Advent 3, Year A (2025)

Isaiah 35: 1-10 / Psalm 146: 5–10 / James 5: 7–10 / Matthew 11: 2-11

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, December 14, 2025 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“FAITH: BUILT WITH PATIENCE, PERSEVERANCE AND EFFORT””

(Homily texts: Isaiah 35: 1–10, James 5: 7–10, and Matthew 11: 2-11)

Ever give any thought to the things we use in everyday life, the things that make life easier, more comfortable, or better? Each and every one of those things, whether it is the food we eat, the homes we live in, the vehicles we drive, or the tools we use, each and every one of these things came to be because someone took the time (and the imagination) to conceive of them in the first place, and then those who came up with the ideas also created ways to construct or bring into being those things. Finally, someone also had to do the work needed to bring the raw materials needed to a finished product.

The bottom line, here, in each and every case, is that the things we benefit from having, eating or using, none of them came to us in their final form. They all began as raw materials of some sort or another. Just about all of them did.

That same truth also applies to our Christian faith: The faith comes to us as raw material, a gift from God (I am sure that Martin Luther would agree with this assessment, for it is he who said “Sola Grazia” (God’s grace alone).

But then, you and I are called – by virtue of our Baptisms – to work out that gift of faith, to come to understand it in all its fulness and in all the ramifications for change in our lives that genuine faith requires, to undergo the rigorous process of being transformed into the image of Christ. Put another way: You and I have work to do.

Our appointed lectionary readings for this, the Third Sunday of Advent, are well-chosen.

The ancient prophet Isaiah points us to the vision of God’s kingdom, come in all its fulness. This is the ideal, God’s will for the world and the people who live in it, that divine ideal come in all its power and in all its gracious intention for God’s creation and for the people who live in it. (Recall that one of our Advent themes is that we are called to prepare ourselves for our Lord Jesus Christ’s eventual return in glory, at which time Isaiah’s ancient vision will become reality.)

But that glorious vision requires effort on our parts to prepare ourselves for its return, and to show to the watching world around us what that vision looks like, so that when it comes, people will recognize it. Put another way: You and I have work to do. So, then, the Letter of James encourages us to be patient, to do the will of the Lord while we are able to do so. Put another way: We have work to do.

Our Gospel reading recounts to us the efforts, the perseverance and the work that St. John the Baptist faced as he called God’s people in the time of our Lord’s earthly visitation to repent of their sins, to set aside any notion that simply “going through the motions” of relating to God was good enough. Notice how our Lord describes John: “What did you come out to see? A reed shaken by the wind?” Perhaps what the Lord is telling us about John’s ministry is that John’s calling wasn’t an easy calling. Indeed, it wasn’t. John was called to work to prepare the way for the Lord’s coming. There was work to be done. The task of waking God’s people up in that corrupt time was an enormous one, but John’s voice and mission is clear: He called people to confess their sins, their wayward ways, and their ideas that outward observance alone was “good enough” to curry favor with God.

It would be easy to think that God’s perfect world will come instantaneously and without effort. Indeed, some Christians seem to encourage such an understanding, as they proclaim that once a person has been “saved”, their life will become one of pleasantness, ease and joy.

The reality is, however, radically different. For when we enter the waters of Baptism, then it follows that we must do the work that God calls us to do, to allow the Holy Spirit to begin the process in us of becoming more and more transformed into the image of Christ. This is a process known as “sanctification”, being made holy. Oftentimes, this is a slow process, not unlike the refining process that ore undergoes in order to be refined into the metal that results. No wonder that Holy Scripture refers to this as “silver, refined seven times in the furnace” (see Psalm 12:6).

Furthermore, once God’s saving work begins in us, there will be opposition, perhaps such as that that John the Baptist faced. There will be the ways and the behaviors of the world around us that beckon to us, calling us to behave like people who do not know God or God’s ways. John the Baptist, most likely, knew a lot about that dynamic in his time and in his ministry.

So, then, we might say that the process of salvation, of receiving God’s saving grace is like this: “I have been saved, I am being saved, I shall be saved”.[1]

In other words, once we come to faith and enter the waters by which we die to our old selves and are raised with Christ in a resurrection like his[2], we are claimed as a child of God. But then, the work begins, the work to allow God to rework and remake us, more and more, little by little, into His image. Finally, then, we come to God’s ideal, that time and circumstance when we enter God’s kingdom, come in all its fulness, joy and wonder.

