Hear with Understanding

How do you hear the scripture we read today with understanding?

For me personally in my sermon preparation, I first read the Bible passages devotionally to get a sense of what is happening in the story and how it is relevant to my own life. Next, I seek to understand the context of the Biblical time the scripture was written. I read multiple interpretations of the scripture to discover the application for us at St. Andrews.

In today’s Old Testament reading Ezra, the priest and scribe, and Nehemiah, the governor, tell this story of the Jewish people who had been released from exile in Babylon and were back in Jerusalem. They were depressed, defeated, and their faith had lost meaning. The people formed factions arguing about how the temple should be rebuilt.

Ezra was the one who was responsible for the Holy scrolls. He decided that the way to gather all those who returned from exile in Babylon into a meaningful community was to call them back to the sacred texts and its affirmations. Ezra and Nehemiah gathered the people at the city gate, where everyone could be present. It would have been customary in this time for only men to gather. The scripture says that all the people gathered, both men and women, all who could hear with understanding.

Ezra is asked to bring the sacred text, the first five books of the Torah. Ezra read from the scrolls that would become our Bible. The scriptures were read from sunrise to midday to give vitality and focus and meaning to the lives of the Jewish community. There was something powerful about the reading as they had not asked Ezra to speak about God but for him to read the word of God. Ezra was eager for the people to understand the faith by which they identified themselves and had been lost during generations of exile.

Notice in verse 5, “And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up.” When I finished seminary, the pastor of the church we attended announced before the reading of scripture, “when Ezra opened the book, all the people stood up.” And the large congregation stood for the reading. That was almost 45 years ago and I vividly remember the reverence toward the reading and my readiness to listen all these years later.

We know that Ezra had help with hours of scripture reading that day. I appreciate Dorothy taking on the challenge of reading all those names. Those names might mean little to us as modern day readers, but those who are named were witnesses and supporters of Ezra. Last week I mentioned that we need many ears to hear the fullness of God’s word for our lives. Perhaps, we also need to hear many voices speaking God’s word into our lives.

Throughout this text, we notice the repetition of the word “understanding.” Verse 2 says, “Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding.” Three times, the scripture underscores that the people “hear with understanding.” It was not enough to just hear. The scriptures were read and interpreted. Verse 8 reads: “So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” In other words, they brought the text forward to their own situation of despair.

As Ezra completes the reading, the people bow down and worship and weep when they hear the words of the law, grieving as they understand how they have not lived according to God’s ways. Ezra, Nehemiah, and those who read and taught the people, encouraged them to make the sacred relevant to their own lives. They said to the people, “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.” Proclaiming God’s grace, they continue, “do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Scripture is not a fixed point; it lives forward and impacts the present. Walter Brueggemann writes that these scriptures from Nehemiah and Luke are about reading forward to unearth how scripture is relevant to our lives and circumstances.

In today’s Gospel story from Luke, Jesus returns home to Nazareth and gives us an example of reading scripture forward to understand its meaning for us in the present.

This story from Luke is at the beginning of Jesus ministry. Jesus was given the scroll of Isaiah’s prophecy and Jesus chose the text he read from Isaiah 61: “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.”

We aren’t sure who is speaking in this text in Isaiah, however, it promises God’s liberating spirit empowered someone to bring good news. The good news is for the oppressed, the broken hearted, the captives, sight for the blind and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. The good news is for all those who have been left behind and whose lives seem helpless. Jesus declares this is what his ministry is about, this is what he is to do. Jesus’ hometown crowd was very angry at him for making this claim.

If we read forward, we might ask: what is this text asking us to do? How is it challenging us?

When I was in seminary, I still remember that my New Testament professor Frank Stagg said that scripture is not only gift but is demand. The gift is to hear and to understand and the demand or responsibility is to apply that understanding to our current life. How do we hear scripture and read forward to make sense of our contemporary lives?

The Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. The Lord has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. The Lord has sent me to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. What is the Lord sending you to do?

The God of the Bible is always the same, always on the move in the world, always turning things upside down, always an advocate for those the world rejects, always calling the wealthy and powerful to account on behalf of others, always making things new.