Pentecost 13, Year A (2020)

Proper 17 :: Jeremiah 15: 15–21 / Psalm 26: 1–8 / Romans 12: 9–21 / Matthew 16: 21–28

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene R. Tucker on Sunday, August 30, 2020.

“MAKING IT BETTER”

(Homily text: Matthew 16: 21–28)

Among the various ways we can look at Jesus’ life and ministry is to see it from the perspective of asking this question: “In what ways was/is Jesus making things better?”

The evidence that the Gospel accounts offer us provide many answers to this question…Jesus came, offering genuine love and compassion for people (a quality that many in prominent positions in those days lacked). He cared for people’s everyday lives, healing them. He provided food for large crowds in deserted places. His care for people extended beyond the limits of being willing to associate and care for only the blood descendants of Abraham, the Jews.

In what way, then does Jesus’ coming trial, suffering and death, make anything better?

From a human perspective, these events do nothing to make things better. In fact, from that same perspective, they make things a whole lot worse. Which is why we can identify with Peter’s response to Jesus’ prediction about the fate that will await Him once He reaches Jerusalem….Peter can’t see that losing Jesus is going to do anything good for the cause of bringing in the kingdom that Jesus kept talking about. So Peter says, “Forbid it, Lord, this shall never happen to you.”

From that same perspective, losing the leader of the movement spelled difficulty and perhaps even the death of the movement. Perhaps Peter thought that losing Jesus meant that the kingdom would never come.

But, here is the rest of the story: Jesus’ death leads to victory over death on Easter Sunday morning. If there is one main Christian message that we – as followers of Jesus – are to proclaim, it is that God has shown His power over our last and greatest enemy, death, in the new life that awaited Jesus as He rose from the grave.

The post-Easter perspective shows us that this new kingdom has the power to make so many things better….people have hope, for they know that the risen Lord can be present everywhere: Where two or three are gathered together in the Lord’s name, and in the presence of every Christian believer’s heart. Jesus’ example, seen in His deep concern and care for all people, enables us by His indwelling in our hearts, to do the same, caring for all people everywhere. Jesus’ generosity enables us to follow His example, providing for the everyday needs of people wherever we encounter them.

The question then comes to you and me: In what ways are we working to make things better?

AMEN.

Pentecost 12, Year A (2020)

Proper 16 :: Isaiah 51: 1–6 / Psalm 124 / Romans 12: 1–8 / Matthew 16: 13–20

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, August 23, 2020.

“GOD ON THE ONE SIDE AND CHALLENGES ON THE OTHER”

(Homily text: Matthew 16: 13–20)

In this morning’s Gospel reading, we hear Jesus ask His disciples, “You do you say that I am?”

And it’s worth remembering that it is Peter who speaks up with the answer, “You are the Messiah,[1] the Son of the living God”.[2]

Let’s set aside Jesus’ question and the disciples’ (and Peter’s) answers for a moment, in order that we might set the stage for this interchange.

Jesus and His disciples are now in the northernmost area of the Holy Land, near the city of Caesarea Philippi, and somewhere along the way, Jesus asks those with Him, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” The disciples offer some ideas, perhaps ones they’d heard people utter: “Some say John the Baptist, but others say Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

But then, Jesus narrows the questioning down, saying, “But who do you say that I am?”

As the disciples had been in Jesus’ presence, watching Him interact with people, watching Him perform miracles, watching Him heal, watching Him reach out to the outcasts of that day, they were being educated and prepared for the ministries that God had in mind for them once Jesus had been raised from the dead, and after He had ascended into heaven, and after the Holy Spirit had come upon them and upon the Church at Pentecost.

Jesus’ pointed question is one of the significant milestones in their preparation. They had to know exactly who He is. That knowledge and conviction would be essential for them to be effective witnesses to what God was doing by sending Jesus Christ among them.

Let’s return, now, to the question which was posed to the disciples, and which is posed to you and me and to everyone: “Who do we say that Jesus is?”

How we answer this question will determine, to a significant degree, how we live out our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

If we say that Jesus is some significant human being in human history (after all, that’s the sum total of the disciples’ answers to Jesus’ question), then we might conclude that all that is necessary for us to live a good life is to emulate Jesus’ actions, His compassion for others, and His especial concern for those on the fringes of society. We might conclude that Jesus simply wants us to be “good people”, doing “good stuff”.

On the other hand, if we say that Jesus is God, God with us (Emmanuel), then we might say that what matters in this world isn’t this present-day world at all, but the things of God. Some Christians down through time have taken that approach, wishing mightily that the Lord would return (sometime soon), and would set aright all the things that are wrong with the everyday world. Such an approach denigrates our everyday lives, setting the concerns of the world, and especially those in dire need, aside.

But what if we say that Jesus is both God and human? I believe that both elements of Jesus’ true identity are contained in Peter’s answer. Peter affirms that Jesus is the promised One, the Messiah, the One who would come to offer hope to a beleaguered people. He also affirms that Jesus has a unique relationship with God the Father.

