Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text is from the Old Testament lesson read a few moments ago.
Walt Wangerin, Jr., begins his book, The
Book of God: The Bible as Novel[1], with this scene:
Now comes Ezra the
priest down from the old palace mount, carrying the scrolls in his arms. He
enters the square before the Water Gate and passes through a great congregation
of people all sitting on the ground. At the far end, they have constructed a wood
platform. They’ve built a pulpit for this reading. Ezra ascends the platform,
steps to the front, and unrolls the scrolls. Spontaneously, the people rise up.
Ezra blesses the Lord. All the people raise their hands and answer, “Amen!
Amen!” And then, as they sit down, Ezra the priest begins to read:
“In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and
darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over
the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.”
Wangerin sets out to locate the reader in a
holy space. While it is a novel, a fictional interpretation to tell the story
of the God’s promises in the Scriptures, Wangerin wants us to see the Scriptures
and the reading of Scripture as holy space. He locates us, along with the
people of Israel on that day who sat in front of Ezra, He locates us in the
presence of God in the written, read, and preached Word. He puts us in the holy
place.
Preaching often gets a bad rap, doesn’t it?
It’s often thought of as a dull, boring – but necessary – part of a worship
service. I wonder how many Christians wake up on a Sunday morning saying to
themselves, “I get to hear a sermon today!” I suspect that’s why many churches
have tried using synonyms to replace the words “preaching” and “sermon” with
words like “the message,” or “the teaching,” or perhaps a little more
sanctified word like “homily,” which is derived from “homiletic,” which is, in
fact, the study of preaching. Whatever you call it, and whether you might call
it a sermon, a message, or teaching, and whether you call the deliverer the
preacher, the proclaimer, or the teacher, the purpose is the same: to locate
you in the place of holiness, the place of God’s Word being read and taught,
because God is present in those words.
The people of Israel had returned to
Jerusalem after decades in Exile in Babylon. A generation has grown up away
from the Promised Land, away from the Temple of God, away from the worship life
that had been central to God’s people for centuries. The sacrificial altar had
not been lit in 50 years to make atonement, and the sacred scrolls of scripture
had lain unused, gathering dust in the libraries of the Babylonians and
Persians. The people’s memories of God, His Word, and both His commands and
promises had, at best, been blurred; at worst, lost. So, one of the first
things that needed to be done after the Temple was rebuilt, the people had to
be reintroduced to the holy space that was God’s Word.
As Ezra begins to read, slowly and
deliberately enunciating each divinely inspired word, his reading an act of
love for what is inscribed on the scroll and for Whose words it is. I suspect
he may have known the words by heart, but he reads them so to not miss a thing;
he reads so the people can be sure and certain as to whose word it is; he reads
so the full power and weight of the words fall into the ears of the people. Our
translation says he read “the Law,” but don’t think of this as merely the Law
as we think of it, Law and Gospel. He reads the Torah, the Navim, the Katavim –
the Law, the Writings, the Prophets – the whole Word of God, the whole counsel
of God. He read the text in the Hebrew language with which it was written, but
the people, having been so long gone from their motherland and their mother
tongue, needed it in their more familiar Aramaic, so Ezra translates for them. Then,
his eyes raised from the pages, he preaches, proclaims, teaches, explains the
words – what they meant to God’s people, their forefathers, and what it means
for them as they stand among the rubble of their homeland and the city of
David. With the full-throated voice of a prophet, “Thus saith the Lord,” is
heard again.
This was new to the people – both the words
and the act of reading. They may not have understood all of it, but they
understood the significance of it, standing when the scrolls were opened,
bowing, humble before the Lord and His Word. As the words sound, moved by both
God’s Spirit and God’s Words, they weep. With tears of sorrow, as they hear how
God’s Law was broken by them, by their fathers and forefathers, and how He was
angered by their sins and they lament the sins that led them into captivity
they only recently left. But, there are also tears of joy, hearing God’s
faithfulness to His people, remaining, even as they broke the covenant He
established with them. The same God, who allowed His people to be driven into
captivity, had again rescued them, returning a remnant to the land of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob. The promise, “I will be your God and you will be my people,”
was given new life as the Word was read, translated, and preached to new
people, with new ears, with new life.
In that holy space of the Word of God, the
people rejoiced in what they heard and in the words they received – words that
gave life, mercy and grace to a people who needed to be restored.
