Pentecost 6, Year A (2026)

Zechariah 9:  9–12 / Psalm 145: 8–14 / Romans 7: 15–25a / Matthew 11: 16–19, 25–30

 

This is the written version of the homily give at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, July 5, 20206 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor

 

 

“I CAN SEE IT FROM HERE, BUT I’M NOT THERE YET”

(Homily texts:  Romans 7: 15–25a)

 

Let’s ask ourselves some questions.

First of all, do I have a perfect past in my life, from the beginning up until now?

Secondly, do I have a forgiven past? That is to say, has God forgiven me for the ways in which I’ve fallen short of His perfect will for me?

Now then, I think the answer to the first question must surely be, “No”, none of us has a perfect past. I know for certain that I do not have a perfect past. In some ways or another, either big and noticeable ways, or in small and seemingly insignificant ways, all of us have managed to miss the mark (a classic definition of sin, by the way). We haven’t attained the heights of God’s perfection. It matters now whether our failings are – by human standards and human reckonings – big or small. In God’s eyes, all are failures.

The answer to the second question can surely be “Yes”, we can have a forgiven past, if we are willing to concede our own failings, and to ask for that forgiveness. Something happens when we come face-to-face with ourselves, and when we seek God’s forgiveness, and ask for God’s help to amend our lives and to endeavor to live – with the help of the Holy Spirit – a life that is pleasing to God.

Before we take a close look at St. Paul’s admission of his own spiritual condition, as we read it in our epistle reading for this morning, from his Letter to the Romans, chapter seven, we ought to note that Christians, in times past and even today, have wrestled with the issue of perfection. More properly, we ought to note that some Christians maintain that we can – with God’s help – attain to perfection in this life. In the area where we ministered for seven years, there was a clergy colleague who maintained we could, actually, attain to perfection in this life. When I heard what he thought, I went home and said, “What planet is he living on?” As we look back into Christian history, others have maintained that perfection is attainable. Of course, we ought to note that such attitudes are possible only when we close our eyes to the things in human nature we don’t want to see. If we do that, then things look pretty good. (So then, St. Augustine of Hippo’s assessment of the human condition is right on the mark. For he said that we human beings are so easily fooled.)

Paul, in the admission of his own spiritual condition that we hear this morning, says that his eyes are wide open to the entire scope of his life and his behavior. He says that he knows what God’s perfect will is, but he also says he can’t attain that level of perfection. He says there is a war going on inside of hum: His earthly and human characteristics are engaged in battle with his awareness of God’s will.

Isn’t this admission refreshing? Refreshing in the sense that such a hero of the faith as the Apostle Paul admits that he, along with the rest of us, wrestle with our fallen nature and God’s nature, which has been implanted within us at our baptisms.

Turns out, we’re all in the same spiritual boat, it seems.

Why is this so?

I think the answer lies in the origins of our sinful desires.

To see this more clearly, consider some of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Each of these are misuses of some naturally-occurring need within our natures, needs which ensure our wellbeing, and even our survival.

For example, avarice (an older word for “greed”) stems from our need to have enough of our basic needs met in order to ensure our survival.

For another example, gluttony is the misuse of our need to eat.

You see the pattern.

Well, of course, the reality is that these basic needs aren’t going to go away. We will continue to have our basic needs met. We will continue to have a need to eat. (Just to cite two examples.)

We are, therefore, between those things that – if misused – will ensure that we miss the mark of God’s holiness and righteousness, and God’s holy nature and God’s holy will.

That condition will continue so long as we are in this life.

What are we to do, then?

Perhaps the answer would be that, whenever we are tempted to forget God’s will and God’s ways, we might pray for God to intervene, to place Himself and His will between us and our temptations.

If we do that, then perhaps it’ll be easier for us to turn away from those things which separate us from God when they come around again, as they surely will. We get stronger, we get more proficient in saying “No” to those sorts of things. Be sure of this, however: We will continue to need the assistance of the Holy Spirit to be able to refine away those things that do not bring honor to God.

In the course of this life, whenever we experience a victory over sin, then we can join our voices to Paul’s and give glory to our Lord Jesus Christ, whose own victory over sin and death gives us the hope of victories over those same things.

AMEN. 

