How are we
transformed by the Word of God?
When, in the Book of Nehemiah, the priest Ezra brings the
law before the assembly, he is in fact introducing his congregation to the
Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible that had been brought together
by a priestly source while the people were in exile, a text they may never have
heard before. Upon hearing the words Ezra
reads from the scroll and listening to his interpretation of God’s law, the people weep, recognizing themselves
in the story of salvation history and their failures to follow through on the
law. But their tears are to give way to joy in response to the extraordinary gift
God bestows upon them once again:
covenant relationship. The reading
of holy scripture seals their identity as a community that blesses the Lord and rejoices
in his presence in their lives. For
them, it is truly as Psalm 19 suggests: Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
In Ezra’s time, as
in Jesus’ time and in our own time, an absolute openness to God’s words is the
purest state we can hope for, one in which we are willing to embrace God’s will,
unhindered, with nothing standing in the way of our finding favor before the Lord.
Like Ezra, Jesus will stand before his own community in Nazareth, where he had grown up, and read from
holy scripture. In Luke's Gospel, the text he proclaims, from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah,
announces his own identity and invites his listeners to a common identity with
him: The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings
to the poor,… to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the
blind, he says. The text from Isaiah
suggests that, if the people believe in the Son of God, if they recognize that the Spirit of the Lord is indeed upon Jesus, then they will do as he does
and God’s love will be manifest in their lives.
They will become, as St. Paul will later tell the Corinthians, one body, restored to proper
relationship with God through their other-centered activity, belonging to one
another, and to God.
Jesus is our Spirit and life; we are all called to drink of the one Spirit, listening intently
to his words, that we might enter more profoundly into God’s love, into the
depth of relationship he calls us to. May
God’s words rejoice our hearts as we embrace the love they
communicate, open to the life God
promises.
This post is based
on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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