The Sunday of the Resurrection: Easter Sunday (2016)

Acts 10: 34–43; Psalm 118:1–2, 14–24; I Corinthians 15:19–26; Luke 24:1–12

This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John's Church in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, March 27, 2016.

“JESUS CHRIST: DIVINE OR HUMAN?”

Many times, when I am asked a question that involves a choice which is marked by the word “or”, I often reply “Yes”. For example, if I am asked, “Do you want vanilla or chocolate?”, my answer is always “Yes”.  

Other such choices are responded to in the same fashion.  After all, how could I possibly choose between to very important and very good choices (such as vanilla and chocolate)?

Setting humor aside, let’s ask ourselves this question: “Is Jesus Christ divine or human?” The obvious answer that Jesus’ resurrection gives us is “Yes!” (He is both divine and human, all at once.)

We are celebrating, this Easter morning, the fact that Jesus rose from the tomb completely and totally alive. We are celebrating the fact that He rose with His humanity completely intact.

The Gospel writers take specific care to tell us about the nature of Jesus’ resurrected body. For example, John tells us that Jesus could pass through locked doors, so this fact tells us that there was something quite different about Jesus’ nature after He rose from the dead. (See John 20:19.)

And yet, his physical body had all of the attributes that it had had before His death. For example, in a text we will hear one week from today, we read that Jesus told Thomas (Doubting Thomas) that Thomas should put his hand into the print of the nails in Jesus’ hands, and to put his hand into the Lord’s side. (See John 20:27.)  In Luke’s Gospel account, Luke tells us that the Lord invited His disciples to touch Him, saying, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” (Luke 24:38,39) A bit later on, Luke tells us that Jesus asked if the disciples had anything to eat. Receiving a piece of fish, the Lord sits and eats with them (See Luke 24:41 – 43.)

So in the wake of the Lord’s death and His resurrection from the dead, the Lord’s true nature is completely and totally revealed:

He has the ability to conquer death. Only God has that power, a power that is demonstrated by the fact that the Lord was absolutely, publicly dead at the conclusion of the events of Good Friday. Moreover, after His resurrection, He has the ability to come and go at will, passing through physical barriers. The Lord’s unity with God the Father is revealed. He is fully divine.

But the Lord’s full human nature is also revealed in the fact that He invites others to touch Him. He sits and eats with His disciples. He specifically denies that He is a disembodied spirit (Luke 24:39).

So, returning to the question with which we began, we are able to say when asked, “Is Jesus Christ divine or human?”, we can say with certainty, “Yes!” (He’s both human and divine, all at the same time.)

Christians down through the ages have often failed to grasp that Jesus’ two natures, divine and human, exist together, inseparably, without confusing either of His natures.[1] The inability to accept Jesus Christ’s nature was often the basis for incorrect belief, something called heresy.[2] The ancient Gnostics, for example, believed that Jesus Christ was a spirit, but not human. Taking another approach, the early Arians believed that Jesus Christ was the first thing that God created, so their approach affirmed Jesus Christ’s humanity, in essence.

For Christians and for all humanity, the reality of Jesus Christ’s nature brings us to an important understanding of our relationship with God. For in Christ, God is forever united to us human beings. The relationship between the Creator and the created (us) is forever changed.

The power of God to create and to recreate is seen in Jesus Christ’s rising from the dead. The power seen on Easter Sunday morning assures us that, regardless of whatever might come our way in this life, nothing at all will be able to separate us from God’s love, as St. Paul assures us in Romans 8:39. Jesus’ rising with His humanity intact tells us that the life we are living in this world, day in and day out, is important. It isn’t just heaven that we are waiting for, we are called to remember that the everyday of our present life is extremely important in God’s sight.

And when this life is done, we can be assured that God will receive us into the blessed rest promised to those who have been claimed by God in baptism, for the God who conquered death by raising Jesus Christ from the dead has shown us that He has the power to conquer death for us when that time comes.

So, is Jesus Christ divine or human? Yes, He is!

AMEN.

