“There were other gates in the walls of the city. In earlier chapters Nehemiah tells of many of them being rebuilt. The Sheep Gate. The Fish Gate. The Old Gate. The Valley Gate. The Fountain Gate. The East Gate. The Muster Gate. The Dung Gate. But something happened at the Water Gate. When pondering the return of the people to Jerusalem; the city being rebuilt, the temple being restored, the Law being reclaimed, the Water Gate is worth remembering.

The square was a public gathering place where men and women could be together without the ritual separation required at the temple. The people came together as one, telling Ezra, the scribe and priest, to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses. The crowds grew and all the people who could hear with understanding found themselves drawn closer. Ezra read from the Law and kept their attention, from early morning right on until noon. The Book of the Law of Moses held their attention; not just law lists, but stories of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac, Ishamel,  Jacob, Rachel, and Leah, stories of Moses and the Red Sea and Mt. Sinai, the wilderness wanderings of the people of God.  It was more than just a list of rules that held their attention. It was the their past, and it was God's covenant with them, and it was God's promise of their future.
Ezra read from some kind of wooden pulpit. They say it was made just for that purpose: the public reading of the Word of God. A gathering of people stood on both the left and right of Ezra while he read. Their names are listed but no titles given. Maybe they were there to assist with the scroll. Maybe they were there to stand as witnesses as the Law of God was being read. Maybe they were there to symbolize how "people-driven" this Water Gate event really was. The people are everywhere and throughout this scene. Ezra brought out the book at the request of the people. Ezra opened the book in the sight of all people. And in a move of reverence and respect, all the people stood up. All the people said "Amen and Amen". All the people bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord. This Water Gate was about the people and the Word of God.
 With the crowd still gathered, as the people remained in a position of worship and adoration, a gathering of Levites (a team of priests) began to help everyone to understand what they were hearing. It seems as if right there in the square, the crowd was broken up into groups Thirteen Levites led discussions and offered clarification. Reading and interpreting continued. As it is written, "they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading".

It must have been right about then, as various waves of understanding were coming upon them, it must have been right about then that the weeping started. People wept as they heard the law. It doesn't say why; why they were weeping and mourning. It sounds like some kind of revival. People moved by a preacher. Tears flowing. An invitation given. Just as I am without one plea! A Billy Graham kind of moment. Individuals overcome by their own encounter with the grace of God. In response to the preaching, the square was full of tears.

But there's little here in the text about the individual. All are able to hear. The ears of all the people were attentive to the Law. This is  no "coming to the garden alone". There is no me and my God. It's much more a collective experience. The tears are more corporate. In this context of the people of Israel returning from exile. The people rebuilding the temple. The people restoring the city. The people asking Ezra to read and preach from the Torah. The people gathering together. The people standing as one to hear. The people bowing their heads. It is the people who understood the reading. There at the Water Gate, it was all about their life together as the people of God. Their city life, worship life, family life, community life, it was their life together before God that brought them to tears. In the reading and interpreting of the Book of the Law of Moses the people heard of God's promise, God's expectation, God's future. They heard the words of the law and all the people wept.

"Do not mourn or weep. This day is holy to the Lord your God."  The preacher of the day told the people to go and eat and drink and share from their abundance with those who have none. In contrast to the grief, they told the people to celebrate a feast. They told them to have a party. Do not be overcome with grieve because "the joy of the Lord is your strength." And that Water Gate gathering finally broke up because the people went on their way to eat and to drink and to share what they had with those in need. Or as the bible tells it, they went "to send portions." And they went "to make great rejoicing." Sending portions and making great rejoicing because "they had understood the words that were declared to them." They had understood the book of the law of Moses. In a new time and in a still familiar place they had a fresh hearing of the law of God. In the gathering, in the worship, in the reading and in the preaching, together as a community they had experienced the Word of God.
When you sit in the sanctuary of Nassau Presbyterian Church, history and tradition sort of engulfs you. From the discomfort of those old pews to the central pulpit before you crafted for this purpose. From the choir loft in the rear intended to enhance the congregation as the first choir to the plain and simple design that shuns ostentation in honor of the Reformed concern about the Second Commandment and images that might take away from our worship of the one true God.
Beyond what you can see, there is that intellectual and theological environment around you as you sit in the heart of American Presbyterian history. Both the space of our worship and the practice of our worship has roots in Reformation history and among whole lot of other characteristics, that tradition defines us a people of the Word. The scripture as the Word of God available in the language of the people. Preaching as the Word of God as in the power of the Holy Spirit, the community gathers and the scriptures are interpreted and the gospel is proclaimed. The Word of God made flesh in Jesus Christ, so that all reading, all study, all interpretation, all proclamation is in service to the One who is full of grace and full of truth.

People of the Word. People of the Word in a new time and in a still familiar place yearning for a fresh hearing of the Word of God. In this gathering, in worship, in reading and preaching together as a community of faith experiencing the Word of God. It would be much easier if the tradition of preaching entrusted to me, entrusted to us actually, if the tradition and expectation of preaching was all about personal piety and the individual's relationship to God, if preaching was just chat about religious stuff; prayer and spirituality and forgiveness. Of course there are mornings when preaching is all about that. And it is not hard to find places where that's what preaching is all the time! But the mantle of proclamation passed on to us demands more. The mantle demands a preaching life, preacher and congregation, that's about discerning our life together and our life in the world, discerning how our faith informs what is going not just in the temple, but in the city, in our life together. People of the Word discerning a faithful response when it comes to the world, and to relationships, and to inter-faith understanding, and to war, and to terrorism, and to torture, and to immigration, and to global warming, and to gang violence in the community, and to genocide in the Sudan, and to and to...and to....and to........
You and I, we hear and listen and strain to understand, we struggle to get the sense of the Word for this time and this place. The people of God together and our collective experience of the Word. Remember the Water Gate, where it was all about life together; community life, worship life, city life. Where it was all about hearing of God's promise, God's expectation, God's future. And some days, like the crowds gathered before the Word as Ezra preached, some times when you look around, tears carry the day.

But the joy of the Lord shall be our strength. We won't always agree about everything. Presbyterians never do, and they never did. But our worship life will be a feast. And out of our abundance we shall send portions; working to serve the hungry, and the refugees, and the homeless, we will work to serve those who have little or less. Because we're a people of the Word. We are the Church. We are the body of Christ in service to the world. That's calls for a whole lot more than a Sunday morning chat about religious stuff.

It means that together, this community of faith, the people of God, we yearn for a fresh experience of the Word of God.

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