🐮 Epiphany 3

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Readings: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31; Luke 4:14-21.

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Semper Familia!

Transcript

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Nehemiah chapter eight, verses one through three, five through six and eight through 10. All the people gathered together into the square before the Watergate. 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 their 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 women, and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people who are attentive to the book of the law. And as Rowe opened the book and 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 as rhe 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 they Mio, who was the governor and Ezra, the priest and scribe and Levi 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. Psalm 19. The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork day to day pours forth speech and night tonight. Declares knowledge. There is no speech. There are no words. Their voice is not heard. If their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the earth. And the heavens he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy. And like strong man runs its course with joy. It's rising. It's from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them. And nothing has hit from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect. Reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are sure. Making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right. Rejoicing, the heart. The commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired. Are they than gold? Even much fine. Gold. Sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover by them, your servant warned and keeping them there's great reward. But who can detect our errors, clean me from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from the insolent, do not let them have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless in the innocent of and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you. Oh Lord. My rock and my Redeemer. First Corinthians chapter 12, verses 12 through 31. 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. For in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body Jews or Greeks slaves or free. And we were all made to drink of one spirit. Indeed the body does not consist of one member, but of many, if the foot would say, because I'm not a handle, do not belong to the body, doesn't make it any less a part of the body. And as the ear would say, because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body. That would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be as the whole body were hearing? Where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body. Each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would they, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members yet one body. 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. On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. And those members of the body that we think are less honorable. We close with. Great honor. And our less respectable members are treated with great respect. Whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body giving the greater honor to the inferior member. That there may be no dissension within the body. But the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers all suffer together with it. If one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church. First apostles, second prophets, third teachers. Then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership. Various kinds of tongues are all apostles. Are all prophets are all teachers do all work miracles. You all possess gifts of healing, do all speak in tongues, do all interpret. But strive for the greater gifts. The gospel of Luke chapter four, verses 14 through 21. Then Jesus filled with the power of the spirit returned to Galilee. And the report about him spread throughout all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day as was his custom. He stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet, Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. 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 and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, Today, this scripture has been fulfilled by her hearing. Good morning and welcome to first formation. This is brother Logan, Isaac broadcasting from Albany, Oregon. Our readings fro for the third Sunday after Tiffany. Come to us from Nehemiah eight. Psalm 19 first Corinthians 12 and Luke four. And the, um, the Nam Maya reading is important because it has or contains this kind of like second finding of the law. And it gives us an image of what the people of Israel. Uh, do. In worship. Like we talk a lot about worship. Maybe you have like, Lights and lasers and music and stuff. And that's all great. Um, In Nehemiah talks about how they, they were weeping and they were encouraged not to weep. Um, but rather to celebrate, to eat. You know, the fat, which is like the tasty part or what gives meat its flavor. And to drink sweet wine. Um, and to make sure that you send some of that good stuff to people who don't have anyone else to prepare it for them. Whether they're poor. We're in from. Uh, or isolated. Part of worship. Um, this, uh, this kind of constellation of activities around the word of God, the law of God. Um, is deliberately. Um, like pro-social I suppose it's not like just getting along with what you've got going. But in fact, to spread the good stuff, to make sure that everybody has some to make goodness contagious, kind of. Um, And it. The text does not seem to correct them when they bow their heads. And they keep their faces on the, to the ground. Um, And so it is. The Israelite practice. Um, to do these things. And there are a couple of words I want to point out. And in Nehemiah before I get to Luke four. Um, in Nam Maya, when people could hear. With understanding it's both men and women. Um, it's not, you know, they're not segregated it either other than to identify that they're both able to hear and understand the names the time, the first day of the seventh month. And the water gate I believe is in Jerusalem. I don't know which gate it is though. Um, and in the presence of all those who could understand. So maybe not small children with no moral compass or sense of self or identity yet. But all able bodied, able minded people, whether male or female, it doesn't mention ages, but it does say who can understand. And so that seems to make up the bulk of the people of God at the time. Um, and when they read from the book from the law of God, they did so with interpretation that gave the sense. So that the people could understand the reading. And interpretation. I mean, I don't have my like word study Bible in front of me. But it suggests to me that