Homily A17 Christmas Day

Homily for

The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Sunday 25 December 2016

The Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

A Parish of the Diocese of Bethlehem and The Episcopal Church

Readings:

http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearABC_RCL/Christmas/ChrsDay3_RCL.html

Once more today we keep Christmas, the Mass of the Nativity of Christ.  Last night in the first Mass of Christmas we heard the birth account from St. Luke the Evangelist.  Today in this second Mass we hear the account of St. John the Evangelist.  He gives us no record whatsoever of the birth.  His account serves the purpose of telling us who this Jesus is and why he is so important.

I love this passage from John's Gospel.  It is one that we as Christians need to know well.  I say that because there are all sorts of opinions about Jesus the son of Mary, born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth, who was put to death in Jerusalem.  Even history affirms these things, and among those who make no religious claims whatsoever, these things are affirmed.  Among the religions of the world, there are a number of them who affirm that this Jesus was a very wise man who taught very commendable teachings full of wisdom.  They will even quote his wisdom and use it to teach others how one ought to live.

Things get interesting when we look at the views of the offspring of the great Patriarch Abraham.  The Jews deny completely that Jesus is a prophet and the Messiah long foretold by other prophets.  The Muslims acknowledge Jesus to be a great prophet, second only to Mohamed.  In fact they even believe that the one who shall judge the living and the dead on the Last Day is none other than Jesus.

But we Christians stand alone.  Our view of who Jesus is is unique to us.  When we are asked the question, "who is Jesus; God or human?" our answer is this: "Yes!"

This answer comes straight out of John.  This Evangelist tells us that: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  Only it's even more powerful than this.  We confess every time we read the Nicene Creed that there is but One God.  If we literally translate what John has written, what he is in fact saying is that this Jesus, the Eternal Word of God, is the God, the one and only God.

In this proclamation of the identity of Jesus as true God in our midst, we find the true reason why we keep glad Christmas.  God has broken into our world.  In Jesus we have confronted not just a wise man.  We come face to face with a God who does not abandon us but rather who has chosen to be in our midst always and ultimately to bring us through this life and into the heavenly life where we shall stand before God and live with God forever.

It is fitting that this year we keep this second Mass of Christmas on Sunday, the Lord's Day, the Day of Resurrection.  Today not only do we celebrate the birth of Christ.  More importantly we proclaim his resurrection, as we do each Sunday.  In celebrating his birth, we are mindful that Jesus was not simply born.  He lived among us.  He performed acts of healing that can be attributed only to God.  And even as we behold the babe in a manger, we are mindful of the cross on which Jesus died and the tomb where his lifeless body was laid to rest.

If this Jesus were anyone other than the God of heaven and earth, as John proclaims him in today's Gospel, the cross and tomb would be the last word, a word of defeat and death, an image that would rightly make us wonder at why we celebrate the birth of a man now long dead.  But Jesus is not dead!  On the Third Day he rose victorious from the grave.  And in rising from the dead, the ultimate affirmation that he is the one true God come among us, he gives us the promise that as he lives forever, so also shall we live forever, first in this live and in this world, and afterwards in the life of the world to come.

Today we keep glad Christmas not as a people who look backward into history.  We are a people who believe that the presence of Christ gives us hope for better things to come.  How the world around us needs such hope for better things from God.

John gives us that hope.  But he also gives us a challenge.  The world about us with the setting of the sun on this day will revert back to life as normal.  Christmas in the eyes of the world comes to an end right here and right now with this day.  But for us we keep Christmas for this and the next 11 days.   More importantly we show Jesus to be in our midst and spreading the love of God not in the past but right here and right now.

Will others see Jesus and behold God in our midst right here and right now, not only on such a holy day as this, but on the most common ordinary days?  The answer depends on us.  As we await the full revelation of Jesus our Lord and God, we are called to be the hands and the voice of Christ.  We are called to love and to serve all persons, mindful that Jesus hung on the cross and rose from the dead that each of them, all of them, might have the hope that knowing the son of Mary is the God who loves us unconditionally.

