Pentecost 3, Year C (2019)

Proper 8 :: I Kings 19: 15–16, 19–21; Psalm 16; Galatians 5: 1, 13–25; Luke 9: 1–62

This is a homily prepared for St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker, to be given on Sunday, June 30, 2019.

 “PRIORITIES:  GOD’S AND OURS”(Homily texts:  I Kings 19: 15–16, 19–21 & Luke 9: 51-62)

As is often the case as we make our way through the season of Pentecost (called, in some traditions, “Ordinary Time”), we are offered the choice of two different Old Testament readings. We are also offered choices in the Psalm texts that are appointed.

Informally known as “Track One” and “Track Two”, at least one of the appointed Old Testament passages often has some common thread which ties them, thematically, to the Gospel text.

The tie which connects the call of the prophet Elisha in our Old Testament reading from I Kings 19 to the calls issued by Jesus to two different (unidentified) persons in Luke, chapter nine, is the reaction of those called to the calls which were given to them. In each case, God’s priorities take precedence over the priorities and the former life of those called.

Let’s explore this common thread.

We begin with the call of Elisha.

The prophet Elijah’s time of ministering for the Lord is about to draw to a close. The time has come for someone else to assume those responsibilities (notice that Elijah casts his mantle over Elisha….perhaps it is from this act that the phrase “assuming the mantle” has come into our everyday speech).

Once Elisha has been called into God’s service, he says to Elijah, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” Elijah allows him to leave and bid his parents goodbye.

Now, let’s turn our attention to the Gospel text before us this morning.

Here, we see that a Samaritan village refused to receive Jesus. (Luke tells us, somewhat mysteriously I think, that the reason for this refusal was because Jesus was on a mission to go to Jerusalem.)

Then, along the way to Jerusalem, two persons encounter Jesus, and a call to serve the Lord ensues. To the one, Jesus says, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another, He says, “Follow me.” But the one approached replies, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Then, we hear Jesus’ response, which has become another common saying in our everyday speech: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Here we see the common thread:  A call to serve the Lord involves a change in one’s life. Something new will replace what existed beforehand.

That said, something different can be seen in the call of Elisha and the calls that Jesus offered:  Elisha tells Elijah that he needs to go home and “tidy up” his relationships with his parents. Elijah allows this to happen. But, as part of that “tidying up” process, Elisha destroys those things that were his means of making a living (the plow and the oxen who pulled it) before God’s call came to him. For Elisha, then, there is no going back to his former life. It is gone.

Gone, too, are the former ways of living when the calls that Jesus offered to these two unnamed persons is made. To the one, Jesus says that God’s call to ministry will be an itinerant one, one which will involve constantly being on the move from one place to another. To the other, Jesus says that all former ties with family, place and background are part of one’s former life.  Those things which existed prior to the giving of the call have now been superseded by this new life of service to God.

It is easier for us to identify with the circumstances of Jesus’ ministry, and the ministries of the original band of followers who were called into God’s service with Him, than it might be for Old Testament figures like Elisha. As Jesus’ suffering, death, resurrection and ascension take place, these original Disciples (the original twelve, minus Judas, plus Matthias, and then plus Paul – a “Baker’s Dozen” Apostles) who will become Apostles will go out into the world, carrying the Good News of what God has done in the sending of Jesus Christ to take up our humanity.

Each of these Apostles went out, engaging in an itinerant ministry, moving from place-to-place. For many, all their former ties to family, place and background were superseded by their new life in Christ. For them, there was no going back to their former life. It was gone.

In the New Testament, many calls to come into relationship with God the Father through God the Son are recorded. Most all of these are what are now known as conversion experiences by persons of mature years, that is, they were adult confessions of faith. Sometimes, the response to the call was immediate. (It’s worth noting, at this point, that we can see a variety of different paths to faith in Christ among those who answered God’s call….there is no one, set way in which people responded…..that’s an important thing for us to remember as we invite those who do not have a relationship with the Lord into such a relationship…there may be different ways in which people will respond.)

These New Testament conversions often involved a complete severing of ties to family, place and background. That new relationship with Christ meant that the Church became these new converts’ family. In the age in which we live, much the same dynamic can be in place: Coming to faith in Christ can mean that the Church will become that new Christian’s family. In some cases, conversion to Christ may cause estrangement or distancing from one’s family and former friends. In other cases, those who come to faith in Christ may not live anywhere close to the place they came from.

The radical welcome that the early Church offered new Christians was one reason for its growth: That early Church offered a new way to live, a new relationship with God, a new value to one’s life, and a new community which offered genuine love, care and support.

