Easter 6, Year C (2025)

Acts 16:  9–15 / Psalm 67 / Revelation 21: 10; 22 – 22: 5 / John 14: 23–29

This is the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, May 25, 2025 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“REMINDERS”

(Homily text: John 14: 23–29)

Reminders.

They are everywhere, and they assist us to make our way, day-by-day, through life, enabling us not to forget the things we ought to do, the stuff we need to take with us, and the values we cherish which shape and mold us into the persons we should be.

So, for example, a reminder might be that object that we put on the floor just inside the door, so that when we leave, we will have to walk over it to get where we’re going (one of my favorite tricks, by the way, and quite effective!). Another example might be that photo on the wall of someone who’s been influential in our lives at some point or another. Still another example might be an object, given as a gift by someone who’s role in our lives manages to cast a favorable shadow over us today. One more example might suffice to illustrate the point: That person who writes on their hands in ball point ink the things they hope to do or to remember during the day. (When asked about this practice, and when told that there is paper for such things, the individual said that, yes, there is paper upon which to write a list of the tasks for the day, but then they manage to misplace or lose the paper, thereby also losing the “to-do” list.)

In our Gospel text, appointed for this day, our Lord Jesus Christ tells His disciples that He will - once He has returned to the Father - send the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, who will lead them into all truth, and will remind them of all that He has taught them.

(Before we dig into this a bit, let’s recall that this portion of John’s Gospel account recalls and relates those things that the Lord said and did during the Last Supper.[1] We would also do well to remember that – in John’s account – the Holy Spirit is addressed as “Advocate”, a term that carries with it a legal association, much like an attorney would who stands alongside a client in a courtroom.)

Let’s notice the two points that the Lord makes about the work and the role of the Spirit: We might begin by noticing that the Lord says that this Advocate will lead us into all truth.

This is the truth that comes from the Father, and which has been given to the Son. (Recall our Lord’s statement in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one”.)

The second thing to notice is that the Lord tells those original Twelve, He will be going away. But, He says, the Holy Spirit will be the transmitter and the maintainer of truth. That same Spirit will remind those original Twelve of the things that the Lord had told them during the time of His earthly sojourn.

The repository of what the Lord had said and done – for us as Christian believers today – is Holy Scripture, the Bible.

A question arises: Do we think of Holy Scripture as a set of reminders?

It is, of course. In its pages are the accounts of what Jesus said and did during the time of His ministry. Also in its pages are the accounts of the successes and the failures of the heroes of Scripture. Yes, it’s all there: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Truth-telling, to be sure, and one reason to trust the voice of Scripture, for it lays bare the ways in which the ones whom God had chosen to do His will over time didn’t make the grade. There’s no whitewashing the deeds and the lives of the saints. Most of them (though not all) have mistakes – sometimes really bad ones – in the record of their lives and their walk with God.

Those missteps are reminders for us today, saying (in effect): Learn from the experience of so-and-so.

The lives of the saints (and here, I think of those saints we would address with a capital “S”, Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and so forth) are reminders. Their faithfulness ensures that we are, to some degree or another, their spiritual offspring.

Those in the Church with whom we associate and with whom we worship Sunday-by-Sunday and with whom we serve are reminders. We see in others how God is moving and working in their lives. Those successes (and yes, the shortcomings, too) are reminders of God’s will and God’s ways.

One final point might be worth mentioning: As the Church moves forward into the years which lie ahead, it would be easy for it to forget those essentials of the faith upon which it was founded. It’d be easy to wander off into this cause or that one, to set up idols (defined as anything that takes God’s rightful and central place in our devotion and attention) of any number of worthwhile endeavors. To avoid this misstep, reminders, such as those that Holy Scripture and the assistance of the Holy Spirit, are vital.

AMEN.

 

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[1]   In John’s account, chapters thirteen through seventeen

Easter 5, Year C (2025)

Acts 11:1–18 / Psalm 148 / Revelation 21:1–6 / John 13:31–35

This is the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, May 18, 2025 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“COOTIES AND OTHER DISGUSTING STATES”

(Homily texts:  Acts 11:1 – 18 & John 13:31 – 35)

As people relate to one another, and particularly as they get to know one another well, some level of back-and-forth banter often begins to take place. For example, there might be some sort of mild teasing. Or, some sort of an “in” joke might develop among these friends as their relationship develops.

