Pentecost 11, Year C (2019)

Proper 16 -- Isaiah 58: 9b-14  /Psalm 103: 1–8 / Hebrews 12: 18–29 / Luke 13: 10–17

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, August 25, 2019.

 “IDOLATRY: A MATTER OF RELATIONSHIP”

(Homily texts:  Isaiah 58: 9b–14 & Luke 13: 10-17)

At first glance, our appointed Old Testament reading, taken from Isaiah, chapter fifty-eight, and our Gospel text, from Luke, chapter thirteen, don’t have much in common with one another, other than the fact that both texts have to do with keeping the Sabbath.

Isaiah complains that God’s people aren’t keeping the Sabbath. Apparently, they aren’t keeping it at all. Instead, they are going about their worldly and secular pursuits instead of honoring God.

However, Luke relates to us an incident in which Jesus healed a woman on the Sabbath, drawing the ire of the leader of the local synagogue. (The leader of the synagogue quotes a portion of the commandment about keeping the Sabbath….see below.)

At issue in both cases is the relationship that God’s people have to the Sabbath, and – by inference – to God.

At this point, we need to back up a little. Let’s return to the Ten Commandments, and refresh our memory about the commandment which has to do with the Sabbath. In Exodus 20: 8 – 10, we read, “Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God: You shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slaves, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.”

The proscriptions against doing any work on the Sabbath, and the comprehensive scope of those proscriptions (preventing, for example, one of God’s people from getting work done on the Sabbath by having a slave do the work instead of doing it themselves) are meant to allow time and occasion for honoring God. That’s the purpose of the Sabbath. In a sense, we could say that the Sabbath is “God’s day”.

Now, however, two extremes which have to do with keeping the Sabbath are set before us this morning: In the situation which Isaiah addresses, apparently the observance of the Sabbath had either gotten lax, or it wasn’t happening at all. In the situation in which our Lord found Himself, however, it is the strict observance of the Sabbath which is at issue.

How to keep the Sabbath was the subject of much intense debate among the rabbis in the time of our Lord’s earthly ministry. In the Gospels, we read in more than one place the phrase, “a Sabbath day’s journey”, leading us to see that the leaders of God’s people had debated the matter, and had set a limit on how far one could walk on the Sabbath day. The decision is, essentially, a practical one: Realizing that people may have to walk on the Sabbath day, then just how far could they be allowed to walk and still keep the Sabbath?

Jesus appeals to this very practical side of keeping the Sabbath in His response to the leader of the synagogue. He says, “Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to give it water?”

In our Lord’s response, we see the practical side of keeping the Sabbath. In essence, what is permitted is some limited level of work, work which is necessary to maintaining essential tasks, work (or effort) which cannot be allowed to lapse for an entire day.

It’s worth noting, at this point in our consideration of our Lord’s response, that He is using a rhetorical device known as Lesser-to-Greater. He uses the illustration of caring for an ox or a donkey to point to the truth that doing something good and helpful for an animal leads directly to the business of doing something good or useful for a human being is a right, good and proper thing to be doing. We can state the Lord’s intention this way: If one can be doing this lesser thing for an animal, then one can certainly be doing a greater thing for a human being.

We said at the beginning of this homily that the connecting thread of both our Isaiah and Luke texts is that they both have to do with the Sabbath, and – more specifically – with the relationship that God’s people have with the Sabbath, and, by extension, with God.

Relationship.

How people relate to the Sabbath leads us into a discussion about the matter of idolatry.

An idol, in its most basic definition, is something that takes God’s rightful place in a person’s life.

So, for example, Isaiah’s complaint is that people are making an idol out of their worldly pursuits. To these ancient peoples, doing what they want to do on the Sabbath is a whole lot more important than honoring God. At least that’s the impression that leaps off the pages of Isaiah’s complaint.

In the case of the healing of the woman on the Sabbath, we get the impression that the Sabbath, and the keeping of it, has become an idol. No longer is the focus on God. Now, it’s on keeping the Sabbath, rigorously and in a most legal and exacting fashion, that has become the goal. Undergirding the zeal to keep the Sabbath is the matter of maintaining the identity of God’s people in the face of Roman occupation. It’s as if God’s people are saying, “We are children of Abraham, and one way you can tell that we are is by the rigorous way we keep the Sabbath.”