We, today, the Church, are called to do the same.

AMEN.

Pentecost 2, Year C (2019)

Isaiah 65: 1–9; Psalm 22: 18–27; Galatians 2: 23–29; Luke 8: 26–39

  

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, June 23, 2019.

 “PUSH’EM BACK, WAY BACK!”

(Homily text: Luke 8: 26-39)

“Push’em back, push’em back, way back!”

Perhaps, with football season just a couple of months away, we’ll be hearing that chant rise from the Bearcats’ fans[1] at Detwiler Field.

“Push’em back” is a good way to regard everything that is connected with Jesus Christ’s coming[2] among us, His teaching, His healings, His suffering, death and resurrection. For in sending our Lord Jesus Christ to take up our humanity, God the Father is determined to push back the forces that would separate us from Him, and from one another.

If we think about the various aspects of Jesus Christ’s life and all that He did, we can see this plainly. He came to open to us a new way of relating to God, for example. No longer would it be necessary to observe all of the hundreds of regulations that are contained in the Law of Moses in order to find favor with God.

Nor would it be necessary to be a blood descendant of Abraham to find favor with God, for Jesus came to bring God’s favor to Jews and to Gentiles, both.

Nor would it be necessary to be ritually clean in order to find favor with God. (At this point, we need to remind ourselves about the rules for being clean – or unclean – in the regard of pious Jews in Jesus’ day….In order to be able to enter the Temple’s precincts, one could not have a health condition that prevented entry, such as a skin disease. And there were many other regulations related to health which prevented entry, as well.)  Jesus, the Christ, came to inform us that God’s sense of cleanliness (or the lack of it) wasn’t a matter of physical, outward cleanliness, but of an inner disposition toward God.

Nor would it be necessary to go to the Temple in Jerusalem to enter into God’s presence, for Jesus Christ came to tell us that God would not be worshiped on the holy mountain in Jerusalem, but He would be worshiped by those who did so “in spirit and in truth”, as He said the woman at the well in Jerusalem. (See John’s Gospel account, chapter four.)

The things we’ve just enumerated come together in the account of the healing of the Gerasene demoniac, our Gospel text from Luke, chapter eight, this morning.

To set the scene, we ought to consider the place and the locale a bit: Luke is correct in telling us that there is a steep bank in the area where the afflicted man was living. Indeed, it is on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, a little south of the area we now know as the Golan Heights. Just for the record, the area – in Jesus’ day – was Gentile territory. Gerasa is the biblical name for the ruins that are now called Jerash, which is the best—preserved Roman city in the world, located north of the capital city of Jordan, Amman, and located southeast of the Sea of Galilee.

Luke tells us that this man, who was out-of-his-mind, living in a cemetery, unable to be controlled, and unable to help himself, was separated from others, and from God. Moreover, because of his condition, he was being destroyed, slowly but surely.

Recall with me what we said at the outset of this homily:  God sent Jesus Christ in order to “push’em back”, to push back the boundaries of everything that separates and destroys people.

So it is that Jesus encounters the man. The demons who had taken up residence within him[3] had managed to isolate and separate this man from God, and from his family and those who knew him. Moreover, his condition was slowly destroying him, physically.

Jesus, therefore, “pushes back” the forces that alienated this man, expelling the demons from the man. The legion (there were many, we can discern from this description of the number of them) then enter into a herd of pigs (an indication that this is Gentile territory – Jews would not have kept pigs, who were unclean animals according to the requirements of the Law of Moses).

Jesus, the Christ, restores the man to his right mind, to his family and acquaintances, to his former life.

Jesus, the Christ, comes to restore us to a right and intimate relationship with God. No longer must we observe all the requirements of the Law of Moses to enter into the holy place with God. Nor must we be blood descendants of Abraham to do so, for Christ has opened the way to God to all people everywhere.

Jesus, the Christ, comes to remake us into God’s image, into a holy people, a people who are equipped to go out into the world declaring the Good News (Gospel) that God loves us, and has shown that love in the sending of Jesus to be one of us, fully human, and yet fully divine.

Jesus, the Christ, comes to bring healing to relationships with others, to being restoration of spiritual health where the assaults of the evil one seek to separate and destroy, to being health and wholeness to our human condition.

As we enter into this “green season” of Pentecost, and as we focus in on one aspect of the “Christ event”, it would be good for us to recall that Jesus Christ came to “push’em back”, to protect and restore to us perfect relationship with God and with others.

