4 Pentecost, Year B

Job 38: 1 - 11; Psalm 107: 1 – 3, 23 - 32; II Corinthians 6: 1 - 13; Mark 4: 35 - 41

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois onSunday, June 24,2012.

“WHO THEN?.....GOD THEN!”

(Homily texts:  Job 38: 1 – 11 and Mark 4: 35 - 41) 

            “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?”  (Mark 4: 41)

            “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”  (Job 38: 1)

            Our Old Testament reading and our Gospel reading for this Sunday have to do with identity. 

            The disciples ask, “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?” as they witness the calming of the raging Sea of Galilee. 

            And in our reading from the Book of Job, God asks Job, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”

            Identity in these two readings has to do with creator and creation…with God and with humankind.

            Identity in these two readings has to do with the power of the creator over the creation….the creation being the world we live in and the people God has created.

            In order to tie these two passages together, we need to step back and take a look at the Book of Job.  I will admit to you that I don’t think we spend nearly enough time in this marvelous part of the Old Testament (today’s lectionary gives us a chance to fix that!).

            So, by way of reminder or introduction, let’s take a brief look at Job.

            Job is the central character in a struggle to live his life faithfully before God.  As we are introduced to Job, we see that he is a pious, faithful man.  But soon, calamity enters his life:  He breaks out with disease, he loses his family and all his possessions, his friends encourage him to denounce God because they think that God has abandoned him.  Job succumbs and lashes out at God.  But in the end, Job remains faithful to God, for God has personally revealed Himself to Job. That is enough for Job to remain faithful.

            As we pick up the scene before us this morning, we might paraphrase God’s comments to Job by saying, “Who are you?  Where were you when I created the world?”

            The implication is that Job is a human being, a created being, one who does not possess the power to create, nor the power to completely understand God’s creation.  The further implication is that God is in charge, Job is not.

            Turning now to our Gospel reading, we see that Jesus exercises power over the creation by stilling the wind and the waves.

            The meaning of this miracle goes far beyond the simple act of controlling the environment of the boat that Jesus and His disciples are riding in….This is a God moment! 

            In much the same way that God reveals Himself to Job, Jesus reveals himself to His disciples by showing them that God’s power is His power, the power to create order out of chaos, the power to control creation.

            A way of looking at the miraculous acts that Jesus does is to see that they all point beyond themselves to show us that God is present in the works that Jesus does.  God’s power is also Jesus’ power.  So the central meaning and the point that God wants us to grasp is that Jesus is fully possessed of the power of God.  Jesus is, therefore, “God with us,” or “Emmanuel”.

            The question naturally arises:  Where does God’s power over the creation show itself today?

            After all, when God is at work, there are unmistakable signs of His power….power over the created order, power over the creation.  We human beings are God’s creation, and it is within human beings’ lives that God is most at work….creating, renewing, bringing order out of chaos.

            Having enumerated these things, let’s look at some of the ways we might see God’s unique, unmistakable imprint in people’s lives:

·          The power to heal:  One way to look at disease and illness is that it brings chaos into the orderly functioning of the body.  By the laying on of hands and anointing with holy oil, healing – bringing order out of chaos – can be realized.  I have in mind as I say this two accounts within our own Diocese of individuals who have been healed by the laying on of hands, with prayer and with the anointing of oil.  The incidents that I have in mind are healings that go beyond what medical science alone is able to accomplish.  This creative, restorative power is a marker of God’s presence.

·         The power to recreate:  Ever known someone who has struggled with a destructive pattern of behavior, perhaps an addiction of some sort?  Looked at from a spiritual perspective, such an addiction or destructive pattern is chaotic, for the substance to which a person is addicted is essentially controlling the person’s life.  But God’s power can bring order out of this chaos.  An example of God’s power to redeem and restore order to a chaotic, addicted life can be found within my own immediate family:  Many of you will recall the story of my father’s delivery from addiction….In fact, God’s delivery was from not one, but two addictions.  All of us in my family know firsthand that God has the power to redeem chaotic situations and to create new and abundant life.
·         The power to recreate us into God’s image:  Each of us – if we are honest with ourselves and with God – struggle with one or more traits or tendencies which seek to alienate us from God.  Call them sinful tendencies, or perhaps imperfections in our inclinations and desires, by whatever name, these parts of our innermost being bring about a quiet, gradual chaos in our relationship with God.  These are not raging winds nor roaring waves.  No,  these quiet, unholy parts of our “default positions” nevertheless alienate us from God and make us think that we alone are in charge.  Here, we are back to Job’s condition before God as God asks (in essence), “Who are you?”
 
            Creator and creation, God and us.  At the root of it all lies this truth:  God is God, and we are not.  God is in control, we are not.

            Once we realize this important and basic truth, then God’s power to control the creation (including us) can take hold, recreating, reforming, and renewing the people of God’s own possession:  you and me.

            “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?”  Who, indeed, but God Himself, present in the power and the work of Jesus Christ.

            Thanks be to God!

AMEN.

3 Pentecost, Year B

Fr. Tucker did not preach a sermon on this day -- he was in Washington, DC for the ordination of Fr. David William Peters to the Sacred Order of Priests.  This service took place at Christ Church, Georgetown.

2 Pentecost, Year B

Genesis 3: 8 - 15; Psalm 130; II Corinthians 4: 13 – 5: 1; Mark 3: 20 - 35

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, June 10, 2012.