Come Holy Spirit, and lighten us with your celestial fire, that we may be refined, like silver, into the image of your beloved Son.

AMEN.

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[1]   I’m not sure who originated this saying.

[2]   This is St. Paul’s description of the meaning and importance of Baptism. See Romans 6: 3–9. 

Advent 2, Year A (2025)

Isaiah 11:  1-11 / Psalm 72: 1–7, 18-19 / Romans 15: 4–13 / Matthew 3: 1–12

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA), in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, December 7, 2025, by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“THE PROPHETS’ VOICES CALL OUT TO US: “TURN AROUND!””

(Homily text: Matthew 3: 1–12)

Some years ago, there was a long-distance truck driver who, while driving in the western part of the country, steadfastly followed his GPS-directed navigating device. Following the directions faithfully, he found himself deep into the woods in the mountains, on a one lane, dirt road. The news story about this event related that the truck driver had to walk miles and miles to get back to civilization, where he could get help.

Though, perhaps, many of those who heard the news story might have wondered how someone could depend so completely on a navigation tool as to miss the fact that he was heading, more and more, into the wilderness, and not to wherever his destination was, still, as we live life, we encounter those who seem to be just as lost. The difference is that they are headed in the wrong direction in life, they just aren’t driving a semi-truck.

To such a lost, confused and misdirected way of living, God appointed and sent His spokesmen (and women, I suspect) to point out to those who were heading in a wrong direction, away from God, that they should “turn around”, and head in another, more-godly, direction. We’re talking, of course, about the prophets in ancient times, and those with prophetic voices in all times and places, those whom God appoints to be heralds of God’s will and God’s ways.

This morning, we remember and honor the life and witness of St. John the Baptist, who was many things to us Christian believers: For one thing, he seems to be the culmination of a long line of Old Testament prophets. For another, he spoke clearly and forcefully to the leadership of God’s people in the time of our Lord Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry, a group of leaders who were just as lost and misdirected as that trucker we talked about a moment ago. For another, he was the one who prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry to begin.

We owe John the Baptist a great debt for all that he did, witnessing to God’s ways, rather than to human pride and earthly wisdom. We owe him a great debt for preparing the way for the Lord.

John the Baptist (or Baptizer, as he is also known) fits the mold of the Old Testament prophets, of whom he is the last representative.

He is counter-cultural, hanging out in the wilderness, which is a place where one often finds God, but which is also a place where society’s trouble-makers ply their trade.

He was rebel, leaving the career path that would have been expected of him, having been born of a father who was a priest in the Temple in Jerusalem. For, you see, as the son of a priest, he would have been expected to fulfill his own priestly duties in the Temple once he reached the age of thirty. Instead of encouraging the faithful people to undergo the ritual bath[1] that was required prior to entering the Temple’s precincts, he stands in the Jordan River, inviting people to wash themselves and be cleansed of their sins. John has cast aside any sense of mere formal religious observance: His voice calls for genuine and deep repentance, a turning around so as to face God squarely, to see what God desires rather than to harbor any pretensions that human beings are so good at creating for themselves.

Matthew’s account of John’s ministry informs us that two groups of the leadership of God’s people 2,000 years ago came to the banks of the Jordan to check out what John was doing. One group, the Sadducees, were a priestly group, to be found in the Temple in Jerusalem. (One wonders if some of them remembered John, and perhaps, thought that he was a promising young man “gone bad”.) The other group was a lay group known as the Pharisees. Oftentimes, these two groups differed in their perspectives, but – it seems – when there was a challenge to their leadership, their positions of power and influence, and their prerogatives, they could find a way to work together. (That, of course, is the truth of our Lord’s betrayal, trial, suffering, execution, death and resurrection.)

“You brood of vipers,” John says these two groups of proud, self-satisfied people, who prided themselves on their heritage as children of Abraham, “Who told you to flee from the wrath that is to come?”  “Bear fruit that is worthy of repentance”, he continues, adding “The axe is laid at the root of the tree….all that does now bear fruit will be cut down.”

He is – in essence – telling these two proud, self-satisfied groups of leaders that they are full of wickedness. (Remember that, in Holy Scripture, snakes are the personification of evil…recall the account of the Fall in the Book of Genesis.)

Old Testament prophets were often very plain spoken in their condemnation of the waywardness of God’s people. John is cut from the same cloth.

