Why We Do This

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

1All the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate. They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had given to Israel. 2Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh month. 3He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.

5And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. 6Then Ezra blessed the LORD the great God, and all the people answered “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.

8So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. 9And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when the heard the words of the law. 10Then he said to them, “Go your way, earth he 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.”

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God

Luke 4:14-21

14Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

18”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, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

20And he rolled up the scroll, gave it to the attendant, and say down. They eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

This is the Word of the LORD

Thanks be to God.

We have returned!

After a long absence, the people of God once again fill the place God has given them. The icy fingers that held us in captivity have melted into history, and the covenant community is home once more. But just being in the old places isn’t enough. We are a covenant people, not tourists at a historical site. The covenant people are glad to be back where they belong, but the setting alone is not enough.

Nehemiah was the governor of Judah when they returned from the Babylonian exile. He oversaw the rebuilding of the walls around Jerusalem, the rebuilding of what had been torn down 70 years earlier by catastrophic conquest. When we find him in this passage, he has just completed a census of all the people who had returned from exile, released from captivity by Cyrus of Persia.

Having been counted, “All the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate.” They are in a public place, all together, men and women and even the children who were old enough to understand.

They are gathered for a purpose. They have reclaimed their place in the world, but they have not yet reclaimed their identity as a covenant people. In 70 years, they have lost sight of what it meant to be a member of this particular tribe. Some of them no longer speak the language of their grandparents, speaking instead a mix of Hebrew and Babylonian that we call Aramaic.

Their place in the world does not define who they are. Having rebuilt their city, they now need to rebuild their community. “They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had given to Israel. Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding.” They people cried out to their leader to give them the law again, which the LORD had given to Israel, but they had forgotten over generations in a foreign land.

But what comes out is not a list of rules and regulations, and even if it were, these are not imposed limits. "[Torah] is not primarily a legal system but instruction abound how to live as God's covenant community.” Those instructions sometimes take the form of laws and regulations, but much of Biblical Law is a story. The beginning is the stories of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, and the promise of a covenant. The story names those who went down to Egypt and who came out again when God brought the people out with a mighty hand. Mixed in with the regulations are stories of the people wandering in the wilderness, forming a national identity as an alternative to just being slaves in Egypt. 

Ezra reads, and he and his colleagues interpret, the story of God’s covenant people. The people see that this is not just an old record, the scriptures they have been given reflect their own particular story.

We are given a chapter in the ongoing saga of God's relationship with his people. But our story stretches past our own experience, and we see parallels with the words of Scripture. The Bible is full of ancient characters, and yet through their struggles and triumphs we are able to see ourselves, and their experience of The LORD, the great God, helps us to see his hand in our own lives.

Centuries later, the church still gathers to do exactly that. We gather to hear our scripture read and interpreted. Nehemiah 8 depicts what most scholars recognize as the first modern preaching moment. Scripture read and interpreted in public. "Ezra reminds us that we too are recipients of divine instruction, a people called to continual renewal and reinterpretation of God's word among us. The word is alive and ever new in the power of the Spirit among us.” Our story is proclaimed in the reading and proclamation of God’s Word which still claims and shapes our identity.

We have returned!

After a long absence, the people of God once again fill the place God has given them. The icy fingers that held us in captivity have melted into history, and the covenant community is home once more. But just being in the old places isn’t enough. We are a covenant people, not tourists at a historical site. The covenant people are glad to be back where they belong, but the setting alone is not enough.

Last weekend, the Session voted to cancel our worship services due to icy conditions. A flurry of phones calls later, one of our Session members came over to the church and sent out a phone tree announcing our decision. Our phone-tree made at least 80 calls that night. I posted the announcement on social media websites, and more than 600 people saw that announcement in a period of 24 hours. We called a local TV station and had our church put on their list of cancelations. Lord only knows how many people saw that listing.

Turns out, we are really good at telling people to not come to church.

That was a weird Sunday morning for me. The only time I miss worship on Sunday is on vacation. Even when I’m on study leave, I worship with a congregation near wherever I’m studying. But to wake up in my own house, and not have to revise a sermon, or lead worship among y’all, just felt odd. I didn’t know what to do with my Sunday, and it threw off my internal schedule for the whole week.

Like the people who have returned from exile, I need to have the covenant constantly refreshed in my mind. I need to be reminded that my identity is not based on my accomplishments, but what the LORD, the great God, has done on my behalf. I need to hear the word read and interpreted so that I can realize that the God who is active among these pages is also active in my life all the time.

I need to worship, because my creator built me that way. Otherwise, it throws me off all week. So I’m grateful to be back in this pulpit, but I’m more grateful to be gathered in with this community. I’m more grateful that we all gather in this place for worship, men and women and all who could understand. I am grateful for the covenants that keep us close to one another.

I wonder if we all share that gratitude for our community of faith. I wonder if all of us share that excitement about our church. I wonder if we could use that same urgency about when we canceled services to instead invite people to come and worship.

In time between Ezra’s preaching as recorded in Nehemiah 8 and now, another preacher stepped into the pulpit. “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 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 favor.’” Christ gives us a new covenant. He goes to proclaim release and recovery and liberation and the favor of the Lord. We, the people of Christ’s covenant, follow him as he goes to poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed.

We gather, week after week, men and women and all who can understand, to be reminded that our identity, our personal and communal narrative, is centered around Jesus of Nazareth, called the Christ. "The Holy Spirit gives us something to do for God, and a time to do it. There is a sense of urgency in Christ's mission.” The church is called to join in.

That’s why we do this. Because we find our story’s foundation in scripture, and we find our identity in our relationship to Christ. We baptized an infant this morning because he is joined to an ongoing story, and covenant that shapes who he is, and who he will be. In a few moments, we will celebrate the achievement of another child of this church because our faith community shapes each of us as we continue to grow.

We all gather to heard the word read and interpreted so that we may remember who we are, and whose we are. We gather to encounter Jesus of Nazareth, who gives us the hope to follow him into the world with the promise that “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

We are claimed by our history, and we do what we do because we are adopted into God’s covenant through Jesus Christ. But that same covenant challenges us to do more, to keep moving forward. We do this because we do not have to be afraid, “…for the joy of the LORD is [our] strength.”