Pentecost 5, Year A (2026)

Jeremiah 28: 5–9 / Psalm 89: 1–4, 15–18 / Romans 6: 12–23 / Matthew 10: 40–42

 

This is the homily written for Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania, for Sunday, June 28, 2026, by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“GOD’S WILL AND GOD’S VOICE ARE OFTEN MEDIATED”

(Homily texts:  Jeremiah 28: 5–9 and Matthew 10: 40-42)

As Christian believers, who seek to follow the Lord’s leading, to know God’s will, and to know when God is telling us something, it is important for us to know something about the various ways that God communicates His mind and will to us.

Oftentimes, God’s voice and God’s will are mediated in some way.

That is to say, God usually speaks to us indirectly. To say that God’s will and God’s voice are mediated, we mean that God often uses some intermediary means to do so. (At this point, we should acknowledge that God can, and does, speak to us directly. The action of the Holy Spirit is one such way.)

Let’s explore some of the ways that God lets us know His mind and His will.

We could begin with an obvious way in which God speaks to us: In the pages of Holy Scripture. The Bible is, from one perspective at least, the record of God’s dealing with human beings down through time. The mistakes that people have made, the successes that have happened, the good, the bad and the downright ugly, all of it is in the pages of sacred Scripture. (I think that’s one way that what the Bible has to tell us is really true in the fullest sense of that word, for it doesn’t attempt to hide or sugar-coat the ugly truths of human behavior….it’s all there in the text.)

God’s truths are often expressed in stories, in poems, and in the texts of hymns. Sometimes, when we read a story or a poem, or when we sing a hymn, the truths contained in these various ways of expressing God’s truths will touch our minds and our hearts. Poems, stories and hymn texts can offer an inspired way to see truths that we know from other perspectives. Seeing divine truths from another perspective is much like picking up a fine piece of cut glass and holding it up to the light. As we turn the glass, the light beams shimmer and shine in differing aspects. The same process can happen with poems, hymn texts and stories.

Another way that we discern God’s voice and God’s will is through the voice of others. Sometimes, in conversation with another believer, something that is said can strike us with the gleam of God’s truth. Of course, oftentimes the assistance of the Holy Spirit enables us to know that what we’ve heard is God’s truth.

Sermons can be a vehicle for expressing God’s truth. The preacher’s task, it has been said, is to “Afflict the comfortable and to comfort the afflicted”. Here we come to the prophetic nature of preaching. That is to say, good preaching doesn’t just seek to assure us of things we already know and believe, it is, indeed, that, if it is effective preaching. But preaching that is faithful to God’s call to point toward God’s truth also involves challenge, the sort of challenge that encourages us to look beyond our current situation and surroundings, in order that we might see what else about God’s voice and God’s will we are missing, or have overlooked. The preacher’s task is to have the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other. This is a way of saying that the good preaching seeks to find ways to apply God’s truth to the daily situations we encounter in our time, place and culture.

Finally, we should talk about prophets and prophecy, since our reading from Jeremiah has to do with the work of prophets, and since – in our Gospel reading for this morning - our Lord mentions that a prophet will, by no means, lose his (her) reward.

Quite often, when we think about prophecy, we think of it in terms of foretelling future events. Prophecy can, indeed, deal with events that have not yet come to pass.

But prophecy also has to do with God’s truth, or – more properly – speaking God’s truth, and especially in situations where people don’t necessarily want to hear God’s truth. (That would summarize the prophet Jeremiah’s situation quite accurately.)

Jeremiah’s assessment of the truthful and faithful nature of speaking God’s truth is that, when a prophet’s pronouncements bear fruit, then the prophet has been faithful to the voice of God.

A situation I encountered some years ago will illustrate this point: A person I met said that the (Holy) Spirit had predicted a set of events in their life that would take place in the future. The details were explicit. But none of the events that the individual predicted ever came to be. So, one wonders, what spirit was the person listening to (or thinking that they were listening to)?

Perhaps the challenge for us as believers is to realize that, since God often speaks to us indirectly, it is the challenge we must take up to actually and accurately discern God’s voice and God’s will from other voices and other ways of thinking. One way to approach this challenge is to ask whether or not the voice we are hearing is consistent with the revealed truths we find on Holy Scripture, or in the traditions of the Church. If what we are hearing isn’t consistent with those sources of authority, then, chances are, what we’re hearing isn’t God, but ourselves.

So come, Holy Spirit, assist us to know God’s will and to hear God’s voice when God speaks to us.

AMEN. 

