Towards Sunday, January 24, 2016

Readings:

Nehemiah 8:1-10 (When the people of God return to their land to begin rebuilding their life and kingdom, their leaders gather the tribes for a public reading and interpretation of the old Law of God from the days of Moses.  The power of the day is unmistakeable.)

Luke 4:14-21  (Jesus is beginning his ministry of proclaiming and unveiling the coming of God's kingdom.  He returns to his home town of Nazareth and preaches in the synagogue there, astounding everyone with his message that "the Spirit of the Lord is upon me" and that the time for acting out the kingdom of God for real has come.)

I heard a minister recount a story about a young couple showing up one Sunday morning at the back door of the church, asking timidly if they could come in to the worship service.  As the minister welcomed them and they chatted for a bit, the couple gained a little courage and said that what they most wanted, and why they would liken to come to church, was to be able to stop a number of bad habits in their life -- including smoking and drinking, and change their lives for the better.  They were looking for transformation, to which the minister's first -- and thankfully unspoken, thought was, "Good luck with that here."

The readings this week are about the transforming power of hearing and understanding the Word of God -- about people who after hearing God's Word read and interpreted to them, find themselves doing far more than just filing out the front door at the end of worship, saying "Nice service today."

In one, the people are moved to tears and to wailing, by the power of hearing God's Law read and interpreted to them.  Their first reaction is repentance and anguish for how far they have wandered from God's way; but their leaders encourage them to rejoice instead and to feast and give thanks that now once again they are being touched and shaped by God's Word.  How can this not be a good day, they say?

Have I ever felt that way?  Have I ever wept either in repentance or joy, and felt that moved in worship?  What does it take for worship and for the reading and interpretation of God's Word to be that powerful?

In the other reading, there is also a sense of deep, opened, life-changing connection between God and humanity.  Through his baptism, God's affirmation of him, and his time in the wilderness Jesus has come to feel holy Spirit in a new way.  In some sense, he has "grown into" being messiah, and now as he reads and preaches he does so with new conviction and power. 

But it's not just that.  He doesn't create the power of the occasion by himself.  He says to the people of the synagogue that the promise of God is coming true "in your hearing" -- not just in his speaking but also in their hearing, in the shared openness of speaker and hearer to that Word which lives and moves beyond them both, drawing both together into a new reality.

Is that what our worship feels like?  Do we feel drawn together into a new and wonderful reality beyond our selves? 

What reality does our worship draw us into?