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Third Sunday after the Epiphany ~ Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Known in Some Traditions as the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21.
It’s All Connected
“...all the people gathered together into the square, in the broad expanse before the Water Gate. They told the scribe Ezra to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, the Torah, which God had given to Israel.” — Nehemiah 8:1.
I mentioned this earlier: as soon as possible after the Service of Worship I shall be on the road to Bangor, Maine. I will attend the Annual Convocation at my alma marta, Bangor Theological Seminary, three days of speakers, Services of Worship and alumni events. One does become emotional about going home and, for me, this yearly event means going home, touching base with old friends.
One of those old friends is Professor Glenn Miller. Glenn is a large but gentle and friendly southerner. He has a walrus like mustache which frames a Cheshire Cat grin.
To describe him as large is no way meant to be pejorative. Yes, Glenn is physically large, an individual of large appetites, a large personality and a large sense of humor. But Glenn is also an individual with a big heart, a large capacity for love. And Glenn is, in fact, one of my Facebook friends, so we do keep tabs on each other.
And, after all, how could I fail to get along with a man who has set up a Facebook page for his cat, Hamlin? Hamlin, the cat, is given to posting wise sayings on Facebook. This feline probably gets a little help from Glenn when delving into the mysteries of the Internet, but the cat has been known to post things like (quote): “When we trust in God, we live in the light of true faith” and (quote): “God always heals us with the most amazing gentleness over time.” (Slight pause.)
Back to Glenn: though gentle, he is not one to suffer fools gladly. I was standing next to him once when a student approached and said: “Dr. Miller, I understand you’re teaching a survey course in Church History?” Glenn nodded in the affirmative.
Without seeming to understand the mindlessness of the question, the student then asked: “Well, what does a survey course in Church History encompass?” With amazing restraint this gentle giant held out a large hand as far as he could to one side and the other as far as he could in the opposite direction. (The pastor does this with his hands.)
Then moving his head back and forth between the hands, Glenn let his eyes draw a line between the two and said: “Jesus was resurrected over here. Jesus will come back somewhere over here. This course will cover everything in between.” (Slight pause.)
And these words are from the section of Scripture called the Writings in the work known as Nehemiah: “...all the people gathered together into the square, in the broad expanse before the Water Gate. They told the scribe Ezra to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, the Torah, which God had given to Israel.” (Slight pause.)
Glenn Miller, professor of Church History, will be the first to tell you history is important. But he also says names and dates are not important. It is important, however, to understand the broad sweep of history.
The three lectionary readings we heard today are very much a survey of the history of the people of God. And, if we are to really understand the relationship between God and humanity, we do need to get some sense about the sweep of history these readings represent. Now, it’s my bet, I could be wrong, but it’s my bet the reading from Nehemiah is either unfamiliar or does not make sense to most of us. I’d like to try to help out just a little on that count.
Let me start with a basic: probably most of you have seen Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments— right?— a great movie. But please don’t believe anything in it, not a word in it, not a frame of it.
If The Ten Commandments is about anything, it’s about how a big budget picture got made in the studio system of Hollywood in the 1950s, that’s it, that’s all. It is not about the Bible. It really gets only one fact straight— just one. The Hebrews left Egypt. That’s it.
But that they got out of Egypt is an important point in the broad sweep of their history. Indeed, in a millennium of history, the Hebrews were always being captured or freed by some nation. It is actually because of this— being captured, being freed— they understood God loved them, God was in covenant with them, God was their ultimate and only savior.
Now, around the 6th Century Before the Common Era, the people of Israel once again found themselves in captivity, this time in Babylon. For anyone keeping score, that’s about 500 years after Egypt. O.K.?
The Babylonians, just like the Egyptians before them but with less remorse, set the people of Israel free in the 5th Century Before the Common Era. Free yet again, the Hebrews interpreted this just like they interpreted their freedom from Egypt, as an act of a loving God.
