Father Roger Allen, Rector of St. James Episcopal Church, Marietta, said that this very short sermon by Jesus is long enough to have all the qualities of a good sermon: authority, fulfillment, promise, and presence.
The other scriptures assigned for Sunday related in a strong way.
There's the story from Nehemiah of Ezra reading the newly found book of the law to the people of Israel - including those who had returned from exile in Babylon. Hearing the law as if for the first time, the people bow their faces to the ground and weep. But Ezra tells them to celebrate: "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."
Fr. Roger wraps "fulfillment" around the shame of the people when the authority of scripture has brought them to acknowledge their faults. There's the "promise" of God's forgiveness and "presence" - the joy and its strength is to be shared now, not in some future time.
Psalm 19, appointed for the day, is my new favorite:
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament shows his handiwork.
One day tells its tale to another,
and one night imparts knowledge to another.
The psalmist says that the message doesn't need words to be understood. The sun comes forth like a bridegroom from God's pavilion and rejoices like a champion to run its course. The whole creation knows God and the sun serves God, and it's all very good. [Not thinking of Psalm 19, I expressed a similar idea of sunshine in a poem Solar Power]
The poem is so evocative and joyful that it could end here and be fully satisfying. The Oxford Bible commentary suggests that someone later may have realized that the song suggests you can know God from nature, and thought it wise to add explicit connections to the revelations of God to Israel.
The other readings are so positive that Paul, even while scolding the status-conscious Corinthians, sounds like a motivational speaker. Head and foot and hand are part of one body, he says, and God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension with the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. from 1 Cor 12.12-31. Bottom line, Fr. Roger said, "You are not alone."
The nine word sermon by Jesus is his response to Isaiah's proclamation of release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, the end of oppression and the year of the Lord's favor Luke 4.14-21.
So even in COVID church, even though it was Rite I, even without music, even though I was socially distanced, masked, and squeamish about sharing in wine -- I left feeling reassured for the long haul.
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