Easter 7 (The Sunday after Ascension Day), Year A (2026)

Acts 1: 6–14 / Psalm 68: 1–10, 32–35 / I Peter 4: 12–14; 5: 6–11 / John 17: 1–11

 

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, May 17, 2026, by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

                  

“INVITED AND DRAWN INTO THE INNER LIFE OF GOD”

(Homily text: John 17: 1-11)

Life has the ability to offer many blessings. One of the most wonderful things that can bless and support us in our earthly journey is a close and deeply personal relationship with someone. That “someone” might be our marriage partner. Or that “someone” could be a close friend, or perhaps a parent or a grandparent, or perhaps a schoolmate.

Such persons are ones we can share our innermost thoughts, concerns, struggles and desires with. We are able, with such persons, to share anything and everything, all in confidence.

It is just this sort of a relationship that our Lord Jesus Christ describes in this morning’s Gospel reading, which is a portion of what has come to be known as the Lord’s “High Priestly Prayer”. This prayer occupies all of chapter seventeen of John’s Gospel account. We hear just the beginning portion of it this morning.

The prayer concludes John’s extensive account of what happened as Jesus and His disciples celebrated and observed the feast of Passover. In John’s account, chapters thirteen through seventeen tell us about the events that took place on that night before our Lord suffered and died on Good Friday.

John’s unique writing style is evident as the prayer unfolds. In verses one through eleven, Jesus prays for Himself, and for the original band of disciples, as He is about to leave them. Then, in verses twelve through nineteen, John advances the narrative, as Jesus prays for that original band of disciples who will soon become Apostles, as they are sent out into the world carrying the Good News of God, made known in the sending of Jesus Christ. Finally, verses twenty through the end of the chapter, at verse twenty-six, Jesus prays for those who will come to faith through the work of the Apostles. (Yes, that includes you and me!)

John’s writing style has been compared to a series of loops, by which an idea is introduced. Then the idea is advanced a little at a time as the narrative unfolds.

Now then, let’s return to the theme with which we began: The blessing that is ours by virtue of a close and deeply personal relationship with someone.

That “someone”, in the case of the Lord’s High Priestly Prayer, is the Lord Himself. In Jesus’ prayer, we are invited into a close, personal, and a deep love relationship with the fulness of God, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

For, you see, Jesus Christ’s coming sheds light on the nature of the Father. His coming also sheds light on the nature of the Spirit.

And we are invited into the inner life of God, into the fulness of God’s identity as the Three-in-One, the Holy Trinity. We are invited into a place where we can share our innermost longings, desires, concerns, challenges, shortcomings and disappointments. At the same time, God, as our trusted companion in the walk of faith, is also that One we can share our celebrations and the high points of our lives with.

What a blessed state, to find ourselves drawn into the inner life of the God of all, that One who – in the final analysis – will be the One whose will and whose love will endure, and will conquer all things.

AMEN. 

Easter 6, Year A (2026)

Acts 17: 22–31 / Psalm 66: 8–20 / I Peter 3: 13-22 / John 14: 15-21

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, May 10, 2026 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“HOLY BAPTISM: A NEW BEGINNING AND A BARRIER”

(Homily text: I Peter 3: 13–22)

Across the country at this time of year, many young people will be attending Commencement exercises, as they graduate from the schools they’ve been attending. In the process, a chapter in their lives ends, and a new one begins. Though we may not think of it, it might be useful for us to reflect on the basic meaning of the word “commencement”, for it literally means “to begin”.

These young graduates, as they leave the lives they’ve known in whatever setting they’ve grown used to in their academic pursuits, experience the creation of a barrier of sorts in their lives. For many graduates, their commencement exercises will mark the last time they set foot on school grounds or buildings. For others, their time in the institution will form an important chapter in their lives, one that many will look back on with fondness, but – nonetheless – they will move away from their lives in academia as they venture forth into new pursuits. For a few, the friendships and the relationships formed during their school years will survive into the future.

Living life entails the ending of some things, and the beginning of new things.

For example, we leave employment in one place, and pick up employment in another.

We meet and marry someone, leaving our former lives behind, to cite another example.

Holy Baptism is much like the examples we’ve cited above. When we enter the waters of baptism, we set aside our former lives, in order to pick up a new identity as God’s own child, one who enters into a deep, abiding and personal love relationship with the Lord.

The early Church marked this change in a dramatic way. (Some of the early Church’s practice survives in our liturgy today.)

Back in the early centuries of the Church’s existence, when people had come for baptism, they entered the waters of a pond, lake, river or creek. They faced west, and were asked questions of the sort of “Do you renounce Satan and all the powers of evil which seek to separate us from God?” The answer is given, “I renounce them”.

Then, after a series of similar questions, the person to be baptized turned around to face east (toward Jerusalem and the place where our Lord Jesus Christ died and rose again). Then, they were asked to affirm their faith in Christ.

