January 25, 2004
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To understand the tears and
shouts of the people, we have to go back to the beginning of the book. As we
learn who Nehemiah is, and why he and Ezra were leading this worship service and
feast. Nehemiah was living large in
Susa, the capital city of Persia, which is now the country of Iran. He had a
good job in the king’s house. He was the king’s cupbearer, the chief butler.
Nehemiah was in charge of the king’s table.
If he were a character in a
comic book or old television show, Nehemiah would be Higgins to Robin Masters on
Magnum PI. He is Alfred to Bruce Wayne and Batman. Nehemiah is Cato to the Green
Hornet, he is Benson to the Governor of what state he lived in. Nehemiah is in
the position of Princess Diana’s butler, except he kept the king’s
confidences confidential. He had the king’s full faith and trust. Life is good for Nehemiah.
One day his brother and some friends come over from Jerusalem, and with their
arrival comes a reality check that changes Nehemiah forever. It all begins with
a question you or I would ask if visitors from our hometown or old neighborhood
came to see us. “How are things with the
people still in Jerusalem? How are the folks who were not taken, who managed to
hide or fight and who avoided being taken into exile when the Babylonians came
and captured the city? How is it with the ones not taken the old men, the women,
the children, and the priests? How are things in Jerusalem? They tell him, “the
survivors there in the province who escaped captivity are in great trouble and
shame; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been destroyed
by fire” (Nehemiah 1.3). Nehemiah knows that a broken
wall and burned gates mean the people cannot be protected as they ought to be,
now they are vulnerable. A broken wall can mean
neglect – like people just cannot take care of things. It indicates a lack of
care or resources. A car crashed through a wall at Bryden and Ohio Streets some
months ago. It was weeks before the rubble was cleared up. There may have been a
good reason for the delay in cleaning it up, but until the broken pieces were
picked up and discarded, the corner just looked un-kept.
Nehemiah heard of the broken
wall and remembered that the destruction of Jerusalem happened because God‘s
people quit paying attention to the important things like the worship of God and
their care for one another. He remembered that what happened in Jerusalem
mattered to him all the way over in Susa. Nehemiah wept, fasted, prayed, and
then he did something else. Nehemiah shows us the difference one person makes. He got up, he dried his eyes
and he went back to work. But the heaviness of his heart showed on his face and
there came a day when the king noticed all was not well with him. When he asked
what the problem was, Nehemiah told him. And the king said, “what can I do for
you. You have served me well all these years, how can I help you now?” Nehemiah asked for time off
to go to Jerusalem to help rebuild the wall. The king said, OK. They agreed on a
sabbatical, they set a date for him to go and a date for him to return.
The king also gave him a letter of safe passage, a military escort and
permission to gather the wood and materials he would need. Eventually, Nehemiah arrived
in Jerusalem and made his plans known to the people. He explained the reality of
the situation and what he proposed to do about it, and that he needed their
help. The people did not say, “we cannot afford it”, or “there are too few
of us” they said, “‘Let’s start building!’ and
they committed themselves to the common good” (2.18).
Then the priests, the craftsman, women and children, the young and the old, the
ones who could pick up a hammer, polish brass, provide food and water and the
ones who prayed got to work. The people joined together to repair the walls and
the gates around Jerusalem because they knew that all of them had a stake in the
city being secure just as we all have a stake in this congregation being
healthy. We are invested because we are not the leftovers of a once influential
congregation. We are the ones called to begin the next phase of a congregation
that will be as strong as God gives it grace to be. Let’s start building! The days of building were
not easy. There were folks inside the broken walls who did not want the wall to
be built. Sanballat and his buddies came by often to threaten,
harass, sabotage, lie, and everything else they could to stop the work.
But Nehemiah and the people would not stop because, “the
people had a mind to work” (4.6b),
and fifty two days after the work began there was a restored wall and repaired
gates surrounding the city of Jerusalem. The days of re-building will not be
easy for us either. But this is the work God has given us to do. Let’s start
building. And let’s praise God as we do. That is what Nehemiah and the people
did, and we can too. The people worked, they
prayed, they built the walls. Now they have gathered to celebrate and dedicate
their work. Nehemiah turns to the priest, Ezra who began to read from the books
we know as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
He read and explained how God had created them, loved them, kept them
safe only to have the people turn away from God when life got hard. They
realized their sin, they cried out to God who heard them, forgave them, and said
to them, “I created you, I love you, I will keep you safe, come back to me.”