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[1]  An excellent affirmation of Jesus Christ’s true nature can be found in the statement which was adopted at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD. It can be found at the back of the Book of Common Prayer, 1979, on page 864.

[2]  The word heresy comes from a Greek word which means “choice”. So a heresy involves a decision to accept part of the truth, but not all of it. In the case of understanding Jesus’ true nature, the ancient heresies often chose to accept one of the Lord’s natures, but not both of them.

The Great Vigil of Easter, Year C (2016)

Genesis 1:1 – 2:2; Psalm 36:5 – 10; Exodus 14:10 – 15:1; Canticle 8 (The Song of Moses);  6:3 – 11; Psalm 114; Matthew 28:1 – 10

This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John's Church in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Saturday evening, March 26, 2016.

“KNOWING GOD’S POWER THROUGH EXPERIENCE”

It’s been said that trying to preach for the major holy days of the Church Year is a difficult assignment. The reason is that so many of the faithful Christian believers know the basics of each of the events that are celebrated throughout the year. So what does the preacher do when the basic storyline is so well known?

This preacher understands that challenge, having had the cycle of celebrations and observances roll around, year-after-year, for some years now.

So this year, I’ve decided to focus on what was different about that first night before Easter morning after that first Good Friday when we consider all the Easter vigil nights that have followed in the years since. (This might be my 2016 Holy Week and Easter theme, for we considered what was the same in the events that took place on Good Friday, contrasting that with what was different in Jesus’ death from the other crucifixions that took place in those ancient times.)

Tonight, then, as we stand with Christians down through the ages in the dim light of candles, waiting for the Lord’s rising from the tomb early tomorrow morning, let’s focus on what was different for those early believers on that night before the first Easter morning from all the other nights before Easter that followed.

To begin, we should put ourselves in the place of the first disciples following the Lord’s death on Good Friday.

We know from John’s Gospel account that they were frightened, for John tells us that they were hiding behind locked doors out of fear. They were hiding with good reason, I would suspect, for there was a very strong possibility that the Jewish leaders, or King Herod, or Pilate, or all three of these, would seek out other leaders of the movement that Jesus had started, in order to get rid of them in much the same way they’d gotten rid of Jesus. We must remember that those in power in those days didn’t hesitate to use that power to crush any and all opposition or threats to the status quo.

And so they are gathered, most likely in deep shock at what had happened….their leader was dead, killed in the most horrible manner possible. The Lord had died the death of a common criminal, a death that - by Jewish reckoning -  meant that He was an especially cursed man. Perhaps they also felt that there was no hope for the future, and that the way things had developed as Holy Week went along didn’t meet their expectations for a new and bright chapter in the history of God’s chosen people.

Despair and hopelessness are key words, I think, to describe the situation on that first Saturday following that first Good Friday.

During Jesus’ ministry, God’s power had been shown in the Lord’s miraculous healings, and in His raising people from the dead (most recently, in the raising of Lazarus). It was the experience of God’s power – and not just Jesus’ words alone – that had brought the Lord’s disciples thus far, and it was the experience of God’s power that had provided the basis for them to trust in Jesus and in His ministry.

But now the Lord was dead, totally, completely, absolutely dead. (As someone once said to me, “No one got off a Roman cross alive.”) Maybe those first disciples wondered if the charge that was levelled against Jesus as He hung on the cross was really true…after all, some of them said, “He saved others, himself he cannot save.”

Despair and hopelessness are what mark the difference between that first night after that first Good Friday from all the other nights following Good Friday. God’s absolute power over even death became known, not just in words, but in reality. It was the experience of the risen Lord on Easter Sunday morning that changed those early disciples’ lives forever. It was the experience of God’s power in being able to see and touch the risen Lord that galvanized them, giving them the power to go out into the entire world, carrying the Good News of the immense power of God to conquer death with life. They did so with such dedication and zeal that many of them suffered a similar sort of death to the one that their Lord had also suffered…many became martyrs, such was their dedication to the message of God’s love and God’s power.

