Sunday, January 25, 2015

Epiphany 3, Year B



Jeremiah 3:21 – 4:2; Psalm 130; I Corinthians 7:17–23; Mark 1:14–20

A homily by Fr. Gene tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul the Apostle, Springfield, Illinois on Sunday, January 25, 2015.

“WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FISH?”
(Homily text:  Mark 1:14 – 20)



            “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people,” the Lord said as He called Simon Peter and his brother, Andrew, into service as His disciples.

            It’s safe to say that these two brothers’ lives changed drastically and for ever, from that day forward.  For off they went, forsaking their former occupations as fishermen who were catching fish, into their new calling as fishermen who were catching people.

            We too, in our own time today, are called to join Simon Peter, Andrew and the other original followers of Jesus in the business of fishing.

            Some elements of the business of fishing fit both the catching of fish and the catching of people.  For example, oftentimes something needs to be used to attract them both, fish and people.  We need to use some sort of bait.  And then, too, we need to know where the fish and the people are to be found.  It does little good to cast our net or to try to attract either one if there’s nothing there to catch.

            But other elements of fishing for fish and fishing for people are markedly different one from the other:  When we fish for fish, the impact on the fish is devastating, for they lose their lives and die.  They become unwitting quarry for our hooks and our nets.  But when people are attracted to faith in Jesus Christ, they come alive in the fullest and best sense of the word.  They become new creatures in baptism.

            What about this business of fishing for people?  How do we go about it?  What do we have to attract non-believers into a relationship with God through Christ?

            Let’s explore the last question first, as we look at the things we have in our Christian faith that should attract others.

            I think, perhaps, that the most important aspect of belief in Christ has to do with the fact that we are very valuable creatures in God’s sight.  God loves us so much and so deeply that He has reached out to each one of us in the person of Jesus Christ.  God reaches out, not in some grandiose, overarching plan so much as He reaches out to each person individually and personally.  He calls each one by name, one at a time, inviting them to come into fellowship with Him.

The Lord’s death on the cross proves to us the depth of His love for us, and His rising from the tomb and from death on Easter Sunday morning proves to us that all the power of God has been given to us, yes, even the power over death itself.

            In a world in which many people do not think they matter to anyone, let alone to God, this is welcome news.  Many in our world today think that their lives are some sort of a joke, a cruel joke, and that there is no great purpose or plan to their existence.  The Christian faith declares just the opposite truth.

            We find our truest and best selves by a route that doesn’t seem to make sense:  We are asked to deny ourselves in order to find ourselves.  That is the route that Simon Peter and his brother took:  They said “goodbye” to their old occupation and their former relationships and ways of living, losing all of that in the process, in order to find themselves in relationship to God as Jesus’ disciples.

            By a similar route, we enter the waters of baptism and die to our old way of life, in order that we might rise to a new life in Christ, as St. Paul tells us in his Letter to the Romans, chapter six.

            If those who are not yet disciples can see beyond the immediacy of the requirement to deny ourselves and to be willing to die to their old ways of living, then the way to faith and new life becomes easier.

            This last point leads me into the topic of the means by which we “fish for people”.

            It is our job as disciples of Jesus to show what a difference having a relationship with the Lord makes.  We do this by the way we talk, by the way we think, by the way we treat others (especially those with whom we may disagree!).  We are called, in short, to bear the image of Christ (Imago Christi is the Latin for this idea).  In a nutshell, that’s what the original twelve disciples did, and what successful disciples have done in every generation since then.

            And what might we offer those who are not currently of the household of faith as Christians of the Episcopal persuasion?  I think we offer a great number of wonderful things, ways to come to faith in God and to live out that faith.  Allow me to share my personal “Episcopal bests”:

  • We value the Bible:  Holy Scripture forms the highest and most important part of our foundation of faith.  In fact, we Episcopalians read far more Scripture during our worship services than many churches whose names include the word “Bible”.

  • A balanced foundation for faith:  As the American part of the Anglican Church, we base our faith on Scripture, Reason and Tradition.  Notice that we do not base our beliefs and understandings on the Bible alone.  Having such a balanced way of understanding allows us to avoid many of the misconceptions and errors in understanding that have plagued many Christians over the history of the faith.

  • A reasonable faith:  Ours is a reasonable faith.  That is to say, it asks the question, “Is it reasonable to believe this or that?  Does it make sense?”

  • Room for differences of conviction:  The Anglican expression of the Christian faith, which we Episcopalians have inherited, has always tolerated a widely divergent variety of views on any number of topics.

