Proper 16 :: Joshua 24:1 – 2a, 14 – 18 / Psalm 34:15 – 22 / Ephesians 6:10 – 20 / John 6:56 – 69
This is the homily prepared for St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, by Fr. Gene Tucker, for Sunday, August 22, 2021.
“CHALLENGE AND CHOICE: A
NECESSARY PART OF FAITH”
(Homily
texts: Joshua 24:1 – 2a, 14 – 18;
Ephesians 6:10 – 20 & John 6:51 - 58)
“Deliver
us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for
strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal….”[1] Those words, which form part of Eucharistic
Prayer C in our current Prayer Book, might pretty well sum up what seems like a
common thread which binds our Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel readings,
appointed for today, together.
That
common theme forces us to realize that the business of walking the walk of
faith with God is a journey that will, at times, bring us face-to-face with
hard choices and arduous work, if we are to be faithful to the relationship we
claim with the Lord.
For
example, Joshua, speaking to God’s people some 1,400 years or so before our
Lord’s coming, says, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” Joshua’s challenge
is as pertinent today as it was then. For we are called, perhaps on a daily
basis, to choose to put God first in our lives, relegating all the many other
concerns we might be dealing with, to a secondary place, a place that is shaped
by our allegiance to God.
Then,
St. Paul warns us of the danger and the challenges which will lie in the path
of any faithful believer. In essence, what Paul says in our Ephesians reading
this morning, is to be aware that what lies in the path of faith is nothing
less than spiritual combat. “Be prepared,” he seems to be saying, equipped to
survive the battles which will lie ahead, and equipped with the weapons that
will carry that battle to the forces that are arrayed against the purposes of
God.
Then,
finally, we come to the final installment of our sojourn into the sixth chapter
of John’s Gospel account. There, we read that some of Jesus’ disciples say,
“This is a hard saying, who can hear it?” in response to His teaching that it
is necessary to eat the flesh of the Son of Man and to drink his blood. A bit
later on, we read that, from that point on, some of the Lord’s disciples no
longer walked with Him. They’d made their choice, not to face the hard work of
coming to understand what Jesus meant by His comments, but to take the easy way
out, choosing to live by their own sensibilities and likes.
Our
faith walk can never be one of comfort, of assurance, or of a life of spiritual
ease, alone. The statement from Eucharistic Prayer C, cited above, conveys this
reality. Surely, comfort, assurance and spiritual ease are part of our faith
life and walk. But there will be, if our walk is genuine and is in tune with
the Lord’s purposes, one of challenge, of making hard choices, of looking at
ourselves honestly, trying to see ourselves as God might see us, in order that
the reforming work of the Holy Spirit can remake and remold us more fully into
the full image of Christ.
AMEN.
[1] Book of Common Prayer, 1979 edition, page 372
