The readings for today are all about community and are worthy of our reflection as we gather as a community in worship and as we face issues of disunity in the wider Episcopal and Anglican family. The reading from Nehemiah comes from the period following the Babylonian Exile when the faithful community was re-establishing itself in Jerusalem. What is described was like a big Sunday service although somewhat longer than we could tolerate today.

The first thing that stands out for me in this famous passage is the constant reference to “all the people”. This assembly, this occasion, this gathering was notable because the whole community was in attendance. That presence of all the people was what gave the meeting its identity and significance. Ezra the priest who was the leader of the community in a sense was legitimatized by the presence of “all the people”. A Rector, Vicar or Priest in Charge is not worth much without the gathered community. You, the people of God, give meaning and integrity to the ministerial leadership of the church. The community of faith at Transfiguration is made up of clergy and people together. I admire any reader who reads this lesson in public. It has more difficult and unpronounceable names that practically any other passage of scripture. Who in the heck are all these folks? What the mention of their names says to me is that Ezra the priest does not stand alone, he was not a “one-person band”. Rather he was surrounded on the right-hand and the left-hand with lay-leaders, rather like the Wardens and the vestry in a parish. True Christian leadership is shared leadership, or corporate leadership.

The second thing about the Nehemiah reading that I note is the centrality of the reading of the God’s word, the sacred scriptures. Indeed this passage was undoubtedly reflecting the development of what we find in a contemporary synagogue service. And this pattern is reflected in what we call the ministry of the word, where Sunday by Sunday we hear the Word of God read and proclaimed. We gather as the community of faith to place ourselves as it were under the Word of God, to be formed and inspired by it. Note also that the reading was given “with interpretation” and also that they “gave the sense” “so that the people understood the reading”. In the context of Nehemiah it would appear that the reading needed translation from the Hebrew into the local Aramaic and “giving sense” to the reading probably referred to the tradition of the Targum which was giving the meaning of the reading rather than simply a literal translation of the original. In our context the sermon plays that role of giving the sense to the readings.

Last but not least the community of faith gathered in Jerusalem was uplifted, by hearing the promises of God, and by hearing of God’s faithfulness to his people. The sacred scriptures of the Bible as much as we enjoy reading them privately are the very stuff of community. They are the story of God’s people and God’s interaction with them; they are the written memory of the community of faith. They arise out of the community of faith and need always be related to and interpreted within that community. It is in community, like this community gathered in worship, that the scriptures come alive and we listen and interpret them together. For we the people of the New Testament, the scriptures are the place where we hear God’s Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Nehemiah and Ezra said to the people therefore “do not mourn or weep” but “go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared” and “do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength”. Sunday by Sunday we celebrate the good news of God which we encounter in the Gospel of Jesus by eating and drinking the Holy Food of the Eucharist and by recommitting ourselves to the ministry of love and service, both signs of the joy and hope which we gain from this communal gathering for worship.

The familiar lesson from 1 Corinthians 12 speaks of the dynamic of community and again speaks to us as we reflect on our corporate life. Paul reminds us there of our diversity and our unity, and reminds us so forcefully that we all need each other. There are no solo players in the Christian community; all belong to the whole and are part of the whole. In other words each has a part to play in the overall life of the community. Of course our contributions will be different but no one is to think that their contribution is somehow not worthy, nor should any despise or denigrate the contribution of another. Paul strongly emphasizes the principle of inter-dependence within the Christian community, that the contribution of all is important to the good of the whole.

That understanding needs to be at the heart of our thinking as we reflect on our life as a faith community either at parish or denominational level. The same applies to all levels of human community. So often you hear someone speak having received some honor or other be it an Oscar or a Congressional Medal, say “I could not have achieved so and so without my family or all the people in my organization or whatever”. That is so true and it certainly applies to us. It is a message that needs to be heard in the Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Communion at present let alone within the Christian family of churches. But Paul takes the metaphor even further and says: “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it”. Our community is most certainly an organization in which each has a role to play and there is interdependence in our relationship. But it is also one with spiritual significance. We are the Body of Christ: God’s presence in the world. We are called to live the life of love, peace and justice in the world as the people of God. That is our calling, our mission, that which gives us our identity and our reason to be.

Last but least the Gospel speaks to us as the community of the faithful at Transfiguration. For when Jesus did what pious Jews did on the Sabbath, that is attended synagogue and participated in its life, “things actually happened!” Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor etc”. And said “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”. Jesus of Nazareth was the embodiment of the living Word of God present with his people as they gathered for worship. This has so much to say as we gather as a parish for worship, for fellowship, to conduct our business, for ministry or simply to have fun together. Expect things to happen! Expect God’s Spirit to work among us, to answer our prayers, to inspire, uplift and comfort us; to challenge us to go out and do something about it; to commit ourselves to the work of love, peace and justice in new ways; to try and repair broken relationships or to enhance the ones we have; to visit that sick or lonely person; to bring a bit of joy into someone’s life or simply to remain faithful and hopeful in our relationships and in our daily round.

We have much to celebrate as the community of faith in this place, much which is good and productive and alive. May the Spirit of the Living God bless us in all our life together that we may be the body of Christ in this place, bearing the Good News of God to the world God both made and redeemed.   Amen

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