Fulfilled in Our Hearing
January 27, 2013
An Odd Day at the Synagogue
Today, we have the story of another early point in Jesus’ public ministry. He’s been praised by everyone since he started in ministry back at Cana, changing water into wine as we heard last week, and is now coming home to read and preach. The local boy has made good! So he gets up to read, and chooses, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor....Release for the captives...recovery of sight to the blind...et the oppressed go free... Then he says, “Today, this scripture... has been fulfilled... in your hearing.”
Huh. Well, now the eyes of the congregation are fixed on him. Next week, we’ll hear more about how they try to drop him off a cliff. They were not happy. (This is, to be honest, every pastor’s worst nightmare, and a common Saturday night anxiety!)
What was it they were so offended by? At first glance, Jesus sounds maybe a little cocky, a little too sure of himself here. After all, most of the people in the room knew him growing up as the son of Joseph, not the Son of God. Probably they thought he was getting too big for his britches, that he didn’t know his place, after all, he was just a carpenter’s son to them, even if he was looking promising so far for becoming a rabbi someday.
However, it’s worth a closer look. Jesus said, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” He didn’t say, “I have fulfilled it.” Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if he had, or maybe that’s what he meant, but for a few moments today, let’s talk about the idea of how Scripture is fulfilled in our hearing.
After all, we also have that little-known story in Nehemiah, where the people are hearing the scripture with understanding, and weeping, but Nehemiah tells them to have joy. Perhaps we can figure out what this means for us today as well.
One Body, Many Parts
And then we have that much more famous passage from 1 Corinthians, where Paul compares the body of Christ, especially the local church congregation, to having one body with many parts. Some may seem more important and others less important, but all have functions and needs, and each are absolutely necessary to the function of the whole.
It’s great that this passage is coming at the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, especially when we are reminded that If one member suffers, all suffer together with it, if one is honored, all honored with it.
Our Bodies, Many Parts
But how do we find our place in the body? Perhaps our concerns about our own bodies obstruct our understanding of how we may be called to serve.
Perhaps we’ve all had the experience of losing the function of a body part, either for short- or long-term. Whether we’ve sprained an ankle or had a joint replaced, we realize how one body part not working leads us to feel as though everything is ‘off’-- in our bodies, and maybe even in our lives. If we are losing our hearing or vision, we realize how much information is passing us by that previously kept us connected to the world. The loss of any of our function can indeed be painfully isolating. Our role within the community changes. Maybe we feel like everything is passing us by, moving on without us.
And yet, even when we have losses, and often the life transitions they bring, we may find new roles emerge, new gifts that we did not previously know we’d been given.
I used to be a quiet, introverted person; but spending the last several years working around people a lot means that I’m now much more extroverted than before. I also used to do lots of heavy lifting and physical mission projects, and took pride in doing so; it’s been quite an adjustment to the restrictions against heavy lifting during pregnancy. I used to be extremely independent, flying off to another country at a moment’s notice. Now, I’m always planning around three other people. On the other hand, parenting in itself has been worth the trade!
We can always wish that our life circumstances were different at any given point than they are; it’s not wrong to remember days past or look forward to the future. But it would be a mistake to let our present circumstances get in the way of recognizing the gifts that they bring, to ourselves and to others. We might waste years of our lives being resentful because one area was not working well, and failing to realize another area was able to do wonders, if only we had let it.
The Baptism Connection
And today, we have a baptism, and we’re reminded that we are baptized into community. Baptism isn’t a magic potion or ritual to bop baby on head and save her from perdition, but it’s an entrance rite into Christian community. Recorded in the rolls, recognized as an equal. It doesn’t matter our age or our resume, in baptism we are all named and claimed as children of God.
It’s hard to be a Christian in isolation. So much of our faith is dependent on interdependence! Community is what transforms Christianity from a static belief in a set of talking points, into a lived faith--even if we were the only Christian in our workplace or community, we still would have others around us with whom we needed to live out our faith. And I don’t mean by evangelizing, Bible-beating, or drawing any distinction between ourselves and others, but in recognizing the needs of others and reaching out to serve our neighbor whenever and wherever we can: providing companionship, encouragement, bringing a plate of food, refusing to judge by stereotypes or gossip, watching the kids, teaching a new skill, or helping with a dreaded task. At any rate, living out our faith by the actions of our bodies is a far more powerful witness than anything we might say about our faith.
Perhaps today has some of the best possible themes for a Baptism Sunday, because we may have early clues, but we don’t know exactly where Devin’s gifts will be. They could be in music, or extending care to others, or in speaking, or in the arts, or in stewardship, or in organizing and leading. In the meantime, we all have a role to play in nurturing the children among us, in giving them room to develop their gifts, in recognizing that which is holy and God-given in each of them. And we have to be up to that task--not only in working with the children among us, but in continuing to draw out the gifts in the grown children among us, even the 70, 80, and 90 year old children of God among us.
Fulfilled in our Doing
Yes, no matter what our age, our skills, or our limitations, we are called to be not just hearers of the word, but doers also.
What if not just Jesus, but you are fulfilling this Scripture? Now granted, if we did follow Jesus, we might get lots of stares-- people might think we are nuts!
But what if you are helping people discover their freedom, beyond whatever their captivity may be? What if your own movement from feeling captive by something in your life to finding freedom, served to inspire others?
That might still seem hard to understand. And Nehemiah--emphasizes hearing with understanding. In some ways, we might say we’ll never fully understand the Bible, because there are so many layers of meaning and history. I know that I learn something new each time I preach on a text, and there are people whose life’s work is to study the Bible and they still discover new things all the time.
Still, we are called to be led by scripture at the level where we do understand it, and apply it to the living out of our faith each day. The Holy Spirit guides us in this work. That is an essential part of its power.
We all have a role to play in fulfilling Scripture: to set captives free, recapture the vision, and proclaim God’s love. In the hearing, we discover the possibility for new ways of living. In recognizing the variety of gifts, we learn ways of transforming the world and sharing Christ’s love. And may you be set free, by what you have heard, and sent forth to serve, as children of God in the community of Christ. Amen.
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