Our Sunday Message

We Are People of the Book: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-12
Rev. Dr. Kenneth A. Corr
January 21, 2007
Third Sunday after the Epiphany

   The preacher said, “We are people of the book!”
  So I took the book and read it.
  Strange indeed is this book.
  Its labyrinthine winding through history, poetry, and parable, defies my understanding.
  What is Selah? Who is Melchizedek? Must I read the Begats?
  How can I find my way through contradiction and confusion?
  The preacher said, “We are people of the book!”
  So I took the book and read it.
  Strange indeed is this book.
  Am I condemned if I don’t understand?
  Is it a still worse sin if I don’t agree?
  “Oh ye of little faith,” Jesus said. “How long will I put up with you?”
  Surely he was describing my efforts to read this book. It confronts and confounds me!
  But the preacher said, “We are people of the book!”
  So I took the book and read it.
  Strange indeed is this book.
  In spite of my dullness and resistance,
  It penetrated the deep recesses of my soul and changed me.
  Now, I belong to the book and it belongs to me.
  The writer of Hebrews said it this way, “Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”1 Frederick Buechner, the Presbyterian author and preacher said it this way, “The Bible . . . is the Word of God which speaks out of the depths of an almost unimaginable past into the depths of ourselves.”2
  There is no question that the Bible has been misused by unscrupulous evangelists and ministers to manipulate people. There is no question that the Bible is often used to support all sorts of prejudices and wild notions. There is no question that there are parts of the Bible that are confounding and resistant to understanding. There is no question that the Bible is a challenge for contemporary readers. But in spite of all of that, we believe that it is God’s Word for us today. Strange indeed is this book.
  In his book, Opening the Bible, Thomas Merton, the Cistercian monk, warns that some readers might find it easier to involve themselves in television commercials than the Bible.3 But he adds, “The ‘word of God’ . . . does something to anyone who really ‘hears’ it: it transforms his entire existence.”4 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor, once wrote, “The heart of God opens itself to us in the word of God.”5 And again, “The words which come from God will be the steps upon which we find our way to God.”6 That is what we believe. And so, we gather in worship to read, interpret, hear, and respond to God’s Word for us today. We are people of the book.
  Some years ago, a couple in our church in Texas had visited another church out of state on Christmas day. They reported that the reading for the day was not Scripture, but a selection from Charles Dickens, The Christmas Carol. They said that it was beautifully done, but it didn’t feel like church. I have no idea of how the reading was intended for the worship liturgy and I don’t want to be critical. But what I want you to hear is the observation, “It didn’t feel like church.” For us, worship is a decisive and intentional act of listening to God’s Word in order to bring our wills into line with God’s will.
  In ways that I can’t explain or understand, God’s Word penetrates my being and transforms my ideas, my attitudes, and my very identity. In spite of its difficulty and frustration, in spite of all the ways that it is often misused, we are people of the book.
  How did we get here? Walter Brueggemann, the Old Testament scholar, says, “. . . Nehemiah 8 . . . is one of those crucial moments in the history of God’s dealing with Israel and with all of humankind, a moment when the Spirit speaks through the words on the page . . . and, in so doing, touches and changes human hearts.”7 Look again at this story.
  It was a time of new beginning for ancient Israel. They had returned from Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem and to rebuild their lives. What kind of community would they have? How would they organize their community life?
  On the first day of the 7th month, they gathered in the city square for a convocation. They asked for the book of the law to be read out loud. Ezra, the scribe, brought the Word of God, read the Word of God, and interpreted the Word of God. As Ezra read, the people stood, bowed their heads, and worshiped the Lord.
  And then they did something that Ezra did not expect. They wept. Were they weeping for joy? Perhaps. Were they weeping in remorse for sin? Perhaps. Were they weeping in grief for all those who did not live to see this day? Perhaps. Were they weeping for their own mortality in the numinous presence of God? Perhaps. And maybe it was all of the above. It was one of those rare moments of collective emotion.
  We have been there. You came on a typical Sunday morning, or maybe it was a Sunday night, or maybe it was a midweek service, or maybe it was in the midst of a weeklong revival service. There was nothing particularly different about this day. The order of the service was familiar. The hymns were familiar. But then something happened that was different. There was a moment of collective emotion in which you were caught up with others. Something touched you at a feeling level that you can’t explain. But it was real.
  Ezra was surprised. “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 our strength.”
  In spite of what we have been led to believe, obedience to God’s Word is not intended to be a burden, a legalistic list of do’s and don’ts. Instead, conforming our lives to God’s will is intended to lead to joy.
  As a result of this experience, the people were forever changed. From now on, they would be a community organized around God’s will as revealed and recorded in God’s Word. In other words, forever after, they were people of the book. And so are we.
Let me suggest some things that you can do in response to this sermon.
   1. Commit yourself to the act of public worship.
  We need some time in the regular rhythm of our lives to gather with the people of God to read, interpret, hear, and respond to God’s word. But it requires discipline. Make a conscious decision that this year, you are going to be in worship.
   2. Commit yourself to daily reading of God’s Word.
  There is no substitute for personal devotion. If you will commit yourself to spending five minutes every day in God’s Word, you will grow.
   3. Finally, pray for a willingness to change your mind.
  When Jesus came to Nazareth, he preached a sermon that no one wanted to hear. Sometimes, God’s Word challenges the ideas that we have become attached to and that is hard. So pray for an openness to change.
  Do these things this year for yourself and see how much you change.
  The preacher said, “We are people of the book!”
  So I took the book and read it.
  Strange indeed is this book.
  But as I read the book, it did its work in me.
  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Amen.

1 Hebrews 4:12.
2 Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC, p. 12.
3 Thomas Merton, Opening the Bible, p. 8.
4 Merton, p. 18.
5 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditating on the Word, p. 9.
6 Bonhoeffer, p. 11.
7 Walter Brueggemann, Texts for Preaching: Year C, p. 113.