As Lutherans, we speak often of the Means of
Grace, the ways God delivers His grace, love, mercy, and compassion to us as
His people. We usually focus on the Sacraments: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper,
both having physical elements connected to the Word. But, I suspect that we
sometimes forget the holy space of God’s Word also as a Means of Grace. As we
sit in the presence of God’s Word, both Law and Gospel, as it the Word is read
to us, as the Word is proclaimed and preached to us, as we read and study it in
our homes, that place – this place – becomes holy space as the very words of
our Lord are delivered to us, sometimes cutting deeply to expose our sins of
omission and commission; other times, binding up those wounds with the balm of
grace. God comes to us – in the words on the page, in the vocables from the
pastor, in the teaching of Sunday school teachers – and in that moment, we are
in a holy space.
I will tell you that it is a powerful thing
and a humble thing to stand at the lectern and read the Word, and to be inside
the pulpit and proclaim the Word, giving the sense of it for God’s people when
it was given and interpreting it for our modern milieu, for you in your life as
a child of God. That’s what Ezra was doing and I suspect he was deeply moved,
both in the moment but also by the words themselves. Digging into the
Scriptures, studying, praying, considering what God says and then delivering
that word to you is a daunting thing. Any pastor, any preacher, who doesn’t
have at least a little bit of fear and trembling when preaching, doesn’t
realize the power of what he is called to do, to speak God’s Word on His
behalf, to speak to God’s people, and with those words, to call them to the
holy space before God. It’s been said,
if there isn’t at least a measure of fear, he should consider another vocation.
Yes, it is a blessing, and yes, it is a gift to be called into ministry, but it
is a holy calling for holy work with the Holy Word for holy people.
You’ve heard the old saying, that familiarity
brings contempt. I suspect that is true, to a greater or lesser degree, at
times when it comes to our attitude towards hearing preaching in the Divine
Service. It happens to me, too – another week, another sermon – and it is a
temptation to give it a hit and a lick and call it good enough. Perhaps
contempt is too strong of a word; loss of curiosity, interest, or desire to
hear might be more accurate. Regardless, satan does what he can to keep our
ears separated from the Word. Part of it is our sinful nature –our Old Adam and
Old Eve has other things to do, seemingly more important, whether it is taking
a nap or watching TikToks. Part if it is our culture. Other than in a
classroom, where else do we just sit and listen to someone speak for 15
minutes, give or take? Sure, President Trump’s inauguration speech lasted
almost 30 minutes Monday, but honestly, how many sat and listened to the whole
thing, actively, intentionally engaging with his words for more than a
soundbyte? Probably not many. It’s not that we despise God’s Word or the
preaching of it, but, well, it’s preaching. When was the last time you asked
someone to preach to you? In fact you probably say the exact opposite – don’t
preach to me!
Yet, this human act is what God uses to come
to His people. Through a human mouthpiece, through human language, God creates
a holy place and comes to us.
This should not be a surprise. Last week’s
Gospel reading was from John. I love the way John begins His Gospel, making
this connection for us: In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God
and the Word was God. The Word, in these verses, is Jesus. John locates us in the
holiest of all places: the Word of God is Jesus; in Jesus, the Word of God
dwelled among us in flesh. He who was present in the beginning, whose
declaration, “Let there be,” brought every thing into existence, spoke with a
voice, calling sinners to repentance and faith. Some received the preaching
with faith, believing in Him as Savior of the world, the fulfillment of all
what Scripture promised. Others could not get past Jesus as the son of Mary and
Joseph, and sought to destroy Him as a heretic. And, when He hung on the cross,
that voice pled for the forgiveness of those who crucified Him, promised life
to the dying criminal, cried out to His Father in agony, yet in faith, and
declared the battle against sin, death and satan to be finished. When He rose
from the dead three days later, His voice spoke to the disciples, telling them
to continue that same message.
Luke puts us in the holy place of Capernaum
synagogue as Jesus opens the scroll and reads, declaring the Words of the prophets
to be fulfilled in the hearing. The Word became flesh and was among them. What
began at Capernaum in the synagogue continues today as the church proclaims
that in the reading and preaching of the Word, the Scriptures are fulfilled in
your hearing, and in these words, forgiveness, life and salvation are yours by
God’s grace through faith.
I had a friend who told me once that he hated
to miss church. I kind of puffed up a bit and, expecting a complement about my
preaching, I fished a little bit and said something like, “And why is that?”
His answer let a little air out of my sails, but it also reminded me of what
this sacred vocation is about. With a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his
face, he simply said, “Because Jesus is there.”
That’s the holy space.
[1] Wangerin,
Walter. 1996. The Book of God: The Bible as a Novel. Grand Rapids,
MI: Zondervan Publishing House, Introduction.
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