Human pride is a troublesome thing. It blinds us to the ability to see ourselves as God sees us. We’re much like that truck driver we talked about at the beginning of this sermon: He was so careful to follow all the directions that he heard that he was oblivious to the fact that he was completely and utterly lost, in the wilderness. Human pride does the same thing, for it encourages us to look only at ourselves, and often with satisfaction. Human pride  leads to the same destination: Being utterly lost, and out-of-touch with God and God’s will.

In every age, we human beings, we Christian believers, need to hear the voices of the prophets of old, and the prophetic voices in our own time, those who faithfully stand in the tradition of faith we have inherited. Those voices of old and the voices of today call us to look around and to turn around, to lay before God all that is unseemly, all that does not befit the attitudes and actions of those who claim the name of Christ, all that does not commend the faith that is in us to an unbelieving world around us.

Come then, Holy Spirit, enable us to turn around, and to look around, at ourselves and at God.

AMEN.

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[1]   Known in Hebrew as the Mikvah. 

Advent 1, Year A (2025)

Isaiah 2: 1-5 / Psalm 122 / Romans 13: 11–14 / Matthew 24:36 - 44

 

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA), McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, November 30, 2025, by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“ARE WE THERE YET?”

(Homily texts:  Isaiah 2: 1–5, and Matthew 24: 36–44)

Perhaps you’ve had this experience, if you are the parent or caregiver for younger members of a household…Everyone gets in the car, and you are off on a trip, whether it’s a short one, or a longer one. And one of the first things that the younger persons in the car ask, is “Are we there yet?”.

If your experience is anything like mine, that question gets asked early in the trip, perhaps as early as five minutes into the journey.

There is an eagerness to the question, reflecting a desire to reach the destination, to arrive at whatever enjoyable and wonderful things are to be experienced there. (In my own life, that destination – which I remember fondly and clearly – was our trips to see my grandparents.)

Christians are called to be eager. Christians are to earnestly want to arrive at the destination that God has in mind for all humanity. Christians are encouraged to want that time when God’s reign is complete, total and all-encompassing, a time like that envisioned by the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, some 2,800 years ago.

For, you see, we Christian believers are on a journey. We are on our way to that time when the Lord Jesus Christ will return again in power and great glory. (This is one of the themes and the concentrations of the season of Advent, which begins today.)  Our Gospel reading from Matthew’s account describes this time and some of the markers of its coming.

The other theme and focus of the Advent season is our preparation to welcome Jesus as a baby, born in Bethlehem.

It is clear that we live in between the Lord’s first coming, and His final coming.

Now, there’s a challenge for us who have come to faith: We are to be busy helping God to bring that blessed time of peace, of the knowledge and love of God, into being.

We have work to do!

We are called to demonstrate to the world what this coming time looks like, so that when it comes in its fullness, people everywhere will know that God’s plans for the world have been accomplished.

How do we do that? How do we perform the works that God calls us to do as we enter the waters of Holy Baptism, are clothed with Christ, and are raised to a new life in a resurrection like His?[1]

Perhaps a good bit of advice is this:  Always preach the Gospel; if necessary, use words.

This simple truth reflects the idea that the Christian faith is usually caught, not taught. Put another way, people who do not yet know the Lord personally are more likely to come to faith if they experience a Christian believer who exhibits the signs of a lively and intense personal faith, dwelling in their innermost beings.

This means, then, that how we behave, how we love others (especially those whose views differ from ours) and how our lives are marked with a generosity that tells the world that we have, ourselves, received a great gift from God the Father in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and that – in gratitude – we are generous with our support of others, our care for those in need, and in our willingness to walk alongside those who struggle in life in some way or another.

In one sense, these markers should be easy to do, for in almost every way, they differ from the attitudes and the behaviors of the unbelieving world which surrounds us. For that world is a cold, hostile and difficult place to be.

But we are on a journey, to a different and wonderful destination. Our hearts overflow with eagerness to arrive as citizens of God’s kingdom. As Christian believers, we encourage others to join in the journey, knowing that, as our lives are completely different as a result of having come to faith in the Lord, so, too, will those who join us in this journey will come to experience life in a totally new, wonderful and different way.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN.

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[1]   See Romans 6: 3–9. 