Those early disciples-become-apostles, those early martyrs, demonstrated their love and dedication to God not with words alone, but with actions, actions that could be seen and experienced.

Words are cheap. Words are plentiful.

But actions demand dedication. Actions demand that something do something that others can see and experience.

Words and actions: In order for us to put our trust in something, to know that it is true and that it is a fact, these two things, words and actions, must be present. We must experience something, connecting what we know through words and ideas with an experience that matches what we’ve come to know.

For most of us, some proof, something that we can either see or can experience, is an important part of the process of coming to know that what God has told us is true. We need a basis for trusting that God is trustworthy. So perhaps we might look for some evidence that we can see or experience in our own lives, or in the lives of others. Have we witnessed a healing that cannot be explained except by the power of God? Have we witnessed a deliverance from some addiction or another? Have we seen lives turned around in situations where there seemed to be no hope for a new and brighter tomorrow? All these are indicators of God’s power, a power we can see and experience.

Now it’s our turn to show by word and example that the vows we made at our baptisms make a difference in our lives. Now it’s our turn to show the world around us that we believe what we profess so much that we are willing to devote ourselves to doing something to show just how much God has loved us, and just how much God loves each and every human person.

Thereby, we will fulfill the baptismal vow which was made at our baptisms: “Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?”  Answer: “I will, with God’s help.”

AMEN.

Good Friday, Year C (2016)

Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12; Psalm 22; Hebrews 10:1 – 25; John 18:1 – 19:37

This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Friday, March 25, 2016.

“THE EVENTS OF GOOD FRIDAY: NOT ALL THAT UNUSUAL (FOR THE MOST PART)”

For most Christians, Good Friday is an extremely important holy day. Many will observe[1] this day, remembering the events that took place in Jerusalem those many years ago.

But for all the importance that is attached to this day, many of the events that took place aren’t all that unusual, most likely. For if we look at the record of the Gospel accounts, and if we look at contemporary non-biblical accounts, we can see that many of the events were fairly commonplace.

So let’s look at the things that happened that were an unfortunate part of life in the Holy Land 2,000 years ago. And then we can look at what makes this day so different, and so important to our Christian hope.

The commonplace events might include these:

Crucifixion: Alas, my suspicion is that executing people by crucifixion was a fairly frequent event. Perhaps Pontius Pilate had a favorite day for carrying out this cruel method of killing people. We don’t know for sure, but we do know from the historical record that he was a cruel man who ruled through fear of violence. The Romans didn’t invent crucifixion. Most historians think it was the ancient Assyrians who did, but the Romans made efficient use of it. Essentially, this very public form of execution was state-sponsored terrorism, an object lesson for anyone who would dare to step out-of-line or who would dare to challenge the power of the state. This was the reason for the sign which was affixed above Jesus’ head, which read “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews”. The sign told everyone who looked on the condemned just what it was deed(s) they had done that had landed them on a cross. I suspect that empty crosses dotted the landscape (one recent movie about Jesus’ passion depicts just such a scene as Joseph, Mary and Jesus are travelling, and they come upon a cross at a road intersection), a grim reminder of the power of Rome. Crosses were also a grim reminder that the Jewish people were a conquered and enslaved people, for a Roman citizen could not be killed by crucifixion.

Innocent victims: Nor was it an unusual event for people who were innocent of any wrongdoing to find themselves being nailed to a cross. The Gospel accounts make it clear that Jesus was innocent, and that Pilate himself thought that was so. But the Romans were efficient killers whose main concern, especially in ruling contentious peoples like the Jews, was to keep the lid on any turbulence that might erupt. The Gospels themselves mention (briefly) some of the revolutions that had taken place in the countryside.[2] So the Romans would rather get rid of anyone who was suspected of being a rabble-rouser, rather than risk letting things get out-of-hand. For Pilate himself, keeping things under control was a major concern, for his own employment as Governor of Judea depended directly on his ability to be in charge.[3]

