Unity in Christ
Commentary
What unites us as a country? The political campaigns are over for now. This past November we had elections, among them the presidential election. During Campaign 2000, there were many divisive issues that were debated. Candidates lined up on different sides and argued for their perspectives. The voters got behind their candidates, cheered them on, and cast their ballots. Now we have the inauguration of the next President of the United States. It is time to come together, join hands, and step into the future under our newly-elected leadership. We will not necessarily agree over the on-going issues for our life together. There will be more debates in our national Congress and in our state legislatures and in our local units of government. Still we have a sense that we are united as a people with a shared destiny. Divisions always threaten to distract and derail us; yet, we persevere with a national pride and an openness to the future, where we, as a nation, figure to make a difference for good in the world.
The church has a powerful sense of unity also. We have a word that speaks to us a message that brings us together, even with our differences in the Christian family of God. We experience it in our vision and mission for daily life as Christians and as congregations. In general, it can be said of all Christian groups that our vision is that Christ is all and in all (Colossians 3:11) and that our mission is to make disciples and present them mature in Christ (Matthew 28:19 and Colossians 1:28). Congregations and auxiliary organizations may express that in slightly different ways, but essentially this is what our vision and our mission is all about. Whenever our vision and our mission shine publicly, God's glory shines in the world.
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
What a glorious news day it was when the report was published that "the children of Israel were in their towns" (7:73b). It had been a long time coming. For about seventy years the towns had been forsaken. The people had been carted off into exile at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. After Babylon fell before the triumphal march of the Medo-Persian forces, the people were repatriated. The new empire thought it better to have its subjects living at home, being productive and paying tribute, than holed up in a foreign land, oppressed and despondent.
The desire to rebuild is a natural one. We see it in our country after a natural disaster has struck. The people, although they had been safely evacuated from danger's path, are eager to return even to the devastation and begin the arduous task of reclaiming their lives. Part of the psychology is to find that which had been taken away, to lay hold of it is a gesture of defiance against the strong force that did so much damage. Our past is important to us, not just for memories' sake, but also for making sense of our present. The other part of the psychology that energizes people in response to tragedy is that they are bound and determined to claim the future. There is an indomitable spirit in so many that will defy the destruction and rebuild, even at the same site, as a testimony to humanity's title to the land.
So it was in the sixth century B.C., that Israel sought to reorder her life in the land that was promised to her from of old. God was the conductor of this marching band of exiles. Nehemiah became the drum major in the fifth century B.C. Cyrus, Darius, Artaxerxes & Co. had temporary ownership of the field on which all this took place. But, the melody that played, with its rhythms and harmonies, came from the Book of Moses (which one? which part? Josiah's Deuteronomy?), the Law. God composed the tune to which Israel's band of returning exiles marched.
How nicely it is described in a single scene! In all probability this scene was repeated many times over in numerous communities. Two striking descriptions are worth noting. The first is that the people "gathered as one man" (8:1). This is an expression of unity. The people had been bonded through their similar experience as strangers in a strange land. They had returned to reorder their lives, somewhat on ancient recollections of the family heritage and somewhat on hopes for their future. The second is how the people listened. "And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law" (8:3). Amazing things will happen when people are attentive to God's Word.
This external Word of God captured the imaginations of the people and they were shaped into a revitalized community according to God's purposes. M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., in his book Shaped by the Word, defines the Word of God as "the action of the presence, the purpose, and the power of God in the midst of human life." The reading of the Law had a similar effect upon the people of Nehemiah's day as it did upon the people of Josiah's day. The people of God were released from Exile to reflect the glory of God through their reconstruction of the Promised Land. To this the people could respond with a resounding Amen! They would find new strength in the joy of the Lord, a joy that we heard the angel declare for the whole world over one of the rebuilt cities a few centuries later (Luke 2:10).
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
The church in Corinth must have been in disarray, given the amount of ink Paul gives to the problems he addresses. This is no small matter. What is at stake here is the integrity of the body of Christ to its true nature. Also at stake is the image of the body of Christ to the world. Disunity always detracts from the original intention of any group. Who wants to step into the middle of a cat fight, after all? The church at Corinth was squabbling over who had which gift of the Spirit and which gift was better. Paul saw clearly how this detracted from the true nature of the church, as well as derailing the fellowship from its major mission to evangelize the world. In-fighting saps the strength from any organization and deters it from accomplishing its goals.