With that in mind, my friends, let me remind you of this.  It is not enough that we keep Christ in Christmas.  We need to keep Christ in the world, pointing everyone to God.  And so as we live in this last week of this Year of Our Lord 2016, and as we prepare to enter into a new year that we shall bring in with the Feast of The Holy Name, the name above all names, the name of Jesus, let us so recommit ourselves to live in such a way that in us and through us, the world shall know that we are Christians and shall be encountered by none other than the God who longs to be the one in whom we all live, not for a time and season, but forever.

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  The Lord is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Father

Timothy

Alleman

Homily A17 Christmas Vigil

Homily for

The Vigil of Christmas

Saturday 24 December 2016

The Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

A Parish of the Diocese of Bethlehem and The Episcopal Church

Readings:

http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearABC_RCL/Christmas/ChrsDay1_RCL.html

Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

This collect for the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels speaks beautifully of the exchange of mortals and angels.  Tonight the Gospel provides us with a real tangible exchange of humans and angels. In his proclamation of the birth of Jesus, son of Mary, Son of God, St. Luke the Evangelist tells us that the very first ones to proclaim the holy birth were none other than the angels of heaven.  In a very special moment on a very special night, the holy angels reveal themselves to shepherds keeping their flock safe through the night outside the City of David, Bethlehem, that they might announce the birth of Christ.

Tonight that moment is represented in our midst.  On this holy night we receive once more the message of the angels.  And just as the shepherds long ago received that message and joined in proclaiming the birth of Jesus, God with us, so too do we join in that proclamation.  In fact not long ago at this very Mass we sang the proclamation of the whole heavenly host.  We do so at every Mass outside Advent and Lent.

How fitting that in the midst of all this tonight we have remembered a servant of God who lived among us, who proclaimed the Gospel in word and deed as an example of humility and faithful living.  Tonight the new Gospel book has been dedicated to the glory of God, the God who drew near to save us, in loving memory of our brother Tom.  I hope that tonight as the Gospel was proclaimed he was very much on your mind and in your heart.  I pray that you are aware that this man whom we love but see no longer is among those who on this night proclaim unto us the sacred birth of Jesus and who point us to him who is the light that shines in the darkness and overcomes the darkness with his glory that shines brighter than the sun.

Tom of course is not alone.  He is one among a cloud of witnesses that cannot be numbered who have joined the angels.  They have not become angels.  They are the saints of God who in their generation have faithfully witnessed to Jesus and who even now remind us that Jesus is in our midst, that our God cares for us so deeply and loves us so passionately that he draws near to be our help and our strength.

Surrounded by the angels and the saints, tonight we proclaim Jesus to the world.  This proclamation made first by angels and saints and now by is a proclamation that the world around us needs to hear. Many around us are even now keeping Christmas.  Many of them started a number of weeks ago.  How many times have we heard not just this year but in years past the cry to keep Christ in Christmas?  How many times do we observe a keeping of Christmas that is completely void of Christ?  The lights and trees are beautiful.  The images of Santa and an abundance of gifts are precious.  And yet all these things are, in the words of St. Paul the Apostle on things larger than these images of Christmas, mere rubbish in comparison to the vision of the holy child born of Mary and the sacred knowledge of who this child is for us and for our very lives and salvation.

Do you want to keep Christ in Christmas?  Look to Christ, and set aside all that distracts us from him and his life-giving presence in our midst.  And how do we best do that?  How do we best kept Christ before us and in our sights?  Remember that the earliest spelling of Christmas has one extra letter than we commonly see.  We, the servants of God, the people who identify ourselves as Christians, keep Christmass, the Mass of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And tonight the saints and angels assist us in keeping the Mass.  They sing with us.  They proclaim the good news with us and invite us to make Christ known in the world for the sake of the world.

They also challenge us to keep Christ not only in Christmas but in the daily life we live.  And how do we do that?  Here is the starting point.  We keep the Mass, not only on this sacred night, but especially Sunday after Sunday as each Lord's Day we proclaim that the one whose birth we celebrate tonight rose again from the dead and promises us that because he lives forever, so we too shall live not only in this life and in this world but also in the life of the world to come where we, the saints of God, join our voices with those of the angels, singing the praises of our great God without end.

