One of the opening reflections we have used here from time to time describes what we bring to the worship of God:

"We gather to worship with many needs, and in many morning moods: some are ready to shout, ‘make a joyful noise unto the Lord’…some echo the psalmist’s anguish: ‘out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, hear my voice’.

"Some long passionately to be close to God: ‘As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God’. And then, we receive this affirmation and assurance:

"God stands ready and able to respond to your needs. In that assurance, let us worship God" (Chalice Worship, #80. Saint Louis: Christian Board of Publication, 1997, 251).

Our response to God as God’s responds to us is not only worship, but it is to do ministry and service inside this building and outside our four walls, as we care for those inside our church and as we reach out in service to people in a loving and inviting way.

By virtue of our baptism, by our participation in this faith community, we have an invitation from God to be about ministry and service in the name of Jesus Christ. We cannot live out our core values of knowing God, of building relationships, and doing justice, without doing ministry. The words ministry and service really mean the same thing. Among Christians, to be a minister is to be a servant by the power of the Holy Spirit, God in the name of Jesus Christ. As the pastor of this congregation, I have some particular leadership, direction setting, vision casting, over sight and administrative responsibilities to fulfill. But ministry belongs to all of us.

This sermon is the first of a two part series, and I begin today by saying that it is the Word of God, our hearing of it and acting on what we hear, that leads us to our call to ministry and service. That word comes to

us through prayer, through discernment, and through the words of life, faith, redemption, and love we find in the Bible. The two stories we have heard this morning help us to understand. Listen, and see where you would put yourself and our congregation as we listen to a worship celebration in Nehemiah and the reading of scripture Jesus gave in his home synagogue in Nazareth.

As you read the book of Nehemiah, you will see how Nehemiah took a sabbatical from his job to go back to Jerusalem to repair the wall of the city. The broken wall around Jerusalem has been repaired. Ezra was the priest and worship leader. Nehemiah was the governor and motivator, he was able to inspire all of God’s people to work together to restore the wall, and as they did, they restored to themselves a sense of pride and purpose. As they gathered to celebrate the victory, a victory that came when they put the best of what they had to the service of a great task, they gathered at the Water Gate of the wall.

The people knew that they could not thank God, and continue to serve God without remembering what the words of holy scripture said. So it is important to know that Ezra did not summon them to this reading. The opposite is true, ‘they told Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses’ (v. 1). There is no hint of Ezra’s imposing the law upon the people. Rather, the people are portrayed as eager (v.1), attentive (v.3, 7b), and worshipful (v.6b) (Interpretation. Ezra-Nehemiah. Mark A. Thronveit. Louisville. John Knox Press. 1992, p. 96).

Ezra takes his place on a platform the people have build so that they can see and hear him read. They gather in eager anticipation as he opens the books of Moses, not the sixty-six books we know, but the first five, the Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

I wonder which passages he read as Ezra encouraged the people. Did he read the story of creation and the story of the patriarchs and matriarchs, of the Exodus, and the arrival in the Promised Land. Did he read the Shema, "Hear O Israel, the LORD is one and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and might (Deuteronomy 6. 4)? Was it the Ten Commandments with its wisdom about how to love and honor God, and honor and love others? Perhaps it was one of those household codes in Leviticus that don’t always make sense to us, but helped to hold a new faith community together.

Surely there were the words that tell them, and us as we read them, to always, always protect those least able to protect themselves, especially the widows and orphans. Whatever they were, the words Ezra read touched the people deeply in their souls that they could not keep still. They stood out of respect for the word of God. They humbled themselves by laying on the ground. They lifted their hands and said, "Amen" as Ezra read and praised God. "Amen", let it be so, let these words take root in my spirit and be made visible in my actions.

As the word was interpreted, as they heard that the day had been made holy by their worship, the people wept, Their tears were like ours, they cried for the love of God given to them so freely, for the way God kept and protected them.

Ezra and Nehemiah weep and the people weep because God had protected them from sabotage, from discouragement, despair, and from other attacks on their spirits and they kept working. Now the wall is built, the people celebrate in worship and they receive the words of instruction that calls them to ministry and service. Enjoy yourselves today, Ezra says, and on your way home, make sure that you send some food and drink to the poor who could not be here to share in the celebration.

