Nehemiah 8

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

¹all the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate. They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had given to Israel. ² Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh month. ³ He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. ⁵ And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. ⁶ Then Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. ⁸ So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. ⁹ And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, "This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep." For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. ¹⁰ Then he said to them, "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 your strength. 

Year C

Third Sunday after the Epiphany

January 24, 2016

Cross~Wind

Title: People of the Book

The Movie: The Book of Eli, in which a man crosses post-apocalyptic America to save a special book. The Scene: When Eli reads Psalm 23 from his Bible. 

Introduction

            Did you ever make a time capsule when you were in grade school? Did you grow up in a small town where some previous generation nostalgically buried a time capsule in the city square? I vaguely remember doing so at an elementary school event, and I do not remember what we put in it. I am sure the attempt here is to communicate something of the life and culture now to a future generation. Yet, I am not sure what our scribblings in elementary school would communicate to them. Something inside us today does not want future generations to forget us.

However, there are many formal time capsule projects intending to communicate real messages to future excavators. They became somewhat of a trend in the 50s and 60s, which means that many of the 50-year time capsules from those days have been coming due.

The Helium Centennial Time Columns Monument was created in Amarillo in 1968. Like all things in Texas, it is big. It consists of four time capsules locked in giant, stainless steel spires that were to be opened after 25, 50, 100, and 1,000 years. The one set for 25 years is already open. The one set for 50 years will open in 2018. You might be saying, what is the big deal about that? Interestingly, the 1,000 year column contains a passbook for a $10 savings account -- and with 4% interest compounded annually until 2968, it will be worth more than $1,000,000,000,000,000 ($1 quadrillion) when opened! To relate to us Starbucks fans, I might be able to buy my double tall soy cappuccino at that price.

A few times in the Bible, it seems like the Bible itself became part of a time capsule, forgotten by people. I think of II Kings 22, where during the reign of King Josiah, someone finds the book of the Law during a time of the restoration of the Temple. The discovery led to be a brief period of reform.

            Within the church, we still have our Bibles. We can read them privately, we can read them in small groups, and we can preach from them.

The rest of American culture may forget its roots in the Bible and in Christianity. In fact, the process is beginning, I think. The secularizing of the culture will steadily push away the church and the Bible. The days when most people know their Bibles are gone.

Here is the problem. The culture will do what it will, and if it wishes to seek values independently of the Bible, it will do so. After all, God has granted us freedom and independence. The culture can seek complete independence of the Bible. That is its right.

In contrast, the church lives by a different code – or at least it should. The church looks upon the Bible as the primary witness to the revelation of God.

Here is my point. If Christianity forgets its Bible, Christianity will die. 

Application

This passage captures the moment the Jewish people truly form as a people.

The passage connects them with their past life and worship in the land. They re-connected with the land God had promised them. They were standing in a re-built temple. Most importantly, however, was that they heard the voice of God in their Torah, the Law or instruction they received from God. They wept, repented, rejoiced, and returned to the Lord. They made a new beginning.

They were the people of God, and the moment they knew that came in the reading of the Scriptures. They understood again that they were indeed the "People of the Book" -- to borrow the name that the Qur'an applies to faithful Jews and Christians. The Torah was a national symbol of Jewish identity in the same way 13 stripes and 50 stars are to Americans. Foreigners still dominated the land politically. They would be scattered from the land again. Yet, the Torah would provide them with their identity.

I have been suggesting that the image of exile, the image of the church seeking to be the church in a foreign territory, might be something about which we need to think and pray. So what can modern Christians learn from this Jewish identification with the Scriptures? How can we be "People of the Book?" Should we be “people of the book?”

First, "Keep these words ..."

The Shema of Deuteronomy 6 exhorted Israel to make Scripture part of the fabric of their whole day. They were to keep the commands in their hearts, talk about them with their children, and speak of them at home and on the road.

The Jews had an oral culture. Few people could read and write. Therefore, beyond temple Torah reading, this was how they "kept these words." This was their devotional life and daily interaction with the law.

For many Christians, our only interaction with Scripture happens through preaching or maybe a church small group. Perhaps we add the occasional devotional reading. Nevertheless, there are ways that we can more frequently weave Scripture into our daily rhythms. People have sought to adapt the liturgy of the hours to modern life. Perhaps you read a psalm or a biblical story to your children at night. We might add some Bible reading to our lunch.

Mark Twain once related a conversation he had with an executive, who said to him, "Before I die, I mean to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land where I will climb Mount Sinai and read the Ten Commandments aloud at the top." "I have a better idea," replied Twain. "You could stay home and keep them."

With a bit of creativity and intentionality, we can weave moments to "keep these words" into everyday life.

Second, "Fix them as an emblem on your forehead."

The Shema continues by encouraging believers metaphorically to bind the Law on their hands and foreheads as a way to have their lives marked by it. Taken literally, this was the inspiration for the phylacteries of the Pharisees and modern Orthodox Jews. Well, that was one way to keep these words with them. The Gideon ministry long encouraged keeping a pocket New Testament. Today, many of us have discovered that even when it comes to the Bible, there is an app for that. I think of YouVersion or Bible Gateway as excellent for this. Today, we have many opportunities to saturate ourselves with the Word.

Third, "How sweet are your words to my taste."

Psalm 119: "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (v. 103).

