Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Please pray with me.
Prepare our hearts, O God, to accept your word.
Silence to us any voice but your own, that hearing we may also obey your will through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The reading is From Ezra, chapter 71611 through 1627 28.
You can follow along in your pew Bible now after these events during the reign of Architaxis king of Persia.
Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Shalom, the son of Zoach, the son of A theory the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Merothoth, the son of Zariah, the son of Uzi, the son of Buchi, the son of Uisha, the son of Phinehas, the son of Elazar, the son of Aaron, the chief priest.
This Ezra went up to the Babylonian and he was reading scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord of Israel had given, and the king granted him all his requests according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him.
Now this is the copy of the letter that King Architaxis gave unto Ezra the priest, scribe, even the scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord and his statutes to Israel, architects king of kings unto ISRA the priest and scribe of the law of God of heaven perfect peace and at such time a make of decree that all of the people in Israel, and all the priests and Levites in the realm, which are minded of its own free will to go to Jerusalem, go with thee for smuts, as thou art sent to the king and the seventh counselors to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law that God which in thy hand and to carry the silver and gold which the king and his counselors have freely offered unto the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem, and all the silver and gold that cannot find in all the province in Babylon, with the free will of offering of the people and the priests offer willing for the houses of their God which is in Jerusalem.
And Ezra said, blessed be the Lord God of all fathers, which hath put such thing as this king's heart to beatify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.
And hath extended mercy upon me before the king and the counselors, and before the king mighty princes.
And I was strengthened at the hand of my Lord.
My God was upon me, and gathered together out with the Israel chief men to go up with me.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: So as a church we have been going through the Book of Ezra, looking at a chapter each week, many of you will recall hearing the Reverend Dr. John Thompson preach on chapter four of Ezra. And as we have been going through this book that speaks about a season of return and rebuilding of the Jewish temple, a very apropos book for those of us in the community that are very much thinking about return and rebuilding in the wakes of, of the fire. You may well have wondered this. You may have wondered, Pastor Matt, we've gotten through six chapters of a ten chapter book called Ezra. We are now almost two thirds of the way through Ezra. Is Ezra gonna ever show up?
In the first six chapters, Ezra is not even named. Finally, finally in today's passage, for the first time, that name, that means help or support, shows up and Ezra is introduced. And I think there's a power to how Ezra paints this whole picture. Even giving us all of that story before Ezra comes on the scene, it reminds us that the story of God's people, the story of an individual like Ezra, it's not just about a person. It's a people, it's a group.
Okay. Last night, many of us celebrated a victory, right? And it was a victory not of one person, but of a team.
We watched or listened in the radio, as in the 11th inning, the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7.
And after a game like that, there's always this interest among commentators who was the most valuable player? And of course, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was named the most valuable player of that series. But it's never one player, you know, it's a team. It's what they accomplish together that tells the story of victory, defeat.
In the Book of Ezra and so many sections of Scripture, faith is portrayed as a team sport. In the first six chapters in the Book of Ezra, no single most valuable player is named. Instead, it's a story of a people that took on this return and rebuilding project related to the temple. Together, we hear the team's mission and summons articulated in chapter one of Ezra. Go from Babylon to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple that was destroyed back by King Nebuchadnezzar. And Babylon. We get the roster of that team in chapter two, call it Team Judah. The roster includes not just a nine name starting lineup, but thousands of people, each with their own particular roles. In chapter four, we learn of some of the opponents of this team. We learn of the opposition, the people of the land.
That team or people are portrayed as opponents of these former exiles in Babylo returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. And for years it Seemed like these people of the land might prevail. Team Judah was down three games to two.
But then these Jewish returnees pull through. And around 516 BCE, the temple rebuilding project was finished to great celebration and fanfare. There was champagne. It was a World Series win for Team Judah.
