Lent 5, Year A (2023)

Ezekiel 37:1 - 14
Psalm 130
Romans 8:6 – 11
John 11:1 – 45

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, March 26, 2023 by Fr. Gene Tucker.

 

“GOD’S POWER: THE POWER TO CREATE AND TO RECREATE”

(Homily text: John 11:1 – 45)

At the beginning of John’s Gospel account, we read the following: “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 anything 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.”

The themes that are outlined in these opening verses of John’s account come to fruition in the raising of Lazarus. Specifically, these themes are the power to create (“All things were made through him”) and the power to create life, to cast out darkness and to establish light (“In him was life, and the life was the light of men”).

Down through time, as human beings have interacted with God, and have pondered God’s nature and God’s power, one consistent understanding has been that at the heart of God’s nature and God’s power is God’s ability to create things out of nothing, and to recreate and to make things new.

Lazarus, Jesus’ friend and the brother of His friends Mary and Martha, lay dead in the tomb. He’d been dead for four days by the time that Jesus and the disciples made their way to Bethany, where Mary, Martha and Lazarus lived. (John seems to indicate that Jesus deliberately delayed His coming to Bethany.) The four-day period is significant in the understandings of God’s people at the time of our Lord’s earthly ministry, for the belief was, back then, that a person’s soul lingered around the body for a period of three days in the hopes of being reunited with it. So the bottom line in reading that Lazarus had been dead for four days is to confirm that Lazarus was completely and totally dead. Furthermore, confirming this understanding is Martha’s comment that Lazarus’ body would have begun to stink by the time that Jesus stood before the tomb.

Into this hopeless situation, we hear Jesus’ voice, calling to Lazarus, “Come out”.

As in the account of creation in the early chapters of the book of Genesis, Jesus’ voice creates, just as God spoke the words and said, “Let there be light”. Jesus’ voice says, “Lazarus, come out”.

Out of nothing, out of a complete lack of hope, a complete lack of life and liveliness, the dead man returns to life again.

If God can create and can recreate, even in circumstances like the raising of Lazarus, isn’t it just possible that God can create within our hearts and our minds a completely new and recreated self, a self come to life again, a self transformed into God’s image and likeness?

Yes, indeed, God can do that. Our Lord Jesus Christ can do that, simply by saying the words to create anew when our prayer rises to seek such a rebirth. After all, Jesus’ power to create affirms His relationship to the Father, for He possesses all of God’s power to create and to recreate.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN. 

Lent 4, Year A (2023)

I Samuel 16:1 – 13
Psalm 23
Ephesians 5:8 – 14
John 9:1 – 41

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, March 19, 2023, by Fr. Gene Tucker.

 

“THE EXTENT OF GOD’S JUDGMENT?”

(Homily text: John 9:1 – 41)

When God throws a divine thunderbolt in judgment on someone, just how far does God’s judgment go? Does it affect only the person(s) involved, or could it go further, landing on others, as well?

Essentially, this question lies at the root of the disciples’ questioning of the man’s condition, and also of the Pharisees’ investigation into the man’s condition and his healing by Jesus. Both questions have to do with the matter of sin, and of God’s judgment for sin.

The disciples ask the Lord, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’.

In a similar vein, the Pharisees declare that the man was born in “utter sin”,[1] his utterly sinful condition - stemming from his birth - being responsible for his blindness.

The disciples’ question about the origins of the sin which brought about the man’s condition might be based on something we read in the Ten Commandments. In the second commandment, we read this: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.”[2]

The disciples, then, may have had this truth in mind as they ask if it was the man’s parents who were the ones who brought judgment upon the man. They may have been influenced by the common belief – back then – that the cause of illness was due to sin, God’s judgment falling on the wayward and the disobedient. In addition, the fact that the man had been born blind may have led them to believe that, since the man hadn’t yet had the opportunity to commit sin, it must’ve been his parents’ wrongdoing that brought about his blindness.

The Pharisees’ approach is a bit different.

They attribute the man’s condition to his sinful state. But they also declare him to be in “utter sin”, having been born in that condition. (In that sense, the Pharisees assessment of the situation is somewhat similar to the question the disciples raise.) Their approbation of the man is based in their conviction that he is a sinner who is beyond God’s ability to touch and redeem. But their declaration also lies in something else: The man’s willingness to go toe-to-toe with the Pharisees, challenging their beliefs and their attitudes. The Pharisees declare, “Would you teach us?”.[3] The blind-man-who-now-sees challenges the Pharisees’ convictions and outlook (and, as well, their own confidence in their own self-importance).

Three of the attitudes which seem to have been commonplace during the time of the Lord's earthly ministry are overturned with this miracle.

