Gracious, loving, and living God, give us all eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to respond. Amen.

When I read the scriptures appointed for today with the emphasis on the significance of scripture and its interpretation, it immediately took me back to my hometown and one of the most embarrassing moments in my adolescent life. Now, to give you a little context, I grew up in a very small town in South Texas—small like two thousand people or so. We all pretty much knew one another, and it’s fair to say that I went to school with almost all the same kids from first grade through high school—which sometimes was a good thing and sometimes maybe not so much—particularly in eighth grade at 14 years of age. Let’s just say it’s one of the most awkward periods in an adolescent’s life, anyway. In my English class, Mr. Daley decided he was going to teach about the literary device allegory, and he decided to illustrate with a Bible story. I don’t know what possessed him, but he looked to me and said, “Jan, tell everyone about that story.” I had no idea what he was talking about.

I still can remember where I was sitting, my face flame red and the heat pouring out. You know, I was a good student and oh my gosh, I was like a deer in the headlights because I didn’t know what he was talking about. Now, in my defense, it was a story from one of the minor prophets, but I digress! I guess he knew that my family were church people. We were in church every Sunday, and when I was growing up, the priest always preached on the Gospel, so I knew a fair amount about Jesus. But let’s remember that there are four books in the Gospels; there are sixty-six books in the entire Bible, and I was a little sketchy on the Old Testament Hebrew scriptures. Apparently, I wasn’t alone in terms of what I knew about the Bible. In his book Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know—and Doesn’t, Stephen Prothero cites the following: nearly two-thirds of American adults believe that the Bible contains the answers to all or at least most of life’s basic questions; yet only about a half of American adults can name even one of the four Gospels and most Americans can’t tell you the name of the first book of the Bible.1

Why do I mention this? The Bible is God’s word to God’s people. It is one of the fundamental ways in which we come to know God: God’s relationship with God’s people, our relationship to God, and importantly, our relationship to one another. It is one of the primary ways in which we learn how to be in right relationship with God and one another.

Now, let’s look at the scriptures appointed for today. The passage you heard from Nehemiah takes place after a group of the Israelites who have been in exile in Babylon for two generations are back in Jerusalem, and it is the people who ask Ezra to read the law, the book of Moses.

So, the day comes, and Ezra and his companions stand up to read the book, the word of God. How do the people respond? They lift their hands in the air, in eager expectation and then— get this—for five to six hours they read. And the Levites move through the people offering interpretation and many believe translation from Hebrew into Aramaic, which was the language of the people. Their response to hearing the word of the Lord is to weep, to mourn. Why? Could it be that they’re hearing how their lives are not perhaps a perfect match with the instructions in the book of Moses, the law? Perhaps they’ve strayed a bit from the instructions that were given originally to Moses. Importantly, Ezra says, don’t weep, don’t mourn. This is the word of the Lord. “This day is holy to the Lord your God.” Go home, eat, drink, and out of your abundance share with those who don’t have enough. It was a day of joy and celebration.

Moving to the gospel lesson: as we heard earlier, remember that in the Gospel of Luke, this comes fairly early in Jesus’s public ministry. Jesus has been baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit, driven by the Spirit into the wilderness where he is tempted for forty days, and filled with the Spirit. Jesus passes all these tests and goes on to start his public ministry. We hear in the very first verses of today’s passage that it’s going fairly well. Jesus is traveling around the Galilee, teaching and preaching and the people are responding. And then Jesus goes to his hometown of Nazareth. Now, these people have known him all his life. This is Joseph the carpenter’s son, and as you heard, it’s his turn. He’s handed the scroll. It’s Isaiah.

He goes to the place where it says the following: 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.”  What great, good news. Who wouldn’t want to hear that? Who wouldn’t want it to be the year of the Lord’s favor and to have all those extraordinary things happen? Then he sits down, which signifies that he’s about to move into interpretation, and he says, “Today, the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Well, it’s all been going really well up to this point, and that’s where the passage for today stops. Read ten more verses. Once he interprets, things start to go south. I mean really south—so much so that he enrages the people who then drive him out of the synagogue to the edge of town and they’re prepared to hurl him over the cliff. That message is not lost on me. Interpretation and preaching is not for the faint hearted!

One of Jesus’s seminal teachings is what we know as the double love commandment. In the twenty-second chapter of Matthew, Jesus is asked essentially, out of the over six hundred commandments which there are in Judaism, which one is the greatest commandment? Remember, Jesus was born a Jew and Jesus died an obedient Jew. These are his scriptures and commandments. He responds, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.” It’s the double love commandment: love God, love your neighbor.

Well, what does that mean exactly? Jesus answers in the tenth chapter of Luke. He’s asked again, this time by a lawyer: what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus responds, “What does the law say?” The lawyer repeats, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind and spirit and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus says, you’ve answered rightly. But it’s a lawyer so there’s a follow up question: who is my neighbor?

Jesus responds with another one of his key frequently used teaching devices which is to tell a story, a parable. He answers with the parable of the Good Samaritan. You know it. A man is making his way from Jerusalem to Jericho, and along the way he’s overtaken by robbers who beat him and strip him and rob and leave him half dead on the side of the road. The first person who comes by is a priest. A priest sees the man half dead, crosses the road and keeps going. The next one’s a Levite. He sees the man half dead, crosses the road and continues on his way. The third is the Samaritan. The Samaritan stops, pours wine and oil on the wounds, bandages this beaten man, puts him on his animal, takes him to an inn and asks the innkeeper to take care of him while he finishes his journey. He gives him money to feed him, to heal him, to help to make this man whole, and the Samaritan says, when I come back, if that wasn’t enough money, I’ll give you whatever your expenses were.

Jesus then asked the lawyer “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The lawyer responds, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus says, “Go and do likewise.” Go and do likewise. Part of the significance of the story is that in those days, Samaritans and Jews didn’t mix. They were other, and they considered one another as other. Jesus’s consideration of loving God and loving your neighbor is expansive.

Let’s just take one more bit of Jesus’s teaching. Let’s go to the Sermon on the Mount, one of his primary teaching segments in the Bible. It’s in Matthew, chapters five through seven. You know how it begins—it begins with the Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy. Continue on and we’re called to turn the other cheek. Go the extra mile. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. It’s not easy, but it’s clear. Jesus doesn’t say we have to like them, but we’re called to love—the sort of love that surpasses all understanding.

We’re in such divided times. I’m convinced, particularly as a Christian, that the way forward is the way of Jesus and that’s the way of love. Remember the instructions in the Gospel of John that Jesus offered to the disciples at the Last Supper, knowing he was going to be crucified. He said to them: Love one another as I have loved you, and by this everyone will know that you are my disciples.

Friends, we have a loving God who calls us to be in right relationship with God and with one another. Loving God and loving our neighbor is a really good start. On this day, and every day, I pray that God will give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to respond. Amen.

1 Stephen Prothero, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know —and Doesn’t. (HarperOne, 2007)

 

Preacher

The Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope

Provost