Pentecost 3, Year A

Proper 8: Jeremiah 28: 5-9; Psalm 13; Romans 6: 12-23; Matthew 10: 40-42

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, in Springfield, Illinois on Sunday, June 29, 2014.

“SLAVERY, FREEDOM, LICENSE”

(Homily text:  Romans 6: 12-23)

We continue reading from St. Paul’s wonderful letter to the early churches that were in Rome this morning.

Last week, we heard Paul’s wonderful explanation of the meaning of baptism, as he says that, in the waters of baptism, we are “buried with Christ in a death like his.”  Paul adds that, if we have been buried in this way, then we shall also be raised to a new life in a resurrection like his.

We noted last week that Paul’s illustration about the meaning of passing through the waters is essentially a geographic one:  Paul is saying that the water of baptism forms a boundary which separates our old life of sin from our new life in Christ.  We reminded ourselves, last Sunday, of the way in which the early Church conducted the rite of baptism, so that the person being baptized entered the water from one direction, and then left the water in another direction.  We also noted the ways in which the early Church’s practice is reflected in the rite of baptism as it is found in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

In this morning’s reading, which continues immediately from the first part of chapter six, heard last week, Paul continues his argument.  So let’s consider our reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans that is before us this morning from the perspective of:  Slavery, freedom and license.

As we think about these three words, questions arise.

Questions such as:

1.  Slavery:  In what sort of slavery were the people who lived in the Greco-Roman world of the first century?

2.  Freedom:  What sort of liberation took place that resulted in these people’s freedom?

3.  License:[1]  What sort of freedom marked these people’s lives before they came to Christ and became members of the Church, and what sort of freedom marked their lives afterward?

Since Paul mentions the word “slaves” so often in this part of the chapter six, let’s begin with a consideration of this aspect of the members of the churches in Rome’s lives.

The first thing we might mention is that, most likely, many members of those early churches were actual slaves.  Slavery, in the ancient world, was a commonplace reality.  Many people were enslaved, and they became slaves in many ways:  Being captured as a result of war, being sold into slavery (often to pay debts), or being captured by slave traders.  Those were just some of the ways that people lost their freedom and were enslaved.

But other forms of slavery also existed.  Many people were slaves to their passions.  Today, we would call these sorts of slavery “addictions”.  We must remember that life in the Roman Empire was, for the vast majority of persons, filled with hardships, challenges, and uncertainties.  Large numbers of people had been uprooted from the places where they had been born and were crammed into crowded, dirty, dangerous cities.  Life seemed to have little purpose, and hope for the future was a scarce commodity.  For many, there seemed to be no one who cared about them, and no one to care about what tomorrow would bring. So people turned to various diversions in order to cope with the harsh reality of daily living:  drunkenness, carousing, debauchery, and so forth, were common place.  We might summarize the attitude of many in those ancient times by saying that they lived by the motto “Eat, drink and be merry, for we have no idea what tomorrow will bring.”

But St. Paul says that we have been set “free from sin” in order to become “slaves of God”.

Freedom!

Paul says that God has freed us from our former life.  But then he turns the terms back on themselves, saying that we are now “slaves of God”.

From what were those early Christian believers freed?

First of all, when people became Christians and became part of the Church, the body of Christ, they were no longer regarded from the world’s point-of-view.  When the Church met for worship to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist, persons of noble birth sat next to slaves, and each one called the other “sister” and “brother”.  To the stratified Roman world of the first century, this was a scandal, and - in time  - would represent a serious challenge to the established social order.

So, perhaps for the first time, a slave was in a place and was among people who regarded him or her as an important, valuable person.  The distinctions of class simply evaporated as the Church came together.

However, a second sort of freedom also emerged as people came to faith in Christ:  They were called to live a new life (remember that business about the rite of baptism’s graphic portrayal of the boundary between the old life of sin and the new life of faith in Christ) which freed them from their former behaviors and addictions.  In Christ, Paul says, we are called to be free in Christ, free from our old ways of behaving, and we have become slaves to God.  Put another way, Paul tells us that our allegiance to God will eclipse all other claims on our wants and desires.  God will become the new, governing reality.

Our discussion now brings us to the matter of “license”.

Paul’s description of our former life, which was governed by our addiction to sin, is masterful.  Essentially, he says that what we were doing couldn’t be called “freedom” at all.  Back then, in our former lives, when we thought we were free to do anything and everything our desires and passions dictated, we were engaging in excessive and undue freedom:  Licentiousness, in other words.  He says that, by doing those things, we were slaves.  We were in bondage to those desires and those things.

But now, in Christ, we have been freed from those old ways of being and those old ways of behaving.

