Pentecost Sunday, Year A (2020)

Psalm 104: 25–35, 37 / Acts 2: 1–21 / John 20: 19–23

This is the homily provided for the people of St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker, for Sunday May 31, 2020.

“VISION, WILL AND WORK”

(Homily text: Acts 2: 1-21)

Many, if not most, of the projects that people consider doing often follow a pattern which flows from conception to accomplishment: 1. A vision for what could be done; 2. Establishing the will to do it, and 3. Setting about actually doing the things that are needed to bring the idea to reality.

Put another way, we could summarize the process by using three words:  Vision, will and work.

In our own locality, just such a project is now underway. It has to do with the East Broad Top Railroad (EBT), located in Orbisonia, about twenty-five miles southeast of Huntingdon. The EBT is a gem among the historic railroads of the US, for it is the last surviving narrow gauge railroad which is still located in its original setting in the eastern part of the country. The EBT’s shops are a time capsule of machinery, complete and intact, from over a century ago. So also are the six steam locomotives, which were built from 1911 – 1920.

The historic significance of the EBT is unique, and makes it, therefore, well worth saving.

That significance brought about a vision to restore the railroad and to return it to active status. (The EBT last ran as a tourist railroad in 2011, and has been dormant since then.) Following the vision to restore it, the will to do so was established when a new entity was formed which bought the railroad about three months ago. Since the inception of this new ownership, the work has now begun to do the things to bring about its new life. Hopefully, by this time next year, the EBT will be running again.

The description just offered has to do with vision, will and work.

The process we see in today’s first reading, the account of the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, tells us a lot about the process of vision, will and work, as the Spirit comes, lighting upon those gathered that day, empowering them to tell of the great and good things that God had done in the sending of Jesus Christ to proclaim the Good News (Gospel) of the new covenant, and setting before them the work to do the telling of the Good News to the whole world..

The Pentecost event fulfills Jesus’ charge to his followers, which we read in Acts 1:8. He said, “…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Now, as faithful Jews had come from various parts of the known world (many of those places are named in Acts 2:9–11) to celebrate Pentecost,[1] the Holy Spirit comes in power, enabling those followers of Jesus to speak in languages that each one who looked on could understand. The beginning of the work of spreading the Good News to the far corners of the world had begun, through the power of the Spirit.

Just what role does the Spirit play in providing us with the tools to do the work, our part, of spreading the Good News to those who are near to us, and to those who are far off?

The Spirit enlightens us to see what needs to be done, oftentimes. Our spiritual and physical eyes are opened to see the tasks at hand.

Then, the Spirit provides the willpower to set about doing that work. In so doing, sometimes the Spirit has to overcome our reticence to get up and do the things that are set before us. At other times, the Spirit must bolster our own weakness of spirit.

Then, the Spirit joins in, working within our hearts and minds, to make it possible for us to actually do the work required.

Absent the Spirit’s various roles, we might be tempted to be content to think about the work we are called to do, but to do nothing more than to think or contemplate. Contemplation and thinking are invaluable, but the actual, hands-on doing, is also going to be required. The actual, hands-on doing completes the process, and it is in the observable acts, physical acts, that we do in the Lord’s name that demonstrate our faith, and give witness to the power of the Holy Spirit to do marvelous things.

A saying which is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi summarizes this truth quite well. He said, “Always preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words.”

AMEN.

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[1] Pentecost falls fifty days after Passover, and was one of three major feasts which was celebrated during the year. It was, therefore, a pilgrimage feast, which accounts for the large number of visitors who were in Jerusalem at the time of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Hebrew name for Pentecost is Shavuot, and it celebrates the giving of the Law to Moses.

Easter 7, Year A (2020)

The Seventh Sunday of Easter (The Sunday after the Ascension)

Psalm 68: 1–10, 33–36 / Acts 1: 6–14 / John 17: 1–11

This is the homily that was provided for the people of St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker for May 24, 2020. This homily was not delivered as part of a Sunday morning worship service, because St. John’s is currently closed due to the COVID-19 viral outbreak. Instead, it was provided via electronic means, and in hard copy to those without email.

“UNITED IN COMMON WITNESS”

(Homily text: John 17: 1-11)

Our Gospel text, appointed for this morning, places before us what has become known as the Lord’s “High Priestly Prayer”. Chapter seventeen of John’s Gospel account concludes his record of the events that took place during the Last Supper.