Our brother Tom knew this well.  He reminded us often of the importance of regular participation in the Mass.  Think back to our thoughts at any Mass where he was not with us.  How odd did those moments feel?  I know I felt it, and I know I am by no means alone.

Tonight, and at every Mass I have celebrated in this House of Prayer since his repose, I have been greatly comforted by knowing that Tom is still with us around the Sacred Body and Precious Blood of Jesus, our Lord and God, expecting and desiring for us to be here with Jesus whenever he reveals himself in our midst in the breaking of the bread.

I also need to say too that I am deeply aware of the fact that by this point, with all the references I have made to him, Tom would be embarrassed.  His deepest desire would be that we would not focus on him, but rather on Jesus.

Tonight we gather to recommit ourselves to that focus.  Jesus is with us, not only tonight and not only in this House of Prayer.  Jesus is with us always, loving us as no one else can, desiring that we long to come again and again to the manger that is the Altar where we eat his flesh and drink his blood, and are renewed that we might proclaim Jesus Christ not only on Sacred Holy Days and in Holy Houses, but even on the most ordinary of days and the most common of tables and meals.

Alleluia!  Christ is born!  Glorify him now and forevermore!  Alleluia!

Father

Timothy

Alleman

Homily A17 Advent IV

Homily for

The Fourth Sunday in Advent

Sunday 18 December 2016

The Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

A Parish of the Diocese of Bethlehem and The Episcopal Church

Readings:

http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Advent/AAdv4_RCL.html

You may have heard the joke about the Protestant who arrives at heaven and is greeted by Jesus upon entering into heaven: “I know you’ve met my Father, but I don’t believe you’ve met my mother.”

Ironically something like this could be said even more so of righteous Joseph, the husband of the Mother of Jesus.  We know very little concerning Joseph.  There is no mention of him at all in Mark’s Gospel or in John’s.  Matthew and Luke make reference to Joseph in connection to Jesus only as a child.  The last occasion where he is mentioned is when Jesus is 12 years old and the parents leave Jerusalem without the boy.

And yet even though we know very little of Joseph, in what little we know, there are little pieces that are very significant and should not go unnoticed.  In today’s Gospel the Apostle and Evangelist Matthew makes a point to show Joseph as a righteous man whose greatest desire is to do the right thing before God as well as to avoid bringing shame upon any other human being, even if any shame brought upon them might be rightly earned by that individual.  These desires, indeed the whole of Joseph’s character, are tested when Mary, his betrothed, is found to be pregnant.  At a moment where Joseph has determined to respond to this news, an angel of God speaks to him and reveals what in fact is happening and how righteous Joseph should respond faithfully to God and honorably to Mary.

This is a remarkable story that we hear of Joseph.  We see how he responds to God, and with Matthew we see why it is that he is called a righteous man.  But keep in mind that the whole point of this story in Scripture is not that generations of readers of the Gospel would marvel at this man’s righteousness.  The point to this is that we who hear the Gospel are also called to be righteous before God, and in that righteousness we are called to such high character that we are unwilling to expose not only our friends but even our enemies to public disgrace.

How fitting this reminder is for us as we draw near to the close of Advent.  Prior to the first Advent of Christ, Joseph was told not to fear and to believe even to the core of his being that the child in the womb of his fiancée, Mary, was not the son of another man but rather the Son of God.  Joseph, we knew the prophets well, and with his people longed to greet Messiah at his coming, was told that the very child in the womb of Mary was that long-foretold Messiah.  The angel revealed all this to Joseph, and invited him in the Name of God to believe once more.  Joseph could have walked away from that encounter and dismissed everything revealed to him.  But being a righteous man, a godly man, this simply was not in his character.  Joseph believed the message of God even when that message, in human wisdom, could easily be dismissed as a fairy tale.

