AT THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL week 3

“…The priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding…..[Ezra and other priests and scribes] read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation.  They gave the sense so that the people understood the reading…..And all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.”
Nehemiah 8: 2a, 8, 9c

We have moved into the third week of the Season of Epiphany.  “Epiphany” itself is “a sudden intuitive leap of understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence.” [The Sage’s English Dictionary] The church’s Season of Epiphany celebrates the manifestation of the Almighty through the infant body of a peasant born in a barn in occupied territory and keeps us ever seeking the way to this revelation, this light at the end of the tunnel.

Tunnels.  From development in utero to birth, from death to new life, from salvation to discipleship, from wilderness to welcome table, we navigate subterranean passageways.  Tunnels.  “At its most basic, a tunnel is a tube hollowed through soil or stone…..A tunnel is a horizontal passageway located underground…..The basic geometry of the tunnel is a continuous arch.  Because tunnels must withstand tremendous pressure from all sides, the arch is an ideal shape…it simply goes all the way around. 

“Tunnel engineers, like bridge engineers, must be concerned with an area of physics known as statics.  Statics describes how the following forces interact to produce equilibrium on structures such as tunnels and bridges:  tension, which expands, or pulls on, material; compression, which shortens, or squeezes material; shearing, which causes parts of a material to slide past one another in opposite directions; torsion, which twists a material.  The tunnel must oppose these forces with strong materials, such as masonry, steel, iron and concrete.  So that the structure can withstand the load that is placed on it.”  [from  Yahoo’s “How Stuff Works”]

It’s probably best not to get too literal and meticulous in our application from engineering to the theological, but some of those descriptive words can definitely speak to us as we engage in our dig toward the heart of the Gospel.  In the conversations that have begun—whether face to face in our churches or homes, individually in study and reflection, or through various electronic means of communication—we may be tempted to distort the material we work with.  In working together our ideas “may slide past one another in opposite directions.”  Yet the tunnel and the tunnelers can “oppose these forces with strong materials” such as commitment and mutual respect.

Ezra stood with 26 others to “give the sense” of God’s word to “all who could hear with understanding.”  “And the people wept when they heard the words of the law.”  The proclamation that went forth that day was a reminder of the covenant that the Holy One lived and breathed and that gave life and breath to the people.  The weeping, scholars speculate, may have been prompted by the recognition of how far they had strayed from that covenant.  But those tears of regret and realization were swept away by the directive in verse 10 “Go home and prepare a feast, holiday food and drink; and share it with those who don’t have anything.  This day is holy to God.  Don’t feel bad.  The joy of God is your strength!”  [Message Bible]

What does this tell us about the heart of the Gospel?

What is the heart of the Gospel?
How do you find it?
How have you found it?
Who are your guides?
What are your tools?

You are most cordially invited
to enter into reflection and conversation
on these questions
that are so vital to us
as a faith community.
 
Bring word of your explorations
whether individual or from a group
to the comment section below.