Sermon for
January 25, 2004
3rd Sunday after the Epiphany
Just Listen and Look
Neh 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Lk 4:14-21
Have you ever been
talking with someone and sharing with them something very important to
you—you share with them the deepest concerns and struggles and hopes of
your heart—and then discover by their response that they weren’t even
listening? Have you ever had that experience? Parent, have you ever
wondered if your children were even listening to you? Children and youth,
have you ever wondered if your parents even heard what you said? Have you
had friends who from time to time just did not listen to you? Well, I
think you know this experience—unfortunately I think you know this
experience very well. How does it feel when somebody is not even
listening to you?
Well, I have to tell
you this morning that God must surely feel that way in relationship to you
and to me. Given the turmoil and pain and worry and struggle that are so
much a part of life, can’t you just hear God saying, “You don’t ever
listen to me!”
The people of God
gathered around their Governor Nehemiah and their Priest Ezra at a very
significant point in their history. They had returned to the Promised
Land, the Promised Land from which they have been driven into exile a
generation before. They were once a proud and successful people having
finally arrived at the Promised Land. It took them a long time to get
there to begin with, you remember, because they just didn’t listen. When
God delivered them from slavery in Egypt they did not gratefully and
dutifully follow the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by
night that God provided them all the way there. No, they complained…for
water…for food…which God provided them. They worried so much that it
drove them to create a golden calf out of the rings and bands in their
possession and they worshiped that idol as the one who led them out of
Egypt. They just didn’t listen. They wandered in the wilderness for a
generation because they just weren’t ready for the Promised Land. When
they finally did arrive and God established their kingdom and built the
city of Jerusalem and the great temple, they still didn’t listen. They
became self-sufficient, no longer dependent on God—they ignored the needs
of the poor and the widows, orphans, and foreigners and the nation grew
weaker and weaker until Jerusalem was defeated, the temple destroyed, and
the people carried into exile in a foreign land. They just didn’t
listen.
They didn’t listen
when God said, “You shall
have no other gods before me;”
to the faith of the
Psalmist who said, “The Lord is my shepherd, I
shall not want;”
when God told them to
take special care of the poor, the orphans, the
widows, and the foreigners in the land.
They just didn’t listen, and they lost it all.
Well, a generation
later another power overthrew their captors and that conquering nation let
them return to the Promised Land. In our Old Testament text this morning
the people gather around their Priest Ezra, having set foot again in the
Promised Land—the 1st time in a generation. Ezra read from the
book of the law of Moses
From early morning until
midday in the presence of the men and the
women and those who could
understand….(He) opened the book in
the sight of all the
people….and when he opened it, all the people
stood up.
And what happened next? The Scripture says,
The ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the
law.
Finally, finally, they were listening!
The text is very
specific here. It says Ezra read from the book
With interpretation,
giving the sense so that people understood the
reading.
When they listened that day, really listened, when they really heard, they
began to
weep—they cried. God touched their hearts. And all they really had to do
was listen.
You and I have shared
so many experiences where God has touched our hearts just because we
listened. I would share some examples in my own life. My grandmother
died some 23 years ago and the pastor who did her funeral service in Ohio
did not know her very well at all for my Dad’s mother was just not a
church-goer. At her funeral service when the minister shared his remarks
about her and brought the message of the Gospel to the midst of our
experience of grief you better believe I was listening to every word.
When he said how much our family was going to miss chicken and biscuits
served by her at her home despite her failing sight and affirmed the
meaning and power of the resurrection for her and for us God touched my
heart. I would have missed it if I wasn’t listening.
About 8 years ago the
people of Bethany Church in Hampton where I served as pastor gathered for
the conclusion of their first Capital funds Campaign. They called that
campaign “Stepping Off the Shoulders of Others—A Ministry of Growth.”
About 300 folks gathered in the yard underneath a tent set on the site
where the new 8,000 square foot social hall, kitchen, and office complex
would be constructed. They had 3 financial goals before them which had to
be met in order to construct the new building and to renovate the youth
and adult education wing.
The “Walking” Goal was
$250,000;
“Running” Goal was
$280,000;
“Soaring” Goal was
$310,000.
When the co-chair of the campaign stepped to the microphone to announce the
total that had been pledged you better believe everybody was listening.
And when he announced that we have received commitments in the amount of
over $350,000 there were tears of disbelief and joy. God touched their
hearts. Bethany was a church that had a long track record of financial
difficulties. I believe all we had to do was listen, listen to the Gospel
message about a life of giving. They would have missed it if they weren’t
listening.