The people return to God only to turn away again. Over and over they turned
away, over and over God called them back and now here they are, standing by the
Water Gate hearing the words of scripture read to them again. Ezra read and the people
wept over what they had not done, he read and they wept at the forgiveness God
offers, Ezra read and the people listened, and raised their hands, said,
“Amen!” and wept for what God had done and for what God would do in their
lives. We do not know exactly what
Ezra read that day. Maybe it was every verse of every chapter of the law. Maybe
he read the good parts that reminded the people of how good God is. I can see Ezra turning to
Genesis and recalling for the people the promise God made to Abraham and the two
generations following: “I will establish my covenant
between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations,
for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you”
(17.7). We
are heirs to this promise too. Then from the book of Exodus
where the people complained of thirst and nearly lost their faith, Ezra reads as
God says to Moses, “strike the rock and water
will come out of it so the people may drink” (17.6).
Moses did, the people were able to drink and “Moses
called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and tested
the LORD, saying, ‘Is the LORD among us or not?”(17.7)
That is a question I pray we answer with a loud and confident yes! I believe Ezra turned to
Leviticus, and chose not to read about dietary laws and legal codes. I believe
he reminded the people to care for one another, “When
you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your
field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your
vineyard bare or gather fallen grapes…you shall leave them for the poor and
the alien: I am the LORD your God” (19.9-10).
We serve God best when we serve others. From the book of Numbers he
shared a benediction: “The LORD bless you and keep
you. The LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you, the LORD
lift up his countenance and give you peace” (6.24-26).
We can know the well-being of the presence of God. From Deuteronomy Ezra
challenged and encouraged the people with these words: “I
call heaven and earth to witness against you that I have set before you life and
death, blessing and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendents may
live” (30.19).
God has called us to be alive in this place. Choose life. And finally, he had the
choir take their places and sing, “The LORD is my
light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is stronghold of my life; of
whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm
27.1). If God is with us, why should we be overwhelmed by fear, ever? What would it be like for us
if we gathered here one day and opened up the Bible and began to read and
interpret scripture all day long? Would we find strength and comfort, and the
ability to dream and work toward a future full of restoration and renewal? What
verses of scripture would you find meaningful? What verses would cause you to
bow your head, raise your hands in praise and surrender to God, and say Amen? The question is important
because we have all of these same scriptures to help us deal with the broken
places in us. They can help us know that God is with us, in us, wanting what is
best for us and calling out the best in us. And we have Jesus Christ who loved
us so much that he not only left us his teachings and miracles, and his death
and resurrection, but this great promise: “Peace, I
leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled; and do not let them be afraid”. (John
14.27). This Jesus opened the book
of Isaiah and at the risk of rejection and at the cost of his life, declared
God’s purpose for him. It was to repair the world’s broken spirits, it was
to repair our broken spirits. It was to make things right with God. He came to repair that part
of the wall that says there is not good news for the spiritually poor or
materially poor. There is good news, and it is this, through Jesus Christ, God
loves us and will give us an abundance of faith and strength to know the wealth
of God’s love and care for us. When we are hiding behind walls of fear and held captive by what we cannot afford to do and who is no longer here, he frees us to see that we are here and here is a good place to begin again. When we are blind to what
can be, he opens our eyes and let’s us see that “nothing
is impossible with God” (Luke 1.37).
He brings liberating justice and declares that this is the
year of God’s favor. He tells us that God does not give up on us, and that we
ought not give up on each other. Something Martin Luther
King, Jr. said in 1968 is true for us today, “we’ve got some difficult days
ahead” as we rebuild the membership of this congregation.
But we have all had difficult days before and we are still here. I
believe even in this present moment, we can begin to build here.
Forty can become sixty, and sixty can become eighty, and eighty can
become 100 and 200 if we remember to read and live the scripture that calls us
to pray and to work, to trust God and then as my high school principal liked to
say, plan our work and work our plan. Together we can build up
relationships and praise God for the nurturing caring spirit in us. We can build
up excellence and praise God for jobs well done. We can build up hope, and not
give all the power to the despair we sometimes feel. As we do we will build up
our congregation, and it will grow stronger, better, and even more faithful. We can build up praise and
know that when we praise God with our words and deeds, our lips and our lives,
God will bless us and strengthen us. God will give us reason to gather and work
and worship and share our coming abundance with those who have need. God has
promised that our broken places can be repaired. Let’s start building!
Amen. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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