The Eve of the Nativity - Christmas Eve - Year C (2015)

Isaiah 9: 2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2: 11–14; Luke 2: 1–20

This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, which was offered to St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Thursday, December 24, 2015.

“GIFTS, GIFT-GIVING, GIFT-RECEIVING”

We are in the season of gifts, of gift-giving and gift-receiving.  (The stores have been encouraging this activity for a very long time, now!)

Let’s take a few moments in the midst of the (oftentimes) frenzied pace of preparations for our Christmas celebration to look at the business of gifts, and of the giving of gifts, and (hopefully) the receiving of gifts.

Among the observations we might make about everything connected with gifts are these:

Gifts are connected to relationships:

Giving a gift might affirm a new relationship, or a new stage in a relationship, as in the giving of an engagement ring, for example.

Giving a gift might be a vehicle for mending an impaired or broken relationship…an example of this would be the husband who comes home to the wife he’s just had an argument, bearing a dozen red roses.  (Feel free to fill in our own example of an appropriate gift to give or to receive in such a circumstance!)

Giving a gift might strengthen a relationship.  An example would be a gift given by a parent, a grandparent or some other adult to a young child, a gift that affirms that person’s love for the child.

Gift-giving denotes a level of care, concern, or love between the giver and the receiver.

Giving a gift always affects a relationship in some way, by confirming a new relationship, by affirming an existing one, or by strengthening a relationship.

Giving a gift tells us a lot about the giver:

For example, if a person gave a very generous gift, it might tell us something about the ways in which the giver thinks about others in relationship to themselves.

Another example would be if the gift is especially meaningful to the person receiving a gift.  A person who loves trains and railroads would appreciate a railroad-related gift very highly.  (OK, I am being quite personal in using this example!)  Receiving a gift that suits the receiver especially well shows that the giver has taken the time to get to know the receiver’s interests, etc.

Now, in this Christmas season, we remember God’s act of gift-giving, in His giving of His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to take on our humanity, and to be born in a manger in Bethlehem.

In fact, it is God’s gift-giving that is the cause of our own giving and receiving of gifts at Christmastime.

So, let’s draw some conclusions about God’s gift-giving activity, an act we remember at Christmastime:

Before Christ came, God was in a relationship with the people He had chosen for Himself.  But that relationship was impaired, broken, and incomplete.  God’s chosen people regarded God as the God whose laws were to be obeyed, whose laws were to be followed down to the smallest detail.  But they had forgotten (it seems like) that God is, essentially, a God of love.

God’s knowledge of humankind penetrates the way in which God entered into our human condition:  Jesus does not come to us, riding on the clouds, mounted on a white horse, riding to conquer and to compel us to follow and obey Him.  I suppose that God could have arranged for Jesus Christ to come to us in such a way.  But the way He comes is quietly.  He comes in very humble circumstances, being born in a setting where animals eat (that’s what a manger is, it’s a feeding trough).  He comes in an extremely vulnerable state - as a baby – and he grows in favor with God and with humankind, as St. Luke tells us. (See Luke 2:52.)

So it seems, judging from God’s supreme act of gift-giving, that He knows a lot about us humans.  He knows that we are helpless to help ourselves out of our impaired relationship with God.  He knows that He will have to give the gift of Himself, that is, to send Jesus the Christ to come and to show us the way to the Father, for Jesus is the “very image of the invisible God”, as St. Paul tells us in Colossians 1:15.

So the gift is given, the gift is given to repair the broken relationship we have with God the Father.  The gift is given to show us just how important we are to God.  The gift is given to show how deeply God loves each and every one of us.

God’s gift is given personally, to each one of us, one by one.  God stands with His hands holding the greatest gift ever given, Jesus Christ.  He offers this wonderful gift to each one of us, one-by-one.  May we respond in love and gratitude, and accept God’s gift by inviting Jesus Christ into our hearts, perhaps for the first time. May we, if Jesus Christ has already taken up residence in our hearts, accept Him anew into a deeper and more intense relationship in the times that lay before us.

AMEN. 

