by Marilyn Zehr<\/span><\/h3>\nJanuary 27, 2013<\/h3>\n
Texts: Psalm 19, Luke 4:14-21<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\nToday I begin with a riddle,<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nWhat is sweeter than honey, <\/span><\/div>\nrevives the soul,<\/span><\/div>\nmakes a person wise,<\/span><\/div>\ngives joy to the heart<\/span><\/div>\nand enlightens the eyes?<\/span><\/div>\nWhat is perfect, sure, right, clear and true and righteous altogether?<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nAccording to Psalm 19 the answer to this riddle is: the law of the Lord.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nThe Psalmist uses other words to describe the law of the Lord or different facets of the law such as; <\/span><\/div>\n precepts, commandments, the decrees and the ordinances or YHWH. <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nIn this Psalm all of these words together describe the Torah or the Pentateuch, the first five books of Moses: Genesis through Deuteronomy. <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nThe Psalmist recognizes Holy Scripture in this form as a love gift from God, sweeter than honey, and something to be prized more than gold. <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nI will share with you another version of this Psalm \u2013 from a book called Psalms for Praying that captures this love language.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nThe word love in this version is capitalized denoting a name.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nThe law of Love is perfect,<\/span><\/div>\nreviving the soul;<\/span><\/div>\nThe testimony of Love is sure,<\/span><\/div>\nmaking wise the simple;<\/span><\/div>\nthe precepts of Love are right,<\/span><\/div>\nrejoicing the heart;<\/span><\/div>\nThe authority of Love is pure,<\/span><\/div>\nenlightening the eyes<\/span><\/div>\nThe spirit of Love is glorious,<\/span><\/div>\nenduring forever<\/span><\/div>\nThe rites of Love are true,<\/span><\/div>\nawakening compassion.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nMore to be desired are they than gold,<\/span><\/div>\neven much fine gold; <\/span><\/div>\nSweeter also than honey<\/span><\/div>\nthan the drippings of the honeycomb<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nMoreover, by them are the loving guided;<\/span><\/div>\nin keeping them there is great reward.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nOur Pauline influenced ears might have developed calluses towards this description of the law, however, I have met Jewish people for whom Psalm 19 accurately captures their relationship with Torah \u2013 this supreme gift of God to God\u2019s People. \u00a0I have met Christians for whom the same passion for the whole Bible applies.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nIs it true of us? \u00a0Could it be true for us?<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nAll three of our scripture texts today illumine the relationship between God\u2019s people and Scripture, and by so doing invite us to wonder about our own relationship with scripture.<\/span><\/div>\nWe started with Psalm 19, which in this case is love poetry.<\/span><\/div>\nNehemiah and Luke, the other two scriptures for today are definitely stories about the people of God and their sacred texts.<\/span><\/div>\nWe heard the story in Nehemiah in our Call to worship this morning when Doreen provided us with an opportunity to be participants in the story. <\/span><\/div>\nIn a brief review, first, the context: \u00a0a remnant of restored Israelites after exile in Babylon, gather before the Water Gate in Jerusalem on the 1st day of the 7th month. \u00a0Though the verses before this, tell us that there were 42,360 people plus slaves who made up the population of this remnant, I imagine a slightly less numerous crowd gathered at the Water Gate. \u00a0 In any case, probably quite a large crowd of women and men together, all who could hear with understanding, gathered to listen. \u00a0It is this gathered crowd of people who ask the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the Law of Moses. It fascinates me that the request came from the people. \u00a0When Ezra opened the book they all stood up. \u00a0Then Ezra blessed God, all the people answered, \u201cAmen and Amen,\u201d and then bowed in worship to YHWH with their faces to the earth, a worship practice we are more familiar with among our contemporaries who worship in the Islamic faith. <\/span><\/div>\nGoing on with the story – the reading of the book of Moses went from early morning until mid-day. \u00a0I\u2019m trying to imagine any of us standing and listening attentively to anything for that long, at a concert or sporting event maybe? Then the Levites, all those named, who were standing with Ezra during this reading gave an interpretation \u2013 the plain sense of the words – so that everyone could understand.