The Last Sunday after Pentecost (Christ the King), Year C (2025)

Jeremiah 23: 1-6 / Psalm 46 / Colossians 1: 11-20 / Luke 23: 33–43

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, November 23, 2025 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“REFLECTIONS ON KINGS, QUEENS, ROYALTY, AND ON THE KING OF KINGS, JESUS CHRIST”

This Sunday, we come to the end of the current Church Year, celebrating and thinking about Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords.[1]

Let’s undertake a review of kings, queens, royalty (in general), as we can see it in effect down through time. And then, let’s contrast what we discover in the pages of history with what we know about the kingship and the lordship of Jesus Christ.

History reveals to us that it is a system of royalty is the most predominant pattern of governance that has been in effect in nations, countries, tribes and groupings of human beings. Perhaps the idea of royalty, of having kings and queens (and attendant relations within royal families) emerged very early on in human history, as some prominent or powerful family emerged within a tribe, or some other grouping of people.

Kings and queens (and royalty in general) aren’t chosen by the people they lead. They are a given, having been the children of other royalty. Sometimes, when a royal line runs out, a country will import royalty from elsewhere. The British royal family was – not too long ago – from Germany, for example.

In history, too often the pattern of leadership and behavior of kings hasn’t been positive. Think of the idea of the “Divine Right of Kings” an idea which predominated in the Middle Ages. That idea stemmed from the biblical idea that a king rules because God had chosen him to do so. It then follows that whatever the king says or decrees, becomes the law of the land. There is no need, under such a system, to appeal, to question, or to refuse to obey.

The behaviors of kings who ruled as despots in times past is mirrored in the behaviors of too many of the dictators in countries around the world. They, too, rule like monarchs whose interests are in their own perks, position, power and authority. The will and the welfare of the people they rule over is secondary to these values.

We Americans are fascinated with royalty, and – in particular – British royalty. We, ourselves, however, refused to consider this method of organizing our nation, and our way of choosing leadership. (The story is told that some wanted George Washington to be named as king, but he refused.)

It may be because we Americans value democracy that some Christians aren’t comfortable these days with the idea of calling Jesus Christ “Lord”, or “King”.

But the biblical witness, and biblical language, employs terms like “king” and “lord”.

Jesus Christ’s kingship resembles earthly monarchs in some ways … for example, Jesus Christ was chosen to be our Savior and Lord. We didn’t appoint Him to be King and Lord. But we an enthrone Him in our hearts. We can refuse our citizenship in His kingdom.

This king is One who has come among us, not to rule as a despot, but to serve, and to look after and to foster our welfare. In Matthew’s Gospel account, we read that He came, not to be served, but to serve.[2] Our salvation and our welfare is the sole reason He was sent by God the Father to come among us, taking up our humanity to the full.

To become citizens of this heavenly kingdom is to find ourselves living life in this world in its truest and most fulfilling form. To be a citizen of this heavenly kingdom is to find ourselves as citizens of a kingdom which will have no end, led by a king whose kingship will never cease.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN.

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[1]   This is language we read in the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation.

[2]   See Matthew 20:28.

Pentecost 23, Year C (2025)

Malachi 4: 1–2a / Psalm 98 / II Thessalonians 3: 6–13 / Luke 21: 7–19

 

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA), McKnightstown, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, November 16, 2025, by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“THE CHRISTIANS’ TASK: BE GOOD AT MULTI-TASKING”

(Homily texts: II Thessalonians 3: 6-13 and Luke 21: 7-19)

In the busy hustle and bustle of the world in which we live today, people often say that they have to be good at multi-tasking. Some say they can do it, and do it well. Others say it doesn’t work for them, or that they simply can’t manage to do or handle more than one thing at once. Still others, often those who are observers of the human condition, maintain that it isn’t at all good for us human beings to be trying to multi-task at all.

As we look at this morning’s appointed readings, we might come to the conclusion that we Christian believers are called to hone our skills, so that we can be good and proficient multi-taskers.

Our task is to focus on the here-and-the-now of life, but also on God’s great, big and final plans for us and for the world. Both foci are required of all believers.

A look at our epistle reading, taken from St. Paul’s second letter to the church in Thessalonica, makes clear that the everyday work of life is important, while our reading from the Gospel according to St. Luke turns our eyes toward the great and final things of God. (Surely, we must be getting close to the season of Advent with readings such as this! Indeed, that is so, for as each liturgical year comes to an end, our attention is turned to the double focus of the season of Advent, as we prepare for our Lord Jesus Christ’s first coming as a babe, born in Bethlehem, but also to the final and second coming of our Lord at some point in future times.)

