-1- Sermon (1/24/16, Nehemiah 8: 1-12): Stealing a line from the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield, sermons and preaching don t get much respect.

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1 -1- Sermon (1/24/16, Nehemiah 8: 1-12): Stealing a line from the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield, sermons and preaching don t get much respect. No one, for example, wants to be accused of being too preachy nor is it much of a compliment to be reprimanded with the phrase, Don t give me another one of your sermons! Arthur Caliandro, who was Pastor of the Marble Collegiate church in New York City, would often tell the story of a young boy who went to church with his friend one Sunday. He had never been to church before so he was kind of nervous, depending on his friend to explain what was going on and what he was supposed to do. When it came time for the sermon, the first thing the minister did was take off his watch and place it on the pulpit right next to his sermon. The little boy leaned over to his friend and asked, What does that mean? His friend told him, Nothing, absolutely nothing. A young Mom needed someone to sit with her five year old son during worship because she sang in the choir. The boy s grandfather agreed to do so. Knowing that the Grandfather tended to dose off during the sermon, she told her son she would give him a dollar if he kept Grandpa awake. As the service proceeded, the young mother glanced over towards her son and noticed that his grandfather was sound asleep. Upon questioning the boy after the service why he didn t follow through on his paid job, the boy told her that the Grandfather had paid him two dollars to let him sleep. Like I said, it s an uphill climb for us preachers. Perhaps that s why when we stumble upon a passage like the one today from Nehemiah, the hopes of preachers everywhere bud with new life. The opening of the passage hooks us right away. This is the kind of stuff preachers have daydreams about. All the people, the entire town, men, women, and children, are gathered together in the main square. They have one and only one thing on their minds they want to hear a sermon. Yes, you heard me right, this is not a story about a preacher in a pulpit hoping and praying someone

2 -2- shows up on a Sunday morning. This is about the people clamoring, chanting, begging the preacher to give them a Word from God. They are ready, they are eager, they are attentive, and they are just pleading for it. A mass riot threatens to break out if the Minister does not comply. They are on their knees, tears streaming down their cheeks, they promise to name their first born after him, they even throw money at him hoping to convince him to give them a sermon. Sorry, got a little carried away there. Like I said, this stuff tends to trigger Walter Mitty type fantasies for us pulpit people. The minister in this case is Ezra the scribe. The text tells us that the people told Ezra to bring the book of the Law of Moses, the Torah, and read it. From morning until midday, he read it and people were attentive to every word, drinking it in like one who was desperately thirsty. Who are these strange people? You might wonder. What is wrong with them? It s a good question. The people in the square that day were the returnees of those Israelites who had been taken into exile by Babylon. Perhaps you remember how Babylon had turned the once mighty and prosperous nation of Israel into rubble, taking many of its inhabitants back to Babylon as prisoners of war. As part of this, the Temple was left in ruins and these exiled Israelites wept buckets of tears for their homeland. As Psalm 137 reminds us, the despair of the exiles was severe. By the rivers of Babylon-there we sat down and there we wept, when we remembered our homeland. How could we sing the Lord s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! After many years of exile, a Ruler comes to power in Babylon who allows the exiles to return to Israel under the leadership of Nehemiah and Ezra. What these returnees found was anything but paradise. Their homeland was in ruins. Under the direction of Nehemiah and Ezra, however, they managed to build a wall for protection in the hope that they might also rebuild Jerusalem and restore Judah to the worship centered community it once was. As you might imagine, this rebuilding was far from easy and holding this communion of returnees together was tenuous at best. They were

3 -3- under constant attack from enemies on the outside. There were constant internal disagreements as people argued over who could be a part of their community and who couldn t, who should govern, how the Temple should be rebuilt, and how Jerusalem could be re-established in safety and peace. Interestingly enough, many of these divisive tensions and arguments aren t all that different from the ones churches tend to have today. As the saying goes, what is old is new again. Who are these people? They are a rag-tag group battle worn, weary, fragmented, at each other s throats, wondering just how much longer they will survive, and, perhaps, most importantly, trying to figure out who they are in this land and in this mess. Clearly, the Torah, essentially the Bible for these people, was something they had heard before or otherwise they wouldn t have known enough to ask Ezra to read it. While in exile, it most likely helped them survive. Now, in this new chapter of distress, hurt and conflict, they recognized their need to hear it again. So they begged, pleaded, cried out, promised to name their children after Ezra, threw money at him, treated him like a rock star oh sorry, I got carried away again. Ezra complies and he read from morning until noon day. It s also important to note that this was a text not just read but out there in the crowd were Ezra s helpers explaining to the people what the text meant. In other words, the sermon is born and it is born in the context of recognizing that the text alone is not self-explanatory. Surely these folks had heard it read before in the context of exile in Babylon. But what did this same text have to say to them now in this new place, in this new time of struggle, in this new context where the challenges were different and the threats were different and the application of this Torah, God s Law, demanded a new hearing? Ezra, the Rock Star, read and Ezra s helpers helped the people to understand while the people actively listened and soaked in every word. Clearly, this preaching event involved everyone. It s interesting to read what the people did in response they fell prostrate on the ground, they wept, and they grieved. It probably makes you wish he was here today instead of being stuck with me. This Ezra guy