<\/span><\/div>\nSo began the tradition of scripture reading and interpretation eventually a core practice of synagogue and church worship. \u00a0These were a people who gathered around the Word of God as regularly heard and experienced through the words of this book. \u00a0 \u00a0I am also amazed at the next part of the story. \u00a0When the people heard and understood what they heard. \u00a0They wept. \u00a0The scripture and its interpretation evoked a visceral response. \u00a0The text doesn\u2019t tell us whether these were tears of joy, or relief or sorrow, but Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites assured the people that on this day holy to YHWH they should not weep, but rather should rejoice. \u00a0They should eat the fat, drink sweet wine and send portions of this to those for whom nothing had been prepared. \u00a0Translation? \u00a0Feast and drink and prepare enough to share. For on this day, Holy to YHWH, the joy of the LORD would be their strength. <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nNow fast forward to the passage in Luke that was also read for us today. \u00a0Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee, in the synagogues of that region, and then he returns to his hometown of Nazaret
\nh. \u00a0When he enters the synagogue to worship, as was his habit, the people hand him the scroll to read. \u00a0He stands, reads Isaiah\u2019s prophecy that captives will be freed, the blind will see and the lame will walk. \u00a0All eyes are fixed on him as he rolls up the scroll, hands it back, and says, \u201cToday, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.\u201d \u00a0The people are amazed. \u00a0 Once again their reaction is visceral. \u00a0First, they hear what has been read to them, then slowly they begin to understand and then Jesus pokes and prods their understanding (the sermon part?) by telling them that a prophet will not be welcome in his hometown. \u00a0Their visceral reactions to the words of Jesus\u2019 sermon cause them to drag him to the edge of a cliff. \u00a0Miraculously he walks out of their midst. \u00a0I\u2019m not sure if it\u2019s a good thing or not that none of my sermons have caused the kind of visceral reaction that has caused anyone to drag me to the edge of the Scarborough bluffs. \u00a0 Getting back to this story, again, I\u2019m amazed. \u00a0In this story, the words of scripture and their interpretation have caused profoundly visceral reactions. \u00a0What do we do with this? \u00a0Are we familiar with these kinds of gut-level emotional reactions to certain interpretations of the text?<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nI have another riddle. \u00a0The words of this one were common when I was a child and it had many different answers.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nWhat is black and white and red all over?<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nIn the context of this sermon, the answer is \u2013 our Holy Scripture and too often the results of its interpretations. \u00a0You might have guessed that, \u201cred all over,\u201d in this case means the blood shed over differences of scriptural interpretation and practice. \u00a0Psalm 19 reminds us that this is not what was intended. \u00a0The Word of God as it speaks and lives through the laws and the stories of God were intended to <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nrevive the soul,<\/span><\/div>\nmake a person wise,<\/span><\/div>\ngive joy to the heart<\/span><\/div>\nand enlighten the eyes?<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nsweeter than honey, finer than gold, <\/span><\/div>\nMoreover, by them are the loving guided;<\/span><\/div>\nin keeping them there is great reward.<\/span><\/div>\n <\/span><\/div>\nLet\u2019s examine for a moment how the attitude towards scripture described in Psalm 19 applies to the stories in Nehemiah and Luke and then also to our own context.<\/span><\/div>\nIn both of these stories the people move beyond visceral reaction to action. \u00a0In Nehemiah, after the people have heard the word of the law in a worship context they gathered together again and studied what they had heard. \u00a0The fruit of that study led to a reinstatement of the practice of the festival of the booths, the day of Atonement and so on. \u00a0The \u201cso on,\u201d included social and religious purification. \u00a0They dismantled alternate religious practices that had been set up on the hills around Jerusalem and sent away their foreign wives. \u00a0While we may react positively to the resurgence of their festivals, the kind of purity that sends away foreigner wives in their midst (an actual dismantling of families) justifiably makes us squirm because it raises an interpretive dilemma. \u00a0How does this kind of purity born out of a powerful reaction to hearing God\u2019s word \u2013 how does this – demonstrate the Love, (capital L love) which gave them the law in the first place? And did they just ignore the texts that told them to take care of the sojourner and stranger in their midst?