Pentecost 4, Year A (2026)

Jeremiah 20: 7–13 / Psalm 69: 7–18 / Romans 6: 1b–11 / Matthew 10: 24–39

 

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, June 21, 2026, by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“DIVINE MATH”

(Homily texts:  Romans 6: 1b–11 & Matthew 10: 24-39)

 

One of life’s essential skills is the ability to manage things that are valuable.

For example, we teach our young drivers to be careful operators of our vehicles, so that those vehicles will serve for a long time, avoiding accidents. We teach our children to manage their finances, so that they won’t spend more than they have. Just two examples.

We take steps to protect that which is valuable, being sure to preserve it from loss.

Human assessments of value, and of preserving value, are very different from God’s way of assessing and assigning value to things, including – of course – our value as children of God to God. We could call God’s way of measuring worth and value “Divine Math”.

Divine Math tells us that to lose ourselves is to find ourselves, our truest selves. What?

Shouldn’t I want to “play it safe”, to avoid situations in which I could lose something? Something like my plans for my life? Something like my career, or perhaps my life’s path up to this point? Something like a part of my life that I have declared to God that it is “off limits”?

Yes, precisely. That’s the way God thinks.

To some extent, “Divine Math” is a mystery. The walk of faith is made up of some things that are certain. But other things – from a human point-of-view at least - are mysteries. (It’s worth noting that, in our communion prayer, we say, “Let us affirm the mystery of faith”.)

So, it’s a mystery why someone would leave a highly successful career, in order to be a missionary in some faraway place. The reason: To answer God’s call to serve.

So, it’s a mystery why someone would begin working with a ministry that serves people who are dealing with addictions, or who are homeless, or who are in some sort of distress. The reason: To answer God’s call to serve.

We could say the same thing about those who answer God’s call to enter the ministry, be it a lay ministry or an ordained one. In some cases, answering this sort of a call involves radical changes in one’s life.

Our Lord Jesus Christ admonishes us, as He proclaims God’s assessment of worth. In our Gospel text for this morning, He says, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it/” Divine Math.

We would do well to mention two other examples of Divine Math.

How can it be that dying leads to life?

Think of our Lord’s sacrifice on the cross on Good Friday. His death is the necessary prelude to His rising to new life on Easter Sunday morning. Our Lord couldn’t have risen on Easter Sunday unless He had freely given up His life the Friday before. So we, as Christian believers, are called to take up our cross – or, as St. Paul says in our reading from his letter to the Romans, “Now if we have died with Christ (in Baptism), we know that we will also live with him”. (Romans 6:8)

Divine Math tells us that, to walk the way of the cross, is to find ourselves on the path to true and lasting life, in this life and in the life of the world to come.

This, my friends, is a mystery. It defies our normal way of thinking.

We mentioned baptism a moment ago. Holy Baptism is a death-leading-to-life event. The outward and visible sign of this Sacrament is water. Water can kill, but water is also essential for life to exist. It is, therefore, the perfect sign of the mystery that happens in baptism.

Paul makes an excellent exposition of the meaning of baptism, linking it to Christ’s death, and to His rising again.

Another mystery.

Our Lord’s instructions to His early followers informed them that, unless they were willing to loosen their grip on those things that were of value, they could not be ready to follow God’s call to take up their own cross, in order to follow the Lord.

Those same instructions are given to us today. We are called to loosen our grip on those things that hinder our ability and our willingness to follow the Lord.

If we are willing (with the assistance of the Holy Spirit) to allow God’s call to permeate our minds and our hearts, then we are ready to find our life’s truest meaning, answering God’s call, in whatever fashion and form that call may take.

AMEN. 

Pentecost 3, Year A (2026)

Exodus 19: 2–8a / Psalm 100 / Romans 5: 1–8 / Matthew 9:35 – 10:23

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, June 14, 2026 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“THE ‘STUFF’ OF THE GOOD NEWS”

(Homily text: Matthew 9:35 – 10:23)

Stuff.

“Stuff” is a word I use a lot. A friend, not too long ago, said to me, “You use the word ‘stuff” a lot. I’m going to get you something with the word ‘stuff’ on it.” He did, and I now have a sweatshirt with a saying on it: “I like stuff”. I get a good many comments when I wear it.

“Stuff” is a wonderfully useful word. “Stuff” can mean good things, or it can mean not-so-good things. “Good stuff” could be something like an object or a gift that you’ve been wanting for a long time. Or, “stuff” could be ordinary things we have to do, like chores….in that case, “stuff” is of the not-so-great variety. An example of this sort of “stuff” would be when someone asks you what you’re going to do this afternoon, you reply that you’re going to be doing “stuff”, meaning that you’re going to tackle that mess that passes for your bedroom or your house. (I realize this is a condition that – in particular – afflicts teenagers.)