AMEN.

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[1]   The Bearcat is the mascot of Huntingdon Area High School.

[2]   Theologians use a specific term to refer to everything connected to Jesus Christ:  They say this is the “Christ event”.

[3]   At this point, we need to say something about demonic possession. It is a phenomenon which is not to be dismissed as some ancient world view, but is, however, a reality, albeit a rare one. In Scripture, sometimes it seems clear that a person who was ill was described as being under the possession or influence of demons, when - in contemporary understandings - such a person may have had some sort of a mental disorder. The fact that the demons immediately knew Jesus’ identity, and knew His power to expel them from the possessed man, leads us to the conclusion that the man was, in fact, demon-possessed.

The Feast of Pentecost, Year C (2019)

Acts 2: 1–21; Psalm 104: 25–35, 37; Romans 8: 14–17; John 8: 14–17, 25–27

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday June 9, 2019

 “COME HOLY GHOST…LIGHTEN WITH CELESTIAL FIRE”

(Homily text: Acts 2: 1-21)

“Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire….and lighten with celestial fire.”[1]

This ancient hymn, whose text comes to us from the ninth century, is often sung at ordinations. It asks the Holy Spirit’s fire to descend upon the Bishop who is ordaining the Ordinand, on the person being ordained, and on all who are gathered for the liturgy of ordination.

But it could easily be sung at other times, as well, such as at Holy Baptism, for it is in Holy Baptism that we affirm that the Holy Spirit is given to the newly baptized person as a gift that will enable that new Christian to know God, to be transformed into God’s image, and then to go out into the world proclaiming the Good News (Gospel) of what God is doing in the sending of Jesus Christ into the world.

In our reading from the Book of Acts, chapter two, Luke (the writer of Acts) is careful to include two themes that are critical to the Pentecost event:  wind and fire.

As we think about the Pentecost event, we get the impression that the Holy Spirit came crashing in on those who had gathered that day. Notice how Luke reaches for language to put into human terms this “God-event”: “And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.” (Acts 2: 2–3)

Luke says “like” in describing the sound of the coming of the Spirit. And then he says, “as of fire” in describing the coming of the tongues of fire.

If we think about the overall trajectory of what God is doing in the sending, first, of Jesus Christ, and then, in the sending of the Holy Spirit, we get the impression that – in Christ – God lit the fire of a new way of relating to God in His coming among us as one of us, Jesus Christ, who is both God and human. God lights that new fire by providing the raw material - Jesus Christ - for that new way of being alive in God. But the fire, by itself, needs oxygen in order to continue burning. That’s where the Holy Spirit comes in, for the Spirit stokes the fire into white hot heat, heat that is capable of energizing God’s people to go out and to do the things God has in mind.

God’s people need the power of the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit not only provides the means by which God’s fire can burn brightly, but the Spirit also refines God’s people and transforms them fully into the image of Christ.

As we reflect on the Holy Spirit’s power, perhaps we can look back into our own walk with God to see times when the Holy Spirit was a powerful presence that compelled us to do God’s work. Perhaps we can see times when the Spirit convicted us of something in our lives that was less-than-pleasing to God. Perhaps we can see the Spirit’s ability to enlighten us to see clearly the nature of an issue that was before us.

The Holy Spirit does all of these things. Thanks be to God. AMEN.

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[1]   Hymn 503, the Hymnal 1982

Easter 7, Year C (2019)

Acts 16: 16–34; Psalm 97; Revelation 22: 12–14, 16–17, 20–21; John 17: 20–26

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, June 2, 2019.

 “WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT ‘WE MAY ALL BE ONE’?”

(Homily text: John 17: 20–26)

Jesus prayed for His disciples, saying, “…that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.”

These words come to us from what has come to be known as the Lord’s “High Priestly Prayer”. This prayer, given by the Lord during the Last Supper, fills up chapter seventeen of John’s Gospel account.

What does it mean for the Lord’s followers – His disciples – to be one?

And, while we are asking questions, it would do well for us to ask if there was ever a time when the Lord’s disciples were one, completely one. And if the answer to this question is “yes”, then we also might ask if the Lord’s disciples were one at some point following the Lord’s ascension into heaven and following the giving of the Holy Spirit at the Feast of Pentecost, then in what form were the Lord’s disciples one.

These are questions we might put before ourselves this morning.

Of course, when we talk about the Lord’s followers, the Lord’s disciples, we are talking about the Church. For the Church was born on the Feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit empowered those who had gathered to go out into the world, proclaiming the Good News of God’s great and good work in the sending of Jesus Christ into the world.