In this prayer, our Lord looks back on His earthly ministry, but He also looks forward to the time when He will no longer be with His disciples in the way that He has been until now. As part of His commendation to His followers, He says, “I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” (John 17: 11)

“That they may be one, even as we are one.” Apparently, that is one of our Lord’s fondest wishes for those who would claim the name of Christ.

Given the history of the followers of Jesus, that is, the Church, what does it mean to “be one”? And, even as we ask that question, we might also ask, “Was there ever a time when the Church was completely, truly one?” And, if the answer to that question is “Yes”, then we might also ask in what ways was the Church “one”?

We might begin our quest by taking a closer look at the “raw material” of the Church, which is people.

The people that the Lord gathered around Himself were a disparate lot. Take, for example, the differences that must have existed between Matthew, the tax collector for the Romans, and Simon the Zealot. It’d be easy to imagine that these two would have had little in common with each other before the Lord called them into His service. Matthew would have been regarded – most likely - by the Zealot Simon as a traitor to the Jewish people, for Matthew was working to support the brutal Roman occupation by collecting taxes that went into Roman coffers. (The Zealots advocated the violent overthrow of the Roman occupation.)

But the Lord’s call tends to push the differences that exist between people of differing backgrounds and perspectives into the background. Even major differences such as the sort that may have existed between Matthew and Simon get pushed into the background.

The Lord’s call to discipleship tends to unite, not to divide.

As the original band of twelve disciples (minus Judas Iscariot, plus Matthias who replaced him, and then plus Paul) went out into the world, their message went first to Jewish ears, minds and hearts. But in time, that same message went out into the Gentile world, where non-Jews responded to the Good News of God in Christ.

The early followers of Jesus worshiped in the Temple in Jerusalem, and faithfully observed the requirements of the Law of Moses (Torah). But Gentile believers didn’t observe those same things. Their culture and background were different. (The account of the proceedings of the Council of Jerusalem, which hammered out the ways in which Gentile believers would be incorporated into the Church, is well worth reading…..see Acts, chapter fifteen.)

In the New Testament period, the picture we get of the organization and nature of the early Church was that it was made up of independent congregations, which differed from one another in some significant ways, like the nature of their leadership and their theological tendencies. The late New Testament scholar (and Roman Catholic priest) Raymond Brown wrote a book entitled, “The Churches the Apostles Left Behind”, which looked into this question. (It was one of the most valuable books I read when I was in seminary.) In his work, Brown concludes that there were no less than seven different types of churches in the New Testament period. They differed in some significant ways.

But they interacted with one another (recall that Paul went from church to church, collecting money for the Christians in the Holy Land), and they shared a common witness to the risen Lord.

With respect to their common witness to Jesus, these early Christians emulated the behavior of the original disciples who had become Apostles.

In the years that have come and gone since that the New Testament period, much has happened to the body of Christ, that is, the Church. In the wake of the Reformation in the sixteenth century, there are now estimated to be about 34,000 different Christian bodies. That’s a bewildering number to contemplate.

As we seek to faithfully respond to the Lord’s call that His followers would be “one”, how should we proceed to promote our one-ness? Is organic unity desirable (that is to say, the idea that there should be one, unified church or denomination), or should that even be a goal?

And if the idea of having one, unified church isn’t a desirable or achievable goal (and I don’t think it’s a practical reality, nor is a totally desirable goal to pursue), then are there alternatives to such a goal?

The witness of the early Church informs us that there is an alternative: The most important aspect of the one-ness of Jesus’ followers is their common witness to the Lord. That’s what unites us, even as we differ from one another in the methods of our organization, leadership, and theological tendencies. In those things, Brown would tell us that we are imitating the practice and the reality of the early Church in the New Testament period.

One final comment is in order, I think, and it stems from our unique position as Episcopalians, who are inheritors of the Anglican way of being a Christian. Because we Anglicans are known as the “Bridge Church” between Roman Catholics and Protestants (but incorporating elements of both of these traditions), we can survey the landscape of Christian belief and practice from our unique perspective, and we are uniquely posed, I think, to appreciate and value the contributions of various part of the Christian family.

In that sense, our legacy offers us rich gifts.

AMEN.

