Advent 1, Year B

Isaiah 64: 1–9a; Psalm 80: 1-7; I Corinthians 1: 1-9; Mark 13: 24-37

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois, on Sunday, November 30, 2014.

“A WARNING LABEL FOR THE NEW YEAR”

(Homily text:  Mark 13: 24-37)

            We are surrounded by warning labels as we live our daily lives.

            For example, as we step onto a step ladder, we see a label which says, “Warning:  Do not stand above this level or use this as a step.”  Or, while enjoying our favorite alcoholic beverage, our eye falls onto the warning label, which says, “Warning:  Drinking alcohol during pregnancy…..”  Or, here’s my favorite warning:  A commercial appears on the TV program we’re watching.  Pleasant scenes unfold while the announcer tells us about the wonderful abilities of a drug to cure whatever it is that ails us.  Then, as the pleasant scenes which appeared earlier continue, the announcer begins to warn us about the side effects of using the drug.  In one commercial, the announcer even says, “Serious side effects, including death, have been reported.” 

            Yes, I imagine that death could be a serious side effect some medication or another.  That must be one of the truest statements ever uttered.

            Now, imagine that invitations have been sent out for a New Year’s Eve party.  As the partygoers arrive, the hosts give each person a written warning, which says:

Warning:  Attendance at this party may create a situation in which some in attendance might be tempted to engage in potentially embarrassing behavior.  Given the nature of the season and the celebration, excess consumption of alcohol may lead some to go beyond  normal patterns of behavior, which include the wearing of silly pointed paper hats and the blowing of noisemakers.  Some persons who have indulged in such behaviors have been known to wind up wearing a lamp shades on their heads.  Such excesses usually lead to a patterns of having a hangover, of self-recrimination and of remorse, once the exhilarating effects of the alcohol have worn off.

            Could there be any better way to kill the spirit of the party and the season?

            The new Church Year begins today, and it begins with a warning….it comes from the lips of Jesus as He warns us to “Beware, keep alert, for you do not know when the time (of the coming of the Son of Man) will come.”

            “Be alert!”  Be on our guard, be watching and expecting the Lord to come at any time.  That’s the warning.

            For the Lord’s coming will bring with it divine judgment.  Jesus uses traditional language, language that talks of the sun being darkened, of the moon failing to give its light, and of the stars falling from heaven, to describe such a judgment.  The Lord borrows from the language of Old Testament prophets such as Isaiah, Ezekiel and Joel, using their imagery to get our attention.

            But today’s warning also comes with very good news:  The news that when the Lord returns, He will come to gather in His people.  Mark uses the word “elect” to describe God’s people, those whom God has chosen to be gathered around the Lord.

            Welcome to Advent.

            Advent is a time of preparation.  It is as if the new year, the new Church Year, begins not with the ecclesiastical equivalent of a New Year’s party, but with a four-Sunday-long season of getting ready for the party.  The party we are going to is Christmas, when we celebrate the fact that God broke into human history in the person of Jesus Christ.  God cared enough for the world and the people in the world to intervene in human affairs, in order to show us the way to God the Father.

            Our Collect for the Day serves as a warning:

            “Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.”

            This collect warns us to put away all things that would hinder us from living a godly and holy life, in preparation for the time when we will have to give an answer for the ways in which we live.

            This collect beautifully wraps together the themes of Advent:

• Christ’s first coming in His birth in Bethlehem,
• His eventual coming again in power, glory and judgment,
• Our need to live in such a way that we would be able to give a good account of the conduct of our lives in between those two events.

            Warning:  Living the Christian life requires us to be alert, for the Lord comes to us, day-by-day, asking us to take account of ourselves, so that we may stand uprightly on the day of the Lord’s coming.

AMEN.

The Last Sunday after Pentecost (Christ the King), Year A

Proper 29 -- Ezekiel 34: 11-17; Psalm 95: 1-7; I Corinthians 15: 20-28; Matthew 25: 31-46

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois, on Sunday, November 23, 2014.

“KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS”

(Homily texts:  I Corinthians 15: 20–28 &  Matthew 25: 31-46)

            “King of kings, and Lord of lords … ” (Revelation 19: 16)

            We will hear this wonderful text as it was set by the great composer George Frederick Handel in the “Hallelujah Chorus” to his most famous work, “Messiah” in a wonderful performance at the end of this coming week.  (I hope you have your tickets already!)