4 -4- must have been good really good. Or maybe we just sometimes underestimate what can happen when we all play a part in the preaching event. Maybe this moment touched something deep in these people. Even though they had heard this Word before, perhaps having it read to them in the place where their ancestors once worshipped caused them to hear it anew. Maybe it s something like what would happen if we listened to the story of the risen Jesus appearing to the disheartened Disciples on the shores of the Sea of Tiberius while standing in that very spot. It sounds different, more genuine, more real. Or maybe this Word of the Lord helped these poor, discouraged, confused, and stressed people remember who they really were-god s people. It s not an easy thing to remember sometimes especially when life is hard and we re feeling discouraged, even like a failure. Remember who you are, remember God loves you still even in the messes we make for ourselves. We are never alone and on our own. Or maybe this Word helped these people not only remember who they were but also what they should and could do in this new context of ministry. All this from a sermon? You ask. Who are these strange, weird, peculiar, odd people? Well, I think they might be us, you and me. To be honest, I find it quite challenging to know what I am supposed to do in this day and age that is so very different than the one I grew up in. How are we supposed to be church in this all new territory? The challenges we face are unprecedented. How are we supposed to hold ourselves together when we try and fail? It can feel so incredibly discouraging, so horribly defeating. How do we preserve our identity while reaching out with integrity? Sometimes it feels like the wall will never be rebuilt and the vitality of what once was will never return to Judah or New Jersey or New York or where ever we might be trying to rebuild. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, there is tension and strife and struggle in the beloved community. And almost always, we ache, I ache for a Word from the Lord-something that will revive our hope as only the Lord can do. And when that Word comes, I listen, we listen together and mysterious things tend to happen. It

5 -5- somehow lights a renewed passion in us-new relationships are formed, new energies are found, new hope is resurrected and we emerge on the other side ready to try again. Yes, all of this because the people begged, pleaded, fell on their knees, wouldn t take no for an answer, promised to name their firstborn after the preacher, threw money at the pulpit hey a guy s allowed to dream, right? In fact, maybe that s what we re all supposed to do when we gather in this place and dare to open this ancient but always new book, demanding that it once again be read. To God alone be all the glory! Amen.

6 -6- Congregational Prayers and Lord s Prayer: Leader: The Lord be with you. People: And also with you. Leader: Let us pray Holy and Loving God, how grateful we are for your Word that somehow, even mysteriously and unexpectedly, creeps up on us and surprises us. Help us, we pray, to never lose our appreciation for this gift and help us to never lose our gratitude for bringing us together so that we might hear this Word read with understanding. Holy God, we need this Word more than ever in this time of great challenges. It is not easy to be the church and it is not easy to be your people. There is so much that clamors for people s attention and it is so easy to lose our sense of just how important it is for us to be here together. It is such a struggle to rebuild the walls, to revitalize what once, and sometimes we find ourselves stuck in the past, wishing it could be again. It is such a struggle to listen anew to what your Word calls us to in this in this new and strange land we must somehow find a way to call home. O Lord, send us those who can help us not only hear your Word but also understand it. We pray this day, O Lord, for your church. For the struggles it faces and for the temptations it sometimes feels to ignore its calling in favor of upping its appeal. We pray for those who sometimes feel disheartened and discouraged. We pray for those whose sense of defeat makes it difficult to find the strength to try again. We also pray for your Word of hope today to those who are ill, frail, grieving, weary, frightened, and lost. We especially ask you to hear these prayers we now boldly pray in our silence or aloud We ask this in Jesus name who taught us to pray All: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us or debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver

7 -7- us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.