Hearing the Word

Scripture: Luke 4:14-21, Psalm 19:7-14, Nehemiah 8:1-10

Our Scripture readings today give us the chance to reflect on God’s word. What does it mean for us to come together to hear what God has to say to us? The Psalmist speaks from the time when the first five books of our Bible today made up most of Holy Scripture. The author says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple…more to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the dripping of the honeycomb.” Sounds pretty good, huh? When God speaks to us, it revives our souls. When God speaks to us, we become wise, not fixated on the temporary and the meaningless. When God speaks to us, it’s better than piles of money, or jewelry. It’s sweeter than candy. It tastes better than anything else you’ve ever tasted. Strong words, especially considering that the psalmist is talking about laws—about rules, even. But what those laws teach us is a whole new way of life. If we can truly hear it, the living word of God is all this, and much more.

In our story from the Old Testament today, we hear about the people of Israel after the Babylonian captivity. In the time after King David, Israel had progressively grown weaker and more divided while the great empire of Babylon grew stronger and stronger. Finally, Babylon got tired of Israel’s independence. It put Jerusalem under siege, captured it, killed the king and his relatives, and carted all the other leaders back to Babylon. But then, 70 years later, something almost unbelievable happened—the great empire decided to let the people go back. So the Israelites, a generation or two away from their homeland, pack their things and make their way back to the home country.

It was as difficult of a transition as you might expect. And when we meet the people today, they are listening to the book of the law – a book they’ve neglected in captivity. And the word of God to them is very powerful, indeed. The reading lasts for hours. (Remember, most people couldn’t read in those days, so this may be the first time they’ve heard these words in a long time). At the end of the reading, the people are upset. They’re crying and worried—there’s so much they didn’t know. They were doing so many things wrong! God must be so angry! In fact, the leaders are worried about them. Stay calm, they say. Don’t fret, it will be all right.

Could you imagine what church would be like if people cried after the scripture reading? I’m pretty sure attendance would be down the next week. Maybe that’s why we keep the readings down to five or ten minutes, rather than four hours. But in all seriousness, it is powerful to see in this story how much of an effect the reading of God’s word had. The people were in crisis, but wanted desperately to do what God wanted of them. The Word on that day took on life-changing power. And in the end it was these people who rebuilt the Temple to God, and who revived the worship of God in Israel, against impossible odds. When God speaks to us, that word is more precious than gold. When God speaks to us, it revives our souls.

Our reading from the gospel of Luke is another story of the word of God among the people of God. This time it’s a story about Jesus’ homecoming to Nazareth. He’s been out preaching in the countryside, and has started getting a good reputation. So folks in his home congregation are excited to hear what he has to say – to hear how clever he is, and how much of a credit he is to them. You know the story – local boy makes good.

I have to say that this story about homecoming is very near to my heart right now. I was just ordained this October into the United Church of Christ. Over Christmas I went home to Minnesota, and on Christmas Eve morning I went to my own home congregation and baptized my new nephew Diego. I was standing between the two very kind and generous pastors of the congregation who’d just come in the last few years, and in the congregation were people who’d known me since I was twelve, or, in the case of my family, since always. My pastor from when I was confirmed was there with his wife. And the baby, well, the baby was perfect. He just laid there smiling up at me the whole time, even when I put water on his head three times, and even when I took him around to show him to the congregation. This homecoming was full of joy, and pride, and a sense of the goodness of God over time.

So when I read about Jesus’ homecoming, there are some stark differences between his experience and mine. Not that there’s never a time for a joyful homecoming, but in Jesus’ case this homecoming in fact not that time, even though that’s what his home synagogue is expecting. Jesus takes what’s already a momentous occasion, and makes it bigger, real, concrete. Not only does he read from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, to preach good news to the poor,” but he means it. “This Scripture is fulfilled today,” he announces. “The captives are released today. The blind are going to see. The oppressed are set free.” “In other words,” he says, “This is not a routine Saturday synagogue service. The Word of God is coming to life. I am announcing today the year of favor by God.”

Jesus is not satisfied with a clever interpretation of the reading. He’s not worried about whether the people will be happy with what he has to say. He’s not there to congratulate them for raising up a prophet. The word of God to them is that there is a new order and that Jesus is at the center of it. And perhaps the most offensive part of this message is that Jesus’ ministry is not going to be about bringing glory to his hometown, or affirming the common wisdom about what’s right and who’s in. Jesus announces that his mission is to the poor. His ministry is to the oppressed. His announcement is to the captives. His vision is for the blind. The word is alive and works among us. It is sweeter than honey. It revives our souls.