In other words, by the definition of an idol given above, the Sabbath itself (and not God) has become the object of worship.

How we relate to the various things we own, and the things we have to get done, is a matter of relationship. These things can be a matter of idolatry if the “things” in our lives and our responsibilities take God’s rightful place in our lives. It isn’t the “stuff” of life that is an idol, in and of itself, it’s how we relate to that “stuff”, and – in particular – how those things figure into our relationship with God.

There is a wonderful Collect in our Prayer Book which might assist us to remember God’s rightful place in our lives. It can be found on page 57 of The Book of Common Prayer, 1979, and it is entitled “A Collect for Guidance”. It is part of the Daily Office, Morning Prayer:

“O heavenly Father, in whom we live and move and have our being: We humbly pray thee so to guide and govern us by thy Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget thee, but may remember that we are ever walking in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

AMEN.

           

Pentecost 10, Year C (2019)

Proper 15 :: Jeremiah 23: 23–29 / Psalm 82 / Hebrews 11: 29 – 12: 2 / Luke 12: 49–56

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, August 18, 2019.

“PEACE/NO PEACE”

(Homily text: Luke 12: 49–56)

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?
No, but rather division.”

These words leap off the pages of Luke’s Gospel account. They surely constitute some of Jesus’ “hard sayings”. (So much for “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild”!)

Today’s Gospel text, which - by virtue of the workings of the lectionary, often puts difficult texts such as this one in front of us - texts we might otherwise be tempted to gloss over in pursuit of something more palatable to ponder, continues the reading we heard last week. In both texts, Jesus is outlining the unfolding of the new kingdom of God. Its coming will bring with it difficulties, and it will bring with it opposition.

It might seem strange to hear Jesus, who is known as the “Prince of Peace”, talking about a lack of peace. After all, oftentimes (and especially after the resurrection), when Jesus appeared to His disciples, He would first say, “Peace be with you.”

Our Lord tells us that when we enter into this new kingdom, we will be at peace with God. Jesus brings us that gift, breaking down the walls of estrangement that existed between God and us. And, following the Lord’s example, the Apostles often make it a point to remind Christians that they are to work with each other to bring about peace with one another. One such reminder can be found in Romans 12: 18, where St. Paul says, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceable with all.” “Do your part to work for peace,” in other words.

Jesus’ earthly ministry demonstrates His work to bring about peace. And, His ministry also shows us when to expect that there will be no peace, and why.

Let’s explore both aspects of Our Lord’s work.

First of all, Jesus brings about peace to the outcasts of the culture and society into which He came. There were numerous such types of undesirable persons. For example, how often do we hear or read the words, “tax collectors, prostitutes and notorious sinners” in the Gospels? Quite often. In the culture of the day, such persons were to be avoided (for fear of “catching” their uncleanliness). One gets the impression that the scribes, the Pharisees and the priests felt that such persons could never, ever, become “clean” and become acceptable to God. They were regarded as being forever outside of God’s love and God’s care, and completely cut off from any possibility of having a relationship with God.

But Jesus brings peace into this situation. Instead of shunning these undesirable persons, He associates with them, He eats with them, He is unafraid to touch the leper and the sick. Perhaps for the first time in their lives, these people, who lived on the fringes of society, felt that someone actually cared for them and loved them.

Jesus becomes the “bridge builder” in these situations. He is the one who reaches out and who takes the initiative. Perhaps it is for that reason that St. Paul, knowing how Jesus broke down walls between people, can remind the early Christians living in Rome to work for peace, to do everything that they can to advance the cause of peace between believers and nonbelievers alike.

Now, let’s look at the other side of the Lord’s ministry.

Where the scribes, the Pharisees and the priests were concerned, there was no peace at all.

Why?

Because, I think, their attitudes and their behaviors were self-serving. Their attitudes and their behaviors were also, in a word, evil. Their behaviors culminate in the plot to kill Jesus. But before that, they had engaged in a long series of actions which demonstrated the true character of their hearts. No wonder that Jesus called them “white-washed tombs”.

How might we emulate the Lord’s experiences in our daily lives?

For one thing, we are called to work for peace. We are called to work for peace with everyone, with those within the community of faith and with those outside of it.

