Spirit Speaks!

Nehemiah 8:1-12; Psalm 19; Luke 4:14-21

Mary Elizabeth Moore, Installation sermon, 14 October 2009, Boston University School of Theology

May our pomp may not be pompous,
May our celebration be transformation.

Spirit speaks! Spirit speaks in Marsh Chapel where Howard Thurman preached and inspired a university and nation. Spirit speaks in the courage of graduate Martin Luther King, Jr., in the persistence of Anna Howard Shaw, and in the faithful, path-cutting, bold ministries of BU School of Theology graduates in its 170-year history. Spirit speaks in the wisdom and dedication of amazing faculty and administrators, past and present, in the School of Theology. It speaks in the dynamism and questing of Boston University students, in continuing gifts to this world by BU alums. Spirit speaks in the presence of our Boston University President, Provost, fellow Deans, and faculty. Spirit blesses us with the presence of United Methodist bishops, leaders of the vast ecumenical church, and peoples of many faiths. Spirit speaks deeply to my soul in the presence of my colleagues, students, former students, and friends from childhood and adulthood. Spirit witnesses to the depth of human community, connecting Boston University with Emory University, Claremont School of Theology, the ecumenical Boston Theological Institute, and United Methodist schools and colleges across the country.

Spirit speaks in many forms through centuries of human history. The Spirit of which the Gospel of Luke speaks in the text for today is none other than the Spirit of God: “Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country” (Luke 4:14, NRSV). So filled with Spirit, Jesus taught in the synagogues and was widely praised until he came to Nazareth, where he had grown to manhood. In Nazareth, “he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because [God] has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. [God] 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’” (16-19).

These words are familiar to Christians from Luke and Isaiah, and the texts of the Hebrew Bible are important to Jews as well. Throughout Jewish and Christian scriptures, one finds references to God’s speaking and God’s Spirit moving. The story from Nehemiah today takes place after Nehemiah and the Jewish people have rebuilt the walls and gates of Jerusalem and after thousands of Jews have returned from exile in Babylon. In this great moment of renewal, the people ask the prophet Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which was given to them by God, and to read and interpret the book in the square by the Water Gate. Ezra did this, along with the others whose odd-sounding names were read by Jan Love this morning. The Jewish leaders read and interpreted from early morning until midday, and the people were moved. They shouted Amen! Amen! They wept. Then, the Governor Nehemiah and prophet Ezra sent everyone away: “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our LORD; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). Nehemiah’s sending forth was three fold: go party; offer portions of your feast to those who have nothing prepared; and trust in the Lord, who is your strength. This was the beginning of a new day for the Jewish people; thus, it was a day to celebrate, share, and honor God.

At the beginning of another new day in the multifold human saga, we read the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. This particular moment stands at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and it unfurls as Jesus unfurls the scroll in the synagogue of Nazareth. As in the text from Nehemiah, Jesus’ words begin and end with joy. He begins with: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” He closes by proclaiming “the year of the Lord’s favor” – the Year of Jubilee. In between these two joyful pronouncements are the proclamations of justice and compassion. In Nehemiah, the people are enjoined to share their feast, echoing Nehemiah’s previous insistence on justice in Jerusalem. In Luke, Jesus announces that he has come “to bring good news to the poor … to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” In both texts, the word of God is offered to a hungry people. In both texts, the word invokes a sense of the Holy. In both texts, the word insists upon justice and compassion to people who are hungry, captive, unable to see, and oppressed.

The Spirit speaks and, when it does, it inspires awe, insists on justice and compassion, and invokes God’s strength. But God’s Spirit does not always speak in the same tones. In this very chapel last Wednesday, Elizabeth Siwo-Okundi Jones reminded us that God did not speak to Elijah in wind, earthquake, and fire, but in silence and “a still small voice” (I Kings 19:6-16). God is not a “Drama King,” but a presence – moving in the world, addressing the world, speaking.

God is experienced and interpreted differently in different traditions, but most theistic traditions speak of God as “Infinitely Good” and “All-Merciful.” These are the words of the text read this morning from the Qur’an. I, as a Christian and as a novice in the study of Islam, cannot interpret the Qur’an adequately, and I cannot genuinely preach from it; however, Mohammed Abderrazzaq, a Ph.D. Candidate in Boston University, has graciously interpreted this text for me. He points out that Allah is known in Islam as “a personal God who is close to every person and knows every person better than they know themselves.” Thus, God inspired Jesus “with holy inspiration,” and with “revelation and wisdom.” According to this passage in the Qur’an, God’s inspiration enabled Jesus to speak in his cradle and, as a grown man, to heal the blind and the leper and to raise the dead, all by God’s permission. Muslims understand Jesus and the spirit differently from Christians, not as God, but as coming from God. But comparative theology is the subject for another day. What is striking about the text from the Qur’an is that it reveals Divine inspiration as a powerful movement of God that makes a difference in the world.