In the passage read today, they are back in the capital city built by David, Jerusalem, after the Babylonian captivity. The priest and scribe Ezra reads from the Torah. (Slight pause.)
Now, when this reading was introduced earlier, it was stated this is one of the pivotal sections found in Scripture. Why? This is the first time the Torah, in a form we would recognize today, is presented to the people of God.
The Torah is sometimes called the law. Cecil B. DeMille’s opinion to the contrary, for any good Jew, the law is not the ten commandments. Let me say that again: the law is not the ten commandments. For any good Jew, the law is what Jesus told us the law is: ‘love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind;’ ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ Jesus didn’t dream that up. That’s in the Hebrew Scriptures.
And why did the Jews weep when they listened to the Torah? The Torah, again Cecil B. DeMille’s opinion to the contrary, is not about those Ten Commandments. The Torah tells the story of the covenant— the covenant which God makes with the people of God.
And that covenant, that relationship points to the only thing. God invites the people of God to do this: love God; love neighbor. And that is why they people cry. That all God asks is love is an overwhelming idea.
And that is also why Nehemiah says to the people of Israel (quote): “Let no one be sad, for the joy of Yahweh, God, is your strength.” The best response to the fact and to the reality of the covenant of love is joy. (Slight pause.)
Well, having talked about Nehemiah, I’ve set up a premise here: the premise is not only do these three readings represent a survey of the history of the people of God; they are all connected. How so?
The Corinthians reiterates an understanding of the covenant. We are all connected and interconnected with God and with one another. Again, as was indicated when that reading was introduced, having made the argument about the connective-ness of covenant, Paul, in the next chapter of Corinthians, will make the obvious claim. Love is both the driving force and the result of covenant.
Still, that leaves us with the passage from Luke. How does that fit into this scheme? Jesus says (quote): “The Spirit of God is upon me, / because the Most High has anointed me / to bring good news to those who are poor. / God has sent me to proclaim release, liberty to those held captive / and recovery of sight to those who are blind, / release to those in prison, / to proclaim the year of God’s favor....” Jesus said to them, “Today, in your hearing, this scripture is fulfilled.” (Slight pause.)
With these several sentences Luke’s words both proclaim the covenant yet again, and Jesus is realized as the embodiment of the covenant, the fulfillment the covenant. The realm of God is at hand. (Slight pause.)
When Mary Mayo and I meet to plan what music to use Service of Worship what we have both done is try to listen for how the assigned Scripture from the lectionary is speaking to us. In our discussion about this weeks readings we realized the lections did deal with this broad expanse of the history of the people of God. And we realized that this history reaches its climax in the Christ.
So, what did we choose for hymns? In Christ There Is No East or West and later we’ll sing Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation. And then we also asked ‘what is the point?’ And Mary chose the anthem The Heavens Are Telling. And we chose the hymn Go Tell It On the Mountain. Why?
The heavens proclaim the covenant which culminates in Jesus, the Christ, and our response of joy calls us to tell the story again and again and again. What story? The story of the broad sweep of history. The story of the covenant culminating in Jesus.
And as Nehemiah says (quote): “Let no one be sad, for the joy of Yahweh, God is your strength.” The response to the fact and the reality of the covenant, the response to this history, the response to our history, our response to Jesus, is one of joy. Amen.
01/24/2010
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Benediction. This, then, is an précis of what the pastor said before the blessing: “You need to know a little history in order to really know about Hamlin the cat. You see, the Hamlins were a prominent Maine family, producing two Civil War Generals and Lincoln’s First Vice-President. Cyrus Hamlin, a cousin of that Vice-President, graduated from Bangor Seminary in 1838 and was sent as a Congregational Missionary to Turkey, founded Robert College in Istanbul, still in operation today, taught at Bangor and was President of Middlebury College. But unless you know history, you don’t know why the cat is named Hamlin. Equally, unless you know the history of the people of God, it’s hard to be fully informed about faith.”
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