water gate and the lost art of reverence

nehemiah 8-message
"by the time the seventh month arrived, the people of israel were settled in their towns. then all the people gathered as one person in the town square in front of the water gate and asked the scholar ezra to bring the book of The Revelation of Moses that God had commanded for israel. so ezra the priest brought The Revelation to the congregation, which was made up of both men and women--everyone capable of understanding it...he read it facing the town square at the water gate from early dawn until noon in the hearing of the men and women, all who could understand it. and all the people listened--they were all ears--to the book of Revelation. the scholar ezra stood on a wooden platform constructed for the occasion...ezra opened the book. every eye was on him, as he opened the book everyone stood. then ezra praised God, and all the people responded, "oh yes! yes!" with hands raised high. then they fell to their knees in worship of God, their faces to the ground."

now. as i first read this this morning, i was caught by their reverence. they stood when The Book was opened. they stood to hear The Word from early in the morning until noon. we can't even ask people to bring their bible one day a week for an hour, or even stay awake during the reading of it, much less give it half as much reverence as in nehemiah's day. i find a problem with this. a huge problem. where have we gone wrong? is it the screens? i'm a media guy myself obviously, and i think we should bring our Word and display it on the screen. so i dont think thats it. i think it's just a fact that we've lost our reverence. and if we've lost our reverence for God's word, where he gives us ALL instruction, what else have we lost reverence for? everything in it? scary thought.

cheers