Group pictures
Commentary
Object:
We've been part of a lot of group pictures over the years: family Christmas cards and team photographs, wedding parties and class reunions, mission trip work crews and church staff portraits. Chances are that you and I have appeared in all of these kinds of group pictures and more.
In the age of digital photographs, when everyone and his brother carries a device in his pocket that can take a picture, and when there is no delay or cost involved in seeing that picture, we are very accustomed to seeing ourselves. For most of human history, however, this was unheard of. People seldom, if ever, saw themselves clearly, for photographs did not exist, mirrors were rare and of poor quality, and only the very wealthy could afford to have some skilled artist render a portrait of them.
One of my daughters made a practice of taking a picture of herself on her cell phone on the way to school each day. It was not a picture to keep for posterity or to share with anyone else. Rather, it was effectively one last look in the mirror for her -- a final chance to check the hair, the teeth, and the make up.
What we take so very much for granted, however, did not exist at all in Bible times. There was no simple way to see oneself as an individual. And the sons of Jacob, the Hebrews spies, the army of Gideon, and the disciples of Jesus never got to see a group picture of themselves either.
For as commonplace as all of these pictures have come to be for us, however, still I believe we are in for a very special treat this week. In our three assigned lections, you see, we are afforded three more group pictures. But these are not the sort that we are able to take of ourselves. No, these portraits come from the unique perspective of scripture.
This Sunday, we may invite our congregations to page through this select album together. In the passages from Nehemiah, 1 Corinthians, and Luke, I believe we may see ourselves portrayed. For these are, in my judgment, group pictures of the church.
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
When I was a college student, I had to appear in traffic court one day to answer for a speeding ticket I had received. As I sat in the courtroom waiting for my turn, I got to watch the disposition of a number of other people's cases. And as I watched and listened, I was struck by the number of people who claimed that their speedometers needed to be recalibrated.
In point of fact, I have no idea how common it is for a car's speedometer to become inaccurate. It certainly was a common claim that day, however. A startling number of people insisted that it was in essence their car's fault rather than their own that they were speeding. Their dials were wrong. They didn't know they were breaking the law.
Whether faulty speedometers are common or not, I do believe it is a very common thing for people not to know that they are breaking the law. Not traffic laws, necessarily, or other civil law, but rather God's law. I'm afraid it is standard operating procedure for human beings to go zipping down the road with little or no idea that their lives are not calibrated to his law, his truth.
That's why Josiah tore his robe upon discovering and hearing the book of the law (2 Kings 22:11). That's why Amos' people needed a plumb line set in their midst (Amos 7:7-8). That's why Stephen's audience was cut to the quick (Acts 7:54). And that's why the people of Ezra's day "wept when they heard the words of the law."
The dates of Ezra's ministry are not entirely clear, though he is widely associated with the end of the Hebrew canon. The return of Jewish exiles from Babylonian captivity was not the sort of mass, unanimous event that the exodus from Egypt had been centuries before. Instead, different groups of Jews returned at different times over many years during the post-exilic period. Ezra led one of those returning groups, and when he arrived in the land he seems to have become immediately a spiritual force and leader in the land.
Ezra was notable for his knowledge of the scriptures, and in this episode he is seen as the catalyst for a kind of national Bible study. The people are convened and Ezra reads to them all the words of the law. Levites are evidently scattered throughout the large crowd offering interpretation and understanding as it is read. The scene is reminiscent of many contemporary conferences that you and I might attend, featuring both plenary and breakout sessions. Ezra was leading the plenary, while the Levites were simultaneously providing instruction in smaller groups throughout the crowd.
"All the people wept when they heard the words of the law." That is how the response to this national Bible study was characterized. The response was universal and it was full of grief. Ezra, you see, had introduced a plumb line into their midst, and it was then that they realized how crooked they were. He had reasserted God's meter into the national consciousness, and the people suddenly recognized that their lives needed to be recalibrated.
In the end, the event is marked by all sorts of loveliness. There is reverence, earnestness, conviction, joy, unanimity, and celebration. It is a banner day, to be sure, and Ezra was evidently the one primarily responsible for making it happen. And both he and that day remain an example to us all.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Many times in my ministry, in staff meetings and committee meetings, I have heard discussions about whether or not the church should be run like a business. There are certainly some business-like aspects, and those give rise to business-like approaches and business-like thinking. As the pattern develops, the paths of opinion diverge. And thus the question in those meetings: to what extent should the church be run like a business?
