Reflections on God's Gift of Law--Lent Day 9 (Week 2)

Lent Day 9: Friday February 26

Theme for the Week: God’s Gift of the Ten Commandments

Passage for the Day:

Nehemiah 8:8-9

⁸ So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. ⁹ And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.

Reflection: The book of Nehemiah chronicles the experience of God’s people after they returned to Jerusalem after having been exiled to Babylon for nearly 75 years. Several generations of God’s people were born and raised outside of their homeland. The children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren the original exiles have now returned to a destroyed city to try to rebuild their lives. During the years in Babylon, the people have fallen away from their religious traditions, and their faith in the God, who chose them, has been weakened. Their governor and their priest pull them all together into the town square to teach them about God and God’s Word for them. These people, most of whom could not read, have been so out of touch with their religious traditions that many of them are unfamiliar with the gift of the Ten Commandments. The priests read to them from the sacred Scriptures and re-acquaint them with God’s gift of the Law or Ten Commandments. When the people hear God’s Word, they are overcome with a variety of emotions. The Word brings a kind of collective remembrance and a recognition of the ways in which they have fallen away from God. They cry tears that are a combination of mourning for what has been lost, joy that they can again hear God’s Word, and sorrow for all the things they have been doing wrong. The priests tell them not to cry, because the day is holy and because God is delighted that they have returned.

Imagine a situation where you have been away from home or perhaps away from the church for a prolonged period of time. You return to worship, perhaps in the church in which you were raised. You hear God’s Word and it stirs in you a cauldron of emotions. You remember hearing similar words standing by you grandmother’s side. You remember what it was like to share Holy Communion standing next to your parents. You realize how much you have missed being in church, and you realize how far you have strayed. If tears flow from your eyes, they are tears of remembrance, tears of joy that you have returned and tears that reflect your realization that you have made a lot of mistakes. Hearing God’s Word creates a kind of catharsis in you. God’s Word in the Law assumes the role of helping you realize where you have slipped and how much you have missed. God’s Law is no longer a noose around your neck, but a liberating agent.

Prayer Themes: Pray that I can hear God’s Word and realize how far I have strayed. Pray that I can hear God’s Word in the Law as a gift to me. Pray that God’s Word would call me both to remembrance and call me back into the community of faith.