Christmas 1, Year C (2021)

Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3 / Psalm 147:13 - 21 / John 1:1 – 18

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, December 26, 2021.

 

“BEING A PART OF THE DIVINE DRAMA”

(Homily text: John 1: 1 – 18)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1: 1 – 4)[1]

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” (Genesis 1:1 – 3)

It’s no coincidence that that the beginning of John’s Gospel account and the beginning of the book of Genesis have such striking parallels, things like “in the beginning”, God’s speaking things into being, and the creation of light. Scholars have long noticed these similarities. Both accounts describe a divine drama, God’s plan of creation of the world, and His re-creation in the sending of the Christ, that One who takes up our flesh and “tents” among us as Jesus, as John 1:14 tells us.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….

In these first eighteen verses of the beginning of John’s Gospel account, we are treated to a divine drama, a play which unfolds on the stage of God’s inner life and on the stage of human affairs. We are spectators as we watch how God interacts with His Anointed One, that is, Jesus, the Christ, as we will learn in verse seventeen of today’s reading.

We watch as God speaks into being the light which has come into the world, Jesus, the Christ. We marvel as we realize that this is cosmic, not-of-this-world stuff. We try to bend our minds around the concept of “in the beginning”, stretching our imaginations to try to understand just how long ago that must have been. (Answer: Far more back in time than any of us can conceive of.)

And yet, the actors in this divine drama, God and God’s Anointed One, invite us to come on stage and to take roles in this awesome drama. We have a part to play as supporting actors and actresses as we assist those who are still in the audience to understand more about the main characters in this play. Our interaction with the main players helps to define the character, the nature and the motives of those stars in this drama.

Our intent must also be to suggest to those still in the audience that they, too, can come onstage and assume supporting roles of their own.

The theme of this wonderful piece of divine theater is that God cared enough for the world which he created and which he sustains to intervene in the shape of the plot of this world in order to reshape that plot into His desires and will. That plot is, therefore, forever changed, and changed for the better.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN. 

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[1]   I am making use of the English Standard Version of the Bible in citing these verses. Normally, we make use of the New Revised Standard Version.

The Eve of the Nativity (Christmas Eve), Year C (2021

Isaiah 9:2 – 7 / Psalm 96 / Luke 2:1 – 20

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Friday, December 24, 2021.

“THE CHRISTMAS STORY: A LOVE STORY”

(Homily text: Luke 2:1 – 20)

It can be refreshing and helpful to step back from a very familiar story in order to ask ourselves, “What is the basic message or truth that we’re supposed to glean from this?”

The Christmas story, familiar to most of us who’ve had any experience with the Church or with the Bible (OK, I admit there are fewer people who fall into one or both of those two categories these days than there might have been in times past) know the basics of the story, either from Matthew’s account or from Luke’s account. It’s Luke’s account which we are hearing and considering tonight.

What’s going on with these accounts of Jesus’ birth?

I think, if we try to see some unifying message, it would be that this is, at its most basic truth, a love story. A love story about God’s love for the world He created and which He sustains, and a love story about human beings, whom He also created and with whom He wants to have a deep, enduring and intense love relationship.

Love.

It might be a good idea for us to consider just what love is, for I think, in this present age, the concept of love and the ways we might expect to experience it, need a bit of refreshing, a step back, if you will, to see just what love really is.

When we think about love, perhaps we think of it as an emotion, as when a person loves another person, for example. And, in truth, when our culture thinks about love, it’s likely that it’s romantic love that’s in view. But, in truth, love isn’t just an emotion, love is really a force, a powerful force that can change things. For example, consider a spouse who’s caring for their partner who is very sick…that spouse might well do extraordinary things to support that other, beloved one who’s in deep need. That sort of love is a force, a powerful agent for making things better, for improving the life of another.

Oftentimes, in our culture today, we equate love with permissiveness, as if to characterize it by saying, “If you really love me, you’ll let me do whatever I feel like doing”. But if we really and truly love someone, we might want to reach out to them to correct something they’re doing that is harmful to themselves and perhaps to others. This sort of love sets limits that seek that loved person’s ultimate welfare and wellbeing. An example might be the parent or grandparent who makes comments about a new driver in the family whose behavior behind the wheel is dangerous to themselves and to others. Saying such things oftentimes isn’t easy to have to say, or easy to have to hear. But true love seeks the best for that other, loved person, simply because we want the very best for the other.