  • An historical faith:  We value history, and in particular, the Church’s history down through the ages.  We can learn much from the successes and the failures of Christians in times past.  Our connection to the Christians of a bygone era can be found in the pages of the Book of Common Prayer, for the newest American edition of it still contains the 16th century traditional rite.  It also contains a version of a Eucharistic prayer (Eucharistic Prayer D, page 372 in The Book of Common Prayer) which comes to us from the fourth century!

  • A liturgical faith:  We express our love for God in the rich, formal worship style that flows from the Book of Common Prayer.  Worshiping in this way prevents the person leading the worship from becoming a “one man show”.  Furthermore, everyone who is present has an active role to play in creating worship….worship in the Anglican tradition is not a spectator sport!  In fact, the word “liturgy” itself comes from two words which mean “Work of the people”.

  • Room to be oneself:  We Episcopalians are quite comfortable sharing our struggles as well as our victories as we walk the pathway of faith.  Consequently, there’s no need to mask the reality of what’s going on in our lives.  We are quite willing to accept one another wherever we find ourselves at any given moment.

    As we close, let’s return to the business of fishing….

    Fishing for others involves personal, one-on-one contact with those we know.  Time and again, this method of growing the faith has proven to be the most effective way of making new disciples.  This method of calling others into a living relationship with the living God surpasses all the efforts we could put into advertising or some other means of reaching out to people.  As people come to faith, one by one, the Church itself grows as new disciples are called and formed.  The institutional Church (Episcopal Church, e.g.) is, after all, the visible vehicle by which the community of faith is formed, nurtured and sustained for the work of God in the world.

    “Come follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”  The Lord’s words call us into active ministry in His name, calling others to walk the path of faith that we have found to be the way of life and peace.

    AMEN.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Epiphany 2, Year B



I Samuel 3: 1 - 20; Psalm 63: 1 – 8; I Corinthians 6: 11b – 20; John 1: 43 - 51

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois on Sunday, January 18, 2015.

“SOMEONE WORTH FOLLOWING”
(Homily text:  John 1: 43 - 51)
 
            Let’s talk about leaders and followers this morning.

            During my Army career, I had the pleasure of attending quite a few promotion ceremonies.  I was also privileged to be the subject of some of those ceremonies, as my career unfolded and I was promoted.  Anyway, during the ceremony, the individual being promoted had his/her promotion order read aloud.  As near as I can remember, the wording went something like this:

“The Secretary of the Army has reposed special trust and confidence in the fidelity, excellence and professionalism of (name of person being promoted).  In view of these qualities and their demonstrated leadership potential, they are, therefore, promoted to the rank of ______, effective (date).”

            OK, that’s not exactly 100% correct, but it’s close.  (It’s been a few years since I’ve heard those words read aloud.)

            I want to draw your attention to the phrase “demonstrated leadership potential”….

            As the person being promoted went through the screening process in order to be promoted, there had to be an assessment of many facets of their character and their performance of duty.  Two of these characteristics were:

  • Their proven ability to lead and to assume greater levels of responsibility,
  • Their concern for the welfare of those they would be leading. 
            We have before us this morning the wonderful account of Jesus’ call of two of His disciples, Philip and Nathanael as we hear it in the first chapter of John’s gospel account, verses 43 through 51.

            Let’s look at this encounter from the angle we’ve identified a moment ago, looking at Jesus’ ability to lead, to be trusted, to be followed, and His concern for those he would be leading.

            Some aspects of this text and worthy of closer scrutiny:

            1.  Philip’s confirmation of Jesus’ identity:  If we put ourselves into the situation, trying to understand what it was like for Philip to say to Nathanael, “We have found him of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth,” we might be astonished to witness hearing such a statement.  Why?  I think the reason is that many Jews of Jesus’ day were eagerly looking for the Promised One who would come.  Of course, not all of God’s people in those days were looking, but Philip’s statement confirms that he was among those who were looking and who were expecting God to fulfill His promise to send the Messiah, the Christ.  Imagine then, hearing this statement.  It would be like hearing that one of our fondest desires had been granted.   As I try to find a good example from our own life experience today, the best I image I can come up with is this one:   It would be like hearing that a great-grandfather’s estate had finally been given to us, that we had finally taken possession of something we’d been hoping to receive for a very long time.  For Philip to confirm the reality that Jesus of Nazareth is the fulfillment of these ancient promises meant that the age-old desires of God’s people had finally come to pass.  “Wow!  He’s really come, at last?” might be a way to frame a response to this statement.

