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Making a People Holy – Br. James Koester
Br. James Koester
Nehemiah 8:1-12
Both yesterday, and now today, we have heard short portions of the book Nehemiah. It’s not a part of scripture most of us are probably drawn to. In fact, we might even have a hard time finding it! Yet, even though it is, in a sense, hidden away, it bears some study, for like all scripture, while it was written within a certain context, it speaks to us who are in a very different context nearly three thousand years later.
Briefly, Nehemiah is the cup bearer to the Persian king, Artaxerxes, and finds himself in a place of deep “sadness of the heart” over the fate of “the place of his ancestors’ graves [which] lies waste, [with] its gates . . . destroyed by fire” (Nehemiah 2:2b, 3). Nehemiah is granted permission to return to Jerusalem where he successfully supervised the rebuilding of the city, in spite of tremendous opposition from near neighbors.
With the walls and temple restored, the priests and Levites purified, “and all Isreal settled in their towns,” we come to today’s reading when, with “all the people gathered together [they] told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses. . . . [and] he read from it” (Nehemiah 7:73; 8:1, 3).
In many ways, this is a throw away line of little significance to us, unless of course you understand its significance. The physical reconstruction of Jerusalem, while important, was only one aspect of the task Nehemiah had set himself. The spiritual renewal of God’s people was the point of Nehemiah’s mission, and that began, as it had centuries before on Mt. Sinai, with the reading of the Law of Moses to all the people. It was with the proclamation of the word of God that “the kingdom of God [comes] near” (Luke 10:9) and the people of God are made whole, and holy, once again.
Like Moses, Jesus’ mission was to usher in the reign of God. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” Jesus said in the synagogue at Nazareth, “because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18). It is with the proclamation of the word of God, by Moses, by Ezra, by the disciples, by Jesus, by us, that God’s people are made whole, and are made holy. Today we see that in the reading from Nehemiah, and we experience it as we gather around this altar to hear God’s word and receive holy gifts for holy people. We, like those assembled in Jerusalem nearly three thousand years ago, are those people who are made holy by hearing again the word of God proclaimed to all the people.
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By Scripture – SSJEBr. James Koester
Nehemiah 8:1-12
Both yesterday, and now today, we have heard short portions of the book Nehemiah. It’s not a part of scripture most of us are probably drawn to. In fact, we might even have a hard time finding it! Yet, even though it is, in a sense, hidden away, it bears some study, for like all scripture, while it was written within a certain context, it speaks to us who are in a very different context nearly three thousand years later.
Briefly, Nehemiah is the cup bearer to the Persian king, Artaxerxes, and finds himself in a place of deep “sadness of the heart” over the fate of “the place of his ancestors’ graves [which] lies waste, [with] its gates . . . destroyed by fire” (Nehemiah 2:2b, 3). Nehemiah is granted permission to return to Jerusalem where he successfully supervised the rebuilding of the city, in spite of tremendous opposition from near neighbors.
With the walls and temple restored, the priests and Levites purified, “and all Isreal settled in their towns,” we come to today’s reading when, with “all the people gathered together [they] told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses. . . . [and] he read from it” (Nehemiah 7:73; 8:1, 3).
In many ways, this is a throw away line of little significance to us, unless of course you understand its significance. The physical reconstruction of Jerusalem, while important, was only one aspect of the task Nehemiah had set himself. The spiritual renewal of God’s people was the point of Nehemiah’s mission, and that began, as it had centuries before on Mt. Sinai, with the reading of the Law of Moses to all the people. It was with the proclamation of the word of God that “the kingdom of God [comes] near” (Luke 10:9) and the people of God are made whole, and holy, once again.
Like Moses, Jesus’ mission was to usher in the reign of God. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” Jesus said in the synagogue at Nazareth, “because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18). It is with the proclamation of the word of God, by Moses, by Ezra, by the disciples, by Jesus, by us, that God’s people are made whole, and are made holy. Today we see that in the reading from Nehemiah, and we experience it as we gather around this altar to hear God’s word and receive holy gifts for holy people. We, like those assembled in Jerusalem nearly three thousand years ago, are those people who are made holy by hearing again the word of God proclaimed to all the people.