Nehemiah — Sermon by Rev. Canon Bryan Biba

Let us pray.

Lord, may my speech and my message not

be plausible words of human wisdom, but

a demonstration of the spirit and of

power, so that our faith may not rest in

the wisdom of men, but in the power of

the living God, through Jesus Christ our

Lord. Amen. You may be seated.

How do we rebuild after disaster?

How do we move forward after a season of

unfaithfulness?

How should the people of God reckon with

our failures?

These are some pretty heavy questions to

start off the month of August,

but these are the questions that the

heart of the book of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah is one of the most important

and yet understudied Old Testament

books. And today our lectionary gives us

one of the key moments from Nehemiah.

Nehemiah chapter 9. And so I'm using

Nehemiah 9 · chapter mention

this as an excuse to teach you the whole

book of Nehemiah this morning.

Let's first uh set a little context.

In the Hebrew Bible, the books of Ezra

and Nehemiah are one book written by two

authors.

It chronicles the history of Judah after

they return from exile. You'll remember

at the end of Second Kings, King

Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroys Judah

and Jerusalem and he hauls off those who

are living into exile.

For 50 years, the people of God lived as

sojourers in a foreign land among the

Gentiles.

And we have accounts of what that was

like. Notably the books of Daniel and

Esther.

There we see different drew Jews drawing

different boundaries. Some are

assimilating. Some are accommodating.

Some are resisting. But all are seeking

to be faithful

to the covenant that God made with his

people in a foreign land a far from the

promised land.

And then something quite unexpected

happens.

Babylon, the greatest empire the world

had ever seen,

falls

and then Persia and their king, King

Cyrus become the new global superpower

of the 6th century BC.

Nebuchadnezzar is no more. Now King

Cyrus reigns. This friends is a really

helpful reminder for us that no king or

empire lasts forever.

I'm sure the people in the sixth century

thought Babylon will last forever. It

will always be here. Things will always

be this way. But all empires and kings

will fall and crumble and they will give

way eventually to new empires and new

kings. Indeed, the world can change in

the blink of an eye.

We have to resist the temptation to

think that things have always and will

always be the same.

We must remember the encouragement of

the psalmist in Psalm 20. Some trust in

chariots and some in horses, but we will

trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Indeed, the people of God are called to

be faithful no matter who the king or

empire is.

The other thing to note here is that

kings and empires can be very different

from one another.

The Persian king Cyrus is a very

different kind of king. Nebuchadnezzar

was very ruthless. The Babylonians

oppressed the Jews. They forced them to

accommodate to their religion and their

culture. But by the standards of the

sixth century,

the Persians were tolerant.

They didn't force their religion on

their subjects. King Cyrus issues a

decree. He allows the Jewish people to

return to their homeland, to rebuild

their temple,

to restore what was lost.

And so, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah

recount this effort. Ezra is the priest.

Nehemiah is the governor. These two

leaders are sent by this pagan king to

rebuild, to pave the way for the people

of God to return to the promised land.

Can you imagine for a moment what that

must have felt like?

We get a glimpse of it in Psalm 126.

When the Lord restored the fortunes of

Zion, then we were like those who

dreamed. Then was our mouth filled with

laughter and our tongues with shouts of

joy.

But of course, just because they've

returned to the promised land, it

doesn't mean all their problems have

gone away. Now they have a whole new set

of problems to deal with.

The Jews have lived in a foreign land

for so long that many have forgotten how

to be a holy people, a people set apart.

Many of the men have taken foreign

wives. They've adopted foreign languages

and customs. Some have even completely

forgot about the God of Israel and the

story of his people.

For some, being Jewish is cultural, not

religious.

As a result, their ambitions are

political rather than spiritual. And so

Ezra and Nehemiah launch this great

campaign. Ezra chapters 1-6 recounts the

Ezra 1 · chapter mention

rebuilding of the temple.

Ezra chapters 7-10 recounts the

Ezra 7 · chapter mention

rebuilding of the law. And then in

Nehemiah chapters 1-6,

Nehemiah 1 · chapter mention

it recounts the rebuilding of the walls.

So now the people's worship is restored.

Now their defenses are restored. Now the

law has been restored.

But it's one thing to rebuild

structures. Brick and mortar are

relatively easy to work with. It's much

harder to rebuild stubborn, stiff-

necked human hearts. And this, friends,

brings us to our reading. Let's look at

together at Nehemiah chapter 7. We'll

Nehemiah 7 · chapter mention

start there because it really helps set

up what happens in Nehemiah chapter 9.

Nehemiah 9 · chapter mention

If you turn there in your Bibles with

me, you'll see immediately we have a

bunch of difficult to pronounce names

and a lot of numbers.

What's going on here? Well, Nehemiah,

the governor, does what governors do. He

conducts a census to determine who

exactly has returned from exile. Who are

these people in front of me? What tribe

do they belong to? What clan do they

belong to? And if you do the math, you

don't have to do it this morning. I've

done it for you. If you do the math,

this group is almost exactly one

generation after the exile.

