Pentecost 4, Year A (2020)

Proper 8 :: Genesis 22: 1–4 / Psalm 13 / Romans 6: 12–23 / Matthew 10: 40–42

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, June 28, 2020.

“BEARING A FAITHFUL IMAGE”

(Homily text: Matthew 10: 40-42)

We depend on being able to rely on faithful images to make our way through life.

For example, our vehicles have two side mirrors on the outside and one (usually) inside the vehicle in the middle of the passenger space. The outside mirror on the driver’s side shows clearly what’s behind us. But the one on the passenger side has a statement at the bottom of the mirror which says, “Objects in this mirror are closer than they appear.” The reason for the statement is that the mirror itself is slightly curved. It’s deliberately designed that way so that it can give a panoramic view of the right side of the vehicle. But what is gained in being able to have a wider view of what’s going on on that side the car is compromised by the fact that, if the driver is relying on that mirror to given an accurate idea of how far behind the car another object is, it’s possible that an accident will be the result.

Our Lord relies on us to bear an accurate image of Him as we make our way through life.

That seems to be the gist of the comment we hear this morning, when He says, “Whoever receives you, receives me…” (Matthew 10:40a) Implicit in this comment is the idea that, when others encounter a disciple of Jesus Christ, they will be able to see the imprint of Christ in what that disciple says, what they do, and by the values they exhibit.

Jesus’ comment harkens back to one we heard last week: “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master.” (Matthew 10:24) What the Lord is getting at here is the idea that the disciple must resemble the master. The better and closer that resemblance is, the better.

The process by which disciples are formed and fashioned is much like the process by which a lens is shaped, formed and polished to a fine degree of optical excellence. The raw material is important, surely enough, but the process of refinement is equally important if the lens is to be capable of transmitting a faithful image.

We, too, undergo a process, a continual process, of shaping and refining as we study our Lord’s words and work. We seek to adopt, through the power of the Holy Spirit, more and more of the persona of Christ, by which the impurities that are present in all of us are refined out and are ground away, leaving the ability to transmit clearly the image of Christ which dwells within.

AMEN.

Pentecost 3, Year A (2020)

Genesis 21: 8–21 / Psalm 86: 1–10, 16–17 / Romans 6: 1b–11 / Matthew 10: 24–39

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, June 21, 2020.

“MAKE YOUR CHOICE, RANK YOUR PRIORITIES”

(Homily text: Matthew 10: 24-39)

Ever think about what’s most important in your life?

Sometimes we can figure out the answer to that question by examining how much time we devote to something. Or – if we can’t come to a conclusion that way, because of demands of something in our lives that consumes a good bit of time, even if it isn’t really important to us – then we can approach the question differently, perhaps by looking at how much thought we give to something.

Today’s Gospel text puts before us a central question: What’s first in our lives? Or, more accurately, who’s first in our lives?

Our Lord puts the choice this way, in statements that are known as “hard sayings”: “Whoever loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me”, and “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me”.

“Hard sayings” make us recoil whenever we hear (or read) them. That’s their intent, to shock us into thinking about something in a different way.

Our Lord is trying to shock us into an in-depth look at our priorities. Pure and simple, that’s what He seems to be about.

The early Christians in the Church that Matthew may have been working with knew the truth of Jesus’ “hard sayings” quite well. After all, they had to contend with a pagan society whose values were completely opposed to the way of Christ. Following Jesus meant, for them, separating themselves from their nuclear families, in many cases. Acknowledging that they were disciples of Jesus meant, in many cases, the real possibility of suffering and even death at the hands of the Roman authorities.

For you and me, the basic realities that we face are different only in the matter of degree from the realities those early Christians faced. For those of us who are citizens of this wonderful country, we don’t have to face the reality of martyrdom because of our Christian faith. But to follow Christ still means going against the grain of the culture, a culture that, in our contemporary society at least, is becoming more and more removed from Christian values. Going against the grain of the surrounding culture becomes, then, a clearer choice, even if it isn’t an easier one.

Following Christ entails a close examination of the importance of our discipleship, asking ourselves, “What’s first in my life? Is the Lord and my relationship with Him the most important, most foundational, reality for me?”

May the Holy Spirit enable our close look at ourselves, and our willingness to set our priorities in the right order.

AMEN.

Pentecost 2, Year A (2020)

Exodus 19: 2–8a / Psalm 116: 1, 10–17 / Romans 5: 1–8 / Matthew 9: 35 – 10: 23

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, June 14, 2020.

“A PASSION FOR PEOPLE”

(Homily text: Matthew 9: 35 – 10: 23)

Many, if not most, people have one or more passions. Passions are things they love, things that motivate them to do certain things (or to avoid doing others).

Our Lord Jesus Christ had passions. One of His passions was a deep and abiding love for people, all people. We see evidence in this morning’s Gospel text, where His concern for God’s people in the time of His earthly ministry was expressed this way: “When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36)

Our Lord doesn’t just lament the conditions under which people were living. He sets about doing something to remedy the situation, saying, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvests to send out laborers into his harvest.” (9:37 – 38)

Following up on this comment, He sends out the original twelve to spread the Good News (Gospel) of what God was doing. He makes clear that their task will not be an easy one. They will be persecuted, hounded, and driven out of the towns to which they are going to go.