That whole debate, of course, never appeared on Paul's radar. It's not that Paul was unfamiliar with business. On the contrary, the evidence suggests that he himself was something of a small businessman. But he had discerned a far better model for understanding and directing the life of the church.
The church is not a business. The church is a body. No analogy is perfect, of course, but the more deeply we explore this metaphor, the more rich and meaningful we find it to be.
First, we see in this image a natural affirmation of both unity and diversity. Our human tendency, of course, is to find unity in similarity. We all look the same, think the same, talk the same, vote the same, and therefore we experience unity. But Paul's image of a body suggests a higher, more beautiful, and more complex kind of unity: namely, we are all different, and yet still we are joined, still we are one.
Second, Paul's analogy so effectively paints a portrait of mutual need and interdependence, which in turn gives rise to mutual appreciation. No one member is self-sufficient and self-contained. No single part of the body can march off by itself and survive. Rather, when we see clearly we recognize how indebted we are to one another -- and to God for giving us one another! I must learn that I cannot get along very well without you, and vice versa.
Third, the truth of Paul's paradigm leaves no room for an individual to put himself down or to think that she is unnecessary. Just as surely as it is untrue that one part of the body could function without the others, it is also untrue that the body could function well without all of its parts. And so the body cannot afford to have you go sulking off, feeling despondent and unimportant. Nor can the body afford for me to feel inferior because I have the function I do rather than the function you do. If the church is a body, then every part of it ought to operate with a strong sense of personal importance: the body needs me!
Finally, Paul's picture of the church as a body evokes a spirit of mutual concern. If you and I are joined, and if we are necessary to one another, then we cannot be indifferent to one another. I cannot simply shrug off the broken toe or the aching back. That is my toe! It is my back! And "if one member suffers, all suffer together with it."
In the end, therefore, the church of Jesus Christ ought to be characterized by these lovely things. First, in keeping with what we see in the rest of God's creation, the church ought to bear witness to the creative genius that enjoys and employs great variety. Second, the members of the church ought to live out a kind of continual embrace of one another -- an embrace born from a profound sense of interdependence and mutual appreciation. Third, each individual member of the church ought to function with a high sense of purpose and value. And fourth, the members together ought to be marked by a deep concern for one another's welfare and best interest.
If all of those characteristics are in place, the church would be a beautiful thing indeed -- as beautiful and complete as the Body of Christ deserves to be and infinitely better than any ordinary business.
Luke 4:14-21
This scene represents the beginning of Jesus' public ministry in Luke's gospel. The first two chapters were devoted to the Christmas story and the Jerusalem episode from his childhood. Chapter 3 belonged to John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. And the first section of chapter 4 recorded Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. And now the countdown is complete and the launch is ready to take place.
The passage reminds me of the overture that precedes a musical. In those introductory pieces, you recall, all of the motifs from the rest of the show are introduced. So it is, too, here in Luke's introduction to Jesus' ministry. There is the prominent role of the Holy Spirit, the public fame and acclaim, the fulfillment of scripture, and the characteristic elements of Jesus' work. These mere eight verses anticipate virtually everything that follows. Indeed, the only missing element is his suffering and death, which are perhaps also anticipated in the Nazareth event, though not included in the scope of this lection.
Even a modest student of Luke recognizes the importance of the theme of the Holy Spirit. So it does not surprise us that Jesus begins his ministry "filled with the power of the Spirit." And likewise, the prophecy that he claims for his ministry begins with the affirmation that "the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me..."
It is interesting to note, meanwhile, that Jesus' public ministry is so specifically associated in Luke with teaching in the synagogues, for that is very much the pattern that Luke reports with the missionary spread of the early church in Acts. And while we may be more accustomed to thinking of Matthew emphasizing the fulfillment of Old Testament scriptures, Luke has his own distinctive contribution to that theme. Matthew tends to point to events as fulfillment, but Luke points to Jesus himself. That is the thrust of Jesus' two Easter Sunday teachings (see Luke 24:25-27, 44-47). And that is the essence of this declaration in the Nazareth synagogue as well.
While this episode in Nazareth turns bad in the end, it begins very positively. Jesus "was praised by everyone," and shortly after "all spoke well of him." In a sense, therefore, the scene serves as a microcosm of the larger pattern of the story. We recall, for example, that the Christmas story begins with the positive messages of the angels, but concludes near the sober word from Simeon. The public ministry began with public popularity, but then encountered significant and growing opposition. Holy Week in Jerusalem started with a triumphant welcome, but then turned into a scene of public humiliation.