<\/span><\/div>\nIn Luke, Jesus interprets the Isaiah passage as referring to himself and acts accordingly \u2013 by healing and freeing. \u00a0The people who resist this interpretation act out their resistance by trying to do away with him.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nAll of this begs the question, \u201cWhat happens when we taste a taste that is sweeter than honey, when we know we are in possession of something finer than gold and want to act on what we have heard?\u201d<\/span><\/div>\nPsalm 19 helps us again in the very next part of its poem with a bold move towards humility.<\/span><\/div>\nI\u2019ll read verses 12 and 13 in two versions.<\/span><\/div>\nFirst, NRSV: <\/span><\/div>\nBut who can detect their errors?<\/span><\/div>\nClear me from hidden faults.<\/span><\/div>\nKeep back your servant also from proud thoughts.<\/span><\/div>\nDo not let them have dominion over me.<\/span><\/div>\nThen I shall be blameless<\/span><\/div>\nand innocent of great transgression.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nOr in the Psalms for Praying version:<\/span><\/div>\nBut who can discern their own weaknesses?<\/span><\/div>\nCleanse me O Love, from all my hidden faults. <\/span><\/div>\nKeep me from boldly acting in error, <\/span><\/div>\nlet my fears and illusions not have dominion over me!<\/span><\/div>\nThen shall I become a beneficial presence, <\/span><\/div>\nfreely and fully surrendered to your Love.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nWhere are we now? \u00a0Psalm 19 is a powerful interpretive guide for our own engagement with Scripture \u2013 even as it interprets the stories around it within Scripture itself. \u00a0But even Psalm 19 means nothing until we get a taste for its ultimate goodness, until we are intimately familiar with its powerful provocation, until we realize that the deepest hungers within us are only satiated when we encounter the God contained within its pages. \u00a0And we can\u2019t know God through scripture intimately until God has found and knows us in this way, until the Spirit of the words is stronger than the words themselves, until the Black and white gives way to a multitude of colours.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nHowever, \u00a0for many who have gathered here, we have heard Scripture\u2019s words since infancy and we may have allowed familiarity to breed contempt \u2013 to use a well-known phrase. \u00a0And so my question is,<\/span><\/div>\nWhat does it take for this sacred text to renew its hold on us, to reignite the passion it may have once held or to awaken something within us as if for the first time?<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nFirst, might I suggest we approach it with reverence. <\/span><\/div>\nStanding to hear its words is one possibility.<\/span><\/div>\nHandling it regularly within a worship filled context is also helpful and something we have done for a long time.<\/span><\/div>\nLetting ourselves be moved when we find it revives our soul.<\/span><\/div>\nRejoicing when it brings wisdom into our
\nlives<\/span><\/div>\nTreasuring it like we do our family heirlooms<\/span><\/div>\nAllowing it to be the window through which we see and interpret the world \u2013 as it enlightens our eyes.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nSecond, we need to engage and study it regularly \u2013 not to dissect it as the modern scientific worldview has taught us, but to savour its content as we savour a fine wine \u2013 love and be loved by the God who speaks through it and know that we can never be truly objective about something or someone we love and surrender to that knowledge.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nThird, savour it regularly with others. \u00a0We are a community that wrestles, struggles, and moves through to the other side of many things that arise among us. \u00a0This text and the God who speaks through it can handle our wrestling and will be more than our match. \u00a0When we do this with others we are wise to apply the prayer of humility in Psalm 19. <\/span><\/div>\nBut who can discern their own weaknesses?<\/span><\/div>\nCleanse me O Love, from all my hidden faults. <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nFourth, act on it when we have reached a sense of clarity about the way forward and trust that the God who has spoken will keep speaking and speak again, guiding and correcting as necessary.<\/span><\/div>\nAgain as with Psalm 19\u2019s prayer of humility – Keep me from boldly acting in error<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nAnd Fifth, and let\u2019s try not to kill its prophets.<\/span><\/div>\n