This morning, we consider some really “good stuff”, the “stuff” of the Good News of God, made known in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew relates to us how the Lord sent out His disciples, gifting them with some very good “stuff”, and saying to them that “the kingdom has come near”.

The Lord’s command to go out into the world, carrying the gift of God’s good “stuff”, was accompanied by this encouraging word: “The harvest is plentiful”. Therefore, the Lord says, “Pray that the Lord will send laborers into the harvest”.

The “stuff” of the Gospel (Good News) is made up of the good things that will point as signs to its value: Those who had been harassed and helpless - up until the coming of the Good News – will now have someone to lead and to care for them; the sick will be cured; the dead will come to life again; and the powers of evil will be defeated.

Put another way, when the “good stuff” of the kingdom arrives, changes – for the better – will come as well.

But, the Lord is blunt, warning those who will be the carriers of this “good stuff”, the Gospel, won’t have an easy time of it as they share what God has done: Some will reject the “stuff” of the Good News. Others will be openly hostile. (Perhaps the description of the hardships that those who had been sent out is also a prediction of the conditions facing Matthew and his faith community as Mathew’s Gospel account is being written, perhaps late in the first century.)

You and I today, as Jesus’ messengers in our time and place, have the same set of instructions as those twelve Disciples (who will soon become Apostles[1], as they were sent out into the known world following the Lord’s resurrection and ascension) who were sent to God’s people so long ago.

We have the same great, good gift to bring, the “good stuff” of the Good News of God, made known in Christ.

The Lord’s message we bear still means that life will now have purpose. It means that evil will be defeated. It means that divine healing still works to restore life to the fulness of God’s intent (by the way, we’ve had a divine healing here at Flohr’s not long ago…God be praised!).

Above all, it means that changes, for the better, will come as the “good stuff” of the Gospel is received into the hearts of those who hear it.

Is there any higher calling, any more important purpose, than the instructions we’ve been given, those same instructions given to the Lord’s original band of Disciples? I can’t think of any.

May God empower us to faithfully carry the “good stuff” of the Good News to any and to all whom we meet along life’s pathway.

AMEN.

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[1]   The title “Apostle” comes from the Greek words, which mean someone who is sent out. 

Pentecost 2, Year A (2026)

Hosea 5:15 – 6:6 / Psalm 50: 7–15 / Romans 4: 13–25 / Matthew 9: 9–13, 18–26

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on June 7, 2026 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

 

“CHANGE???!!!”

(Homily text: Matthew 9: 9–13, 18-26)

Some years ago, there was a comedy show that came out of Canada called “Red Green”. It appeared on Public Television. The setting for “Red Green” was a men’s clubhouse. Each episode featured caricatures of typical “guy” people, like the guy who’s fiddling with an old pickup, or the nerdy guy, or the one who’s creating some sort of a Rube Goldberg device.

Each week’s show began the same way, as the men filed into the men’s clubhouse and sat down on benches. Then, the leader would come in and invite everyone to stand for the Man’s Prayer, which went something like this: “I’m a man, and I can change, if I have to, I guess. Amen”.

Now, let’s shift this a bit, and offer what might be the Christian’s Prayer, which might go something like this: “I’m a Christian believer, and a follower of Jesus. The Lord expects me to change, and will help me to do so. Amen.”

Our appointed Gospel text for this morning conveys to us the accounts of people whose lives were changed as a result of their encounter with Jesus: The disciple Matthew; the tax collectors and sinners that Jesus was hanging around with; the leader of the synagogue whose daughter had died; and the woman who’d had a bleeding disorder for twelve years.

Each one of these people’s lives were radically different after their encounter with the Lord, than they were before their encounter.

It’s worth noticing that Jesus is willing to meet each of these where they are when the Lord encounters them. He doesn’t demand that they do something in order to be worthy of the Lord’s compassion and care. And, it’s worth noting, He’s quite willing to begin a relationship right where He finds each of these.

But, that’s only part of the truth of the matter. Change is an expectation. Change is the evidence of a genuine relationship with God through Christ. True enough, “Come as you are” is correct. But the journey, if it is to be a genuine one, never ends there. We may not continue living in ways that counter God’s design and desires for us.

Today, many churches reach out to the outside world, saying, “Come as you are”.