Paul's solution to the problem is to help the Corinthians understand that there is and can only be one body of Christ in the world. Given that premise, the body must see itself as a unity in diversity. All that the body is must work together for the sake of the whole and for the purpose of the one body. There is an affirmation of the distinct, unique individuality of each part of the body. There is also an affirmation that the whole provides the context and purpose in relationship to which each part discovers its meaning.
Paul's sense of oneness in Christ is not distinct to his communications with the Corinthians. He raises this image to address the foolishness of the Galatians. Justification by faith is far superior to the law of circumcision. Faith unites us as "one in Christ" (Galatians 3:28-29), precluding the need to add anything to the relationship in order to secure the promise given to Abraham and his offspring. In Ephesians, he describes how the dividing wall of hostility has been broken down between Jew and Gentile, and that now we have equal access through Christ to the Father. In Colossians, our differences are overcome by the "allness" of Christ (Colossians 3:11).
There is a mutually beneficial relationship that exists between the various parts of the body, the church. Like the eye which helps locate food for the hand to grasp and bring to the mouth to ingest, each individual or small group within the church is to function in a way to contribute to the well-being of the whole. In this way, each part can care for the other parts and thereby the whole of the parts together. This is how Paul can correctly conclude that one suffering part hurts the whole; and, conversely, one honored part brings honor to the whole (12:26).
Paul concludes this portion of his letter with reference to "the higher gifts" (12:31a). The Greek adjective used here is the comparative form of megaz, which means "great." Whether in the sense of mass/size or elevation (RSV; David Stern translates it "better" in the Jewish New Testament), there is a ranking here, that Paul considers important. Everything may have a value, but some things are more valuable than others. Silver jewelry can be pricy, but gold has more market worth. So, too, love, discussed in chapter 13, is a higher gift (along with faith and hope), when compared to other valuable gifts like those mentioned at the beginning of chapter twelve. Rather than bicker about who has which lower gifts and how they compare to one another, all should strive for the higher gifts, of which love is the pinnacle. Jesus affirms this by characterizing the two great commandments with this quality of love -- in relationship to God first, and then to the neighbor as to the self (Matthew 22:34-40).
Luke 4:14-21
At his birth, the angels pronounced, "Glory to God in the highest," precisely when God's love expressed itself in the lowest of places (Luke 2:14). At his presentation in the Temple, Simeon announced God's salvation in Jesus, who is an epiphany of God: the light for revelation to Gentiles and for glory to God's people (Luke 2:32). At his baptism, the glory of Jesus was audible when he was addressed as the beloved by the heavenly Father (Luke 3:22). At his temptation, Jesus revealed his glory through obedience to the Word of God (Luke 4:1-13). In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus took the Word and applied it to himself, in essence saying, "The Spirit of the Lord, the glory of the Lord, is upon me. In my doing the will of God in your midst, you will see the presence of God in your midst." The glory of God keeps being manifest in Jesus for all to experience and receive into their lives, as they receive Jesus as the Lord of life and Savior of the world.
When Jesus spoke in the Nazareth synagogue, the people gave him glory (4:15; doxazomenox upo pantwv). But, unlike the angelic voice, the prophetic voice and the divine voice, the people's voice was rather fickle. Luke reports that at first "all spoke well of him" (4:22). By the end of the scene, the people were ready to toss him out, like a bag of garbage (4:28-29). Throw him off the cliff and watch the bouncing body on the rocks below!
That did not happen, of course, because Jesus had returned to Galilee "in the power of the Spirit" (4:14). This was possible, of course, because Jesus was "full of the Holy Spirit" (4:1) through his baptism. Being "led by the Spirit" (4:1) into the wilderness, into and beyond the depths of temptation, Jesus was positioned to begin his public ministry. Luke prepares us for the purpose of his ministry by reporting Jesus' rejection by his own hometown. This foreshadows his rejection by his own brothers and sisters in Abraham approximately three years later, when he ascends his wooden throne and assumes the crown that marks him as the one who will sacrifice himself for the salvation of the world. Here, of course, on the cross is where his glory ultimately shines most profoundly for the eyes of faith to behold and believe.