Advent, Year C (2015)

Micah 5:  2-5a; For the Psalm: Canticle 3; Hebrews 10: 5-10; Luke 1: 39-55

This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, offered to St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, December 20, 2015.

“THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN”

(Homily text:  Luke 1: 39-55)

When the British Army surrendered to the Americans after the Battle of Yorktown in October, 1781, the British Army’s band (a fife and drum corps) paraded past the Americans playing a tune entitled “The World Turned Upside Down”.

The tune’s title was an apt one for the occasion, for how could an army of the most powerful military in existence at that time manage to be defeated by an upstart colonial band?  How was that possible?

Today’s gospel, in which we hear Mary’s Song (better known by its Latin title, the Magnificat), is all about the “world turned upside down”.

Notice the “downs” that contrast with the “ups” in Mary’s words (I will highlight the highs and the lows in the text using italics):

•        “My soul doth magnify the Lord (up)…. for he hath regarded the lowliness (down) of his handmaiden.”
•        “For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed, for he that is mighty hath magnified (up) me…”
•        “He hath put down the mighty (high) from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek (low).”
•        “He hath filled the hungry (low) with good things, and the rich (high) he hath sent empty away.”

What, then, is the basis for Mary’s exaltation?  Quite simply, she is called “blessed” (as in the Ever-blessed Virgin Mary) because she was willing to set her own welfare and plans for her life aside in order to place herself at God’s invitation to be the bearer of the only-begotten Son of God.  Her words are these (spoken to the Angel Gabriel):  “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord, be it to me according to your word.” (Luke 1: 38a)

If we think about Mary’s station in life, we can easily imagine that she is pretty low on the world’s measure of power and status:  She is a young, (probably) poor, woman (living in a man’s world), in a country whose people are living under an oppressive military occupation.  By all these standards, she doesn’t have much standing or much power. She’s pretty much at the bottom – the low end – of the economic, social and influential markers of the time.

And yet, God uses just this very unique servant to be the vessel, the carrier, of God’s grace and mercy.

The world doesn’t work this way.

The 19th-century scientist, Charles Darwin, summed up the ways of the world in his statement “The Survival of the Fittest”.  It was his contention that the stronger ones in nature will overpower the weaker ones, and that, eventually, only the strong will survive.

If we look at the course of human affairs, it’s plain to see that much of human history reflects just such an hierarchy: 

• The ones with the most clout will overpower and exploit the defenseless and the weak.
  
• The ones with the biggest or the best army will invade and conquer their weaker neighbors (at least most of the time…the American victory at Yorktown is an exception), and so forth.

But God’s way is a different way.

Mary’s willingness to become the Lord’s servant proves that God’s way is different.

So does the experience of Mary’s Son, Jesus, show that God’s way is a different way….For Jesus comes to serve, not to be served.  He comes to show that – in the apparent weakness of the cross – that that seeming defeat leads only to the victory of Easter Sunday morning.  He comes as a helpless baby, born in the lowliness of a cow’s stall, but reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Luke’s gospel bears out this theme, for Luke takes deliberate steps to show that Jesus’ concern was, principally, with the poor, the sick, the lowly and the sinners.  He came to welcome them into fellowship with God, offering them an opportunity to overcome their estrangement from God, and offering them a new life, a redeemed life, in God.  Those that the Lord deliberately sought out have a lot in common with the rest of us, for in truth, Jesus always finds us in the lowest circumstances of our lives, as helpless people who are enslaved to sin, and He moves us from where He finds us into a new and higher place with God.

The Lord’s model is our model.  We, too, are called to proclaim that the Lord who has rescued us from our lowly estate offers to all people the chance to move up into a close and enduring relationship with God.  The Lord never leaves anyone where He finds them.

Thanks be to God, that God’s way has everything to do with the lowly and the powerless, and everything to do with an upward sweep into God’s embrace.

AMEN.

Advent 3, Year C (2015)

Zephaniah 3: 14-20; For the Psalm: Canticle 9; Philippians 4: 4-7; Luke 3: 7-18

This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, offered to St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, December 13, 2015.

