Date: January 20th & 23rd
Preacher: Pastor Ashley Rosa-Ruggieri
First Reading: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Psalmody: Psalm 19
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Gospel: Luke 4:14-21
I am a big fan of the theatre, musicals in particular. Whenever I discover a new musical, I often find that my head is swimming with the lyrics for days until they make camp in my mind. Forever. These musicals are varied, but the one that I specifically want to mention today is Hamilton. I was introduced to this musical my senior year of college, and I spent days listening to it non-stop. After finishing college and going to serve in Cambodia, I found that there were others in my cohort familiar with the musical, and some who were not. During our in-country orientation we were cooking and I had the soundtrack running so that we could sing and dance along as we worked in the kitchen. One of my country coordinators, Jen, was not familiar with the musical, but she did not mind having the music around us as we cooked. Part way through cooking we landed at the song about the Schuyler Sisters.
Now, again, I must reiterate that when I learn the soundtrack to a musical, I know the entire thing. Ever word of every voice part of every song. Still, I always have favorite lines that stick out to me throughout any song, and in this song it was the section about women empowerment, and their right to the same things men are promised in the declaration of independence. However, as my cohort members sang along with me, Jen paused her food preparation and said, “Wow, that is a beautiful, powerful line.” And I thought I knew what she was talking about immediately, but I was wrong. The line that stuck out to her, a line I had heard as many times as I had listened to the soundtrack was, “Look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now.” This moment struck me so much, I wrote a blog post about it, and to this day, nearly six years later, I still remember it. Because Jen was listening with a different mindset, a different background, and a different perspective than I ever had. But she taught me that day, unintentionally, that sometimes you can hear something time and time again, but it only takes one time for it to sound different than it ever has before.
In two of our readings today, the first from Nehemiah and the second in our Gospel, we are given examples of what it can look like when words that have been said and heard many times are interpreted in a new way. In the Nehemiah story, the people hearing the words read by Ezra are weeping, but are told that they do not need to weep because it is the day of the Lord. It is a Holy day to be celebrated together, with food and sharing and community. At first the people were mourning the words they heard, but then they were told to hear them in a new way. To hear them in relationship to God's promises and the sacredness that comes with the day they were living, a day of praise and worship, because the passage was interpreted to them in a different way. These words that had once led them to weeping and mourning were interpreted to them in a way to inspire joy, praise, and community worship. Those in attendance were given a new way to understand the scripture being read to them.
Then we come to our Gospel reading, where Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit and going around teaching in the region of Galilee. Eventually he returns to his hometown of Nazareth, and attends synagogue on the Sabbath. He stands to assist in the service by reading from the prophet Isaiah. However, as he goes to sit back down, it becomes very clear that those around him are unsettled. As Jesus returns to his seat, they just stare at him and watch him go. They have heard this scripture before, it is familiar, but when Jesus read it in their midst, he opened the door to something new. He then proclaims this among them by saying, “this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” which inevitably causes a shock in the space. A jarring, even unpleasant moment of taking something familiar, something they were comfortable with, and shining a light on it to show something new. Maybe those in attendance had heard the words Jesus read- that there would be good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed, but they had not taken the time to comprehend them, to understand them, to relate them to their own lives. Or maybe they had related them to their own lives and the thought of these promises being fulfilled made them uneasy. By proclaiming that these words had been fulfilled in their hearing, Jesus is offering them a new way to understand this passage, that the Spirit is in him and the time for these things to be proclaimed is now. The shock and awe that comes from those around him might signal that they were not ready for this new interpretation, and were still unsure how they should react to hearing something different than what they have known.
There are many Bible passages that each of us have heard numerous times, but there is always the possibility that it could mean something new because we read it in the presence of someone else. Perhaps you have heard even the verses read today before but have come to understand a new part of them on this day because of your experiences in this past year, a conversation you had last week, or the very words of my sermon today. The Holy Spirit shows up in new ways all the time, we merely have to allow ourselves to be open to these new ways. Sometimes, we are not ready to hear the new thing that has been offered by the Spirit, and that is okay. The Holy Spirit accompanies us along the journey of contemplating what that new message means for each of us on any given day. Just as the Holy Spirit filled Jesus throughout our story today, we are promised the companionship of God when scripture speaks to us in ways that inspire, challenge, unsettle, and encourage us.
When I was in the kitchen that day in Cambodia cooking with my cohort, I did not expect to have one comment from Jen stick with me so much that I still hear that song from Hamilton differently today. Throughout my time studying the Bible and serving in ministry settings, I cannot number the amount of times that I have learned a new way to understand a Bible passage that was familiar to me. In all of those cases, I could have chosen to ignore these new revelations and stick with what I had always known for fear of losing hold of an interpretation that made me comfortable. And sometimes, it took a long time for me to open myself up, and reflect enough to truly absorb what this other person had taught me. It can still be hard at times, but we also know that it is never impossible. Those who were among Jesus in our story today were surprised, unsettled, and unsure what exactly this new interpretation meant for them. Since our reading ends here this week, we also do not yet know what their response was exactly. But that unclear ending can allow us to consider what it means for each of us today when we discover something new in our faith instead of something familiar. I urge us all to allow the Holy Spirit to fill us, so that we might open our minds to the new interpretations, possibilities, and ideas that God has revealed to us. Thanks be to God.