Sunday, August 24, 2014

Pentecost 11, Year A



Proper 16 -- Isaiah 51: 1-6; Psalm 138; Romans 11: 33-36; Matthew 16: 13–20



A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois on Sunday, August 24, 2014.

“ANTICIPATION…REALITY…CHANGE”
(Homily text:  Matthew 16: 13-20)

            This past week, we took some time to go to Nebraska to see some of the sites where I grew up.  One of the things we did was to retrace the route that we used to take to go see my mother’s parents, who lived in a small town in the east-central part of the state.

            I thought back to those wonderful days, and especially about the anxious expectation of getting to go see Grandma and Grandpa.  My sisters and I would count down the days until it was time to go.

            And then, our expectations were fulfilled as we made our way to their house.  What we had waited for became a reality.

            The time we spent with our grandparents made for wonderful memories, and, in retrospect, I have to say that those experiences changed each of us significantly for all time.

            Hopefully, each one of us will have one or more fond memories that are similar to the one I’ve outlined here:  Life experiences that we anxiously waited for, that came to be, and that changed us forever.

            Anticipation, reality, change:  Each of these things are present, either explicitly or by inference, in Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ.  Leaving aside the weighty matters about “binding and loosing”, and the concerns about exact role of leadership that the Lord assigned to Peter,[1] let’s concentrate this morning on Peter’s confession itself.[2]

            Anticipation was keen among many of God’s people in Jesus’ day, as many Jews expected that God would provide a Messiah, a Christ,[3] who would come to deliver His people.

            And in the incident that is before us in our gospel reading for today, Jesus affirms that this anxiously held hope has become a reality with His arrival.

            If we put ourselves in the disciples’ place, the interchange between Peter and Jesus must have been earthshaking.  Imagine being told that the very person you had been waiting for is now present, that the Christ was standing there in your midst! 

            What sorts of thoughts must have raced through the disciples’ minds?  Did they think about what this person, this Jesus, would do as the Christ?  Would He bring the ancient kingdom of David back into being, with all of its glory and power?  Would He conquer the hated Romans and throw them out of the Promised Land?  Would there be a new and wonderful era of prosperity for God’s people?

            Those thoughts and perhaps many more may have gone through their minds.  We can’t be exactly sure, but the possibilities that have been mentioned here are certainly plausible ones.

            However, we can be sure that all these thoughts carried with them the promise of permanent change.

            As time went along, Jesus’ followers gradually understood that a new and glorious kingdom had, indeed, come into being.  Of course, the nature of that kingdom and the scope of it couldn’t be grasped at the time.  It is safe to say, however, that this new kingdom of heaven wouldn’t be confined to the area of the Promised Land itself.  Nor would this new kingdom be a kingdom that would last for the lifetime of the Christ, the Messiah, and His successors…..this new kingdom would last for all eternity, and it would be worldwide in its scope, encompassing not only God’s chosen people, but all peoples everywhere.

            Gradually, the disciples understood that they were caught up in this wonderful, vast, divine drama, which Christ had brought into being.

            You and I today are now caught up in this wonderful kingdom of heaven.  We have become citizens of a vast kingdom, numbering millions and millions of people who have come to faith in Jesus, the Christ, down through the centuries.  We see only a portion of the kingdom, the part that is made up of those who are living now.  But there is another, unseen part, made up of those who have gone before us, those who were marked with the sign of faith.[4]

            And so, armed with this wider understanding of God’s eternal purposes that have become a reality for us, may we await with anxious longing the coming of the Christ to each of us, day by day.  May we expect to find Him in our prayer life, and in our Eucharistic worship as we receive Him in the bread and the wine of Holy Communion.  May we find Him in the pages of sacred Scripture as we read and study God’s Word written.  May we find Him in the acts of Christian love that other citizen of this eternal kingdom do in response to the Lord’s commands.

            And as we do all of these things, may we ourselves be changed for today, and for all eternity.

AMEN.