The Thessalonian church had its share of problems and challenges. (Many of the churches that Paul either founded or had oversight over had one or more problems to deal with.) Apparently, the Thessalonians were very concerned with the Lord’s second coming. Some maintained that the Lord had already come (leading some to wonder why they had been left out of the Lord’s plans), while others wanted to know the details of that coming: When, how, etc. Still others – as our reading this morning tells us – were sitting around, gazing at the skies (apparently) and doing little or nothing.

The focus, then, of our epistle reading has to do with everyday life, and the importance of everyday tasks, work and events.

On the other hand, our Gospel reading turns our attention to future events, and specifically, to the turmoil and destruction of the city of Jerusalem. This is a deeply troubling reading. But the Lord’s predictions are meant to not only to inform, and also to provide comfort. Notice that He says that, despite the troubling description of what is to come, those who are people of faith will overcome all of those terrible things, and will gain their souls.

What are we to make of the Lord’s predictions about Jerusalem’s fate, and about coming hard and perilous times for those who claim the name of Christ?

Some Christians maintain that the events described in this morning’s Gospel refer to Jerusalem’s destruction during the Jewish-Roman War (which lasted from 66 – 71 AD). Others say it refers to some still-in-the-future event, while others maintain that the Lord’s descriptions contain traditional biblical language which describes God’s anger (the mentions of signs in the heavens and great portents qualify for this understanding).

Perhaps a mature Christian approach to the Lord’s instruction would be to say that He was describing Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 AD, but His words might also apply to some future event. And, we should acknowledge, some of the imagery used can be found elsewhere in Scripture, where it does seem to describe God’s anger and judgment.

All three approaches are possible. The exact meaning and applicability of the Lord’s words are wrapped up in the mystery of God and God’s plans and timetable.

What, then, are we to do, in order to faithfully live in this life, even as we look forward to the life of the world to come?

Multi-tasking is the answer, I think.

Paul’s admonitions to the Thessalonians makes clear that the day-in-and-day-out work of life is important. (It might be worthwhile mentioning, at this point, that an early Christian heresy, known as Gnosticism, maintained that this life was nothing more than a mirage, and wasn’t important. What was important, the Gnostics said, was the spiritual life. The Church responded forcefully to this severely imbalanced view of life in God. Rejecting it.)

We Christians are not to be sitting around, ignoring caring for and improving our own welfare, and also the welfare of others, looking at the clouds and hoping to see some sign of the Lord’s appearing. Alas, some Christians today continue to do pretty much the same sort of thing.

But a focus on this current life, without an awareness that God has a plan, and that all who come to faith in Christ are part of that plan, is to practice an imbalance of another sort. That focus, too, is important.

We live in the in-between times, that time between the Lord’s first coming as a baby, born in Bethlehem, and His second coming at some future time in history. As we live in this in-between time, we are called to work to prepare the soil of this world for the breaking-in of the Lord’s kingdom in all its fulness, when the Lord returns.

Enable us then, Holy Spirit, to multi-task, that we may be mature disciples of Jesus Christ.

AMEN. 

Pentecost 22, Year C (2025)

Job 19: 23–27a / Psalm 17: 1–9 / II Thessalonians 2: 1–5, 13–17 / Luke 20: 27–38

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, November 9, 2025 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“WE ALL WANT TO KNOW: WHAT DOES THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE?”

(Homily texts: Job 19: 23–27a; II Thessalonians 2: 1–5, 13–17; and Luke 20: 27–38)

Perhaps it’s because we human beings have a need for safety and security (after all, having those needs helps to keep us alive!), we want to know as much as we can about what will happen tomorrow, the next week, the next month, the next year, or – for that matter – in eternity once this life is done.

Countless numbers of writers and prognosticators in the media rely on this deep-seated need, telling us what trends they see, what the likely outcome is likely to be, and – in many cases – whipping up needless concern and even hysteria in the process. The newspapers are filled with the output of these seers of the future, as is the internet, and television news programs.

Not to be left out, religious leaders of various sorts also tell us about future events, managing – in the process – to whip up hysteria over future events which (they say) will prove to be catastrophic. Perhaps, in an attempt to calm the hysteria that leaders who are prophets of doom and judgment have produced, another writer, quite recently, has published a book telling us great detail what heaven is going to be like.