Finally, we note the important specifics of what Jesus understands himself as having been anointed to do. A later generation came to characterize these things as "social gospel" concerns, though that may reflect an unfortunate and even unnatural bifurcation of the work of the kingdom. Suffice it to say that there is something fundamentally revolutionary about Jesus' ministry. Not revolutionary in the sense of reforming human systems and overthrowing governments, but rather in the sense of turning every person's wrongs to right. The comprehensive scope of the Isaiah prophecy is reminiscent of the prayer that God's will should be done on earth as it is in heaven. It is a reminder of how thoroughly good God's will for his world is. Yet since the world is so fallen and bad, it requires a revolution indeed. And Jesus has been anointed to make that kingdom come.
Application
I have called our three lections for the week "group pictures of the church." They are not conventional photographs, to be sure. But these passages offer us portraits of the church from three distinct angles. And taken together, I think they will help us to see ourselves more clearly.
The first picture is taken in the days of Ezra. "There was no church in the days of Ezra," you say. True. But there was a people of God. The folks in this snapshot, therefore, are our ancestors in the faith. Any close look at a picture of one's ancestors is likely to reveal some family features and resemblances. In this particular family photo, we see the people of God gathered together on a holy day in order to hear the word of God read and explained. The similarities are obvious, and we will explore them in more detail below.
The second picture comes from the apostle Paul. His picture is more of an X-ray or MRI, if you will, for it is a glimpse inside the body. It is a picture of the church, to be sure, but it gets below the surface to see how the church is put together and how it functions.
Perhaps somewhere along the way we have seen through a microscope or telescope the wonders of God's creation that are not immediately visible to the naked eye. So too with this insight from Paul. And like any careful peek inside some part of creation, we will come away from this picture with a renewed sense of awe. The Lord has such a genius for design, you know. In the end this picture helps us to see ourselves and each other more clearly, as well as how we are joined together and how essential we are to one another.
Finally, the third photograph was taken by Luke, and it comes from the earliest days of Jesus' public ministry. It resembles the first picture, for as in the episode from Nehemiah, the people of God are gathered together on a holy day to hear the word of God read and explained. This picture has one crucial additional feature, however: Jesus is in it.
In that earlier snapshot, you recall, Ezra was the central figure. He was, without question, important and commendable, and yet this picture is profoundly improved. Jesus, you see, is at the center of this picture. All eyes are fixed on him and the scriptures that are read point to him. He is explained by them, and they are explained by him. In that portrait of that one moment in the Nazareth synagogue, we see a lovely picture of ourselves when we come together in church.
Alternative Application
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10. "Sunday mornings with Ezra." Early in my ministry, I struggled with preaching. It was not the public speaking aspect that unnerved me, for I was rather comfortable with that in other settings -- settings outside of the pulpit, that is. Likewise, I was not intimidated with ordinary speech writing for other occasions. In fact, I found that I rather enjoyed it. But writing and preaching sermons was different. I experienced that as a terrible burden.
My trepidation was rooted in the material. "The word of God for the people of God," as some liturgies say it. Who, I wondered, is adequate to expound on the word of God for the people of God? Certainly not me. In my ideal, it seemed to me that we should simply read the scripture aloud and then declare together, "Enough said." Who can add to it?
This episode from the book of Nehemiah and the life of Ezra, however, relieves my burden. I still feel the weight of the calling, to be sure, but I see in this ancient event the rightness and necessity of the calling as well, for Ezra offers us here a lovely glimpse into our own Sunday mornings so many centuries later.
The word was read to the people. That was the central event: the reason for gathering in the first place. But notice that it was a gathering. The people came together in order to hear the word read and they listened with attentiveness and reverence, with tender consciences and faithful joy.
Yet the word was more than just read: it was explained. "They read from the book... with interpretation." This is, of course, just what is meant to happen Sunday after Sunday in our churches. The people gather together. The word is read. And specifically, it is read with interpretation.
Also, we note that the interpretation was not manipulation. That is an easy line to cross. We borrow the power of God's word and divert it to serve our own causes. But one senses no such mischief occurring in the crowds around Ezra, for the interpreters "gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading."
This is our high calling as preachers. Just as Ezra is identified as both priest and scribe, so we also serve in such a privileged, dual function. Likewise, this is our great convocation as church families. We come together to hear the word. The word is read. And the word is interpreted. For it is, indeed, the word of God for the people of God.