So what is God’s word to us today? First, truly hearing God’s word will demand a response from us. The Israelites of Nehemiah’s time felt deeply the difference between the way God planned for them, and the way they had been following. They responded with sorrow and fear at first, but in the end it revived their souls. Jesus in our gospel lesson both speaks and is the living word of God. He calls to us to follow him as his disciples.

For the Lutheran Volunteer Corps, following our three tenets is one way that we respond to God’s word to us. Volunteers work for a year at social service, advocacy and community organizing organizations. At the same time, they live in intentional communities and practice simplified living. Through our service to non-profit agencies, we respond to God’s call for justice in the world. Volunteers work with or on behalf of the homeless, the imprisoned, the vulnerable, the sick and the disabled. God’s word is at the foundation of our organization, and it is sweeter than honey.

Simplified living is the practice of giving our money, time and energy only to those things that are most important. It is a response to God’s call for wisdom and discernment, because the ongoing process of deciding, choosing, and following through on those decisions reshapes the soul. It turns us from the foolishness of obsession with our own wants and worries to the wisdom of trusting God for what’s important, to the wisdom of letting go, of knowing our limits, of knowing what is enough. This wisdom from God is more precious than gold. It revives our souls.

The practice of intentional community is a response to God’s call to love one another, not just with words, but concretely and in person. Living in intentional community, whether that be in a house of volunteers, or in a house of worship, brings the challenges of love into focus. It’s one thing to love people you never have to deal with. It’s another thing to love the person who always has to be reminded what their weekly chore is, or who sings off-key just a little louder than everyone else, or the preacher who doesn’t realize that she’s already gone on for almost fifteen minutes and doesn’t seem to be winding down anytime soon.

Don’t worry folks; I’ve only got another 14 pages to go.

Intentional community gives us the opportunity to practice our love skills – listening, forgiving, speaking up, supporting – and by doing that to go deeper into God’s own heart. In intentional community we learn from personal experience what it means to be loved deeply in spite of our faults, and to be challenged to grow—not because we have to earn that love, but because we want to respond to it. This love from God is sweeter than honey. It revives our souls.

My hope for you today is that you will truly hear the word of God and respond to it. The Lutheran Volunteer Corps, as an organization, responds to God’s word through our three tenets – simplified living, social justice, and intentional community. And I hope you will consider these practices as you listen for God’s word to you. These are not practices that belong just to us. They are for the whole church – a gift from God, a gift from God’s living word.

But there are other ways that we respond to God’s word as well. My prayer for us today is that we will not only hear the words from the Bible, but that more than that we will meet, we will encounter God through them. My prayer is that in meeting Jesus again, we will be transformed, and will be able to say and to know that the word of God, the Living Word of God, is indeed more precious than gold, sweeter than honey, our path into the very heart of God. May it be so. Amen.

Many Gifts, One Spirit

Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
John 2:1-11

In our Scripture from 1 Corinthians today, Paul is writing to church members at one of his mission churches. They’ve written him asking different questions about faith, and he’s answering with instructions and perspective. In this section, Paul is explaining spiritual gifts. All these gifts, Paul says, are from God. The Spirit parcels out prophecy, faith, and wisdom where they are needed. The Spirit grants knowledge, discernment, and healing as it chooses. Each gift is from the Spirit, for the good of the whole. Many Gifts, One Spirit.

Since we are looking at spiritual gifts today, I’d like to take some time to tell you about the Lutheran Volunteer Corps from the perspective of our gifts. I’ll start with a short clip from our educational dvd.

[clip: beginning to 4:28]

As the video explains, the Lutheran Volunteer Corps gives people the opportunity to live out their commitments through a year of service. The three particular gifts we bring are our tenets: intentional community, simplified living, and social justice.

Intentional community is a gift of the Spirit because it is a way of learning to foster that greatest gift of all: love. Volunteers covenant with each other to live together, and not just in the sense of being roommates, and sharing space, but in the sense of sharing their lives with each other—supporting each other in their work and in their goals for the future. Of course, just as in any church, loving community is difficult to achieve.

It is often much easier to love people who live on the other side of the world than it is to love the man living next door who never mows, or the woman sitting in the committee meeting who keeps talking even though it’s already gone a half-hour over, and your favorite TV show starts in 15 minutes, or the housemate who forgets to clean out the refrigerator, even though it was their week to do it. Maybe none of you have ever faced this. Maybe it’s just me. But if you haven’t, well then, you’re missing out! You think I’m joking, but I’m not. The gift of intentional community is that it gives us the opportunity to learn to love real people – to learn to admit when we’re wrong, to learn to speak up when we’re hurt, to learn to face conflicts and work through them – to learn to love real people. And you can’t learn these things by reading them in a book. They are part of the gift of intentional community, and they are a gift of the Holy Spirit. Many gifts, One Spirit.