A question of who’s in charge: We mentioned a moment ago that the Romans ruled with harshness and with the use of fear and violence. But a different aspect of the relationship between the governed and the governing emerges in Jesus’ trial: The power of the mob was significantly displayed, as the Chief Priests whip the crowd into demanding that Jesus be killed and that Barabbas be freed. Moreover, Pilate is out-maneuvered by the Chief Priests, who insist that, if he lets Jesus go, that he is “no friend of Caesar”. Pilate would not have been able to understand the nature of the religious charges made against Jesus, but he was very able to understand the charge that Jesus had claimed to be a king. The Chief Priests make use of Pilate’s ability to understand in outwitting and outmaneuvering him. Here, again, the need to keep a lid on the fires of discontent and rebellion come into view. For all of the outward power of Rome that was manifest in Pilate, in actuality a lot of power was in the hands of the mob.

Bucking the system: A major factor in Jesus’ arrest, trial and execution was the fact that He was bucking the power relationships which existed between the Jewish leadership, the puppet king Herod, and the Roman governor, Pilate. Normally, these three operated each in their own spheres (In Luke’s Gospel account, for example, we learn that Herod and Pilate weren’t especially friendly with one another, until Jesus’ trial comes about.) In general terms, anyone who dared to confront the Chief Priests and the Temple ruling class, King Herod, or Pilate, ran the risk of getting into trouble. Of course, the exact nature of the resulting trouble was always an unknown. Sometimes, a severe beating, such as was administered to Jesus by Pilate, was one solution. At other times, a quick and sudden death at the hands of soldiers was the solution. And in still other cases, death by crucifixion was the result. The one constant was the reality that going up against those in power was a risky undertaking.

With all of these realities in view, we should ask ourselves, “Then what makes the events of this day so different from the commonplace realities of the world in that day and time?”

I’ll venture to provide some answers:

Having power, but refusing to use it: One aspect of Jesus’ passion was the fact that He had the power to crush the ruling elite, the Chief Priests and the ruling council, the Sanhedrin, King Herod, and Pilate. In Matthew’s Gospel account, Jesus tells His disciples that, if He had asked the Father for them, twelve legions of angels would be made available for Him to fight against the powers that were arrayed against Him. Yet Jesus does not summon those 72,000 angels.[4] As Jesus stands in front of Pilate, He tells Pilate that His “kingdom is not of this world,” adding that, “if (my) kingdom were of this world, then (my) followers would fight” to bring that kingdom into being. Jesus steadfastly refuses to use the powers available to Him. If we consider another aspect of Jesus’ powers, recall with me that He had recently raised Lazarus from the dead (see John, chapter eleven). Jesus had demonstrated His power over death itself. The implications - from a military point-of-view - are enormous, for if Jesus had raised Lazarus back to life, then Jesus could also raise fallen soldiers back to duty and to the fight.

The fact that Jesus possesses immense power, but willingly sets those powers aside to allow Himself to be vulnerable, magnifies the sense of complete surrender we see in Him.

The depths of utter helplessness: Contrasted with the power and resources that Jesus had available to Him, and his refusal to call upon those powers, stands the reality of death on a cross, for such a death was the lowest point a person could reach. In the estimation of the Jews, anyone who found themselves hung on a tree was an especially cursed person.[5] (In this connection, it’s worth noting that, as the Gospel message went out into the world, the fact that Jesus had died a common criminal’s death, and an especially cursed form of death, was a stumbling block to the Jews, as St. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 1:23. The method of Jesus’ death was also folly to Gentiles, as St. Paul adds in the same verse.) A person who was nailed to a cross lost everything they had previously had:  Their dignity (they were nailed naked to the cross), their possessions (notice that Jesus’ clothing is parceled out to the Roman soldiers, who cast lots for them), their family and their friends. They died alone, scorned, forsaken, in pain and in despair. The spectacle of their passing took a lot of time, usually, so there was plenty of time for the condemned to experience the alienation, the pain, the insults (remember that Jesus was reviled by the Chief Priests, who, standing beneath the cross, say to Him, “He saved others, Himself he cannot save.”) of those who’d come to watch the show. St. Paul, writing in Philippians 2:5 – 11, brilliantly describes the reality that the cross represents, for Paul says this: “(Jesus) humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:8) And even after the ordeal of the slow death (by asphyxiation, the inability to continue to breathe) was over, there was – for most victims of crucifixion – no grave to be buried in.

