January 21, 2007 (Jimmie Johnson)

Text: Nehemiah 8:1-10 and Luke 4:14-21

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

All 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. Accordingly, 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. He 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. And 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. Then 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. So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. And 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 they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, “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.”

Luke 4:14-21

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He 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, 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.” And 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.

SERMON

“It’s time to go,” someone said about 2,500 years ago.

So the family headed out to the town square called Water Gate, which might be like our Heritage Square in downtown Waco today.

The priest came and brought the Bible. The reading chosen was from the book of the law of Moses. Ezra, the priest, read aloud from the book.
Other lay leaders scattered out among the large assembly and helped interpret what the readings meant.

Nehemiah, the governor who had overseen the reconstruction of the city, encouraged the congregation. He told them the law of God was good news.

The whole service lasted about six hours.

It concluded with the congregation being told to be good toward their families and to go out and share with those neighbors in need.

Then these words ended the assembly:
“This day is holy to our Lord; do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Except for lasting six hours, that service 2,500 years ago, and what we do in our service today sounds amazing similar, doesn’t it?

Some 500 years following the time of Nehemiah, we learn how similar the actions of Jesus are in Luke’s story.

Luke reports that Jesus, when he began his public ministry, he went first to worship at the synagogue just like he always did.

Jesus was handed a book of the Bible to read, just like Ezra.

Jesus read it, provided some interpretation and at the end said something like:
“This Good News is becoming true today.”

Some 2,500 years for the time of Ezra and Nehemiah and 2,000 years from the time of Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth, we are still gathering in much the same way to hear a reading from the Bible and an interpretation of what it says. I like being in this long parade down through time that we call worship. I can’t imagine my life without being part of a gathering to worship God.

You and I do this not because we think we are morally better than others, or loved of God more than others.

No, we develop this holy habit of coming to the Sunday morning assembly because we know we are better off for it. I can’t tell you how many times someone has said to me, “My life goes so much better when I regularly go to worship.” Another person might say something like, “I feel out of sync all week if I miss church.”

Not that going to worship bribes God into making the breaks go our way.
Rather, we go because of what happens inside us. And what happens inside us will always be more important than what happens to us.

Over time worship deepens us and gets us asking the right questions, which are the deep questions. They awaken a desire within us to keep loving life and being glad for being alive. They give us a way us a way to put death in a form of hope rather than meaninglessness. They deepen our love for our family, and they give us another family of people, too, who we call Church.

We are also reminded there is a Church without walls called The Cathedral of Creation in which God has been speaking for millions of years.

Worships profoundly deepens our humanity rather than diminishing it. Worship gives us an undeniable sense of being connected to every person around us. And we are connected to the earth as well as God’s garden.
I always hope our worship of God forms us into an open, non-judgmental, intellectually generous Christian people, passionate and enthusiastic about our faith but also skeptical of small answers when it comes to God, Jesus, the Bible and the Christian life.

After all, we really aren’t ready for answers until we have learned the important questions. That’s what happens in worship. This is what the Bible prompts: the asking the right questions.

Art Buchwald, the columnist and humorist, died last week. I saw him interviewed as he was moving toward death from kidney failure.

He said the important question in life is not, “Where are you going after you die?” He said the most important question is “Why are you here on earth in the first place?”

That is the most profound faith issue. If you think the most important
Christian question is “How do I get to heaven?” you’ve missed the main point of the Bible. The main point of the Bible is about glorifying God by the way you live your life on earth.

Over and over the main question the Bible seems to be asking of you is: “Will you join up? Will you partner up with God in the work of mending, repairing Creation?”

And at its best, a reading of the Bible that asks “Why am I here?” doesn’t close the conversation but opens it up.

We ask God to keep blessing our gathering on Sundays at old First Pres with a variety of views on social issues and politics.

Frankly, we know single agenda Christians won’t stay with us long because they will become baffled and unsettled by our cultivated and desired diversity. We seek unity without uniformity.

We don’t crave certainty at the cost of honest doubt. We don’t need to pretend that life is not complex and filled with many gray areas. Life is not always black and white, because love is involved and relationships are at risk.

Theology and beliefs matter. But they don’t matter as much as loving God through loving people.

The minute this weekly assembly disconnects us from loving people and welcoming them then something has gone haywire.

“God is love and those who love abide in God, and God abides in them,” is the way Scripture puts it.

When the love goes out, the sense of God’s power goes out.

Look, I know there are some Sundays you come here and the power of God doesn’t seem to be present for you. Many a Sunday, I have preached entire sermons feeling that same way.

Sometimes we wake up, and we just don’t feel the power of God present in our lives. Sometimes it is as simple as being overextended and exhausted because we try to do too much. Sometimes it’s because we are feeling hurt and neglected, not worthy of God’s presence. Sometimes it’s because the answers to our deep questions aren’t coming easily.

After worship one morning, a woman walked by and shook her pastor’s hand and commented: “That was a good sermon this morning.” When the pastor replied, “Don’t thank me. Thank the Lord.” She shot back, “No, it wasn’t that good.”

Preachers can’t make God perform. God’s power can only come as a gift from God.

Sometimes we come to church and feel the authenticity and genuineness of God’s presence and sometimes we don’t. But when we don’t, we learn to trust God more than our feelings. And we remember those times in our lives when we found ourselves accomplishing more than we could imagine.

And we knew the strength was coming from God. And the source of this strength has always been God’s unending love.

The joy of the Lord is our strength!

It was true in Nehemiah and Ezra’s time.

It was true when Jesus came to the synagogue, and it remains true when you and I come to church today.

Long may it be heard in First Presbyterian, Waco.

The joy of the Lord is our strength!