“CONFESSION...BAPTISM…ACTION”

(Homily text:  Luke 3: 7 - 18)

(This morning, there is no homily, since we are blessed to have the wonderful choir “Essence 2” with us this morning.  In lieu of a homily, I am offering this reflection on this morning’s gospel reading.)

This morning, we hear a continuation of last week’s gospel.  Last week, we heard the first six verses of Luke’s gospel account, taken from chapter three.  In last week’s account, Luke told us about John the Baptist’s ministry, which was a baptism for the repentance of sins.  Luke tells us that the Baptist’s ministry was in accordance with Isaiah’s prophecy, that a time would come when all of God’s people would be called to “prepare the way of the Lord,” making “his paths straight”.

Now, John emphasizes his warning, telling those who would listen that they were not to claim that, because they were children of Abraham, that they were – by virtue of that inheritance – automatically in some favored status by God.  Then he said, “Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees”, adding that 

“every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” “Bear fruit worthy of repentance,” John told his listeners.

If we look at the trajectory of John’s message, we see this pattern:

Confession & Baptism→→→→→→Actions

If we think about it, this is the progression that every Christian is called to follow….we enter the waters of baptism, shedding our old way of life, and part of that way of life involves the ability to commit acts which are displeasing to God…put another way, we are called to “Renounce Satan and all his works”, as our baptismal ceremony puts it.

Then, our baptismal liturgy continues by asking if the newly baptized (and their parents and Godparents) will do certain things in response to God’s love, made known in the rite of baptism:  These questions have to do with concrete actions that are marks of a faithful Christian life:[1]

•        Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread and in the prayers?
•        Will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
•        Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
•        Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
•        Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

    To each of these questions, the answer given is “I will, with God’s help.”

   The point of these questions is to say that confession of sin is an ongoing process, a process which will follow the baptized all throughout life.  Though baptism confers an indelible mark on a person’s soul, that person remains in need of forgiveness and amendment of life, all throughout life.

   But notice, as well, the ongoing nature of the ways in which we will strengthen our relationship with God through Christ:  We do this by regularly coming to worship, by studying God’s Holy Word, the Bible, and by taking an active and ongoing role in receiving the Sacraments of the Church, Holy Communion being among one of the more important of those Sacraments.

    Then, the way in which we act, proclaiming by “Word and example”, is also an ongoing occupation, for we will continue to encounter other persons throughout our earthly journey.  The Letter of James underscores the importance of actions which bear witness to our faith.  In James 1: 22, we read, “…Be does of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”  James then adds, a little later on, these words:  “…But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2: 18)

    In our gospel passage for this morning, some of John the Baptist’s hearers ask pointed questions about the ways in which they ought to live out the reality of their forgiven life in God.

•        To those who possess some of the world’s riches, he said, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none.”
  
  
•         To the tax collectors, he said, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.”
  
  
•         To the Roman soldiers, he said, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

    Perhaps each of us can find similar ways to live out our own baptized reality in the times, the places and the circumstances in which we find ourselves today.

    May that ever be so with us.  Amen.

           

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[1]   These questions appear on pages 304 – 305 of The Book of Common Prayer, 1979.

Advent 2, Year C (2015)

Malachi 3: 1-4; For the Psalm:  Canticle 4; Philippians 1: 3–11; Luke 3: 1-6

This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, which was given at St. John’s Church, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, December 6, 2015.

“CALLED TO BE PROPHETS”

(Homily texts:  Canticle 4 (Benedictus, Dominus Deus) & Luke 3: 1-6)

Each year, on the Second Sunday of Advent, we get to spend a little time thinking about John the Baptist. Our Collect for this day alludes to his ministry, which was a ministry that called people to recognize their sins and their need for God’s forgiveness. (More about all that in a moment.)

In place of the Psalm, this morning we pray Canticle[1] Four, which is often called the “Song of Zechariah”. In Latin, its title is Benedictus, Dominus Deus, and it is one of the traditional Canticles which are appointed for use during the Office of Morning Prayer.