Easter 6, Year A (2020)

Psalm 66: 7–18 / Acts 17: 22–31 / John 14: 15–21

This is the homily provided for the people of St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker for Sunday, May 17, 2020. This homily was not delivered as part of our Sunday morning worship, because St. John’s is currently closed due to the COVID – 19 viral outbreak. Instead, it was provided via electronic means and in hard copy to those without email.)

“WELCOMED INTO THE INNER LIFE OF GOD”

(Homily text: John 14: 15-21)

In our appointed Gospel text for this morning, we hear the Lord’s statement, “I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (John 14:20b)

Perhaps, in your childhood, you had an experience that was much like mine: When a group of us would get together and decide to play a game where two teams were involved, we’d choose two captains, one for each team, and then those two captains would choose the members of their teams. I am reluctant to admit it, but I was almost always the last one, or the next-to-the-last one, chosen. I think that’s because the captains knew about my athletic abilities, or – more correctly – my lack of athletic abilities. In reality, I wasn’t one of the inner circle of more talented players.  (Never fear, I’ve gotten over this.)

Transfer that scenario into today’s Gospel text.

Jesus is speaking to His disciples as the Last Supper unfolds. (Recall that John devotes all of chapters thirteen through seventeen to a narration of Jesus’ interchanges with the disciples.) He speaks from the context of the commonly-held beliefs of His day, beliefs that had shaped and molded that original group of followers as devout Jews.

But in the course of His conversation with them, He must remold and remake their expectations, those expectations they had grown up with.

We would do well to take a brief look at the commonly-held ideas that were commonplace among God’s people in that day, time and place.

We might begin by remembering that God’s people believed that God was remote and removed from everyday life. To be sure, they all believed that God had spoken and had acted powerfully in times past. God’s people possessed the written record of God’s mighty, saving acts in those “good, old days”, but God didn’t act that same way in their own time, and He hadn’t acted that way in quite awhile.

Those disciples believed that God’s connection to people was mediated through the covenant God had made with their ancestors many hundreds of years before. We know this covenant by the name the Torah. The Torah came between God and His people, and scrupulous adherence to its requirements – even down to the smallest detail (many of those details were additions and accretions to the law itself) - was the way one demonstrated that they were blood descendants of Abraham.

The cumulative effect of this conception of the relationship between God and people was that the life of God was closed off to humankind. God, it was believed, tolerated His people, but – unlike the days of old when God deliberately chose to relate to His people – in the time of our Lord’s earthly ministry, God didn’t really interact with people directly. God was “out there” somewhere, but wasn’t present, not really.

Into this situation, Jesus comes, and announces that God is acting powerfully right in front of the eyes of those original disciples, and that there is an ongoing, willing relationship between God and people. He, Himself, is the one who has opened the eyes of those who would come to faith to see that God and His Son, Jesus the Christ, are in one another. (Allow me to remark, at this point, that the understanding of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son is such that they are so perfectly joined, connected, to one another that it is impossible to tell, exactly, where their distinctions end and their commonality begins. There’s a technical term that theologians use for this, coming to us from the Greek. It is: Perichoresis.)

How wonderful it is to know that the Father and the Son are one (see John 10:30). How much more wonderful to know that the Son has not only opened to way to the Father for all those who come to believe (see last week’s Gospel reading, John 14:1 – 14), but that we’ve been invited onto the team, chosen as the first choice, chosen to be in God’s inner circule, chosen willingly. We’ve been invited, by virtue of the Son’s having chosen us, to enter into the inner life of God.

Guess that truth means that you and I are pretty important in the sight of God, huh?

Amazing stuff, this.

AMEN.

       

Easter 5, Year A (2020)

Psalm 31: 1–5, 15–16 / Acts 7: 55–60 / John 14: 1–14  

This is a homily provided for the people of St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, May 10, 2020.  This homily was not delivered as part of our Sunday morning worship, because St. John’s is currently closed to the COVID-19 viral outbreak.  Instead, it was provided via electronic means, and in hard copy to those without email.

 “THE WAY: THE TRIP AND THE DESTINATION”

(Homily text: John 14: 1-14)

Not too long ago, I was riding my bicycle on the Lower Trail southwest of town, when the person I was riding with suddenly (and quietly) said, “Stop. Look over there.” We both stopped, and there – not one hundred feet away from us – was a bald eagle, who was perched on a branch overlooking the river. We both stopped and watched for quite awhile while that beautiful bird sat on that branch.

