Sunday, April 24, 2016

Easter 5, Year C (2016)

Acts 11: 1–18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21: 1-6; John 13: 31-35

The following is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker which was given at St. John's Church in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, April 24, 2016.

“EVERYONE COUNTS”
(Homily texts:  Acts 11: 1–18 & John 13: 31-35)

“Everyone counts!”
So said the poster on the wall of a facility I was in this past week.
I was struck by the truth of that comment, which – in the place where I saw it – announced to everyone that everyone and anyone could initiate an action to assist others in the facility:  Staff and those being served alike.
“Everyone counts.”
The appointed readings from the Book of Acts and from John’s gospel account for this morning make it clear that – in God’s eyes – everyone counts.
We would do well to take a closer look at the situation that Jesus encountered when God the Father sent Him to earth. Much the same situation would face the early Church as the Apostles went out from Jerusalem, carrying the Good News of God’s work in Christ.
As we look at the culture, both Roman and Jewish, we can see that not everyone counted.
To the Romans, the many people who were slaves didn’t count. Neither did the peoples who had been conquered by the Roman army…they didn’t count, either.  Remember that the Jews fell into this category.
To the Jews, Gentiles didn’t count. The Samaritans didn’t count, either. Neither did the “sinners” of Jesus’ day. To the Jews, these others were less than fully human and less than acceptable to God.
Over and against these attitudes, Jesus set the example for His disciples to follow: He spent time with the hated Samaritans. He assisted a Roman centurion to heal the soldier’s daughter.[1] He ate with tax collectors and those other hated sinners.
When the Apostles went out into the world carrying the Good News, they, too, went to the Samaritans. They also went to the Gentiles. In this morning’s text from Acts, Peter is asked by others in the Church about the ways in which he was hanging out with Gentiles. “Why are you doing that?” they wanted to know. They are referring to the fact that Peter had gone to see a Roman soldier, Cornelius.
What is the basis for showing consideration, care and love to these persons who didn’t count?
Perhaps the basis is simply this:  Each and every person is composed of an essential, basic quality, a quality which is the primary characteristic of their existence. Each person is also composed of other, secondary characteristics and qualities.
I should explain.
Each person is created in the image and likeness of God. (See Genesis 1:26.) Each individual is the deliberate result of God’s creative work. And, as we used to sing with our middle school students in our retreat weekends, “God don’t make no junk!”.
So the basis for caring for each individual, and loving each individual, lies in the fact that God created that person. Each person is the deliberate result of God’s work.
As we said a moment ago, each person is also composed of other, secondary characteristics. We could name some of them:  their racial background, their ethnic heritage, their gender, their age, and so forth.
Unfortunately, in our own age, as in Jesus’ day and in the age in which the early Church went forth into the world, it is often these secondary characteristics which form the basis for dislike, disdain and hatred. These secondary characteristics often are used to send the message “You don’t count.”
And so, on the basis that His original disciples were human beings first (and all those other things second), Jesus gives a new commandment in our gospel text for this morning when He says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Certainly, Jesus demonstrated His love for His disciples by loving them for their essential characteristic, that of being human. Those early disciples offered the Lord plenty of road blocks to being loved, for they were slow to learn, they were often ignorant in their unwillingness to follow, and they made plenty of mistakes. But He loved them, anyway.
Jesus’ willingness to love His first disciples changed the secondary characteristics of those first disciples: They, like Peter, understood that God loves everyone, and that everyone is worthy of hearing about God’s love, made known in the person of Jesus Christ. On that basis, they went out into the known world, carrying the Good News to Jew and to Gentile alike, to notorious sinners, to noble men and women, to slaves, to people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. (Remember our second reading from last week,[2] that wonderful description of peoples from every language, tribe and nation, standing before the throne of God in heaven, singing God’s praises? That is the image of the Good News having gone out into all the world.)
At this point, we ought to take a moment to say something about love. For in our own culture, love is often confused with permissiveness. Love is often confused with a laissez-faire attitude which says, in essence, “anything and everything is acceptable.” But the witness of Holy Scripture is that love is an entirely different sort of thing altogether. The love that God shows us is willing to accept us on the basis of our essential quality of being human. But God’s love also seeks to reform and shape our secondary characteristics so that we will reflect the sort of unconditional love that God shows us in loving others. Only then can we share in God’s work of reforming and reshaping the secondary characteristics of those we encounter.
This morning’s gospel makes clear that the essential marker of being Christian is the ability and the willingness to love. “By this,” Jesus said, “everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” We are called to love one another because of the essence of who we are as human beings. On that basis, we are called to love one another even when one or more of our secondary characteristics, such as our personalities, might tend to obscure our human-ness.
Everyone counts. Everyone deserves and receives God’s love. Everyone deserves our love, as well.
AMEN.




[1]  See Luke 7: 1 – 10.
[2]  Revelation 7: 9

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Easter 4, Year C (2016)

Acts 9: 36–43; Psalm 23; Revelation 7: 9–17; John 20: 22–30
This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John's Church in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, April 17, 2016.
“ISOLATED AND 'PROTECTED' FROM GOD’S CALL?”
(Homily text:  John 10: 22-30)
Whenever I mow the lawn or use a gasoline-powered piece of equipment like a string trimmer, I always wear a set of hearing protectors, ear muffs. They shield and protect my hearing from the harmful levels of noise that these machines create.
These ear pieces also have the effect of isolating me from my surroundings. So whenever anyone wants to say something to me, they have to get my attention by some other means other than calling to me. I can hear my own voice quite well when I am wearing these things (although it sounds strange), but I’m unable to hear much of anything else.
Two ideas arise from the use of hearing protectors:  (1) Protection from harmful things, and (2) Isolation.
These same two ideas are present in this morning’s gospel text:  First, the Jews are trying to protect themselves from Jesus “harmful” ideas, and second, they are isolated from knowing Jesus’ identity, and are therefore cut off from being able to follow Him.
Let’s unpack these two themes a bit. But before we do, let’s take a moment to look at the context of this morning’s encounter:
We should begin with the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple. This celebration, which is known as Hanukah today, was a fairly recent addition to the yearly calendar of observances, and its adoption dates from the second century BC. It celebrates the rededication of the Temple in 164 BC, after it had been desecrated by a pagan king who had erected an altar to Zeus in the Temple’s precincts. So the Feast of Dedication celebrates the return of the visible reminder of God’s presence among His people, the Temple. It also is connected to another, more ancient, celebration, the Feast of Booths, which takes place a bit earlier, in the fall of the year. The first century historian, Josephus, tells us that - in Jesus’ day - the meaning of the Feast of Booths and the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple were connected, for the Feast of Booths (known as Sukkoth in Hebrew) celebrated God’s protection of His people during the time of their wanderings in the wilderness after they had left Egypt. The Feast of Dedication picks up this theme, celebrating the return of God’s visible presence (and protection) in the rebuilding and the rededication of the Temple.
John tells us that Jesus was walking in the Portico of Solomon, for Josephus tells us that this area of the Temple was located on the eastern side of the structure, and that it was the last remaining portion of the original Temple which had been built by King Solomon nearly 1,000 years before.
Now, let’s turn our attention to the interchange between Jesus and “the Jews”.[1]
In this morning’s conversation, Jesus continues a teaching that He had begun in the last part of chapter nine and the first part of chapter ten. There, He described Himself as being the “Good Shepherd”.
Jesus says that the reason “the Jews” do not hear His voice is because they “do not belong to my sheep”. Then, He adds, “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.”
Those who had encountered Jesus as He walked in the Portico of Solomon demand to know if He is the Messiah or not.  “How long will you keep us in suspense”, they say. But the problem is that they are so wrapped up in their own beliefs and their own preconceived notions that they are unwilling and unable to hear Jesus’ answer. It is as if they are wearing spiritual hearing protection: They are isolated from hearing the truth from Jesus’ lips and they are unable to grasp the message that Jesus’ miracles convey: The fact that Jesus and the Father are one (John 10: 30).
Jesus’ opponents seem to think that they know it all, and that they’ve got God all figured out. No wonder they can’t hear what Jesus has to say, no wonder they can’t appreciate the mighty works that Jesus has done through the power of His Father.
Their ancient problems are our problems, too.
Sometimes, we may think we’ve got God all figured out, and that we know all that we need to know about God’s revelation, made complete in the person and work of Jesus Christ. If that’s what we believe, then it’s no wonder we can’t hear what God has to teach us, no wonder we can’t appreciate God’s work in our own day and in our own lives.
Another problem which was common to Jesus’ questioners and to us exists: In Jesus’ day, “the Jews” were preoccupied with their own notions about God. They had lots of time to dwell on what they thought they knew about Him. In our own day, another preoccupation arises: It is the problem of being so preoccupied with other things that we don’t have time to be still and to hear God calling us into a deeper relationship with Him. We live in an age which has more distractions available to us than at any time in human history: We are surrounded by portable devices which enable us to text others who are sitting just across the room. We have available a wide choice of entertainment or music on these same devices. We have a world of information at our fingertips simply by pressing a few buttons. We own more toys and gadgets than at any time in history.
Surrounded by all these things, God’s voice and God’s call gets pushed aside. We are isolated from God’s presence and from God’s invitation to a holy and more vibrant spiritual life as a direct result of our own preoccupation with other things.
Like the people of Jesus’ day, we may believe that Jesus’ message is harmful. After all, hearing Jesus’ voice and responding to His voice always involves change. Sometimes, we may think that such change is a threat to the way we’ve been living. But Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He is the one whose call leads not to harmful things, but to the way of life, peace and joy. His call leads us to find our truest selves, and to know that nothing can snatch us away from Jesus’ loving embrace. Not even eternity itself can take us away from the Good Shepherd’s presence and protection.
Today’s gospel might prompt us to examine and reconsider our ability to hear God’s voice. Perhaps today’s gospel might prompt us to set aside our own preconceived notions of what God is calling us to do in order to walk more closely with Him. Perhaps today’s gospel might prompt us to take off the spiritual hearing protection that we can put on so easily, so that we can see that God’s work, done in Jesus Christ, is intended not for our harm, but for the purpose of giving us life in its truest and fullest sense.
AMEN.



[1]  Whenever we read or hear the phrase “the Jews” in John’s gospel account, we should remember that he uses this term not to describe the descendants of Abraham, but to describe all those who were opposed to Jesus’ message and work.

Sunday, April 03, 2016

Easter 2, Year C (2016)

Acts 5: 27–32; Psalm 150; Revelation 1: 4–8; John 20: 19–31  

This is the written version of a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John's in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, April 3, 2016.
“GOD’S POWER: TRUSTWORTHY OR NOT?” (Homily text:  John 20: 19 – 31)
I often wonder how much attention people pay to the advertising that is all around us as we make our way through our daily lives. My suspicion is that most of us don’t pay a lot of attention to the ads we encounter on television or radio, or in print.
Many of the ads that come our way try to use some mechanism to gain our trust. The aim is to convince us that the products or services that are being offered to us are worth buying or using.
Here are some of my personal favorites among the claims being used to get us to try (and buy) whatever’s being offered (Or, perhaps I should say that these are the claims that prompt a response):
“Clinically proven”:  A product’s ads say that the results being claimed for the product are proven in clinical trials. My response, whenever I hear such a claim is to say: “OK, what clinics exactly have proven your point?”  (The same is true for a product whose effectiveness is underwritten by laboratory tests: I find myself wanting to know which laboratories exactly have tested the product in question.)
“Reference prices”: A furniture store advertises a sale. In the TV ads, they say that a major percentage of their price reductions is based on “reference prices”. I’ve never heard of “reference prices” before. That phrase was a new one to me. So I want to know what a “reference price” is. (The same could be said for automobile ads which claim that sale prices are “below invoice”.)
“25% more free”: Sometimes, I wonder if there isn’t a very secret marketing agency whose only job is to dream up new marketing tools for the makers of things to use. One such recent tool is the claim that a product has “25% more free”. The reason I think there’s something going on that’s an organized effort is the claim that “25% more” is free. Why should it be 25%? Couldn’t it be “33%” or some other number. Whenever I see such a claim on a bottle or a box, I want to get out a scale and compare the standard product to the “25% more free” product.
Maybe I’ve made the point with these illustrations. All of these things have as their basis an attempt to gain our trust by claiming to offer something that is trustworthy.
In today’s Gospel account, we hear and read about one of Jesus’ disciples, Thomas makes the same claim as we have been considering with commercial products: Thomas needs a basis upon which to believe that Jesus has really risen from the dead. (This is a text that we hear every year on the Sunday after Easter, for it was on this day that the Lord appeared to Thomas, granting him his request.)
If we put Thomas’ demand for proof of the Lord’s resurrection into the terms of the “25% more  free” category, then what Thomas is demanding is that he must be able to not only see the Lord (as the other disciples had told him that that’s what they had encountered), but that he (Thomas) must be able to place his finger in the print of the nails in the Lord’s hands, and to put his hand into the spear wound in the Lord’s side. If we put Thomas’ demand into the “25% more free” category, it’s as if Thomas is demanding to take the bottle and put it on the scale to see if there is really “25% more free” in its contents. Thomas wants to know if the claims of Jesus’ new life are physically, actually true
There are some details in the text that are worthy of our attention at this point.
We’re already remarked on the fact that Thomas’ makes a demand that goes beyond what the other disciples had experienced…they had seen the Lord, but Thomas says that it isn’t good enough for him to see the Lord, he needs to be able to physically touch Him, as well.