Following the custom for a visiting rabbi to receive the scroll, read from it and then comment, while sitting in the midst of those who have come to be inspired, Jesus selected that portion from Isaiah (Second or Third?) that has accrued to the messianic expectations of the people. He boldly announces that this word from Scripture "has been fulfilled in your hearing" (4:21). The words of Scripture are embodied in the Word of Jesus, the incarnate Word of God. The Word of God finds its most excellent expression for hearing in the words of Jesus. Just as Jesus let the Word of God shape him and give him strength in temptation (4:1-13), so too believers experience that their encounter with Jesus shapes them into new ways to be themselves in the world before God. M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., in Shaped by the Word writes, "The Word of God is a living and productive scalpel in the loving hands of One who penetrates to the core of our being to cleanse and heal our garbled, distorted, debased word and transform it into the word God speaks us forth to be in the world."
Application
Our post-modern world is very much shaped by a strong spirit of individualism that elevates privitism ("It's no one's business but my own") and relativism ("My business is what I make it to be"). It is not unlike the period of the Judges when "every man did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25b). Having no king then as a central figure of authority is like the lack of a recognized central authority for matters of belief and life today. It is hard to image our society in general responding like the people in Nehemiah's day to the reading of God's Word. Yet, that is exactly what we hope for every time the people of God today gather for worship. This is why we must always consider and promote our worship as public. We have the Word of Truth to share with the world. We must continually read it publicly, making it as much a visible as auditory experience as possible. Our readers (many pastors included) need to learn how to read the Word from the heart and not just from the lectern. In worship, the liturgy with its Alleluia and Thanks be to God should give voice to the people's acclamation upon hearing the Word. In non-liturgical worship, ample opportunity needs to be provided for the spontaneous responses of the people to the movement of the Spirit in the assembly. In preaching and the prayers, good words and good works need to be encouraged as tangible signs of a life that is publicly responsive to the Word of God. With much talk about revival in America (reminiscent of the Great Awakenings of previous centuries), we must be reminded that we are responsible for building up the community in which we live. Jerusalem was rebuilt from the rubble heap of history; so, too, can our communities be rebuilt, no matter how blighted. This is a hope we can bring to our neighborhoods that need to find an authoritative center to bring them together in common cause.
In the Papal Encyclical of 1995, Ut Unum Sint, the church of Jesus Christ was called upon to affirm and act upon what unites us more than what divides us. Like the apostles, we are to witness together to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Like the prophets, we must always be asking daily, "What does this mean for my words and actions in the community?" Like the teachers of the church, we are to be always searching for deeper understanding of what God reveals to us in his holy Word. Then, with other brothers and sisters in Christ, we are to seek the higher gifts of faith, hope, and love. This is what will truly build up the church (1 Corinthians 14:12). When all the gifts of the Spirit are directed constructively according to their proper intention, then the whole church will be blessed and will reflect the glory of God in Christ Jesus, whose body the church is in the world today (Ephesians 4:11-16).
The people of Nehemiah's day needed to hear the Word of God read to them. The Christians of Corinth needed Paul's words explicating the implications of the gospel. Those who attended the synagogue in Nazareth needed to hear Jesus explain himself in the context of the great promises of God. People today need to hear good news, cutting through the cacophony of sound from television, radio, Internet, cell phones, airport loud speakers, and the like. There is something extremely auditory about the gospel that calls us out from our cocooning tendencies, where we hide from being shaped and challenged and fulfilled by others and most especially by God. Words give deeper understanding; they are a means of more profound comprehension. It is like when a person stands before a great painting, and the docent explains the artist's use of color; or when before a sculpture, and the angles are put in perspective according to the artist's vision; or when listening to a composition after the conductor explains why certain instruments are used for certain phrases. Pray that the words of the read Word (lectionary/pericope) and the preached Word will lead the hearers into deeper wonder and insight of the glory of God in Jesus Christ!
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
One of the most difficult problems for the biblical historian is trying to date the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. We know that both men were instrumental in the restoration of the Jewish community after the return of Judah and Benjamin from Babylonian exile in the years following Cyrus' liberating decree of 538 B.C. The books bearing the names of Ezra and Nehemiah detail the events of that restoration, but we are not sure of the sequence of those events. Some scholars think that Nehemiah's work preceded Ezra's by some years, and that the accounts of the work of the two were then combined by an editor about 300 B.C. Certainly as the book of Nehemiah now lies before us, chapters 1-7 tell of Nehemiah's return to Palestine and his rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, despite the opposition of Sanballat of Samaria and his allies. The section found in 7:73b--10:39 then recounts Ezra's reading of the law and the people's response to it. Chapters 11-13 portray further acts of Nehemiah.
Scholars are pretty well agreed, however, that the sections about Ezra, written in the first and third persons, belong with what are known as Ezra's memoirs and perhaps come from Ezra himself. Thus the scholarly view is that Nehemiah 8 originally stood between Ezra 7-8 and 9-10, and that Nehemiah 9:1-5 stood between Ezra 10:15 and 10:16.
