3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

January 24, 2010

Omaha, NE

Rev. Steven W. Plank

“The Joy of Worship”

Text:    Luke 4:18a – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me…”

Scripture Lessons:       Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

Luke 4:14-21

Proposition:  We Presbyterians truly strive to do everything “decently and in order.”  But we dare not lose a sense of “The Joy of Worship,” which refreshes us while together and renews us for service in the world.

Prayer for Illumination:  Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today.  Amen.

Think about the last time you lost something.  I love it when people, as they are talking about looking for something they lost, say, with almost a sense of satisfaction, “And you know what, it was in the last place I looked for it.”  I want to say, “Of course it was in the last place you looked for it!  Why would you keep looking in other places after you found it!”  But I know I’ve said the same thing… so I just keep quiet.

The other day I was riding in my car.  I had put my wallet on the passenger seat for some reason.  It was night.  I had gotten out and gone into a couple of stores.  I then was driving home, and remembered that I had set my wallet on the car seat.  I reached over to get it… and couldn’t find it!  Panic immediately set in!  Did it fall out of the car when I was getting in and out?  Had I put it back in my pants pocket and had it fallen out of there?  I’d have to get a new driver’s license, but I was going out of town to a Synod event this week.  I’d have to contact credit card companies right away.  I was panicked!  You know the feeling, yes?  I finally pulled into a parking lot and turned on the interior lights.  I looked on the car seat again, but nothing.  I then looked down on the floor, and there, in the corner, against the floor mat, was my wallet.  Relief!

It’s hard when we lose things, isn’t it?  Most of the time it really has no far-reaching impact, because it’s little things we lose.  However, sometimes we lose things that are more important, more valuable.  In the process of our move here a little over ten years ago, we lost one box.  Not bad, given all the things that happen in a move, right?  But that one box contained some pictures… and it contained all of the negatives of pictures that we had taken for years and years:  family pictures, vacation pictures, all of our pictures!  And, of course, they were gone, then, forever.  Now, this didn’t affect the quality of our lives, or our health, or our safety, so we were okay.  But sometimes we lose things that affect our lives or our health or our safety, too, don’t we?  We know about loss and its impact.

The people of Israel during the time of our Old Testament lesson this morning were lost.  It’s not that they had lost their way.  It’s not that they had lost some possession.  But they had lost something dear to them.  They had lost faith.  They had lost their identity during some 100-200 years in exile in a foreign land.  They had lost their bearing.  They had lost joy.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are complementary books.  In fact, in the Hebrew Bible, they are one book.  We’ve divided it into two.  Ezra was the High Priest; Nehemiah was the governor.  The people of Israel had been taken into captivity after their land was run over by the invading armies of Babylonia, which is contemporary Iraq.  The Babylonians had scattered the people throughout their realm as a very effective means of subduing a conquered people.  But now, several decades or a century or more afterwards, the Babylonians had themselves been defeated by an invading army, and the victors of that battle allowed all of the people in captivity to return to their homelands.  The Israelites made their way back home, and began the long, arduous task of trying to rebuild… to rebuild their homes and their businesses, to rebuild their infrastructure, to rebuild their Temple, to rebuild the very fabric of their lives as a people.  It was excruciatingly difficult work… and disheartening.  In the process of their rebuilding efforts, those two national leaders brought the people together, because they knew that something inside the people needed to be addressed.

Nehemiah the governor and Ezra the priest gathered everyone together, and said to them, “You are emotionally spent!  You’ve been working so hard at so many things.  But the good news is that we have rediscovered the written Word of God to us, and we all have been deeply moved and irrevocably changed.  We’ve been together here all this day in worship and reading, listening and praying, weeping and remembering.  But it’s time now to go home.  Only don’t go home with a heavy heart, thinking of what we have missed all these past decades.  Go home with joy in your heart, laughter in your life, love in your relationships.  Go home a different person than when you came to this place.  Go home renewed and strong, and know that it is the joy of the Lord Almighty that will sustain you and give you strength to do what you need to be doing now.”

