Getting Ready for Sunday

The Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany

By the Rev. Rebecca Tankersley, St. James in Dallas 

Jeremiah 1:4-10 (CEB)

The word of the LORD came to me:

“Before I created you in the womb I knew you;

before you were born I set you apart;

I made you a prophet to the nations.”

“Ah, Lord God,” I said, “I don’t know how to speak because I’m only a child.”

The LORD responded,

“Don’t say, ‘I’m only a child.’

Where I send you, you must go;

what I tell you, you must say.

Don’t be afraid of them, because I’m with you to rescue you,”

declares the LORD.

Then the LORD stretched out his hand,

touched my mouth, and said to me,

“I’m putting my words in your mouth.

This very day I appoint you over nations

and empires,

to dig up and pull down,

to destroy and demolish,

to build and plant.”

For many years, I read this call narrative (and others like it) with envy. It seemed too much to think, when I was young, that I might one day hear words like these from the Lord. I thought God only spoke like this to particular people, centuries ago.

This passage from Jeremiah, however, reveals more than God’s plan for one man who lived long ago. This passage illustrates the manner in which God calls all of us into service. The universality of the call is reflected in four statements by God, recounting for Jeremiah how God has acted in his life. To Jeremiah, God says:

I created you.

I knew you.

I set you apart.

I made you a ___________.

Though God called Jeremiah to serve particular people (the Israelites) in a particular place (in exile in Babylon), God calls each of us to serve people in our own place.

I created you. From Genesis, we learn that “God created humanity in God’s own image” and pronounced us all “very good.” From the prophet Isaiah, we hear that we are precious in God’s eyes precisely because God created us (43:1-4).

I knew you. God knows each of us intimately and totally. Take a moment to pray Psalm 139, focusing on verses 1-6. “Lord, you know when I sit down and when I stand up … you surround me – front and back … that kind of knowledge is too much for me.” The God of heaven and earth knows each of us.

I set you apart. As members of the Body of Christ, each of us is set apart. The apostle Peter reminds us that we are “a holy nation, a people who are God’s own possession” (1 Pet 2:9). We are set apart as God’s treasured people so that, as God promised to Abraham, all people might be blessed. Yes, God acted powerfully in Jeremiah’s life. And God has acted powerfully in each of our lives. God created each of us to be different and gave each different gifts. God made Jeremiah a prophet by putting God’s own words in his mouth and sending him to speak God’s word to God’s people. God has given each of us gifts of grace to equip us for the work of serving and building up the Body of Christ. To some, God has give gifts to serve as “apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers” (Eph 4:11).

I made you a _____. Having gifted each of us with grace, God calls us into service. God made Jeremiah a prophet. Each of us must discern through prayer and with the support of the Body of Christ how God has made us. So far, I’ve learned that God made me a wife, a mother, and a priest. What did God make you?

Having created, known, set apart, and made Jeremiah a prophet, God calls Jeremiah into service. “Where I send you, you must go; what I tell you, you must say.” Notice the imperatives in God’s call: you must go, and you must say. God speaks these says words to each of us. We find them in the Great Commission at the end of Matthew: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing … and teaching them.”

We may, like Jeremiah, be filled with fear by God’s call. We may, like Jeremiah, protest that we are too immature to carry out God’s work. We can protest, but God calls just the same, making the same promise to us as to Jeremiah:

I am with you.

Always.

Even to the end of the age.

Getting Ready for Sunday

By the Rev. David Stangebye Houk, Rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Dallas, Texas

January 24, 2016: Epiphany 3, Year C

The Rev’d David Stangebye Houk, Rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Dallas, Texas

January 24, 2016: Epiphany 3, Year C

 

BCP lectionary

RCL lectionary:

Nehemiah 8:2–10 Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden pulpit which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood six elders Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand; and seven others Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people; and when he opened it all the people stood. 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. 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. And they read from the book, from the law of God, clearly; and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. 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 when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to him 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.”

Nehemiah 8:1–3, 5–6, 8–10       All the people of Israel gathered together into the square before the Water Gate. They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. 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 when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink 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 book of Nehemiah, along with its companion volume, Ezra, tells the story of the Jews’ return from exile in Babylon and Persia. Jerusalem had been sacked by the Babylonians in 586 bc: the city walls were destroyed, the temple burned to the ground, and the inhabitants of Judah (at least the best and the brightest) were carried away to Babylon. In 539 bc King Cyrus of Persia defeated the Babylonians and took over the empire. Soon after, Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to their homeland, and the book of Ezra tells of the return of the first exiles and the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem.

Nehemiah begins in the Persian capital of Susa, where Nehemiah serves as cupbearer to King Artaxerxes I. Nehemiah receives a grim report that the returned exiles lie in “great trouble and shame” (Neh 1:3) as the local inhabitants—those who have moved into the land during Judah’s displacement—show open hostility to their return. Most alarmingly, Jerusalem’s wall still lay in ruins, leaving the people and the newly rebuilt temple incredibly vulnerable. In “the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes” (445 bc) Nehemiah receives letters and resources from Artaxerxes as he travels to Jerusalem to commandeer the rebuilding of the wall and to serve as governor of the territory. The wall is rebuilt, but through great difficulty and opposition in the face of Judah’s enemies.

This sets the stage for the important eighth chapter of Nehemiah in which Ezra the priest and scribe, “skilled in the Law of Moses” (Ezra 7:6), leads the people of Jerusalem in a covenant-renewal ceremony that follows the completion of the city walls. It is “all hands on deck” as “men and women and all who could understand what they heard” (Neh 8:2) listen attentively to the reading of the Torah from early morning till afternoon. More than reading, however, Ezra and them Levites attending him also teach the people by providing necessary interpretation and commentary from time to time: “They read from the book, from the law of God, clearly; and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” (Neh 8:8)

As Jerusalem listens to the reading of sacred Scripture, the people mourn and weep. (Neh 8:9) Perhaps some were moved by the stories of creation, the calling of Abraham, the Joseph saga, the exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Mosaic law. Certainly, there was a sense of their having fallen terribly short of God’s good purposes for them, individually and as a nation, and a heartfelt sense of repentance for the shortcomings and sins that resulted in Judah’s exile and captivity.

When Nehemiah and Ezra see the people so moved with contrition, however, they declare that the day is holy to the Lord. (Neh 8:9–10) Judah must not mourn, for even when God’s people have been faithless, God himself is faithful to rescue and redeem and restore. The fact that they are back in Jerusalem, the temple rebuilt, the walls restored—through “many dangers, toils, and snares”—is a humbling reminder that God’s favor rests on his people and is still working for their good. Joy is the final word on this day of this covenant renewal. The people are commanded to celebrate: to eat, drink, and realize that it is their relationship with a gracious God that is the basis of their joy.

There is much about this passage that is instructive about Christian worship, particularly the role of the Word of God in the liturgy. It has been said that the preacher’s job is to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted,” and this passage shows us the important role Ezra and the Levites played as they labored to ensure that the sacred text was intelligible to their audience and that the people’s contrition led to an experience of grace and renewed joy in God’s presence. Likewise, the preacher’s job is incredibly important in allowing Scripture to speak to the hearts of men and women, and then helping those hearts take their next steps of growth in faith, hope, and love. It is important to remember, as we see in this passage, that the power to affect and transform the human heart comes from Spirit-inspired Scripture itself; the preacher is only a channel, a conduit, of the Spirit’s work in this miraculous enterprise.