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Sunday 26 January 2025 Epiphany 3, Third in Ordinary time
Hunger and worship: non-negotiable Christian prerequisites
Nehemiah 8:1-6, 8-10
Context: a congregation of around 70 in the Northeast of England made up of first, second, third and fourth generations of migrants and working-class people
Aim: to encourage the congregation to understand that worship matters
For over three decades I have read the book of Nehemiah, and I am still struck by the potency of his life, the story and the workings of God in Israel and the challenge of personal application.
I have heard it said that no young person should ever start their career without studying the book of Nehemiah. Within, it contains the principles of business, project management, working together; the art of delegation, dealing with obstacles and toxic people; and other matters encountered in one’s working life.
Today, we are met with two verses and I would love for them to be in conversation with each other through this divine essay.
Verse 6. ‘And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground.’ Verse 8. ‘So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.’
There are two elements crucial in any gathering of God’s people. First, a heart to worship. Second, a heart to hear God’s word.
A HEART TO WORSHIP
The heart to worship is mind blowing. It begins, not with Ezra blessing God, but as Ezra opened the law book. The people stood as an act of worship then, as Ezra blessed God, there was verbal expression of worship. There was physical movement. The people lifted their hands. They bowed their heads with their faces to the ground. In this instance worship became a multisensory experience not just a cerebral one.
From reading this scripture you get a sense that those who gathered to worship were experiencing joy and a sense of awe and wonder. We know from neuroscience how the body responds to joy, happiness and gratitude. There was also a sense of eager anticipation. What are we going to hear and experience now?
They were gathered, yes, to worship; but there was something else you could miss if you rushed through the scriptures to get to the ‘spiritual’ bits. Verse 1 spells it out. These were people who were hungry to hear God’s word.
After many years of being a pastor I have often wondered how many people were hungry to hear God’s word. In fact, there were many who were, but not all.
To have hunger for God and to worship are a non-negotiable building block for hearing God’s word, which leads to my second point.
A HEART TO HEAR AND OBEY GOD’S WORD
This point cannot be skated over. To hear God’s word, there must be a hunger for his word and dare I say, how we live before entering the sanctuary is key. Let me share with you a personal story.
I recall my early days as a Christian. It was as though God was speaking to me in every service. Sometimes good, but not always so.
There was immense joy, but after a while I remember things becoming a little stale. Fortunately for me I did not blame the pastor. I looked at myself and realised I had begun to go to bed very late at night, or rather, in the early hours of Sunday mornings after watching films and so forth. It was not that the church had become stale. I was arriving at church tired. It is hard to be filled with joy and enthusiasm if you feel as though your spirit has been drained. Let me add, this was over thirty years ago before the current internet and social media phenomena.
Please hear me well. I am not against the television or social media, but we must be careful as to what distractions or drains we have in our lives as human beings and most certainly as Christians.
FINAL THOUGHTS
We are living in times of incredible and exciting distractions. The Christian, of all people, must be aware of what they are being exposed to. Nothing replaces the multisensory act of worship. Nothing.
A reading of the remainder of the scripture informs what happened to the people, and what can happen to us, if we approach worship correctly. Gladness and joy became the regular features of their lives. It can become the same for us too.
Our lives are not without problems or difficulties, but they can still be rooted in joy and worship while living with an understanding of God’s word for us.
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