[1]   Peter’s leadership role has been debated down through the centuries.  Roman Catholics base their belief that Peter was the first Pope on Jesus’ statement that is found in verses 18 and 19.  Other Christians maintain that the Lord was affirming the reliability of Peter’s confession, and nothing more.  The gospels and the Book of the Acts of the Apostles affirm that Peter had a unique leadership role in the Church, at least in its very early years.
[2]   This gospel text is also heard on the major feast of the Confession of St. Peter, observed on January 18th each year.
[3]   The title “Messiah” and “Christ” are equivalent ones.  “Messiah” comes from the Hebrew, while “Christ” comes from the Greek.  Both mean the “Anointed One” of God, the one upon whom God’s favor rests, the one whom God has appointed for a specific work.
[4]   Traditionally, the part of the kingdom that is living on earth today is known as the “Church Militant”, while the part of the kingdom which is made up of those who have died in the Lord is known as the “Church Triumphant”.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Pentecost 10, Year A



Proper 15 -- Isaiah 56: 1-7; Psalm 67; Romans 11: 13–15, 29-32; Matthew 15: 21-28
A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois, on Sunday, August 17, 2014.

“IS THIS A TEST?”
(Homily text:  Matthew 15: 21-28)

            Is this a test? 

            Is Jesus’ give-and-take with the Canaanite woman in our gospel reading for this morning a test of her faith?  Did Jesus respond so harshly to her in order to see if she would persist in her request that her daughter be healed, or if she would turn away?

            Perhaps this is one way to regard Jesus’ encounter with the woman.  We don’t know exactly from the text itself why He responded to her as He did.  However, it does seem that Jesus’ response could easily have caused her to turn around and leave.  But she didn’t, she offered a creative response to Jesus’ statement about “throwing the children’s food to the dogs.”

            However, it’s possible that I am getting ahead of myself.

            Let’s take a few moments to examine some details about the text and the setting for this incident, before coming to some conclusions about its importance.

            As we look at the text, the first thing that prompts our attention is the region of Tyre and Sidon.  These are two cities which are located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in the area known as Lebanon.  They are northwest of the area around Galilee, where Jesus had been working prior to this incident.  Some scholars posit the idea that Jesus headed in the direction of these two cities in order to get away from the pressure of the crowds who were beginning to follow Him.  Matthew does not tell us why Jesus decided to leave the area around Galilee, although we do know from the preceding chapters in Matthew that Jesus had begun to attract more and more interest among the people in the area.

            Next, we notice that Matthew tells us that the woman is a Canaanite.  The significance in telling us about her racial background is that she is a Gentile, not a Jew.  If we are to take Matthew’s characterization literally, her identity would lead us to believe that she was a descendent of the peoples who inhabited the Holy Land before the Israelites came into the land after leaving Egypt, some 1,400 years earlier.

            A detail in the interchange between Jesus and the woman does not normally emerge in translation (unfortunately).  It has to do with the word which is usually translated as “dog”.  The better translation would be “puppy dog”, for the diminutive form of the word is used in the Greek.  So Jesus’ statement would be better translated as “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the puppies.”  The use of this word seems to indicate that Jesus is referring to puppy dogs who might be members of a family’s household, not to the semi-wild, stray dogs which were regarded as unclean animals in Jewish culture.  If this analysis is correct, Jesus seems to affirm the idea that a relationship exists between the human and animal members of a household.  The Canaanite woman seizes on this distinction in making her quick-witted response, as she says, “Yes, Lord, but even the puppies eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”[1]

            As we look at the shape of this encounter, we see a picture emerging of a woman who was in deep, deep need:  Her daughter was very ill.  But obstacles lay in her path to Jesus, obstacles that she met persevered in meeting, one-by-one:  The Lord’s silence when she first asked Him to heal her daughter, the disciples’ suggestion that the Lord dismiss her, and the Lord’s apparent rebuke when she knelt before Him.

            She didn’t give up, didn’t walk away.  She met each difficulty and kept on asking for help.

            In the end, the Lord commends her faith, saying, “Woman, great is your faith, let it be done for you as you wish.”