If my riding companion hadn’t been looking around, and hadn’t notice this magnificent sight, I would have missed it completely. For the truth is, when I ride my bicycle by myself (and even when I ride with others), I am usually interested in completing the ride, and in reaching my destination. Along the way, I watch the odometer to see how many miles I’ve ridden, and how many it will be until I’ve reached my goal for the day. I watch the path closely (especially in the warmer weather when there are likely to be snakes out on the trail sunning themselves), but I don’t notice much else beyond my focus on the path and my progress in finishing the ride.

I am making my way toward the goal, toward getting the miles in for the day, the goal I’ve set for myself for that day. But reaching the goal, continuing the journey as I pedal along the path toward the end of the ride, is also important, I think, and it’s an aspect of my approach to riding that I need to work on. Put another way, what I might concentrate on a bit more is the art of enjoying and appreciating the journey.

In today’s Gospel text, Jesus tells His disciples that He is “the way, the truth and the life”. His comments form part of what the writer of the Fourth Gospel (John) imparts to us as part of the Lord’s teaching, given during the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday. In a very real sense, these chapters, thirteen through seventeen, of John’s account form what we might call Jesus’ “Last Will and Testament”, or perhaps, His final comments before His suffering, death, resurrection and ascension.  (John has given us a wonderful gift in recording this significant block of teaching.)

It seems that Jesus’ instructions to His disciples, which we hear and consider this day, who were gathered at that Last Supper, focus not only on the final destination for all who walk the walk of faith:  Eternal life with the Lord and with the Father once this life is over. But the focus is also on the journey of life, the walk of faith, that takes us through this life and into the next.

We would do well to look at both reference points.

To begin with, Jesus tells His disciples that He is going away, but that He will come again, so that they may be where He is. (Notice the use of the present tense in the verb, “is”. In John’s Gospel account, chronological time often tends to disappear.) The Lord is speaking of His immanent departure, His going to the Father, His going in order to prepare a place for all those who walk the walk of faith. Jesus is, therefore, talking about a destination, eternal life.

The other focus, on the journey of life, the walk of faith, can be seen in Jesus’ comments about the disciples’ work, which will be the same sorts of things that He had been doing during His earthly ministry, but which will be “greater things than these”. That reference can refer to the spread of the Good News, the Gospel, of what God had done in the sending of His Son, Jesus, to show us the way to the Father. Those disciples, who would soon become Apostles, would go out into the world, carrying this great, good news to the farthest reaches of the world. In the process, human lives would be changed, whole societies would change.

The work these disciples-become-Apostles is the stuff of everyday life, in the the making of godly choices in life, in the choosing the way of love. It is the awareness that this life isn’t all there is, for something great, good and wonderful awaits us when this life is done: Eternal life and presence with the Father and with the Son. The clear implication is that what is done in this life and in this world matters a whole lot. If this life and this world wasn’t important to God, then there would be no need for God to intervene in a concrete way by sending Jesus to come among us, to take up this ordinary, everyday life, that each of us leads.

The temptation for Christians might be to focus only on the final destination, that time when this life is over and done with. Many Christians continue to maintain such a focus today. The heresy known as Gnosticism in the second and third centuries maintained such a focus. For the Gnostics, this world was an illusion, and the only things that mattered were the things of the spiritual life.

Mature Christian believing calls us to maintain a dual focus: We are called to keep the goal of our journey in view, that time when we will depart this life and will be with the Lord. After all, we have this hope because the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is a real, genuine event, a truth we can trust. For in His rising from death on Easter Sunday morning, our Lord has proven His power over our final enemy, death.

We Christians are also called to maintain our focus on our daily walk with God. God’s people in Old Testament times referred to their relationship with God as a “walk” (Hebrew:  halacha, coming from the Hebrew verb “to walk”). To walk implies taking one step at a time, whether the path is level, straight and well-surfaced, or whether it is marked with ups and downs, with muddy patches, and with twists and turns. For there are many who also walk with us. Together, we make the journey toward the final destination worthwhile.

AMEN.

