3 Readings, 2 Lessons, 1 Challenge

January 25, 2004 (Third Sunday after the Epiphany)

By The Rev. Benjamin J. Newland

- Nehemiah 8:2-10
- Psalm 113
- 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
- Luke 4:14-21

We have before us today three readings from scripture and two lessons to be learned. In the first reading we hear of a liturgy of the Word, with scripture read aloud, interpreted, and studied within a congregation. In the second reading we have one of the most enduring metaphors of the Christian life: Paul’s teaching on the body of Christ and its many members. Finally we hear of Jesus reading in the synagogue at Nazareth and interpreting from an already ancient text his new way. The lessons we draw from these reading are about the place of scripture in our lives as a community, and about the timeless message of God’s opening wider of that same community.

First Nehemiah. The priest Ezra reads aloud from the Law, most likely some part of one of the first five books of our modern Bible. He reads from early morning until midday, possibly six hours. Yet the interesting part to me is not that he read for six hours, nor that the men, women, and older children who listened to him did so with eager attention (though that is fairly amazing), but that after Ezra reads then a group of Levites pass among the congregation explaining and interpreting what has been read. The next day, these same Levites would join the congregation in study of the Law they had heard. And despite the people’s rapt attention, it was not until these interpreters had given sense to the words that the people came to understand.

And then there was Paul. Ah Paul, so many people dislike you for so many reasons. Yet whatever you have against Paul, and whatever terrible things you have heard said based on Paul’s words, his impact on our faith is undeniable. In today’s excerpt from his first letter to the contentious Christians in Corinth, we hear again that pervasive metaphor of Christian life: one body, many parts.

Well, if you don’t like Paul, here’s a little something you can use against him. He didn’t make up the whole one body/many members metaphor. This was a common idea in the cosmopolitan Near East that Paul inhabited. All he did was take an everyday idea, probably Greek, and add baptism and the Holy Spirit to it.

I for one am glad he did. This metaphor carries profound meaning for us as Christians today, just as it must have thousands of years ago. Paul’s metaphor is two sided: he begins by encouraging those who have been insulted and made worthless by telling them that no body could survive without all its parts, and even if they are not a handsome smile or flashing eye, still the body needs sturdy feet, and a happy stomach. Then Paul turns his metaphor around and berates those who would discredit their Christian brethren by asking them where would the body be with only eyes and no ears, with only hearing and no smelling?

The easy interpretation of this metaphor is that we are all part of the body of Christ no matter what gifts we bring to that body. Yet the message is even stronger than this for Paul. Not only are we all welcome parts of the body despite our differences, we are different by the very will of God, and God would not have us any other way. God made us differently able, and differently skilled, and even made us so that we could not prosper without each other. It is not so much that Christianity can accept very different people, it is rather that Christianity demands very different people. Not only does Christian unity not require uniformity, it does not desire uniformity.

Then in the reading from the Gospel of Luke we hear tell of Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth. Following a format established in the earlier reading from Nehemiah, Jesus stands to read from the scroll of scripture, then sits and begins to interpret. The text is Isaiah, something you and I are familiar with, and accustomed to hearing applied to Jesus. To the gathered folk of Nazareth however, this was not so, and when Jesus sat and delivered his bombshell of self-revelation they were most certainly shocked at his presumption, his arrogance, his blasphemy. In the next few verses that follow this Gospel reading it looks as if the people of Nazareth might come to accept Jesus, but we all know how this is going to turn out.

The people of Nazareth would eventually decide that the boundaries of their own community were more important than the message that God had come to make us all one people. Let’s be honest, in their place we would likely have made the same decision. The scene in the synagogue at Nazareth is paradigmatic of the story of Jesus’ life and ministry over all, and symbolic of our continued struggle to reconcile our own desire to maintain the community we live in in the face of God’s apparent desire to remove every barrier between us, even those barriers we love.

So those are our three readings, and I think the two lessons are these: First, that our scriptures are alive to us only as we interpret and study them together. Ezra’s people, despite their devotion, could not understand the words of scripture until they were interpreted and studied, until they were made living again and talked over. The synagogue goers in Nazareth heard only the same text they had always heard until Jesus showed them a new way to look at it. Second, we are taught that God desires not our uniformity, but our unity. Paul deploys his most famous metaphor to convince us of our united diversity in the body of God’s Christ, and we are warned indirectly by the Nazareth community’s unwillingness to widen the boundaries of its community to include more of the children of God.

What then are we to make of this morning’s readings and lessons? What are we to do, here and now, with what we are offered today? From three readings and two lessons I make one challenge: rest not. We here at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral have had two very interesting years. Not once in seminary was I told that my first job would be quite this exciting. We have seen two Deans, two spiritual leaders of this place, leave us in less than two years. We work now to bring a new Dean here, to become our new spiritual leader. This time for us is very unsettled, but let us not rest easy. Rather than spend our energy explaining what happened to our previous Deans and why, and rather than standing still trying not to let anything else happen until then next Dean arrives, let us take to heart the lessons we have today.

Let us strive to make this Cathedral a place where God’s word is spoken, interpreted, heard, and acted on. Let us not huddle down and draw lines around ourselves to remind us of who we were; let us rather reach out, seeking to follow God’s preference for a ever-growing community of faithful seekers. Let us not be bitter, let us not assign blame, and let us not mourn more than we must. I hear over and over again, from many, many different people, what a wonderful place this is, and how good it’s people are. I believe that. So let us show that to the world. Let us make all who drive by here each day, all who read our website and Angelus, and all who hear of our presence in Kansas City take notice. Let us show the world, and let us show each other, that we are the Cathedral we say we are. Let us be the sanctuary of God, and of God’s children, that we are called to be. You and I know that we are a place not only of beauty, but of strength; not only of wealth, but of compassion; not only of wisdom and study, but of courage and conviction. You and I know that this Cathedral community is something very special. Let us make that clear to any and all who cross our path. AMEN.