While that is a metaphor, it points toward a real-world desire for the Scriptures to become an intense hunger for wisdom. The Hebrew psalmist lavished over the beauty of the Scripture, and the crowd wept because of it in our text.

So is anyone wondering if we are reading the same book? What would it take for the Bible to affect us like that?

[Jesus Creed by Scott McKnight]

In Eat This Book, Eugene Peterson suggests that we must return our Scripture reading to the Jewish mentality -- making it a moment of hearing God's voice with our ears, and not merely reading text with our eyes. He encourages us to internalize Scripture, not just see it.  

"Christians feed on Scripture. Holy Scripture nurtures the holy community as food nurtures the human body. Christians don't simply learn or study or use Scripture; we assimilate it, take it into our lives in such a way that it gets metabolized into acts of love, cups of cold water, missions into all the world, healing and evangelism and justice in Jesus' name, hands raised in adoration of the Father, feet washed in company with the Son." – Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book

To state the obvious, this approach to the Bible will lead to prayerful meditation and contemplation in our reading. We can allow these words to shape our identity. Through study and reflection, we can become more "doers of the word, and not merely hearers" (James 1:22).

Harry Emerson Fosdick, famed preacher of the first half of the twentieth century once said,  

"No steam or gas drives anything until it is confined. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined." – Harry Emerson Fosdick 

Who would have imagined a people cheering because someone had just given them the law? They cheered Ezra, though. Years of ethical Do It Yourself living had taught them the value of the sort of creative confinement of which Fosdick speaks. 

Conclusion

You have probably already made and abandoned a few of the resolutions for the New Year. So can new Scripture reading practices like these be one of the resolutions that sticks?

The Jews of Nehemiah may not have been the most ardent followers of Torah -- disregard for the law was the reason God brought their ancestors into exile in the first place. Nevertheless, we do see a stunning image of Scripture marking them. They sought their very identity within Torah that day in Jerusalem.

The image of that time-capsule moment can challenge us. Of all people in America, we must not forget. Being “people of the book,” when you are a Christian, is a good thing to be. How will it become so in your life?

I hope we will not need a time capsule to remind us.

Going deeper

Nehemiah 8 has the theme of the rebirth of Judaism through Ezra reading the Law and the observance of the feast of shelters. It follows Ezra 8:36, Ezra having arrived from Babylon to promulgate the Law. The Chronicler uses the report of Ezra at this point. It occurs in 428/7. The temple had been re-built some 90 years before. The walls for the city had just been re-built.  

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

¹all the people gathered together [as one person] into the square before the Water Gate. [This was southeast of the temple, and not on sacred ground. Perhaps this refers to the current "Dung Gate," which is closest to both the Western Wall of the Temple and the road to the Pool of Siloam.] They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had given to Israel. ² Accordingly, the priest Ezra [note the Chronicler does not seem to know what to call him, scribe or priest] brought the law before the assembly, both men and women [not typical to mention the presence of women] and all who could hear with understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh month. ³ He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday [sunrise to noon], in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. ⁵ And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up [out of respect to the Law]. ⁶ Then Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands . Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. [This was not a worship service, for the people were at the gate instead of the Temple. Anyone could be present, instead of just males.  Everything described in the text lends significance to this occasion.] ⁸ So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. [In Psalm 78, the writer invites the people to listen to his teaching, and he will expound a theme and hold forth on the lessons of the past. The second longest Psalm, it draws lessons from the history of Israel. The Levites explained the Law to the people. This was why Ezra came to Judah. Apparently, Ezra read in Hebrew and the Levites interpreted in Aramaic. Rabbis saw this as the beginning of the Targums.] ⁹ And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, "This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep." For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. [They likely did so as a sign of repentance. They were not supposed to do that on a festival day. The Levites calmed the people down, telling them to be quiet. They are to dry their eyes and prepare to feast.]  ¹⁰ Then he said to them, "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; [In this way, they can conduct even their first official celebration of their new covenant with the LORD can in light of the law that commands charity for the poor. The Chronicler applies the rule in Deuteronomy in an obvious way 

Deuteronomy 16:13-15

13 You shall keep the festival of booths for seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your wine press.  14 Rejoice during your festival, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, as well as the Levites, the strangers, the orphans, and the widows resident in your towns.  15 Seven days you shall keep the festival to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose; for the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all your undertakings, and you shall surely celebrate. 

The connection with Joshua shows a relation to the Law and wilderness period rather than agricultural festivals.] and do not be grieved, [They are not to mourn or weep. The people were in tears as they listened to the Law.] for the joy of the LORD is your strength. [Ezra and Nehemiah, at this point, have to reassure them that what they have on that day is a new beginning. They do not have to weep for their past failures. They can begin right then to observe the law they now understand. They enjoyed themselves to the full, since they had understood the meaning of what Ezra and the Levites proclaimed to them. On the second day, they gathered around Ezra to study the words of the Law. They found they were to live in shelters during the feast of the seventh month. They issued a proclamation and had it circulated in all their towns and that people were to live in shelters. The assembly, and all who returned from captivity, put up shelters and lived in them. The Israelites had not done this from the days of Joshua until that day. The people had great merrymaking. Each day, Ezra read from the Law. They celebrated the feast for seven days. On the eighth day, they held a solemn assembly.]