(OK, we’ll have to add that Peter’s confession, pointing to Jesus’ humanity and His divinity, would not come into a full understanding for many years, about 450 years, in fact. It took the Church that long to come to a statement about Jesus’ true identity as being God and yet, human. It was the Council of Chalcedon, meeting in the year 451, that finally formulated the Church’s belief. Along the way, there were many challenges to that understanding, challenges that prompted the Church to determine exactly what it is that Christians ought to believe and maintain.)

But I digress.

If we maintain that Jesus, the Christ, has a dual identity, divine and human, then we can maintain that God continues to have a deep and abiding interest in the everyday lives of people everywhere. How can we say this? Simply because of Jesus’ resurrection, which guaranteed His continued life, an event which makes it possible for Him to be present in every time, in every place, and in every circumstance. And if we maintain that Jesus is fully human (who rose from the dead with his physical body intact … something you and I will do ourselves someday), then we can say that He cares deeply about the mundane, everyday “stuff” of life. Yes, even the little stuff.

Such an understanding casts the challenges of everyday living in a new, completely different light. What it signifies to us is that this life is worth living, in large measure because Jesus is active in it. Such a gift is God’s to give, one that we receive by asking for it.

AMEN.

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[1]   The word “Messiah” comes from the Hebrew. “Christ” comes from the Greek. Both words mean the same thing: “anointed”.

[2]   Peter’s confession is remembered on a major feast in our liturgical calendar on January 18^th every year.

Pentecost 11, Year A (2020)

Proper 15 :: Isaiah 56: 1, 6–8 / Psalm 133 / Romans 11: 1-2a, 29–32 / Matthew 15: 10–28

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, August 16, 2020.

“HOW BIG IS OUR VISION?”

(Homily texts: Isaiah & Matthew 15: 10–28)

One of the ways in which we grow into full maturity in our walk with God is to come to understand and know God’s will. This process takes shape in a number of ways.

One of the ways in which we adopt God’s understanding has to do with the scope of God’s work and will in the world. Connected to this question is the matter of just what group of human beings God seems to be concerned with. We can pose the question this way:  Is God concerned with only one group of people, or is God concerned with all peoples everywhere?

If we look at the conditions that seem to have been common during the time of our Lord’s earthly ministry, we’d have to conclude that God’s chosen people thought that God was concerned only with them, and with no one else. Everyone else was outside of God’s concern, attention and care.

I think that’s a fair assessment of the situation that Jesus encountered as He went about teaching, healing and caring for people. After all, God’s people in those days were living under the brutal conditions imposed by the Roman occupation. When such conditions prevail, human beings tend to “hunker down” in an attempt to preserve their heritage and their history. (We shouldn’t be too hard on God’s people, living in that day and time and circumstance.)

Such an attitude runs counter to the vision that was articulated by the prophet Isaiah. In our Old Testament reading, heard this morning, he reminds God’s people that God’s house is to be a “house of prayer for all people”, not just Jews. Isaiah’s sentiment echoes many other statements we read in the pages of the Old Testament, for reminders there deal with how God’s people are to deal with and to treat sojourners and foreigners. In the Psalms, we read that peoples everywhere will stream to Jerusalem and to Mt. Zion.

In times of difficulty and distress (not unlike what many are experiencing these days), the human tendency is to “hunker down”. That’s what the Jews of 2,000 years ago did, and that’s what human beings in various times and places do.

But Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman, somewhere in the Gentile territory of Tyre and Sidon, presages the understanding that the Good News of God’s concern and care extends to all people, everywhere. In time, Jesus will articulate this vision as He instructs His disciples to go “into all the world”. (Matthew 28: 16–20)

In the Church, we have to admit that the conditions we find ourselves in culturally these days might encourage us to “hunker down”, and to adopt an attitude that suggests that God is concerned only with us, or with others who are like us.

As a result, we fall in love with our smallness.

We risk forgetting that God’s vision for the spread of the Good News (Gospel) is all-encompassing. God’s vision mandates that we adopt that same attitude, working to aid God’s work in the world by our words and by our actions. Being comfortable with our smallness, or with the idea that, because we are getting what we want out of our time in church, that’s all that is necessary, isn’t an option.   AMEN.

Pentecost 10, Year A (2020)

Proper 14 :: I Kings 19: 9–18 / Psalm 105: 1–6, 16–22, 45b / Romans 10: 5–15 / Matthew 14: 22–33

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, August 9, 2020.

“GOD ON THE ONE SIDE AND CHALLENGES ON THE OTHER”

(Homily texts: I Kings 19: 9–18 & Matthew 14: 22–33)

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, in this life, all the challenges and problems we encounter would go away, or would be solved?

Of course, the key phrase in this statement, it seems to me is “in this life”. The blunt truth is that, as we make our way through this life, we will have times of challenge, problems to confront and deal with, and times of loss and despair. Holy Scripture bears witness to this reality.

Certainly, that was the case with the Old Testament prophet Elijah. It was also true of Peter, who was, perhaps, first and foremost among the Lord’s disciples. Today’s appointed readings describe specific challenges that both men faced.