In fact, each morning when I pray Morning Prayer, I pray this Canticle. A phrase[2] always sticks out when I do so:

“And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest, for thou shalt go before the Lord to prepare his ways.”

Not to be too personal about it, but I feel like that text is speaking to me.  Each time I read the phrase, I feel like the words are leaping off the page and into my eyes, my mind and my heart. I feel as though I am called to be a prophet, a forerunner, of the Lord, one who – like John the Baptist – prepares the way for the One who is coming.

I said, “Not to be too personal about it” because, in truth, every one of us is called to be a prophet of the Highest. Every one of us is called to bear witness to God’s great, big plan, a plan which is offered to all people. This great, big plan is one which offers each and every person a new start in life, a new beginning in which God gives us a new birth in the waters of baptism.

In response to God’s call to be a prophet, we might protest. We might say, “Well, I don’t much like wearing a coat made of camel’s hair (John the Baptist’s attire),” and we might add, “I don’t much like a diet of locusts and wild honey (John’s diet).”  Furthermore, we might say that we don’t much like hanging out in the desert like John did.

In truth, some of those who are called to be prophets are called to do just what John the Baptist did. Some are called to give up their previous life and their previous way of living in order to go to some pretty inhospitable places, in order to share the Good News, the Gospel, of Jesus Christ.

But most of us won’t receive such a calling. Most of us are called to pave the way for the Lord right where we are, day in and day out.  We are called to bring the kingdom of God into being, one act, one word, one loving gesture, at a time. 

By so doing, we bear witness to the overwhelming love of God, a love that accepts us as we are, right where God finds us, but which is a love that never leaves us where we are found. For such an encounter with the living God changes us and everything about us for ever.

As a result of this encounter, we find our truest and best selves, we find our highest purpose in life, knowing that God has called us into a personal and ongoing relationship, knowing that we have been redeemed by Christ.

And so, those who have passed through the waters of baptism are called, for God says to each one of us:

“And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways.”

Thanks be to God for His deep and abiding love, for His forgiveness of our sins and offenses, and for His call to be His prophets in our time and in our place.

AMEN.

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[1]   A Canticle is a passage of Scripture which lends itself to be set to music, hence the name, which suggests the singing of the text.  There are quite a few of them in Luke’s gospel account. The Magnificat (Song of Mary) (see Luke 1: 46 – 55) and the Nunc Dimittis (Song of Simeon) (see Luke 2: 29 – 32) are other examples.

[2]   This Canticle records the comments of John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, who was a priest serving in the temple in Jerusalem.

Advent I, Year C (2015)

Jeremiah 33: 14-16; Psalm 25: 1-9; I Thessalonians 3: 9-13; Luke 21: 25-36

This is a  homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s Church, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, November 29, 2015.

“GRASPING GOD’S GREAT,
BIG PLAN AND OUR PLACE
IN IT”

(Homily texts:  The Collect of the Day, I Thessalonians 3: 9–13 and Luke 21: 25-36)

Our Prayer Book offers so many wonderful resources for worship. Among these is today’s Collect, which sets the stage for the season of Advent very well. Here is the text of that Collect:

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which thy 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 quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

This wonderful Collect gathers up the two themes of Advent: Preparing to greet the coming of the babe who was born in Bethlehem by holy and righteous living, and preparing and watching for the full arrival of God’s reign when the Lord comes again.

It seems to me that we can explore these two themes using the image of participating in a team sport:

Significant in many people’s Thanksgiving activities is the watching of a lot of football. Sports occupy an important place in our society, and in our lifetimes, many will become a member of a team in one sport or another. Our team memberships can range from a back yard “pick up” game, to a school team, or – perhaps, if our skills are good enough – to membership on a college or even a pro team.

All teams have things in common:

• We become a member of the team, either by volunteering for membership, or by trying out in some way to demonstrate our skills and abilities.
  
  
• Depending on the situation, we may have an assistant coach, or a specialized trainer to shape and develop our abilities.
  
  
• Once we become members, we have to learn how to work with others on the team, and to figure out how our skills and abilities fit in with theirs.
  