Two years ago Trinity
Church in Poquoson , where I served my last pastorate, had decided it was
time to retire their 2-story educational building which was attached to
the back of the sanctuary having been built in 1930. It was simply more
cost effective to tear that building down and replace it with a new 16,000
square foot educational and office complex, complete with one of the 2
elevators in the whole city! During the demolition and construction the
congregation met for worship and Sunday School at Poquoson Middle School
for over one year. When the ribbon was cut to officially open that
structure and we returned to our building you better believe
The people were attentive.
The ensuing celebration and spontaneous joy was truly infectious. They
would have missed it if they weren’t listening.
This past Spring the
phone rang at our house. It was the District Superintendent. And I
listened very carefully! We gathered the children together and once I
said, “We are going to move,” as the Scripture says,
The ears of all the people were attentive
And all the people reacted because everybody
listened.
You and I have shared
so many experiences where God has touched our hearts just because we
listened.
Now it is so much
easier to listen when you know something is really happening that is
deeply important to you. At my grandmother’s funeral, or at the
announcement that determined whether a building project will happen or
not, or at the news of an impending family move, you listen. Its just
easier to listen when you know something is really happening that is
deeply important to you. That is exactly where the people of God were in
the Old Testament lesson today. They had finally, finally returned to the
Promised Land, a land now desolate and barren. There was much to be
thankful for and much work to do. So when Ezra opened the book and all
the people stood up, of course they listened!
But its harder to
listen, its more difficult to listen during regular old everyday life,
isn’t it? Jesus was in the synagogue one day and he stood up to read the
Scripture for the day as any other worship participant would ordinarily be
invited to do. He read the text 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.
Now for the Scripture to be read for the regular gathering in the
synagogue, there was nothing particularly unusual about that. That was
standard synagogue practice. But the Gospel says,
The eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on him. And he
said, “Today
this Scripture has been
fulfilled in your hearing.”
You know it might have been more difficult for
them to listen, they might have had to try harder to listen during that
everyday regular synagogue worship. They just did not come to regular
worship with the same sense of urgent expectancy that the people of God
did that day back in the Promised Land. You don’t listen as carefully and
as well on Sunday as you do at a funeral or a great church celebration or
when important news for your family is shared, do you? Well, it might
have been more difficult for them to listen that day except that “the eyes
of all in the synagogue were fixed on” Jesus. They listened to the Word,
looked to Jesus and what happened?
Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
Fulfilled! Good news
is preached to the poor; release, recovery, and freedom is
proclaimed for captives, the blind, and the oppressed. It is the
year of the Lord’s favor, right now, in your hearing!” Now, there
something is really happening—what would have otherwise been merely a
devotional reading of Scripture became real flesh and blood in their very
presence. Something really important was happening—God’s Word was
happening, changing, transforming, redeeming lives of all who listened and
looked. And all they had to do was look—look to Jesus.
Sisters and brothers,
I believe the Scripture says to you today that if you want God to touch
your heart, all you have to do is listen to the Word of God. If you want
life to no longer be so full of turmoil and pain and worry and struggle,
all you have to do is look to Jesus. Listen to the Word of God and look
to Jesus. That’s all you have to do.
Yes, even when the
Scriptures are read at the usual regular gathering
for worship at South Roanoke Church;
Of your Sunday School class or Bible Study or prayer gathering;
Even when you read the Scripture in your usual regular personal way,
All you have to do is listen and God will touch your heart. Listen to the
Word of God. And I believe the Christian Church says whenever the
Scripture is read, whether in church or Bible study or in your personal
reading at home, the Scripture is always read by Jesus, the Word of
God Himself. That’s true whether you read it or I read it
or another reads it. The Christian Church believes all of
Scripture finds its ultimate interpretation and its ultimate fulfillment
in the life, death, resurrection, and continuing living presence of Jesus
Christ our Lord. All you have to do is look to Jesus and let God make the
Word happen to change, transform, and redeem your life, my life, the life
of South Roanoke Church, and all creation forever.
The Bible says all
you have to do is listen and look. Listen to the Word of God and look to
Jesus.
Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people…and the
ears of all
the people were attentive to the book of the law.
(Jesus) rolled up the scroll, gave
it back to the attendant, and sat
down. The eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on him.
Sisters and brothers,
just listen and look!
William G. Davidson
South Roanoke United Methodist Church
