Today in the Spirit: Epiphany 3C
After considering in worship our Lord’s baptism and the events of his ministry while still in Judea, we move ahead in the Epiphany season to the accounts of the revelation of the Son of God in Galilee. Following Luke in Year C, we will now spend two Sundays meditating on an important occurrence that took place in Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown, before or soon after he settled in Capernaum.
From the appointed Gospel reading this week from Luke 4:14-21, we learn of an opportunity Jesus has to teach in his home synagogue. And we will overhear something of Jesus’ first recorded sermon based on the passage from Isaiah 61, which begins, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor” (18). His extraordinary message after the reading begins, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (21). We will wait until next week to learn of the people’s response to that message.
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The assigned OT reading from Nehemiah 8:1-12 narrates the story of the returning exiles gathering to hear the reading of Scripture by Ezra and his team of scribes at a point immediately after the completion of repairs to the wall surrounding the city of Jerusalem. As we will hear this reading before the reading of the Gospel in our worship, it will provide a starting point from which we can compare and contrast the experience of Israelites hearing the teaching of Jesus centuries later.
The recitation of the appointed Psalm 113 will provide us the opportunity, as it were, to join the festivities of the Israelites singing praise to God for permitting the restoration of his people in Jerusalem: “Who is like the Lord our God, who has his dwelling so high, and yet humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven and earth? He takes up the lowly out of the dust, and lifts the poor out of the ashes, That he may set them with the princes, even with the princes of his people” (5-7).
In the assigned NT reading from 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, we continue from last week with Paul’s teaching on spiritual gifts in that epistle. Having given his overview of the kinds of gifts available to the church through the Holy Spirit in the previous section, the apostle now turns to how the gifts are distributed among “members of the body” to bring unity to the body as a whole. No one should feel superior because they feel they have received higher gifts, and none should feel inferior because they have received lesser gifts. “The foot” should not count itself less a part of the body than “the hand,” nor should “the eye” consider itself a more important part of the body than “the hand.”
As a prayer for “grace… to answer readily the call of our Savior,” the assigned collect for Epiphany 3 is fitted more to the Gospel readings of Years A and B that cover the response of the first disciples to leave everything and follow Jesus. In Year C, it is a prayer for courage to “proclaim to all the Good News of his salvation,” even when it is perilous to do so as it was for Jesus in Nazareth.
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.
And All the People Gathered (Nehemiah 8:1-12)
5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. 6 And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. 7 Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. 8 They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. 9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. 10 Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” 11 So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” 12 And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
Nehemiah 8:5-12
It is interesting to track the drastic mood changes of the people gathered to hear the reading of God’s word in this passage. The walls of Jerusalem had been completed only days before (6:15), and there was joy and religious zeal in the air as everyone among the returnees to Israel–city dwellers and villagers–gathered in a central square. The people begin hungry to hear God’s word (note: [the people] “told Ezra the scribe to bring the book,” 1). They remain “attentive” (3) throughout the long readings. The people “wept” (9) to hear, with the help of teaching from the scribes, how they have sinned against God. Then, at the urging of the leaders, they turn from lamentation to “great rejoicing” (12) over the restoration of the nation this day represented.
Every Sunday, our liturgy is designed similarly to bring us who have gathered for worship through the very same changes in emotion by the leading of the Spirit. We find ourselves very much intentionally led through a process of praise in worship, then attentiveness to the reading of the word of God, then understanding (“Ah-hah!”) during the preaching, to sorrow (“Woe is me!”) in our prayers and the confession of sin, and finally rejoicing (“We celebrate the memorial of our redemption!”) in the Holy Communion. Sunday worship, beloved, is not the time for holding too tightly onto that level reserve we seek to maintain in other parts of our life, but rather to let go in our hearts, imaginatively and emotionally, that God can have his way with us.
Today, in the Spirit, hearing in the word of God of the readiness of the people of Jerusalem to surrender themselves to you, I will open myself to be likewise moved in Sunday worship.
Lifts Up the Needy from the Garbage Pile (Psalm 113)
1 Praise the Lord. Sing praises, you servants of the Lord; *
Psalm 113, New Coverdale Psalter (BCP 2019)
O praise the Name of the Lord.
2 Blessed be the Name of the Lord, *
from this time forth for evermore.
3 The Lord’s Name be praised *
from the rising up of the sun to the going down of the same.
4 The Lord is high above all nations, *
and his glory above the heavens.
5 Who is like the Lord our God, who has his dwelling so high, *
and yet humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven and earth?