Our text for this morning, therefore, is a valuable historical record of the actual reintroduction of the post-exilic Jerusalem community to the Torah.
On the seventh month of the year, which marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year, in the fall, Ezra gathered all of the returned exiles to the square in front of the Water Gate on the eastern side of Jerusalem and, ascending a platform, read the Torah to them for five or six hours. As the law was read, Levites commented on the law, helping the people understand its meaning. Apparently, what was read was some considerably shorter form of our Pentateuch (our first five books of the Bible), although some believe that only the priestly portions, which had been assembled and written down in exile, were read. Whatever the form of the Torah, it was the people's first hearing of the law in many years. Their response was to cry out, "Amen, Amen" (v. 6), to prostrate themselves to the ground, and to weep in joy but also in sorrow for their sinful ignorance and violation of God's word. Ezra instructed them, however, not to weep, because the day of the reading was holy, that is, set aside for God's purpose. Instead, the people should rejoice and feast and share their food with those who had none. In Nehemiah 10, then, the people enter into a covenant in which they promise to keep the provisions of the Torah.
The significance of the reestablishment of the Torah in the post-exilic community was that the people now had a common basis, grounded in God's word, for their lives. Now their loyalty to the one God tied their lives together in a community that had an agreed upon set of values and a common understanding of acceptable behavior. Before their acceptance of the Torah and their covenant pledge to walk in its ways, they were adrift, each setting his or her own rules, each acting according only to what seemed good or expedient for them.
I wonder if that situation of the post-exilic Judaic community before their acceptance of the Torah does not mirror something of the chaotic condition of our present society. Ever since the 1960s, when all authority was scorned in our lives and, indeed, lost, the United States has been characterized by a loss of a common set of values and an abandonment of an agreed upon course of individual and group behavior. Thus we have a great outcry these days for a return to a set of "family values." And I assume we all know what that means, although no one seems willing to define it for us. But is there a common morality and ethic that undergirds American life these days? It does not seem so. Goodness knows, we are no longer a Christian nation; pluralism is rampant among us. All agreed upon ethics seem to have been lost. Every person constructs his or her own right and wrong. Every individual determines his or her own course of action, whether it be acceptable or not. Any thought of objective truth or right or good is swallowed up in a widespread relativism, in which individuals alone determine what is true or right or good for their individual selves alone. A united community seems impossible, even in the most intimate relationships such as marriage. And individuals find themselves following only the latest fads in what they do and what they believe.
The Christian Church is not immune to the breakdown of an agreed upon set of values and ethics and truths, however. We find much the same chaotic situation within our churches as we find in the society around us. And of course the reason is that, like those post-exilic inhabitants of Jerusalem in our text, we have forgotten or never heard our founding Torah.
Now Torah, in the biblical sense, refers not just to the law. Rather, Torah includes the whole tradition of what God has said and done. For us, it includes all those stories of God's acts in the past in Israel and in Jesus Christ and in the early church. It encompasses the faith of what God is doing in the present and what he will do in the future. And all of that, good Christians -- all of that -- is contained for us in the Holy Scriptures. But we don't know the scriptures any more, do we? If we were given a test on the content of the Bible, most of us would flunk. And so we have lost our founding document, you see, and we no longer know very much about the will of God or about what as Christians we confess to believe or about how God in Christ expects us to conduct our lives.
So we drift in the church, don't we? We buy into all sorts of "spiritualities" that have almost nothing to do with the Christian faith. We sometimes agree to the most asinine beliefs, because we don't know what actual Christians confess. We accept distortions of the Bible spouted by so-called scholars, who are seeking only their own publicity and attention. (The Jesus Seminar qualifies.) We are torn in our daily decisions between courses of action, none of which we can identify with certainty as in accord with the scriptures. And we remain "seekers," seeking desperately for some sure knowledge, some comfort, some eternal Word, in short, seekers for God. And all the while, the Lord yearns for us to find a new hearing and a new trust in his biblical Word.
Writer Kathleen Norris tells in her remarkable books, The Cloister Walk and Amazing Grace, of her gradual reintroduction to the Christian faith by listening to the daily, somewhat lengthy readings of the scriptures with a group of nuns and monks in a Benedictine monastery. That was followed by her return to the church and again, her own and her congregation's reading of the scriptures. Through that reading -- through the penetration into her heart and mind of the Word of God -- she discovered the foundation for her life and the life of the little Christian church to which she belonged. And she now writes in the most profound way of the firmness and joy given by that discovery.