That approach is true enough. There’s plenty of evidence in Holy Scripture that God is quite willing to start working with us and within us from whatever place He finds us.

We might observe that the pages of the Bible are filled with accounts of people whose lives changed once they’d come into relationship with God. The accounts in the Bible also contain some examples of those who encountered God, but who spurned God’s offer to begin a relationship. We could look at Scripture from this vantage point.

For whatever reason, God gives each of us free will. For some reason, God’ doesn’t want us to be automatons or pieces on the chess board of life. He grants each of us the ability to choose to relate to Him, and to accept – or reject – God’s offer of relationship, a new and fuller life, and a genuine relationship.

Returning to the people we reach about in this morning’s Gospel, we can see that Matthew had the ability to remain as a tax collector, and not to choose to follow Jesus. The tax collectors and sinners could have chosen to remain as they were. The leader of the synagogue could have spurned suggestions that Jesus could help his daughter. The woman with the bleeding disorder could have chosen not to seek healing from the Lord.

You and I face the same juncture: We can choose for God, or not. The choice is ours to make.

AMEN. 

Trinity Sunday, Year A (2026)

Genesis 1: 1 – 2:4a / Psalm 8 / II Corinthians 13: 11–13 / Matthew 28: 16–20

 

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, May 31, 2026 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“UNDERSTANDING THE FULNESS OF GOD’S NATURE AS FATHER, SON AND SPIRIT”

(Homily texts: Genesis 1: 1 – 2:4a, and Matthew 28: 16-20)

God’s nature is hidden from our human eyes and understanding, except to the extent that God, Himself, has chosen to reveal His nature to us.

It should be noted that God’s self-revelation is a wonderful gift to humankind. 

That said, we human beings have come to understand God’s nature in its fulness as One God in Three Persons – or – as it is usually stated, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit: The Holy Trinity.

Such an understanding of God’s nature didn’t come to full acceptance overnight. Nor did this understanding come quickly. Instead, the process of understanding God’s self-revelation took quite a long time to develop and to be accepted. That’s often the case when God chooses to tell us something about Himself.

Before we explore some of the process by which God pulled back the veil of mystery which surrounds His being, and the process by which human beings came to understand what God had revealed, let’s take a moment to explore why Trinity Sunday occupies the place that it does in the Church Year.

Trinity Sunday is the only Sunday in the year whose theme is theological in nature. (Remember that theology is the field of study and contemplation which attempts to understand God’s nature and God’s acting.) Recall that, as the Church Year unfolds, we anticipate and then celebrate two major events in our Lord Jesus Christ’s life and work: His birth in Bethlehem (celebrated at Christmastime), and then His resurrection (on Easter Sunday). Preceding these two celebrations are two preparatory seasons: Advent (prior to Christmas) and Lent (prior to Easter). Following the Christmastide season is the season of Epiphany, as we give thanks for the spread of the Good News (Gospel) to the non-Jewish world, the Gentiles.

Then, following Eastertide, we have the season after Pentecost, which occupies about half of the yearly calendar. (The season after Pentecost makes use of the color green, signifying growth of the Good News in the world and in our own lives.)

Now then, Trinity Sunday is the culmination of the process of reflection upon God’s gift of His son, Jesus Christ. Tracing our steps backward to Christmas, we celebrate His coming among us as one of us, as He takes on our humanity. Then, at Easter, we celebrate His victory over death. Then, we recall the coming of the Holy Spirit in a unique and powerful way at the feast of Pentecost.

With the coming of the Spirit, we are now aware of the Spirit’s unique and irreplaceable role as God’s guiding and empowering presence. With this awareness, we are equipped to go out into the world, knowing and understanding (as much as we, as human beings are capable of understanding) the nature of the God who calls us into relationship with Him, and who sends us out as His representatives in the world.

All of this reflection on the path that the Church Year places before us, we are now ready to explore the meaning of Trinity Sunday.

Trinity Sunday’s theme is to remind us of the fulness of God’s nature. It won’t do for us as Christian believers to be aware of only part of God’s nature. Instead, we are called to attempt to hold in mind that God’s fulness exists in Three Persons, while being but One God.

We are encouraged to remember that, as we think about one Person of the Trinity, the other two Persons are also and always present. (God cannot be separated into different parts.)

Holding this awareness in our thinking and believing means that we now have all the tools that God intends for us to have in order to be good and effective workers in God’s field in the world. To my thinking, at least, this is the importance of Trinity Sunday.