It is a very strong temptation to “fast forward” from the events of Good Friday into the events of Easter Sunday. Indeed, the two days’ events are inextricably connected one to the other: One does not get to Easter Sunday without going through Good Friday. But we would do well to stay here, at the foot of the cross, for a good, long while, taking time to ponder just what it is that makes this day so different from all other days in which these sorts of things took place.

AMEN.

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[1]  Using the word “celebrate” might be the wrong word to describe our gatherings held on this day.

[2]   Later Jewish history records two major revolts against Rome: The Jewish-Roman War, which lasted from 66 – 70 AD, and the Bar Kochba revolt, which took place about the year 135 AD.

[3]   Pilate’s tenure in Judea lasted from 26 – 36 AD.

[4]   A Roman army legion was made up of 6,000 soldiers.

[5]  See Deuteronomy 21:23.

Maundy Thursday, Year C (2016)

Exodus 12: 1–14a; Psalm 78: 14–20, 23–35; I Corinthians 11: 23–32; John 13: 1-15

This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Thursday, March 24, 2016.

“PETER: AN ALL-OR-NOTHING SORT”

(Homily text: John 13: 1–15)

The Gospels and the Book of the Acts of the Apostles paint an interesting picture of Peter: Quite often, he is one who will get his mouth into gear long before his brain in engaged, sometimes for good and sometimes for unproductive ends….for example, Peter is the first to confess Jesus’ identity as the Christ. But then, he turns right around and rebukes Jesus when the Lord begins to tell His disciples that He will be going to Jerusalem, where He will be killed. Peter is often the one who’ll be leading the others in some activity or another. He is the one who will cower in fear when challenged by those who were standing outside during Jesus’ appearance before Caiphas, as the maid asks, “Are you one of his (Jesus’) disciples?” He is the one who will deny the Lord three times on that fateful night.

But before Jesus’ arrest and appearance before Pilate, Peter – true to his nature - is the one who seems to be an all-or-nothing sort of a person. Notice that, when Jesus comes and kneels before Peter in order to wash his feet, Peter insists that the Lord will never wash his feet. When Jesus ups the ante by telling Peter that, if he will not allow the washing of his feet, then he will have no part of Jesus’ will and plans for the future.  Then, Peter completely turns around, and becomes the willing partner in the foot washing that took place on Maundy Thursday evening. Peter insists that the Lord not only wash his feet, but all of him in the process. All-or-nothing, that’s the picture we have of Peter.

So what’s going on here?

Two elements of the events of Maundy Thursday stand out: washing and eating, cleansing and sustenance.

The Lord emphasizes the nature of servant hood by setting aside His outer garments in order to take up a towel to wash the disciples’ feet. Understood within the context of the societal norms of the time, what Jesus is doing is to demonstrate that He is willing to be slave and servant of all, for in those days, the washing of feet was a task that a slave or a servant would do.

When we are spiritually washed by entering the waters of baptism, we are allowing ourselves to become the Lord’s servant. In our baptismal covenant, we acknowledge Jesus’ lordship, we acknowledge that we are unable to help and save ourselves, and then we promise to do certain things in service to the Lord and in service to others.

Our spiritual journey must include a passage through the waters of baptism. In those waters, we are cleansed from the stain of original sin, and we are claimed as Christ’s own forever. In response to God’s love made known in Jesus, we willingly admit that we are nothing in God’s sight, apart from Jesus’ atoning death.

The baptismal event marks the beginning of our journey with God the Father through God the Son. As we make our way forward, we are strengthened for the work God has called us to do, as we receive the Lord under the species of bread and wine….spiritual food for God’s people.

The aim of baptism is to set us on a course from a place of being nothing, toward a course of being all-for-Jesus. Spiritual maturity is the goal here, as we continue to live out the reality of our baptisms, by which we have died to ourselves and to our old natures, in order to put on Christ and to make His presence in our lives the all-in-all.

May the Lord strengthen us to see ourselves as those who were once nothing in God’s sight, but who – through the blood of Jesus – have now begun our journey to being all-in-all in Christ.

AMEN.

The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday, Year C (2016)

Luke 19:29–40; Isaiah 45:21–25; Psalm 22:1–11; Philippians 2:5–11; Luke 22:14 – 23:56

This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John's Church in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, March 20, 2016.

“CREATING THE NEW KINGDOM OF GOD”

(Disclosure statement:  The source for the concept contained in this homily is taken from the book “The Challenge of Jesus” by Anglican Bishop N. T. Wright, who is one of the world's foremost New Testament scholars.)

On this Palm Sunday, which is the first day of the week, the new Kingdom of God begins the process of creation. It will come into its fullness a week from now, on the first day of that new week, Easter Sunday, as the Lord Jesus rises from the tomb.

Since we stand on the leading edge of this eight day period, let's trace the creative process through this week, charting the course which lies before us.  As we do so, we can use as a comparative model the creative process which we find in the Book of Genesis, chapters one and two.

Let's begin with the Genesis account, and as we do so, we'll compare that to the events of Holy Week and Easter.

In Genesis, on the first day of creation, we find that God created light, bringing order out of chaos. In Holy Week, the light of Jesus shines as He makes His way into the holy city of Jerusalem, being acclaimed by the crowds who shout, “Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” As this Holy Week progresses, the Lord will enter the temple in Jerusalem overcoming its corruption and chaos by overturning the tables of the money changers. By this act, the Lord will signal the end of its corruptive hold on God's people, and the chaotic demands of its greedy Chief Priests.

In Genesis, we read that God created everything necessary for the world to function, providing plants for food. In Holy Week, the Lord will institute the Lord's Supper, by which His disciples down through the ages will be fed and nurtured.

Then, God created human beings on the sixth day of creation. Adam and Eve are the crowning achievements of God's creative acts. We are told that God uses the dust of the ground as the raw material for Adam's creation. In Holy Week, on the sixth day, the second Adam (as St. Paul describes the Lord in I Corinthians 15: 35 – 49), Jesus, dies on the cross and is buried in the ground. From the vantage point of Good Friday, the Lord's death and burial doesn't look like a creative act. But seen from the perspective of Easter, we can see that the Lord's death and burial is like the planting of a seed in the ground, a seed which must die in order to bring about new life. (The Lord gives us this image in John 12: 24.) Though we cannot see it, on Good Friday the creative processes are set in motion, for the second Adam will rise on Easter Sunday morning, bringing with Him the power to grant new and eternal life to all who believe in Him.

On the seventh day, Genesis tells us that God rested from all His labors, having seen that “all that He had made was 'very good'.”  In Holy Week, the Lord rests in the tomb, having completed all His labors, labors that – in due course – we will find to be very good.

In Genesis, on the first day of the second week, that is to say, on the eighth day, the whole creation begins to operate. At the conclusion of Holy Week, on the first day of the second week, which is the eighth day, the Lord rises from the tomb, and the new Kingdom of God begins to operate by the powers which have conquered death and destruction.

As a result, all who come to God in faith through Jesus Christ are able – like Adam and Eve – to walk in the garden, for believers in Jesus, the garden of faith, where we are able to converse with God face-to-face. The relationship that Adam and Eve had with God is restored through the work of Jesus Christ, and we are able to have an intimate, face-to-face relationship with the Father through the work of the Son.

So, welcome to this Holy Week journey, as we walk toward Easter Sunday, celebrating God's creative acts by which the new Kingdom comes into its fullness.

AMEN.

The Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year C (2016)

Isaiah 43: 16–21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3: 4b–14; John 12: 1–8

This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s Church in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, March 13, 2016.

