Sermon January 24, 2010

Year C - The Year of Luke - Epiphany 3

Contrary to what our contemporary culture may tell us, the Christmas season does not begin sometime after Halloween and conclude with returning unwanted presents on December 26. Rather, the Christmas season has its own cycle, beginning with Advent, moving through Christmas, and continuing with Epiphany. This is similar to the pattern with Easter: the Lenten season, followed by Holy Week, continuing with the great fifty days of Easter, and concluding with Pentecost. In the aftermath of Christmas and New Year's celebration, it is often easy to overlook the theological challenge that the church gives to us in this Epiphany season.

There has been a consistent theme in the readings and collects for Epiphany the last several weeks. This theme is that the Epiphany season manifests Jesus' divine nature to the world. The star that led the wise men to Jesus was God revealing to non-Jews that their salvation had come. Two weeks ago, we celebrated the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, in which the voice from heaven declares Jesus to be his son, in whom he is well pleased, again revealing Jesus as God's Son. Last week. We read the story of the wedding at Cana in John's Gospel. This is not merely to show that Jesus liked to have a good time: rather it is consistent with this Epiphany theme of God's revelation of Jesus' divinity. At this wedding, Jesus performs his first public miracle in John's Gospel.

Another theme runs alongside this theme. It speaks to us directly as followers of the divine Christ. There is a call for us to live in the Covenant God made with us in baptism. It is a reminder of the ministry to which all are called through baptism. This challenge continues this week, as our Collect for the Day calls upon us to "hear, read, mark, and learn God's Holy Scriptures so that we may embrace and forever hold fast to the hope of eternal life."

Today, the third Sunday after Epiphany presents two images of public readings from the Bible. In these passages, people hear, read, mark, and learn from the words that are read from the Holy Scriptures.

In the book of Nehemiah, Ezra, the scribe, is reading aloud from the Mosaic Law to the returned exiles who are gathering at the Water Gate in Jerusalem. He read from early morning to midday to the men and women gathered at the gate. The writer emphasizes repeatedly that the people heard with understanding.

In Nehemiah's time, the people hear the law and they weep. They are so deeply moved to hear again what they consider their legacy from Moses that they fall on their faces to worship the Lord. As they continue weeping, Nehemiah reminds them that this is a holy day and a cause for joy and celebration and for sharing with those who have nothing.

This is the first image from today's readings. The second image comes centuries later. The people are under the yoke of the Romans. Their longing for a Messiah has not abated. The location this time is Nazareth.

John baptized Jesus. Jesus called his disciples to his ministry. Jesus returns having wrestled with the Devil’s temptations in the desert. Now, Jesus returns home to Nazareth. He knows that the people hearing him remember him as the son of their own Mary, of Joseph the carpenter.

With the assurance of a prophet, Jesus chooses to read from Isaiah, the passages of the Servant Song. He proclaims his mission, here in the town where he grew up: he has come for the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed. The categories fit the poor people of Nazareth just as they fit the all the people of captive Israel under the Romans and their collaborators among of the priests of the temple.

It is an electrifying moment when Jesus says, "Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." It is electrifying because the long awaited Messiah has now arrived; the only problem is that the people do not sense this is an electrifying moment. Instead, as we will see in next Sunday's reading, the initial reaction is something like, "Isn't this nice. How well he speaks. He is one of our own. Here is Mary's boy." Then, they will then turn from complimenting Jesus into an ugly mob.

However, for now, today, we have this moment when Jesus reads and speaks in the synagogue. The people in the room do not know it, but the world has just changed in those words. The Messiah is there for them, and for Israel, and now for us.

In Nehemiah's reading, the people hear and understand. In the reading from the Gospel, the people hear, but they do not fully comprehend. However, in both cases, the Word of God is read; and in both cases, the Word of God has power.

Both Nehemiah and Jesus call us today to listen with understanding. St. Paul urges us, together with the Corinthians, not to break up the Body of Christ but to live for its good. The Israelites in the day of Nehemiah wept as they heard the Word of the Lord. As they wept, Nehemiah told them that this was a time for rejoicing not weeping. The same is true for us. The Epiphany season challenges us to see the divine Christ everywhere in our lives. The power, joy, and meaning of Christmas are not confined to just a few weeks of the year. What we observe in Christmas continues with us all of our days. The Messiah, the Son of the Living God, the Divine Christ is with us today, tomorrow, and forever. The challenge for us is to live as if that matters for it does matter. It matters in how we see ourselves and how we see those around us, and how we see our church and commitment to it. As St. Paul says, "Care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it." Amen.