But, He adds, they are to be aware of the ways of the world and the ways of evil, though they are to remain removed from those ways. That, I think, is the basic meaning of His comment that the twelve are to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves”.

Our Lord’s way of dealing with people stands in sharp contrast to the leadership of God’s people in that day and time. They, the chief priests, the Pharisees and the scribes, had a passion for the rules. That is to say, the rules as they existed in the Law of Moses (Torah), to which were added many additional requirements. Added to their concern for the rules was their concern for their own place in the scheme of things. They valued being greeted in the marketplaces, and they loved appearing in long robes, making a pretense of their prayers in order to be seen by others. What an indictment!

What is your passion and mine?

Do we have a passion for people, and a passion to connect them to God? After all, if we do this, we’re taking part in the missionary work of the Church in our day, time and place. We’re doing what those original twelve did as they went out, armed with the Good News.

As we go, we should hold in mind the reality that sharing the Good News won’t always be easy….some of those we encounter won’t respond to our gift. Others will rebut our efforts. But some will respond favorably.

We should be “wise as serpents”, knowing that some to whom we are sent will have had checkered pasts and difficult lives. In the time of the early Church, many of its converts had checkered pasts, and many had lived difficult and wayward lives. But God called them to a new life in Christ.

As God has called us into a new life in Christ, and has given us a meaning for life that is to be found nowhere else, so too are we called to bear witness to God’s power to make all things new.

AMEN.       

Trinity Sunday, Year A (2020)

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

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, June 7, 2020.

 “THE HOLY TRINITY: ADVISORY NOTICES”

(Homily texts: II Corinthians 13: 11–13 & Matthew 28: 16-20)

We come, this morning, to Trinity Sunday, a day in which we concentrate on the nature of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God in three Persons.    

Since we live in a world in which nearly everything we use comes with user instructions, advisories, and even warning labels (I wonder how, in an age gone by, we ever lived without all those advisories and warnings…somehow, we managed!), I thought it might be good to approach the mystery of the God who is One God in Three Persons (as the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty” proclaims) with some advisory cautions.

Perhaps an advisory or warning  having to do with the necessary work of trying to understand the nature of the Holy Trinity might go something like this:

“NOTICE TO THE USER: As you approach the mystery of the nature of God, caution is in order. For any tool or method you choose to use will fall short of an accurate and complete description of God’s true nature.”

How would such an advisory notice work in real life?

Here are some ways.

As we approach a contemplation of God, we should be aware that we could easily lapse into focusing on just one of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity at a time, to the exclusion of the other two Persons. Such an approach is known as modalism, and it points to the idea of thinking about God according to the mode that we are experiencing or considering. To illustrate what a mode is, consider your Rector: He is a father, a grandfather, and also a priest. He operates in these differing modes according to those he is interacting with. The same, then, is true when we consider God. We think about God according to the way we are interacting with, or thinking about, Him. But the antidote to modalism is to remember that, whenever we concentrate on one Person of the Trinity, the other two are also present, all the time.

Another advisory would have to do with thinking of the three Persons of the Trinity as being separate one from another. Along with the point we’ve just made about the truth that, whenever we focus on one Person of the Trinity, the other two are also present, this truth also emerges: The three Persons are so intertwined with one another that it is impossible to tell just where one Person leaves off and the others begin. Such a concept carries with it a technical name that theologians use to describe this truth:  Perichoresis (coming from the Greek).

An important advisory would have to do with the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It would be easy to think that, for example, the Son is secondary in some way to the Father. (The same could be said for the Holy Spirit.) Such a view is known as subordinationism. The correct view sees each Person of the Trinity has being of equal status and importance.

Yet another advisory would have to deal with the limitation of human language to describe the ineffable mystery of God. The best that our human language can do is to use human concepts (out of which language arises) to attempt to explain in some way the truth of God’s being, a reality which, ultimately, lies beyond our attempts to accurately describe in full this side of eternity.

One final advisory would have to do with the term “Trinity” itself. If we were to take a concordance of the Bible and search for “Trinity”, we wouldn’t find an entry for the term. The truth is, the word “Trinity” doesn’t appear in any biblical text. However, two of the appointed texts for this day do point to the nature of God: One is the final verses of Matthew’s Gospel account, in which He records the Lord’s charge to the disciples to “baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”  This passage gives us Christ’s own authority upon which to base the understanding of God as One God in Three Persons. The other passage that points to the existence of God in Three Persons is the final verses of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. There, he says, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” The question then naturally arises: “Where did the word ‘Trinity’ come from?”  It seems to arise out of a statement made by Tertullian (c. 150 – 225 AD), who was (apparently) the first to articulate the “One God in three Persons” concept.

Heeding these advisories will enable us to approach the nature of God as best as we are able, given the limitations of human thought and language. Understanding God’s nature as Father, Son and Holy Spirit launches us into a lifelong quest to know God as best as we can this side of heaven. Though the journey is never ended so long as we are in this life, it is, nonetheless, critical to our spiritual maturity.

We pray then, for good questing as we make this journey. May the Holy Spirit enable us to come to know God more fully and more accurately.

AMEN.