“IS THIS 'THE BEGINNING OF THE END’, OR 'THE END OF THE BEGINNING’?”

(Homily texts: Psalm 126 & John 12: 1–8)

Our Gospel reading for this morning describes a dinner party, given by Jesus’ dear friends, Mary, her sister Martha, and their brother, Lazarus, in the village of Bethany. No doubt, the dinner party began on a festive note (although John doesn’t specifically tell us that it so….we can only surmise that that might be the case, for John does tell us that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead).

But then, the mood changes as Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with a costly ointment. When Judas Iscariot raises an objection, Jesus bluntly tells him and everyone else in the room that this act was done to prepare Him for burial. It would be easy to imagine that the mood, from that point forward, was gloomy.

What might have been going through the minds of everyone who heard His remark?

One possibility is that they may have asked themselves, “Is this the beginning of the end?”, the beginning of the end of Jesus’ wonderful ministry, the beginning of the end of His marvelous healings and His growing popularity, and the end of His inspired teachings.

Jesus’ death and burial would signal the end of all these things.

Perhaps those in attendance thought about the end of all these things, and perhaps they earnestly wanted these good things to continue for a long time to come….Maybe they thought something along these lines:  “Lord, you are doing such good and wonderful things…you’ve challenged the ruling elite of the people, exposing their corrupt ways and their misuse of the Law of Moses. You’re becoming so popular that some want to make you king. You are surely destined to bring back the glory of our people, such as it was in the days of King David.”

We don’t know these things for certain (although we do know that some wanted to seize Jesus and proclaim Him as king (see John 6: 15), but it might be easy for us to identify with these very human responses.

From a human point-of-view, Jesus’ prediction of His death and burial marks the “Beginning of the end.”

If we look at the events of Good Friday, then this marvelous chapter in human history, the story of Jesus’ life, teachings, miracles and care for the outcasts of His day, does come to an end. If this perspective is the correct one, then Jesus becomes just one of the greater lights of human history, a charismatic and persuasive figure who arises at a very troubled time in history. If we see Jesus from a human perspective, we are obliged to take lessons from His extraordinary teachings. If we see Him as an exemplary human being, we should take inspiration from His model of love and care for the downtrodden and the forgotten of the world.

But if we see Jesus from the perspective that Easter offers us, then we must come to the conclusion that Jesus’ death and burial is but the “End of the beginning”. In the events of Easter Sunday morning, the risen Christ comes among His disciples, appearing first to Mary Magdalene in the garden. There’s much meaning in Jesus’ resurrection: For one thing, His new life spells the beginning of the end of sin and death’s reign. For another, His rising from the tomb signals that God continues to care for all of creation, that God continues to care for every person who is created in the image and likeness of God. God earnestly desires to enter into an ongoing, personal and intense relationship with every human being. God invites us into this intense and personal relationship by providing – in Jesus’ rising – with the proof of His power over everything that would destroy us:  death and sin. Without the proof of God’s power over life itself, there would be no reason, no basis, for us to trust God and to accept God’s invitation to a new and rich life of relationship with the Father through the Son.

Jesus’ nature, He who is fully human and yet fully divine, challenges us to see Him in the full dimension of his human-ness, even as we balance this perspective with a deep appreciation for his one-ness with God the Father.

Neither perspective, the human one or the divine one, can exist without the other. To neglect Jesus’ divine nature in order to focus on His human nature leads us easily to regard Him  from a purely human point-of-view. To regard His divinity at the expense of His full human nature is to miss the importance of God’s care for the everyday world you and I inhabit.

We are called to a balanced understanding of Jesus’ nature, to a full acceptance that He came among us as one of us, putting on our humanity to the full (even to the point of death on a cross….see Philippians 2: 5–11). A balanced understanding of Jesus’ nature also calls us to see that, in Him, the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

No wonder that even death on a cross could not separate Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God, the Christ (God’s Anointed), from the Father, for the powers of sin and death tried mightily on Good Friday to separate the Son from the Father and the Father from the Son. They failed, and we are the victors, along with Christ.