Now, in Christ, we are free, completely and totally free.

But, Paul adds, we are not free to engage in undue or excessive freedom. Nor are we free to engage in licentiousness.  God has called us, though the waters of baptism, into a new way of living and into a new relationship with God.

“Can we do anything and everything that comes to mind?” the question arises.  Paul’s answer is “No”.

Now, let’s apply what we’ve considered from Paul’s writing to our own situation today.  Whenever we read and study Holy Scripture, that’s an important part of our quest to understand God more fully, and to ascertain what it is that God wants us to do as we live the Christian life in our own day, time and situation.

We would be wise, it seems to me, to apply what we’ve discussed thus far in the three categories we’ve used:  Slavery, freedom and license.

As we did earlier, we will begin with slavery.

Blessedly fewer people in the world today are slaves in the formal sense of the word.

But many people continue to be slaves because of economic realities, or because some form of behavior (addictions, e.g.)  has taken control of their lives.

Given those realities, the Church’s message is two fold:  1.  God loves you, your life is important to God, and to those of us who have already been called into a relationship with God through Christ; and 2. God offers each one of us a new way to live, a way that frees us from whatever might control us and might throw us into some sort of slavery.

So, the Church is called to offer a radical welcome to any and all persons, as we seek to love God and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Distinctions that might be important from a human point-of-view disappear, just as they did in the early Church.  All are called by God to enter the waters of baptism, and those who make that journey emerge with a new, governing reality:  Each one has become a child of God, equal in God’s sight.

God’s call is a call to freedom.

God calls us to live a life of true freedom, as we shed anything and everything that might try to exert control over our first allegiance, which is our allegiance to God.

Here, Paul’s words are particularly important. He asks, “Are we to sin, because we are not under law but under grace?”

Put another way, Paul is asking if we can do anything and everything we want.  What he seems to be describing could be called “license”.

“No”, the answer seems clear.  No, we can’t engage in any and every sort of behavior that we might imagine.  For we have been called into a new reality, a new way of being.  Things have changed for us, for we have entered the waters of baptism and have put aside our old life and our old ways of behaving.

This last point is important, for some in the Church today seem to claim that we don’t need to shed our old ways of living when we come to Christ.  To adopt that point of view guts the Good News of its power.  For if no amendment of life is expected, then there’s no need or reason to enter the waters of baptism.  Our new relationship with God through Christ is expected to result in changes of thinking and changes in behavior that show that we are truly free in Christ.  We have found our true-est and fullest selves, as we said in last week’s homily, for we have come to a new place, the far side of the waters of baptism, out of slavery into freedom, a freedom which makes us truly free.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN.

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[1]   This word is used in this homily in the sense of:  1. Excessive or undue freedom and liberty, or 2.  Licentiousness.

Pentecost 2, Year A

Proper 7:  Jeremiah 20: 7–13; Psalm 69: 8–20; Romans 6: 1–11; Matthew 10: 24–39

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. Paul’s Cathedral Church, Springfield, Illinois on Sunday, June 22, 2014.

“GOD’S CALL:  A NEW BEGINNING”

(Homily texts:  Jeremiah 20: 7–13; Romans 6: 1–11 & Matthew 10: 24–39)

Sometimes, I hear people make the comment, “Father, I don’t know why ritual is so important.”  Often, when I hear this comment, I respond by saying that the ritual we use during worship is important because many of the actions we observe as the liturgy is conducted have a meaning.

This morning, since we have before us St. Paul’s wonderful explanation of the meaning  of baptism in Romans chapter six, we have the opportunity to unpack a bit of the meaning of the baptismal ritual that brings a person into a new relationship with God, as God’s child. 

As we do so, let’s look at baptism from three specific perspectives:  1.  God’s call to us;  2.  Old and new; and 3.  Finding our true-est selves.  

 We begin with God’s call to us.

It’s easy to forget that God is not only the designer of the sacrament of baptism, but He is also the one who calls us to enter the waters of baptism.

We affirm this reality in our liturgy, in the opening sentences (found on page 299 of the Book of Common Prayer), as we say:  “There is one Body and one Spirit; there is one hope in God’s call to us.”

God’s call has a technical name:  Vocation (coming from the Latin verb which means “to call”).

When we think about a person’s call, a person’s vocation, we often apply that term only to persons who are seeking to be ordained.  After all, knowing that a person’s articulation of a desire to be ordained is coming in response to God’s call, and not from a sense of selfish, personal motives, is extremely important.

But we would miss an important reality of our walk with the Lord if we didn’t remember that God issues a call to everyone, and especially to those who respond to that call by being baptized.

