Our text for today is the Old Testament reading, but especially these words: “And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. ... [A]ll the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, ‘Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord.’”
There is an expression used when one is really trying to stress the truth of what they are saying: “May lightning strike me down if I am lying.” However, we also know that the image of a lightning bolt striking someone down is not just limited to telling a lie. For example, you may hear people who have not entered a church in a number of years jokingly refer to the possibility that lightning may strike upon their entering. So how do you respond when these strikes are invoked? What might you do? Well, depending on the situation, and whether or not you actually trust the person, you might just take a couple steps back just to be safe. Creating distance between yourself and the person might be the best option. I mean you never know, if you're too close, you just might get hit with them.
Our Old Testament reading gives a very powerful and yet a somewhat surprising description. We read that all the people gathered as one man. They gathered and stood together in order that they might hear the word of God read aloud by the scribe Ezra. We don’t know for sure what part of the Pentateuch Ezra read, but from the people’s response we know that whatever passages were read, they were words that convicted the people. They began to weep and mourn at the hearing of the Word. No doubt, these words reminded them of their sinfulness and disobedience. And yet just as devastating would have been the reminder of what they used to have. Having been brought back from exile, they now stood where the temple used to be. So they were reminded of how they had been blessed for so many years with the very presence of God. They were reminded of the glory that was once Israel’s. But most of all they were reminded that all of these things had been destroyed because of man’s sinfulness. So they wept.
But notice, not one of them, at the hearing of God’s Law, took a step back, away from their neighbor, while slowly raising their arm to point the finger. Not one of them stood there, blaming their forefathers for the destruction that had come upon them for not following the covenant. Instead, they stood there as one man, one body, for they were all guilty of sin. Their weeping was because of everyone’s unfaithfulness. In that crowd, there was no one person guiltier than the other. There was no one person more worthy than the other. They stood together as one man, one body, convicted together, weeping together.
This image, as we know, was not one that would be seen in the early Christian Church in Corinth. There we see a very different picture. A group of believers who did not stand as one, but as many. A group of believers who would take a couple steps away from the others. They began to measure one another in terms and degrees that did not exist. On the basis of the manifestation of the Spirit, they would determine who was truly important, and who was insignificant. Who was worthy, and who was unworthy.
You see, the problem with this is not just some simple issue of conceit or pride. No, when you start distinguishing worthy from unworthy based on sins committed and life lived, you place yourself under God’s Law. For you have at that very moment thrown grace out the window, and now you are judged by the very measure by which you have judged others.
In our hearing of the Law, do we stand as one man? “Well, this sermon is clearly not speaking to me, but I know exactly who it is speaking to. I’ll just take a couple of steps back.” You see, I can stand as one man with any sinner, for I myself am a sinner just the same.
Or think of how many don’t stand as one, because it might actually impose a covenant of sorts. People today tend not to join churches like they used to. Today, you can just jump around from church to church. Often times this is actually because people don’t want to take on the responsibility and the commitment of standing as one man, one body.
But God gathers us to stand together, and at times, weep together. But listen to the words Ezra proclaims to the people of Israel: “Do not mourn or weep.” “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink the sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord.”
Now I must have missed something. The people of Israel were weeping because of their sin, and immediately they were called to celebrate. I must have missed the part where they became worthy of the celebration. It is only when we read on that we come to realize that it is only after the celebration that the people of Israel begin to change their lives. It is only after this holy day, and the joy of the Lord is received, that they are able to look at the Law of God with a radically different perspective; no longer weeping in despair, they were able to approach it with a new sense of God and themselves, able to read it and able to live it.
Our gathering, our celebrating, our feasting is never because of what we accomplished the week before. We stand as one man, worthy to feast on the body and blood of Christ if we have wept, not if we have earned. When we weep, recognizing that it was our sins that lost for us that pure perfect relationship we were created to have with our Heavenly Father. When we weep over what we have done, over those sins we have committed throughout the week. And it is in our weeping that the Lord calls to us.
“Eat the fat and drink the sweet wine. Do not weep or mourn for this is the day I have made.” As Jesus quoted Isaiah in the synagogue, he still proclaims to all of us: “He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Our worthiness to stand before God is not based on what we have done, but solely on what Christ has done for us. So we stand here, having once been dispersed by Satan, now called back and gathered by God. Having once been captive to our own sinfulness, we are now ransomed by the blood of Christ to be God’s children. So it is, we celebrate the feast of victory. We celebrate the salvation and grace God has freely given to us.
This celebration is not based on what we have done this past week, but it does have everything to do with what we will do this week. Following the celebration, the people of Israel returned. And as they gathered this time, there was no weeping. But in the grace of God they committed themselves to walking the way God intended, the way they had failed time and time again. But they devoted themselves to God’s will and purpose.
This commitment was one that entailed every aspect of their lives. Not just what sin they would refrain from, but how they would live and even how they would use their wealth to serve the ministry of God. This covenant could not have been entered into without the celebration, just as God did not deliver the Law until hundreds of years after the promise was given to Abraham.
So let us stand together always as one man, weeping together for the sinfulness of all people, celebrating together the grace and mercy of God. Because of His love for all of us, there is no need to take a few steps away. For our God has not condemned the sinner, but saved the sinner - you and me. And may this truth now guide our hearts and lives throughout all our days. AMEN.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
