The 3rd Week of Epiphany, 2022
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21
Key Verse: "This scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21)
“Context! Context! Context!” That was what Dr. Rhoads, a New Testament Professor, used to say in class to remind his students the importance of seeing the bigger picture of each biblical story while considering each component such as to whom the author was writing to, what the author’s main concerns were, why the addressees or the communities acted the way they did, what political and social issues challenged God’s people at the time, and what the intentions of the author were for his readers, etc.
Dr. Rhoads' most striking talent was his ability to memorize. When I took Scripture by Heart, a class he taught, we had to memorize Philippians. He asked me to memorize in Mandarin, my first language, so I did. It wasn’t easy, but everyone in class certainly experienced the power of an oral culture during the biblical time.
One day in our weekly chapel, he recited the whole gospel according to St. Mark. It was exceedingly astounding. Every surrounding sound or noise magically faded away except his voice that spoke to us, to our soul and our mind. It was like St. Mark, the evangelist, standing right in front of us and telling us the stories of Jesus and his disciples. Or I should say that it was like we were there with Jesus and with his disciples.
Scripture has the power to evoke the souls of God’s people. It is undeniable that sometimes we want to have our say on what biblical passages mean to either justify our beliefs for our own benefit or simply try to make sense out of them. I have learned that Jews treat Scripture in a very unique way. We Christians are like Jews, believing that Scripture is sacred and written with loving care and attention to detail. However, they believe something important that I wasn’t aware of early in my faith journey.
Rabbi Kami Knapp said that they carry the sacred texts within them because they were the sacred texts. If we recall how God created the universe and every living being by uttering God’s Word, ‘the sacred texts’, what Rabbi Kami said is not only appropriate but also accurate. And Rabbi Lawrence Kushner wrote: “The words of Torah are holy because they provide a glimpse into the infrastructure of being. They comprise a single living organism animated by a secret life.”
According to Jewish mystical and tradition, the entire Torah is read as one
long, uninterruptible story. And that would dissolve not only the boundaries between the words of the text, but also the boundaries separating reader from text. Rabbi Lawrence goes further by saying that It is you and I who are reading these words. We are the sacred text itself. The holy text is not about us. We are not even ‘in’ it. We are it.
This might be the reason why those in synagogues felt awed and at the same time uncomfortable when Jesus read a passage from Isaiah with a posture of a prophet and concluded his reading by saying in Luke 14:21, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” I believe they all experienced profoundly that God manifests God-Self through those specific biblical texts.
It is all right that we won’t always feel comfortable as we read Scripture. It is us created by God. Weren’t we all reminded from the last two Sundays’ passages? God calls us “Precious” and “My Delight.” We are not in Scripture, we are it. To conclude, I would like to share a Jewish prayer with you. It’s called “We will return to you” - a prayer said to sacred people departing for a new chapter in life.
“I see before me faces of sacred texts. Sacred texts that I cherish and love.
Sacred texts that are separate from myself, yet have become part of who I am. I see sacred texts that hold holiness in their words and their beings. Sacred texts that embody our Jewish tradition and our wisdom. Holding closely the memory of seeing the sacred texts within your faces.”
With this understanding of who we are and whose we are, Epiphany happens everyday, and everyday is Epiphany as we meet sacred people. Amen.
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