But then comes the second part of the mission we read about in Ezrit. One kind of victory to rebuild a structure, to rebuild a temple. But it's another to rebuild the people who gather around that temple. If you have a fabulous structure built according to the design and specification of God's law and plan, but the people who worship there, the people who gather there, the people who have that as their symbolic center, are not living according to God's specification and plans, then it's not much good.
The mission of God's people is to answer God's call. That instruction we find in Torah or law. If this people surrounding a rebuilt temple were practicing idolatry, murder, greed, theft, disrespect of parents, abandonment of the Sabbath, then God would see their offerings and sacrifice in the temple. And God would be authentic, offended, offended by those sacrifices. We read about that in prophets like Isaiah and Amos and Hosea. The sacrifice God wants, we read in Scripture time and again, is obedience, mercy. The sacrifice God wants is justice. The defense of the widow, the orphan and the immigrants. So, sure, the temple might have been rebuilt, but what about the team itself?
Are they rebuilt according to God's plans and purposes after those years of exile in Babylon? Well, that is a question worth asking. And it's a question addressed beginning in chapter seven of Ezra. And if you want to know if a structure has been built according to code, according to the architect and designer's plans, what do you do? You send an inspector. We're going to have to do that. In fact, we're in that phase of home rebuilding right now where the architectural plans are getting looked at by structural engineers and others to be sure they are up to code. And then the architect looks at those and makes sure they match the original design. Well, what if you want to do that not with a structure, but with a people, with a team to ensure that team is on the right path?
Well, you need an inspector with a very special kind of training and background. They need to be well versed in the law of Moses, they need to be a scholar of that law, but they need a kind of authority as well to really speak to the people where the people would listen and even do what this person instructed them to do. Well, enter precisely such an instructor Our hero of the book that bears his name. Enter an academic and a pastor, a teacher and a leader.
Enter Ezra. If chapter seven of Ezra were the start of a film, it might begin like this. And forgive me, we just saw my daughter Lucy in New Jersey. She's studying film. She has me thinking in storytelling as it relates to film. So imagine Ezra for a moment as a film. And words show up against a black screen that don't read. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
I love that opening to Star Wars. Don't you know, in this movie version of Ezra, we might read this. Long ago in the days of King Artaxerxes of Persia, in a far away land called Babylon, our story begins now. You remember what happens next in Star wars, right? There's that famous crawl of backstory where words come up on the screen and then recede into the background. Those words. In Star Wars Red, it's a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships striking from a hidden base have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. Right away, we're told this is a story of two teams, two forces. The Rebel alliance, the evil Galactic Empire, and the rebels have won a victory. It gives us a backstory, so we know what this story is going to be about. Well, the first six chapters of Ezra have given us that backstory. And we know that Team Judah. Judah had prevailed in their temple rebuilding efforts, even over opposition.
But then these words crawl up on the screen in the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, Ezra, son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah. And the list goes on all the way back to the chief priest, Aaron himself, from back in the time of Moses. It's like Ezra is saying at the start of chapter seven, okay, our heroes coming to the stage. But be sure you understand, this person is part of a people.
They're engaged in a team sport called Being and Living out God's People.
Then we read of how this Ezra was not only a priest, that is, he not only comes from this line of priests going all the way back to Aaron himself, but he's also a scribe.
So if Ezra were a film, the camera might then hone in on a man in scribal attire entering a large Persian government building at the Bureau for Jewish affairs in Babylon. We see Ezra go to his office and carry out his daily routine, reading documents, writing letters. He was one of the few people where scribes were who could read and write. We see him keeping inventories and accounts. Maybe we hear him reveal to A colleague. How he can't help but think there's got to be something more to life, and more to his life than just this daily routine as a Jewish scribe in Babylon.
Then we see him on a Saturday morning, donning the linen attire of a priest and heading to the synagogue. Maybe we hear him offer a reflection on the scriptures, perhaps on a text from Exodus that recalls the great Jewish tabernacle. And as he reflects on this passage, maybe he shares his own personal longing to one day travel from Babylon to Jerusalem and get to see the embodiment of that tabernacle in his time. That is the rebuilt Jewish temple that after the time of Solomon, was destroyed and then rebuilt under King Darius of Persia.