Having established an agenda for our inquiry into the one-ness of the Church, let’s explore some of the Church’s history in this regard.

We should begin with the Church’s very early days of its existence.

A common theme which has resonated with Christians down through the years, and which continues to resonate today, is the idea that – in its very earliest days – the Church was completely unified.

Certainly, in Luke’s portrayal of the early Church in Acts 2: 42 – 47, such an ideal view is set before us. Luke says that the believers were united in prayer, in the breaking of the bread (communion) and in fellowship with one another. They were so unified, Luke suggests, that they even held all their goods in common with one another. (Today, we’d call such an arrangement a commune.)

It is, perhaps, to this very early period that many Christian groups appeal to today as they seek to recapture the one-ness and the idyllic shape of the Church. The appeal of this very early chapter in the Church’s life is quite strong, and it has a significant liveliness in its ability to capture the imagination of many Christians, even today.

But such a unified body of Christians didn’t last long, apparently.

That very early Church was made up of Jews who’d come to faith in Jesus. There wasn’t – most likely – much ethnic variety in that very early time.

But soon, the Church spread beyond Jerusalem and Judea, into Samaria and then into the Gentile world, thanks to the work of Paul, Barnabas and others. At that point, the Church began to take on various different forms. The wonderful Roman Catholic priest and scholar, Raymond Brown, in his book The Churches the Apostles Left Behind, suggests that there were no less than seven different types of Christian churches in the New Testament period.

Brown suggests that these seven different types of churches had differing theological emphases, they had different methods of organization, and so forth. (His book, which is still available today, is well worth reading.) For example, Brown suggests that the Church that Matthew was situated in didn’t seem to have any type of ordained leadership at all. Theirs, apparently, was a congregational polity. On the other hand, the churches to whom Paul was writing in I Timothy, II Timothy and Titus had Bishops who were appointed to carry on the mantle of the Apostles. Brown also suggests that the churches that John was involved with had a very individualistic approach to the believer’s relationship to Christ. Such an emphasis on the individual would seem to be at odds with the Matthean Church’s method of operation, where the congregation’s group identity prevailed.

Brown suggests that the seven models that he discerned are to be found in the pages of the New Testament are still to be found today. For example, many churches continue to have a congregational model of organization, while others continue to have Bishops. In addition, some churches still emphasize the individual’s relationship to the Lord, like the Johannine communities did.

But for the variety of churches that seemed to exist during the time the Apostles were still alive, there also seemed to be a unity of purpose among the churches. The Apostles, apparently, were quite able to move from one type of church to another, being accepted among all. That was the case with Peter and with Paul, apparently.

As time went along, outright divisions in the Body of Christ took place. The Great Schism between the western and eastern churches came about in 1054 AD. Then, the Protestant Reformation took place in the 16^th century, further splintering the western church. Today, one estimate is that there about 34,000 different Christian bodies.

In recent years, there’ve been some attempts at reunifying the Church. One thinks of the unification of the Reformed and the Congregational Churches into the United Church of Christ in the 1950s, or the merger of the Methodist and the Evangelical United Brethren Churches into the United Methodist Church in 1968. Back in the 1960s, there was a movement called the Consultation on Church Union (COCU), which attempted to bring together several different bodies, including the Episcopal Church. That attempt didn’t come to fruition.

For a long time, for too long a time, there has been estrangement between different Christian groups. Some of you who are hearing this homily or who are reading it can remember a time when there was almost no contact or cooperation between the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Churches. In some quarters, there was even outright hatred of one group for another. (I grew up with just such a mindset.)

Fortunately, those days are gone, or are at least partly so. Today, it’s common for Roman Catholics and Protestants to work together, even if there isn’t full communion yet between those groups. It’s rare to hear someone speak disdainfully of another church’s character and work.  That’s a fortunate development. May there be more of the same as the years roll along.

What can we pray for, what can we hope for, in terms of the one-ness of the Body of Christ? I think, perhaps, the answer is this:  We should pray for unity of purpose, unity of witness to Christ, and a willingness to respect others and to work alongside them in common witness to Jesus Christ. (If we are able to achieve this, we’d be emulating the early Church’s pattern of unity within diversity.)

Perhaps that’s the best solution to the current state of the Church. Though our divisions make it more difficult to come to a common consensus on matters of faith, yet there is a strength to be found in diversity, as well.

May the Holy Spirit guide us into further one-ness in Christ, that our divisions may fade into the background as our witness to the Lord increases.

AMEN.