I recently returned from a week-long trip to Ecuador with a group of divinity, theology, and business students. During our time in South America, we learned about issues as diverse as globalization and debt, food sovereignty and ecology, indigenous spirituality and refugees. We also had incredible opportunities to meet a variety of Ecuadorian women, men, and children, and were often overwhelmed by the hospitality we encountered.
On one of our last nights in Ecuador, we were invited to a church service held in a tiny chapel in a tiny mountaintop village near Guamote. The service was attended by many local families, our entire group, and a few people from Guamote (as well as a kitten who kept darting in and out).
Since I speak neither Spanish nor Quechua (the indigenous language spoken by most of the village's residents), I rarely understood exactly what the celebrants were saying. But as we all got up to take communion, I marveled at what a beautiful moment we were sharing: men and women from all over the world, coming together in one of the oldest rituals of Christianity.
This week's texts also emphasize the importance of coming together as the body of Christ. As Paul writes in First Corinthians,
"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body -- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free -- and we were all made to drink of one Spirit." (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)
Paul wants to make clear that every single person is important for the body of Christ to work together; nobody is any less critical than anyone else. We are inextricably linked, he radically writes: "If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it" (1 Corinthians 12:26).
Both the readings from Nehemiah and Luke, for their part, offer examples of the faithful coming together to listen to God's word. In Luke, Jesus stands up in the synagogue to read the words of Isaiah, saying, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:18-19).
It seems important that Luke records, "The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him...All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came out of his mouth" (Luke 4:20, 22). Jesus's declaration, which comes near the beginning of his ministry, was not made alone, or to a select few, but to his whole synagogue -- he was inviting his community to share in his announcement of hope and salvation.
In Nehemiah, we hear the story of Ezra bringing God's law to the people: "The priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly...in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law....And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people...Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, 'Amen, Amen,' lifting up their hands" (Nehemiah 8:2-3, 5-6).
But Ezra does not simply read the book of the law to the people. Rather, his peers then "read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading" (Nehemiah 8:8). It was important to Ezra that everyone, not just the elite, could have the chance to fully understand God's word -- the community was stronger for it.
Indeed, coming together in community is essential for our walk with God. It is in community that we learn and grow, question and have our questions echoed or answered, build relationships with people like and unlike us. The psalmist writes, "The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1). This is a beautiful, incredible world that God has given us to share. How important, then, that we seize opportunities to explore it, improve it, and seek to strengthen the body of Christ, a body whose members are scattered throughout the globe.
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