Remember, he says, and here is a word for us as, that "the joy of the Lord is your strength…"and all the people went their way to eat and drink and to make rejoicing because they understood the words that were declared to them" (Nehemiah 8.10, 12).

It is as we praise and thank God, as we celebrate the good things God has done for us that we find joy and strength in God, especially as we offer ourselves to others in God’s name. They did it as they listened to Ezra and we do it as we continue to discern and pray and meditate and learn.

They were freed to do ministry because they understood what was being asked of them: to love and honor God, and to love and honor their neighbors. To lift up a hand to God, and to reach out a hand to others. Later on, in the New Testament, we will read that our understanding leads us not only to hearing and understanding, but to doing the word of God too (James 1.22-25) too.

We are called to ministry and service and we learn from Nehemiah and Ezra what it is to take the Word of God seriously. And we hear it in the words of Jesus in what is for Luke, Jesus’ inaugural sermon.

After facing down the devil’s temptation, Jesus begins his ministry and because there is something so special about the way Jesus heals, teaches, touches lives, feeds the spirit, word gets around and he becomes famous. At one point, he goes to his home synagogue, a center for learning and worship for people who cannot worship at the Temple in Jerusalem. It is his custom to worship regularly, and while he is at the synagogue, he is handed the reading for the day, a reading of the prophet Isaiah, and he makes its prophetic words his own. He tells us what he, by the power of the Holy Spirit will do. Jesus is telling us what his ministry will be about, and he is telling us what ours is too. As you hear Jesus, hear what God is calling you to do.

He feels the Spirit moving through his body and being, covering him like the oil that is a sign of God’s blessing and presence. This Spirit has commissioned Jesus to be God’s representative among the most needy. There are people poor in material possessions and poor in spirit – he will bring a word of good news, of hope, of compassion, courage, faith, and action to them. There are people captive to injustice, to racism, to sexism, to homophobia, to age discrimination, and every other condition that would deny the full humanity of people, some as victims, some as perpetrators, he will break their chains and free them. There are people blind to all but their own narrow needs, he will help them see more broadly, widely, highly, and deeply.

The oppressed will go free and a jubilee year will be proclaimed. The year of Jubilee happened every 50 years, and in the Jubilee year, debts are forgiven, land that had been given up, is returned to the family that originally owned it, a chance to begin again with a clean slate before God and humanity. We have worshiped on this corner for 100 years. Let 2007 be a Year of Jubilee where we begin anew to be a church on whom the Spirit of the Lord has descended and enabled us to do great things.

Jesus finishes reading and says, "Today, these words have been fulfilled in your hearing" (v.20). I am the one of whom Isaiah spoke and I invite you into a long season of ministry and service with me to make the world a more just place." Here is a call to people for whom ministry and service are offered because we believe in the prophetic call of God, and because we believe God has given us gifts to offer.

One writer explains it this way:

"In Jesus’ public reading in his home synagogue, he promised to put his strength at the disposal of the marginalized and encouraged his followers to do likewise. This passage speaks to Christians who want to lay foundations on which communities of peace and justice can be constructed. And this passage also speaks to Christians for whom it is important to emphasize the activity of the Holy Spirit in the lives of individuals. They focus on the words about anointing, the sense of being grasped by the Spirit" (www.christiancentury.org/articla.lasso?id=2836 "Reluctant Prophet" by Jack Good).

The message of Nehemiah and the message of Jesus is that we will need a sense of the Holy Spirit and a sense of how to be the change and hope we want for the world. Whatever we come to church looking for, God is looking for us to go out from this place with a mind toward doing ministry.

The story of Jesus in the Nazareth synagogue continues next week when Jesus explains what he means and the admiration of the people who hear him turns to rage. Luke wants us to know that what was true for Jesus will be true for us. Ministry is not always easy and not always well received. But we are nevertheless called to offer ourselves in the service of God and the church and of each other and to the world because we are people of the Word that calls us to service and we are people of Jesus Christ who laid down his life in service to God.

Surely then, with a prophet’s zeal and the Spirit’s presence, we are, everyone of us, called to offer ourselves in ministry and service in the name of Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God. Amen.