will make all the difference in the world.

AMEN.

The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday, Year A

Isaiah 50: 4 – 9a; Psalm 22: 1 - 11; Philippians 2: 5 - 11; Matthew 26: 14 – 27: 66

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, April 13, 2014.

“WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE – PART I”

“What difference does it make?”  In our lives, we often ask ourselves this question when we are considering an issue.  We can put the question another way, as we might ask, “How does this affect me?”  In essence, what we are doing is to assess the possible benefits – or the possible problems – that might be associated with the matter at hand.

As we stand now at the beginning of Holy Week, this question might be a good one to pose to ourselves.  Perhaps we might ask ourselves, “What difference do the events of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter make for my life?”

(I will admit to you that the entire series of homilies that will come from this priest’s mind as this Holy Week unfolds will all carry the title “What difference does it make?”)

So, just what difference do these events, which took place so long ago, in a culture that is – in some respects – far different than ours, make, anyway?

After all, the event that took place on Good Friday in the time that Jesus walked the earth wasn’t all that unusual.  The Romans – for all their wonderful contributions to culture, architecture and law - were a brutal people.  They were an especially brutal people in dealing with nations that they had conquered, like the Jews.  They ruled with an iron hand, and anyone who dared to challenge their authority usually met with a predictable end.

All of those ingredients were present in Jesus’ trial and execution.  Jesus was a Jew, a member of a conquered people, and therefore, was subject to the possibility of being crucified.  (Slaves could also be crucified, but a Roman citizen could not be crucified, except for the crime of treason.)  So seeing a Jewish man on a cross was a stark reminder that said to all who watched, “You are a conquered nation.”  Moreover, another message that crucifixion was meant to convey was the idea that if someone stepped out of line, there was no shortage of wood and nails to bring that person to the same end.

We’ve gotten a much clearer picture of the way things were 2,000 years ago in recent times, as many books have been written that rely on historical sources to capture a snapshot of the daily lives of people living in the Holy Land under Roman rule.

So, just what difference does all of this make to us?

The answer, of course, is that, for people of faith, these events make all the difference in the world.

Why?

Allow me to suggest that they make a difference because of the identity of the One who is at the center of all of them:  Jesus.

They also make a difference because the depths of horror and despair that are at the heart of Good Friday stand in sharp contrast to the joy and the victory of Easter.

May I invite each one of us to make this entire journey together as Holy Week unfolds?  The events of this week are meant to be experienced, one by one, step by step.  They unfold in a wonderful way, and the joy of Easter will be so much the greater if we are willing to walk with the Lord through Maundy Thursday, to Good Friday, to Easter.

I look forward to seeing you at service on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Great Vigil of Easter on Saturday evening, and, of course, on Easter Sunday morning.  Please plan to be present for each one.

Lent 5, Year A

Ezekiel 37: 1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8: 6-11; John 11: 1-45

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, April 6, 2014.

“GOD’S UNLIMITED POWER”

(Homily texts:  Ezekiel 37:1–14 &  John 11: 1–45)

            When I was a teenager, my parents bought a new/used car, a 1957 Buick Special.  (OK, I am showing my age!)  This car was red on the top and white on the bottom, and it came into our family when it was three years old.  My dad had some reservations about buying it, because he thought it looked too snazzy.

            But those reservations were overcome, and the Tucker family took possession of this really neat-looking car.

            One day, dad and I were going somewhere, and he looked over at me and said, “Let’s see what this thing will do.”  With that, he put his foot down on the accelerator and the car took off, thanks to that big V-8 engine.[1]

            We were traveling down a four lane, divided highway, with stoplights here and there.  Fortunately, there were no lights on the stretch we were on, and no cross traffic got in our way, either.  The car went faster and faster.  The scenery began to whiz by.  I thought to myself, “What if we get pulled over?  I’m sure my dad will go to jail.  Then what will I do, since I can’t drive?  Will someone call my mother to come get us?”

            Those momentary concerns evaporated when my dad looked over at me and said, “110.”  “Pretty fast car, huh?” he added. 

            We began to slow down, for which I was thankful.  After all, we could have been pulled over.  For another, we could have had a wreck (no seat belts in those days!). Fortunately, neither one of those things happened.

            Though that memorable experience lasted only a minute or two, the memories linger these many years later. 

            Dad and I found out just how powerful that old Buick was.  We knew, from that day forward, just what it could do.  (Fortunately, dad never drove that car –or any other one - that fast again, and had a clean driving record until the day he died.)