  
• Part of the integration process involves learning what the ultimate goals of the team are, and how our individual role in achieving those goals unfolds.

Keeping in mind what’s just been suggested, allow me to suggest the idea that the process of becoming a Christian follows much the same path as we’ve just considered in sports: Becoming a Christian involves becoming a part of a team, God’s team.

On God’s team, we might compare God the Father to being the team owner ... the team owner has an overall vision and plan for what the team will accomplish. (We’ll talk more about this shortly.) God the Son, Jesus Christ, acts like the coach of the team, showing by His example how we are to contribute to the Father’s plan. And God the Holy Spirit can function like an assistant coach or a trainer to hone and sharpen our skills.

Our team membership has to begin somewhere. At some point, we have to volunteer to sign up. For the Christian, that signing-up process begins at Baptism. For, in Baptism, we die to ourselves, and we rise to a new life in Christ, as St. Paul says so eloquently in Romans 6: 3 – 9.

Fortunately, there’s no need to demonstrate our skills or our fitness for membership on this team.  For if there were some sort of a tryout, none of us would qualify. And yet, God accepts us, already knowing our individual skills and abilities.

In Baptism, God accepts us just as we are, already knowing what our shortcomings are, already knowing what our talents and skills are, and already knowing just what sort of training we will need in order to become a valuable member of the team.

It’s as if God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit all stand at the baptismal font, welcoming us into the team.

No matter how talented we might be, in order to be a good team player on God’s team, we are going to need training….Jesus is our coach, for He has shown us what team membership looks like.

The Church plays an important role in shaping the individual team member, for one of the main reasons the Church exists is to offer ways in which each individual will come to know more about God, and about the duties of being a team member. On Sunday mornings, we hear Holy Scripture read, we are offered a sermon or homily which (hopefully) enlightens and challenges us in our Christian vocation as a member of the team.

Indeed, at the time of Baptism, the parents and Godparents of the one being baptized promise to bring the person up in the faith. We, too, as the Church, the Body of Christ, also promise to bring that person up in the knowledge of what it means to be a member of this holy team. That’s why it’s so important for parents to cultivate the habit of coming to Church regularly, and to pass along that model to their children. That’s why it’s so important for the Church to offer training opportunities such as Sunday School and Bible study, so that we may learn and hone our skills and abilities.

The next step involves honing our own skills. The Holy Spirit acts as an assistant to the coach (who is Jesus Christ), enlightening us and giving us the vision to succeed in our calling as a member of God’s team. The Holy Spirit acts closely with the coach, Jesus Christ, to ensure that we live out the call of our baptisms.

Here, we can glean some insights into proper behavior for the Christian from our lectionary readings for this morning. First, let’s look at St. Paul’s admonitions to the early Christians who were living in Thessalonica: Paul’s prayer is that these Christians will “increase and abound in love for one another and for all.” A bit later on, he adds the hope that God would “strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with his saints.”

Paul’s concern is that the individual team members would uphold and model the values of the team. Those values involve love for one another and holiness.  Paul adds, in a theme which is central to the season of Advent, the concern that these team members keep in mind the team owner’s (God the Father’s) overall, big plan for the team, which involves the Lord Jesus’ eventual return with His saints. The Lord’s admonition, heard in this morning’s gospel reading, is for the team members to be alert at all times, not wasting their talents, skills and abilities on dissipated living. Our wonderful Collect for this morning states this necessity well, as it asks God to assist us to “put away the works of darkness.”

Loving other members of the team, and loving those who might someday become members, integrates us into the team more fully, and connects us to the overall plan of the team owner, the Father. Sometimes, doing the “hard business” of loving can be very challenging. For all of us are incomplete, not-yet-fully-trained members of the team. We still carry with us some behaviors we learned before we became team members, and some of those traits are difficult to experience and live with. And yet, if we recall that the welcome we received from the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit at the time of our baptisms was, essentially, a welcome borne out of love, a deep and abiding love, a love that says, “We’ll take you, even if you are imperfect and are not yet fully trained and formed,” then if we can recall God’s radical welcome to us in Baptism, we might be better able to show the kind of generosity toward other team members that is essential for the team to function well.

Finally, there is an overarching, great, big plan which comes from the team owner, God the Father. (This is another of the great themes of the season of Advent.) That goal, that plan, is for God the Son, Jesus Christ, to return in glory at some time in the future. At that time, the team will celebrate the completion of its part in achieving that goal, for the team, the Church, will have worked to bring about the day when God’s reign and rule will be complete. In the meantime, whenever we team members take the field, we are to work to fulfill the owner’s desires and plans to bring about a world in which God has “made all things new”. (Revelation 21: 5).

AMEN.            

Pentecost Last (Christ the King) - Year B (2015)

Proper 29 ::  Daniel 7: 9–10, 13-14; Psalm 93; Revelation 1: 4b-8; John 18: 33-37

This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, November 22, 2015.

“THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PRESIDENT AND A KING”

(Homily texts:  Revelation 1: 4b–8, John 18: 33–37 & the Collect of the Day)

Today is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday in the Church Year.  Our readings, especially that which is appointed from the Book of Revelation, frame the theme for this day, which not only wraps up the entire year which has gone before us, but it also sets the stage for the new year, which begins with the season of Advent…during Advent, we prepare for Christ’s first coming, born as a babe in Bethlehem, and we also concentrate on the second coming of the Lord, a time when everyone will acknowledge Him as “King of kings and Lord of lords”, as our Collect of the Day today acknowledges.

We ought to be honest with ourselves and admit that we Americans aren’t entirely comfortable with the idea of having a king.  To be sure, we are overwhelmingly interested in the British royal family, but while that sort of royalty interests us, it does so mainly as an academic exercise, for we here in this country don’t have – or want – a king or a royal family to be the head of state.  We are firmly committed to the ideals of a democratic republic, even though we ought to be fair to our brothers and sisters in the United Kingdom and say that theirs is also a democratic state with a royal head-of-state who serves as a symbol of national unity.

Perhaps it might be best for us to learn something about kings (and queens) by contrasting what a king (or queen) is with what a president is.  Perhaps we can learn to appreciate our Lord Jesus Christ more fully by engaging in this exercise.

So, let’s begin.

A president is elected by the people.  A king (or queen) inherits his (her) position.

A president arises from among the people….it’s often been said that just about anyone could, conceivably, become president.  A king is set apart from the people by virtue of having been born into a royal family.

A president serves for a certain, set length of time.  A king (or queen) serves as long as they live, generally speaking.

A president’s powers are enumerated by a Constitution or a set of laws.  A king – at least in former times – exercised near total control over his subjects….Especially in a former time, the king’s word was law.  (This sort of kingly power is known as the “Divine Right of Kings”, the idea that a king was divinely chosen to rule over his people.)

So these are some of the ways in which a king (or queen) differs from a president.

Now, let’s apply these contrasts to Jesus Christ:

First of all, our Lord is appointed to be king by God the Father.  The Letter to the Hebrews seeks to confirm this understanding by saying that Jesus Christ was appointed to be the righteous priest “after the order of Melchizedek”.[1]  This ancient king-priest. Melchizedek, was both a king and a priest.

Secondly, the Lord’s kingship is derived from the fact that He came from the Father….So the Lord Jesus Christ shares God’s divinity in all its fullness.  But here, an important distinction with merely human kings arises:  The Lord also arises from among us by virtue of His having come in the flesh, to be born of the Virgin Mary, to take upon Himself our flesh and blood.