Elijah, in our text today, is on the run, hiding in a cave so as not to be found by the wicked Queen Jezebel. He had, no too much earlier, demonstrated the power of God over the powers of the pagan god Ba’al by causing fire to come down from heaven to consume the sacrifice he had prepared. (Recall that the priest of Ba’al had been unable to call down fire on their sacrifice.) After their defeat, the priests of Ba’al are all slaughtered by Elijah, causing Jezebel to vow that she find and kill Elijah. (As a side note, I can’t read the accounts in I Kings without hearing the music of Mendelssohn’s wonderful oratorio “Elijah”.)

Peter is also in distress, floundering in the waters of the Sea of Galilee at night. He had asked Jesus for permission to come to Him as He walked on the water. Peter – whose character was often given to impetuous action – goes over the side of the boat, and manages to walk on the water as the Lord is doing. But when Peter looks around at the swirling seas, he loses focus on the Lord and immediately sinks into the water. He is in danger of drowning.

Each man needs a demonstration of God’s power, and each receives one.

Elijah is told to stand outside (the cave) on the mountain, where God passes by him in the form of a strong and mighty wind, an earthquake, fire, and then, finally in the sound of silence (the Hebrew actually means “sheer silence”).

Peter asks the Lord for help as he flounders in the water, and the Lord reaches out to him, pulling him up out of the water and back onto the surface of it.

You and I live often in the place that Elijah and Peter find themselves in this morning. If we turn away from God, we are prone to self-doubt, to self-pity, and to despair. In such a place, we will be unable to deal with the inevitable hardships and challenges that life will throw in our path from time to time. But if we can ask the Lord for some tangible expression of His ongoing and enduring presence and power, then we can be equipped with the best and most powerful tool that we can wield against the challenges of life: God’s power to create, to re-create, and to destroy those things that would separate us from Him. It is helpful for us to remember challenging times in our lives when God has been especially present. It’s likely that God’s self-revelation won’t be as dramatic as His self-revelation to Elijah and to Peter was, but – quite likely - it will be just as helpful.

AMEN.

Pentecost 9, Year A (2020)

Proper 13 :: Isaiah 55: 1–5 / Psalm 17: 1–7, 16 / Romans 9: 1–5 / Matthew 14: 13–21

This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, August 2, 2020.

“HELPLESSNESS, THEN SURRENDER”

(Homily text: Matthew 14: 13-21)

Let’s take a somewhat unusual approach to our understanding of the miracle of the feeding of the crowd of 5,000 persons, heard in our Gospel text this morning. (Notice that Matthew includes in the total number only the men, 5,000, but tells us that there were women and children present, as well … so perhaps the entire crowd could have numbered over 10,000.) This is an event that is recorded in all four Gospel accounts. (Matthew and Mark also record another miraculous feeding, of a crowd of 4,000 persons.

In our approach to this event, let’s look at the circumstances that the members of this large crowd, and also Jesus’ disciples, faced: They are in a deserted place, the numbers of people present are large, and it’s getting late in the day. All of these things make for difficulty.

The solution which seems to make the most sense isn’t an especially workable one: Sending them away into neighboring towns to find something to eat. For it’s likely that the neighboring towns may have been some distance away (recall that they are in a deserted place), and it’s also possible that the resources that were available in those towns wouldn’t have been sufficient to take care of the needs of so many.

There must’ve been a sense of helplessness among the Lord’s disciples. Perhaps some members of the crowd also sensed the growing urgency of the situation, we don’t know.

What we do know is that the disciples notice the problem, and that they bring that problem to the Lord for a solution.

Under the circumstances, the disciples are helpless. So is the crowd, in a very real way.

Which brings us to the point of our consideration of this miracle: In the face of a difficult situation, one which presents us with our helplessness and our hopelessness, we must surrender ourselves to a solution that is beyond ourselves, that is, we must surrender ourselves to God for a solution. Put another way, what we must say to God is, “We can’t, but you can.”

“I (we) can’t, but you can,” captures the essential meaning of baptism, for the meaning of our entry into the waters of baptism signifies a death to our former life, our life of estrangement from God, and our helplessness in the face of our condition. Spiritually, we are in a wilderness, a deserted place absent from God. We cannot help ourselves to bridge the gap between God and ourselves, but God can bridge that gap for us.

As we emerge from the waters of baptism, at critical junctures in our earthly walk, we will encounter, time and again, occasions to pray the prayer, “I can’t, but you can.” Without the surrender that this prayer embodies, we have exercised the best solution to any of our dilemmas and problems.

Total and complete surrender is the beginning place of our walk with God. We willfully surrender ourselves in baptism, and we continue to do so, if we are to be spiritually healthy, again and again. It is a zero-sum reality.

Our Lord’s response to the problem of feeding that large crowd can remind us that, ultimately, we are dependent upon God in each and every circumstance that life will bring our way. When confronted with a challenge or a problem, we might emulate the disciples’ decision to bring our problems to the Lord.  

AMEN.