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Sermon - Law and the Prophets - 21st January 2007
Saint Alban’s Epping 7:00am, 8:00am and 10:00am
Readings: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10 Psalm 19, Corinthians 12:12-31a, Luke 4:14-21
The readings today present us with two different public readings from the law and the prophets. These pictures contain high drama and in picturing each scene, we need to also feel some of the emotion of the hearers who heard them read and some of the excitement.
In the book of Nehemiah, Ezra, the scribe, is reading aloud from the Law of Moses to the exiles who had returned from Babylon and who were gathering at the Water Gate in Jerusalem. We are told that he read from early morning to midday, and that his hearers included both men and women. The writer emphasizes repeatedly that the people heard with understanding because the readings were interpreted for them, from the ancient written language to the spoken contemporary language they could understand.
In our time when the Bible has become in many ways, an idol for many believers, because of their belief that every word of the Bible is the exact word of God and cannot be changed or interpreted in any other manner than the manner that they themselves say it is to be read. In our day we too must listen with understanding by throwing off our prejudices. Referring to the Bible as the ultimate truth without knowing what is in it, how it was written, who wrote the various books, under what circumstances, without being aware of the context of each story, does no honour to the Scriptures. We cannot allow words to enslave us. We must pray that their truth will liberate us. To cling to a verse in order to defend a position that justifies our personal bias and prejudice is equivalent to idolatry.
In Nehemiah’s time, the people hear the law and they weep. They are so deeply moved to hear again what they consider to be their legacy from Moses that they fall on their faces to worship the Lord and they continue weeping. However, the scribes and priests and their governor, Nehemiah, remind them that this is a holy day and it is a cause for joy and celebration and for sharing with those who have nothing. It is not a time to be morbid and drear. It is unfortunate that those people who chose this reading for today, decided the 10th verse should be the end of the reading, for we read in verse the significant statement: “And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.” Their actions can be seen to be reflected in the wonderful provision of wine that we read about last week were we see Jesus encouraging feasting and enjoyment in the Kingdom of God.
The second account of public reading of the Law and the Prophets comes several centuries later. The people of Israel are no longer exiles but they are under the yoke of the Romans. Their longing for the arrival of their cherished Messiah has not diminished. They go to the synagogue to hear the Law and the Prophets read to them. The location this time is Nazareth. Jesus has been baptised by John, has called his disciples to be a part of his ministry and has wrestled stridently with the Devil in the desert. After defeating the temptations of earthly power, of easy miracles and magic, he returns home to Nazareth. As a result he has become aware of who he is and what is his mission from God. He also knows that the people hearing him remember him as the son of their own Mary, of Joseph the carpenter and the brother of several men and women who live in their midst. With the assurance of a prophet, he chooses to read from Isaiah, those powerful, familiar passages of the Servant Song. He proclaims his mission, here in the town where he grew up: he has come for the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed. The categories fit the poor people of Nazareth as they fit the poor people of captive Palestine under the Romans and their collaborators among certain members of the clergy of the day. It is an electrifying moment when he says, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”. Twenty centuries later these words cause cold chills to run up and down the spines of those of us who understand their importance. What must it have felt like to hear them from the mouth of the one who was convinced of his mission to the poor, the oppressed and the sinner?
At first the listeners are complimentary: How well he speaks! What is more, he is one of our own! However, as will be made clear throughout his ministry, Jesus does not flatter, does not give the people only what they want to hear, but challenges their close held beliefs. As we will see if we read on in the Gospel, the verses following, Jesus we discovers that he cannot do miracles in his hometown. The people’s doubts, suspicions and lack of faith form a wall that even he cannot break through. He tells them that they are not the only ones who are chosen by God pointing out that certain ancient prophets ignored God’s chosen people in order to heal and forgive specific individuals, foreigners, who, though not of the house of Judah, who were people of faith nonetheless. Jesus’ listeners don’t like this turn in the lesson. They glory in what they think is their special relationship to God. How dare Jesus doubt their righteousness? A moment ago they were praising him; now they are ready to do him harm. Having foreigners, non-Jews, included under God’s mercy, is not welcome to their ears. It somehow insults their self-righteousness. We read in verses 28-30, verses that follow on from what we have read, “When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way”.
Jesus, who has the ability of laying bare the subtle sins of the human heart, continues to challenge us today as he did his own people on that first day in Nazareth. What are our own assumptions about the scriptures? Do we read them through our own preconceived filter? The passage from Isaiah that Jesus makes his own is not only the ministry of our Lord on this earth but also the mission of the church. We must carry on Jesus’ ministry to the world bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. How liberating it would be in this season of Epiphany to focus on the mission to the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed instead of arguing about interpretation of certain biblical passages. As Fr Paul Weaver spoke about last week we each have a ministry to fulfil through our membership of the body of Christ. Each of us has experiences that differ slightly of the God we each worship.
Both Nehemiah and Jesus call us powerfully today to listen with understanding to what the Bible truly says and to each other, so as to not to break the bond of peace in the Body of Christ. “But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.” Let us not claim to have perfect knowledge about faith but read the Bible so that we can help to bring in the Kingdom in the manner in the God chooses and not as we believe it should come and to whom.