The third distinction has to do with the Lord’s tenure as king:  He is a king forever, a kingdom which will have no end.  Revelation casts this reality in terms of identifying the Lord as “King of kings and lord of lords,” [2]adding that “He shall reign for ever and ever.”[3]

The last distinction has to do with the limits of power of this heavenly king.  Essentially, there is no limit to the power of this king, this divine king, for He will conquer all opposition and will do away with all the forces of evil in the world.  And yet, we are bound to admit that this king, our Lord Jesus Christ, conquers through the power of the cross, that emblem of suffering, shame and defeat.  It is this distinction that Pilate could not understand, for in our gospel reading this morning, we hear of the interchange between Jesus and Pilate….Pilate asks, “So, you are a king?”  Jesus essentially affirms Pilate’s question, but then adds “My kingdom is not of this world….”  Pilate understood royalty in terms of raw power.  He could not understand the sort of royalty that would be willing to serve, as well as to be served.  In the cross, we see both aspects of Jesus’ royalty, for He allowed Himself to be subject to the depths of a death on a cross, and yet, He conquered its power and the resulting power of death by rising to new life again on Easter Sunday morning.

So in this King of kings and Lord of lords, our Lord Jesus Christ, we have the almighty one who has emptied Himself to take upon Him the form of a servant, so that, being found in human form, He humbled Himself, even to the point of death on a cross.  As a result, God has highly exalted Him, and has given Him the name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.  (I am paraphrasing St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, chapter two, verses five through eleven.)

As we contemplate what it means to be in a personal, ongoing relationship with this King of kings and Lord of lords, we come to realize the depth of love that the Lord Jesus Christ has for each of us, for His invitation to an ever-deeper relationship rests not on a command to love, but on an invitation – borne out of servanthood – to enter into a deep and abiding love relationship.

What an awesome king!  A king who rules over all by virtue of His willingness to serve us all. 

Thanks be to God!

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[1]   See Hebrews 7: 1 – 18.

[2]   Revelation 19: 16

[3]   Revelation11: 15

Pentecost 25, Year B (2015)

Proper 28 :: Daniel 12: 1–3; Psalm 16;  Hebrews 10: 11-25; Mark 13: 1-8

This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, November 15, 2015.

“IN TIMES LIKE THESE”

(Homily texts:  Daniel 12: 1-3 & Mark 13: 1-8)

Let’s do some imagining this morning….

Imagine that we’ve come home, only to find that the family dog has, somehow, managed to get up onto the kitchen counter, where said dog has pulled down the three layer chocolate cake.  We come home to find chocolate all over the place, a royal mess.

Imagine that we’ve come home to find that a water pipe has burst somewhere in the house. There’s water everywhere, lots of it.

Imagine that we’ve come home to discover that the house has caught fire while we were gone.  The place is a total mess.

Now, let me insert - at this point - the thought that I hope that no one listening to this homily, or is reading it online, ever has to face any of these sorts of scenarios.

In the three situations we’ve just considered, the response we might feel to each situation would be shock, an inability to begin to think of what to do to fix the situation and fear.

Let’s insert ourselves into the situation that the early Christians living in Rome in the latter half of the first century were facing:  Imagine that some in our church have been hauled off to jail by the army.  We don’t know where they have been taken, nor do we know what their fate will be.  (In truth, during the Emperor Nero’s reign, for many Christians, that fate would have been a terrible one.)

That was the situation that the Christians to whom Mark was writing were facing. For them, their lives were marked by uncertainty, persecution and terror.  They were living with constant crisis.

It was to these beleaguered Christians that the Lord’s message, the one we hear in today’s gospel, came.  Speaking to His disciples as they made their way through the magnificent precincts of the temple in Jerusalem, He tells them that there will come a time when all of those enormous and awe-inspiring structures will cease to be.

Before we unpack the importance of the Lord’s prediction, we ought to pause for a moment and talk about the sort of message it is that we hear in today’s gospel passage, and in our Old Testament reading from the twelfth chapter of the Book of Daniel:  What we are hearing this morning is known as apocalyptic literature.

In the Bible, apocalyptic writing tends to arise during times of persecution, hardship and crisis.

The second half of the Book of Daniel[1] is apocalyptic writing.  So is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. The thirteenth chapter of Mark’s gospel account is also apocalyptic writing….in fact, biblical scholars call this chapter of Mark’s account the “Little Apocalypse”.

The very word apocalypse comes to us from the Greek, where it means (literally) an “unveiling”.  Put another way, it means “revelation”, as in the formal name for the last book of the Bible, the “Revelation to St. John”.

