For those who have wandered away from the community of the faithful, coming back can be filled with both fear and joy, both shame and redemption. Our text for today is no exception.
I remember the first time I read Walt Wangerin Jr’s, The Book of God. I was not particularly moved by the title. It sounded like so many books and pamphlets I had seen as a young man on the shelves of “bookstores” in Sedona, Arizona. After I read the introduction, which came just after the dedication page, I knew I could not have been more wrong for judging this book by the cover. Before the book starts, Wangerin, like a master storyteller, invites us into the story of scripture and gives us this quick introduction:
“NOW COMES EZRA the priest down from the old palace mount, carrying the scrolls in his arms. He enters the square before the Water Gate and passes through a great congregation of people all sitting on the ground.
At the far end they have constructed a wooden platform. They have built a pulpit for this reading.
Ezra ascends the platform, steps to the front, and unrolls the scrolls.
Spontaneously the people rise up.
Ezra blesses the Lord. All the people raise their hands and answer, “Amen!” “Amen!”
And then, when they have sat down again, Ezra the priest begins to read.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.”
“And God said, ‘Let there be light.’”
“And there was light.”[1]
What I find so compelling about this kind of approach is how it acknowledges that, for most of Wangerin’s readers, his book will be a re-introduction into the story they knew but had forgotten. This is exactly what was going on with God’s people in our text. For Wangerin and Ezra, their people had been away too long and, perhaps, their culture had changed from who they were before as God’s people. Their language had moved away from the vocabulary of sacred scripture, and it had become rough with the vocabulary of their secular age. The way Wangerin introduces his story with Ezra stepping-up into our world to re-introduce us to this means of grace, affirms how the Word of God is powerful and effective.
For those who have wandered away from the community of the faithful, coming back can be filled with both fear and joy, both shame and redemption. Our text for today is no exception. The people hear the whole “Torah” of God. I would avoid narrowing this down to the “Law of God,” as some translations have it. This is the whole Word of God, which is both Law and Gospel. This Word, being rightly divided by those sent to translate (because the audience spoke Aramaic and did not know the Hebrew) and interpret (because the concepts were foreign to them, namely the Targums[2]) the Word of God so people could get the sense of it (verse 8). The reaction was weeping, likely from the powerful law but also from the equally powerful gospel. This twofold reaction was because they had been deprived of the Word. Perhaps, in a sermon like this you can share at least three compelling stories of people like your hearers who have had a powerful reaction to coming back to faith through the Word. Using these present-day accounts to develop your main textual point and as a way to have progression in the sermon can be rhetorically powerful for your hearers.
For those who have wandered away from the community of the faithful, coming back can be filled with both fear and joy, both shame and redemption.
Start the sermon by sharing the experience of Ezra’s congregation. Then proceed to tell three stories which all end with the unified refrain from verse 10, “The joy of the Lord is their strength.” It is important to start by re-telling the story from our reading, first because it sets their experience of hearing the Word of God in relation to how others hear the Word of God, which invites your hearers to experience the word of God in the same way. Once you end the retelling of the story of Ezra, you say your binding phrase, “The joy of the Lord is their strength.” Then tell another story, a personal account from the congregation is usually best, about somebody coming back to the faith through hearing the Word of God, which culminates with the refrain restated: “The joy of the Lord is their strength.” Share one more story, this time it could embrace the further work of God which draws our gaze out into God’s gracious working in the world through the Word of God. That story concludes not unpredictably, but gladly and expectantly with: “The joy of the Lord is our strength.” Finish the sermon with a teaching on the Word of God as a means of grace.
This approach to preaching follows the apocalyptic style of Jesus in Matthew 13:24-33. Here, Jesus weaves three parable stories together with the common refrain: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like...” Jesus does this again a little later in 13:44-50. This apocalyptic structure is the entire structure of the books of Joel and Revelation. Use serial story telling unified around a refrain to create meaning, cohesion, enjoyment, anticipation, and reflection as reminiscence. Only select stories which have the full explicit Gospel in the telling of the narrative and use the refrain from verse 10 of our text as a response to the Gospel in the story telling. They must connect with the Law and Gospel moves in the story telling, and then agree that the joy of the Lord is our strength, so to speak, as the only appropriate conclusion to the account told. Here is the shape of the structure of this sermon:
This type of structure is usually known as a “Storied Discourse Structure,” and with this style of sermon we are using what is known as the “Multiple Story Format.”
“In this structure, the sermon communicates a central teaching or experience for the hearers by offering a series of stories that have been strategically placed next to one another to form the sermon. The strategic placement of the stories allows them to interact with one another, reinforcing experiences or themes for the hearers (for example, a contemporary story introduces the hearers to an experience that is then repeated in the biblical story) or qualifying these experiences or themes (for example, a biblical story might call into question the “resolution” of a contemporary story and thereby invite the hearers into further consideration). The multiple-story structure has two primary challenges for the preacher: The way each story is told and the way in which the stories are linked to one another.
In telling each story, the preacher seeks to maintain a specific and strategic focus in experience or thought for the hearers. Each story has the potential to distract the hearers from the intended experience or theme of the sermon. Therefore, the preacher uses narrative techniques (like a refrain) to implicitly direct the experience of the hearers within the telling of the story. Also, such direction can be explicit as expository material is used to clarify the meaning of the story (for example, “The reason I tell this story is so...”).
As the preacher moves from story to story, he needs to be aware of the experiential or logical connection that holds the stories together (for example, the first story raises a problem for which the second story provides a solution). Multiple story sermons often have an unstated propositional structure (for example, the first two stories depict two ways of encountering Jesus and the third story contrasts this with a depiction of how Jesus encounters us). Sometimes the preacher uses expository material to clarify these connections for the hearers.”[3]
The Gospel connection for preaching a text like this is that Christ has kept the whole of the Word of God on our behalf. We have joy when we hear the Word of God, not because we “know” something, but because the Word of God points us to Christ who saved us by His incarnation, sinless life, vicarious atonement, and victorious resurrection. We join Ezra’s congregation in rejoicing when we hear God’s Word, not because of the burden placed on us, but because of the freedom it gives us in Christ. Jesus is our reason for joy. God’s joy in the text is that He has redeemed His people (ultimately and finally through Christ), and, in turn, the people have joy in God their Savior (ultimately and finally through Christ). This text is an excellent invitation to open up the scriptures in order to teach our people about the means of grace. Much time in Scripture and in our pulpits is rightfully spent on Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, but this Sunday we focus on the efficacy and power of the Word itself as a means of grace.
------
Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10.
Text Week-A treasury of resources from various traditions to help you preach Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
Lectionary Podcast- Dr. Walter A. Maier III of Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, IN walks us through Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10.
---------
[1] Walter Wangerin Jr. The Book of God: The Bible as a Novel. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010.
[2] The Targums were an ancient Aramaic paraphrase or interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. They were created around the first century AD when Hebrew was declining as a spoken language.
[3] https://concordiatheology.org/sermon-structs/textual/genre/narrative/multiple-story-structure/