The concerns that are deeply implanted in our hearts aren’t new to us. They have been among the concerns of human beings for a very long time. People of faith harbor those sorts of concerns as well, as our reading from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the early Christians in Thessalonica makes clear. Paul has to remind them that the Lord Jesus’ second coming (His return to reign in glory) hasn’t yet happened, and – no – they haven’t missed it, and – no – they haven’t been left behind.

And yet, on this side of eternity, we want to know what it will look like once this life is ended and we enter into whatever lies beyond death. For, as St. Paul makes clear, death is that great and final enemy, that great mystery. Writing to the early Christians in Corinth, he has to remind them that death isn’t the harbinger of fear and loss that we might imagine it to be. Not at all. In I Corinthians 15, he says that death has lost its sting. Its seeming victory isn’t a victory at all. He puts this truth eloquently: “Death is swallowed up in victory, O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”[1]

How can Paul say such a thing? Is he delusional? Is he denying reality?

No, not at all. Paul can be confident about the transition from this life into eternity because of the reality of our Lord Jesus Christ’s own resurrection on Easter Sunday morning. That event transformed the original band of the Lord’s disciples from wayward, unreliable followers into champions of the truth of God’s power to create, and – in the case of our Lord’s resurrection – to recreate. Yes, this is a power even over life and death itself.

In the Old Testament, this is Job’s hope, as he confidently says that he knows that his redeemer lives, and that he will – in his flesh – see God. (I am reminded of the wonderful aria from Handel’s “Messiah” which makes use of this text.)

We would do well to look at today’s Gospel text.

There, Jesus is confronted by a group of Sadducees[2], who put a wildly unlikely tale before the Lord. They put forth a situation in which a woman was married, but whose husband died without producing any children. Then, these priests tell the Lord that the woman passed from brother to brother, each one marrying the woman, but there are no children from any of these subsequent marriages (all six!), either.[3]

Jesus cuts through their argument. Marriage in that day and time had as its primary goal the begetting of children. (Recall that child mortality was very high in those days.) Children were, in that society, ones “retirement plan” once life became too difficult to allow a person to work.

But Jesus tells these Sadducees that, once people have entered into eternity and into the resurrected life, they will never die (so there is no need for offspring).

In the fulness of time, Jesus will affirm the reality of life after death, in a resurrected state, in God’s presence.[4] His own coming to life again affirms God’s power over all things, including death.

So, if we are to live after death, this time in God’s presence directly, what does heaven really look like?

Is it like the new book we referred to at the beginning of this sermon, with detailed descriptions of heaven’s appearance and so forth?

Well, maybe.

But, perhaps the more prudent course for us to take is not to obsess over the details of what heaven will be like, for surely, Holy Scripture’s descriptions could well be figurative, and not literal, ones.

So, perhaps we can rest securely in two great realities: 1.  We become inheritors of God’s eternal love when we come to faith in God the Father through God the Son, Jesus Christ. By whatever means we come to that relationship (and, I think it’s important to say that the New Testament describes a number of different paths of coming to faith), it is the receiving of God’s great and good gift of God’s love and God’s eternal embrace that guarantees our future with God once this life is over; and 2. God’s got a plan, and that plan will be glorious, perhaps much more wonderful than we can imagine this side of heaven.

So then, the details of the future take a back seat to the essential truth of God’s ability to keep us in His love and embrace, both now and into eternity.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN.

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[1]   See I Corinthians 15: 54b, 55.

[2]   The Sadducees we a priestly caste. Notice that Luke reminds us that the Sadducees denied the reality of the resurrection.

[3]   This is a process that is outlined in the Law of Moses (Torah), called Levirite Marriage, because the name (levirate) refers to “brother-in-Law”. See Deuteronomy 25: 5–10.

[4]   May I encourage you to read the entire fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians? It will lift your spirits. 

All Saints, Year C (2025)

Daniel 7: 1–3, 15–18 / Psalm 149 / Ephesians 1: 11–23 / Luke 6: 20–31

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, November 2, 2025 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“SAINTS: BEACONS OF GOD’S LIGHT IN THE WORLD”

(Homily text: Luke 6: 20–31)

(Liturgical note:  This Sunday, we observe the Feast of All Saints, whose actual day in the Church Year falls on November 1st. However, in the Lutheran tradition, as well as in many other liturgical traditions, this festival can be moved to the following Sunday.)