The scriptures reconstituted the life of those post-exilic Jews in Jerusalem in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, and gave it firm footing and guidance and joy. The scriptures can still today do the same thing for our lives in this church and in our society.
The church has a powerful sense of unity also. We have a word that speaks to us a message that brings us together, even with our differences in the Christian family of God. We experience it in our vision and mission for daily life as Christians and as congregations. In general, it can be said of all Christian groups that our vision is that Christ is all and in all (Colossians 3:11) and that our mission is to make disciples and present them mature in Christ (Matthew 28:19 and Colossians 1:28). Congregations and auxiliary organizations may express that in slightly different ways, but essentially this is what our vision and our mission is all about. Whenever our vision and our mission shine publicly, God's glory shines in the world.
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
What a glorious news day it was when the report was published that "the children of Israel were in their towns" (7:73b). It had been a long time coming. For about seventy years the towns had been forsaken. The people had been carted off into exile at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. After Babylon fell before the triumphal march of the Medo-Persian forces, the people were repatriated. The new empire thought it better to have its subjects living at home, being productive and paying tribute, than holed up in a foreign land, oppressed and despondent.
The desire to rebuild is a natural one. We see it in our country after a natural disaster has struck. The people, although they had been safely evacuated from danger's path, are eager to return even to the devastation and begin the arduous task of reclaiming their lives. Part of the psychology is to find that which had been taken away, to lay hold of it is a gesture of defiance against the strong force that did so much damage. Our past is important to us, not just for memories' sake, but also for making sense of our present. The other part of the psychology that energizes people in response to tragedy is that they are bound and determined to claim the future. There is an indomitable spirit in so many that will defy the destruction and rebuild, even at the same site, as a testimony to humanity's title to the land.
So it was in the sixth century B.C., that Israel sought to reorder her life in the land that was promised to her from of old. God was the conductor of this marching band of exiles. Nehemiah became the drum major in the fifth century B.C. Cyrus, Darius, Artaxerxes & Co. had temporary ownership of the field on which all this took place. But, the melody that played, with its rhythms and harmonies, came from the Book of Moses (which one? which part? Josiah's Deuteronomy?), the Law. God composed the tune to which Israel's band of returning exiles marched.
How nicely it is described in a single scene! In all probability this scene was repeated many times over in numerous communities. Two striking descriptions are worth noting. The first is that the people "gathered as one man" (8:1). This is an expression of unity. The people had been bonded through their similar experience as strangers in a strange land. They had returned to reorder their lives, somewhat on ancient recollections of the family heritage and somewhat on hopes for their future. The second is how the people listened. "And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law" (8:3). Amazing things will happen when people are attentive to God's Word.
This external Word of God captured the imaginations of the people and they were shaped into a revitalized community according to God's purposes. M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., in his book Shaped by the Word, defines the Word of God as "the action of the presence, the purpose, and the power of God in the midst of human life." The reading of the Law had a similar effect upon the people of Nehemiah's day as it did upon the people of Josiah's day. The people of God were released from Exile to reflect the glory of God through their reconstruction of the Promised Land. To this the people could respond with a resounding Amen! They would find new strength in the joy of the Lord, a joy that we heard the angel declare for the whole world over one of the rebuilt cities a few centuries later (Luke 2:10).
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
The church in Corinth must have been in disarray, given the amount of ink Paul gives to the problems he addresses. This is no small matter. What is at stake here is the integrity of the body of Christ to its true nature. Also at stake is the image of the body of Christ to the world. Disunity always detracts from the original intention of any group. Who wants to step into the middle of a cat fight, after all? The church at Corinth was squabbling over who had which gift of the Spirit and which gift was better. Paul saw clearly how this detracted from the true nature of the church, as well as derailing the fellowship from its major mission to evangelize the world. In-fighting saps the strength from any organization and deters it from accomplishing its goals.
Paul's solution to the problem is to help the Corinthians understand that there is and can only be one body of Christ in the world. Given that premise, the body must see itself as a unity in diversity. All that the body is must work together for the sake of the whole and for the purpose of the one body. There is an affirmation of the distinct, unique individuality of each part of the body. There is also an affirmation that the whole provides the context and purpose in relationship to which each part discovers its meaning.