If we consider what we’ve just said, we might boil this definition of love into two themes: 1. Love is a force for change, and 2. Love seeks the best for that other, beloved one.

Now, let’s apply these two observations to the Christmas event.

First of all, we might say that God, in sending His only Son, Jesus Christ, sent Him into the world to be a force for change. By His life, Jesus showed us the way that God wants us to live and love. That sort of love meant that God would have to come into the world and assume our humanity to the full. As Jesus lived among us, as a full and complete human being, He experienced all the things we human beings are able to experience, including not just the “good stuff” of things like wonderful and fulfilling relationships with others, but the “bad stuff” of suffering, disappointment, rejection and death.

In sending Jesus Christ to live among us, God’s intent is to show us the way to live that brings about full, complete and true happiness and joy. In so doing, God demonstrated to us that the true meaning of love means that there are things God would want us to be doing, and things He would warn us not to do. There are limits involved in this sort of love, limits that can protect us from things that can separate us from each other and from God.

Considering this business of love, consider what people who do not know anything (much) about the Church might think that the Church stands for. Perhaps the answer would be that people outside the Church might think that the Church is a place where hate is preached and practiced.

But the Church’s business, its reason for being, its mission, is to be a place where love, true, abiding and lasting love, is preached and practiced. The Church is in the “Love business”. The Church is a place where the goal is to introduce God to people and people to God, and to nourish that relationship in love.

That’s why we’re here tonight, to hear about God’s love story, God’s intense, deep, abiding love for the world and the people who live in it. The Christmas story invites each of us to a deeper, more intense loving relationship with the Lord, to return to the Lord the great gift of love He has for us by loving Him in return, and to make that love known to an unloving and oftentimes cruel world by the things we say and the things we do.

AMEN. 

Advent 4, Year C (2021)

Micah 5:2 – 5a / For the Psalm: Canticle 3 (Magnificat) / Luke 1:39 – 55

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, December 19, 2021.

“THE GOD WHO BRINGS TOGETHER, THE GOD WHO UNITES”

(Homily text: Luke 1:39 – 55)

This morning’s Gospel tells us something about God’s nature, and specifically, it tells us that God is a God who brings people (and events) together. This same God is the God who, having called them together, also unites people, one to another.

Liturgically, the event that took place when Mary went to stay with her cousin Elizabeth is also celebrated on the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, observed each year on May 31st.

The text appointed for today is rich with resources with which to concentrate on the various aspects of what was going on when Mary left Nazareth and went into the hill country of Judea to be with Elizabeth and her husband, Zechariah. We could, for example, look at the prominence of women in this account, something that shines throughout Luke’s writing. We could also consider the fact that the God who brings together and the God who unites, is also the God who brings things into being that would, under normal circumstances, be impossible….that, too, is Luke’s focus as he relates the circumstances of John the Baptist’s birth, and the circumstances of Jesus’ birth. Or, we could look at the ways in which God uses the meek, the lowly, the common and the powerless to bring about His divine will. That, too, is one of Luke’s favorite themes. We would also do well to note the presence of the Holy Spirit in today’s reading, for Luke often includes the work of the Spirit in bringing about God’s will.

Instead of considering these worthy themes, let’s concentrate on the ways in which God is the God who brings people together, and the ways in which God unites people in order that they may have a role in bringing about God’s will.

We would do well to set the stage for today’s meeting between Elizabeth and Mary.

Each woman has something in common with the other: Neither one of them is supposed to be able to be pregnant. Elizabeth and her husband, Zechariah, are up in years at this point in their lives, beyond the normal child-bearing years. And Mary is unmarried. It’s worth noting this common theme that unites these two women.