            This morning, we come to the end of the Church Year.  Today is the “Last Sunday after Pentecost," or as it is more commonly known, “Christ the King Sunday.”

            This Sunday asks us to look at the big picture, to see God’s great, enormous and wonderful plan for the world He created, and for the people He loves.  This Sunday’s themes also look forward into the coming season of Advent, as we remarked a few Sundays ago … these two great themes of the Advent season dwell on Christ’s first coming as He was born as a baby in a manger in Bethlehem, and in His coming in power, great might and majesty at some future time.

            We Americans struggle with the notion of kingship, queenship, and royalty in general.  We are fascinated by the British royal family (just look at any of the magazines that line the checkout counters at the supermarket for proof!).  And yet, early in our history, some in this country wanted to make George Washington a king.  Wisely, he declined the offer, knowing that many of his countrymen had had quite enough of another guy named George who was a king in Great Britain.

            Nor do the ways in which we see kings, queens, princes and princesses in the world today help us to understand the notion of royalty in all its implications in former times.  For today, most monarchies are actually “constitutional monarchies,” a system in which the king or queen is mostly a figurehead of government, and a symbol of national unity.  

            On the contrary, when we talk about Jesus Christ being the “King of kings,” we are talking about royalty in the old fashioned sense of the term, in the sense of what a king was in the Middle Ages, a king who ruled by what is known as the “Divine Right of Kings.”

            Such a king’s word was law.  There was no need to dispute that word, to contradict it, or to question it.  What the king said went.  In the ancient sense of kingship, the king was the one who set the tone for the entire kingdom.

            In this former sense of kings and kingdoms, the king not only judged, but protected.  Allegiance to the king helped to ensure one’s safety.  (Of course, ensuring that safety might also involve an involuntary call to serve in the king’s army, but we’ll get to that aspect of being the subject of a king in a moment.)

            So today, we celebrate and remember that Jesus Christ is the King.  In fact, as the Book of Revelation puts it, He is “King of kings and Lord of lords.”  His is the highest and most absolute form of rule, authority and power.

            Notice how St. Paul describes the coming of the Lord, as this King “delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and authority and power.”

            But if ancient kings ruled by divine right, then we must take notice of an important fact that makes the kingdom of God radically different from those ancient, human kingdoms:  This king, Jesus Christ, not only possesses all power, might and majesty, but also emptied Himself, taking on our humanity, and leading by example.

            Ancient kingdoms often ruled by military might and conquest of weaker nations. This kingdom comes as its king willingly lays down His life, stooping even to a death on a cross, in order to bring into being the kingdom of God.

            The kingdom of God comes not with the march of soldier’s feet, but with acts of generosity and kindness, with visits to those in prison, with the giving of food to the hungry, with caring for the sick, and with the provision of clothing to the naked.

            In this way, you and I are soldiers in service to the King of kings.  We wear the uniform of love, and our weapons are the simple, everyday acts of love which reflect the love that has been given to us by the King of kings.  As we have been loved by Christ, so we, in turn, love others and show that love in tangible, observable ways.

            May the kingdom of God come in all its fullness.  May the King of kings and Lord of lords be known, worshiped, loved and honored in the hearts of His faithful people and in every place.  May we, his soldiers, exercise the weapons of kindness and love which are at the heart of the rule of our heavenly king.

AMEN.

Pentecost 23, Year A

Proper 28 -- Zephaniah 1: 7, 12-18; Psalm 70: 1–8, 12; I Thessalonians 5: 1-10; Matthew 25: 14–15, 19-29

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois on Sunday, November 16, 2014.

“SERMON #4:  TAKING RISKS IN ORDER TO BRING THE KINGDOM INTO BEING”

(Homily text:  Matthew 25: 14–15, 19-29)

            Let’s begin this morning with a bit of humor…..

            A new man is assigned to an Army unit.  As he is being introduced to the unit, its mission, and the other personnel in the unit, the sergeant takes him to the barracks and shows him his bunk.  It is located near the corner of one of the old barracks, the kind which was a large, open room.

            After lights out that evening, as he and his fellow soldiers were waiting for sleep to descend, he noticed that one man would call out a number, and everyone would laugh.  Not a long while later, another soldier would call out a number, and everyone would laugh.  The new man thought this was quite unusual.

            So, after having been in the unit for a few days, and having experienced this same behavior each night before sleep descended, he mustered up his courage and asked the guy in the bunk next to him what the business of calling out the numbers was all about.  The other guy said, in response, “Well, you see, most of us have been together in this unit for a long time.  We know each other really well, and one thing we know about each other is the jokes we tell.  We know those jokes so well that we decided, one night, to simply call out a number, and everyone would remember the joke from the number.  So that’s what that’s all about.”