Paul's sense of oneness in Christ is not distinct to his communications with the Corinthians. He raises this image to address the foolishness of the Galatians. Justification by faith is far superior to the law of circumcision. Faith unites us as "one in Christ" (Galatians 3:28-29), precluding the need to add anything to the relationship in order to secure the promise given to Abraham and his offspring. In Ephesians, he describes how the dividing wall of hostility has been broken down between Jew and Gentile, and that now we have equal access through Christ to the Father. In Colossians, our differences are overcome by the "allness" of Christ (Colossians 3:11).
There is a mutually beneficial relationship that exists between the various parts of the body, the church. Like the eye which helps locate food for the hand to grasp and bring to the mouth to ingest, each individual or small group within the church is to function in a way to contribute to the well-being of the whole. In this way, each part can care for the other parts and thereby the whole of the parts together. This is how Paul can correctly conclude that one suffering part hurts the whole; and, conversely, one honored part brings honor to the whole (12:26).
Paul concludes this portion of his letter with reference to "the higher gifts" (12:31a). The Greek adjective used here is the comparative form of megaz, which means "great." Whether in the sense of mass/size or elevation (RSV; David Stern translates it "better" in the Jewish New Testament), there is a ranking here, that Paul considers important. Everything may have a value, but some things are more valuable than others. Silver jewelry can be pricy, but gold has more market worth. So, too, love, discussed in chapter 13, is a higher gift (along with faith and hope), when compared to other valuable gifts like those mentioned at the beginning of chapter twelve. Rather than bicker about who has which lower gifts and how they compare to one another, all should strive for the higher gifts, of which love is the pinnacle. Jesus affirms this by characterizing the two great commandments with this quality of love -- in relationship to God first, and then to the neighbor as to the self (Matthew 22:34-40).
Luke 4:14-21
At his birth, the angels pronounced, "Glory to God in the highest," precisely when God's love expressed itself in the lowest of places (Luke 2:14). At his presentation in the Temple, Simeon announced God's salvation in Jesus, who is an epiphany of God: the light for revelation to Gentiles and for glory to God's people (Luke 2:32). At his baptism, the glory of Jesus was audible when he was addressed as the beloved by the heavenly Father (Luke 3:22). At his temptation, Jesus revealed his glory through obedience to the Word of God (Luke 4:1-13). In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus took the Word and applied it to himself, in essence saying, "The Spirit of the Lord, the glory of the Lord, is upon me. In my doing the will of God in your midst, you will see the presence of God in your midst." The glory of God keeps being manifest in Jesus for all to experience and receive into their lives, as they receive Jesus as the Lord of life and Savior of the world.
When Jesus spoke in the Nazareth synagogue, the people gave him glory (4:15; doxazomenox upo pantwv). But, unlike the angelic voice, the prophetic voice and the divine voice, the people's voice was rather fickle. Luke reports that at first "all spoke well of him" (4:22). By the end of the scene, the people were ready to toss him out, like a bag of garbage (4:28-29). Throw him off the cliff and watch the bouncing body on the rocks below!
That did not happen, of course, because Jesus had returned to Galilee "in the power of the Spirit" (4:14). This was possible, of course, because Jesus was "full of the Holy Spirit" (4:1) through his baptism. Being "led by the Spirit" (4:1) into the wilderness, into and beyond the depths of temptation, Jesus was positioned to begin his public ministry. Luke prepares us for the purpose of his ministry by reporting Jesus' rejection by his own hometown. This foreshadows his rejection by his own brothers and sisters in Abraham approximately three years later, when he ascends his wooden throne and assumes the crown that marks him as the one who will sacrifice himself for the salvation of the world. Here, of course, on the cross is where his glory ultimately shines most profoundly for the eyes of faith to behold and believe.
Following the custom for a visiting rabbi to receive the scroll, read from it and then comment, while sitting in the midst of those who have come to be inspired, Jesus selected that portion from Isaiah (Second or Third?) that has accrued to the messianic expectations of the people. He boldly announces that this word from Scripture "has been fulfilled in your hearing" (4:21). The words of Scripture are embodied in the Word of Jesus, the incarnate Word of God. The Word of God finds its most excellent expression for hearing in the words of Jesus. Just as Jesus let the Word of God shape him and give him strength in temptation (4:1-13), so too believers experience that their encounter with Jesus shapes them into new ways to be themselves in the world before God. M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., in Shaped by the Word writes, "The Word of God is a living and productive scalpel in the loving hands of One who penetrates to the core of our being to cleanse and heal our garbled, distorted, debased word and transform it into the word God speaks us forth to be in the world."