“GOOD AND EVIL:  PRIVATE CHOICES, PRIVATE RESULTS?”

(Homily text:     Genesis 3: 8 – 15)

Our two-and-a-half-year-old grandson gets a written report about his day at the preschool where he attends.  It says things about how and what he ate, his nap habits, and whether or not he got a “time out” during the day.

So, the other day, the report said that he’d had one “time out” during the day.  His dad asked him about that.  Here was Jesse Morgan Frazier’s matter-of-fact, straightforward report….He said that “Another kid (whom he named) was riding a toy that I wanted, so I went over and knocked him off the toy and took it and rode it.  The teacher saw me and gave me a two minute ‘time out’ in the chair in the corner.”

No remorse, no indication that he had to apologize to the other kid, nothing of that sort was offered at all….it was a straightforward, plainly stated report.  It was as if to say, “Well, dad, there it is, that’s what I did and what happened afterward.”

Now if Jesse behaved like Adam did when God asked him about his transgression in eating from the forbidden tree, Jesse might have said something like this:  “Well, dad, you know that you put me in this preschool with this other kid.  This other kid was riding a toy that I wanted, and I didn’t like that, so I went over and knocked him off the toy he was riding…it was all his fault.”

If Jesse had responded that way, we might say that he was trying to “pass the buck”.

That’s what Adam did, he “passed the buck” to Eve, who, in turn, passed it to the serpent.

As we turn to the passage before us this morning, we would do well to remember that the Bible’s main purpose is to educate us about God and about God’s interactions with human beings.  Put another way, the Bible’s purposes are essentially theological ones.  The theological truths about God and about the human condition are of prime concern here.           

Before we reflect on the meaning of the actions which took place that day in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve had eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we ought to remind ourselves of the circumstances which had taken place just prior to God’s coming to them in the Garden, asking, “Where are you?”

As we turn to the Genesis account before us today, we notice, of course, our reading picks up the events at midstream….Previously, Adam and Eve had been told what they may – and may not – do in the Garden.  They are placed there, after all, to tend the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 2: 15).  They may eat, they were told, of any tree in the Garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

But through the tempting of the serpent, Eve succumbed to the fruit’s appeal to the eyes and to its value as food.  Eve takes the fruit, eats of it, and offers it to Adam, who has been standing there right beside her throughout the temptation and the partaking of the fruit.

Now, what are the theological truths that the Bible is conveying to us as it relates this incident to us?  As we said a moment ago, the theological truths are paramount to the Bible’s purposes.

Here are some suggestions:

·        Casting the causes of our own actions onto God cannot relieve us of the responsibility for those actions:  Notice that Adam, in responding to God, says, “The woman whom you gave to me….”  One has to wonder:  Is Adam suggesting that by giving Eve to him, that God is somehow responsible for the disobedience that took place?  Is he suggesting that, if Eve hadn’t come along, there would have been no temptation and no transgression?  Perhaps so.  It’s noteworthy that Adam begins his response by pointing out God’s actions in providing Eve for him…it’s the first thing that Adam says.  Perhaps that’s the intent of Adam’s answer:  Blame God for the situation that’s come about.

·        Casting our attention onto the misdeeds of others cannot relieve us of the responsibility for our own actions:  Notice that Adam is standing right beside Eve as she is tempted by the serpent.  (At least that’s what the text implies.)  When God asks Adam if he had eaten of the forbidden tree, Adam replies that “The woman you gave to me, she gave me of the fruit, and I ate.”  Adam tries to avert God’s glance and to redirect it to Eve.  But notice that God then queries Eve, who, in turn, attempts to further redirect God’s attention onto the serpent.  The theological truth here is that each one of is responsible for our own behavior, and for the consequences of that behavior.  Another truth to be gleaned from the text is the reality that God’s gaze will fix itself on each and every party who has a part in disobedient acts.  Each one will be examined.  No wonder that the Bible says that we should be sure that “our sin will find us out.” (Numbers 32: 23b)

·        There is no private sin:  One of the most important lessons for us to absorb, given the nature of the times we live in, is this one:  Whatever misdeeds we commit, they are not private and solitary matters.  There are consequences to our acts which go beyond ourselves, and which we cannot control.  Look again at the Genesis account….The fallout from Adam and Eve’s disobedience went far beyond themselves, onto their children (and to us), and into the very created order within the entire world.  Everything changed as a result of the misdeeds that took place.  This is a central lesson that Genesis conveys to us:  What is done in private has widespread and often public effect.

·        We live with choices:  Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden, in part, to have an intimate and close relationship with God….after all, Genesis tells us that they walked with God in the Garden.  We tend to think of the Garden of Eden as a perfect place, and in many respects, it was.  But evil also had access to the Garden, and to Adam and Eve.  So the theological truth of Scripture in this regard might be to remind us that, no matter how close our relationship is with God, evil is also lurking, seeking a way to offer a temptation to us which would separate us from that intimate and loving relationship with God.  We often forget that the Garden was a place where God and evil both were present.  Surely, that reality is a mystery which will have to await our appearing before God face-to-face someday to be fully explained to us.

God, the giver of all good things, also gives us the indwelling presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, to perfect our walk with God, and to resist the power of evil, which is ever present throughout all our earthly life.

All that we have said here might be summed up in the wonderful Collect this Sunday, which says:

O God, from whom all good proceeds:  Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them;  through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.