In the age of digital photographs, when everyone and his brother carries a device in his pocket that can take a picture, and when there is no delay or cost involved in seeing that picture, we are very accustomed to seeing ourselves. For most of human history, however, this was unheard of. People seldom, if ever, saw themselves clearly, for photographs did not exist, mirrors were rare and of poor quality, and only the very wealthy could afford to have some skilled artist render a portrait of them.
One of my daughters made a practice of taking a picture of herself on her cell phone on the way to school each day. It was not a picture to keep for posterity or to share with anyone else. Rather, it was effectively one last look in the mirror for her -- a final chance to check the hair, the teeth, and the make up.
What we take so very much for granted, however, did not exist at all in Bible times. There was no simple way to see oneself as an individual. And the sons of Jacob, the Hebrews spies, the army of Gideon, and the disciples of Jesus never got to see a group picture of themselves either.
For as commonplace as all of these pictures have come to be for us, however, still I believe we are in for a very special treat this week. In our three assigned lections, you see, we are afforded three more group pictures. But these are not the sort that we are able to take of ourselves. No, these portraits come from the unique perspective of scripture.
This Sunday, we may invite our congregations to page through this select album together. In the passages from Nehemiah, 1 Corinthians, and Luke, I believe we may see ourselves portrayed. For these are, in my judgment, group pictures of the church.
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
When I was a college student, I had to appear in traffic court one day to answer for a speeding ticket I had received. As I sat in the courtroom waiting for my turn, I got to watch the disposition of a number of other people's cases. And as I watched and listened, I was struck by the number of people who claimed that their speedometers needed to be recalibrated.
In point of fact, I have no idea how common it is for a car's speedometer to become inaccurate. It certainly was a common claim that day, however. A startling number of people insisted that it was in essence their car's fault rather than their own that they were speeding. Their dials were wrong. They didn't know they were breaking the law.
Whether faulty speedometers are common or not, I do believe it is a very common thing for people not to know that they are breaking the law. Not traffic laws, necessarily, or other civil law, but rather God's law. I'm afraid it is standard operating procedure for human beings to go zipping down the road with little or no idea that their lives are not calibrated to his law, his truth.
That's why Josiah tore his robe upon discovering and hearing the book of the law (2 Kings 22:11). That's why Amos' people needed a plumb line set in their midst (Amos 7:7-8). That's why Stephen's audience was cut to the quick (Acts 7:54). And that's why the people of Ezra's day "wept when they heard the words of the law."
The dates of Ezra's ministry are not entirely clear, though he is widely associated with the end of the Hebrew canon. The return of Jewish exiles from Babylonian captivity was not the sort of mass, unanimous event that the exodus from Egypt had been centuries before. Instead, different groups of Jews returned at different times over many years during the post-exilic period. Ezra led one of those returning groups, and when he arrived in the land he seems to have become immediately a spiritual force and leader in the land.
Ezra was notable for his knowledge of the scriptures, and in this episode he is seen as the catalyst for a kind of national Bible study. The people are convened and Ezra reads to them all the words of the law. Levites are evidently scattered throughout the large crowd offering interpretation and understanding as it is read. The scene is reminiscent of many contemporary conferences that you and I might attend, featuring both plenary and breakout sessions. Ezra was leading the plenary, while the Levites were simultaneously providing instruction in smaller groups throughout the crowd.
"All the people wept when they heard the words of the law." That is how the response to this national Bible study was characterized. The response was universal and it was full of grief. Ezra, you see, had introduced a plumb line into their midst, and it was then that they realized how crooked they were. He had reasserted God's meter into the national consciousness, and the people suddenly recognized that their lives needed to be recalibrated.
In the end, the event is marked by all sorts of loveliness. There is reverence, earnestness, conviction, joy, unanimity, and celebration. It is a banner day, to be sure, and Ezra was evidently the one primarily responsible for making it happen. And both he and that day remain an example to us all.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Many times in my ministry, in staff meetings and committee meetings, I have heard discussions about whether or not the church should be run like a business. There are certainly some business-like aspects, and those give rise to business-like approaches and business-like thinking. As the pattern develops, the paths of opinion diverge. And thus the question in those meetings: to what extent should the church be run like a business?
That whole debate, of course, never appeared on Paul's radar. It's not that Paul was unfamiliar with business. On the contrary, the evidence suggests that he himself was something of a small businessman. But he had discerned a far better model for understanding and directing the life of the church.
The church is not a business. The church is a body. No analogy is perfect, of course, but the more deeply we explore this metaphor, the more rich and meaningful we find it to be.
First, we see in this image a natural affirmation of both unity and diversity. Our human tendency, of course, is to find unity in similarity. We all look the same, think the same, talk the same, vote the same, and therefore we experience unity. But Paul's image of a body suggests a higher, more beautiful, and more complex kind of unity: namely, we are all different, and yet still we are joined, still we are one.
Second, Paul's analogy so effectively paints a portrait of mutual need and interdependence, which in turn gives rise to mutual appreciation. No one member is self-sufficient and self-contained. No single part of the body can march off by itself and survive. Rather, when we see clearly we recognize how indebted we are to one another -- and to God for giving us one another! I must learn that I cannot get along very well without you, and vice versa.
Third, the truth of Paul's paradigm leaves no room for an individual to put himself down or to think that she is unnecessary. Just as surely as it is untrue that one part of the body could function without the others, it is also untrue that the body could function well without all of its parts. And so the body cannot afford to have you go sulking off, feeling despondent and unimportant. Nor can the body afford for me to feel inferior because I have the function I do rather than the function you do. If the church is a body, then every part of it ought to operate with a strong sense of personal importance: the body needs me!
Finally, Paul's picture of the church as a body evokes a spirit of mutual concern. If you and I are joined, and if we are necessary to one another, then we cannot be indifferent to one another. I cannot simply shrug off the broken toe or the aching back. That is my toe! It is my back! And "if one member suffers, all suffer together with it."
In the end, therefore, the church of Jesus Christ ought to be characterized by these lovely things. First, in keeping with what we see in the rest of God's creation, the church ought to bear witness to the creative genius that enjoys and employs great variety. Second, the members of the church ought to live out a kind of continual embrace of one another -- an embrace born from a profound sense of interdependence and mutual appreciation. Third, each individual member of the church ought to function with a high sense of purpose and value. And fourth, the members together ought to be marked by a deep concern for one another's welfare and best interest.
If all of those characteristics are in place, the church would be a beautiful thing indeed -- as beautiful and complete as the Body of Christ deserves to be and infinitely better than any ordinary business.
Luke 4:14-21
This scene represents the beginning of Jesus' public ministry in Luke's gospel. The first two chapters were devoted to the Christmas story and the Jerusalem episode from his childhood. Chapter 3 belonged to John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. And the first section of chapter 4 recorded Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. And now the countdown is complete and the launch is ready to take place.
The passage reminds me of the overture that precedes a musical. In those introductory pieces, you recall, all of the motifs from the rest of the show are introduced. So it is, too, here in Luke's introduction to Jesus' ministry. There is the prominent role of the Holy Spirit, the public fame and acclaim, the fulfillment of scripture, and the characteristic elements of Jesus' work. These mere eight verses anticipate virtually everything that follows. Indeed, the only missing element is his suffering and death, which are perhaps also anticipated in the Nazareth event, though not included in the scope of this lection.
Even a modest student of Luke recognizes the importance of the theme of the Holy Spirit. So it does not surprise us that Jesus begins his ministry "filled with the power of the Spirit." And likewise, the prophecy that he claims for his ministry begins with the affirmation that "the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me..."
It is interesting to note, meanwhile, that Jesus' public ministry is so specifically associated in Luke with teaching in the synagogues, for that is very much the pattern that Luke reports with the missionary spread of the early church in Acts. And while we may be more accustomed to thinking of Matthew emphasizing the fulfillment of Old Testament scriptures, Luke has his own distinctive contribution to that theme. Matthew tends to point to events as fulfillment, but Luke points to Jesus himself. That is the thrust of Jesus' two Easter Sunday teachings (see Luke 24:25-27, 44-47). And that is the essence of this declaration in the Nazareth synagogue as well.
While this episode in Nazareth turns bad in the end, it begins very positively. Jesus "was praised by everyone," and shortly after "all spoke well of him." In a sense, therefore, the scene serves as a microcosm of the larger pattern of the story. We recall, for example, that the Christmas story begins with the positive messages of the angels, but concludes near the sober word from Simeon. The public ministry began with public popularity, but then encountered significant and growing opposition. Holy Week in Jerusalem started with a triumphant welcome, but then turned into a scene of public humiliation.