Application
Our post-modern world is very much shaped by a strong spirit of individualism that elevates privitism ("It's no one's business but my own") and relativism ("My business is what I make it to be"). It is not unlike the period of the Judges when "every man did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25b). Having no king then as a central figure of authority is like the lack of a recognized central authority for matters of belief and life today. It is hard to image our society in general responding like the people in Nehemiah's day to the reading of God's Word. Yet, that is exactly what we hope for every time the people of God today gather for worship. This is why we must always consider and promote our worship as public. We have the Word of Truth to share with the world. We must continually read it publicly, making it as much a visible as auditory experience as possible. Our readers (many pastors included) need to learn how to read the Word from the heart and not just from the lectern. In worship, the liturgy with its Alleluia and Thanks be to God should give voice to the people's acclamation upon hearing the Word. In non-liturgical worship, ample opportunity needs to be provided for the spontaneous responses of the people to the movement of the Spirit in the assembly. In preaching and the prayers, good words and good works need to be encouraged as tangible signs of a life that is publicly responsive to the Word of God. With much talk about revival in America (reminiscent of the Great Awakenings of previous centuries), we must be reminded that we are responsible for building up the community in which we live. Jerusalem was rebuilt from the rubble heap of history; so, too, can our communities be rebuilt, no matter how blighted. This is a hope we can bring to our neighborhoods that need to find an authoritative center to bring them together in common cause.
In the Papal Encyclical of 1995, Ut Unum Sint, the church of Jesus Christ was called upon to affirm and act upon what unites us more than what divides us. Like the apostles, we are to witness together to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Like the prophets, we must always be asking daily, "What does this mean for my words and actions in the community?" Like the teachers of the church, we are to be always searching for deeper understanding of what God reveals to us in his holy Word. Then, with other brothers and sisters in Christ, we are to seek the higher gifts of faith, hope, and love. This is what will truly build up the church (1 Corinthians 14:12). When all the gifts of the Spirit are directed constructively according to their proper intention, then the whole church will be blessed and will reflect the glory of God in Christ Jesus, whose body the church is in the world today (Ephesians 4:11-16).
The people of Nehemiah's day needed to hear the Word of God read to them. The Christians of Corinth needed Paul's words explicating the implications of the gospel. Those who attended the synagogue in Nazareth needed to hear Jesus explain himself in the context of the great promises of God. People today need to hear good news, cutting through the cacophony of sound from television, radio, Internet, cell phones, airport loud speakers, and the like. There is something extremely auditory about the gospel that calls us out from our cocooning tendencies, where we hide from being shaped and challenged and fulfilled by others and most especially by God. Words give deeper understanding; they are a means of more profound comprehension. It is like when a person stands before a great painting, and the docent explains the artist's use of color; or when before a sculpture, and the angles are put in perspective according to the artist's vision; or when listening to a composition after the conductor explains why certain instruments are used for certain phrases. Pray that the words of the read Word (lectionary/pericope) and the preached Word will lead the hearers into deeper wonder and insight of the glory of God in Jesus Christ!
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
One of the most difficult problems for the biblical historian is trying to date the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. We know that both men were instrumental in the restoration of the Jewish community after the return of Judah and Benjamin from Babylonian exile in the years following Cyrus' liberating decree of 538 B.C. The books bearing the names of Ezra and Nehemiah detail the events of that restoration, but we are not sure of the sequence of those events. Some scholars think that Nehemiah's work preceded Ezra's by some years, and that the accounts of the work of the two were then combined by an editor about 300 B.C. Certainly as the book of Nehemiah now lies before us, chapters 1-7 tell of Nehemiah's return to Palestine and his rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, despite the opposition of Sanballat of Samaria and his allies. The section found in 7:73b--10:39 then recounts Ezra's reading of the law and the people's response to it. Chapters 11-13 portray further acts of Nehemiah.
Scholars are pretty well agreed, however, that the sections about Ezra, written in the first and third persons, belong with what are known as Ezra's memoirs and perhaps come from Ezra himself. Thus the scholarly view is that Nehemiah 8 originally stood between Ezra 7-8 and 9-10, and that Nehemiah 9:1-5 stood between Ezra 10:15 and 10:16.
Our text for this morning, therefore, is a valuable historical record of the actual reintroduction of the post-exilic Jerusalem community to the Torah.
On the seventh month of the year, which marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year, in the fall, Ezra gathered all of the returned exiles to the square in front of the Water Gate on the eastern side of Jerusalem and, ascending a platform, read the Torah to them for five or six hours. As the law was read, Levites commented on the law, helping the people understand its meaning. Apparently, what was read was some considerably shorter form of our Pentateuch (our first five books of the Bible), although some believe that only the priestly portions, which had been assembled and written down in exile, were read. Whatever the form of the Torah, it was the people's first hearing of the law in many years. Their response was to cry out, "Amen, Amen" (v. 6), to prostrate themselves to the ground, and to weep in joy but also in sorrow for their sinful ignorance and violation of God's word. Ezra instructed them, however, not to weep, because the day of the reading was holy, that is, set aside for God's purpose. Instead, the people should rejoice and feast and share their food with those who had none. In Nehemiah 10, then, the people enter into a covenant in which they promise to keep the provisions of the Torah.
The significance of the reestablishment of the Torah in the post-exilic community was that the people now had a common basis, grounded in God's word, for their lives. Now their loyalty to the one God tied their lives together in a community that had an agreed upon set of values and a common understanding of acceptable behavior. Before their acceptance of the Torah and their covenant pledge to walk in its ways, they were adrift, each setting his or her own rules, each acting according only to what seemed good or expedient for them.
I wonder if that situation of the post-exilic Judaic community before their acceptance of the Torah does not mirror something of the chaotic condition of our present society. Ever since the 1960s, when all authority was scorned in our lives and, indeed, lost, the United States has been characterized by a loss of a common set of values and an abandonment of an agreed upon course of individual and group behavior. Thus we have a great outcry these days for a return to a set of "family values." And I assume we all know what that means, although no one seems willing to define it for us. But is there a common morality and ethic that undergirds American life these days? It does not seem so. Goodness knows, we are no longer a Christian nation; pluralism is rampant among us. All agreed upon ethics seem to have been lost. Every person constructs his or her own right and wrong. Every individual determines his or her own course of action, whether it be acceptable or not. Any thought of objective truth or right or good is swallowed up in a widespread relativism, in which individuals alone determine what is true or right or good for their individual selves alone. A united community seems impossible, even in the most intimate relationships such as marriage. And individuals find themselves following only the latest fads in what they do and what they believe.
The Christian Church is not immune to the breakdown of an agreed upon set of values and ethics and truths, however. We find much the same chaotic situation within our churches as we find in the society around us. And of course the reason is that, like those post-exilic inhabitants of Jerusalem in our text, we have forgotten or never heard our founding Torah.
Now Torah, in the biblical sense, refers not just to the law. Rather, Torah includes the whole tradition of what God has said and done. For us, it includes all those stories of God's acts in the past in Israel and in Jesus Christ and in the early church. It encompasses the faith of what God is doing in the present and what he will do in the future. And all of that, good Christians -- all of that -- is contained for us in the Holy Scriptures. But we don't know the scriptures any more, do we? If we were given a test on the content of the Bible, most of us would flunk. And so we have lost our founding document, you see, and we no longer know very much about the will of God or about what as Christians we confess to believe or about how God in Christ expects us to conduct our lives.
So we drift in the church, don't we? We buy into all sorts of "spiritualities" that have almost nothing to do with the Christian faith. We sometimes agree to the most asinine beliefs, because we don't know what actual Christians confess. We accept distortions of the Bible spouted by so-called scholars, who are seeking only their own publicity and attention. (The Jesus Seminar qualifies.) We are torn in our daily decisions between courses of action, none of which we can identify with certainty as in accord with the scriptures. And we remain "seekers," seeking desperately for some sure knowledge, some comfort, some eternal Word, in short, seekers for God. And all the while, the Lord yearns for us to find a new hearing and a new trust in his biblical Word.
Writer Kathleen Norris tells in her remarkable books, The Cloister Walk and Amazing Grace, of her gradual reintroduction to the Christian faith by listening to the daily, somewhat lengthy readings of the scriptures with a group of nuns and monks in a Benedictine monastery. That was followed by her return to the church and again, her own and her congregation's reading of the scriptures. Through that reading -- through the penetration into her heart and mind of the Word of God -- she discovered the foundation for her life and the life of the little Christian church to which she belonged. And she now writes in the most profound way of the firmness and joy given by that discovery.
The scriptures reconstituted the life of those post-exilic Jews in Jerusalem in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, and gave it firm footing and guidance and joy. The scriptures can still today do the same thing for our lives in this church and in our society.
