Christmas 1, Year A (2025)

Isaiah 63: 7–9 / Psalm 148 / Hebrews 2: 10–18 / Matthew 2: 13–23

 

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, December 28, 2025 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“GOD’S INVISIBLE NATURE, MADE KNOWN IN HIS VISIBLE ACTS”

(Homily text: Hebrews 2: 10-18)

We can understand many things in life only by observing those things we can see, things which point to things we cannot see.

For example, we meet a friend, and ask, “How are you?”.  The friend says, “Oh, I’m fine”, but the look on their face tells us something entirely different: That friend of ours is anything but fine, there’s something going on in their mind or heart.

Or, consider a situation in which a person is applying for a position in a company. That potential boss will want to have references, attesting to the applicant’s past work experience, reliability as an employee, trustworthiness, and so forth. The record of what the potential employee has done in the past is a visible indicator of the kind of person they are, and the values they maintain.

What we know about God’s nature is due to the things that God has done in the past, which point to the unseen realities of God.

Consider, for example, the Great Flood and God’s instruction to Noah to build an ark, so that Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives, eight persons in all, were able to survive the flood.[1] Because God made a way for these persons to live through that experience, we can come to the conclusion that God is a God who saves people.

The same is true of the experience of God’s people, as they found themselves on the west side of the Red Sea, with the Egyptian army closing in on them. There seemed to be no way to escape being wiped out. But then God commanded Moses to lift his staff. When he did so, the waters parted and God’s people were able to pass through on dry land.[2] Again, we can conclude that God is a God who saves people.

The things we can see that are unmistakably actions by God point to God’s nature.

God’s sending His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to take up our humanity, fits into the pattern we see of God’s nature, a nature that seeks to save people.

In the life, work, teachings, healings, miracles and care for people (especially the down trodden) of Jesus Christ, we have visible proof of God’s nature. Jesus Christ’s ability to create and to re-create point to God’s power, a power that God, alone, possesses.

With these thoughts in view, let’s turn our attention to the wonderful Letter to the Hebrews, and especially to the second chapter of this letter, which is our appointed reading for this morning.

We should begin by noting the way the author of the letter begins. Hebrews 1: 1–3 reads this way: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.”

Wow!

The opening statement of the Letter to the Hebrews sounds a lot like John 1: 1–2, which reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

That opening statement also sounds a lot like Colossians 1: 15–16a, which reads “He (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by hum all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…”

Notice the theme of the invisible and the visible in the passages from the opening of the Letter to the Hebrews, John’s Gospel account, and St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. All share a common theme: That the things we can see of God’s acts and actions point to God’s nature, which we cannot see directly.

The passage appointed for us to hear this morning bears out another truth of God’s nature: God is willing to get right into the messy aspects of life, things like the Great Flood, or the crossing of the Red Sea. In this morning’s reading, we read that Jesus Christ came, took up our humanity, becoming truly human, and – in order to confront Satan and the powers of death that separate us from one another and from God - was willing to get into the messiness of life, even to the point of dying a death like ours. By His willingness to confront death directly, Jesus Christ overcomes and conquers this, our last and greatest enemy.

The passage before us this morning goes a step further: It maintains that Jesus Christ became the high priest, who presides over His own sacrifice: Himself.[3]

God operates in our own lives, day in and day out, in the same sorts of ways that He has operated over time in events that are memorable, events that Holy Scripture records. The times in our own lives when God has stepped in, has saved us from precarious and difficult circumstances, are the same as those times when God acted in great and powerful ways…the difference is only one of magnitude. As we look back over the span of our years, can we see times when God has been active in the events of life, and especially in the difficult, messy times of our lives?

If we can, perhaps we can say that the God who loves us, who gave us His only Son, Jesus Christ, is a God who saves His people.

Thanks be to God.

AMEN.

 

---

[1]   See Genesis 6:9 – 9:19.

[2]   See Exodus 14: 1–31.

[3]   This theme will continue into the following chapters of the letter. I encourage you to read Hebrews 3:1 - 10:25. 

The Eve of the Nativity (Christmas Eve), Year A (2025)

Isaiah 9: 2–7 / Psalm 96 / Titus 2: 11–14 / Luke 2: 1–20

 

This is the written version of the sermon given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Wednesday, December 24, 2025, by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“WHAT SORT OF A GIFT HAS GOD GIVEN US?”

(Homily text: Luke 2: 1-20)

The Christmas season is a time of giving, and receiving, gifts. Indeed, the retail establishments all around us have been encouraging us to buy gifts for giving at this time of the year for some months now. (Perhaps many of us are weary from the constant urgings to tap into the commercial aspects of this holiday.)

Since the secular observance of Christmas seems to overtake our attentions, perhaps it’d be a good idea for us to step back from all of that, inhale deeply, and set those things aside, that we may concentrate on the essential meaning of this celebration.