            “Fair enough, makes sense to me,” said the new guy.

            So after a few days, the new guy decided to try his hand at telling jokes.  He called out a number:  “32,” he said.  But nobody laughed, not even a little.  So he called over the guy in the bunk next to his and said, “How come nobody laughed when I called out ‘32’?”  To which the other guy said, “Well, some people just can’t tell a joke!”

            Now if you and I are together long enough, we might get to the point where the members of this congregation will figure out that I have only about four basic sermons.  (In fact, many preachers will say that they have – in reality – only that many basic sermons.)  What it works out to is a pattern of having a basic theme, with variations on that basic theme.

            So perhaps I could shorten the process by calling out, “Sermon #4,” and all of you would know that the topic of the sermon is going to be something about “Taking risks in order to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven.”

            Well, OK, I should hasten to add that I don’t intend to get into the pulpit and call out a number, so you can remember what the topic of the sermon is going to be.  After all, if I did that, how would the variations – that is, the various details - on the basic theme ever reach our ears and our minds?

            That reality aside, today’s parable, usually entitled The Parable of the Talents, is all about taking risks in order to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven.  So, it is a fitting passage of Scripture for Sermon #4, which is, indeed, all about taking risks for the kingdom.

            Let’s explore some of the details of this parable….

            The first thing we notice is that the man three servants are entrusted with differing talents.  This word, in and of itself, is worthy of some comment…..

            A talent was a large sum of money.  In modern terms, it was worth about $600,000.00, if we calculate the value of an hourly wage at $15.00/hour.[1]

            Nowadays, of course, a talent has to do with a person’s natural abilities and gifts.

            Notice that Jesus’ parable has to do with the actions of each of the three servants, once they have been entrusted with this treasure:  The first two go off and invest wisely, doubling their returns on the investment they’ve made.  In Jesus’ day, there were no banks, but it was permissible for a person to set up a business, and – when dealing with Gentiles – to charge interest on the debts incurred.  (Charging interest to another Jew was forbidden by the requirement set down in Deuteronomy 23: 20.)

            But now notice what the third servant has done:  He goes off, finds a secure place, and buries the talent in the ground.  This action may seem strange to us, but it was – in Jesus’ day – the common practice and the recommended course to take if a person wanted to secure their treasure.  After all, there was no Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).  There were no safe deposit vaults.

            But Jesus condemns the safe alternative in today’s parable.  In essence, what He is saying is that, to take the safe route is not how the kingdom will be built.  Building the kingdom will involve risks.

            Jesus lives out - by His death on the cross - the risks of building the kingdom.  It is evident that Jesus could have taken the safe route, either by slipping away into obscurity so that the authorities would have no reason to try to destroy Him, or to overcome the powers of evil by asking His heavenly Father to send twelve legions of angels[2] to prevent Him from being taken and killed.

            But playing it safe isn’t the way the kingdom is going to come into being.  Only by risking everything, as Jesus does, will the kingdom come into being. Only by Jesus’ death are we able to enter the kingdom and to become citizens of it.  Only by taking the risk of putting ourselves in God’s love and care are we ready to go out and take the risks that will be necessary to spread the Good News of what God has done in Jesus Christ.  The kingdom involves risks.

            Jesus goes before us, modeling by His behavior what He asks us to do, as well.  Nothing that the Lord commands us to do, or asks us to do, is ever put before us without the Lord’s having done it Himself first.

            And so, the Lord asks us to take risks, to be willing to give for the spread of the Good News, to be willing to take the risk of reaching out to those who do not know the Lord and who are not part of the Lord’s kingdom as we find it in this Cathedral Church.  Only in this way will the kingdom by built among us.

            And so, dear friends, here we come to the end of Sermon #4, whose theme is “Taking Risks in Order to Bring the Kingdom into Being.”  Thanks be to God.  AMEN.

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[1]   In Old Testament times, a talent was a unit of measure, about 75 pounds in weight, and the word originally referred to a measure relating to weight.  Eventually, it became a unit of monetary value, equal to about 3,000 shekels in ancient Palestine, or 6,000 drachmas in ancient Greece, which was the equivalent of the annual wage of a day laborer for 20 years’ work.

[2]   Jesus says, in Matthew 26: 53, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?”