THE WORD
When I went
to Mhondoro to learn Shona many years ago, I was astonished how much people
enjoyed talking to one another. I saw two people approach each another on a
path and they started talking before they met. They stood for a while talking
and then moved off in their different directions still talking until they were
out of earshot.
People
could listen to Jesus for hours, even days – ‘these people have been with me
for three days’ (Mark 8:2) – and not get tired. The early church circulated his
teaching by word of mouth but as time went on, and those who listened to Jesus
began to die, they decided they must write down his words and deeds. We have
all benefited from this.
This week
our readings record Jesus himself relying on the written word - from Isaiah.
The first reading tells us of the return from exile when, frankly, most people
had forgotten their own history and the promises God made to them in the
desert. So when Ezra found the book of the law and read it to the people ‘from
early morning until noon’ they ‘were all in tears as they listened.’
When Jesus
read from the scroll of Isaiah – ‘The spirit of the Lord has been given to me
... to proclaim liberty to captives ... and the Lord’s year of favour’, his
hearers in Nazareth were astonished and ‘he won the approval of all.’
And now it
is our turn to draw life from the written word. We are celebrating Sunday of
the Word of God and it is a moment to remember what a rich treasure we have
in the bible. It contains in written form the whole story of God’s gradual
revelation of his purpose to the human family. The church has instinctively
preserved the early texts through centuries of war, fire and floods. The
original languages were put into Latin in the fourth century and, in modern
times, in every language under the sun.
In the days
before books, the monasteries developed the practice of lectio divina, holy
reading, by which a person was invited to ponder, relish and express their
thoughts in personal prayer. There would be lots of pauses in the reading to
allow the meaning to sink in like water on arid soil.
This is
accessible prayer for us all. But we can also realise, in our secular age, that
the written word by any good writer can also convey a message to us. We can be
nourished by the words of Shakespeare and also Chinua Achebe or Charles
Mungoshi. If we ‘listen’ attentively,
the written word can be a partner to us in a dialogue about our world.
26 January 2025 Sunday
3 C Neh 8:2...10 1
Co 12:12-30 Lk 4:14-21
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