Each woman also has something else in common with the other: The impending births are foretold by the angel Gabriel, who visited Zechariah to tell him about the birth of John, and Mary, who was also visited by Gabriel.^{[1] [2]}

Now, in the fullness of time, God brings the two women together. It’s unclear if the two had ever met before this. It’s also unclear what the reason(s) may have been for Mary to leave Nazareth and go south into Judea. We could speculate about the reasons, but our consideration of the background and the reasons would be simply that, speculation. A couple of possibilities seem likely, however: Each woman could give support to the other in what must have been a time of exhilaration and expectancy, but also a time of challenge and risk; and it’s also possible that Mary was present when John the Baptist was born.^[3]

God’s purpose in bringing the two together does seem clear, however, for John the Baptist and Jesus will meet again on the occasion of John’s ministry in the wilderness, a ministry of baptism for the forgiveness of sin, and the occasion of Jesus’ baptism. God’s purpose unites these two in a common mission: John prepares the way for Jesus, whose earthly ministry begins with His baptism.

One way to study Holy Scripture is to see the patterns in which God brings people together, oftentimes people who would, under normal circumstances, not be together. God brings people of varying backgrounds, talents and outlooks together, and then unites them in service to the divine will.

We can see this in the call of the Lord’s original disciples, or in the call of Paul to become one of the Apostles. In each case, the Lord unites these followers, setting aside their differences of background and perspective and outlook on life, in order that they all, together, might accomplish for God things that they could not accomplish by themselves.

Down through time, God has called people together, uniting them in a common life and love for God through Jesus Christ. St. Paul would affirm this calling and this unity, saying, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

God’s call to come together in a new identity in Christ doesn’t mean that our individuality disappears. On the contrary, God is able to use our unique, individual traits and gifts for His purposes, much in the same way that the instruments of an orchestra each contribute to the beauty of the whole.

AMEN.

 

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[1]   Luke 1:5 – 38 outlines these occurrences.

[2]   Gabriel’s visitation is commemorated in our liturgical calendar on March 25^th each year.

[3]   Luke’s chronology is unclear. He tells us that Elizabeth hid herself for five months after she became pregnant (see Luke 1:24), and that Mary stayed with Elizabeth and Zechariah for about three months (Luke 1:56). So the question then becomes whether or not the five months that Elizabeth was out-of-sight were followed by Mary’s arrival almost immediately afterward.

Advent 2, Year C (2021)

Malachi 3:1 – 5 / For the Psalm: Canticle 4 / Luke 3:1 – 6

 

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, December 5, 2021.

“WHAT SORT OF A HERALD?”

(Homily text: Luke 3:1 - 6)

“…thus, when you give to the poor, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.” (Matthew 6:2)

Our Lord made that statement as part of His Sermon on the Mount. He was describing the process of self-promotion and attention-garnering that some practiced in that day and time, people He called hypoccrites. In essence, He is saying that when one gives to the poor, there is no need for a herald to go beforehand to announce the good deeds that are being done.

Contrast this image of the herald who precedes an ostentatious and pompous one, the herald whose purpose is to focus attention on the one who follows, doing good deeds, with the sort of a herald that John the Baptist was for Jesus. (After all, we concentrate on the Baptist’s ministry and work each year when the Second Sunday of Advent rolls around.)

John the Baptist sought to draw our attention to a completely different sort of person than the hypocrites that our Lord was describing in the statement shown above. For one thing, this Lord Jesus comes among us, born to poor parents, born in a stable, in rude circumstances. As His earthly ministry unfolded, He spent time with the tax collectors and the other notorious sinners of His day, instead of hanging around with the high and the mighty. He died a common criminal’s death on the cross, with a sign that was placed over His head, proclaiming that He was “King of the Jews”.

And yet, for all these markers which signify to us a humble One, One who came to serve, not to be served, we see that this One possesses all power, majesty and might. How can we see these markers of His true identity? In the resurrection on Easter Sunday morning, that’s where the evidence is to be found. There, we see that this humble One possesses all power, even over our most dire and final enemy, which is death.

The Lord comes to us quietly, unobtrusively, and with warmth. He comes, seeking no herald to announce His coming, other than the prompting of the Holy Spirit, who prepares the soil of our hearts to receive Him and to welcome Him in, that He may fellowship with us and we with Him.

As we receive the Lord into our hearts, into our minds, and into our lives, we, too, are called to engage in the same sort of ministry that fell to John the Baptist to do: We are called to herald the Lord’s coming by what we say, how we live, and what we do.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN.