i-Llan: 26th January 2025 – Liberty or law?

In the bible passages which many churches will read this Sunday, we have three snapshots of communities in different places and different eras negotiating their way between liberty and law, and being challenged by love.

At the heart of the gospel is the simple message that no-one is beyond the reach of the liberating love of God.

The Bible passages referred to are:
Nehemiah 8. 1-3, 5-6, 8-10
1 Corinthians 12. 12-31a
Luke 4. 14-21
You can read them here

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Transcript

Welcome th i-Llan, a podcast connecting faith, life, and Scripture. In this episode, I'm thinking about liberty and law.

This week we have seen the good news of hostages released from their long captivity. We have also seen a deeply disturbed young man sentenced to more than half a century in jail, and heard the stories of his traumatised victims grieving for those they love.  

In the bible passages which many churches will read this Sunday, we have three snapshots of communities in different places and different eras negotiating their way between liberty and law, and being challenged by love. What can we learn from them?

First (in Nehemiah 8), a group of people gather in a square in Jerusalem early in the 5th century BCE. With permission from Artaxerxes I of Persia, they have migrated from Susa and now face the task of rebuilding the city walls and becoming a community in their new home. On a hot day, they listen to the priest, Ezra, reading from the ‘book of the law of Moses’, (found in the first five books of the Bible). They don’t all speak the same language, so they need interpreters ‘who give the sense, so that the people understand the reading’. Emotions are mixed. They weep as they discover how they have drifted away from the basic principles of their Hebrew heritage. But the governor, Nehemiah, tells them to celebrate, for ‘this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’

As they hear the law God gave to Moses, they want to live by it. It’s a good basis for a community but, in their zeal, they become rigid and exclusive. Foreign wives and their mixed-race children are cast out through no fault of theirs. (Another book in the Bible, Ruth, points out that a foreign wife became the great grandmother of King David.)

Now move forward several centuries to the small churches of new Christians in the cosmopolitan city of Corinth. They, too, are a mixed bunch, ethnically and culturally. They are squabbling among themselves and trying to work out what living life as a Christian means. St Paul writes to them with one of his memorable metaphors: ‘you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.’ (1 Corinthians 12. 27) As such, there should be no divisions among them, they need each other and they are all of equal worth whoever they are and whatever their individual gifts.

At his conversion, Paul discovered that his zeal for God’s law which had led him to persecute Christians, was misplaced. God’s love encompasses everyone. Love for God calls us to self-discipline and ethical standards, but it should not become exclusive or lead to the legalism which can be deadly.

With the gospel story, we jump back a few decades to Nazareth. It’s a sabbath day and Jesus has joined the local community gathered in the synagogue. He’s asked to speak, and he picks a passage from the prophet Isaiah.
 '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 favour.’ (Isaiah 61. 1,2 quoted in Luke 4.18, 19)
It’s a manifesto of good news for those who are imprisoned by circumstances and ignored by those with the power to help. 

And, despite history’s repeated mistakes, it’s still God’s desire today. Individual situations can be complex and laws are necessary, but at the heart of the gospel is the simple message that no-one is beyond the reach of the liberating love of God.
 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3. 16) 

So, drawing threads together, here are some questions you might consider.

What would be good news for you? Where do you feel trapped or excluded? What do you need to be released? Is it something that you can do yourself or do you need to find help? 

Do you need a change of perspective rather than a change of circumstance? Have you been too judgemental about others, excluding them? Nehemiah’s people organised a day of national confession. Whatever we think of that idea, repentance is a necessary part of seeing with the fresh eyes of God’s perspective. 

Then, how can you bring good news to others?
 Is there something which calls you, enthuses you (without getting carried away by zeal!), fills you with compassion? Is that a clue to where you can use God’s gifts to relieve the burdens of others? 

How is the Spirit leading you to make 2025 a year of the Lord’s favour?

So my prayer this week:
In Christ, may you know the freedom of the Spirit. 
May you be free from want, free from fear, free from oppression, 
and may you use your freedom to bring freedom to others. Amen.