I. Theme – The importance of community
Prisoners Exercising” – Van Gogh (1890)
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm – Psalm 19
Epistle – 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Gospel – Luke 4:14-21
Today’s readings address us as a community rather than a group of individuals. In Nehemiah, we hear the heartfelt response of God’s people as God’s word is read aloud to the community restored from exile. Paul compares the community of the Church to a body, each individual member necessary to the body as a whole.
The lectionary readings this week have a pattern of linking the art of reading scripture, interpretation and preaching, but we are wise to remember that these are not the only spiritual gifts. Paul reminds us that we need teachers, leaders, interpreters, those who help others in addition to preaching—but there are greater gifts, gifts of faith, hope, compassion, care—and love. These are the gifts that are needed in our world today. All other gifts—preaching, teaching, leading, etc.—should work to the benefit of God’s gift of love.
Luke shows Jesus as he begins his ministry by proclaiming God’s word to his hometown community gathered at a synagogue. We are watching Jesus of Nazareth work out being the Son of God. At the point of Luke chapter 4, the title "Son of God" does not signify the second person of the Holy Trinity, it does not yet entail actual divinity, Jesus has still to work that out; and though it was already true of him, At this point in the gospel, to be the Son of God is to be the royal prince of Israel, the true king of the Jews, of the House and lineage of David, the entitled one, the anointed one, the christos, the Christ, the Messiah.
Today we read of him going public and developing his campaign. He doesn’t go straight to Jerusalem. He does the synagogues, explaining the book of the law of Moses, the Torah. Like Ezra in our reading from Nehemiah. He read the law and made sense of it so the people could understand it, he was giving them interpretation and inspiration and hope. From our perspective we can see him as God having come among God’s people, God talking to them again. But they would not have seen him as the Messiah, doing that. King David was not a teacher. They saw him as a rabbi and a prophet.
He chooses to announce that he’s the Messiah in his own home town, in the town hall, which is the synagogue. He does it by simply reading from the Isaiah scroll.
II. Summary
Old Testament – Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Today we read of the prophet Ezra, as recorded in Nehemiah, reading from the scroll of the law to the people
The books of Ezra, the priest, and Nehemiah, the provincial governor, tell of those who returned from exile after 539 BCE. In a ceremony of recommitment to God’s instructions for covenant life, Ezra reads aloud the “book of the law of Moses” (v. 1), probably an early version of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament.
The Torah was not only the story of God’s revelation in history but also the source of divine legislation. After the exile, the Jewish community emphasized that only through more careful obedience to the law would they live sinlessly before God and so prevent another catastrophe like the exile, which they interpreted as God’s judgment on their sinful ways
The passage indicates that others also helped Ezra relay the words to the people, offering interpretation so they would understand, interpreting from Hebrew to the common Aramaic, but they also “gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading” (vs 8), basically interpreting the scripture to make meaning for a group of people. For the people of Nehemiah and Ezra’s time, who were returning to Jerusalem after a lengthy exile, they needed to hear the old story in a new way. Perhaps readings of the law, reminiscent of the people coming out of the exodus, resonated with a people coming out of exile. Perhaps they needed to be reminded of both the covenant of God that had been broken as well as the hope of God that is renewed.
Not only is the Torah lifted up, but also the images of feasting that surround it. Such a banquet served as an ample image of the comfort and direction that the reading supplied the returnees. The words of the reading, indeed the reading itself, formed a future for the people who once had none. It becomes an excellent symbol of the messianic future, which Jesus will address in his reading.
Psalm – Psalm 19
The psalm celebrates God’s revelation, expressed generally in creation and specially in the Jewish law. Pagans acclaimed the divinity of some elements in nature (sun, moon, fire, etc.). The psalmist, however, claims that all of nature declares the glory of Israel’s God, the only Creator.
Also interesting is the imagery surrounding the sun, which emerges like both bridegroom and warrior to make his rounds. It is an image that underscores the scope of the divine word, and perhaps is a borrowing from Egyptian mythology.
With verse eight we come to an abrupt change in the psalms themes, and a voice that is given to the voiceless heavens. Now the center of attention is the other example of the divine word’s voice – the Lord’s teaching. The voice that scatters the stars also informs life of the proper way. In these words are held five eternal verities: steadfastness, light, truth, wisdom, and life. The final stanzas underscore the usefulness and desirability of the word.
Epistle – 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a is Paul’s discourse on spiritual gifts. Paul begins with the notion of both the individual body, which once baptized becomes a part of the corporate body of Christ. Normal distinctions, Jew, Greek, slave, or free, are no longer to be considered, for we all “drink of one Spirit.” Writing to a congregation that is divided, Paul preaches unity by diversity. Paul extols the various gifts of the spirit at the end of this section, including preaching, but stresses that all gifts are needed as part of the body of Christ.
Paul continues with an exposition of what the body represents in its gifts and how they are used for the whole body. Gifts of greater distinction are used for the betterment of the whole church (the Body). The highest distinction is given to the gift of charity. With all of the questions that Paul poses to his readers, one can imagine the internal conversation that must result from his inquiry. “What are my gifts?” “To what am I called?” And thus the various parts of the body discover their own abilities so as to contribute to the whole body, the Church.
The image of the community as a body was a common one in Paul’s day. The Romans used it as a metaphor for the state. Paul uses the image to show that every Christian is necessary to the body and needs the help of others.
Just as people take greater care to cover their “unpresentable parts” (12:23) and treat them with more honor, so Christians are to give particular respect to those they may think are less important members of the community. Paul calls, not for compromise, but for mutual loving concern (12:25) and cooperation for the good of the whole body.
Gospel – Luke 4:14-21
Luke 4:14-21 contains the first teaching of Jesus in the synagogue. So we must remember that Jesus has just returned from the wilderness full of the Spirit, comes to his hometown synagogue, and reads from the prophet Isaiah, proclaiming that today the scripture has been fulfilled in their hearing. But what we know in this first passage is this: Jesus begins speaking in Galilee and in neighboring synagogues and people have begun to talk about him and praise him. At least in his hometown and surrounding region he is becoming well-known and so far, the people are enjoying his message. Preaching and interpretation are part of a tradition in our worship that stretches back into our Hebrew Scriptures, and Jesus also participates in this tradition.
For Luke, Jesus’ ministry begins at the direction of the Spirit (4:14). Jesus’ inaugural sermon in his hometown synagogue sets forth the whole meaning of Jesus’ preaching and life. The account is set within the typical synagogue service of the time: recitation of the Shema (“Hear, O Israel…”), prayers, a reading from the Torah, a reading from the prophets, a sermon and a blessing. We have a picture of Jesus as a devout man who could read . He reads from Isaiah 61:1-2, omitting one phrase – “to heal the brokenhearted.” It seems that Luke reserves the use of the verb “to heal” to situations which involve physical healing. The reading is augmented with a phrase from Isaiah 58:6, “to let the oppressed go free.”
Jesus announces himself as the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah, as the “anointed one,” that is, the expected Messiah or Christ. The liberation he brings is an actual physical liberation as well as one of spiritual forgiveness. He proclaims the “acceptable year of the lord” (v. 19), the Jubilee year of liberation from debt and slavery and of return to the family. This passage stands as a link between the Old Testament and the work of Christ and the Church.
Jesus is the focus of this reading and of its interpretation in Nazareth. By citing “the year of the Lord’s favor”, Jesus calls to mind the year of jubilee when debts were forgiven. He seems to suggest in his coming ministry, especially as it is portrayed by Luke, that this “forgiveness of debts” has a far more universal quality that is related to the poor and the downtrodden. The reading is abrupt in recalling Jesus’ interpretation of the text, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled…”
III. Articles for this week in WorkingPreacher:
Old Testament – Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm – Psalm 19
Epistle – 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Gospel – Luke 4:14-21