We’d do well to reflect a bit on the understanding of the Holy Trinity, as it developed over time.

We can begin with our reading from Genesis. In this reading, one can see the presence of the three Persons of the Trinity. Notice that the text begins by saying, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”. This would be God the Father. Then, the text tells us that God’s Spirit hovered over the waters. Then, a bit later, the text tells us that God spoke, and things began to come into being.[1]

The Christian understanding of God’s nature as One God in Three Persons stems from our Lord Jesus Christ’s teachings about His relationship to God. He uses father and son imagery. Then, with respect to the Spirit, He tells His disciples that He is going to send them another comforter, an Advocate[2], who will lead them into all truth.[3]

In summary, what we have come to believe, as Christian believers, stems from our Lord’s teaching.

What an enormous and valuable gift that teaching is!

God be praised.

AMEN.

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[1]   At this juncture, it’d be helpful for us to reading John’s Gospel account, and specifically John 1: 1–18. There, we read that, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Biblical scholars have long noted the similarities between Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 and following.

[2]   See John 16: 4b–15.

[3]   The Nicene Creed affirms the conviction that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son”. This phrase, which was added a good many years after the adoption of the Creed, is probably based on the Lord’s teachings, as we read in John, chapter sixteen. The phrase in the Creed continues to constitute a difference of conviction between the Eastern (Orthodox) Church and the Western Church.

The Feast of Pentecost

Acts 2: 1–21 / Psalm 104: 24–34, 35b / I Corinthians 12: 3b–13 / John 20: 19–23

 

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, May 24, 2026, by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“THE MESSAGE OF THE PENTECOST EVENT: CHANGE!”

(Homily text: Acts 2: 1-21)

Whenever God intervenes in human affairs, one thing is certain:  What happens afterward will be different than what came before God made His presence known.

On this Feast of Pentecost, we are reminded that God came “crashing into” the lives of the Apostles (and perhaps about 120 others)[1] as the Holy Spirit came like a “mighty, rushing wind”, and with “tongues of fire, which appeared above the heads” of those gathered that day.

The Holy Spirit’s descent made it possible for those gathered that day to speak and to be understood in languages that they had not previously been able to either speak.  Talk about change!

Before we explore the changes that the Pentecost event made in the life of the body of believers, that is, the Church, and in the lives of individual believers, let’s remind ourselves about the original meaning and importance of the Feast of Pentecost.

In the Jewish calendar, the Feast of Pentecost was one of three major festivals observed each year, and was celebrated fifty days[2] after the Feast of Passover. It was observed on the first day of the week, and was an ingathering of the first fruits of the harvest. (Remember this aspect of the festival, for – I think – it has a meaning for Christian believers that is similar. We’ll get to that in a moment.)

Now then, we began by saying that whenever God chooses to intervene in human life, change is bound to happen. In the Pentecost event, that change became a reality for the Body of Christ, the Church, and for the individual believers who were members of it.

We will begin by looking at the changes that the Church came to experience.

Notice, first of all, that there were people from all over the known world in Jerusalem at the time of the Holy Spirit’s appearing. That’s because the Feast of Pentecost was one of those three major festivals that devout Jews would feel compelled to attend, if at all possible. So it is that Luke (the writer of the Book of Acts) provides for us a list of the places from which those attending the festival had come from.

We could easily come to the conclusion that God wanted the early Church to know that the great, good things that God had done in raising Jesus Christ to new life on Easter Sunday morning was Good News (Gospel) for the whole world, and not just for people in Jerusalem, or in the region around Jerusalem, Judea, or – for that matter – not for Jews only, but for Gentiles as well. (Notice that Luke tells us that there were Gentile converts to Judaism among the crowd that heard the believers speaking: His term for those people is “proselytes”.)

Talk about change! The idea that God’s goodness was to be received by all people, everywhere, was a challenge to the early Church. As we read through the early chapters of the Book of Acts, we see that Peter had had an encounter with Cornelius[3], a Roman centurion and someone who was known as a “God-fearer”[4]. But Peter is initially reluctant to associate with Gentiles. Eventually, Peter comes to understand that God’s intent is that all people, everywhere, will come into relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. Peter’s understanding echoes his quotation from the Old Testament prophet Joel, made at Pentecost, as Peter says, “…it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”.  A bit later in the Acts account, we see that Paul and Barnabas were spreading God’s great, good news throughout the known world, and among Gentiles.