In recent times, the observance of All Saints has taken on a more specific meaning: It commemorates those saints who have entered into God’s rest during the year past. Now resting from their earthly labors, we say that they now make up the Church Triumphant, that host of heaven which is gathered around God’s throne. For those of us who are still in our earthly journey, we say that we constitute the Church Militant. (I realize that these are terms which aren’t heard very often these days.) However, historically among the churches which maintain a liturgical heritage, All Saints Day, falling on November 1st, was followed by All Souls Day[1], commemorated on November 2nd. (This day does not appear in our current Lutheran liturgical calendar[2].) So, our observances of these days conflate both All Saints and All Souls Days.

I think it’d be good for us to celebrate and honor not only those saints who now rest from their labors, but also those saints who are present among us, day in and day out, those holy ones with whom we rub elbows. That is the focus of the sermon for this day.)

We begin our consideration of saints and sainthood with some questions:

1.           What is a saint, and how might we recognize one if we encountered one?

2.           Can we name someone we know who is a saint?

3.           Do we aspire to be a saint in our daily living and believing?

In the first chapter of John’s Gospel account, we read that Jesus Christ is the light that has come into the world. We also read that that divine light overcame the darkness of the world. (See John 1: 4-5)

So, perhaps, as we think about saints and sainthood, it might be a good approach to think of God’s holy ones as those who have received the light of Christ, and who shine that same light into the darkness of the world around us.

A good illustration – it seems to me – might be the kerosene lantern.

A lantern consists of a body, which also contains a reservoir for the oil which sits at the bottom of the lantern. It also has a wick, which draws the oil up into the body of the lantern. As the wick burns, it draws more oil upward. The lantern also has a globe, made of glass, which allows the resulting light to shine into the darkness.

Now then, when God deliberately creates a human being, He outfits that person with all the essential requirements for being a beacon of light in the world. We human beings are created with a body, a mind, and a spirit. We can discern and relate to God, for we are created in God’s image and likeness (as we read in Genesis). It is as if we are created with a reservoir with which to receive the oil of God’s grace and mercy when we are formed and created. (Our illustration breaks down a bit at this point, for God has given each one of us the freedom to allow God to work in our lives, or to refuse to live a godly life.)

Then, at baptism, God fills our reservoir with the gift and the light of the Holy Spirit. It is that Spirit which makes possible our orientation toward God, and which guides us through life’s twists and turns. The Spirit’s work is like the match which ignites the oil of God’s grace, creating light as a result.

As the light of God begins to shine, others around us see that light, and recognize it as being something unique, for it is: It is divine light, something that is different from other things.

Now then, let’s draw some conclusions from our illustration.

First of all, it is God’s creative and loving impulses that make it possible for us human beings to be beacons of God’s light in the world. Saints aren’t self-made creations; they do not generate light without God’s oil and the match of the Holy Spirit to create the light. It should be clear from this illustration that God has a role to play in the business of creating saints and sainthood, but people also have a role to play, for we are called to allow God to make use of the raw materials (the oil reservoir, the wick and the globe in our illustration) we have been given at birth in order to cooperate with God as light-bearers to the world.

We said a moment ago that saints aren’t self-made. It should be clear that saints are those who do more than simply “being good”. There is something unique that results from the openness to God’s will, to being willing to have the Holy Spirit strike the match that lights the fire of God, a fire which can shine throughout our earthly journey.

Finally, the business of being a saint and sainthood is sacramental in nature. Recall that the definition of a sacrament is something that contains an outward and visible sign, which points to an inner and spiritual grace. Returning to our illustration of the lantern, we might liken saints to the lantern, whose oil reservoir, wick and globe all support the business of allowing the lantern to be a light generator. The light which we see is made possible by all the other parts of the lantern which support the process. So, too, with saints: They exhibit God’s light, showing by their words and by their actions that the light of Christ dwells in their hearts and minds.

So, we close with the questions with which we began:

1.           What is a saint, and how might we recognize one if we encountered one?

2.           Can we name someone we know who is a saint?

3.           Do we aspire to be a saint in our daily living and believing?

AMEN.

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[1]   All Souls Day is often known, these days, as the “Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed”.

[2]   Neither the 1958 Service Book and Hymnal, nor the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship, contain a commemoration of All Souls Day. 

Reformation Sunday, Year C (2025)

Jeremiah 31: 31–34 / Psalm 46 / Romans 3: 19-28 / John 7: 31–36

This is the written version of the sermon given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, October 26, 2025 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“THE CHURCH AS GOD’S TOOL, GOD’S AGENT IN THE WORLD”

(Homily text: Romans 3: 19-28)

Ever think about how important tools are to living our lives, day in and day out?