Now, my friends, we stand in a similar place to Joseph, awaiting the Advent of Christ.  Unlike Joseph we are not awaiting the arrival of a child.  We look for the coming of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Firstborn of the Dead who rose victoriously from the tomb and proclaims life that is stronger than death.  In these Advent days we have heard some images that could be written off as fairy tales by us much as the story of a virgin impregnated by God the Holy Spirit could have been written off by Joseph if he were anything less than the righteous man before God.  We have heard the Scriptures proclaim a coming day when instruments of warfare will be no more, and the desire to learn and engage in war will be gone.  How ironic it is that in these Advent days a whole city in Syria has been utterly destroyed by instruments of warfare, even when innocent lives were taken and those who were seeking to bring relief to the wounded were targeted.

We have heard how the coming of the Christ will also bring about the day when the lion and the lamb will lie together peacefully and will eat together.  This of course has nothing to do with actual lions and lambs.  The point of the Scriptures here is that the fullness of the presence of Christ and the Kingdom of God is that “natural enemies” are so transformed by God to live in unity and peace, in companionship and love towards one another.

Add to this that all of this is added to the greatest message that we receive on the greatest celebration of our faith to which we are called again and again.  Nothing – not Christmas or Easter or anything else – is greater than Sunday.  Each Sunday is a celebration of the Resurrection!  Each Sunday we proclaim the message that Jesus Christ, God Incarnate in our humanity which he first created, has risen from the dead and given us hope as well as faith.  Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, in the light of his resurrection, sounds forth the promise that as he lives even though he died, so shall we live forever in God’s Kingdom, even though we die in this life and this world.  Jesus holds before us a vision of a new day in God’s Kingdom where sin and death will be no more, where suffering and illness will be over, where life and love given and received between God and us will never cease.

But how can these things be?  It seems too good to be true, especially when we are distracted by this world and the hopelessness of the images where there is a clear absence of anything resembling righteousness before God and the desire to maintain high character with one’s friends or especially one’s enemies.

Today we receive the story of righteous Joseph as a model of what righteousness and character are and how they are lived out in faithfulness to God and in service to other human beings.  And in that model we find an example of trust in the message of God that led Joseph to embrace and believe the good news even when it may have seemed almost too good to be true.  We receive this not that we might press on towards Christmas.  We receive this witness in order that in our own lives we might be found righteous, as once Joseph was so found before God, and that when Christ appears in all of his glory at the end of our days, at the end of all days, we might be found faithful and believing in the Gospel, which is indeed good news for us and the whole world, even if at times it might seem too good to be true.

Father

Timothy

Alleman

Homily A17 Advent III

Homily for

The Third Sunday in Advent

Sunday 11 December 2016

The Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

A Parish of the Diocese of Bethlehem and The Episcopal Church

Readings:
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Advent/AAdv3_RCL.html 

Today we are reminded that this season of Advent is nearing its end.  There is only one more candle left to be light on wreath.  And the one that is light for the first time as the Advent light has increased is different.  Today is Gaudete – the Sunday of Joy!  The candle unique to this Third Sunday among the four Sundays of Advent, along with the vestments that I wear while celebrating the Mass of Gaudete, are rose, the color of joy.

With that theme of joy in mind, we have heard of a remarkable encounter between Jesus and the disciples of the now imprisoned John the Baptist who share the question of John: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”  Jesus gives an answer, though it likely isn’t as simple as John and his disciples would have desired to receive.  They were likely looking for a simple “Yes or No.”

Jesus’ response invites all who hear it to ponder on the effect of his presence.  He invites the disciples of John the Baptist to include John in on this act of considering the fruits of the presence that have been revealed.  Instead of simply pointing to himself, Jesus points to blind who have received their sight, the lame who now walk, the lepers who are cleansed, the deaf who hear, the dead who are raised to new life, the poor who have receive good news.  And once all of this has been brought to the forefront of our vision, Jesus finishes his answer by saying, “And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

That final phrase uttered by Jesus was very significant for the disciples’ generation.  When we read the Gospel ourselves, there is no way whatsoever to miss the fact that there were people who were offended by Jesus, in spite of the good things he did.  In fact the further we read into the Gospel, the greater that offense grows.  Make no mistake about this one simple fact; the cross that stands near the end of the Gospel is the greatest sign of that growing offense.