Indeed, Spirit or Mystery or the Holy has spoken through the ages, and it still speaks today! It speaks in the halls of Boston University, committed to academic inquiry and calling itself “daring, intellectual, and diverse.” One graduate of 1960 wrote me a note, describing the School of Theology’s effect on him and other alums. Donald Megnin described the STH goal as “uplifting persons … to find their purpose in life.” He added: “We have all tried to maintain the standards of support for the weak and somewhat helpless members of our society. We have tried to demonstrate that each and every one has the capability to contribute to human society.” That is Spirit!

Spirit speaks! Another alumnus, David Weekley, class of 1982, is a pastor in the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. The Spirit spoke to him recently when he traveled to Minidoka with members of his Japanese-American congregation. Minidoka was an internment camp where Japanese-Americans were forced to live during World War II. Some time after the congregation’s pilgrimage, Weekley told the people his own story about being a transgendered man who grew up knowing that he was different from others and that God loved him very much. Weekley explained to the people that he was inspired to tell his story after hearing theirs. He said:

Walking through Minidoka with you I heard many stories, and I learned new words and phrases that resonated within my soul: ‘Gaman: bearing the unbearable with dignity and grace; Gambatte: never give up, go for it!’ … I felt a kindred spirit…. I saw the healing and understanding that comes through sharing our stories, our authentic and deepest selves.

Trusting in the power of genuine sharing, Weekley told his story of changing his gender to male many decades before. He told about his delight in pastoral ministry (now 27 years long), and his delight in being a husband and father of five children. He told his story, under the inspiration of the Spirit, in hopes that his story would be healing for others. He concluded by saying: all people are different and all are loved by God.

This surely sounds like a lot of liberalism to some hearers and welcome words to others. But Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry, was inspired to teach in the synagogue: “to bring good news to the poor … to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” If this is Jesus’ proclamation, how can a Christian theological school do less? How can we do less in a world that is hungry and hurting? How can we do less in a University that is yearning for and learning from studies in theology, religion, and every imaginable subject?

Good news to the poor is a mandate to teach in ways that lift people. It is a mandate to unmask and dismantle structures of poverty, a mandate to respond with acts of kindness and generosity to the poor in our communities and neighborhoods.

Release to the captives is a mandate to teach in ways that honor and enhance the full humanity of every person. We are called to embrace and be one with the LGBT community and also to embrace those who earnestly believe that some sexual orientations are counter-Christian or counter to another faith tradition. We are called to release all persons from the captivity of closed hearts and slammed doors. We are called to embrace Palestinians and Jews of Israel as they struggle to build justice and peace in the Middle East – as they long to be released from the captivity of fear, tragic memory, and lost lives. We are called to embrace people who are oppressed by racism and people who don’t even see racism in our world. We are called to release all people from the captivity of racist social structures and raging stereotypes.

Recovery of sight to the blind is a mandate to seek understanding wherever it can be found – to recognize as my blind friend, John Hull, says: “A lot of sighted people do not see the world very well.” The School of Theology is called to search for, create, transmit, and transform knowledge. Every part of this great University has that role. Our particular role is to dive as deeply as possible into theological knowledge and to engage as fully as possible with all knowledge that emerges from the halls of academia and the streets of Boston and Borneo. If we all do our part, we can feed hope that all people of this world – sighted and unsighted – will be blessed with insight into the complex, fragile, and precious world in which we live.

To let the oppressed go free is a mandate to do more than know, but to be responsible for that which we know. When we know that some are treated unjustly, we respond with justice. When we know that our neighbor is lonely, we respond with friendship. When we know that children are dying from starvation, we respond with food. When we know that war is raging, we respond with peacemaking. When we know that our inner lives are in turmoil, we pray for peace that passes understanding.

When Jesus finished teaching, “he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” As a Christian, I hear this as a message of Jesus with sober hope. It is an announcement of God’s New Creation being fulfilled – an announcement of great promise. For people of other faiths, new creation (called by many names) unfolds in many ways. But such unfolding is almost always sober because the world is still in turmoil, and people still wait for the Spirit to speak – for the Spirit’s moving through our hallways and our lives.

While we wait, we stay alert for every movement of Spirit, but we do not watch passively. We act on what we do know, as Ruth Duck and Carlton Young convey in their new hymn. We pray for guidance, for courage, for wisdom, for learning without end, and for inspiration to keep singing the song of Spirit:

Guide us, God, in change and turning;
kindle leaders wise and bold.
Give us wisdom in discerning
all the ways your tale is told.
Send your Spirit; keep us learning
as your story still unfolds.
We are singers of the story;
we are tellers of the tale.

Spirit speaks! Are you listening? Are you singing and telling? Are you acting in the ways of Spirit? Are you asking hard questions? Are you listening?