            Where the disciples failed to show faith (as in last week’s gospel lesson about Peter’s falling into the water), this foreign-born woman succeeded in showing her faith.  No doubt, to the original disciples, the woman’s background as a Canaanite must have been surprising, for she emerges as the one who does what is right.  After all, wasn’t God’s wisdom given the Jews, and not to Gentiles?  Yet the spread of the good news of Jesus Christ will soon go forth from the Jews into all the world, even spreading to Gentiles.  (See Matthew 28: 20)  The event we are considering this morning is a harbinger of the great things that are to come, as the Gentiles  overcome obstacles in coming to faith in the Lord.

            Whenever we ask the Lord for something, we can be assured that we will get an answer to our prayer.  The answer will generally fall into one of three categories:

            “Yes”:  Our request receives an affirmative answer from the Lord.

            “No”:  The Lord denies our request.  Oftentimes, this answer comes because the Lord sees a better response than the one we are able to imagine.  After all, the Lord, whose knowledge is beyond our comprehension, is able to see things that we cannot see.

            “Not now”:  Sometimes, the timing of an answer suits God’s purposes better than it suits ours.  But God’s time is always the best time to receive an answer. 

            Sometimes, in our faith walk, the Lord’s “No” answer is designed to test our faith.  When we receive a “No” answer, there are generally three ways in which we can respond:  1.  We can accept the answer, knowing that God’s will and God’s way is best;  2.  We can bring our request to the Lord again and again until an answer is received; or 3.  We can turn away from God.

            Accepting option 1 allow us to live most completely within God’s will.

            But exercising option 2 might prompt us to reflect on the wisdom of our request.  It might allow us to put into a better perspective just what it is we are asking the Lord to do, and how important (or unimportant) that request really is.  The Canaanite woman’s quick and witty response to the Lord’s comment shows that she was listening intently to what He said, for she seized on the idea that a relationship existed between the master and the puppies who shared the same household.

            In the end, this incident gives us room to be able to wrestle with our prayer requests, and to engage in give-and-take with the Lord as we present our needs to Him.  To be able to do so allows us to reflect on what we are asking for, and to keep our focus on the Lord as the one who can answer our prayers, as we listen intently for His answer.

AMEN.          


[1]   It is worth noting that the woman’s allusion to crumbs falling from their master’s table finds its way into our liturgy, for in the Prayer of Humble Access (page 337 in the Book of Common Prayer, 1979), we pray that “we are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table.”

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Pentecost 9, Year A

Proper 14 -- Jonah 2: 1–9; Psalm 29; Romans 9: 1-5; Matthew 14: 22–33

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois at Sunday, August 10, 2014.

“IS GOD THE LORD PRESENT AMONG US?”
(Homily text:  Matthew 14: 22-33)

            “Is God, the Lord, present among us?”

            This question is one that the disciples of Jesus, down through the ages, have asked.  Connected to the answer to this question is another one:  “If the Lord is present among us, then how do we know that He is present?”

            Perhaps Jesus’ original disciples, as they made their way across the Sea of Galilee in the depths of the night (sometime between 3:00 and 6:00 AM), surely thought that they were all alone, for they had left the Lord behind as they set out for the other shore of the Galilean lake.

            Eventually, as they see the Lord walking over the water, they come to realize that He is present among them. 

            But this incident is about much more than the simple miracle of being able to walk on water.  For a deeper understanding of the implications of this event, we need to back up and take a look at the world view of people in ancient times.[1] 

            We will look at two specific, biblical accounts which tell us a lot about the way in which the created order was regarded:  The creation account, as found in Genesis, chapter one; and the account of the Great Flood, as found in Genesis, chapter seven.

            Beginning with the creation account in Genesis 1: 1, we find that the “earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.”  A little later, we see that God  said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.”  (Genesis 1: 9)

            So we can conclude, from these texts, that God made possible plant life, animal life, and human life as we know it by creating the dry land.

