This coming Sunday, we are going to read from Nehemiah 8, specifically a story that sounds a lot like University Lutheran on a Sunday. The background of the story is that the people of Israel have somehow lost the book of the Law, the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. Upon returning to Jerusalem after their exile in Babylon and rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, they figure that it is a good idea to get the book out and have it read. So that’s what they do.
So Ezra, the priest, gets up on a wooden platform so that all can see and hear him read the Bible to them. Essentially this is what happens every Sunday at Lutheran churches throughout the world. We do a little up front business – we confess and receive forgiveness for our sins, we pray that God would use His word to shape and mold us, we sing a song to prepare us for the message, and then we get into the readings – culminating with the Gospel reading when we announce “please rise for the Gospel verse and the reading of the Holy Gospel…”
Like a judge entering the room, the Gospel commands respect. The bailiff (in this case the reader or the pastor) tells everyone to get up. It’s usually only about 15 minutes into the service, but if you have already gotten drowsy, this command gets you up, on your feet, and paying attention. “The Holy Gospel according to St…..”
The Gospel is the chief reading of the four readings that we have on a Sunday. The Old Testament will often give the context of the Gospel. The Psalm engages with the emotion of the Gospel. The Epistle reading usually describes the derivative theology of the Gospel. The Gospel is in charge.
After we read the Gospel, we sit down. Like the people in Nehemiah 8, we need the sense of the reading explained to us – the ideas found within the Word of God drawn out. That’s the role of the sermon. And that’s something very Lutheran, to explain the reading. In other churches, you’ll find sermons that tell you something about God sort of thematically. Those sermons will give you a big broad category like “holiness”, and then will go through the Bible showing you all the places where holiness pops up like a Google report. Those aren’t bad, in fact, a lot of times they are pretty good. But our style is a little different – our style is to let the Gospel lead, to preach the appointed texts that all point to the Gospel no matter which one is the sermon text. Even when we have a sermon series here, the idea is still to keep those ideas tied to what is being read in the texts and where the Gospel is leading.
And the Gospel always leads to….well…the Gospel. The two usages of the same word do tell us something. The Gospel is both the book that contains the information about Jesus and the meaning of the information about Jesus. The Gospel is Jesus. And that’s why we stand, to stop, take notice…and finally…rejoice.