Finally, we note the important specifics of what Jesus understands himself as having been anointed to do. A later generation came to characterize these things as "social gospel" concerns, though that may reflect an unfortunate and even unnatural bifurcation of the work of the kingdom. Suffice it to say that there is something fundamentally revolutionary about Jesus' ministry. Not revolutionary in the sense of reforming human systems and overthrowing governments, but rather in the sense of turning every person's wrongs to right. The comprehensive scope of the Isaiah prophecy is reminiscent of the prayer that God's will should be done on earth as it is in heaven. It is a reminder of how thoroughly good God's will for his world is. Yet since the world is so fallen and bad, it requires a revolution indeed. And Jesus has been anointed to make that kingdom come.
Application
I have called our three lections for the week "group pictures of the church." They are not conventional photographs, to be sure. But these passages offer us portraits of the church from three distinct angles. And taken together, I think they will help us to see ourselves more clearly.
The first picture is taken in the days of Ezra. "There was no church in the days of Ezra," you say. True. But there was a people of God. The folks in this snapshot, therefore, are our ancestors in the faith. Any close look at a picture of one's ancestors is likely to reveal some family features and resemblances. In this particular family photo, we see the people of God gathered together on a holy day in order to hear the word of God read and explained. The similarities are obvious, and we will explore them in more detail below.
The second picture comes from the apostle Paul. His picture is more of an X-ray or MRI, if you will, for it is a glimpse inside the body. It is a picture of the church, to be sure, but it gets below the surface to see how the church is put together and how it functions.
Perhaps somewhere along the way we have seen through a microscope or telescope the wonders of God's creation that are not immediately visible to the naked eye. So too with this insight from Paul. And like any careful peek inside some part of creation, we will come away from this picture with a renewed sense of awe. The Lord has such a genius for design, you know. In the end this picture helps us to see ourselves and each other more clearly, as well as how we are joined together and how essential we are to one another.
Finally, the third photograph was taken by Luke, and it comes from the earliest days of Jesus' public ministry. It resembles the first picture, for as in the episode from Nehemiah, the people of God are gathered together on a holy day to hear the word of God read and explained. This picture has one crucial additional feature, however: Jesus is in it.
In that earlier snapshot, you recall, Ezra was the central figure. He was, without question, important and commendable, and yet this picture is profoundly improved. Jesus, you see, is at the center of this picture. All eyes are fixed on him and the scriptures that are read point to him. He is explained by them, and they are explained by him. In that portrait of that one moment in the Nazareth synagogue, we see a lovely picture of ourselves when we come together in church.
Alternative Application
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10. "Sunday mornings with Ezra." Early in my ministry, I struggled with preaching. It was not the public speaking aspect that unnerved me, for I was rather comfortable with that in other settings -- settings outside of the pulpit, that is. Likewise, I was not intimidated with ordinary speech writing for other occasions. In fact, I found that I rather enjoyed it. But writing and preaching sermons was different. I experienced that as a terrible burden.
My trepidation was rooted in the material. "The word of God for the people of God," as some liturgies say it. Who, I wondered, is adequate to expound on the word of God for the people of God? Certainly not me. In my ideal, it seemed to me that we should simply read the scripture aloud and then declare together, "Enough said." Who can add to it?
This episode from the book of Nehemiah and the life of Ezra, however, relieves my burden. I still feel the weight of the calling, to be sure, but I see in this ancient event the rightness and necessity of the calling as well, for Ezra offers us here a lovely glimpse into our own Sunday mornings so many centuries later.
The word was read to the people. That was the central event: the reason for gathering in the first place. But notice that it was a gathering. The people came together in order to hear the word read and they listened with attentiveness and reverence, with tender consciences and faithful joy.
Yet the word was more than just read: it was explained. "They read from the book... with interpretation." This is, of course, just what is meant to happen Sunday after Sunday in our churches. The people gather together. The word is read. And specifically, it is read with interpretation.
Also, we note that the interpretation was not manipulation. That is an easy line to cross. We borrow the power of God's word and divert it to serve our own causes. But one senses no such mischief occurring in the crowds around Ezra, for the interpreters "gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading."
This is our high calling as preachers. Just as Ezra is identified as both priest and scribe, so we also serve in such a privileged, dual function. Likewise, this is our great convocation as church families. We come together to hear the word. The word is read. And the word is interpreted. For it is, indeed, the word of God for the people of God.