Grade school children often do this with their classmates. Recall in your own life experiences your time in grade school…did you accuse other people of having “cooties”? One way I recall this word being used was to say that boys had “boy cooties”.

In today’s reading from the Book of Acts, St. Peter is being accused of hanging around with Gentiles. The party within the Church that advocated the strict adoption of all the requirements of the Law of Moses (Torah) were essentially saying to Peter, “You shouldn’t be hanging around with those Gentiles. Don’t you know that they have cooties?”

As the young Church grew, it – and the Good News of God in Christ that it carried and shared with others – was bound to attract a wide range of people, including Gentiles. The question before the Church was to determine who could become a member of this new movement, and on what grounds could they be admitted.

So serious was this matter that a council was convened to sort out the various approaches to this subject. You can read about it in chapter fifteen of the Book of Acts. The council met in Jerusalem in the year 49 AD.

It’s interesting to note how Luke (the writer not only of the Gospel account which hears his name, but also the Book of Acts) describes those who were accusing Peter of bad behavior by hanging around with non-Jews. Luke uses the term “circumcision party”. We will see this term again in chapter fifteen as Luke describes the decision-making process that took place at the Council of Jerusalem. We also read, in Acts 15:5, that it was the party of the Pharisees who were maintaining that a person couldn’t enter the Church unless they adhered to all the requirements of the Law of Moses.

(Did you know that the early Church was composed of varying sorts of people and groups? Furthermore, it’s worth noting that – though the early Church was united in its witness to Christ – the Church varied from place-to-place in its method of organization, theological emphases, and so forth.[1])

The decisions that were reached at the Council of Jerusalem amount to a series of compromises. (Surprising? Shouldn’t be, I don’t think...the Church, at various times in its life, has had to make compromises on a number of issues.) I commend to your reading and contemplation the account of the proceedings at the Council of Jerusalem:  Acts 15:1 – 29.

As we think about the convictions of those of the “circumcision party”, we might come to the conclusion that they had missed something – something important – in Jesus’ own conduct and His decisions about whom to associate with.

Our Lord hung around with some pretty disreputable types: Tax collectors, prostitutes, and – yes – Gentiles. Recall the Lord’s encounter with the Syro-Phoenician woman.[2]  This woman confronts Jesus’ own perspective, challenging Him to see that God’s intent was to fold into the divine plan not only Jews, but also non-Jews, Gentiles.

Moreover, the Lord’s consistent message, during His earthly ministry, was one of outreach, and one of love. (See today’s Gospel reading for our Lord’s emphasis on the requirement to love.) Possessing such a love will be – our Lord says – a marker of discipleship.

If we think about it, we all, every one of us, have “spiritual cooties”. We – in our unredeemed state – are separated from God by our sinful nature. Holy Baptism is the means by which that unclean state is washed away, and we are raised to a new life.[3]

The decisions reached at the Council of Jerusalem amount to a radical welcome to those who had come to faith in Christ, but who were not blood descendants of Abraham.  The Council affirms our Lord’s call to amendment of life in its decisions. The early Church, in its radical welcoming of all persons, also maintained that becoming a follower of Jesus meant that there would be changes in life, a change in perspective, growth in the faith, and an abandonment of the ways of that life that existed before coming to the Lord.

Maintaining a balance between the radical welcome that marked the early Church’s life, along with its insistence on a new and holy way of living, one that was marked with the pattern set by our Lord, isn’t easy. In our own day, such a balance is often missing, either by those who think the Church is a country club for saints, or by those who think that “anything goes” for those who are welcomed into the fellowship of Christ’s body.

AMEN.

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[1]   With regard to the makeup of the early Church, I commend to you an excellent book by the New Testament scholar (and Roman Catholic priest) Raymond Brown, who maintained that there were no less that seven different models of Church organization and outlooks in the early years of the Church’s existence. His book (still available) is “The Churches the Apostles Left Behind”.

[2]   See Mark 7:24 – 30.

[3]   See St. Paul’s description of Baptism in Romans 6:3 – 9. 

Easter 4, Year C (2025)

Good Shepherd Sunday - Acts 9: 36-43 / Psalm 23 / Revelation 7: 9–17 / John 10: 22–30

This is the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, May 11, 2025 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“CONECTEDNESS”

(Homily texts:  Acts 9: 36–43 & John 10: 22–30)

Ever since I was a very young boy, I have been fascinated by – and in love with – steam locomotives and railroads in general.