Well, if the first stage of a film is the chance to see the hero's ordinary life, a second stage, Lucy told me, is when that ordinary life is disrupted and the hero gets a summons, a summons to adventure.
Think of how R2D2 shows up in Star wars and how Luke Skywalker discovers on his home planet of Tatooine, how in this droid there is a video message from a woman named Princess Leia asking for help.
Think of in a movie version of Ezra, maybe a courier arriving one day to Ezra's office and bringing him a fancy scroll with King Artaxerxes seal on it. We watch as Ezra opens this scroll, and then as music is playing in the background, perhaps composed by John Williams, we see Ezra read and we hear the voice of King Artaxerxes saying these words.
I'm sending you, Ezra, on a mission. You're to travel to Judah and Jerusalem, make inquiries as to whether they are complying with the law of your God or not.
And you're also to bring with you silver and gold, some that we will supply, some you'll collect by a free will offering. And you'll make sure you have everything needed to conduct worship at the temple in an appropriate way. Buy anything you need. Bulls, rams, lambs, grain offerings, drink offerings. Whatever your law requires. Get it. You see, I want to make sure I get the blessing of your God, Ezra, not the wrath of your God, the God of the Jewish people.
I want blessing. And so I want to make sure that the people, your people there in Jerusalem are worshiping God. Rightly so, Ezra. That's your mission.
So what happens next after a hero is summoned to adventure in the film format, in that classic multi stage narrative arc called the Hero's Journey, they receive the summons. Initially, they say, no way.
Forget it. I wonder if that narrative arc goes all the way Back to Moses and how he was summoned from the burning bush and initially said had all these different concerns and complaints and finally said, God, just send someone else.
You remember in Star wars how as Luke Skywalker finally with Obi Wan Kenobi listens to this video message from Princess Leia, how Obi Wan Kenobi tells Luke, you must learn the ways of the Force if you're to come with me to Alderaan and answer Princess Leia's call. What does Luke say? He says what everyone summoned to some great adventure initially says in the Hero's Journey. They say, no.
Luke says, I gotta go home. I've gotta help my uncle. I can't go to Alderaan.
Now. We don't get exactly a refusal in the Book of Ezra, but I think there's plenty of hints and indications that a kind of no was initially uttered from Ezra's mouth. We read at the very end of Ezra, chapter seven of a kind of reluctance, a sense that Ezra initially lacked the strength, the courage, the willingness to take up this call that he. That he needed something he did not have. For we read him say, it was with God's hand upon me that I took courage.
With God's hand upon me that I took courage.
But I want to know. I want to know what that hand looks like. You know, in a film version, you probably wouldn't see some giant hand coming down. You'd see some way that this strength, encouraging support of God is embodied, you know, some way you can see it up close. And the hero has to kind of interpret how God. How larger forces are at work in it. And so often in the hero's journey, the way that the support, encouragement, strengthening happens is through a mentor figure. A mentor is provided that allows the hero to finally get the strength and encouragement needed to head out in adventure to take on the mission. Think of Obi Wan, who trains and invites and helps Luke Skywalker to finally head out to the galaxies and embrace this mission he's been given.
So who's the mentor? Who is the person in whom God's hand is at work to encourage strength and support? Ezra, I would argue we get a whole list of them and they show up right at the start.
Ezra, chapter seven.
Sariah, Azariah, Hilkiah, Shalom, Zadok, Ahitub, Amariah, and so many others. It's a cloud of mentors, a cloud of ancestors.
It recalls for me the words from Hebrews, chapter 12. Since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside Every weight and sin that clings so closely, and it's run with perseverance, that race that is set out before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
All those priests that have gone before Ezra, those that have passed the mantle of priestly leadership onto him, they're lifted up at the start of chapter seven. Those, to my eye, are precisely the way we see God's hand, strengthening, encouraging Ezra in God's mission for him.