These initiatives created a major crisis in the early Church. The difference of conviction about whether or not Gentiles could come to faith in Christ, and whether or not they had to convert to Judaism in order to do so, came to a head at the Council of Jerusalem, which was held in the year 49 AD.[5]

The Council’s decision was that Gentiles did not have to convert. The Church had come to understand the implications of the Holy Spirit’s intervention at Pentecost.

Notice that it took about twenty years[6] or so for the Church to change its understanding about who it was who could come to faith in Jesus. Change in the Church sometimes takes awhile.

With the decision to allow non-Jews into the Church, the Church began to look forward, not back. The change in perspective is due, directly, to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and to the Spirit’s continuing influence on the early Church.

Individuals in the Church who had come to faith also encountered change as a result of their new relationship with the Lord.

They, too, were to look forward, not back. They, too, were to accept and receive new believers as the faith that they had come to know was now the gift of others, as well. Lives changed, as encounters with God made a new way of living a requirement, for the Lord’s will is that believers will live upright and holy lives.

Individuals in the Church were to lend their gifts to the outpouring of God’s Good News to the world. Just as the original meaning of Pentecost was to celebrate the in-gathering of the first fruits of the harvest, so, too, was the Church to be about the business of gathering in new believers into the kingdom of God. In the process, individual wills, individual desires were to take second place to God’s will and God’s vision for the future.

What does all of this mean for the Church today? What does all of this mean for our local part of the Church, Flohr’s Lutheran?

Perhaps this: First of all, a genuine encounter with the Lord means that we are called to live holy and upright lives. Second of all, it means that we are to proclaim God’s great, good news to those around us. As we do so, we are called to proclaim that Good News (Gospel) by what we do, and – if necessary – by what we say. And, finally, any encounter with God means that change is inevitable, as we submit our own wills and desires to God’s will and God’s desires.

So may these things be.

AMEN.

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[1]   It isn’t possible to be sure, judging from Luke’s narrative, exactly how many were present at Pentecost. Luke mentions the original twelve Apostles (see Acts 1:13), where Luke names the Apostles who were present. But then, at Acts 1:15, he mentions 120 persons. In Acts 2:1, he says “they” were all together at Pentecost.

[2]   The word by which we know this festival is derived from the Greek word for “fifty”, Pentecost.

[3]   See Acts, chapter ten, for the account of Peter’s encounter with Cornelius.

[4]   A “God-fearer” was a Gentile who had come to believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Perhaps some of these Gentiles hadn’t formally converted to Judaism, but were believers, nonetheless.

[5]   Luke describes the events of the Council in Acts, chapter fifteen.

[6]   The Council of Jerusalem took place some twenty years or so after Jesus’ death and resurrection, and after the Pentecost event. 

Easter 7 (The Sunday after Ascension Day), Year A (2026)

Acts 1: 6–14 / Psalm 68: 1–10, 32–35 / I Peter 4: 12–14; 5: 6–11 / John 17: 1–11

 

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, May 17, 2026, by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

                  

“INVITED AND DRAWN INTO THE INNER LIFE OF GOD”

(Homily text: John 17: 1-11)

Life has the ability to offer many blessings. One of the most wonderful things that can bless and support us in our earthly journey is a close and deeply personal relationship with someone. That “someone” might be our marriage partner. Or that “someone” could be a close friend, or perhaps a parent or a grandparent, or perhaps a schoolmate.

Such persons are ones we can share our innermost thoughts, concerns, struggles and desires with. We are able, with such persons, to share anything and everything, all in confidence.

It is just this sort of a relationship that our Lord Jesus Christ describes in this morning’s Gospel reading, which is a portion of what has come to be known as the Lord’s “High Priestly Prayer”. This prayer occupies all of chapter seventeen of John’s Gospel account. We hear just the beginning portion of it this morning.

The prayer concludes John’s extensive account of what happened as Jesus and His disciples celebrated and observed the feast of Passover. In John’s account, chapters thirteen through seventeen tell us about the events that took place on that night before our Lord suffered and died on Good Friday.

John’s unique writing style is evident as the prayer unfolds. In verses one through eleven, Jesus prays for Himself, and for the original band of disciples, as He is about to leave them. Then, in verses twelve through nineteen, John advances the narrative, as Jesus prays for that original band of disciples who will soon become Apostles, as they are sent out into the world carrying the Good News of God, made known in the sending of Jesus Christ. Finally, verses twenty through the end of the chapter, at verse twenty-six, Jesus prays for those who will come to faith through the work of the Apostles. (Yes, that includes you and me!)

