[Propertalk] Fwd: 3 Epiphany c - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

Bob Morrison



THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY                                                           3rd EPIPHANY C
NEHEMIAH 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10                                                                                                  24th JANUARY, 2016
1 CORINTHIANS 12:12-31a                                                                                                                  PSALM 19
LUKE 4:14-21
 
            You and I both know that the example of something right in front of you, no matter who or what it is, can have an impact over even the best written, most exciting book or article in the world. But if, somehow, both are combined in one, that’s irresistible.
            And there it is – plain as day, or almost as plain as day, in the first Scripture reading.
            The Hebrew people had been through catastrophe after catastrophe: exile, homesickness, loss of confidence in themselves, confusion, worst of all, a loss of faith. They were so confused. Where could they turn? On what, on whom might they depend? Would they have to fall back on what mixture of feelings that were within then, as limited as they were? And then Ezra and Nehemiah found it! The Scroll of the Law!
            Serendipity? Pure chance? I don’t think so. Although I don’t know how these things work, I know that they DO happen! All of a sudden, a miracle appears to transform one’s life. If your eyes and my eyes are open, and your minds and my mind are willing to consider what may appear so run-of-the-mill, so unlikely; if your imaginations and my imagination are willing to accept that God is present all the time, everywhere, then the miracle can and does occur.
            Lost, in their own town, the Hebrew people found themselves face to face with God. They found their purpose. They found their Rule of Life.
            It must have been amazing – the people came into their own town, but they didn’t see what to do. They couldn’t think how to go about focusing their lives. Until Ezra and Nehemiah, digging around in the city ruins like everyone else, suddenly found that scroll on which was written the means to discover God in their lives. And the people lapped it up. The Lord was acknowledged as their strength.
            Fast forward five hundred years or so to another group, a much smaller group of weary people that Sabbath. Sort of going through the motions, they turned up week after week. Occasionally there would be a flash of inspiration. Occasionally they’d feel, rather than just hear, God’s word as it was proclaimed. But THAT day, the day described in this morning’s verses, after the prophetic message of hope which they’d heard time and again, Jesus said, simply, “This becomes real for you today.”
            Did they have any idea who was standing in front of them? Could they begin, might they DARE to imagine?
            The Hebrew people were given something they could see, perhaps get close enough almost to touch. Their emotional level was at a tremendous high. They had a direct communication from God, a sign that God’s love isn’t a dry, academic writing but a positive, right-on-time sustainer. It was right on time because the loving direction offered through the words of the Scroll of the Law were exactly what was needed to rebuild Jerusalem and the country. It wasn’t any empty political speech. It wasn’t simply a matter of bricks and mortar. What went on INSIDE the buildings and among all the people of the nation was infinitely more important. God, then, touched the people to remind them what hope was all about.
            You may remember that “In 1947 an Arab shepherd boy was looking for a lost goat in caves in the Judean desert on the west side of the Dead Sea when he chanced upon some of the first Dead Sea Scrolls (often called the Qumran scrolls). He was throwing  rocks into the caves to see if the goat was there, and instead he heard the breaking of pottery. The sound frightened him and he ran away, but later he returned to examine the caves and found the broken pots containing manuscripts.”  1
            It must have been something like the crowds in Jerusalem listening to and experiencing the emotions as Ezra and Nehemiah. All of a sudden, first a boy, then some shepherds, then a store keeper, then the world, could see, could actually see, scrolls containing words first written not really that long after Ezra and Nehemiah spoke.
            “The discovery of several other ancient manuscripts from Qumran shook the scholarly world: one was the Isaiah Scroll and another (a) Habakkuk Commentary. The scholars at the American School of Oriental Research realized immediately that these scrolls were older than any Old Testament manuscripts to date. At least eleven caves in the vicinity of Qumran held manuscripts of all the biblical books except Esther and Nehemiah. The dates of these manuscripts range from about 250 BC to AD 50." 2
            People, or, at least, select academics, could actually touch these scrolls with gloved hands, imaging who might have copied them, who else held them, and read in a synagogue in which Jesus may have stood. The mind boggles to think of this link with the past, making it come so alive.
            Yet there was Jesus, on that day, saying that the words of the prophet were becoming real for all who heard. Far better than a scroll, here is the Word whose utterance brought everything into being.
 


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