I am old enough to remember these great big machines pulling passenger and freight trains across the Nebraska prairies. (It is gratifying to know that, nowadays, there are many younger people who can’t remember steam engines in service on the railroads of the country, but who are fascinated by them – as I am – and who are learning to care for, operate and maintain them.)

A steam engine – or a diesel locomotive these days – has no real purpose without something to pull. They might be wonderful to look at in a museum, or, they might be something to be admired from a technical standpoint. But the purpose of a locomotive is to move things. Freight cars and passenger cars can’t move themselves (unless – in the case of passenger cars – they are self-propelled somehow). So there is a symbiotic relationship between the source of the power to move things and the things that are being moved. One is dependent upon the other for its purpose and usefulness.

It strikes me that this is a good way to view the relationship between God (yes, that God whom Jesus Christ called His Father), Jesus Christ, and those who have come into relationship with the Father, the Son (and the Holy Spirit). Simply put, we might say that God the Father is the designer of the power to change things. Sort of like the designer of a great locomotive. (Hope this does justice to God the Father’s power and care for the world and the people in it!)

It is this God who sent Jesus Christ to be among us, to show us the way to God. In our Gospel reading, appointed for this Good Shepherd Sunday, we read our Lord’s statement, “I and the Father are one.” Meaning, of course, that the Father and the Son are connected. If we can make further use of our railroad analogy, we might say that the Son mirrors the design and the will of the Father, in much the same way that a locomotive mirrors the will and the design of its designer. No wonder then, that in John’s Gospel account, we read that the Son says that all that the Father has given Him is that which He has made known to us. (See John 15:15b.)

One-ness with the Father and the Son makes it possible for God’s will and God’s ways to be known in the world. So it is that we hear the account of Peter’s raising of Tabitha (Dorcas) in our first reading this morning.  Having come into a relationship with the Son, Peter’s connectedness to Jesus enables God’s power and God’s will to be known in the world. Recall that one of the markers of God’s activity is God’s ability to create and to re-create. In this case, God’s power is known in bringing Dorcas back to life again. Peter’s one-ness with the Lord makes God’s power manifest.

You and I, as modern-day disciples, follow in a great train (there’s that railroad imagery again!) of the Apostles, the great Saints and Martyrs, who have borne witness to God’s ability to create and to re-create. God’s power to make all things new destroys the ways of the Evil One, whose intent is to separate us from God, the God who is the source of all life and all that is honorable and true.

Only by maintaining our connection to God the Father through God the Son, may we be agents of God’s creative and re-creative power in the world.

AMEN.

  

Easter 3, Year C (2025)

Acts 9: 1–20 / Psalm 30 / Revelation 5: 11–14 / John 21: 1–19

This is the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday May 4, 2025, by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“TURN AROUND!”

(Homily texts: Acts 9: 1–20 & John 21: 1–19)

A good many years ago, when I was a member of the U. S. Army Chorus (which is part of the U. S. Army Band in Washington, DC), we were scheduled to sing for a high-level military event. Because it was a very high-level event, there were many General officers in attendance.

For events like this, the usual practice was for there to be a break in the events following the evening’s dinner and whatever items there were to discuss. Then, after the break, the Chorus would perform.

On that particular evening, the Sergeant Major of the Chorus lined us up in the hallway as it was getting to be time for us to sing. Mind you, many of these Generals were walking right past where we’d lined up, down the hallway. The Sergeant Major then realized that he’d lined us up backwards, and that we would have to reverse our position. Two options then presented themselves: We could either march our way around to the correct orientation, or we could simply, each one of us, turn around. Since there were so many people making their way down the hall, Option One wasn’t feasible. For some reason, the Sergeant Major couldn’t remember the order to turn us around. That should have been “Chorus, About Face”.  Instead, he said, “Chorus, turn around”. He couldn’t see the many Generals who were walking past him as he said this very un-military command, but we could. We were slightly embarrassed. (Fortunately, there were no repercussions from this incident, although many of us wondered what those Generals who might have heard that very un-military order might have thought of the Sergeant Major, or of us.)

“Turn Around!”