On the other hand, the Gospel also shows us how the presence of Jesus caused others to find joy in the presence of Christ in their midst.  Among them were the disciples, the women who followed Jesus, and those among the least, the lowest, the most marginalized and needy, who had experienced first-hand the healing mercies of Jesus.  His presence did not just touch them for a moment.  Over time they grew in their adoration and devotion to him, even when they did not fully understand what it was that Jesus was doing in the world for the sake of the world.  And as their adoration and devotion grew, they became increasingly a people of joy.  Yes that joy might have been dampened for a moment in the passion and death of Jesus, but it was only for a moment.  And when Christ rose victorious from the dead, that joy exploded in ways that words cannot fully capture.

All of this is interesting to explore while looking at the Bible and considering the lives and witness of the saints who have gone before us.  But today I want to invite us all to step further into that encounter we have heard, especially the words of Jesus in reference to his presence and the powerful impact he makes in our midst.  When Jesus said those words, “Blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me,” he is speaking as much to us as to those who stood before him on that day when John the Baptist sent his own disciples to Jesus that they might ask Jesus the question sitting in the depths of the heart of the Forerunner to the Messiah.

How this statement from Jesus’ own mouth needs to echo down into our own day and generation!  As Christians we do not like to acknowledge the realty that there are persons in our midst who are deeply offended not only by us Christians but by the Christ himself.  Perhaps we don’t like to acknowledge this because it seems more difficult for us to see the benefits of the presence of Christ in the world in our generation.  And yet let me remind you that we live with these benefits every day of our lives.  We are a blessed people!  Only, unfortunately, how often do we miss these blessings because we are looking for something on a more grand scale than what we have?  Or how often is it hard to see these blessings because we are so focused on ourselves that we fail to see our neighbors.  But if we are aware of those in our midst who are in the greatest need, how often can we and do we walk away with the realization that “but for the grace of God go I.”

And once we realize how easily we could be like the least and the lowest, those who are in most need of the healing touch of Jesus, how do we as Christians respond?  Here’s how we should respond: as beggars once blind and deaf, once lame and mute, who know the wonder and the joy of being touched by Jesus who on one hand lead others to Jesus while crying out for Jesus to heal once more these ones who are in need of mercy and grace that leads to joy.

But what if these ones are offended by us as well as Christ?  And how can we show Christ to those who are offended by the Christ as well as the Christian?  You know people who fit these descriptions.  They are the type that think Christians are fools and the very fact that there are people in great need, more precisely that there have been times when they have been in great need and distress, that there is clearly either no God who exists or God just simply isn’t all that desirable.

Do you think that from this moment on in today’s Gospel, or even prior to it, that Jesus reached out only to those who were not offended by him and his presence?  We know the answer to that question.  We know well that in fact we could make the argument that Jesus sought out those offended by him with greater passion than those who sought him out.  He longs for them and for all people, both then and now.  His desire is to touch all that is broken and make it whole and well.

And if this is the desire of Jesus’ heart, should it not also be the desire of the heart of the Christian?  You know the answer to that question.  I don’t need to tell you that it is “Yes!”  But can we do this?  Can we live this way that is so clearly the kingdom way but not the way of this world?  Yes we can!  It will not be easy, but then again Jesus never promised us that life would be easy.  His promise remains simply that he will be with us forever, that he will give us the words and deeds we need for each moment of life.  Today, on this Sunday of Joy, we are called to be a people who share the Joy of Christ with all whom we encounter, not only with those who like us and Jesus, but even with those who are offended by us and him.  And here is the best way we do so; by being the hands and presence of Jesus that feed the hungry, heal the sick, clothe the naked, open the eyes of the blind, loose the tongues of the mute, give hearing to the blind, and bring to the light those who live in darkness.  Words may be necessary, but more times than not words take back seat simply to being the silent presence of Christ in the world today, inviting others to be filled with joy, to set aside all offense, and to grow in love with Jesus Christ more and more each day, knowing to greater degrees moment by moment that God in our midst not as a distant and irrelevant character of generations past but a loving personal presence right here and right now, and forever.

Father

Timothy

Alleman