Homily for January 27, 2013

Fulfilling the Law With Love

Lessons:

Nehemiah 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-10

Psalm 19

1 Corinthians 12: 12-31a

Luke 4: 14-21

The Collect:

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

“Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call.”  What is it exactly the Church and we Christians are called to do?  How are we supposed to proclaim the Good News?  I believe we proclaim it best by living it. Jesus told his disciples they would be known by their love, and we are called to love one another and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Today’s world, however, often seems to be sorely lacking in love. According to a survey conducted recently by Duke University, one in four Americans cannot name even one person they consider a close friend or confidante. How can that be? Surely there aren’t that many lonely people all around us.

Andi Tillmann, a young woman who works for the Diocesan development program, shared that information with us last Sunday at Buck Mountain Church. She says she is haunted by the statistic: one in four Americans believes himself or herself to be friendless. She also said that what churches have to offer a lonely world is community.

“Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free...” Isn’t this Saint Paul’s way of saying “It takes a village”? A true Christian community welcomes everyone because we understand that each of us has something to offer, that each of us is necessary to complete the whole.  We know that we need one another. We understand that we, as the body of Christ in the world, are placed here to do the work of the Lord. We also seem to require some rules to live by, insurance that we will treat one another with respect and consideration.

Psalm 19 includes these verses about God’s law:

The law of the LORD is perfect
and revives the soul; *
the testimony of the LORD is sure
and gives wisdom to the innocent.

8

The statutes of the LORD are just
and rejoice the heart; *
the commandment of the LORD is clear
and gives light to the eyes.

In giving humans laws to live by, our spiritual ancestors believed God made it possible for them to live peaceful, prosperous, and productive lives in community with one another. The law lays a foundation for what we have come to know as civilized life, and in the Old Testament, we see a people chosen by God and led by the law-giver Moses as they are transformed from nomadic primitives to founders of the great city of Jerusalem.  David, the first king to reign in that city, penned the words of Psalm 19 in praise of the mercy in God’s law.

            In today’s lesson from the Book of Nehemiah, the priest Ezra is asked to read the book of the law before the assembled people.  This is the context of the situation: Nehemiah has returned to Jerusalem, along with many of the people who had been in exile. Having served as an official in the court of the Persian emperor who liberated the Israelites from Babylonian captivity, Nehemiah convinced the emperor to send him to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and reestablish God’s law in the city. Moved by Nehemiah’s story of his homeland, the emperor names him governor of Judea and sends him with an escort and funding for his mission.  At the point when the priest Ezra stands before the people to read the law, the wall has been rebuilt and the people have been reunited under Nehemiah’s leadership. Having lived through captivity and exile (and for those who had remained in Judea, rebellion and chaos), it is not surprising that the people weep to hear these words that remind them they are the children of a just, merciful, and loving God.

In today’s gospel lesson from Luke, David’s descendent Jesus returns to Nazareth, to the village he called home, where he goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath.  He stands to read from the scroll he is handed, and these prophetic words of Isaiah are the ones he shares:

"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."

If he had just read these words and taken his seat again, it would have seemed like any other Sabbath to his neighbors from the community of Nazareth. But he doesn’t just sit down. He makes a very startling statement: "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."  Among the people who have known him for his whole life, in the small town of Nazareth, the carpenter’s son announces that He himself is the fulfillment of the law. He himself is the anointed one, the Son of David.  Through the prophet’s words, Jesus tells us exactly what God has sent him to do.  And what is that?  Not to rule as a king would rule—Jesus has not been sent to live in wealth and splendor and majesty as his ancestor David had done. No, he has been sent to bring mercy, justice, and love to all, but especially to the most isolated members of the community, the ones who are usually relegated to the lonely margins of society: the poor, the imprisoned, the sick and disabled, the victims of injustice and abuse. These may very well have been the one-in-four of the society of Jesus’s world, those who had no close friends or confidantes. Jesus came to show them the love they had never experienced. We are called to do the same for their counterparts today. It is not an easy calling.

Although Graves Chapel is quiet and empty on most days, it still serves as the physical center of this community. I can recall a time when the chapel was a more active gathering place for the people of Graves Mill. Of course, in the years after the flood when Postmistress Ruth Lillard was stationed in the back of the chapel, folks came by most days to pick up the mail or chat with one another. That interaction is a necessary part of community, but it isn’t the spiritual community that Christ calls us to be part of.  I remember being here for services as a child when the chapel was full and my mother played the piano. I could look around and name everyone sitting in the pews because they were all neighbors, friends, and family. If I closed my eyes now, I’m sure I could still see them there in my mind’s eye.  The ladies all wore their Sunday-best dresses, and the men were attired in suits. Even when I didn’t understand everything the preacher said, I knew from the very experience of being part of this worship community that God was at the center of our lives. 

God remains here in the chapel and in each of our hearts. God is still the center of our lives. God isn’t the one who has gone into exile and is missing from our world.  If it seems that we have lost God, it is only because we do not choose to see him. When we serve Christ in one another, when we look for him among the poor or sick or lonely, when we find him in the love we share, we will know that the Lord is always in our midst. That is the promise of God’s law of love. Jesus is the fulfillment of that law.    Amen.