It’s been said that baptism is the “ordination of the laity”.  There’s a lot of truth in that statement.  For in baptism, God is calling us into a relationship with Him,  God is calling us to set aside our old ways of thinking and our old ways of behaving, in order to find our true-est selves.  (But I am getting ahead of myself here.)

So, to summarize what we’ve said so far, we should remember that God is the prime mover, God is the one who issues a call to us, and our role is to respond to that call. 

One final comment is in order before we move to the next topic:  Aside from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we cannot properly respond to God’s call at all. The reason is that our ability to think and to understand what is right is tainted by the stain of having been born with a sinful nature that is corrupted.  In baptism, the Holy Spirit is given to the baptized one in order to allow that old nature to be replaced by God’s new nature.

Which brings us to the next aspect of our consideration of baptism:  Setting aside the old, in order to take up the new.

St. Paul’s explanation of the meaning of baptism is essential a geographical one.  By that, I mean that Paul says that we die to something, and are raised to something new.  Baptism, like death, creates a boundary or a barrier between the old and the new.

The early Church took the meaning of baptism in this sense very seriously.  Aspects of the practices of those early days survive in our baptismal liturgy today.

In the early centuries, persons who were coming for baptism were baptized by full immersion into the waters of a river, a stream, or some other body of water.  (It’s interesting to note that full immersion is, once again, becoming more common in churches that maintain a liturgical style of worship.)

The person being baptized entered the water, faced to the west, and renounced Satan and all his works. Then, the person turned to the east, accepted Christ as Savior, and was then baptized.  As the individual came up out of the water, they were clothed in a white robe, signifying purity, and they left the water by another way from the way they entered.

Thus, the reality of renouncing the old ways of living and being were dramatically acted out in the ritual of baptism. 

Now, let’s look at the ways in which these practices survive in our liturgy today.

We should begin by reminding ourselves that the floor-length robe called the alb that is worn during our liturgy is a survivor of those early Church robes which were used in baptism.

But a renunciation of Satan and all his evil ways, also survives in our liturgy.

Glance at page 302 of the Prayer Book, and the following questions are asked of those being baptized (or of their parents and Godparents):

• “Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?”  
• “Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?”
• “Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you from the love of God?”
• “Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior?”
• “Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love?”
• “Do you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord?”

Paul uses the language of crucifixion and resurrection to portray the meaning of baptism.  It’s possible that he was drawing on the Lord’s description of the reality of following God, as we hear in our gospel reading for this morning, when He says, “… he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”

Since we’ve included Jesus’ quote about taking up one’s cross, it’s worthy to note that He also describes in stark terms the need to renounce the previous relationships and ties that defined a person’s life and place in the world.  No doubt, the Lord is speaking in hyberbole to make a point in an attempt to shock His listeners into considering the import of what He had said.  But the reality remains that, when we come into a relationship with God through the waters of baptism, our new relationship with God will supersede all the realities that preceded it.  By becoming the central, defining reality in our lives, every relationship, everything we do will be influenced by our new identity in God.

If we accept this new relationship with God, which has come about by God’s call, God’s initiative, and which has come about as we respond to God’s call and God’s initiative, then we are bound to find our true-est selves. 

That’s the meaning, quite likely, of Jesus’ comment that we hear this morning:  “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.”

As we move away from the baptismal font to live our lives, day in and day out, we are called to recognize that God will call us to do things, over and over again.  There is no retirement from serving the Lord.

We are called to renounce the ways of the world, the ways of evil which seek to destroy God’s creatures.

We are called to behave like Christ, loving God, loving others, and loving ourselves.

We are called to respond to God’s initiative of love by giving back a portion of what was already His to begin with, but which He has entrusted to us, gift of our time, our talents, and our treasure.

As we look ahead here at St. Paul’s Cathedral Church, we are seeking to take up a New Beginning.  We are seeking to live out God’s imperative to love, to work, to serve, and to give.  By so doing, we are simply responding in love to God’s love, made known to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

May the Holy Spirit enable us to see a new vision for this Cathedral Church.  May we, by the inspiration of that same Spirit, respond to God’s overture of love by what we say, what we do, and how we love God and others.

AMEN.

           

Trinity Sunday, Year A

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

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois on Sunday, June 15, 2014.

“GRASPING THE MYSTERY OF THE TRINITY”

(Homily text:  Matthew 28: 16–20)

As human beings go about their various interests and occupations, very often a phrase or statement will arise which captures a basic truth about the subject at hand.

For example, during the period of my life that I was a professional singer, I taught voice at a private school, and at the college level.  A statement that I used with my students to try to show them that the process of singing was a complex undertaking was this statement:

“Trying to learn to sing is a little bit like trying to grab onto a cloud….by the time you think you’ve gotten hold of it, you realize there’s a lot you haven’t yet grasped.”

