EPIPHANY 3  Study

FIRST READING:   Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

Some historical perspective. After so many years in the foreign land of Babylon as a defeated and exiled people (the first deportation had occurred in 605BC, the second deportation had occurred in 597BC, and the third deportation and destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple had occurred in 586BC), the Jewish people of the southern kingdom of Judah were allowed to return to their homeland. They were released from captivity when Babylon was itself conquered and became part of the Mede-Persian Empire. The first and main party returned in 538BC under a leader named Zerubbabel (a descendant of King David and ancestor of Jesus Christ) and “rebuilt” a second, smaller, and less glorious version of the Temple that Solomon had originally built. Under the priestly leadership of Ezra, a second wave of Jews returned 80 years later, in 458BC; Ezra worked at spiritual restoration and reform. Then there was a third wave of Jews that returned under the leadership of Nehemiah (a Persian king’s cupbearer) in 445BC; Nehemiah’s focus was on repairing Jerusalem’s walls and gates.

Now to today’s reading. On a religiously significant day (“the first day of the seventh month”, which was New Year’s Day in the Jewish calendar) the people assembled together in the public square before the Water Gate (where perhaps everybody could fit, and where nobody would be excluded as ritually unclean – as might happen if it had been the Temple) and asked Ezra the priest to unroll and read aloud the scrolls that contained the Law of Moses. Why do you think that it has taken 13 years from the time Ezra first arrived until this public assembly to fully and publicly proclaim God’s truth? How are you and I sometimes negligent, and long delayed, and not quite ready yet in seeking to listen to and to understand and to put into practice God’s Word? Thank God for God’s patience and mercy, for the gift of second chances! 

Verse 4, omitted from the lectionary, names specific persons that stood there next to Ezra as he read the Law of Moses to the people. Do you think they were perhaps respected leaders and elders who helped lend positive support and import to this event? Or were they stone-faced “muscle” to keep order and to force fearful compliance by the people. Isn’t it a blessing when you are not standing alone as you try to say and do the right thing?

The people stood there for six hours (When have you spent 6 hours in worship or Bible study?) listening attentively, concentrating on the words that Ezra was reading regarding their relationship with God, and carefully considering all about God’s love, God’s mercy, God’s will, God’s commands and condemnations.  Verse 7, also omitted from the lectionary, names persons from the tribe of Levi who helped explain, helped interpret, God’s holy word, tried to enhance the understanding of others.

In today’s reading we learn that, as they listened, the people were weeping. Don’t you think the tears came as they considered God’s goodness and mercy, as they recognized their many sins along the way and reflected on the long years in exile? When has God’s Word or God’s Sprit overwhelmed you… when have you ever “seen the light” in your own life, and did it cause you to weep tears of sorrow, tears of joy, or both?

    “Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, ‘This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.’ ” (verse 9)

    Then Nehemiah dismissed the people, encouraging them to feast and to celebrate, instructing them to share food and drink with those who were lacking, and urging them, “Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (verse 10)

    Despite our own circumstances – whether we have found ourselves in exile or become lost in our sin – the joy of the Lord is our strength. We ought to celebrate the liberating power of God’s Word as it confronts, redeems, and renews us! We ought to use God’s goodness and mercy to us as a springboard to reach out to others who are searching, who are suffering, who need the bread of heaven and the bread of earth. 

SECOND READING:   1 Corinthians 12:12-31

For Paul, the human body was a good metaphor to describe the form and function of the Christian community of faith. He is writing to a congregation that he helped to found, a congregation that has many gifts among its members but also much disunity.

Paul offers the images of talking feet, self-deprecating ears, and arrogant eyes. Paul wants the sisters and brothers in this Corinthian community of fait to understand that the Church can only function correctly as a healthy body of connected interactive parts. He wants them to think of their congregation as diverse members unified by the Spirit in loving community and the mission of sharing and serving Jesus Christ.

We need each other. And Christ needs us joined in unity if he is to have a living and functioning body. Paul writes in verse 26: “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” When and how have you experienced this in your own congregation? Do you think it is easier to suffer together or to rejoice together? Explain your answer.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is observed by many Christians in the world each year from January 18 to January 25. The theme this year was selected by the Middle East Council of Churches, based in Beirut, Lebanon, where present times are extremely difficult and economically disastrous, and even more when combined with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet we and they are motivated to pray in solidarity as a demonstration of the love and power of Christ to unite us all. The Bible verse selected by our Middle East family members is Matthew 2:2: “We saw the star in the East, and we came to worship him.” Even though the Christian faith here on earth seems divided into so many company and clubhouse names… and polarized by theologies, classes, races, and even politics… Paul insists, “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” (verse 13) 

Every single person in the Church matters, each one belongs. Together.

GOSPEL READING:  Luke 4:14-21

Near the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus visited his hometown of Nazareth. In the synagogue for worship, he was probably invited to publicly teach. Already he was beginning to be heard and praised in the region of Galilee. So this day he was “back home”. Luke writes that Jesus was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah looked for the text he wanted (“chapter 61”), and read aloud. Then he said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 

This was his keynote speech and also his mission statement. Several things stand out. One, his ministry focus will not be in the direction of the prosperous, the healthy, and the free but to the poor, the suffering, the oppressed. Two, his ministry will be more than transforming a few individuals but will include systemic change, justice, as he announces the “year of jubilee” (see Leviticus 25) when the poor are released from their debts and can start over again. Three, he is not only proclaiming but somehow embodying and enacting this “good news”.

Is HIS mission also OUR Mission? What gets in the way of our faithful living and fervent loving?  Jesus lived exactly as he said he would. And as we’ll see next week, not everybody wanted to jump on the trail to follow along.

A THOUGHT

    There is power in the WORD OF GOD. That word has the power to convict us of sin, lead us to repentance, and raise us to new life. That word has the power to heal divisions in Christ’s body, keep us from dissecting the body through “takeovers” and “cutoffs”, and help us to appreciate the diverse gifts of others – woven together – as the very plan of God for the Church. And that word has the power to bring good news right now to the hungry, captive, suffering, and oppressed people of the world. If it is true that “the Word became flesh” in Jesus of Nazareth, then let us share his light, bear his word, and dare his will. Each and all of us.