Which means the oldest among them may

have lived through the destruction of

Jerusalem. They may have remembered what

it was like. But the youngest among

them, many of them were born in exile.

They have no memory of Jerusalem

and Judea.

And so in Nehemiah chapter 8, Ezra the

Nehemiah 8 · chapter mention

priest gathers all the people in

Jerusalem before the west gate and he

reads the book of the law to all the

people. This is a moment of covenant

renewal. It echoes the renewal by Moses

at the end of the book of Deuteronomy

and Joshua's renewal of the covenant at

Sheckchim at the end of the conquest of

Canaan.

This taking a moment to recite the law

and renew the covenant. Friends, this is

what we do every week in worship. That's

why we gather in word and sacrament. We

hear the word of God, the word of the

Lord read, and we receive his sacraments

renewing the new covenant made in his

blood.

The Lord's day is a day for covenant

renewal. Why? Because you and I forget.

We forget, don't we?

So, we need to be reminded.

That brings us to uh chapter 8. Uh they

read the law. How do the people respond

to the reading of the law? Verse 9.

And Nehemiah, who was 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 as they heard

the words of the law.

When the people hear the words of the

law,

they respond with tears. They're crying.

They now profoundly understand how far

they have fallen short.

This reaction is understandable. But

Nehemiah encourages them. Don't weep.

Don't mourn.

Verse 10. Go your way. Eat the fat.

Drink sweet wine. Spend portions to

anyone who has nothing ready. For this

day is holy to our Lord. Do not be

grieved for the joy of the Lord is your

strength.

See friends, our first response to

hearing the word of the Lord should be

joy

because God's word is a gift of grace.

He doesn't leave us in the dark to

wonder. He tells us what he expects of

us. Amen. Thanks be to God. When we hear

the word of God, we should receive it

with joy in our hearts, thankful that he

has spoken to us. His word is a sign of

his love.

And so Nehemiah encourages the people,

rejoice in the words of the Lord. And

then you get that phrase that's on so

many Hobby Lobby pillows, right?

The joy of the Lord is your strength.

>> As we face the challenges and struggles

of this life, when we're confronted by

sin and darkness, overwhelmed with our

own worries and concerns, we must return

again to the unending

joy of the Lord. That friends is the

source of our strength. Not our ability

to accomplish things or our

understanding,

but in the Lord's graciousness, in his

unending joy and love for us.

The Lord gives himself to us in his word

and invites us to rest. And it's from

that place of rest and receptivity that

we find strength. The joy of the Lord,

the joy that is constant and true no

matter our circumstances, no matter

where we find ourselves.

Indeed, friends, mourning and weeping is

not a bad thing. As Ecclesiastes says,

there's a time to mourn and a time to

weep. The problem is getting things in

the wrong order. Nehemiah wants them to

first rejoice and find their strength in

the joy of the Lord. Joy comes first,

then mourning and weeping. And this

brings us to our actual Old Testament

reading, Nehemiah chapter 9.

Nehemiah 9 · chapter mention

We learned in chapter 8, that this

reading of the law happened on the first

and second days of the month. And now

here chapter 9 verse one, the 24th day

of the month, two weeks later, the

people of Israel were assembled with

fasting and in sackcloth with earth on

their heads.

Now, two weeks later is the time for

mourning and weeping, the time for

sackcloth and ashes. Here, of course, is

one of the great biblical inspirations

for the season of Lent. Every year the

church sets aside time dedicated to

lamenting, to mourning, to weeping.

Literally beginning by rubbing ashes on

our heads. There's the biblical

precedent.

There's a time for joy. That should come

first. But then comes mourning and

weeping.

You guys make time for mourning and

weeping in your life.

You should.

Church isn't always very good at

inviting people into that, but that's a

really important thing, especially in

our world where there's so much pain and

suffering.

But now, friends, verse two, here's

where things get interesting.

And the Israelites

separated themselves from all foreigners

and stood and confessed their sins and

the iniquities of their fathers.

Let's break it down. First, the

Israelites separate themselves. They

distinguish between those who belong to

the covenant of Abraham by birth and

those who don't. Remember, many of them

have intermarried at this point.

Psychologists call this differentiation,

the work of distinguishing ourselves

from the groups we belong to. Because

all of us tend to lose ourselves in the

communities that you are a part of. We

succumb to group think and confirmation

bias. If you don't believe me, uh go to

a rock concert or a political rally

sometime. You do things you don't think

you would normally do because of the

influence of those around you. And if

we're not careful, we'll just go along

with what the group says we should do.

But often the first step to healing and

freedom is to do the hard work of

differentiation. I am part of this group

but this group is not me. I am my own

person with my own issues and yet I am

part of this community.

And after they separate themselves then

number two they stood and confessed

their sins. The Israelites take

responsibility for their failures. They

honestly admit their ignorance and

disobedience

to the law.

Confession, friends, is the first

movement in repentance. We can't turn

around and go another way unless we

first admit that we're wrong.

And as we healthfully differentiate from

our families, from our communities, then

we have to begin to take responsibility

for our actions. How have we contributed

to the brokenness of our culture, of our

society, to the patterns of sin and

death?