For one thing, He does away with the almost fanatical obsession with the observance of the Sabbath day that the Pharisees (and others) had. (In another circumstance, Jesus declares that the Sabbath day was made for humankind, not the other way around.)[4] The Lord affirms that doing good for a human being, even on the Sabbath day, is far more important than a rigorous observance of the day of rest.

For another, we see that the man whom Jesus healed was able to grasp truths that the so-called religious authorities couldn’t (or wouldn’t) grasp. The man declares that One who healed him was from God. The man, essentially, lectures the Pharisees, telling them truths that he had come to know, but truths they could not understand. The point here, I think is that God’s truths can be discerned by anyone who comes to God in faith. It isn’t just the theologically-informed, or the “authorities” who are the masters of these things. (It’s worth noting that this understanding is one of the key tenets of the sixteenth-century Reformation….God’s truths can be discerned by anyone.)

For another, Jesus debunks the idea that the blind man’s condition was due to his (or his parents’) sin(s).[5]

Here we come to a key truth: God is able to bring good things out of bad things. In other words, God is able to bring about a new, better and more hopeful future, using the circumstances of the past as the foundation for a new, recreated reality. Jesus tells the disciples that it wasn’t due to the man’s sins that he was born blind, but that his condition would be the way in which God’s goodness and mercy could be seen.

Essentially, that’s the central message of the events of Good Friday and Easter. The evil brought upon Jesus as He is condemned to die on the cross is due, directly, to the sin of those who accused Him. But God overcame that evil and ushered in a new, brighter and more hopeful future as the Lord is raised on Easter Sunday morning.

Returning to the idea with which we began, we can see in the events of Good Friday and Easter that God’s goodness and mercy extend beyond the individual, showering others with the blessings of that goodness and mercy.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN.

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[1]   John 9:34

[2]   Exodus 20:4 - 5

[3]   Verse 34

[4]   Mark 2:27

[5]  In this connection it’s important to understand that wrongdoing on someone’s part often has a negative impact on others. The truth of the Second Commandment stands, and ancient Israel understood this as it experienced the fallout in families and in communities of the evil brought about by someone’s actions. The Lord’s declaration that sin wasn’t the cause of the blind man’s condition indicates to us that sin and wrongdoing aren’t automatically the cause of someone’s illness. 

Lent 3, Year A (2023)

Exodus 17: 1 – 7
Psalm 95
Romans 5: 1 – 11
John 4: 5 - 42

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, March 12, 2023 by Fr. Gene Tucker.

 

“WHY BOTHER?”

(Homily text: John 4: 5 – 42)

Our Gospel reading, appointed for this morning, present us with Jesus’ interaction with a Samaritan woman in the village of Sychar.

At first glance, the conversation that unfolded between this unnamed woman and Jesus might not seem all that unusual. But a look beneath the outward nature of this exchange tells us that it was anything but normal.

For one thing, in that culture and in that time, a man would not engage in a conversation in public with a woman he wasn’t related to. So Jesus’ conversation-starter is remarkable, right from the outset.

For another, He wouldn’t have engaged in conversation with a Samaritan, any Samaritan, for Jews disliked Samaritans intensely. (Perhaps we might use the word “hate” to more accurately described the nature of their regard for Samaritans.) In fact, the dislike was so intense that many - if not most – Jews would avoid going through Samaria if they were making their way to or from Galilee and Jerusalem. They would, quite likely take an easterly route down the Jordan River valley, or they would take a westerly route along the Mediterranean Sea.

Still another reason that Jesus might want to ignore or to avoid this Samaritan woman is because of her morals. John tells us that she had been married five times, and that the man she was currently with wasn’t her husband. (We don’t know more than that. She may have been living with the man she was with. We can’t be sure.) Suffice it to say that she was probably a person who might have been regarded as one who was “damaged goods”. (Perhaps that’s the reason she came to draw water at the well in the middle of the day…she was less apt to encounter other villagers at that time of day.)

But John tells us that Jesus “had to” go through Samaria on His way from Jerusalem to Galilee. The phrase “had to” often implies divine intention, meaning that Jesus’ decision to go directly through Samaria was due to His desire to fulfill His Father’s will. His decision is, most likely, more than a simple decision to take the most direct route to Galilee. God’s purposes are at work here.

God’s purposes are also at work in Jesus’ actions. Notice that it is Jesus who strikes up the conversation with the woman. It seems as though Jesus’ decision to take the direct route to Galilee was part of God’s design and plan, but the Lord’s initiative was also part of God’s plan.

Now, the question arises, given the nature of the route that Jesus decided to take, the disregard He obviously had for the regard most Jews had for Samaritans, His disregard for societal norms in striking up a conversation with the woman, and His disregard for her marital past (which, John tells us, He knew about): Why did Jesus bother with this woman? Most people wouldn’t have. They wouldn’t have had the interest, nor the willingness, to reach out to her.

