+Points to ponder

1. What impact might gathering together around and hearing the Word as a congregation, impact you as an individual?
2. Why is it important to properly distinguish (in God’s Word) Law and Gospel?
3. What is your favorite passage of Scripture? Why? Are there related passages which enriches your joy around this passage?

+Sermon Transcript

**Grace, mercy, and peace be unto each of you from God our Father and our Lord and King, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Let us pray:** Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of His salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of His marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Typically, our year begins with many promises we make to ourselves about what it is we are going to get right this year. Already by right about now, we may be starting to see how those promises we made are turning out! But as we go through the process of creating our promises and resolutions, in order for us to look forward with what we want to be different, we have to stop and think about where we’ve been. How have things been in the past? What needs to be different?

In our text today, Israel is returning, rebuilding, and reorganizing, and they have to remember how things were and that they cannot be the same. In order for things to be different, they start with what will make that change. They start with the Word of God.

This is so much more than God’s people just making a New Year’s resolution. The Jews have gone through their exile, and they have gone through the trauma of their decisions and the consequences of their past. They are ready, as they gather for their feast, to hear the very gift of God that is the Law of Moses. Perhaps they remember the words of our Psalm for the day: “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.”

As they begin their resettlement and rebuilding, we see the power of the Word of God. Likewise, today,

AS WE GATHER, HEAR, AND RESPOND, WE SEE THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD IN JESUS CHRIST.

The Word of God powerfully gathers His people; and, as the people gather together from their places, they ask of the priest, Ezra, that the Law of Moses be read out loud to them.

They gather together not just as individuals as we commonly think of ourselves in worship but, as it says in our text, also as one person. As the Word is about to be read, the people in response stand together and prepare to hear.

Is there any way we can blame them for gathering and standing? For to them the Law is a gift of God, and it is their center and their starting place. Many remember the times and place of their exile when they could not hear the Word.

Here, I think we find a remarkable comparison for us today with our Christian worship! By the very sacrifice of Christ on the cross, we are gathered together into one body as the baptized children of God. And more, as we are called to gather together, we gather to hear the Word of God and raise our voices as one in our confession. Upon hearing the very Word of God, we rise to our feet, not just out of respect but also knowing that the Word itself contains life, forgiveness, and salvation. It gives us Christ!

We also consider that the Word of God powerfully opens ears and hearts. The people of God are read to, proclaimed to, and instructed. They receive the words that are being spoken, and they understand.

The people have been gathered, but now they hear the words as they are delivered. The leaders and teachers are faithful to their calling to proclaim and teach the Word of God in a way that can be understood. And what the people hear, their hearts and minds receive and believe.

Again, the whole experience of Nehemiah, chapter 8 relates back to our appointed Psalm: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

Here the hymn “God’s Word Is Our Great Heritage,” comes to mind:

God’s Word is our great heritage And shall be ours forever; To spread its light from age to age Shall be our chief endeavor. Through life it guides our way, In death it is our stay. Lord, grant, while worlds endure, We keep its teachings pure Throughout all generations.

The Word of God powerfully moves hearers to respond in repentance and joy. And as we look at our reading, Ezra and Nehemiah have a bit of a situation on their hands. As the people hear the Word, they respond in tears and are visibly, physically moved. The Law as it is spoken brings a conviction of sin to their hearts. We know that God’s Word is sharper than any two-edged sword , and it seems to have pierced to their inner core.

Ezra, Nehemiah, and all who are teaching call for the weeping to cease, for this is a day to the Lord. They send the people off to go and celebrate, and they even provide for those who aren’t prepared, because this is a day for joy. As Nehemiah puts it: “for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

The people are given their direction and blessing to go in the strength and joy of the Lord. They are to turn their hearts to God and find their joy in Him. They should be filled with celebration, as David who danced before the ark.

“C. S. Lewis says that when he first became a Christian, he found one of the biggest stumbling blocks to his faith in the repeated statements of Scripture that we should praise God. ‘We all despise the man who demands continued assurance of his own virtue, intelligence or delightfulness,’ Lewis wrote, ‘and these words of Scripture sounded hideously like God was saying, ‘What I want most is to be told that I am good and great.’ It also seemed as though the psalm writers were bargaining with God, saying, ‘You like praise. Do this or that for me, and You shall have some.’ Well, the answer, as C. S. Lewis figured out, is that only in the act of worship and praise can a person learn to believe in the goodness and greatness of God. God wants us to praise Him, not because He in any sense, needs or craves our flattery, but because He knows that praise creates thankfulness and joy, and joy must automatically overflow into praise.”

And for us, too, like the people whom Nehemiah addressed, like David dancing before the ark, there should be repentance and joy. We should hear in the reading of God’s Word, His Law, that we have much of which to repent – our carking cowardice; our impatience and impertinence; our fear and fecklessness; our hubris and half-heartedness; our defiance and dishonor – our catalog of sin in thought, word, and deed is replete.

But we, gathered together in one, may also turn our hearts to the Lord in joy, because we have also heard that other Word from the Lord, His Gospel. The Savior to which Ezra, Nehemiah, and their people looked forward has come, has died for these sins of ours, and has risen!

We then are receiving the benefits of this Word. We know the joy of the Lord is our strength. There was a time when the Word for us meant weeping and tears, but now we live in the time of Jesus, the Living Word. And the Word for you this day is, “Your sins are forgiven. Here is my body. Here is my blood. Here is my blessing.”

Our mistake would be to consider Nehemiah chapter eight just for this Sunday. It is our every Sunday. It is our gathering together, live and in-person, it is together our hearing the ever-moving and ever-sustaining Word of God, and having our hearts turned to the eternal joy He has for us. Nehemiah chapter eight is not just the start of our year or for the time of our resolutions; it is also the weekly, even daily, return to God’s Word with our brothers and sisters in Christ to find the revitalization of forgiveness and the renewal of life. Amen.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

Background and Study notes from Concordia Pulpit Resources Vol 32 Pt 1 YrC. (Electronic version) Rev. Bradley M. Malone, pastor, Lamb of God Evangelical Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington.