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.
