Homily for 24 January 2010

Homily for Third Sunday of Year C 24 January 2010

I want to this morning to look at our Old Testament reading – so often we just let that first reading pass us by, don’t we, perhaps we half expect the Old Testament to be dull and boring, or even not to make sense – this is by no means an uncommon view! In fact in the first century of the Church’s history there was even a suggestion, made by the heretic Marcion, that the Church should ditch the Old Testament and leave it to the Jews- what had it got to do with us? And for several years, even in St Augustine’s time in the fourth century, there were many people who found the Old Testament so off-putting that it effectively stopped them becoming Christians at all, and our pagan opponents were very scornful of the way the Old Testament was written- so unlike all the accounts of the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses written in beautiful poetry, and with all its bloodthirsty stories of war and conquest so unlike the deep thoughts, so calmly expressed, of the great philosophers like Plato. They would laugh at their Christian friends “Do you mean to tell me you actually believe all that rubbish, how can you? Just a load of Bedouins killing each other!” In fact, St Augustine himself couldn’t bring himself to become a Catholic until he heard the sermons in Milan of St Ambrose, explaining just how to approach and understand the Old Testament. So let’s look at today’s reading.
It is set in the middle of the fourth century BC when the Jews had returned from their long captivity in Babylon and were gradually rebuilding their national life and their identity as God’s holy people. Ezra was the man in charge, and he was particularly anxious that the people should reacquaint themselves with the scriptures, and with God’s Law which they contained- how else would they ever get the country off to a good start again? His right hand man in all this was Nehemiah, and today’s reading comes from his memoirs. It describes the scene at one of the great gatherings of the people that Ezra and the clergy would organise, at which all the scriptures were read. Look how the people react- they know that the scriptures are the presence of God in their midst, they know that they are hearing the Word of God addressed to them, that is why they immediately take up the posture of worship – they cry out “Amen, amen!” and they “bowed down….and prostrated themselves before the Lord”. And as well as just reading it out, we see that Ezra preaches on the Word of God, “translating and giving the sense so that the people understood what was read”. This is what we have to do at Mass every Sunday isn’t it- clergy and readers, we have to read you the scriptures so that it makes sense and you understand! A most important task, because let’s face it, how many of us have a Bible at home, and if we do how many of us open it? And of course opening it is a daunting thing in itself, it’s a bit like opening a phone book or an encyclopaedia- you’ve got to know what you are looking for and where to go. (I recommend as a user-friendly way of becoming familiar with the word of God to use one of the monthly booklets of daily readings that we have in our shop!)
Of course as they sat there –or lay there- hearing the scriptures, it didn’t make such comfortable reading to these newly returned Jews –as the demands that God was making of them sank in, as they began to grasp all the implications of the high expectations that God had of them, they felt a bit crestfallen- “they were in tears as they listened to the words of the Law”. Well, that’s not entirely a bad thing, you know- at least it meant they were taking it seriously, not just shrugging it all off as beyond them, the unrealistic demands of religion. You know what I mean! But Nehemiah encourages them and tells them that actually, although it is always an awesome, rather sobering experience to put ourselves in the presence of God and to reflect on the shortcomings of our lives contrasted to the hopes he has for each of us, nevertheless putting ourselves in this closeness to God is and can only be a source of joy. Nehemiah tells them to enjoy life- hey, it’s party time! “Go eat the fat, drink the sweet wine!” – and to share their happiness with the less fortunate- “send a portion to the man who has nothing”. It’s all there, isn’t it, our understanding not only of the presence of God in the scriptures, but even a hint of the eucharist to come in the distant future. We who come to church today, we are not unlike those Jews of Nehemiah’s time: they were returning to their faith, trying to pick up their old ways of religious practice, wanting to get it right, and in a way we are always returning aren’t we? We come to mass and as we recollect ourselves in a moment’s prayer we know our feet have strayed a bit since we were last in our pew, there have been a few things we’re uneasy about, a few moments we’d rather not dwell on – we are all always returning! We return, we show up again Sunday by Sunday, and we put ourselves once more in the presence of God- in the Tabernacle, in the Scriptures- and it is, of course it is, partly a source of sadness to us, as our conscience gives us a bit of a kick, that is why every Mass commences with the Confiteor, I confess… But the joy is greater than the sorrow, isn’t it, the joy that invades our hearts as we recognise Our Lord in our midst and know that we are in the right place, where we should be, close to the One who looks on us with eyes of welcome, of understanding and of love- he will put things right for us if we let him, for as Nehemiah knew well “the joy of the Lord is (y)our stronghold”.
Let us follow the advice in this ancient text this morning- we reverence the Word of God that we hear, for it is the living communication of the living God, addressed to us today; we take its message to our hearts; we are honest enough with ourselves to know that there is much in our lives to regret, but such is our trust in God and his love for us we rejoice. Let us go from this Mass refreshed by the presence of the Lord in his Word and in his Sacred Body – let us “eat the fat and drink the sweet wine” and let our joy in the Lord overflow into care for those we see around us who are in need- let us “send a portion to the man who has nothing prepared ready”, “for this day is sacred to our Lord”. Amen.