            What my dad did isn’t advisable.  I don’t recommend that any of us try it.

            But what drove my dad to find out how powerful that old car was illustrates something that each of us does day in and day out:  We have to find out what capabilities the things we use have.  For example, we need to know if the cleaning soap we are using has the power to dissolve the grease on the pan we’re trying to clean.  That would be just one example of our need to know how powerful something is.  Knowing that an item we are using can do what we need it to do is an important part of everyday living.

            Jesus’ disciples needed to know what Jesus’ power could do.  After all, they would be the ones who would go out into the world, telling the world what Jesus had done, and could do.  They worked miracles – much as Jesus did – as they proclaimed the Good News of what God had done in sending Jesus to earth.

            Which brings us to today’s gospel text.

            In today’s gospel text, Jesus demonstrates the power of God that brought His friend Lazarus back to life.  And what we see is that Jesus’ power is unlimited.  It is a power than can conquer even death.

            As we look at the text, we see clearly that God the Father’s power is the source of new life for Lazarus.  Jesus looks up to heaven and prays, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”

            With that, Jesus says, “Lazarus, come out.”  And the man who had been dead for four days rose from the dead and came out of the tomb.

            Consider the circumstances of Lazarus’ death:  He had been dead for four days.  By Jewish belief in those days, after three days, Lazarus’ spirit would have departed from his body, for there would be no further hope of being reunited with his body.  Moreover, his sister Martha confirms that he has been dead long enough for decomposition to begin.

            Lazarus was dead, completely and totally dead.  Yet, now, he comes to life again.  God’s power to create and to recreate conquers the obstacle of death, that ultimate reality.

            Many who witnessed this miracle needed to see Jesus in action.  They needed to see God’s power at work, and to know that Jesus has the power to make the glory of God known.

            Certainly, as John tells us, many of the Jews who saw Lazarus come out of the tomb needed to see this sign that God’s power was resident in Jesus.  John tells us that many came to believe in Him as a result of this miracle.

            Mary and Martha also needed to see the power of God, for Martha’s response to the Lord’s question, “Do you believe this (that Jesus is the resurrection and the life)?” seems to indicate that she believed that the dead would rise again on the last and final day.  But she wasn’t able to grasp the fact that God’s power to bring new life out of death was an experience that she would come to know in her present-day life.

            And, most of all, the disciples needed to see the extent of Jesus’ power over death, for it will not be long before Jesus will, Himself, die and be buried.  The disciples’ reaction was one of fear as the Lord was laid in the tomb.  Perhaps, at that awful moment when the Lord was taken down from the cross, they couldn’t remember what He had done for Lazarus.  But on Easter Sunday morning, they will see the dead come back to life.  This time, it will be Jesus who is the one who comes out of the tomb.

            God’s power over death is complete, for those who died on a Roman cross were really, completely and totally dead.  And yet, as Jesus rises from the tomb on Easter Sunday morning and new life begins, the power of God’s glory stands in contrast to the depths of total and complete death.

            What God has done in bringing Jesus Christ back from the dead is a saving act that God had done, time and again, for His people.  We read the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of the dry bones.  As Ezekiel watches, these dead bones come back together again, and new life emerges as the breath of God enters the bones and the flesh that has come upon them.  The meaning of Ezekiel’s vision is clear:  God will bring His people back from exile in Babylon, from the depths of despair and destruction, back into the land that had been promised to them.  New life would begin as God’s people came back from the land of death into the promised land of new life.

            God’s power to create and to recreate is available to us today.  New life can spring from the depths of despair and death.  Those things that separate us from the God loves us can be overcome, and a new relationship with God can begin.  New hope arises, for God has the ultimate power to bring into any situation.

            We stand in need of understanding, as Martha came to understand, that God’s power isn’t a pie-in-the-sky, someday-long-in-the-future sort of power.  God’s power is here-and-now, available to us day-by-day.  What Martha came to see is what we also need to come to see, that God can bring new life into any circumstance and into any situation, not only in the life of the world to come, but in everyday life, as well.

            Thanks be to God, whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.  (Ephesians 3: 20)

AMEN.

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[1]   For the car savvy among us, that 1957 Buick was equipped with a 364 CID V-8, which was a high compression engine (10.0 to 1 compression ratio), requiring high octane gasoline.  It had a four barrel carburetor sitting on atop that big engine, and was equipped with a Dynaflow automatic transmission.  That power train had no trouble at all pushing the 4,000 pounds’ weight of that car down the road.