Homily for January 27, 2019

Homily for Sunday, January 27, 2019.   Graves Chapel.

The 3rd Sunday in the Season After Epiphany

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.” AMEN.

Some five and a half centuries in the long history of the Jewish people separate the events recounted in our lessons today from Nehemiah and the Gospel of Luke. In a way, you could say these passages bookend each other, as each opens the Holy Word in a new way to a new generation. Although the people who hear Ezra read from the book of the law are very different from the ones in Nazareth who see Jesus open the scroll and read from the Prophet Isaiah, this is what they have in common with one another: a deep longing for what has been promised them.
In Nehemiah, we encounter a defeated and exiled people returned at last to their home. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had vanquished Judah and destroyed Jerusalem in 605 BCE, capturing most of the people and taking them as slaves to Babylon. There they languished by the River Euphrates, their tragic lives rendered in these words of the 137th Psalm: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, and there we wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there, we hung up our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”
Now, some sixty years later, they have come home.
King Cyrus of Persia, called Cyrus the Great because of his fostering of human rights, conquered Babylon and, out of sympathy for the Hebrew people and respect for their religion, Cyrus allowed them to return to Judah. He appointed Nehemiah as their governor. Finding Jerusalem in ruins, Nehemiah is confronted with the daunting tasks of rebuilding the city and reviving the spirit of the people. Many of them have no memory of what it was like to worship in that holy place, to hear their law read aloud in an assembly. So very many years have passed. In recognition of a holy day, “the Feast of the Trumpets,” considered the first day of the new year on the Hebrew calendar, Nehemiah summons the priest and scribe Ezra and asks him to read for the people. As it is described, “Accordingly the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding.” As Ezra stood before them, he began with prayer, blessing the Lord, and we are told, “… and all the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen,’ lifting up their hands.”
The people are understandably overcome with emotion as they hear at long last the words of their law being read by the priest, but Ezra closes the reading with these words to them: “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep…Go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” The exiles have returned home, but there is still anticipation among them for the coming of the promised Messiah.  Their waiting stretches into centuries. In our gospel lesson, we encounter Jesus very near the beginning of his ministry. After he was baptized in the Jordon, a voice spoke from heaven, saying, “This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” His mission has been confirmed for him and for all who heard and understood those words. Then Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness, undergoing a time of testing. Now, he has returned home to Nazareth for a different, difficult kind of test.
In the synagogue on the sabbath, according to custom, he stands to read from the scroll that is given him, the words of the Prophet Isaiah. He finds a particular place, from Isaiah 61, and reads just a few of the words there, before handing the scroll back to the attendant and sitting down to answer questions. This is what Jesus reads: “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.” In a very clear way, Jesus announces his ministry to the people of his hometown, explaining what he has been sent to do:  provide for the poor, release the captives and those who are oppressed, heal the sick, and proclaim the year of the Lord. These very words would have brought tears of joy to the people of Nehemiah’s time, the ones who heard the law being read at long last by Ezra. It seems the Messiah’s mission is a profoundly meaningful, yet simple one: to bring evidence of love where love has been greatly needed.
From his seated position as teacher, Jesus then proclaims to those who hear him, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Although the people of Nazareth, who knew him well, were astonished and (in some cases) offended at these words of Jesus, what he omits from that passage of Isaiah is almost as intriguing as what he reads. If you look at Isaiah 61, you will see that Jesus reads only verses one and two of that chapter—but he leaves out the second half of that second verse.  Many of the most specific and memorable prophecies of the coming of the Messiah are found in the Book of Isaiah, so it is not surprising that Jesus uses the words of Isaiah to announce his arrival. But Isaiah 61:2 in its entirety says, “… to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God.” Whereas his cousin John, who baptized Jesus in the Jordon, preached a message of hellfire and damnation, in his very first teaching, does Jesus let us know by this omission of words about God’s vengeance that his emphasis will be on God’s mercy and love? As Ezra had comforted the people so many years before, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Today we are each of us, in some way, feeling like exiles and waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue us.  We long to be closer to God and to one another, to believe fully in that joy that promises to be our strength. In the 1940 Episcopal hymnal, the very first hymn was “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.” This beloved song of Advent could serve as the theme song for all of us who have waited and continue to wait for a closer communion with the Lord. As the first verse says, “Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.”  May it be so for us, this day and every day.  AMEN.