When the people heard the Word read to them from their ancient scriptures, they recognized how broken their lives and their relationships had become.  They realized how much they had failed to fulfill their true potential and how short they had fallen from God’s expectations and from their own expectations as well.  But Nehemiah and Ezra reassured them.  Their purpose could be rediscovered as they gathered in community to listen for what God was saying to them.  Their lives could be straightened around again as they worshiped their God.  Their lives could be refreshed and renewed, and they could dare to believe that they could live with hope and with joy in their lives!  God’s grace, God’s love, and God’s call would do that within them.

I came across a great story recently that I had heard years ago but had since forgotten…

A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on either end of a pole which he carried across his neck.  One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master’s house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.  For full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his master’s house.  The poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.  The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, “As we return to the master’s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.”  As they walked, the bearer said to the pot, “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?  That’s because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it.  I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you’ve watered them.  For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master’s table.  Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house.”

We are reflections of God’s beauty in the world, and we are to be signs of grace and love and joy to the world in the passions we bring to life.  That’s what Jesus said he was as he sat in his hometown place of worship one Sabbath day and read these words from the prophet Isaiah:

“‘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.’ (Luke tells us that Jesus then) rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”

“Today,” Jesus said, the people could see something of God’s compassion for the world and God’s passion for serving those most in need in the world.  Today Jesus still stands in our midst – in the midst of this worshiping congregation – and offers us joy to strengthen our lives and grace to serve God in this world of ours.  Today is when we are called to be lights to a world too used to shadowy places, to stand for justice and peace in world too often broken, to speak peace to those in world whose lives are too filled with anything but a sense of peace.

Sara Miles, Director of Ministry at St. Gregory of Nissa Episcopal Church, San Francisco, shared these thoughts about this passage:

“Jesus emerges from his forty days in the wilderness, armed with the power of the Spirit. He walks into his hometown synagogue, among his own people. He opens the scroll, reads the words of the prophet Isaiah, and Jesus’ very first word out of the desert is: Today.

“This is not religion as we know it. Not nostalgia for the past, nor a fantasy of the future. It’s not centered in memory or anticipation – next year I’ll do this… in the old days we did that… someday God will set things right.

“Jesus just proclaims, ‘today.’”  (at www.journeywithjesus.net)

All of this begins to take shape when we join with others and gather within the community of faith to worship:  to listen for God’s word to our lives, to offer our prayers and praise to the Creator, to see Jesus for who he is and for how he lived his life as a model for us to emulate, to open our hearts and minds to the invigorating, purpose-driven, and joy-giving presence of the Holy Spirit.

We come to worship each week from the broken mess that sometimes is our life in a fallen creation.  We believe the kingdom of God has come in Christ but we know full well that there is much that remains broken, incomplete, wounding.  Still we hold onto that kingdom vision and the peace it gives to us.  Because the Lord God anointed Jesus to announce the year of the Lord’s favor, we have hope and we have peace, already now.  And we have joy, too… a sense of joy which grounds us… a sense of joy which fills us… a sense of joy which refreshes us… a sense of joy that helps us get up each morning and resolve today to live the kind of life and engage ourselves in the kinds of things that Jesus did.  Joy is not the same as happiness.  Happiness is conditional – it depends on what happens to us and around us.  Joy is a decision… a decision to stay in the center of God’s love and be filled by the sense of wholeness that gives us.  Joy is a gift… a gift from the God who loves us and who calls us into worship together and out into the world in which we are called to serve others.

There are all different styles of worship today.  Some of those styles are expressed in the majesty of old traditions.  Some of those styles are rooted in the mystery of silence and Sacraments.  Some of those styles are filled with noise and praise.  But in all of those styles, we can experience a sense of “The Joy of Worship”… because God is here, hope is renewed, lives are refreshed, and we are gifted once again with joy.

Thanks be to God!  AMEN!