January 24, 2016 – Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Luke 4:14-21
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Luke 4:14-21
Love Scripture
Third Sunday after the Epiphany – January 24, 2016
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
When I was in seminary I remember some hot shot pastor coming to speak to us in
chapel one day.
I don’t remember why or even what the gist of his talk was.
But I do remember this:
I remember him saying that what pastoral ministry boils down to is this:
love God, love scripture, love the people.
Love God, love scripture, love the people. That’s pretty good, right?
I think those words are not just for pastors to live by.
I think those are words for all Christians to live by.
Love God, love scripture, love the people.
Loving God is not easy, although we do focus on loving Jesus as revealing to us
the truth about God, the heart of God, and the most important things about God.
And loving the people is not easy, even though it’s pretty concrete and
we’re doing a good job, I think, of loving one another and loving our neighbours at
First Lutheran Church.
But I think in some ways the hardest thing of the three is loving scripture.
We might respect scripture because, well, we’re supposed to.
We might think we should know more about it because, well, we’re supposed to.
But love scripture?
How many of us can say that?
The Bible is a mysterious document written long ago over a vast stretch of time.
It’s cumbersome, and a lot of it is hard to understand without some specialized knowledge.
And it’s hard to love what we don’t really understand.
Today in the reading from Nehemiah we get a glimpse of how important scripture was
for the people returning from exile in Babylon.
It’s about six hundred years before Jesus was born.
The people were overrun by the Babylonians and taken into captivity for 80 years.
When the Persians defeat the Babylonians the Israelites are allowed to return home.
But it’s not easy.
Everything is different.
Their city is in ruins – as is the Temple.
Their protective walls have been completely destroyed leaving them vulnerable.
Vineyards have been torn up and it’s hard to feed themselves.
Life is very difficult.
So Nehemiah, a lay person with a knack for getting people organized,
and Ezra, a priest, help the people get their act together to rebuild their lives.
And the first thing Nehemiah does is to gather all the people together –
and read scripture to them! For six hours! And explain it as they go.
Really! Of all things to do, he reads scripture to the people for six hours!
Now that just sounds crazy to us – who among us would do that?
Well, Nehemiah the lay person does – and the people listen rapt!
And the people weep – they weep for their sinfulness, for the behaviour and
bad decisions that got them into trouble in the first place.
They hear the story in the first part of the Bible of how God created this world to be a place
of harmony, and beauty, and caring for one another.
And of how that didn’t last long because of the behaviour of the first people.
Of how Adam and Eve wanted to lord it over one another rather than delight in one another
and serve one another.
Of how people murdered one another rather than nurtured one another.
Of how this led to war and destruction.
And so the people weep.
But Nehemiah tells them not to weep.
Because the reading of scripture is about God.
Because the reading of scripture is about God offering new beginnings.
Because scripture is about hope.
When Adam and Eve sadly learn to be ashamed of their naked bodies,
God graciously clothes them.
When the people murder one another God graciously forgives them.
When destructions comes, God hangs a rainbow in the sky and promises never to destroy again.
And there is more.
When all seems hopeless, God calls Abraham and promises to bless him in order to
bring blessing to the whole world through him and his family.
When the people are enslaved, the people cry to God and God hears and God calls
Moses to lead the people out of slavery.
In the wilderness God teaches the people about manna sharing and mercy giving and
a new way of living where all are honoured and all are respected and all are nurtured.
And there God teaches them beautiful things: Love God, love your neighbour as yourself.
Nehemiah announces that there is so much hope in the Biblical story.
And so he tells the people, Do not weep.
Instead, celebrate by enjoying good food and drinking sweet wine – and then
continue celebrating by sharing that good food with those who have none.
(Which, I will point out, continues to be how we celebrate the goodness and the hope of God
at First Lutheran Church 2600 years later: we read scripture, we celebrate the
hope we have in God’s goodness by eating good bread and drinking sweet wine,
and then we take food from the table and
share it at food bank with those who have less).
Because says Nehemiah as he delivers the punch line, the joy of the LORD is your strength.
Your strength, Nehemiah is saying, comes from rejoicing in God’s goodness,
the goodness and hope in God that comes from reading scripture.
Nehemiah is telling the people to love scripture, and he is schooling them in how to do that.
I have come to love scripture because of the great hope found in it.
I have come to love Sundays because in worship we have come to celebrate the hope we have
in scripture.
And really we have hope in scripture because it points to all the things God is doing to
make this world right and bring healing and justice and peace and plenty.
We find hope in scripture because it points us to the God who is working working working
so that we can have hope.
And so when Jesus begins his public ministry today in Luke’s Gospel,
we’re paying attention to what he does and what he says.
Because in every Gospel, Jesus’s first public act and first public words form the heart of
his ministry and set the agenda for it – they tell us what he is all about.
And so what do we see and hear this morning?
He goes to worship at the synagogue, the gathering of the people where scripture is read,
the beginnings of which we find in Nehemiah, I might add.
And he reads scripture! Ha!
He chooses a passage from Isaiah and he reads this hope-filled passage to a people who
desperately need hope, to a people who once again are oppressed by injustice and
poverty and hopelessness.
Everyone remembers that he has just been baptized a chapter ago and
anointed with the Holy Spirit.
And now, quoting Isaiah, he says “I’ve been anointed – I’ve been baptized –
in order to bring good news! Good new to the poor! Good news to the captives!
Good news to the blind! Good news to the oppressed!
I’m here to announce the good news of the jubilee year, also written of in scripture,
when all debts are forgiven, when slaves are set free,
when everyone is offered a new start!
It’s starting now! says Jesus. It’s starting today! It’s starting in my ministry! This is good news!
And the people are stunned. And the people are happy.
And the people rejoice as we will see next week – briefly.
But that’s another story.
Jesus loves scripture and finds tremendous hope in it for the people,
and his ministry will celebrate that hope by his eating with people and
drinking with people and sharing food with people who have none.
And so the hopeful story of what God is found doing in scripture will continue in
what Jesus has been baptized for: continuing the story of hope.
There is tremendous hope in scripture – so let us love scripture,
and at least for this hour let us rejoice in what God can do.
There is tremendous hope in this baptism of Ruth Alice this morning, for she becomes part of
the scriptural story of hope this morning, she is anointed with the Holy Spirit of love
just as Jesus was long ago so she can take her place in the story alongside us.
Like us, and like those in confirmation class this year, she will come to love scripture here.
And through that will come to love the God revealed to us in Jesus who gives new beginnings.
And she will come to love the people who nurture her in this love of God and love of scripture.
So for this hour let us not weep.
Let our strength be in rejoicing is what God can do and in what God is doing.
Let us rejoice in what we can do as agents anointed by God to forgive and make peace and
bring justice.
Let us rejoice in what we can do as agents anointed by God to bring healing and sharing.
Let us rejoice in what we can do as agents anointed by God to respect all people,
and love one another, and love our neighbours and friends and strangers.
So let us once again love scripture and the story it tells by sharing good bread and
drinking sweet wine, and sharing our food with those who have less.
And together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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