{"id":4880,"date":"2020-07-01T19:56:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T19:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpmu.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/?p=4880"},"modified":"2021-12-08T09:19:15","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T09:19:15","slug":"an-ezra-moment-returning-to-our-story-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmu2.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/2020\/07\/01\/an-ezra-moment-returning-to-our-story-during-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"An Ezra Moment: Returning to Our Story during COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Paul Caminiti, Institute for Bible Reading<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 538 BC, the nation of Israel limped home. After\nseventy years of Babylonian captivity, they returned to Judah to find Jerusalem\nin ruins. The wall was torn down, the gates were destroyed, and the Temple was\nlittle more than a pile of rubble. Nehemiah weeps when he learns of the\ncondition of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The people are disoriented. The glory days of David and\nSolomon are long gone, and their once world-class city is a shell of its former\nself. They rebuild the Temple, and those old enough to remember the glory of\nthe first Temple weep tears of mourning. Nehemiah rebuilds the walls and gates\nsurrounding the city, but reality bites. The once-proud superpower has been\nreduced to a third-rate nation with no king, no army, and no treasury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then something amazing happens. Once the basic\ninfrastructure is set up, the people come to Ezra, their chief priest, with a\nrequest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn October, when the Israelites had settled in their towns,\nall the people assembled with a unified purpose at the square just inside the\nWater Gate. They asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of\nMoses, which the Lord had given\nfor Israel to obey\u201d (Nehemiah 7:73\u20138:1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Although the walls and the Temple were standing again, the\npeople sensed that something was still broken: themselves. They believed that\nhealing would come through re-immersion in their Story. Ezra responded\nimmediately by organizing a corporate day of Scripture reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe faced the square just inside the Water Gate from early\nmorning until noon and read aloud to everyone who could understand. All the\npeople listened closely to the Book of the Law\u201d (Nehemiah 8:3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Church in the Age of\nCoronavirus<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The COVID-19 virus hardly needs an introduction. Over the past\nfew months our lives and habits have been upended. Words like \u201ccrisis\u201d and\n\u201cpandemic\u201d flood our thoughts and our imaginations. We\u2019ve been isolated, cut\noff from our friends and loved ones, and even spent many weeks unable to even\ngather for worship on Sundays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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During this time, pastors scrambled to create infrastructures\nwith which to \u201cdo church\u201d during these strange and unsettling times. And though\nslowly we are coming out of isolation, what has been discovered is that\nreturning to \u201cnormal\u201d will look different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During those lonely days, technology helped us to piece\ntogether a vague sense of community; it was and continues to be a difficult\nseason of change. Infectious disease specialist Michael Osterholm said while\nmany view the crisis as a \u201cblizzard\u201d that must be waited out with extreme\nmeasures for a short period of time, the more appropriate response is to view\nit as the \u201cbeginning of winter.\u201d While the ultimate severity and longevity are\nunknown, many indicators point toward a likely scenario: things are going to be\ndifferent for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their moment of uncertainty and disorientation, the\nnation of Israel turned to their Scriptures to remember their identity, to\nrecount God\u2019s promises and his rescue, and to be reminded of the kind of people\nthey were called to be. During the winter of coronavirus, could the Body of\nChrist do something similar?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning to Our\nStory<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaken from our usual routines and frenetic pace, the virus\nhas given the church an opportunity to evaluate. What can \u201cchurch\u201d look like in\nan ever-changing world? Like Israel, we\u2019re faced with a bit of a blank slate.\nLike Israel, we can choose to return and re-focus on our founding Story told in\nthe Scriptures. A modern-day Ezra Moment, if you will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To help, we\u2019ve created \u201cImmerse from Home\u201d<\/a>\u2014a completely free downloadable resource that includes everything you need to (virtually) gather in community for a two-week book club reading of Luke-Acts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally intended as Volumes 1 and 2 of the same\ncombined story, Luke-Acts comprises a quarter of the New Testament. In a period\nof uncertainty and anxiety, what could be more orienting and grounding than the\nstory of Jesus and the story of the early church?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you and your group enjoy the Luke-Acts experience, you can continue reading the New Testament together using Immerse: Messiah<\/a><\/em>. If you live in the U.S. there is a 20% off discount on ImmerseBible.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Beginning of\nSomething New<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In his wisdom, Ezra understood that an emotional one-off\nevent wasn\u2019t sufficient and that he needed to create a comprehensive plan for\nsustainable rhythms of immersion in the sacred texts. The Scripture Reading\nMarathon became a turning point for the nation, but only because it was a\nstarting point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nehemiah goes on to tell us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn October 9 the family leaders of all the people, together\nwith the priests and Levites, met with Ezra the scribe to go over the law in\ngreater detail\u201d (Nehemiah 8:13).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same month, during the Festival of Trumpets, \u201cEzra\nread from the Book of the Law of God on each of the seven days of the festival\u201d\n(Nehemiah 8:18).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn October 31, the people assembled again. . . . They\nremained standing in place for three hours while the Book of the Law of the Lord their God was read aloud to them\u201d\n(Nehemiah 9:1, 3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time in their history, the Scriptures became\ncentral to Israel\u2019s way of life. Synagogues, created expressly for the public\nreading of Scripture, sprang up throughout Israel. Scattered song lyrics from\nDavid, Moses, Asaph, and others were compiled for the first time into the\nPsalms. By the first century AD, young boys between the ages of 6 and 10 were\nexpected to memorize the Torah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we ask: could the COVID-19 virus instigate an Ezra\nMoment? Could we take this opportunity to re-immerse ourselves in our Story?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We invite you to take action. To try something new\u2014and\nancient. Pastors, call your congregations into this experience. Small group and\nBible study leaders, challenge your groups to a two-week commitment. Regular\n\u201cJoes\u201d and \u201cJanes,\u201d try this with your spouse or your kids (use the Family\nGuide for younger kids) or invite some family and friends to weekly Zoom calls.\nInvite that one coworker or neighbor whom you\u2019ve never felt comfortable\ninviting to a Bible Study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the Scriptures washed over the nation on that first day\nof reading, the people began to weep. It\u2019s unclear why\u2014perhaps because they\nhadn\u2019t heard the Word in so long, or perhaps because they\u2019d never heard it at\nall. Perhaps because they were overwhelmed by guilt as they realized just how\nfar they had strayed from their calling. Regardless, guilt and shame would not\nhave the final say. Nehemiah jumps up and addresses the people:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t mourn or weep on such a day as this! For today is a\nsacred day before the Lord your\nGod. . . . Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet\ndrinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. This is\nsacred day before our Lord. Don\u2019t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!\u201d (Nehemiah\n8:9-10).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo the people went away to eat and drink at a festive meal, to share gifts of food, and to celebrate with great joy because they had heard God\u2019s words and understood them\u201d (Nehemiah 8:12).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more at Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about the Institute for Bible Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Paul Caminiti, Institute for Bible Reading Around 538 BC, the nation of Israel limped home. After seventy years of Babylonian captivity, they returned to Judah to find Jerusalem in ruins. The wall was torn down, the gates were destroyed, and the Temple was little more than a pile of rubble. Nehemiah weeps when he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[33,42,55],"tags":[127,199],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu2.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu2.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu2.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu2.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu2.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu2.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5627,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu2.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4880\/revisions\/5627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu2.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu2.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu2.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}