We could easily adapt this saying to the matter of trying to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

Perhaps we could adapt it by saying:  “Trying to understand the mystery of God as the God who is three in one is a little bit like trying to grab onto a cloud.  Just about the time we think we’ve gotten a grasp on this mystery, we realize there’s a lot we still don’t understand.”

Welcome to the difficult task of trying to wrap our finite, human minds around the awesomeness of God!  This task is one that we can make an attempt at, one that we can get ourselves around (at least a little), and one that we will have to be content to say that there’s going to be a whole lot about understanding God that will have to wait until we see Him face-to-face someday.

Undertaking the task of trying to explain the mystery of the Holy Trinity is risky business.  But – those risks aside – we need to at least make an attempt at understanding God, the God whom we worship as three persons in one substance.

Let’s begin with the very word “Trinity”.  If we look at a concordance of the Bible, we quickly find that the word “Trinity” doesn’t appear at all in the biblical text. In fact, the word itself was apparently coined by Theophilus of Antioch at about the year 180 AD.  The word’s origins are easy to see:  “Tri” = three, and “unity” = one.

But this fact isn’t to say that Trinitarian language doesn’t appear in the Bible.  In fact, it does.  For example, consider our gospel reading for today, from Matthew 28.  I will quote only verses 19 and 20, which read:    “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Similarly, St. Paul closes his second letter to the Corinthians by saying this:  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.”[1]

The next concern that arises is the mystery of how God could be Three Persons, but with One Substance.

Christianity stands on the foundation of the revelation of God as the one, true and only God, as God revealed Himself to the Israelites in ancient times.  Indeed, even today in Jewish synagogues around the world, the “Sh’ma” is recited, which says “Sh’ma Yisrael, Adonai eloheynu, Adonai echod.”  Translated, this means:  “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”[2]

But when Jesus Christ came, He called God His Father, and said that “He and the Father are one.”[3]

Reflecting on this and other statements that the Lord made, the Church began to understand that the Son was of the “same substance” with the Father.

At this point, one of the early Church Fathers, Tertullian (c. 150 – c. 225 AD) helped the process of understanding along by describing the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as being “God, who has one being, in three persons”.

So it was God’s revelation of Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, that was the entryway into understanding more of the relationship of the Father and the Son.  In time, the Church would come to understand that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are united, being of one substance, and manifested in three persons.

Eventually, the understanding of the reality of the one God, made known in three persons, was incorporated into the words of the Nicene Creed,[4] which we will say together in a moment.

Wow!  Trying to understand this mystery might make our heads spin just a little.

As much as we may wish we could understand all of this mystery, we will have to be content, as we said a moment ago, with understanding only some of it.  Indeed, this process is a little bit like trying to grab onto a cloud.

Nevertheless, we can apply some important meanings to our Christian lives.

Let’s mention only two possibilities:

1. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are bound together by ties of love, theologians tell us.  We are caught up in this wonderful relationship of love by the fact that the Father sent the Son to take on our humanity.  We are, therefore, drawn into the very inner life of God as we see that life reflected in Jesus Christ.  For it is Jesus Christ who has revealed the inner workings of God to us, and it is Jesus Christ who draws us into this wonderful life of God.
2. We encounter all three persons of the Holy Trinity whenever we encounter just one.  For example, we ask God the Father through God the Son to receive our prayers, as Scripture tells us we are to do.  But we would do well to remember that the Holy Spirit is also present as we present our prayers, assisting us to pray with right intention.  In a similar fashion, we might remind ourselves that when the Holy Spirit descends upon us to enlighten us, or to convict us of sin, God the Father and God the Son are also present in this action.  Because of our finite, human minds, it is sometimes difficult to remember that we never encounter only one person of the Trinity.  We always encounter all three.  Theologians call the tendency to think of God in only one person at a time modalism, meaning that we are thinking that we are experiencing God in only one “mode” at a time.

Perhaps what we’ve said here is enough to say at the moment about the mystery of God as we know Him in the reality of the one God who is made known in three persons.  After all, many seminary professors warn their would-be preachers that this subject can easily lead a person off into heresy.  So a word of caution is in order for anyone who would meditate on this subject, or who would venture to preach about it.

These words and reflections are offered in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  May they find favor in the sight of the one God who is three persons.

AMEN.

            

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[1]    II Corinthians 13: 14.  You may recognize this verse as the closing for the Daily Offices, Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, where it is known as The Grace.

[2]   Deuteronomy 6: 4

[3]   John 10: 30

[4]   The Nicene Creed was formulated at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.  The version we say today stems from revisions to the original creed which were made at the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD.