Isaiah 35: 1–10; Psalm 146: 4–9; James 5: 7–10;
Matthew 11: 2–11
A homily by Fr.
Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s, Church in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday,
December 11, 2016.
“SACRAMENTAL MINISTRY, SACRAMENTAL LIVING”
(Homily text: Matthew 11: 2–11)
“Are
you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” John the Baptist
asks in our gospel text appointed for this day.
(If
we recall last week’s gospel text, John’s question might seem unusual. Last
week, John exclaimed that “One who is more powerful than I is coming. I am not
worthy to carry his sandals.” John’s question, posed near the end of his life,
seems designed to be absolutely sure about Jesus’ identity.)
In
answer to John’s question, normally, we might expect Jesus to answer by saying,
“Yes, I am the Messiah, the Christ, the promised one of God.” But, instead,
Jesus gives a very oblique answer, one that puts the decision-making task on
the one who asked the question: “Go and tell John what you hear and see.” Jesus
then gives a summary of the things He has been doing since His ministry began
to unfold back in chapter five of Matthew’s gospel account: “The blind receive
their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead
are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them.”
The
evidence Jesus gives for His identity lies not only in the things He has been
saying, but in the things He is doing.
If we
look at Jesus’ work, we can say that His ministry is marked by:
- Outward actions
-which
are-
- Evidence of an unseen reality.
If the definition
of a Sacrament is:
- An outward and visible sign
-of
an-
- Inward and spiritual grace,
That
power is the power to create, and to recreate.
At
this point, it would be good for us to pause for a moment and do some
theological reflection.
We
begin that reflection by backing up to the Book of Genesis, and specifically to
the account of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden. (The account
is found in Genesis 3: 1–19.)
When
the intimate, face-to-face relationship that Adam and Eve had with God in the
Garden of Eden was destroyed by their disobedience in eating of the fruit of
the tree that God had placed off-limits, the result was that the condition of
all humankind changed for the worse: Not only were human beings estranged from
God, but from the time of their expulsion forward, Adam and Eve and their
offspring (all of us) became subject to death. We became susceptible to
disease, and we became separated not only from God, but from one another.
Jesus’
coming begins to unravel these destructive results: He heals the sick, He
conquers death, He removes the stigma of sin that surrounded those who were ill
in the culture of 2,000 years ago, welcoming them back into fellowship with God
and with others.
In
short, the power at work in Jesus is the power of God to create life anew, and
to heal the divisions that resulted from the wrongdoing that took place in the
Garden.
Jesus’
ministry is marked by the acts which He did, and not just by the things He
said. Sacramental ministry, in other words.
The
power at work in Jesus has the ability to create. The power at work in Jesus
has the power to recreate. The power at work in Jesus has the power to break
down the walls that separate us from God and from one another.
Jesus
invites us into a relationship, one in which we are able to receive His
wonderful power, the power to create all things anew. God’s power, at work in
us through the power of Jesus, aided by the Holy Spirit, assists us in
imitating Jesus’ example of good works and good words. Ours is a life of
discipleship, by which we are inheritors of God’s power made known in Jesus.
So
our life in Jesus Christ will be marked by the things we say, things which will
tend to create new life and new hope where there may be little life and little
hope. Our life in Christ will be marked by the things we do to heal divisions,
to bind up the wounds of those who suffer, to be the means by which Jesus
Christ’s continuing power to heal is given to those who suffer.
Ours
is a sacramental ministry, a ministry of outward deeds and words, which point
to the inner reality that we are followers of Jesus Christ, the one we have
been waiting for in this holy season of Advent.
AMEN.
