Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10  

               January 24, 2010 

“GATHER AROUND THE BOOK”

            The Jews had finally returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon.  Multiple generations of people had lived and died, and the current generation of people tried their best to settle in and around Jerusalem.  They were a demoralized bunch.  They had not been alive when exile took place.  Jerusalem was now foreign land.  The city still lay in ruins.  The wall around Jerusalem that was protection from attacking enemies was still just a heap of rubble.  The city gates had been burned by the conquering Babylonians so long ago.  The returnees experienced years of drought and bad crops, they lived on meager resources, and they were constantly harassed by their Samaritan neighbors from the north. 

            But there was more.  Because ancestors had been in exile in a foreign land for so many generations, many of the meaningful aspects of the Jewish faith had been forgotten.  The stories of Moses and the Exodus had been forgotten.  The stories of Abraham and Sarah had been forgotten.  The disciplines of the faith, the meaningful rituals celebrated for centuries had been forgotten.  When it came to the faith, if it were going to be restored at all, they would have to begin again at square 1.  Even the Hebrew language had been replaced by other dialects from other places.

            We hear their names as a tag team, Ezra and Nehemiah, who were called by God to restore Jerusalem and God’s people to a sacred place and a faithful people.  Ezra was to reform their spiritual life, and Nehemiah was called by God to rebuild the city and restore the walls.  It is a wonderful story, and Nehemiah was able to mobilize the people for the common cause of rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem.  Some of them worked with a weapon in one hand and a tool in the other.  God empowered them to rebuild the walls in 52 days, a real miracle.  They worked long and hard, and when they were able to take a moment and look at the big picture, they quickly realized God had been behind it all.  There was no other way the walls and gates could have been restored so quickly.  God was back in their minds, and God was finding ways to reintroduce Himself to their hearts.

            So when Ezra invited the people to gather in the city square, they came.  They all came.  Nehemiah tells us “all the people gathered together.”  Ezra brought the Holy Scriptures of that day, the Torah.  Again, most of the Jewish people had forgotten Hebrew, so translators were spread throughout the gathering of people.  A wooden platform was built so that Ezra could stand above the people.  In the presence of the gathered people, Ezra opened the Book.  The people stood up.  Ezra then prayed to the Lord, the Great God, and the people responded by lifting up their hands and shouting “Amen, Amen.”

            Ezra read.  He interpreted what he read.  He began at the beginning, and for six or more hours the people stood and listened.  It became clear to them that much had been forgotten, that God had been forgotten, that so much of their faith heritage had been forgotten.  As Ezra read, the people cried.  They recognized the distance, the gap, the void that had been a part of their existence for too long.  They cried; they repented and cried.  But now Ezra, in the midst of this return of God’s people to Almighty God, in the midst of this gathering of God’s people, in the midst of gathering around the Book of God’s Word, Ezra proclaimed, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.  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 your Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

            “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

            Something powerful happens when God’s people gather in God’s Name, when God’s people gather around the Book.  And there is something really scary when God’s Word begins to gather dust from lack of use.  There is something really scary when generations gradually, quietly begin to forget … the stories, the power, the blessings, the law and grace contained in God’s Word.  We cannot assume that people know what the Bible contains, and therefore we cannot assume that people know God.  Eugene Peterson wrote a prayer after contemplating on our text: “Dear Lord, Help me never to leave my Bible lying around the house collecting dust so that it’s as foreign to me as it was to those returning exiles.  Bring teachers and translators of your Word into my life, and may they interpret the vast vocabulary of your heart into the limited vocabulary of mine, engaging not simply my mind but my heart, enriching not simply my learning but my life.”

            God’s people gathering together, gathering together around the Book.  It is still a powerful, emotional event.  It is called worship.

            God’s people gathered together around the Word this past Friday at Luther College’s Center for Faith and Life.  Luther College is in Decorah, Iowa.  God’s people gathered for a memorial funeral service for Benjamin Judd Larson, who was killed in the first earthquake to hit Haiti on January 12^th.  Ben, his wife Renee, and Ben’s cousin Jonathon were all seniors at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.  They were spending the month of January in Haiti as a ministry of service.

            When the earthquake hit, all three were in the St. Joseph Home for Boys where they were staying.  As the building began to shake, they started running.  Jonathan and Renee were together, and Renee looked back to see Ben grabbing a pillar.  Renee saw concrete begin to fall on and around Ben as the two floors above them began to collapse.  Jonathan and Renee were caught in the rubble for a time, but both were able to release themselves and exit the building.  Soon after, Jonathan and Renee went back into the building and tried to make their way to the area from which they had come.  Both called out to Ben.  Renee said she heard Ben’s voice.  He was singing, not unusual for Ben who loved music.  Renee remembers, “I told him I loved him, and that Jon and I were okay, and to keep singing.”  But the singing stopped after Ben sang the words “God’s peace to us we pray.”  Renee says that Ben spent his last breath singing (worshiping).

            So, on Friday friends and loved ones gathered at Luther College.  Hymns were sung and stories were told.  At some point, the Book, God’s Word, Holy Scripture was opened.  Someone read the words aloud, words of comfort, words of hope, words that would bring strength and peace to faithful yet broken hearts.  As words were being read, as prayers were prayed, Jesus embraced all who mourned.

            And today, so many of those same people as well as so many others are gathered together in sanctuaries like this one.  The people of Haiti are remembered this day, for there is so much suffering in that land, in the midst of collapsed buildings and broken bodies.  The people of God gather, and these people of God walk into the worship space with their own cares and concerns, their own heart aches and heart breaks, their own questions and doubts and sins.  The people of God gather, and Almighty God is in the midst of them all.  The people of God sing songs of laments and songs of praise.  They respond with “Amen, Amen”, their “Yes” to God’s Word.  They worship their Lord together.

            And on this day in so many places the Book, the Word will be read, and as the Word is being read, maybe tears will be shed as the people of God remember and receive God.  Maybe tears will be shed when these words are read from Nehemiah…”do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”  Maybe one or many will be strengthened as the words from 1^st Corinthians are read: “…but the members may have the same care for one another.  If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.  Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”  And maybe hope is restored as these words from St. Luke are read, these words spoken by Jesus as he unrolled the scroll of Isaiah on the Sabbath in the synagogue in the midst of the gathered people of God: “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 maybe we all need to hear what Jesus says next: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

            “The Joy of the Lord is your strength.” 

            And let all God’s people say: “AMEN.”