            2.  Demonstrated leadership potential?:  A whole host of questions arise out of Philip’s characterization of this Promised One.  For one thing, he says that the person God had sent was Jesus, the son of Joseph.  (Note that this is the way, in ancient times, that a person was identified….the son’s father was named as part of the identifying process.  It’d be like saying that I am “Gene, son of Jess.”)  But wait a minute, wasn’t the Messiah supposed to be of the house of David?  What’s this about Joseph? And what’s this business about Nazareth?  Nathanael’s response indicates that Nazareth must not have been a very highly regarded place to be from, for he says, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  Nazareth must have been the “other side of the tracks” in those days. 

            But Jesus overcomes the doubts about his identity with this statement:  As Nathanael asks Jesus how He had gotten to know him, Jesus says, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”  What Jesus says is that He has the power to know things that no human being can have.  He has powers that only God has, the power to know all things.  This divine omniscience is a consistent marker throughout John’s gospel account.  Over and over, John records incidents in which Jesus knows things that only God can know, for, as John tells us, Jesus is “one with the Father.” (John 10:31)

            In response, Nathanael explodes by uttering a series of titles that point to Jesus’ true identity:  “Rabbi (which means “teacher” in Hebrew), you are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel.”

            3.  Concern for the situations of those being led, and for their welfare:  In order to be an effective leader, the leader must know about the people who are being led.  Among the things the leader would need to know would be:  Their character, their abilities and their potential for future growth and development.  Jesus shows such concern as He assesses Nathanael’s character:  “Here is truly an Israelite[1] in whom there is no deceit.”  By affirming Nathanael’s basic character, Jesus affirms that Nathanael is worthy of being a disciple.  Nathanael is also capable of experiencing greater and greater things as time goes along, as Jesus says, “You will see greater things than these.”

            What are we to make of all this?  As I reflect on that question, the following observations might be worthy of consideration:

            Jesus is worthy of being followed:  In order to follow someone, we have to know something about that person’s character, their identity, and their trustworthiness.  Jesus affirms His deep and abiding connection with God the Father by telling Nathanael that He has all the powers of the Father at His command.  Furthermore, as time goes along, Jesus will affirm by His works, by His teaching, by His suffering, death and resurrection, that He and the Father are one.  Jesus confirms that God is present in all that He will do…that is the basic point of Jesus’ statement that “You will see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”  In this statement, we have an allusion to Jacob’s dream, as we find it in Genesis 28: 12.  There, we read that Jacob had had a dream in which there was a ladder set up which stretched from earth to heaven.  In the dream, Jacob dreams that the angels ascended and descended the ladder.   When he awoke, Jacob said, “Truly, God is in this place, and I did not know it.”  Jesus’ point seems to be that, with Him and His work, God is truly present in all that will come to pass.

            Our task is to come to understand something about Jesus’ identity.  Perhaps discovering all there is to know about Jesus’ identity is a lifelong pursuit, for it’s possible that we can never fully know all there is to know about who Jesus is until we enter into eternity and see Him face-to-face.  In this life, however, we continue to learn more and more about Jesus, never exhausting the possibilities.

            Jesus says that Nathanael will see “greater works than these.”  Those “greater works” begin with the first miracle, at a wedding in Cana of Galilee, as Jesus turns the water into wine (see John 2: 1 – 12).

            Jesus has our condition and its betterment foremost in mind:  Just as Jesus knew about Nathanael’s character, Jesus also knows everything about our character, the state of our spiritual development and our needs.  Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus showed a deep and abiding concern for those He came to lead and save.  He reached out to rescue the outcasts of His day.  He came to heal the brokenhearted and the downcast.  His leadership is not of the self-serving kind, and so it stood in sharp contrast to the leadership styles of the priests and the Pharisees.

            As we come to know more about the Lord, and come to know more of the depth of love He has for us, we can be confident that He is worthy of our trust and our love.  We can be confident that the Lord’s primary concern is the salvation of our souls, offered in a deep and abiding, self-emptying love.

            And so, we come to learn more about the Lord and His character.  We come to hear God’s holy Word, by which we experience the Lord’s presence in our lives.  We come together to worship so that the Lord can come among us whenever two or three are gathered together in His name (Matthew 18: 20).  We come to experience His real presence in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, as His body and blood are received under the forms of bread and wine.

            The invitation that stands before us, then, is the same one that Philip uttered to Nathanael:  “Come and see.”

AMEN.


[1]   It is interesting that Jesus calls Nathanael an “Israelite”.  Throughout John’s gospel account, the word “Jew(s)” is used to denote those who opposed Jesus’ work and ministry.