Such an unveiling, a revelation, is a glimpse given to God’s people of God’s great, big plan.  It provides to the believer reassurance that – despite the hardships and the trials that they are facing, day by day – God is still in control, and that, as Julian of Norwich[2] once said, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

Armed with this understanding of the purposes of apocalyptic writing, let’s look at the Book of Daniel, and then at our gospel for today.  Both are meant to give comfort and hope to God’s people.

The Book of Daniel is set in the Babylonian captivity, which took place from 586 – 538 BC.  In this period, the Jewish people, most of them anyway, had been carried off into captivity in Babylon following the destruction of Jerusalem and the fall of the Southern Kingdom of Judah.  God’s people had lost their homeland, the temple in Jerusalem which was the place where God had chosen for His dwelling place, and many of them had suffered the deaths of members of their families and friends.  All seemed lost.

And yet, in the midst of all of this calamity, Daniel records God’s great, big plan.  Part of that plan involves the collapse of the Babylonian Empire.  Consider the words which were spoken to the king of Babylon, Belshazzar, as the fingers of a man’s hand writes on the wall Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin:[3]  God has numbered the days of your reign, and has brought it to an end; you are weighed in the balance, and found wanting.  Daniel goes on to tell us that Belshazzar, will, that very night, be killed, and his kingdom will cease to be.

Such a message of hope is intended to lift the spirits of God’s people.

Some scholars think that the Book of Daniel was actually written during the Maccabean period, in the second century before Jesus’ birth.  If so, it would have been written during another very trying time of persecution for God’s people.

The bottom line in Daniel’s account might simply be this:  The Babylonians who made life so miserable for us are gone, completely gone; and perhaps the readers of Daniel would also remember that the Persians, who conquered the Babylonians, are also gone.  And if Daniel was written during the Maccabean period, the message would be that Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the oppressor of the Jews in the second century before Christ, will also, someday, be gone.  And yet, God is still abiding with His people.

Now, let’s fast-forward to the passage before us from Mark’s gospel account.

Mark’s readers, many of them, must have been encouraged to know that Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the Temple had come true, for the temple was destroyed during the Jewish-Roman War, which lasted from 66 – 70 AD.  Perhaps Mark wrote his account in the years immediately preceding that war.  If so, then when events confirmed the Lord’s prediction, the Christians living in Rome (and elsewhere) might have been encouraged to know that what the Lord had said had come to pass.  The message is that the Lord’s word is trustworthy and true.  It is meant to show that God is still in charge.  It is meant to show that there will come a time when the Romans will no longer be in charge

Of course, the Lord’s resurrection on Easter Sunday is the greatest affirmation of the truth of God’s word.  Christians, then and now, rely on this demonstration of the power of God to overcome all opposition.  Just as God had overcome our greatest enemy, death, in raising the Lord to life again, so God will overcome every obstacle that could possibly lie in our pathway, for, as St. Paul said, “Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.”[4]

One final word seems appropriate:  We live in an uncertain and dangerous world.  Indeed, in many ways, the uncertainties and the dangers that might confront us seem worse now that they were just a few years ago.  Two days before this homily was written, a horrible terror attack took place in Paris, France, where at least 127 people were killed and where hundreds more were injured.  The possibility that such an event might take place on our own shores is real.  Of course, we pray that such an event will not take place in our beloved country, and that the hand of evil will be stayed.  But the effects of terrorism are that fear will spread along with word of the terroristic acts.  So we all are affected in some way or another.

So perhaps we can take some encouragement from the truth of God’s word.  Though the way ahead of us might involve hardship and challenge, yet we can be sure that we have not been abandoned by God.  We can be sure that the truth of God’s word will endure.  We can be sure that all those who cause harm will, someday, cease to be.

For these things, for God’s abiding presence and His overwhelming power, we can offer thanks and praise.

AMEN.

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[1]   Chapters 6 - 12

[2]   Julian of Norwich, 1342 - 1416

[3]   Daniel 5: 25 - 28

[4]   Romans 8: 39