But in addition, let’s notice that the Lord, when He does appear to Thomas, already knows of Thomas’ demand. The Lord uses Thomas’ own words to fulfill Thomas’ need. The evidence seen here is to be found throughout the Fourth Gospel: Jesus has the power to know what only God can know. In this case, it’s the nature of Thomas’ demand. Such an all-knowingness is a marker of Jesus’ oneness with God the Father (as we read in John 10:30).
All Scripture is given in order to provide a basis for each of us to trust God, to trust God’s power and His love, to trust the revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son. Of course, the Gospel writer takes care to let us know that the reason these events have been recorded in the sacred pages of Holy Scripture is precisely so that each of us will come to the point of believing that these things are true and trustworthy.
We live in a very skeptical age, an age in which the power and clarity of language is being degraded. It doesn’t help that the claims made in commercials have the tendency to undercut the power and clarity of language…is something really “clinically proven” or “laboratory tested”? Are the prices of the furniture sale really based on “reference prices”, and if so, just exactly what is a “reference price”? Is there really “25% more free” in that box or bottle?
Many of us have learned to be wary of any and all claims. We – like Thomas – demand proof (often physical proof) of the claims that come our way….we want to shake the bottle to see if it really has “25% more free” inside. We want to know which clinics and which laboratories have tested a product to assure its effectiveness. We want to see what the “reference price” is for the furniture we’re considering buying.
What we’ve said about our contemporary lives is also true of our faith lives: We need a solid basis upon which to base our trust in God’s character and in God’s promises. In this, we are no different than Thomas was.
So where is the proof we need to be able to trust God?
It is to be found in the evidence of changed lives. Allow some clarification at this point: Whenever a person encounters God, distinctive markers change the nature of that person. Certainly, this is true of Thomas (Doubting Thomas), who exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!”. Tradition tells us that Thomas went off from his encounter with the risen Lord, carrying the Good News of God in Christ as far as the subcontinent of India. A church there in India still bears his name today, it is called the “Mar Thoma Church”, a church which was founded (tradition tells us) by none other than Thomas. Thomas’ life, it is safe to say, was completely changed once he’d encountered the risen Jesus.
Evidence of God’s nature, made known to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ, is all around us. It can be seen in lives whose character has been radically changed as a result of God’s work. As we said a moment ago, the markers of God’s movement in a person’s life are distinctive: There’s nothing else quite like God’s power and movement in a person’s life.
My father was just one such a person, for he was an angry and bitter man as his life went along. Chained in the bonds of bitterness and hemmed in my two different addictions, he descended further and further into isolation from God and from everyone else. But God intervened in his life in a dramatic and powerful way, giving my father a new lease on life after a life-threatening heart attack at the age of 72. My father awoke from a three hour battle, as the doctors and nurses struggled to get his heart restarted, and to keep it running, to hear God’s voice in the words of the doctor, who said, “Jess, if  you want to live, there’ll need to be some changes.”
Changes there were, complete and total changes. Is there any doubt in my family about God’s power and God’s trustworthiness? No, none at all.
For we’ve seen God’s power at work, a power that overcame all the human limitations to change my father’s life trajectory.
So, as we consider Doubting Thomas’ demand, may we look around us to see the evidence of God’s power, made known to Thomas, in our world and in our lives today. The evidence of God’s acting is there to be seen, today, as it was seen in that upper room with Thomas nearly 2,000 years ago.
Thanks be to God!
AMEN.