Perhaps the reason is simply this: No one is beyond the Lord’s ability to reach out to and to rescue. No one is a “throw away” person. No one’s past life is a bar to the guarantee of a new, better and full life in God. No one.

We could take a lesson from our Lord’s actions.

Do we regard anyone with contempt? Do we think that any one is beyond God’s ability to help and to save? Do we decide, up front, that we can’t be bothered to share the Good News of God in Christ, because someone we’ve encountered either won’t be interested, or won’t be receptive to that message?

Today’s Gospel reminds us of our Lord’s ways of doing things. He reaches out to the marginalized and the “untouchables” of His day.

We should be doing that very same thing.

AMEN.

        

Lent 2, Year A (2023

Genesis 12:1 – 4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1 – 5, 13 – 17
John 3:1 – 17

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, March 5, 2023 by Fr. Gene Tucker.

 

“GO WITH ME TO A PLACE I WILL SHOW YOU”

(Homily texts: Genesis 12:1 – 4a & John 3:1 – 17)

In our Genesis reading, appointed for this morning, we read God’s command to Abram, as He says, “Go from your country…to a land that I will show you.”

In much the same way, we might characterize Jesus’ invitation to Nicodemus in this way: “Come, Nicodemus, to a place that I (Jesus) will show you.”

That place that Jesus has in mind is the place of the mind, the heart and the spirit, the place of spiritual realities and the place where God most seeks to dwell.

Before we look more closely at the interchange between Nicodemus and the Lord, we might do well to take a moment to examine some details of this encounter.

For one thing, Nicodemus is identified as being a “ruler of the Jews”, which probably meant that he was a member of the ruling council known as the Sanhedrin. For another, Nicodemus is obviously on a fact-finding mission. Whether or not he’s been sent by the Sanhedrin to check Jesus out, or whether or not Nicodemus came on his own, we don’t know.

Now, let’s notice that Nicodemus comes to Jesus at nighttime. It’s possible that this detail is important, for in John’s writings in general, the theme of light and darkness figures prominently.

In John’s understanding, darkness isn’t just physical darkness, it also represents spiritual darkness. In Nicodemus’ case, it’s obvious that Nicodemus is living in darkness, for in response to Jesus’ remark that he must be born “again” or “from above”[1], he asks if it would be possible for a man, now fully grown, to re-enter his mother’s womb in order to be born again.

Nicodemus is thinking in the obvious, literal, outward sense of things, the sense of things that we get the impression was common among God’s people in that day and time. We can see this in the emphasis that those like the Pharisees placed on the outward observance of the requirements of the Law of Moses. For example, Jesus gets into trouble for healing on the Sabbath day, and for plucking grain from the fields as He and His disciples walk, also on the Sabbath day.

The knowledge of the inner life of a walk with God seems to be either missing entirely, or is being overlooked. To Nicodemus, such a place seems to be entirely unknown to him.

Jesus then asks him to come to a place that He, the Lord, will show him. It is the place where the Spirit of God works, the place where God is active. Coming to such a place, becoming a citizen of such a place, requires nothing less than an entirely new way of seeing things, of understanding spiritual realities, not just physical realities. Such a place is a place where God’s love is experienced. Such a place must’ve seemed strange to Nicodemus, steeped as he was in a knowledge of God’s judgmental ways, ways which the requirements of the Law of Moses seemed design to highlight. By keeping the requirements of the Law, one sought to ameliorate God’s judgment for wrongdoing. Such an emphasis leads to the conclusion that if one does the right thing, then God will bless, but, conversely, if one does wrong, illness, poverty and the like are seen as God’s judgment.

Jesus invites Nicodemus into a place of God’s love, saying, “For God so loved the world…..” In John’s understanding, the “world” consists of all those who are opposed to God’s ways and God’s message, seen in the sending of God’s Son. The import here, then, is that God loves even those who are opposed to Him and to His purposes in the world. Yes, even them.

Did Nicodemus “get it”? Perhaps he did. For we read in John 19:39 that Nicodemus came with Joseph of Arimathea to anoint Jesus’ body after His death, and to give Jesus’ body a proper burial. The verdict on Nicodemus’ spiritual condition can’t be discerned from these actions, although it seems likely that he did respond to Jesus’ teaching.

Our Lord calls us into a place of spiritual maturity, a place where the inner life of the spirit requires us to come to a fulness of understanding of God’s ways and God’s intents. It is a place where we enter into an intense, deeply personal love relationship with God through the Son. As we walk with the Lord, gaining in spiritual maturity, the ways in which our outward and observable manner of life will change. This is nothing less than a sacramental understanding of the ways of God, who works in the inner person in order to change the outer one.

AMEN.

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[1]   The Greek word can mean either “again” or “from above”.