For example, if a knife can’t cut, it’s usefulness is impaired. If a hammer’s handle is broken or cracked, it’d be best to get it fixed before trying to use it. If a yard stick is broken, it is useless for trying to measure something.

Without tools, we’d struggle to get things done. Try driving a nail without a hammer, and it doesn’t work very well. Try cutting something without a sharp and useful knife, and the result will be a the same.

OK, perhaps you get the idea.

Now, if we think about it, the Church is God’s tool, God’s agent in the world. It is one way[1] God chooses to make His Name known in the world, to give glory to God’s Name, to bear witness not only to our wayward human behaviors and inclinations, but also to God’s great mercy and love. The Church is an effective tool when it faithfully does these things. Put another way, the Church’s purpose is to connect God to people and people to God, and to nurture that relationship.

But in the time of the Renaissance, about 500 years ago, the Church was a broken tool.

Many people in Europe saw the lack of the Church’s usefulness to the ordinary person. (But, by contrast, the clergy and the monks were doing pretty well.) Some voices dared to raise their concerns, and many paid a heavy price for doing so. (Look up the account of Jan Huss’ witness and sacrifice, to cite but one example. Huss lived about 100 years before the Reformation took place.)

The Church, in that day and time, didn’t bear witness to God. It didn’t share the message that God is a holy, righteous and judging God, but also a loving, merciful and forgiving God. The Church’s message was one of harshness, absent any mention of God’s love.

The Church was in love with worldly power, prestige and wealth. It took the message that God would sit as judge of all humankind and turned that message into a money-making scheme, selling Indulgences in order to liberate sinful people from the horrors of Purgatory and Hell. The resulting inflow of money went to Rome in order to build St. Peter’s Basilica. (One account of the influx of money from European countries was that, in England, about one-quarter to one-third of the Gross Domestic Product was going to Rome each year!)

The Church in that time did little to educate people about the basics of the Christian faith. After all, their worship was in Latin, a language that, even in that day, few people understood.

What a sad state of affairs! What a testimony to the truth that, left to their own devices, human beings can make a royal mess out of things.

Into this mess, some courageous voices emerged. Martin Luther was one such voice. On October 31, 1517, he posted a series of things he wanted to talk about on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Posting such discussions points wasn’t at all unusual, for many in the seminary there routinely did the same. It was what Luther wanted to talk about that proved to be provocative.

Luther wanted to talk about God’s grace, not only about God’s judgment. We know that Luther struggled with his own sense of sinfulness and unrighteousness before God. But all of the Church’s remedies for that situation, in his day and time, didn’t offer any relief or sense that God had forgiven his shortcomings. Luther saw in Holy Scripture (the Bible) no basis for the selling of Indulgences, realizing that such an understanding had no basis at all in God’s truth.

So, we know that Luther’s understandings were greatly helped by reading and studying St. Paul’s Letter to the early churches in Rome. There – and perhaps in our reading, appointed for today in chapter three - Luther came to understand that there was nothing he could do on his own initiative to receive God’s forgiveness and God’s mercy and love. St. Paul’s explanation offered the reality and the truth that God’s forgiveness and mercy is God’s gift, pure and simple. It is God’s free gift, received by faith.

So, Luther came to see this formula: Scripture alone, Grace alone, Faith alone.

Thus began God’s plan to fix a broken Church, an impaired witness to God’s nature, completely understood.

The tenets of the Reformation were these:

1.  That the Church’s worship ought to be in a language that people could understand;

2. That the lay folk in the Church were the most important part of the Church, not the least important part; and

3. That people ought to be able read the Holy Scriptures for themselves.

There’s much more we could say about all these things. Perhaps, as we look back on the events that Luther (and others) set in motion, we could reflect on the values that these reformers maintained. In many ways, we continue to try to understand and to incorporate those Reformation values in the Church today.

For the continuing reality is that, in this age and in every age, the Church stands in need of fixing, of reform, in order that it might be God’s effective tool in the world, bearing witness to God’s nature and devoted to sharing the Good News (Gospel) of what a difference knowing God through Christ, personally and deeply, makes in people’s lives.

AMEN.

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[1]   To be sure, the Church isn’t the only way God can work in the world. And when the Church fails to faithfully carry out its mission and mandate from God, God can work around the Church.