After all, the essence of Christmas, and its basic focus and meaning, is on the giving of the greatest gift that has ever been given to us: The sending of God’s only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to take up our humanity, to live and die as one of us, to show us the way to the Father.

As we step back, perhaps it might help our own contemplation of God’s mighty act in sending Jesus to consider some of the ways in which this gift unfolded as our Lord grew up and began His ministry. It will also help us if we contrast His behavior and His attitudes up against the commonly-held beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of the culture among God’s chosen people in the time of His earthly sojourn.

We might begin with this radical truth: There are no outcasts in God’s kingdom. In the culture of the time 2,000 years ago, there were many such outcasts: The notorious sinners (like tax collectors), or the Samaritans, or those with diseases or who were poor. To the people back then, all those who suffered in some way were being punished by God for some egregious sin. To all such, our Lord says, “Come, God loves you.” To such as these, our Lord says, “You are not permanently beyond God’s ability to cure, to fix, to love.”

Our Lord came to break down barriers that separate human beings, one from another. Barriers of race, ethnicity, wealth or poverty, all were welcome in God’s kingdom. All were precious creations of God, God’s unique and wonderful work. Every single person was worthy of God’s love, and worthy of beginning a walk with God which led to a new, full and meaningful life. (After all, when we have a genuine encounter with God, we will never be in the same place as when the journey began.) The early Church grew, in part, because it offered a radical welcome to all sorts of persons: noble ones, slaves, rich ones and poor ones. God’s radical love, made known in Christ, was generously offered to all…as a result, many in the Greco-Roman world of the first century found worth, value, meaning to life and love, perhaps for the first time in their lives.

The Lord came, bringing with Him the ability to create, and to re-create. He fed large crowds of people. He healed the sick, and cured the lame. He delivered those who had become wards of Satan’s power. He demonstrated His power over the creation, stilling the waters of the sea. God’s power to create was – and is - made known in His work.

To God’s people back then, the coming Messiah[1] would be a mighty king like King David of old. He would come, riding into Jerusalem on a white horse, his sword held high. This Messiah came, however, riding on a donkey. This Messiah came, saying He had come to serve, not to be served. We see such servanthood in His death on a cross on Good Friday. This Messiah came to proclaim God’s love and God’s righteousness.[2]

Our Lord’s kingship ushers in a kingdom that will have no end. Unlike the earthly Messiah that many were expecting at the time of Jesus’ birth, the kingdom they were looking for would have, in the fulness of time, ceased to be, as the kings of Jesus’ line died out, or the kingdom was overcome by some event or another. But this heavenly kingdom, come to dwell on earth, not just in heaven, will have no end, and our Lord Jesus Christ’s kingship is everlasting, as the time will surely come when His rule and His lordship is acknowledged by all.

But perhaps one of the most significant aspects of our Lord’s birth is what it tells us about how God often operates. For every few knew of Jesus’ advent into the world. The shepherds knew, as Luke tells us, and those who attended to Mary during the birthing process. Joseph knew, and perhaps a few others. Not many, though, knew.

Oftentimes, God’s works quietly, in human hearts, that place where things change and can be changed.

For, the gift of Jesus Christ, God’s gift to you, to me, and to each and every person who invites the Lord into their hearts, is a gift from the heart of God to your heart, my heart, a gift that is offered to all and received by faith.

AMEN.

---

[1]   The title “Messiah” is derived from the Hebrew word meaning “anointed”. Christ means the same thing, coming to us from the Greek.

[2]   Critical to our understanding of God’s nature is that God is a righteous and holy God, but also a loving and merciful God. Martin Luther’s faith journey came, in time, to this recognition. Lutherans have, ever since, offered this understanding as a gift to the wider Church and to the world. 

Advent 4, Year A (2025)

Isaiah 7: 10–16 / Psalm 90: 1–7, 18–18 / Romans 1: 1–7 / Matthew 1: 18–25

 

This is the written version on the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, December 21, 2025, by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“PREPARATORY STEPS”

(Homily text: Matthew 1: 18–25)

Whenever we think about doing something, or building something, there is a pattern to the process from conception to the finished task/product that – in most cases – unfolds. It looks something like this: We conceive of an idea or something that would be useful to have/do or make use of; we think of what it will take to bring this concept to reality; we gather the resources we will need to make it happen (people, raw materials, etc.); and then we create whatever it is we have in mind.  Usually, after it’s all said and done, we step back to see how well the concept worked out in real life.

That same process is – at its heart – the process that Matthew describes as he tells us about the work that God had to do in order to get Joseph ready for the coming of Jesus.