John’s writing style has been compared to a series of loops, by which an idea is introduced. Then the idea is advanced a little at a time as the narrative unfolds.

Now then, let’s return to the theme with which we began: The blessing that is ours by virtue of a close and deeply personal relationship with someone.

That “someone”, in the case of the Lord’s High Priestly Prayer, is the Lord Himself. In Jesus’ prayer, we are invited into a close, personal, and a deep love relationship with the fulness of God, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

For, you see, Jesus Christ’s coming sheds light on the nature of the Father. His coming also sheds light on the nature of the Spirit.

And we are invited into the inner life of God, into the fulness of God’s identity as the Three-in-One, the Holy Trinity. We are invited into a place where we can share our innermost longings, desires, concerns, challenges, shortcomings and disappointments. At the same time, God, as our trusted companion in the walk of faith, is also that One we can share our celebrations and the high points of our lives with.

What a blessed state, to find ourselves drawn into the inner life of the God of all, that One who – in the final analysis – will be the One whose will and whose love will endure, and will conquer all things.

AMEN. 

Easter 6, Year A (2026)

Acts 17: 22–31 / Psalm 66: 8–20 / I Peter 3: 13-22 / John 14: 15-21

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, May 10, 2026 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“HOLY BAPTISM: A NEW BEGINNING AND A BARRIER”

(Homily text: I Peter 3: 13–22)

Across the country at this time of year, many young people will be attending Commencement exercises, as they graduate from the schools they’ve been attending. In the process, a chapter in their lives ends, and a new one begins. Though we may not think of it, it might be useful for us to reflect on the basic meaning of the word “commencement”, for it literally means “to begin”.

These young graduates, as they leave the lives they’ve known in whatever setting they’ve grown used to in their academic pursuits, experience the creation of a barrier of sorts in their lives. For many graduates, their commencement exercises will mark the last time they set foot on school grounds or buildings. For others, their time in the institution will form an important chapter in their lives, one that many will look back on with fondness, but – nonetheless – they will move away from their lives in academia as they venture forth into new pursuits. For a few, the friendships and the relationships formed during their school years will survive into the future.

Living life entails the ending of some things, and the beginning of new things.

For example, we leave employment in one place, and pick up employment in another.

We meet and marry someone, leaving our former lives behind, to cite another example.

Holy Baptism is much like the examples we’ve cited above. When we enter the waters of baptism, we set aside our former lives, in order to pick up a new identity as God’s own child, one who enters into a deep, abiding and personal love relationship with the Lord.

The early Church marked this change in a dramatic way. (Some of the early Church’s practice survives in our liturgy today.)

Back in the early centuries of the Church’s existence, when people had come for baptism, they entered the waters of a pond, lake, river or creek. They faced west, and were asked questions of the sort of “Do you renounce Satan and all the powers of evil which seek to separate us from God?” The answer is given, “I renounce them”.

Then, after a series of similar questions, the person to be baptized turned around to face east (toward Jerusalem and the place where our Lord Jesus Christ died and rose again). Then, they were asked to affirm their faith in Christ.

Today, our baptismal liturgy involves three questions which renounce those things that form barriers between us and God. And then, there are three affirmations of our faith in the Lord and our determination to follow Him as Savior and Lord.

St. Peter, writing in his first letter, captures the meaning and the importance of baptism. He compares baptism to the passage of Noah, Noah’s wife, their three sons and their wives, eight persons in all, through the waters of the Great Flood. (The number of persons who were saved from the waters of the flood, eight in all, is important, for in Holy Scripture, the number eight often indicates a new beginning. Our baptismal font, for this same reason, has eight sides, to remind us of the new beginning that baptism represents.)

Water passages of the sort that Noah experienced drive home the dual meanings related to baptism, for water has the ability to kill. But water is also necessary for life to exist.

Baptism captures this double meaning: Passing through the waters means that, as we descend into the waters, we are placing our whole trust, our entire lives, in God’s hands, trusting that He will lift us up out of the waters, in order that we may continue in a new way, a new path, a new chapter in life, living out our part of the love relationship that baptism confirms.

From this day forward, those who are baptized, and especially those who are baptized as infants or very young children, will need guidance and reminders of the claim that baptism establishes on their lives, as they are affirmed as children of God, beloved persons of God’s deliberate creating.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN.