“It’s Personal”
Neh. 8:1-3,
5-6, 8-18; Luke 4:14-21
Who were all these people that were assembled
To hear the reading of the Book of the Law.
I
always am intrigued when the Lectionary reading
Jumps
around in a text and I’m always interested
In
what was left out and why.
In
this case the two gaps verse 4 and verse 7
Are a list of names.
The
names in the list are worthless
According
to commentator Meyers,
But
I don’t think so.
I think the names are in this passage
for a reason.
And
the reason is to remind us that their were people
Who
gathered to hear the Law proclaimed
And
those people were important and
This
was not just an event-
This
was personal.
The
people who stood next to Ezra mattered
and their names
were:
“Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah,
and Maaseaih on the right and
Pediah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanah,
Zechariah, and Meshullam on the
left.”
Now of these people four of them would
become signers
Of
the agreement to follow the law;
In addition 13 Levites were helping to
interpret the law.
Their
names were:
“Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub,
Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah,
Jozabad, Hanan,
and Pelaiah.”
And seven of
them were signers of the pact to affirm the Law:
Jeshua, Bani, Shrebiah, Hodiah, Kelita, Hanan and Pelaiah.
It is
important to recognize people by name.
That’s why we have the newspaper
articles
on the office
door-
to recognize what people are doing and affirm
them.
That’s
why we are reinstating the name tags,
So
that we can know each others name
and call each
other by name.
When I was in
Volunteered at a Homeless shelter.
I
was part of the feeding crew and my job was
To
take each person’s ticket and make sure
That the right number of people came in.
I
realized that instead of just calling out the numbers
That
as I took the number,
I would ask
for their name and tell them mine.
I noticed that just that little change
Made all
the difference.
The
people were happy to have their name acknowledged
They
were happy to know my name,
Sometimes
we would find some common ground
In
our names,
It
brought a smile to their face,
And
changed the encounter from being just
A check point to a relationship.
It
became personal.
I listened to Tim Russert’s
new book “The Wisdom of our Fathers”
On the way back from visiting my dad in
In
response to his book “Big Russ” about his dad,
He
had received all sorts of letter with advice
That
people had received from their dad’s
That they wanted to share.
It
became obvious as I listened to the book that it wasn’t
The
wisdom that was most powerful but the relationship
Of
love and trust that was underneath the wisdom.
And each story was personally attributed
to the adult child
And
to his or her father, with the birth and sometimes
The
death date of the father and the place they lived
And
the profession they had.
That
little bit of information at the end of each story
Made
a potentially monotonous list of pithy sayings
Into
a tribute to real, live fathers and their children.
The
names made it personal.
The other thing that made the book
interesting was
That each story had a different voice.
Not
only did the people submit the stories
But
the stories were told in different voices
Depending
on where the people were from.
Even
thought they were not the actual
Voices
of the people they were
At least representative.
So it is with God.
In
the Gospel lesson today it is not only the word Jesus read
That
made a difference but the voice that was reading
The
voice that was sharing these words of God
For
the first time was actually the Voice of God.
In
honor of this reading and to experience how the
People
in Ezra and Nehemiah’s day would have hear
The
reading of God word-
Let
us stand as we hear the Gospel lesson today.
(Read Luke 4:14-21)
Not only is our name important but God’s
name is important.
When
Moses was talking with God he asked:
“Who
shall I say sent me?”
Say
that Yahweh, “I am” sent me.
God
is known by several names in the Old Testament:
Elohim, Adonai, El Shadaih- they are all names for God.
And yet when Jesus came he revealed the
fullness of God
In
a way that none of these other names can compare.
In
Jesus, the fullness of God was revealed once
And for all.
In
the Wednesday night Bible study we are studying all the
Names
that Jesus has- the truth, the advocate,
The
living bread, the light of the world
And
yet none of these names is as important
As the person of Jesus.
In
Jesus God becomes personal.
God
wants to talk with us face to face,
Voice to ear in the person of Jesus Christ.
That’s
why it is so important that Jesus says:
“Today the scripture has been fulfilled
in your hearing.”
And so God becomes us in Jesus Christ.
In
Luke today Jesus repeats the words of Isaiah
“Good news to the poor,
release to the captives,
recovery of sight to the blind”
but it’s not
just the words but the speaker
who makes a difference.
It’s
not just the activity but the personal relationship
which makes the
difference.
I noticed that at the hospital this past
week with my dad.
My
dad had a stroke earlier in the week.
He
was at the right place to receive physical care.
They
gave him all the tests that he needed
And all the therapy that he could endure.
They
did a good job medically but I needed to be there.
My
role was different.
For
me he wasn’t just a stroke victim who
Needed a regiment of care.
He wasn’t even just Bob Erickson, former
principal,
He
was dad, and more importantly he was my dad.
For
me it was personal.
And
so I sat with him for three days interpreting him
To
the nurses and doctors and therapists and
Interpreting
the doctors, nurses and therapists
To
him- I was his advocate.
And that’s what God wants to be with and
for you.
God
wants to be your advocate in Jesus Christ.
God wants to be your father, brother, sister, mother.
For God it’s personal,
So
personal that God sent his only Son Jesus to be one of us
So
that God could talk personally with us
“today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
And how do we respond to God.
We
can tell the story of faith.
Bill
Russert was amazed at how many people
wanted to tell the
story of their fathers
after he told his
father’s story.
He
was also amazed at the response of his father and his son to
The telling of the story.
First
the father “Big Russ” when they were leaving
For
Christmas vacation in 2005 his father came
To say good-bye.
This
man who Russert described as not very emotional
Gave
Russert a big hug and said for the first time
“I
love you”.
On
the first night of the vacation when the son
Came
out of the shower the mother cried out
At the sight of a tattoo.
Tim
demanded to see the tattoo
but the 19 year
old son would not show him.
He reminded his son Luke of the
conversation they had
About
the problems with tattoos and thought he talked him
Out of getting a tattoo.
When
Luke finally showed his father his tattoo
It
was on his side and it said “TJR”
(The
initials of Tim and his father)
After
I read your book I decided that I always wanted
You and grandpa by my side.
Tim
collapsed in a puddle of tears
And
stopped yelling at his son about
The tattoo.
I
certainly don’t think God wants us to get a tattoo
But
I do think that a proper response to God’s love
Revelaled in Jesus Christ is to tell his story,
Tell
God you love him and
To
right God on your heart in
Baptism.
And of course the best last think we can
do for all that God has done
Is
to say the same think that my father said to me:
“Thank you for coming and standing with me.”
Amen