So, for us, the Lord’s death and resurrection marks the “End of the beginning”, for in Christ’s death and resurrection, the seeds are sown for us to grow into a full and mature love-relationship with God through the work of the Son. The fruits which flow from the work of Christ on Good Friday, and His victory over sin and death on Easter, will continue to bless us into all eternity. Indeed, Christ’s victory is but the “End of the beginning” of the blessings that are ours through Him.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN.

The Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year C (2016)

Joshua 5: 9 – 12; Psalm 32; II  Corinthians 5: 16 – 21; Luke 15: 1 – 3, 11b - 32

This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s Church in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, March 6, 2016.

“LOST & FOUND”

(Homily text: Luke 15: 1 – 3, 11b - 32)

In the very familiar parable of the Prodigal Son, the father of the Prodigal says this:  “…for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!”

Today’s gospel reading, which allows us to hear this wonderful parable that Luke alone among the Gospel writers relates to us, is all about things that are lost and things that are found.

If we look at the two intervening parables (which we do not hear this morning) which are part of chapter fifteen, the Parable of the Lost Sheep (verses four through seven) and the Parable of the Lost Coin (verses eight through the first part of verse eleven), we see a theme which has to do with things that are lost and things that have been found.

If we were to read the whole of chapter fifteen through from its beginning through to the end of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, we might lose sight of the audience which stood around Jesus, listening to His teaching. Notice that – in verse one, that it was the tax collectors and the sinners who were standing around. But not far away (in verse two), we notice that the Pharisees and the scribes were close enough to observe the proceedings of Jesus’ teaching.

These two groups ideally fit the description of those who are “lost” and those who are “found”.

Let’s explore this just a bit….

In the eyes of the devout keepers of the Law of Jesus in our Lord’s day, it was those tax collectors and other sinners who were “lost”. And, by the same token, it was the Pharisees and the scribes who were the ones who were “found”. At least this seems to be the estimation of many people in Jesus’ day.

But who’s really “lost” and who’s really “found”?

Jesus’ teaching provides us with a clue:  The wayward son who went off to the foreign land and there squandered his inheritance in riotous living, loses everything he had. When he hit bottom, he knew enough to return to the one place where he would be welcomed back, to his father. In the process, he was found in the truest sense.

The trajectory that the Lord traces for us of the prodigal’s story matches the trajectory of the tax collectors and the other sinners who gathered around Him that day. For they had squandered the precious legacy of the promises made to Abraham and to Abraham’s offspring. And yet, having little else to lose, they knew where to turn for help….they turned to Jesus, who was the one person who welcomed them into fellowship with God, who showed them unconditional love. Jesus’ call (and we should be clear about this point) was not to simply welcome such persons into fellowship, but to call them away from their sinful ways into a new and holy way of living.

Now, let’s look at the Pharisees and the scribes for a moment.

The picture that the Gospel writers paint for us of these persons isn’t a flattering or very pretty one. One gets the impression that they were pretty self-assured of their place in God’s scheme of things. The problem becomes one of spiritual pride, pride which can obscure an ability to see ourselves and our spiritual condition clearly. Thinking they were among those who’d been “found”, in actuality, these Pharisees and scribes were among those who were “lost”.

This important point brings us to a central truth of our spiritual journey: To be truly found by God, we must admit that we are lost and cannot find ourselves.

This is a zero-sum truth: Without the bottoming out that the prodigal had to encounter and traverse, we ourselves cannot be found by God.

For the truth is that we are blind to our own spiritual condition, just as the Pharisees and the scribes were, absent the movement of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives.

This gospel text is an ideal one for the Lenten season, for it calls us to a sober and searching assessment of our own spiritual condition. It calls us to admit to God, to one another, and to ourselves, that we stand in continuing need of a self-emptying, bottoming-out experience, s we come to grips with the reality of our true spiritual condition. Only then can God find and redeem us.

AMEN.