That’s the common thread which connects our reading from the Book of Acts, and the last chapter in John’s Gospel account. Both Saul (later to be known as Paul) and Simon Peter were in need of a turn-around. Both were heading in the wrong direction.

Saul (Paul) was dedicated to destroying this new movement of the followers of Jesus, known in those early days as The Way. He was on his way to the city of Damascus to find anyone who belonged to this new movement, and to bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment.

On his way, a bright light shown from heaven, and a voice is heard, saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” The voice, of course, is that of Jesus.[1]

Now, the Lord begins to put together a plan to get Saul (Paul) going in the right direction. He informs a disciple named Ananias to find Saul (Paul), to lay hands on him and to restore his sight, and to baptize him.

It seems clear that the Lord looked down on Saul (Paul) and may have concluded that the spread of the Good News (Gospel) needed someone with the gifts that Saul (Paul) possessed. Those gifts were many: He was thoroughly familiar with the Law of Moses, and of the Old Testament Scriptures. He had studied with Gamaliel, one of the most prominent rabbis of the day. He was a Roman citizen, one who knew Greek, Hebrew, and, perhaps, also Aramaic and Latin. He was possessed of an enormous intellect. Moreover, the determination he had shown in pursuing the members of this new movement, The Way, would serve him well as he went out into the Gentile, non-Jewish world, carrying with him the Good News of what God had done in sending Jesus Christ. The Lord predicted the challenges that Saul (Paul) would face in carrying out God’s plan for spreading the Good News…when Ananias was told to find Saul (Paul), he objected, knowing his reputation. But the Lord told him, “Go, for he is my chosen instrument to carry my name to the Gentiles, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name,” (Acts 9: 15–16)

Saul (Paul) did, indeed, turn around. We, today, are all the beneficiaries of his work and his faithfulness.

Now, let’s turn to Simon Peter’s circumstances.

Recall that Simon Peter had denied the Lord three times as Jesus had been arrested and was standing before Caiaphas, the High Priest. (The three denials take place around a charcoal fire.)

Peter and the other disciples are eyewitnesses of the Lord’s resurrection. But in today’s reading, we discover that Peter told some of the other disciples that he was going fishing. (We might wonder why he’d made that decision – and it’s important to note that Scripture doesn’t tell us the reasons – perhaps he was going fishing until some new developments had taken place, or perhaps because he thought that this new movement didn’t have a future.)

Whatever the motivation or reasoning, Peter and some of the other disciples are in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. All night, they catch nothing. Then, a man on the shore tells them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. When the resulting large haul of fish begins to break the nets, it is the disciple whom Jesus loved (traditionally, this would be John) who recognized Jesus, saying, “It is the Lord!”.

Then, Peter’s turnaround takes place after breakfast, and around another charcoal fire. The Lord asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” The three questions mirror the three denials, and these three questions mark Peter’s restoration. They also mark Peter’s charge from the Lord to go in a new direction, putting away the uncertainties, the denials, and the bumbling ways that marked Peter’s relationship with the Lord prior to the resurrection, prior to these three penetrating questions, and prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

“Yes, Lord, you know that I love you”, Peter answers.

Each of the three questions, “Do you love me” are followed by an instruction: 1. “Feed my lambs”; 2. Tend my sheep”; and 3. “Feed my sheep”.

Peter, like Saul (Paul) has work to do, work in the Lord’s kingdom, serving and following the Lord in a new direction.

We, today, are all the beneficiaries of Peter’s faithfulness and work.

These two mighty saints, whom we know today as St. Paul and St. Peter, stand as examples of the process that is an essential part of our walk with God.

The process is two-fold: 1. They each received a call from the Lord; and 2. They obeyed that call, with the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment and strength.

That process comes to each of us, believers in the Lord’s resurrection, in the new life that that rising to new life guarantees to all who come to faith, and who seek to heed the Lord’s call, turning in a new direction in response to the Lord’s prompting.

Come, Lord Jesus, that we may hear and heed your call to go in a direction that you would have us go. Come, Holy Spirit, strengthen us and guide us into the paths the Lord would have us go.

AMEN.

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[1]   Apparently, Saul’s (Paul’s) conversion was important enough to the early Church that the account we read this morning from Acts, chapter nine, is repeated again in chapter twenty-six.