Homecoming

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
January 23, 2022

 3 Epiphany C

Some years ago, I went back to Little Rock for the funeral of a dear friend.  My family moved to Little Rock the summer before I started 6th grade, and I stayed in the area through college, so going to Little Rock has the feel of going home for me even though the city is nothing like I remember.  People came from all over the country for this funeral, traveling from places like Seattle and Arizona, to mourn the loss of this amazing friend, hear the powerful words of scripture, to pray the prayers of the burial office together, and pour our grief into the familiar liturgy.  We also came to be together as none of us could bare to do this difficult work alone.  We needed to be together to hear the challenge in both scripture and our burial service to live like people who believe that death does not have the final say.  Our coming home sent us back out into the world nourished, strengthened, and challenged to live into our identity as Easter people. 

The reading from Nehemiah tells us of another homecoming, this one after the exile of the Hebrew people to Babylon in the 6^th century BC.  Some of the Hebrew people have returned to their homeland, the Promised Land.  The wall around the city has been rebuilt.  The people are home and yet nothing feels the same.  There is lots of squabbling about who was among the faithful and who was not, who should govern, how and if the temple should be rebuilt, and who they are as God's chosen people.  They are squabbling, much like the people in the church in Corinth to which Paul writes are squabbling, and in both cases, the very survival of the community is at stake.  When the Hebrew people gather at the gate this morning, they ask to hear the familiar words of the Torah, the law of Moses, read out loud for them, and to have those words explained.  Over and over again, we hear that all the people stood, all the people said "Amen, Amen," and all the people understood.  And all the people were moved to worship the Lord with their faces to the ground, apparently weeping and mourning.  They heard the challenge of the words of scripture, recognized the ways they were failing to live into their identity as God's people, and realized that their return to the Promised Land was nothing less than a gift from God who loves them and made them God's own.  And so they are able to rise up, rejoice, and make sure anyone who could not be at the gate could rejoice as well.

I am struck by the similarities between our situation in this era of Covid, and that of the Hebrew people in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.  We have been exiled in a sense from life as we once knew it, where we did not think twice about sipping from the chalice, or packing people into the Parish Hall for a meal, or singing together, or so many other things.  We have been exiled from each other as some of us choose to worship in-person, others on Facebook Live, and others not at all.  We don’t all agree about whether masks should or should not be required, whether it is safe to eat together, and how much in-person activity we are comfortable having.  We are impatient and frustrated.  We don’t have a new city wall to celebrate, but we certainly have new space.  We come home to Christ Church and things are the same, yet different.  Like the Hebrew people, we know that our life together is a gift and now is time to move forward and discover who God is calling us to be in this new era.  And, like the Hebrew people who gathered at the gate, we know that we will find both comfort and challenge in our reading of scripture.

The reading from First Corinthians reminds us yet again that we are all members of the one body and that all the members are needed for the body to function and be whole.  No one can say “I am too young” or “I am too old” or “I am too busy” or “I am too whatever” to be part of the Body of Christ.  By virtue of our baptism, we are part of the Body of Christ.  That is a fact, and we each have gifts needed for the body to function and grow.  Each of us is a piece of how we move forward together.  Being part of the Body of Christ is a gift, given to us in baptism, and as the Body of Christ, we are much stronger together than we are apart.

Jesus enters the synagogue this morning, filled with the power of the Spirit, to tell the people that the words of the prophet Isaiah are fulfilled in their hearing.  The people had gathered, as they do each Sabbath, to hear the scripture read and explained, and to pray.  On the one hand, Jesus can be understood to be saying that he is the one about whom Isaiah prophesied.  The anointed one is standing in their midst.  But on the other hand, we know that the poor are still among us, as are the blind and the oppressed, both literally and metaphorically.  So in what way could Jesus’ words actually be true?

These are the first words of Jesus’ ministry in Luke’s gospel and they set out his mission for his ministry.  But this mission is not just Jesus’ ministry.  The ministry belongs to all who follow Jesus.  The people have gathered in the synagogue to hear scripture read and taught, and then Jesus tells them that their ministry is not in the synagogue but out in the world.  Likewise, Jesus gathers us to be nourished by the hearing of scripture, the breaking of bread, and the prayers, not just as an end in itself, but so that we are equipped to go into the world and proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captives, bring sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed, whatever form those actions might take.  The gathering is critical and the nourishment is vital, because the work to which Jesus calls us is hard and requires both God’s strength and the heart and hands of each one of us.

On this Annual Meeting Sunday, scripture reminds us that three things are essential in order for us to be the church God is calling us to be.  One: Come home, whether in person or online, to be nourished by scripture, the breaking of bread, and prayer.  Two: Come home, either in-person or online, to know the strength we have when we all work as essential members of one body.  Three: Come home, however you come, to be sent out to be God’s people in the world.  Following Jesus may not be easy, but the instructions are simple.

                                                                   Amen