Well, friends, as Christians, we believe a high priest even greater than Aaron has come to strengthen and encourage us in fulfilling God's mission in our lives. That mission to love God and to love our neighbor. We believe God sent that high priest who came to us in the fullness of time in the person of Jesus Christ.
And more than that, we believe Christ is the very foundation, foundation, the cornerstone of a temple, a temple called the Church, a temple called the Body of Christ. As Christians, we believe we have the ultimate mentor and teacher and guide and scribe and priest, and so much more in the one we call the very Son of God, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. And through faith in him, we are brought near to God's plans and purposes. And those plans are brought to fruition in us. It's his teaching that now guides our steps in the way of mercy and justice, love and faith.
But I think of Christ's work in the world. And as when I read the book of Ezra, I want to see what that looks like in flesh.
I want to see that great guidance and leadership and work of Christ, the light he was to us in some kind of form. I can see and touch today.
If Christ now provides the strength and encouragement when we're reluctant to take up the call, what does it look like?
And to find it, I think of that list of ancestors who's gone before me in the faith, just as Ezra had that list of ancestors listed at the start of chapter seven. I think of people of faith who've gone before me, who've passed on faith to me, who form that great cloud of witnesses, a family of ancestors that strengthens me and gives me courage.
So last week I attended a gathering of Presbyterian pastors in Fort Worth, Texas, that was brought together by the Presbyterian foundation with some 40 pastors all together, all of them in some form of ministry as ordained Presbyterians. And most of them were women.
The time included a lot of story sharing, particularly as it related to our sense of call to pastoral ministry. And I was struck by hearing so many stories from women who could tell of some person or people who had sent them the message that because they were a woman, they shouldn't be a pastor.
Some pastor or elder or advisor or small group leader or entire church body had said to her, you can't be called to be a pastor or teacher in the church. You're a woman.
You lack the credentials.
And every one of those women spoke of some mentor, some woman or man who helped them to not just hear the summons of Christ to pastoral leadership, but gave them the courage to answer it.
And with that mentor entering the scene with a whole cloud of mentors, in many cases, they the strength to answer the call and depart on a bold adventure of church leadership as an ordained pastor.
And then this past Friday, I thought of the scribe and priest, Ezra, when I visited the Reverend Dr. Marguerite Schuster after returning from that Presbyterian Foundation Conference.
As many of you know, Marguerite served as pastor here at Knox from 1987 to 1992. She was the first woman to ever serve as pastor at Knox since our founding in 1895.
She was the only woman in her Master of Divinity program back when she was a student at Fuller Theological Seminary after graduating from Stanford. And when she left her pastorate here at Knox in 1992 to become the first female professor of homiletics at Fuller, she went on to teach a host of students.
One of those students was me.
I had her as a preaching professor back in the early 90s, and I got to serve as a teaching assistant for her as well. And little did I know that one day I would join that line of pastors going back to 1895, that would include people like Marguerite Schuster, that I would get to join that great line of pastors like Ezra did, which included people like Marguerite, as I became a part of a team, this team, in our mission together.
So, friends, whatever adversaries you face today, whatever forces are working against you, whatever opponents opponents lay before you, take courage like Ezra did, from the great cloud of witnesses, the way God's work in Christ has been shown to you in others who've gone before you in the faith.
Think of your parents or grandparents who were people of faith, as Shay can do today with his mom who went to be with the Lord this last week.
Think of those who inspired your journey, who by their example, by recognizing you were a part of their team, their family, even you, were strengthened and encouraged in answering God's call for you. May we find strength in our mission together of inviting thoughtful seekers to intergenerational community and Christian discipleship in the world. That's our mission. Our mission together. And may we find strength from that, that great cloud of witnesses to live out our welcome statement of inviting people of all races, ages, gender identity, sexual orientations, people regardless of immigration status, to join us in that mission together.
Here at the table where Christ presides in our mission and our life together. May we take courage from that glorious communion of saints, and may we each take our place among them.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, amen.
