Third Sunday of Epiphany

Nehemiah 8.21-3, 5-6, 8-10; Luke 4.14-21

Catherine Gibson

Two assemblies, listening attentively as a prophet reads from scripture and interprets it for his hearers. In each case, it’s received with mixed emotions.

Nehemiah was one of the Jews taken into captivity in Babylon. He had obtained permission from King Artaxerxes to return and rebuild Jerusalem. The exiles faced many difficulties in this task; but at last the city was rebuilt. However, the more difficult task was the rebuilding of the People of God. This is the setting for today’s first reading.

The people of the rebuilt city were a mixture. There were those who had remained when the majority were taken into exile. Maybe they were considered not worth taking! Others had done well in exile, and become prosperous. It was difficult to stay faithful to God in an alien culture, and some would have married gentiles, and they and their families would have divided loyalties. In front of such people, Ezra stands up to read from the Torah, while teachers go among them, ensuring they understand what is read. The people are so keen to return to the faith of their fathers that they listen all day.

As they listen, they weep, perhaps with shame when they realise how far they have strayed from God’s Law. But Ezra and Nehemiah tell them not to weep, but to worship and celebrate, and to feed the poor.

The congregation who gather in the synagogue in Nazareth have already heard accounts of Jesus’ remarkable preaching and healing in other towns and villages of Galilee, and are agog to see what the local carpenter has become. How thrilling it must be to hear him say, after reading the passage, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing!”

However, what he goes on to say is less palatable. After the point where our reading stops, Jesus implies a broader understanding of ‘The People of God’. The popular idea of the Messiah and God’s rule on earth meant the punishment and subjugation of the other nations, especially those who had been their enemies and conquerors. Jesus points out that when Elijah helped a widow, it wasn’t a Jewish widow; and when Elisha healed a leper, he was not a Jew but the commander of the enemy army! The ‘People of God’ are to be ‘a light for the nations’, the means through whom God’s redemption can come to the world, not an exclusive élite. The mood of the congregation changes, and they attempt to throw him off a cliff, but he eludes them.

Both passages emphasise the importance of community. This would be further underlined if we had used the New Testament reading, where Paul addresses the Corinthian church about living like a body, in which all parts are integral to the working of the whole. Jesus’ description of his mission, chosen from the prophecy of Isaiah, speaks of bringing God’s justice and creating God’s community.

It becomes very clear, as one reads the Bible, that God values above all the way we live in community. Private spirituality is important, but the test of it is our interaction with others. And this is why it matters so much how we behave towards one another as a church, as well as in our behaviour to those beyond the church community. As we gather for Holy Communion, may we remember that we are seeking to work towards the communion of all human beings.

A prayer of Eric Milner-White:

Lord God, thou has built in heaven and earth a single church

         of Truth and Love and holy Spirit;

         one family and communion, whose temple is the Lamb,

         one body indivisible, here and beyond,

         the Body of thy dear Son. . .

 

Father, all souls are thine: gather them into one;

          bring us unto the one Truth;

          bind us by the one Love;

          perfect us with the one Spirit;

pity our senile schisms, heal the long hates of death;

within thy single Church built of grace,

          grant us thy peace. Amen.