Third Sunday after the Epiphany

January 23-24, 2010

“Remembering the Word”

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

Grace, love, joy and peace be unto you from God our heavenly Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

There was a time when the nation of Israel had been prosperous and powerful. Under the reign of King David, and then his son, King Solomon, Israel experienced its “glory days” as an influential, united kingdom. After Solomon’s death, there was civil war, and the kingdom split in two, with the northern kingdom of Israel, and the southern kingdom of Judah. Yet both of those nations continued to be affluent and successful for many years, even as they were consistently warned by God through the prophets that they were straying from faithfulness to His Word. They were warned that disaster was coming unless they repented and remembered the Word of their God, but they refused, persecuting and killing the prophets who were sent to them. And then it happened. The kingdom of the north, Israel, fell first, conquered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. Judah held out longer, but was swallowed up by the Babylonian Empire in 586 B.C. The people were taken out of the land, into exile, captivity, servitude in a foreign place. For over 150 years, some of God’s people lived in that captivity, far away from the land that was given to their ancestors who had been delivered from slavery in Egypt so many years before. And in the land of exile, they forgot. They forgot who they were; they forgot who they belonged to; they forgot the Word of their God.

But that’s not entirely true. They didn’t forget in exile; they had already forgotten, by the time they were invaded and conquered. Prosperity causes amnesia, and the Israelites had both. Long before captivity, they had grown careless and cynical about their faith, losing their memory of God’s promises and gifts, which had kept them bound together and responsive to God. And how easy it is for that to happen. Prosperity causes amnesia in our day, too. The Church in Europe was prosperous for centuries, but now, they have in many ways forgotten God’s Word, and their beautiful cathedrals stand largely empty. The Church in this country has been prosperous since our nation’s founding, but now, many have forgotten God’s Word, and churches here are emptying out. And as with the Israelites, we’ve done it to ourselves, with our own brand of spiritual carelessness and cynicism. Life becomes busy, with too many activities crammed into the time that we have, and the Church falls far down on the list. Oh, we still love God, we say; we’re just too busy to come to His house. Or we do come to His house, but rather than being content with the gifts He offers us there in Word and Sacrament, we want something more. So some jump from church to church, staying for as long as they like what they hear. St. Paul warned in his second letter to Timothy, “the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” That seems to sum up the spiritual state of many people in our culture.

But back to the Israelites. Not long after they were taken captive by the Babylonians, that culture was itself conquered by the Persians. After about 50 years of captivity, some of the Jews were allowed by Cyrus the Great to return to their land. But what a crushing disappointment it must have been, coming back to the land God had given them, and finding it in ruins. The great temple of Jerusalem remained a pile of rubble for about another 100 years. Then, a new ruler of the Persians, Artaxerxes, allowed one of his servants, an Israelite named Nehemiah, to return to the holy city and begin an ambitious urban renewal project. As the rebuilding began, it was quickly apparent to Nehemiah that in addition to a physical rebuilding, the people of Israel needed to be rebuild spiritually as well. So he sent for a priest named Ezra, to teach the people all that they had forgotten about the Word of God.

Eventually, the city of Jerusalem was rebuilt, including the temple. The Israelites were safer now, and had a place to worship again. But the situation was still bleak. The Persian Empire still dominated them, and taxed them heavily. External enemies still threatened them. Internal divisions, injustice and oppression still divided them, and set neighbor against neighbor. They needed guidance and assurance; they needed the grace and the promises of God’s Word. And so begins our text for today: “All the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.” As the people stood, listening, Ezra opened the scroll and began to read. He read to them the story of Creation, of Noah and the Ark, of Abraham and Sarah, of Joseph and the coat of many colors, of God leading His people out of bondage in Egypt to the promised land, of Miriam and Moses, of the Ten Commandments and God’s instructions for creating a community. And as Ezra read, thirteen other priests circulated among the people to explain what was being read; to give instruction.

For hours, the people stood and listened. And when it was done, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and the other thirteen priests heard a soft sound coming from the crowd. The people were crying; not a loud wailing, or great cries of anguish, but a gentle, quiet, weeping, as the words read by Ezra continued to sink in, and they recognized the promises of God that had long been forgotten, and the knowledge that for all of their unfaithfulness, and all their years of exile, God had not forgotten them. He was still their God, and they were still His people. And so, after those hours of reading from the Book of the Law, Ezra finishes with a word of grace. He says, “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 to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Now, the difficult times weren’t over for the Israelites; not by a long shot. But the uncertain future was much easier to face when they were fortified with the reminder of God’s covenant relationship with them, and His love and care for them. They were renewed in their faith and anticipation for the coming of the Messiah, who would set them free from the ultimate bondage to sin and death. That Messiah would come, over 400 years later; and one day, that Messiah would walk into the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth, open a scroll just as Ezra had that day in the town square before the Water Gate, read from the prophecy of Isaiah, and announce the great good news for all the world: “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

And what is the Word of God for you today? Have you forgotten His promises? Have you allowed yourself to be distracted from making His Word a priority in your life? Is the Bible read in your home? Do you take advantage of all the opportunities offered for Bible study, or have other things become more important to you? We should have such a hunger for God’s Word that every Bible class on Sunday mornings and during the week should be standing room only. But they aren’t, are they? I wonder if we aren’t succumbing to the same spiritual amnesia as the Israelites did long ago.

The Scriptures are a gift from God to us. They are the primary way that God speaks to us today. So the starting point for discovering the truth about God and about ourselves is to open that gift, study it, and use it. Through the Scriptures, we hear of God’s love and care for His people. Through the Scriptures, we come to know His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who was sent to take on our human flesh, bear the burden of our sin, die on the cross and rise again so that we can be the people of God. Through the Scriptures, we discover the truth that God delivers the gifts of His grace to us by means of this Word, and the Word combined with water, bread and wine in Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. The glorious truth of the Gospel, that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, given forgiveness, life and salvation, comes to us in the Word of God. We are people of the Word. Read it, study it, treasure it, because it is the message of God’s love, mercy, and grace for you. It’s the message that gives you over and over again this Word: that your sins, all of them, are forgiven, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.