Sermon for Epiphany 3C
January 24, 2010
Texts:  Nehemiah 8:1-3,5-6,8-10; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21

Did you hear the news story yesterday
About the minor league baseball player Grant Desme?

The Arizona Fall League MVP
And a minor league player
Whom everyone was expecting to receive a call
To attend spring training with the Oakland Athletics.

Instead of receiving a call from the A’s
Desme, instead made a call on Friday
To Oakland A’s general manager.

Desme called Billy Beane, the A’s manager
To tell him about the alternative call
That he had received.

No, he was not being pursued by a different team.
Grant Desme’s call was of a totally different type.

Grant was in the throes of an encounter
With the living God.

Despite an outstanding minor league baseball season
And bright prospects for a major league baseball career,
Desme told the A’s manager
That he was leaving baseball to enter seminary,
As he had received a call to the priesthood.

Reaction to Grant Desme’s news diverged in two directions.
There were those who could not believe
That Desme would consider leaving a promising baseball career
For the alien profession of the priesthood.

The naysayers most likely had no experience
With the power of the living God,
And often indicated a disgust with religion in general.

The people who supported Desme’ decision,
Were most likely are those,
Who regularly come into the presence of the living God,
And have some sense as to God’s power.

Desme himself said that he had a strong feeling of call
For over a year.
He fought the call for some time,
But finally felt compelled to follow.

Desme responded to a call from the living God,
Making a choice which many would consider risky,
But which others consider to be evidence of a Spirit-led life.

What do you think it looks like
When you live a life led by the Spirit?

In what ways do you experience the Spirit?

How do you come into the presence of the living God?

How do you know you are even in God’s presence?

Receiving a call to the priesthood is not the only way
To have an encounter with the living God.

Think of the people we heard about today
From the Old Testament text in the book of Nehemiah.

These people were of the generation
That had returned from exile in Babylon.
During their time away
They had had little experience with the Word of God.

These people were gathered into an assembly
By Nehemiah, their governor,
And while they were gathered their priest Ezra
Read the Word of God to them,
From the Torah,
Which we know as the first five books of the Bible. 

For many of these people,
This was likely the first time
They had heard the Word of God.

The Word so moved them,
That they fell to their faces
Worshipping the living God
And shouting Amen, Amen
Meaning, so be it. 
For, perhaps, the first time in their lives,
These people of the exile had an encounter with the living God.

They heard God’s Word
They felt the power.
They realized what they had been missing
During all those years in exile.

They were in awe
Of being in the presence of the living God.
The experience totally blew then away. 

When they began to cry,
Ezra the priest,
Told them not to mourn or cry,
But to rejoice in the Lord,
To prepare a celebration feast
And to share their food with those who had none. 

In the Lord’s presence, no one goes hungry.

The people in Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth
Also had an encounter with the living God,
One that they did not expect
And could not understand.

Jesus, filled with the Spirit,
The same Spirit that had anointed him at his baptism,
And the same Spirit that had filled his mother,
Came to worship on the Sabbath in the his hometown synagogue.

Imagine the scene.
Maybe Mary and Joseph were there too,
Along with Jesus’ younger brothers and sisters.
His friends and neighbors were so glad to see him.

Word about everything had been doing
Had reached the town,
On some kind of sandal-net communication chain. 

His neighbors wanted to see the evidence for themselves.

It’s kind of like when we hear
That one of our college students has won an award.
When he or she comes home,
We want to see him or her and hear about everything first hand.
When Jesus walked into the synagogue that morning,
The usher told him
That they wanted him to be the Scripture reader.

You know what that’s like
You show up at church
And you get tapped on the shoulder to serve.

It just so happened that the appointed reading for that day
Was the book of Isaiah.

Jesus unrolled the scroll
And read the text beginning with the words:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”

When Jesus finished reading,
He sat down and said
“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

In other words, Jesus said to those around him,
Today you have been in the presence of the living Lord,
Whose Spirit fills me
And who works through me. 

Jesus’ friends, neighbors and siblings
Had an encounter with the living God,
The Word of God made flesh,
And they weren’t sure how to handle it. 

Stay tuned next week to see what happens.

How about you?
How do you know when you are in the presence of the living God,
And how do you handle that presence?

You can don’t have to receive a call to the priesthood
To know that you are in God’s presence.

Jesus told his disciples that whenever two or three were gathered in his name
He would be with them.

When we assemble together here,
Or in any other place where God’s people come together,
In building, field or amphitheater,
To hear God’s Word,
God is with us.
When we hear the Word read from the holy Scriptures,
When we hear the Word proclaimed in sermon
When we hear the Word sung in hymns,
The living Word is truly with us. 

When we gather,
We do not just hear words about God,
We hear the Word of God,

Just like the prophet Ezra spoke the Word of God
And Jesus, in reading from the scroll of Isaiah,
Read the Word of God.

When you hear this Word in faith
You are truly in the presence of the Holy One.

What’s it like when you are in God’s presence?

God’s ways are mysterious
And are not experienced by everyone in the same way.

But you know, first off, that God is in your midst,
Because God promised to be present.

But you might also have a have a so-called sixth sense
That something is different in your life.

Like Ezra’s people, you might be moved to tears.
Or you might feel joy at sensing something that had been missing.
Or you might feel relief, as some burden is lifted.

The light of the candles
Or the light streaming in the windows
Might somehow give light to your life.

You might feel an overwhelming sense of awe or mystery.

You might hear some word or phrase or message
That somehow strikes a cord in your life.

You might hear the small still voice.

In most cases that voice,
Unlike the experience of Grant Desme,
Will not be calling you to the priesthood.

But if you listen carefully,
That small still voice
May give insight to some aspect of your life.

Some days the sense of the presence of God
Is overwhelming and cannot be ignored.
Other days the sense is more muted
And there are days when, frankly,
It feels like God didn’t show up.

On those days, when God feels absent,
It is likely that you have closed off
Or somehow blocked the sense of the God’s presence.

Maybe you have turned so inward,
Or are so pre-occupied
That you can’t feel God’s presence.

Maybe at this time, you are too busy for God,
Or maybe somehow you don’t like what God is saying
And have rejected it,
In the same way that Grant Desme fought God’s call for some time.

God promises that where God’s people are gathered,
Wherever we make a sacred space,
God will be present.

God’s Spirit will be among us.

Will you feel the awe in such a moment?
Will you let the sacredness of the experience move you?
Will you, like Ezra’s people, respond with passion to the encounter with God?
Will you take the risk to let God’s Word penetrate your body and soul?
Will you let the Holy One, knocking at your door, into your life?

In the midst of your ordinary life,
God wants you to have space for the sacred,
An opportunity for awe at something more powerful than you.

In the Word made flesh,
God gives you an encounter with the Holy.

Here in this sacred space,
You may hear, feel, and experience the Holy One,
Whose body and blood were given and shed for you.
Amen