You know, friends, inequity is rarely

the fault totally of one party.

All of us contribute in some way to the

conflicts that we're a part of. Maybe

it's only five or 10%, but you still

have a part to play.

Repentance requires us to honestly

assess how we may have contributed to

the brokenness in our lives, the

brokenness of our communities.

We differentiate and then we confess.

Without that differentiation, we'll

never take responsibility for what we've

done.

But the people of Israel go beyond this.

They also confess the iniquities of

their fathers.

They're taking corporate responsibility

for the sins and disobedience of the

generations that came before. I mean,

most of these people here weren't there

for the exile.

It was the decisions of their fathers,

their grandfathers, their

great-grandfathers and mothers that got

them here. They're living with the

consequences of the sins and death of

the generations before.

We Americans often struggle with this

concept because we're individualists.

We believe individuals need to take

responsibility for their mistakes. I

mean, why should I be held accountable

for the actions of people I didn't even

know who lived centuries before me?

This is hard. But what Nehemiah 9

teaches us is that there are some sins,

especially corporate sins, that are far

too big for any one individual to bear.

Indeed, because we bear the consequences

of the sins of those who came before us.

All the more reason we need to bear the

iniquity and confess.

Sometimes this means taking the

responsibility

for the mistakes of others.

Yet when we remember and confess the

iniquities of our fathers, something

else happens. Something that is truly

extraordinary. Verse 5,

then the Levites, the leaders of Israel

said, "Stand up and bless the Lord your

God from everlasting to everlasting.

Blessed be your glorious name which is

exalted above all blessing and praise.

You are the Lord, you alone. You have

made heaven, the heaven of heavens with

all their hosts, the earth and all that

is in it, the seas and all that is in

them. And you preserve all of them. And

the host of heaven worships you.

See friends, when we're confessing our

sins and confessing the iniquity of our

fathers, we are then free to praise God,

to give him the praise that he is due

regardless of the circumstance.

No matter how bad it might appear to be,

no matter how much we struggle and

suffer, it is our duty to bless the Lord

because he's always deserving of our

worship. And his joy is unending no

matter our circumstance.

The rest of this chapter, verses 6

through 38, recounts the history of

Israel,

of God's people and his relationship

with them. And in every episode

there is this clear

constant unending truth. It's summarized

in verse 17.

Let's start at verse 16. But they and

our fathers acted presumptuously and

stiffened their neck and did not obey

your commandments. They refused to obey

and were not mindful of the wonders that

you performed among them. But they

stiffened their neck and appointed a

leader to return to their slavery in

Egypt. But

you are a God ready to forgive,

gracious and merciful,

slow to anger, abounding in steadfast

love, and did not forsake them.

See friends,

when we confess our sins, even our

corporate sins,

we are also at the same time reminded of

the goodness of God. Indeed, confessing

leads us to deeper realization of the

goodness of God, that he is faithful no

matter what.

There's no sin that we could commit, no

failure too great, no disobedience too

terrible, no neck so stiff

that we cannot be healed and transformed

by the love of God.

And indeed, this is St. Paul's profound

insight in Romans 8.

Who shall separate us from the love of

Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or

persecution or famine or nakedness or

danger or sword or exile,

unfaithfulness, disobedience,

as it is written, for your sake we are

being killed all the day long. We are

regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No,

in all these things we are more than

conquerors

through him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death nor

life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things

present, nor things to come, nor powers,

nor heights, or depth, nor anything else

in all of creation,

not even our sins,

will be able to separate us from the

love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This isn't a new idea from St. Paul.

This is Nehemiah. He's just restating it

in light of the work of Christ. Our

sins are not the final word. Our

failures are not the final word. The

love of God is, it always is.

The great love of God is the very thing

that enables us to honestly confess our

failures and the failures of our

families and our communities.

As a priest, I get to hear people's

private confession. It's it's one of the

great joys of ministry. I've seen God do

really incredible things. People being

set free from weights they've beared for

decades.

And something happens when they put it

to words, when they speak what has been

enslaving them, keeping them in a box,

in a cage for so long. And I've noticed

something. Sometimes I think we resist

confession because we fear that we will

be crushed by honesty.

That if we're honest about how really

terrible we are that we won't be able to

bear it. And that's true. We won't be

able to bear it. But when we confess our

sins, something amazing happens. God

bears our sins for us. He enters into

our sins with us.

Honestly confessing our sins sets us

free and opens us a new to the great

love of God.

So how do we rebuild after disaster?

How do we move forward after a season of

unfaithfulness?

How should the people of God reckon with

our failures? Well, the book of Nehemiah

tells us two things.

First, we need to find our strength in

the joy of the Lord, in his word, in his

love, in his goodness.

And then second, we must honestly

confess our sins

and the sins of our fathers, the sins of

our community.

Because it's in that confession

that we learn new depths of the profound

love of God.

Then

we will be more than conquerors.

Then we will know Jesus Christ.

In the name of the Father and the Son

and the Holy Spirit. Amen.