Today, our baptismal liturgy involves three questions which renounce those things that form barriers between us and God. And then, there are three affirmations of our faith in the Lord and our determination to follow Him as Savior and Lord.

St. Peter, writing in his first letter, captures the meaning and the importance of baptism. He compares baptism to the passage of Noah, Noah’s wife, their three sons and their wives, eight persons in all, through the waters of the Great Flood. (The number of persons who were saved from the waters of the flood, eight in all, is important, for in Holy Scripture, the number eight often indicates a new beginning. Our baptismal font, for this same reason, has eight sides, to remind us of the new beginning that baptism represents.)

Water passages of the sort that Noah experienced drive home the dual meanings related to baptism, for water has the ability to kill. But water is also necessary for life to exist.

Baptism captures this double meaning: Passing through the waters means that, as we descend into the waters, we are placing our whole trust, our entire lives, in God’s hands, trusting that He will lift us up out of the waters, in order that we may continue in a new way, a new path, a new chapter in life, living out our part of the love relationship that baptism confirms.

From this day forward, those who are baptized, and especially those who are baptized as infants or very young children, will need guidance and reminders of the claim that baptism establishes on their lives, as they are affirmed as children of God, beloved persons of God’s deliberate creating.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN. 

Easter 5, Year A (2026)

Acts 7: 55-60 / Psalm 31: 1–5, 15–16 / I Peter 2: 2–10 / John 14: 1–14

 

This is the written version of the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, May 3, 2026 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.

 

“THE GOSPEL: USE – OR – MISUSE?”

(Homily text: John 14: 1–14)

We use many things in the course of our daily lives. Things that make life easier, more convenient, or which enable us to do things we would, otherwise, not be able to do.

Most all of these things can be used properly, within the design and the limitations of each.

But they can also be misused, often resulting in damage to the thing itself, or to the people using the thing(s).

Consider, for example, a hammer. It can be used to drive a nail, or to insert something into a place where it’s supposed to go, but won’t. But a hammer can also be misused, used to break things.

Consider the Seven Deadly Sins. Each one of these is rooted in some naturally-occurring desire or need. But they become sins when those naturally-occurring desires or needs are misused. Gluttony is the misuse of our need to eat. Avarice (an old word for “greed”) is the misuse of our need to have our basic needs met. Sloth is the misuse of our need for rest. And so forth with the others.

Even very good things can be misused.

Consider, for example, the Gospel, the Good News of God in Christ.

The Gospel, this very good news, that, too, can be misused.

Which brings us to today’s Gospel text, and – in particular – to Jesus’ statement that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). And then, especially, this part of His statement which follows: “No one comes to the Father except through me”.

For Christian believers, this statement is, indeed, very good news. It is life-changing news, it is news that makes all things different and all things new.

But we Christian believers can easily misuse this assurance from the Lord.

We can act as though we have an exclusive claim on this good news. We can use this good news as a club or a hammer to goad and prod unbelievers into faith.

Of course, such an approach doesn’t work very well. In fact, it’s counterproductive. Furthermore, it doesn’t mirror the sorts of ways that our Lord behaved with those who were deemed, in the time of His earthly visitation, to be “notorious sinners”.

We could call such an attitude that seeks to raise ourselves up to some highly-placed position in God’s kingdom “spiritual arrogance”.

How might we be aware of – and guard against – the misuse of such a wonderful thing as God’s offer of love, new life and grace? How might we step back, in order to take a good look at ourselves and how we behave when we speak of the things of God”

Perhaps we might begin with an attitude of humility. After all, God’s offer of love, new life and grace is just that, an offer, a gift. It isn’t something that we either deserve or merit. We have no standing upon which to say that we deserve God’s goodness.

Humility leads us to ask ourselves, “What is it that I might be missing, when I consider God’s will for my life?”. Joined to that question is this one: “In what ways do I fail to show by my life that Jesus Christ dwells within my heart?”.

Realizing that God’s prerogatives mean that He is the One who will, in the final analysis, be the judge of who has found favor in His sight ought to set our priorities straight. Our ability to determine who is – and who isn’t – a child of God is a matter that God, alone, makes. Such a determination is echelons above our human pay grade.

One other thought is worth mentioning…If we have come to a place of faith in God’s promises, then that place that we have come to is due entirely to God’s grace, which has come before us, coming into our hearts and minds often before we are aware of the Holy Spirit’s work to soften our hearts and to prepare our minds to receive God’s truth.[1]

Our prayer then, might be for God to install an attitude of humility and gratitude in our hearts and minds for the goodness of God, which has brought us to the place of faith we find ourselves in this day. And, we ought to pray for the Holy Spirit to continue His cleansing and empowering work, that we might be the image of Christ to all we encounter.

AMEN.

---

[1]   Such a grace carries a technical term: Prevenient Grace, meaning a grace from God which comes before our awareness of it. (An original meaning of the word “prevent” was to “come before”.)