But we are called to resist evil in any and all of its forms. There can be no peace with evil, none at all.

Our Lord’s earthly ministry was shaped by the cultural norms, practices and expectations of the time and place during which He sojourned among us. In the same way, we must look carefully at the cultural norms, expectations and practices of our culture today. When we do, we will see that seeking peace and working toward the goal of establishing it is, perhaps, the last thing many of us want to consider when we are faced with a difficult or an adversarial situation. But working for peace must always be a part of our “tool kit” in dealing with others. Working toward the goal of establishing peace could be, perhaps, one of the most distinguishable markers that tell others that we are followers of Jesus.

AMEN.

Pentecost 9, Year C (2019)

Proper 14 :: Genesis 15:1–6 / Psalm 33: 12–22 / Hebrews 11: 1–3, 8–16 / 12: 32–40

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, August 11, 2019.

 “WHEN THE BELL RINGS, THE CALL COMES, AND THE ALARM IS SOUNDED”

(Homily text: Luke 12: 32-40)

In days gone by, fire departments used horses to pull their steam pumpers, hose wagons and ladder wagons. For the horses, their routine consisted not in the orderliness of their schedule of feedings, the times when they were groomed, and so forth, but in the timing of the alarms as they came into the firehouse.

Then, all of a sudden, when the alarm sounded, a great deal of activity took place: The alarm bell sounded, and the firefighters sprang into action, bringing the horses to the front of the equipment, where they would be harnessed into the harnesses that hung from the ceiling.

The horses knew the drill. They knew what the sounding of the bell meant. They knew the routine of sudden bursts of activity. They knew the excitement of heading out the doors of the firehouse, bells clanging (fire apparatus in those days didn’t have sirens, they had bells to warn others of the approach of fast-moving equipment.) They knew the excitement of running down streets that were lined with people, watching the spectacle of fast-moving steam pumpers, smoke billowing out of the stack of the boiler as they raced to the scene of a fire.

And once these horses had grown old, and were too old to pull the equipment, they were put out to pasture in farms, where, when the farm bell sounded, they would revert to their old behaviors, twitching their ears, stomping the ground with their hooves, snorting and carrying on.

When the bell sounds, are you and I ready for action?

That’s a good way of describing our Lord’s teaching, heard in our Gospel text for this morning.

He says, “Stay dressed for action, and keep your lamps burning.” (It reminds us of the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, found in Matthew 25: 1–14.)

“You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect,” our Lord says.

So just when is the Son of Man (the Lord Jesus) coming? Is He coming at the end of all things, at the time when He will be “all in all”?

Yes, at that time, surely. The (Nicene) Creed, which we will recite in a moment, affirms this biblical understanding that, in the Lord’s time, He will, indeed, come again. (Speaking personally, and given the present disorder of the world, if the Lord were to come yesterday, that’d be soon enough.)

But the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus, comes to us again and again in between this present time and the time of His eventual coming in glory,

How and when does He come? How and when is the alarm sounded?

He comes, and the alarm is sounded, when the Holy Spirit calls us into faith. On this point, we must be  very clear: The call to faith comes as a result of the Holy Spirit’s movement in a person’s heart.It isn’t something that a person, by themselves, can bring about.It is God’s gift, pure and simple. Coming to faith isn’t a matter of something that we think about (as helpful as thinking and understanding something about God is), but it is – at its most basic level – a matter of the heart, not the mind.

The call comes and the alarm is sounded whenever a person enters the waters of baptism, saying “goodbye” to their former (old) life, and saying “Hello” to a new, more vibrant and holy life in God.

The call comes and the alarm is sounded whenever any believer is asked to demonstrate their faith, either by their actions or by their words, the wonderful relationship with God through Christ that offers richness and depth of meaning that nothing else and no one else can offer.

The call comes and the alarm is sounded whenever any believer is asked to share their faith with another, offering to them the wonderful riches of God’s grace, found in Christ.(As St. Francis of Assisi says, “Always preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words.”)

You and I are a lot like those fire horses of old. We are called to respond to the alarm bell when it sounds, showing signs of life and eager to do God’s will in the day, the time and the place where we find ourselves. Eager to rush out of God’s fire house, so as to offer help and assistance to any and all who need it.

AMEN.