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Third Sunday After Epiphany -- Page 227, January 21, 2001
The Word of God
Nehemiah 8:1-3,5-6,8-10
Psalm 19
I Corinthians 12:12-31a
Luke 4:14-21
The Word of God will create. When Ezra read it to those who had returned from Babylon, it reconstituted Jerusalem. The Psalmist reminds us that the sun rises at the Word of God, and that that same Word satisfies our hearts. Paul perceives a body created by that Word, not a collection of people, a living body with a name -- Christ. Jesus, unlike Ezra, read from the Prophets, not the Law, but nonetheless something happened, something in this case that threatened Jerusalem. Have we come full circle? The Word of God plants and also plucks up?
The Word of God is both speech and action. So, there is the Word of God that we perceive as speech and the Word we perceive as action. The Bible student studies the Word of God as speech. The scientist studies the Word of God as action. "The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard..." (Psalm 19:1-3) Just as Paul declares that there is but one body, the Psalmist confesses one Word of God whether perceived as speech or as action. The one who studies the Bible and the one who studies the nucleus of the atom study the one Word of God. The fact that they may come to incoherent even conflicting conclusions is due to human weakness. The reason they fight about the conflicting conclusions is sin -- pride, for the most part.
The study of the Word of God as speech creates the religious community, and the study of the Word of God as action creates the scientific community. God is manifest both in speech and action in the Body of Christ. "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.' (1 Corinthians 12:19) Speech cannot say to Action, "I have no need of you." That is arrogance. That also would deprive each member of the fullness of whole body.
With our penchant for individualism, we vex at the idea of being a part of a larger whole. Science doesn't want to deal with the imponderables of religion. Religion doesn't want to deal with scientific test for truth. The atheist wants to be the lone definer of the universe. The fundamentalist religionist wants to be the lone definer of ultimate reality. We elevate our lonely freedom to the highest value. We shrink with horror at the prospect of giving up our isolated mountains of insight and power. We would hate to see the day in which we would have to repent our freedom, our individualism and be one body. We would hate to see the day when we would be gathered around Ezra (or a later child of Abraham, Albert Einstein) to hear the Law and know it to be both our master and our only hope for the future. But, the conclusion has a certain grace to it: "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.'" (Nehemiah 8:10)
The Word of God is not a threat to our enjoyment of life. It is the opposite. Our problem is not the inabiligy of the planet to support human life. It is that disobedient human life will not support human life. We gather reverently around the linear accelerator on the Berkeley Campus, twenty- four hours a day, standing by to receive a revelation. What would it take for us to stand from early morning until the seventh hour listening to the Word of God being read? Where would we get the reverence of the scientist?
When the Spirit of the Lord is upon us, because he has anointed us to bring good news to the poor... When he has sent us to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind... When he has sent us to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, speech and action will have come together. The Word of God will have created yet again.
" 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 in your hearing.'" (Luke 4:20-21)
Roland McGregor, Pastor
Asbury United Methodist Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
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