the interpretation was deliberately left. For those who read. Because it's an ancient Hebrew. They did not record vowels. The Mesa Reddick text. The oldest complete manuscript we have that exists. Is the first two record vowels. Before that before Hebrew scribes. I don't know, we're able to preserve. Holy scripture. Uh, successfully. Um, they did not record the vowels. And many words, root words, usually verbs. Um, can go one of many different ways. For example, L H M you know, the transliterated LHM could be Um, low hem. Uh, uh, and either of those are two different things. Um, is to devour. And to devour without. Being satisfied that could mean war as in mil Hama. Uh, or it could mean. Uh, uh, another is one way of describing a prostitute. Uh, somebody who sold their body for money because their body could never be satisfied. Um, they were called Zana, but also l'Homme. And if you switch around the vowels again, you can get low hem, which is fighter. L H M but fighter, the low hem does not appear in the Bible there. Israelites, as in all the battles they get into and violence, they do, they are never called those who fight. Um, and the interpretation that is left open with the, the example I give is LHM that's interpretation. When it says the sense it may mean, or may imply or suggest the vowels. So every time we get together, there's a set. Uh, texts. There's a set. Script. Within which you are allowed as a worshiping community. To, to draw from the text interpretations based on your own context. And that has been standard practice up until I, the, the ninth century is the earliest manuscript we have in Hebrew with valves. Um, and that I want to kind of play off of interpretation and understanding. Because we sometimes in the modern era, you know, we have every single versus numbered. And like every chapter is broken down, even get like subtitles. So you you're instructed what that scripture is going to like do for you or whatever. And that's kind of not the point. Well, it isn't, it isn't. Whoever's putting these subtitles in and deciding where these versification. Things go. Is giving you their interpretation, their understanding, and that's fine. But that isn't hard and fast. That is not, God has not given one denomination. One person. One, um, institution or organism. The right to tell others, this is right and that's wrong. The may strategy text came well after the church had already been pretty damn well established. Um, and so to get back to the Bible, as Jesus reads it, or as the Messiah reads it, Um, Requires that we do some of that interpretation on our own from our own understanding whether women or men, as long as you have understanding, as long as you are morally competent, which all creation is all human creatures. I think our. Um, it is up to us to draw from a. S a minimal text. To infuse it with meaning from our own context. So long as it doesn't kind of go too far. Um, and I say like too far, like low hem, never appears in the, like the, the vowels in the Mesa Reddick text. They never ascribe any of those three. Uh, continence. Though the correct verbs to make the word fighter. So we turned to Luke four. This is Jesus's inaugural address. His mother, Mary has an inaugural address as well in Luke one. The Magnificant. And in it, he draws from Isaiah 60. Isaiah 60 is a part of a larger or a small part of a larger passage. That spans from about 58 to 64. On, and all of that is kind of generally having to do with. Gods. Intervention in creation on behalf of the oppressed using. I'll say force. To include violence. So for example, in 59, 17, we get one of the strongest and earliest forms. Of the armor of God. Uh, which we eventually become. You know, the breastplate of righteousness. The helmet of, of justice or salvation. Um, I don't have Isaiah 59 from me right now, but it leads into Isaiah 60. And right before Jesus reads or the text preceding, it is about. God being on the battlefield, looking around and seeing no one to come to rescue. The captives, the poor. The ICMA LOTOS the people who are taken by spear point is the word for captives here in the new Testament. So it's not just slaves. It is. Ill gotten war slaves. Prisoners of war that are. And in need of, uh, uh, salvation. Um, and he says the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. And in the, uh, One thing I pointed out recently, I may have even being been the last week. Uh, last week's reflection. Um, nowhere in the new Testament is anybody. And who is a part of the way or the followers of Joshua, the Christ. Nobody is ever anointed with oil. The people who were probably anointed with oil would have been the high priest and the priestly cast, the Sadducees and the temple, uh, the Jerusalem temple economy. Maybe pilot, if that was also something that, uh, procurators did. Maybe, uh, Octavian who was then called Augustus and the first emperor. But Jesus was never anointed with oil. He was baptized John baptized. And other people were baptized by John. And Joshua, the Christ begins baptizing. But nothing. The only place where we get oil. Uh, off the top of my head is when the woman with this huge alabaster jar breaks it to anoint Jesus's feet. Not as head with anointing oil, but his feet. Because feet are what. You know, get you around. Um, And so Jesus is a nog funeral and G and his mom's inaugural. I'll put the link to that training room post on the show notes. Uh, they both draw from military imagery. You cannot understand your way. The Hebrew God and, and their Messiah, Joshua, the Christ, the anointed one. If you don't understand the military, if you don't understand. The moral. Complexity that we call. Military violence. Um, that I think a lot of people will disagree and I stand by it. If you disagreed and you want to debate me, let me know, because I'm confident I will. Put you to shame. Um, If we try and take the military out of the Bible. We get this kind of. Juan. I don't know. You would be taking away. Half of church tradition and probably three quarters of the Bible. If you aren't willing to interpret. Um, and understand military service and you need it to be gone from your Bible. Um, And as I party. Uh, you know, partake the next three years of the liturgical cycle, I will be showing you using the Sunday readings. Exactly how that's the case, how we cannot get rid of military service without getting rid of not just Joshua the Christ, but God. Yourway who is called a man of God in one of the oldest sections of the Hebrew Bible in Exodus. Um, or Deborah, you had the, the oldest. Written section of the old Testament judges four and five. If you want, if you can't. Turn to face violence and those who do it. You have not faced God. If you want to have God without. Moral complications. You will have a false God and you'll give it the name. Jesus. You'll give it the name, God, whatever you want, but you cannot know Yourway. Or you always incarnation. Without knowing your military neighbor.