In the mind and heart of God, a concept arose which had to do with the saving of humankind. This concept is an old one, for God had been about the business of saving His people for quite a long time before the birth of Jesus. Consider, for example, Noah and the Great Flood: Essentially, this is an account of one of God’s saving acts. Or consider the parting of the Red Sea so that God’s people could pass safely through the waters on their way to the Promised Land…that is another of God’s saving acts. We could also mention the return of God’s people from exile in Babylon, which is another of God’s saving acts. (These are just some examples in Holy Scripture.)

Matthew’s concern is to show the process by which God brought about the birth of Jesus, from the conception of that divine idea, to the enlistment of Joseph to assist in that plan, to the birth of Jesus. Matthew’s concern is to focus on the work God had to do to get Joseph ready for this event. (Luke’s focus is on the things God had to do to get Mary ready for the birth…we will hear that account on Christmas Eve.)

As we look closely at the text, we see that God’s intent is to continue to save His people. Jesus[1] is the name by which the child will be known, a name which means “God saves”. Matthew explains the meaning of the holy name, to be sure that his readers and hearers have the basic premise of God’s plan clearly in view.

What God intended to do in the sending of Jesus is a continuation of what God had been doing for a very long time. (See the list, provided above.) God had been about the business of preserving His people…we could say that one of the attributes of God is that He saves. But now, God takes a major step, depending not on discernable actions (like providing a way to survive the flood, as with Noah, or by parting the waters, as with Moses and God’s people), not depending on the words, testimonies and warnings of the prophets, but now in the sending of God’s very self. That’s why Matthew tells us that Jesus will be Immanuel, meaning “God with us”.

In the fulness of time, God chose Joseph and Mary to be the means by which His plan would become reality. As in most any plan or conception of something, resources would be needed in order to make the plan into reality. God needed people to bring about the human side of this plan to save people…he chose Joseph and Mary.

We will understand what Matthew relates to us more clearly if we take a moment to understand the customs of courtship, engagement and marriage in the culture of the time, which differ from our customs and practices today.

A couple, desiring to be married, entered into a betrothal, an engagement. This was done with a ceremony, which became a binding one, one that could be ended only by a divorce. During this time, the man and the woman were called “husband” and “wife”. However, the betrothal did not allow for the consummation of the marriage and the possibility of conceiving children. That stage would wait until the marriage, itself, took place.

No wonder, then, that Joseph is in a tough spot. (So is Mary, by the way.) For the traditional culture of the time forbid conceiving a child except within the context of marriage.[2] In fact, the Law of Moses prescribed the death penalty for being pregnant without the benefit of marriage. (Notice Joseph’s compassion for Mary…he decides to spare Mary from the punishment usually prescribed for violating the Law’s requirement…he chooses to “divorce her quietly”, which might be a way of saying that Joseph decided to essentially consign Mary to a state of permanent house arrest.)

In order for God to prepare Joseph for his role in God’s plan, some clear message that is unmistakably from God would be needed. That mechanism was a dream, whereby God tells Joseph that Mary hasn’t violated the requirements of the Mosaic Law at all...the child she has conceived is of divine origin.[3]

As part of this plan, as in any plan, the people involved need to “buy into” the plan. Matthew tells us that Joseph does so, eventually taking Mary as his wife.

One of the key understandings of theology, which is (at least in part) the study of God’s nature and God’s ways of acting, is that for God to be God, He will act in similar ways in our time as He has done in the past. (Holy Scripture is, at least in part, a record of God’s actions among human beings in times past…today’s Gospel reading fits squarely into that understanding.)

God’s acting in our lives fits into the pattern which we described earlier: For each of us, God has a plan in mind for our lives. God then informs us in some way of those plans. We are asked to “buy into” God’s plan. We are then asked to act on God’s plan (which might involve change, or it might involve some sort of risk).

Perhaps then, we might reflect on the ways in which God is asking each of us to find out what God’s plan is for our lives (which might change as time goes along), then to be willing to accept God’s plan, and then, finally, to do what God has in mind.

To do so is to find our truest and fullest self.

AMEN.

---

[1]   The Hebrew version of the name is Jeshua.

[2]   Our own culture today has lost much of this sense.

[3]   The role of the Holy Spirit, which Matthew tells us, was key to God’s plan, might be difficult for us who are Christian believers today to understand, for we understand quite a lot about the Holy Spirit, the Spirit’s work, and so forth. But it would be well for us to remember that the understandings of the Spirit, the Spirit’s relationship to the other two Persons of the Holy Trinity, and so forth, were new concepts for early Christians, such as those who read and heard Matthew’s Gospel account. In time, as the Church reflected on God’s actions, it came to the mature understanding of the identity and the work of the Spirit, and the Spirit’s relationship as part of the Holy Trinity.

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.

---

[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.

---

[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.

---

[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.

---

[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.

---

[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.