What happens when people gather around the word of God?  That is the question for the day, the concern for the hour –and I might add an entirely appropriate one for this day, when we as a congregation are about to embark on our annual meeting, a time in which we review our last year’s mission and ministry and recommit ourselves to another year of mission and ministry here at Holy Spirit.

What happens when people gather around the word of God?

Our first glimpse of that today occurs in our first reading from the book of Nehemiah.  Nehemiah, made governor of Judah by the King of Persia, has heard of the struggles of those Israelite exiles returned from Babylon.  Nehemiah’s heart is powerfully moved. He roots out corruption and unites the people in the rebuilding of the wall that surrounds Jerusalem.  In the walls that are being reconstructed they find a scroll, an ancient scroll, and Ezra, the priest is moved to share that word.  The people gather together into the square before the Water Gate. They tell Ezra, priest and scribe, to bring the scrolls of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had given to Israel. Now, anticipation builds. The scroll sits above the people, when it is carefully unwrapped and opened the people stand; the LORD is blessed and worshipped. For six hours Ezra reads the word of the lord to the people.  For six hours the priests walk among the people interpreting so the people might understand – something not done in Jerusalem since the exile to Babylon. The people weep. Bittersweet tears? For what they have endured; for the reminder of who they are, for being reconstituted, reformed by the promises of God to be the people of God.

Words are amazing.  Words create worlds.  Anyone who has ever been engrossed in a story or a novel knows how real and consuming those worlds can be.  In a few short pages we can find ourselves flying kites in Afghanistan or pursuing a great white whale on the open sea.  Words create worlds.  Just so the people standing before Ezra heard that when God’s spirit rested over the world he said “Let there be light and there was light.”  God brought the world into being by speaking the word.  God spoke to Abraham to promise him a land and descendants, and a people came into being.  The people wept when Ezra spoke because once again, God, through these words was making them a new creation, calling them to be reconstituted, reformed by the promises of God to be the people of God. 

And so we are a community of the Word.  The single most important thing we do as a church is gather together to hear the Word of God.  Sometimes I look out at all of you while I am preaching and I am awed thinking “what brought this disparate group of people together.  I mean honestly you might not ever socialize or encounter the person sitting next to you in any other context—but here, together; we are united by the word. 

But it’s not just any word—this isn’t a Microsoft stock holders meeting, or a Mary Kay Cosmetics sales meeting.  We’re not here just to get jazzed about profit margins and new products.  The word we receive is God’s word and it is life itself. 

Like the people of Judah coming before Ezra, we come bearing the wounds and scars of a challenging reality.  The people weep when they hear the word; with regret, fear, sorrow, sadness, disappointment, failure, tragedy, brokenness—for all that is not and has not been.  These tears we understand for fear, sorrow, sadness, disappointment, failure brokenness, tragedy are part and parcel of our lives.  It’s what comes next that throws us off guard.  Ezra says to the people, “Do not mourn or weep.  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, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!” 

What happens when people gather around the word of God?  They are reconstituted as community, they see reality, they hear God’s word and they leave with joy.  They leave with joy.  I chuckle a bit about that phrase, “they leave with joy.  I remember years ago when we did the wedding for  Brent Dahl.  His fiancée, a lovely woman, spoke up at one of our sessions together rather sheepishly, inquiring if we could change some of the words of the prayers and liturgy.  Well it’s possible but what do you want to change?” .I asked.  Well her name was Joy and I had not realized how many times in the wedding service we reference joy.  Joy being complete, joy being restored, joy being brought here and there, joy that begins now, joy found, joy lost.  Needless to say we revised the wording.  But it does point out how often we thoughtlessly use that term. 

Joy is not an emotional happiness or a superficial giddiness.  Joy is a gift that cannot be earned, bought or deserved and yet we can choose, indeed most of scripture, including Ezra’s direction to the people today directs us to be joyful.  How curious!  In my study of this, one person said, “The opposite of joy is not sorrow or sadness but anxiety.”  So in choosing “joy” we choose not to be anxious, to fret or obsess about that which is not in our power to control.  We choose to trust in the one who is more powerful and trustworthy than we. “For the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Two stories out of Haiti this week deeply moved me.  The first was an audio feed on NPR of a reporter just outside of Port au prince.  She was describing the horrific scene she saw as she was walking down the road in as clear and graphic a way as was possible for her.  She described the fires she saw, the heat she felt the odors she smelled.  “Over here she said is a woman, apparently an older woman who is curled up, taking shelter under a bush.”  And the reporter must have put the microphone down to the woman because we heard her chanting, “Alleluia, Alleluia, amen, amen.  Alleluia, alleluia, amen, amen.”

The second was an ELCA news release of Rev. Malpica Padilla, the head of Global Missions for the ELCA, of his sermon at the funeral of 4th year seminarian Ben Larson.  He said, Ben loved music, and through songs of oppressed peoples of the world he discovered and proclaimed God.  Working with the people of Haiti, "he became one with their pain, even as his God was one with their pain,"   In an interview with the ELCA News Service this week, Renee, Ben’s wife said she heard Ben's last words from under the rubble: "God's peace to us we pray," words he was singing, she said.  Words of a choral piece they had done earlier in the year.  "Right there our prayers were answered," Malpica Padilla said. "God's peace, the peace that surpasses all understanding, the peace that defies all brokenness, was given to Ben, and through his intercessory prayer, to the thousands of Haitians accompanying him under the rubble of Port Au Prince."

What happens when people gather around the word of God?  They experience the peace and joy that comes only from knowing and trusting in God’s deep love and care. 

Today we gather in our annual meeting and yes it is a meeting that will do business but it is first and foremost a meeting of people who gather around the word of God.  I look at this report, and yes it is a lot of details, facts and figures but honestly I see it as a report of people of joy—people who know the love of God and who are committed to sharing it with others.

What happens when people gather around the word of God?   Many centuries after Ezra gathered the people another group of worshippers came together in a synagogue in Nazareth.  And a man stood up and took the scroll and began to read from the prophet Isaiah saying, “the spirit of the Lord is upon me, 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.”  And he rolled up the scroll and sat back down and said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

Amen