January 24th, 2016
Scripture: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10/ Ps. 19:7-10, 14/ 1 Cor. 12:12-31a/
Luke 4:14-21
“When the word of God is preached”
Summary: Today’s Scripture readings offer us an insight into what takes
place when the word of God is preached. Jesus stands before the assembly
and announces that he is the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies. The
preached Word is therefore not simply a message about Christ; it is an
encounter with Christ.
~
In today’s Scripture reading, Nehemiah tells us this, “[T]hey read from the
book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the
people understood the reading” (Neh.8:8).
Does this job description sound familiar? I will provide a bit of hint. It
sounds like a minister reading the Scripture and preaching on it.
This passage is actually a part of the larger section that describes Ezra’s
reading of the book of the law to the people assembled in Jerusalem after the return
from the Exile. And after the law was read, the people engaged in prayers of
confession and fasting, and then renewed the ancient covenant with their Lord
(Nehemiah 8:9-10).
(It wasn’t out of the blue that our forebears in faith prescribed the manner of
our worship service; our faith tradition stems from solid footing.)
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Anyhow, Ezra is identified as a priest (Neh.8:2), the peoples’ spiritual leader.
The position and posture of Ezra and the people indicate a solemn occasion: He
stood on or at a wooden pulpit or platform, surrounded by others (Neh.8:4), opened
the book where all could see him do it (Neh.8:5), proclaimed a blessing, and all
responded by saying “Amen, amen,” lifting up their hands in prayer and
prostrating themselves (Neh.8:6). Then Ezra read clearly, and the Levites “gave the
sense, so that the people understood the reading” (Neh.8:8). Levites were a group
of people specifically ordained/set aside to teach the people; here, following Ezra’s
reading, the Levites, moving through the crowd, interpreted and applied the law,
and the people understood it. In other words, a sermon followed the reading of
God’s instructions.
All in all, this account of gathering worship in Nehemiah is filled with
observant rituals and ceremonial elements quite familiar to modern day Christians.
This activity of reading, teaching, and responding to the law is like that of the very
thing that we are being engaged on this day.
We have just received the Word of God for this day; we did so by praying to
God as follows:
“Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the
scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you
say to us today.
Amen.”
Having then received the Word of God, the minister declared, “This
is the Word of the LORD.” And the people of God responded, “Thanks be
to God”!
And now, the minister, i.e. me, is right in the midst of trying to interpret the
Word of God as faithfully and truthfully as one is able to do so. Granted, humour
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does sometimes come out of a sermon, quite indirectly I assure you. I don’t ever
recall being taught how to work humour into our sermons at the seminary.
But going back to our Scripture readings, there is a great degree of reverence
for the book of the law, in how the book is treated. For we notice that it was
“read…clearly,” and then the Levites ‘gave instruction in what was read’
(Neh.8:8). In other words, the meaning of the ancient Scripture was made plain in a
new time; it began with reverence for what was read as the Word of God and that a
revelation of God occurs in the Word-something of God was revealed to them.
Gospel of Luke (4) joins the teachings of Nehemiah and Psalm 19 in
affirming this key point in affirming the revelation of God in the Word that is read
in the assembly of believers. Like Ezra, Jesus stood amidst the gathering of the
faithful, the synagogue in his case; “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…” (Luke 4:16-17).
Jesus reads out the ancient proclamation from the prophet Isaiah; like Ezra,
he laid upon the hearts of the people the meaning of this ancient Scripture in their
new time. Jesus proclaimed, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your
hearing” (Luke 4:21). Jesus stands before the assembly and announces that he is
the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies:
That Christ is God’s servant to turn the hopes of the poor, imprisoned, and
oppressed into reality.
The gathered in the synagogue had just heard the Good News being
declared, first in words and then in transformed lives!
The gathered in the synagogue had just experienced the grace of God
through the reverent/worshipful reading the Word of God and the
reverent/prayerful interpretation of the Word.
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People of God, the events that we have read in today’s Scripture are truly
defining moments in the history of the people of God, for creating a legacy of
worshipful rituals for future generations, our generation included.
When Ezra read the scroll of the law, the reading, the speaking, the words,
were all describing and evoking the deepest urges of spirit in the hearers. So when
the people heard God’s instructions read aloud, they began to weep. Perhaps they
suddenly understood how they had failed to live up to God’s expectations. What is
certain is that in that process something happened and something changed in a
profound way.
So too for Jesus that Sabbath day when he visited his hometown of Nazareth
and was invited to simply read the lesson in the worship service. His words from a
well-worn and well-beloved scroll of Isaiah came from his mouth, and set forth as
the life-transforming Good News for the faithful, for all times to come!
People of God, such is the testimony of Scripture, the power of words, wellchosen, and faithfully delivered in reading and in the interpretation.
They change lives, the world, sometimes forever.
Incidentally, most historians of preaching usually consider this account from
Luke to be the first “Christian sermon” delivered. More importantly, this passage,
along with other passages read today, offers us profound insight into what happens
when the Word of God is read and preached.
“[Jesus] began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in
your hearing’” (Luke 4:21). Because of this proclamation, the preached Word is
not simply a message about Christ; it is an encounter with Christ.
Wow! Is there anything more profound than that?
As a preacher saying this, I pray that no one goes out thinking that I have
made a self-serving statement! No. What I am saying is that the acts of gathering
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for worship, hearing the Scripture read, and then encountering the Scripture
interpreted, these are part of something very ‘sacramental’.
Please don’t be put off by this word, ‘sacramental.’ It basically means that in
these events/acts, the people of God may encounter the grace of God, the lifetransforming gift to us.
I should also point out that this sacramental nature of proclaiming the Word
of God in both reading and preaching offers both a ‘challenge’ and ‘consolation’
for preachers. The challenge is that we faithfully pray and study the scriptures, that
we prepare carefully, and that the life transforming Good News of Jesus Christ can
be proclaimed.
I don’t know how you view what a preacher like me does each time I stand
up here on the pulpit, but I find it a very nerve racking experience. No, it isn’t
stage freight or the fear of public speaking. Neither applies to me. Still, the anxiety,
the uneasiness of reading Scripture and preparing the sermon, and proclaiming it
during Sunday worship, well, that hasn’t changed much over these years.
I will share something with you. When I first shared my concerns with
someone whom I consider my mentor in many aspects of ministry, he said to me:
‘If and when there ever comes a time when you are not feeling anxious standing on
the pulpit, you need to step down.’ He was right.
That little conversation has also helped me to see a ‘consolation’ in what I
do. The reading and proclaiming the message is not about human rhetoric.
Meaning that it is not Dong-Ha or anyone else who changes hearts; it is Christ
working in us who changes hearts.
No wonder the people who heard God’s instructions in Ezra’s time wept; no
wonder the people who heard that Scripture has been fulfilled in Christ rejoiced,
even when hung from the cross.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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