Simplified living is a second gift the Lutheran Volunteer Corps brings to the whole church. It is the practice of deciding what is truly of value, and letting the rest go. For example, our volunteers each get $85 per month to spend on their food. This means they’ll be able to get enough to eat, but they probably won’t be eating out very often, and you can certainly say goodbye to the daily latte from Starbucks.

But let me take a minute to share about my Wilmington volunteers. Even though they’re on a limited stipend for their food, these folks have decided that any meat or eggs they buy will be raised humanely, even though it will be more expensive than conventional meat. This is part of their care for God’s creation. As you can see from this example, living simply is not, in fact, simple. It means giving our time, energy and money only to what is most important to us. But that is what our whole faith journey is about as Christians – learning to pay attention to what is most important to God, and living accordingly. Many gifts, One Spirit.

Social justice is our third tenet. Through the work that each volunteer does, day in and day out during their year of service, we contribute to the struggle for better lives for all people – for the poor, the marginalized, and the powerless. And as an organization we are working toward becoming more just internally through our Journey to Inclusive Community. We welcome people of any sexual orientation to volunteer and serve on our staff, board, and support committees, and we are working to become a more welcoming place for people of color through ongoing education and relationship-building. Many gifts, One Spirit.

And this weekend is a particularly important weekend for us to reflect on the state of race relations in America, since tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr., day. The Civil Rights movement in the United States made for lasting change in the opportunities available to people of any race. And it was able to do so because of the many gifts of the Spirit given to the people of the time. The people of the movement brought wisdom to their struggle, exposing the hatred and oppressiveness behind the Jim Crow laws without responding in kind. They brought faith: faith in God, faith in justice, and faith that their struggle would bear fruit. They brought knowledge, not only about the truth of the black struggle, but about the truth of their strength, courage and perseverance. They brought healing—true healing—by refusing to hide those truths. They gave the nation a new vision – Martin Luther King, Jr., preached that new vision – a dream founded in the roots of our faith that God has created all people equal and free – a dream that all people would be judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character – a dream that one day all God’s children, black and white, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing together,

Free at last, free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Many gifts, indeed. One abiding Spirit.

So what about our gifts now? In his letter to a long-ago church Paul gives us some important instruction today on developing our gifts. First, because our gifts come from the Holy Spirit, we don’t get to brag. Paul was trying to get the Corinthians to stop playing power games with each other. “I can speak in tongues, so I’m better than you.” “Well, I’m really wise, so I should get the pew up front.” You get the picture. The Corinthians were caught up in what their status with each other was, and forgot about their status before God. The truth is, our gifts are not of our own making. They come from God. The most important gift is learning to love each other, even when our gifts differ. One-upsmanship does not lead to true community.

Second, Paul reminds us, the gifts that the Spirit gives to individuals are intended for the benefit of the entire church. As a part of the Lutheran Volunteer Corps, I don’t want us to be separated off from the church, going about our business in isolation. I hope that you as a congregation will join us in living out our tenets of simplified living, social justice, and intentional community. These are not gifts for our organization alone. They are gifts for the whole church.

Many gifts, One Spirit.

What was so radically amazing, in my mind, about the Civil Rights Movement, was not necessarily that it was a fight for the rights of a distinct group of people, but that its goals and its gifts were directed toward the transformation of all society. The freedom that Martin Luther King, Jr. preached about was freedom for white people as well as black, by returning America to its founding values, and by calling the nation to live out its ideals. Many gifts, One Spirit.
The gifts that you have as an individual are not for you alone. They are meant to be shared. Many gifts, One Spirit.

Finally, our gifts can be a source of joy. In our gospel reading from the lectionary today, Jesus begins his ministry at a wedding in Cana. Here is someone who has a few gifts of the Holy Spirit. And you would think that he would start flexing those spiritual muscles in a pretty serious way – with a healing, maybe, or even by raising someone from the dead. But that’s not what he does. Instead, Jesus transforms an incredible amount of water – six jars that probably held about nine gallons each – into really good wine. Jesus’ first gift is to keep the party going. When we think about giving our gifts, then, we should find the joy in the giving. We’ve been given many gifts by the one Spirit. Let us go now to enjoy them with humility and generosity. Thanks be to God. Amen.