            Now let’s move to Genesis, chapter seven, where we read that, as the Great Flood took place, “On that day all the fountains of the deep burst forth, and the windows of heaven were opened, and rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.”  (Genesis 7: 11b–12)

            Notice that Genesis tells us that the “waters of the deep burst forth.”  (We often forget that part of the flood account….we concentrate on the rain which fell, but not on the fact that the waters under the dry land also broke out.)

            So, simply put (but hopefully not too simply),  we can conclude that God’s control of the chaos of the waters, and the provision for a refuge from the chaos of waters, is God’s working.

            Now, let’s return to the account of the gospel before us today.

            The disciples see someone walking on the water, and conclude that it is an “apparition”.[2]  Perhaps they were relying a notion that was common in those days, that there were water spirits who hovered around bodies of water, especially at night.

            In the midst of their terror, being in a boat which was likely to flounder in the chaotic waters around them, and seeing what they thought was a spirit, the Lord calls out to them and says,[3] “Have courage, I am.  Do not be afraid.”

            In His control over the water, Jesus confirms God’s presence, for Jesus manifests God’s power to create safety in the midst of the chaos of the waters of the sea.

            As God had done in making a pathway through the waters of the Red Sea for God’s people as they made their way out of the land of Egypt, so now God controls the raging of the sea by passing over it as if on dry land.

            Moreover, God’s presence is made known in Jesus’ comment (which is often poorly translated).  Notice that He says, “I am.”  (Not “I am here”, or “I am he”.)

            This statement is God’s marker:  I am.  “I am,” as in the voice which came from the burning bush, spoken to Moses, which said, “I am that I am.”  (Exodus 3: 13–15)

            And so the conclusion is that the Lord God was with these disciples in the person of Jesus, who, Matthew tells us, is “Emmanuel”, a name which means “God with us”. Though they were separated from Him for awhile, He came to them in their distress, creating order out of chaos, making it possible for them to make landfall in safety.

            The early Christian believers, and believers today, have wrestled with the question, “Is the God, the Lord, present among us?”

            Naturally, the question then arises, “Are we all alone among the chaos of the world, much as those first disciples were in the boat that night?”

            Matthew supplies some good reassurances to that question.  Let’s look at some of them, specifically:

            Jesus is “Emmanuel”, meaning “God with us”:  In Matthew 1: 23, Joseph is told that Jesus is to be “God with us.”

            Jesus is present among His disciples:  In Matthew 18:20, Jesus tells His followers that, “Whenever two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.”

            Jesus will be with us:  Jesus’ final words in Matthew’s gospel account are these:  “And remember, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”  (Matthew 28: 20)  It is worth noting that Matthew never tells us that Jesus ascended into heaven.  Instead, Matthew’s gospel account closes with these reassuring words, that Jesus will be with us until the close of the age, present always.

            So the Lord’s presence is assured, whenever faithful people gather together in the Lord’s name, just as we are doing this morning.  We have that assurance.

            We also have the assurance that the Lord is present with us as long as the current age endures.  We will never be abandoned, never be forgotten.  We have that assurance, as well.

            In addition, the Lord is present in the Holy Eucharist, for the Lord gave us this gift to sustain us, and to remind us that He is actually present in the Bread and in the Wine.  For He said, “This is my Body,” and “This is my Blood.”  His language is quite direct, indicating that He is actually present in each element of the Communion.

            Finally, the Lord is present whenever God’s power is experienced.  Sometimes, we see this power in miraculous healings, or in lives that are redeemed from the clutches of despair or addiction.  We see the Lord’s power when broken relationships are restored, when all human abilities to repair the brokenness of the world have failed to bring about healing and wholeness.

            For all of the Lord’s goodness in His presence among us, may we give thanks!

AMEN.
          

[1]   The technical name for any sort of world view is called cosmology, that is, having to do with the very essence or nature of things (technical name: ontology) and the overall structure of the creation.
[2]   The Greek word means “apparition”, but it is usually translated as “ghost”.
[3]   This is a literal translation of the Greek.