6 He takes up the lowly out of the dust, *
and lifts the poor out of the ashes,
7 That he may set them with the princes, *
even with the princes of his people.
8 He gives the barren woman a home to dwell in, *
and makes her to be a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord.
Or, “He raises the poor from the dirt, and lifts up the needy from the garbage pile” (7, NET). This language is meant to be vivid and repelling. The translation “Ashes” (BCP) or “ash heap” (ESV) may suggest to the modern readers a place of desolation like burning piles left by invaders, but in the few other places this Hebrew word is used in the OT it means a pile of refuse, like “garbage” and even “dung.” The Dung (same Hebrew word) Gate in Old Jerusalem was originally the dispatch point for the city’s garbage.
Now, devotionally, when we are exposed to this psalm, it is here–right here–that we are sorely tempted to make a tragic disassociation. To this point, we are happy to be included among the “nations” of people who praise the LORD. But then, suddenly, if we are not careful, “the lowly out of the dust” and the “poor out of the ashes” become someone else and not ourselves. We are happy to praise him for his willingness to lift up poor people, but they are very often someone else. Lowly-R-Us not.
Beloved, because of our sin, we are the poor in the ashes. We are, without the Father’s mercy and Christ’s saving work, as Paul writes, “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). Today in worship, with the help of the Holy Spirit who reminds us of the depths from which we have come, we count ourselves among those in the “garbage pile” and praise the LORD more for having taken us out of there.
Now You Are the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-27)
12 For 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. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
1 Corinthians 12:12-27
Paul repeats the term “body” more than fifteen times in this passage. As if to wear his readers out of thinking any other thought than the complete unity of the church group, he presents one striking body parts analogy after another to make his point. There should be no tolerance whatsoever either for the strong to believe that they are of greater importance than anyone else or for the weak to count themselves diminished (and therefore without responsibility) within the community. This is one of the strongest statements we have of Paul’s worldview of corporate Christian identity (right there with Rom. 14 and Eph.4).
Devotionally, I wonder if today we would ever hear the declaration “You are the body of Christ” with nearly the same fervor as we do “You are a child of God.” Not, of course, that the latter leads us down a wrong path (Paul teaches much the same in Romand 8:16 and Ephesians 1:3-5), but, let’s face it, the idea of being God’s child and God’s friend fits much more comfortably with our preferred lifestyles of individuality and theologies of personal living. It is not that we oppose the “body” language; we just ignore it—and do so at our peril.
Today, Holy Spirit, grant us greater desire to develop within our churches the kind of robust corporate identity that the apostle Paul teaches so passionately in this passage.
Fulfilled in Your Hearing (Luke 4:14-21)
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
Luke 4:14-21
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Last Sunday, in our worship, the Church had us consider the revelation of Jesus Christ with a Gospel reading about a deed (no words), his turning water into wine. This Sunday, we contemplate the words of Jesus, his reading of the Scripture, and preaching the good news of the long-anticipated arrival of the promised Messiah. We come to understand both deed and word and point in the same direction. They are both, to use John’s language, a “sign” (John 2:11)—an unmistakable and trustworthy proof of a new day for humanity, the landing of the kingdom of God’s decisive blow against the usurpation of the devil. The message to worshipers then and now is the same: now everything changes.
Beloved, as often as we hear or read passages such as these, we must not permit the exhilaration of the larger message to pass us by: God is here in person–and here to stay. With Mary and the disciples and the servants at the wedding of Cana, let hands cover mouths in astonishment over the report of water being transformed into wine. And together with the people of Nazareth sitting in their assembly hall, gasp with surprise upon hearing Jesus say, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (21). We must not become so familiar with the stories that we fail to wonder.
In John Bunyan’s “Apology” section at the beginning of The Pilgrim’s Progress, he exhorts his readers to approach his allegory with expectation fitting the good news of Jesus Christ:
Dost thou love picking meat? Or would’st thou see
A man in the Clouds, and hear him speak to thee?
Would’st thou be in a Dream, and yet not sleep?
Or, would’st thou in a moment laugh, and weep?
Would’st thou lose thyself, and catch no harm?
And find thyself again without a charm?
Would’st read thyself, and read thou know’st not what,
And yet know, whether thou art blest or not,
By reading the same lines? O then come hither,
And lay my Book, thy Head, and Heart together.
Today, in the Spirit, hearing this Gospel reading in worship, in the company of my brothers and sisters, I lay aside the mere satisfaction of fulfilling a religious duty to catch the wonder, again, of Jesus announcing the Son of God’s coming into the world.
Today in the Spirit
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