           

Easter 4, Year A (2020)

Good Shepherd Sunday

Psalm 23 / I Peter 2: 19–25 / John 10: 1–15

This is a homily provided for the people of St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker for Sunday, May 3, 2020.  This homily was not delivered as part of our Sunday morning worship, because St. John’s is currently closed due to the COVID – 19 viral outbreak. Instead, it was provided via electronic means and in hard copy to those without email.)

“SERVANT/LEADER SHEPHERDING”

(Homily text: John 10: 1-15)

Today, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, is informally known as “Good Shepherd” Sunday. On each Sunday of our three-year cycle of readings according to the Revised Common Lectionary which we follow, that theme is the focus at this point in the progression of the Church Year.

If Jesus is the “Good Shepherd” as He says in our Gospel text for this morning, then the question naturally arises: Are there mediocre shepherds, or even bad ones?

It turns out that the answer to this question is “Yes”, there are mediocre shepherds. But more importantly, there are also bad shepherds, as our Lord alludes to in His discourse on shepherds and shepherding.

Bad shepherds and poor leaders were much in evidence in the time of our Lord’s earthly ministry. Led by a priestly caste, the Pharisees and the scribes, Jesus described God’s people as being “sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). These prominent members of society didn’t care for those in their charge, they cared more about their own prestige, their own position, their own welfare and wealth.

Such a problem wasn’t a new one for God’s people. The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, writing a little more than five hundred years earlier, described an appalling situation that was much like the one that existed when our Lord walked the earth. In Ezekiel 34:1–10, we read about the shepherds who look after their own welfare, even as they ignore the welfare of the people, the sheep, in their care. (One has to wonder if Jesus had this passage in mind when He spoke of Himself as being the “Good Shepherd”.)

Jesus’ self-description as a shepherd conveys important understandings for the relationship between His leadership and our place as sheep among the sheep of His pasture. Since many, if not most, of us have little direct experience with sheep and with the herding of sheep, it might be advisable for us to look a bit more closely into this relationship.

We might begin by noticing that the sheep and the shepherd exist for one another. In fact, the sheep wouldn’t long exist without the shepherd’s leading and protection. Jesus alludes to the protective nature of the shepherd’s work when He talks about the shepherd entering the sheepfold through the door, while imposters seek other ways of entering. The sheepfold existed to protect the flock from predators, especially at night. If we turn the relationship around and see it from the other angle, we can see that, without sheep, the shepherd has no work to do and no role to play.

Another aspect of shepherding has to do with the nature of sheep in general. Apparently, they are naturally inquisitive animals. But where they are endowed with inquisitive skills, they lack judgment. Consequently, they are also prone to getting into trouble. Recall Jesus’ Parable of the Lost Sheep (Matthew 18:10–14): Jesus tells the tale of the shepherd who goes in search of one lost sheep. The shepherd’s job is to see to the safety of the sheep, and, if necessary, to take risks to ensure their wellbeing.

Shepherds lead, but they also serve. Jesus likens His work to that of the servant who looks after the welfare of those in His care. The welfare of those entrusted to Him is so critical that, if necessary, the risks the shepherd must be willing to take reach all the way to being willing to risk His own life. As the Good Shepherd, Jesus leads those who have come into His care, putting their welfare ahead of His own.

The servant/leader aspect of Jesus’ example is one that all followers of Christ are called upon to emulate. As those who are sensing a call to ordained ministry go through the evaluative process, one aspect that is closely examined is the individual’s ability to model that servant/leader role.

But the call to be a servant/leader extends beyond a concern for the suitability of those who are seeking ordination. That call extends to each and every one of us. It extends to us in any ministry or work we undertake. One example from our parish’s life will illustrate the point: When we serve others in a ministry like the Community Soup Kitchen, held on Thursday evenings each week here in town, then we are there precisely for the purpose of serving those who come to receive a hot meal. (For some of the clients of the Community Soup Kitchen, it will be – quite likely – the only hot meal they may eat that week.) In so doing, we lend our expertise, our knowledge, our judgment, and our skills in leadership to ensure that the meal is well prepared and is properly served.

As we serve others in the Lord’s name, then we act as “good shepherds” to those who need our concern for their welfare. We place ourselves in their service, but in the Lord’s service, as well. We do so, making use of the talents, abilities and skills that God has entrusted to us. No task in such serving is too small to serve others as we also serve the Lord. As the Lord has served us, so we serve others in His name.

AMEN.