Epiphany 3A – Jan. 22, 2023- St. Mark’s Episcopal Church – Charleston, SC
Have you experienced this ?
Waking up in the dark, disoriented, at home or away, and what’s the first thing you do? For me, it’s getting oriented to where I am
by looking for a nearby light: clock,
watch, phone, nightlight.. When I see the light, then I know where I am. Has this happened to you?
In our gospel reading from Matthew this morning , he quotes
the prophet Isaiah, as he tells us about the beginning of the public ministry
of Jesus –
“The people who sat in darkness who sat in darkness have seen
a great light – and those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has
dawned…”
(do you recall that we read this on Christmas Eve?)
I want to take a little time to sketch out some of the
background…
Matthew sees the beginning of Jesus ministry as the dawn of a
new day after a very long night of darkness. St. John would say, “the light
shines in the darkness.” For Isaiah, that
darkness was the Babylonia captivity and, for Jesus, that darkness probably was
the Roman occupation as well as separation from God.
So, here is Jesus, fresh from his baptism and followed by the
temptation in the desert, and his public ministry as an itinerant, that is, wandering
rabbi launches..
Sometimes we get the impression that Jesus was an
illiterate country bumpkin with little
to no formal education. That does not
appear to be the case. The Jewish people took the religious education of their
children very seriously and especially during and after the exile period. Schools were attached to the synagogues and
there were three levels of education…with everyone being required to complete
the first two…The Pirke Avot, a writing from the Mishnah which is a compilation
of Jewish ethical teachings, describes it this way…
First level: Between 5
and 9, one begins a study of the Torah – lots of memorization – Boys and girls
Second level: Between
10 and 13 – the study of the other writing – prophets, psalms, wisdom, and
more.. upon completion of this stage, a
participation in the first Passover – definitely boys – maybe girls depending
upon the community..
This is where formal religious education ended for most
people…
The third level – at fifteen- engaged with a study of the Talmud…if the
young person was wealthy or recognized as particularly gifted.. because this
was age when young men were expected to learn a trade, to get married at
eighteen and by twenty to pursue that trade, and by thirty to be in full vigor
and mastery…in other words, they needed to be self-supporting…[1]
And, if they were not self-supporting, someone had to
underwrite them..
Jesus most certainly completed the first two levels and more
than likely the third… he definitely spoke Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek ..and
perhaps some Latin. His third level of
education had probably been underwritten by his home synagogue.
After completing his training, it appears that he followed John the Baptist – an itinerant
teacher – prophet for a time, was
baptized by him and then he drawn into
the desert for a time and testing and discernment about his own
ministry. He emerged to begin his own
ministry as an itinerant rabbi..
In our age of mass communication, our religious teachers are
not normally itinerant - but in Jesus’ day, it was the norm…” “
Dr. Shmuel
Safrai, an Israeli university professor,
and author, writes there were hundreds and perhaps thousands of such rabbis
circulating in the land of Israel in Jesus’ day. These rabbis did not hesitate
to travel to the smallest of the villages or the most remote parts of the land.
They would often conduct their classes in the village square or out under a
tree (Safrai, ibid, 965) [2]..
In some instances, classes would be conducted in someone’s home. Often these
classes were small. The rabbis did not hesitate to teach as few as four or five
students. According to custom, one could not charge for teaching the
Scriptures, so the itinerant rabbi was dependent upon the hospitality and
generosity of the community. Many rabbis carried their food with them – a pouch
of meal and a few olives. From such they subsisted, not wanting to be a burden
to their host. The rabbi’s stay in the community might last from only a few
days to weeks, or even months. However, for the long term student (“disciple”),
learning from a rabbi meant traveling, since the rabbi was always moving from
place to place. If one wanted to learn from a rabbi, one had to “follow after
him.”
Attaching oneself to a rabbi was like a graduate course..
sort of like a traveling seminary
The idea was that you were drawn to them and asked them to
take you on..and you walked with them and followed them – learning
interpretation , seeing how they blessed their food, how they applied Torah to
everyday life and at the end of your
time with them – two or three years , you would begin to gather your own
disciples..and launch your own ministry.
Now… consider our reading this morning, normally the way
you’d attach yourself to a rabbi, was you’d get interested in their teaching
and then ask to follow them..
What’s interesting here, in Matthew, is that Jesus does not wait for the wealthy
and gifted to seek him out- instead he recruited some very unlikely folks…
And in that final verse – we have a summary of what Jesus and
his disciples did –
He taught, he proclaimed, he healed…is this not a good job
description for the Church?
Three questions
1. So, to us.. Jesus
Christ our resurrected Lord is still the light in the darkness – the fixed
point to which we can orient ourselves –
What is darkness under which you are sitting? No matter how dark it is… the light of Christ
is shining.. ask him to help you see it…..
2. By virtue of our
baptism, we are called to be his disciple – can we learn to follow? We need
Jesus to be our savior but are we willing to follow him as our Lord?
How hard it is for us to follow—
And how fearful we are of putting our trust in a leaders who
prove unworthy of that trust—and there is no doubt that people will let us
down..but there is one who will never let us down and that is Jesus Christ..
So, second question – how can we learn to follow?
by studying his words, his teaching, and his actions—
in prayer – by saying directly in prayer – Lord, I am willing
to follow where you lead.. forming that intention and then learning how to get attuned to the
interior leading of the Holy Spirt.. and to pray – thy will be done..
by being in the presence of others who love Jesus and who seek to
follow him and usually we can find them at Church– by keeping good company..
and finally, how are
you doing with fishing for people? The
call to catch people for the kingdom did not die with Peter and Andrew, James
and John – it is our call too… and this can seem sometimes like a heavy – I was
afraid that if I really let Go get a hold of me , I’d start preaching like the
Beaufort Street Preachers.. practically assaulting people with the gospel..
No, if you are willing,
God will use every bit of who you are and your life experience to teach,
proclaim or heal… in ways we cannot anticipate..
Here’s a true story about how God uses every bit of our life
experience to be able to connect with others… that from the Rev. Courtney Ellis
– a Presbyterian pastor –
She writes that she was in high school, their chorus teacher
made them learn to sing Silent Night in German…she and the other students thought
it was ridiculous and complained bitterly about it…
Fast forward ten years. She is ordained and conducting a
Christmas service in a nursing home.. some resident had walked in and others
were rolled in. She went around and
greeted people noticed one man in a
wheel chair who was very unengaged and asked about him, “O that’s Arlo, he’s
non verbal.” They went on with the
service and at the end they sang Silent Night in English – she noticed his lips
were moving and she leaned over and heard him say “Stille Nacht” – she repeated
it back and then began singing Silent Night to him in the German language that
she had learned so many years before.. He sang along – every word.
She said, I realize now that God had me learn Silent Night in
German just for Arlo.
When it comes to being a fisher for people, God does not
waste any of our experience… but will use it all to connect so that we can be
hold up the light of Christ to those who are sitting in darkness -
So, on this day… if you are sitting in the darkness, look for
the light of Christ – it’s there – the light shines and the darkness cannot
overcome it..
And on this day, hear anew your own call to follow Jesus
Christ.. “Follow Me”
And on this day, be willing to be the light for another…
May we be faithful to
this in our own time… Amen.
[1] Study
Shows Jesus as Rabbi - Bible Scholars (Professor
Shmuel Safrai, in his article, “Education and the Study of the Torah,” 945-970
in Volume Two of The Jewish People of the First Century,)
[2]Ibid.
