Nehemiah – Salvaged Faith

Nehemiah: Everyone Is Included

Posted on February 12, 2023Leave a comment

Text: Nehemiah 11:1-2, 12:27-43

Nehemiah and company finished rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem in fifty-two days.

But when the work was complete, what they were left with was basically a shell of a city.

It had walls and gates.

It had a temple and temple staff and priests.

But what it didn’t have was people.

There were some who had lived amongst the ruins, but the majority of people were scattered in surrounding towns and villages.

And so with this nearly blank slate of a city, Nehemiah had to figure out how best to create their ideal city.

On Tuesday, I joined with other clergy from our circuit for our monthly meeting.

We represent twelve churches, almost all on this northwest side of Des Moines.

These gatherings help us think about how we can support one another’s ministry and what kind of work we might do together.

This Lenten season, we will be joining with some of these churches for a community Ash Wednesday service here at Immanuel with a choir made up of members from four different churches.

And for Good Friday, we will gather at Walnut Hills for a Tenebrae service with special music led by five different congregations.

But one of the main conversations that occupied our time was about how we are making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

As we think about the faithful disciples we have in our congregations, how are we empowering you all to go out and transform this city into what God desires it to be?

And Pastor Lee from Valley UMC reminded us of a principle of community organizing.

The question we should be asking is not always what I can do to impact this individual person today.

Sometimes, the question is, what do we want our community to look like in thirty years?

What does God want our community to look like in thirty years?

And what might need to happen in order to get to that place?

That was the kind of question Nehemiah was asking.

He heard God invite him to rebuild the community and the truth was, this isn’t the kind of work that could be accomplished in fifty-two days.

And he knew from past experiences with the officials and leaders exploiting the common folks that you had to be careful with power.

They needed to set up a system where all sorts of people were included and welcomed and had a voice.

So what did God want Jerusalem to look like in thirty years?

And what would it take to get there?

Nehemiah had a lot of options before him.

They could have focused on including just the wealthy and educated.

They could have picked the best and the brightest.

But as we see when they start this effort of resettling, they intentionally worked to make sure that people from every part of their nation were included.

To ensure they didn’t just pick out their favorites…

or just who they wanted to live in the city…

or just those who looked like them…

Nehemiah had the people cast lots.

As we demonstrated with the children, casting lots was a way of randomizing the decision.

One out of every ten people were chosen in this way to move from the surrounding villages up the road and into the fortified walls of the city proper.

And in one sense, this was a sacrifice for these people.

They had to uproot from their small towns and establish themselves in a new place.

But they were also invited to take on the responsibility of this rebuilding in the city in a way that allowed them to leave their own unique mark.

It was a way of saying: your tribe matters to the good of the whole.

We value having your part of the community at the table.

We not only welcome you, we celebrate you.

You are important to us.

This community belongs to you… just as much as it belongs to me.

And your presence here now will ensure that your part of the community will continue to be part of the future of this city and this people.

That is the conversation we are having right now with our welcoming statement.

In the first sentence of the statement, we are invited to claim this kind of truth:

“We celebrate God’s gift of diversity and value the wholeness made possible in community equally shared and shepherded by all.”

First… what does it mean that we celebrate God’s gift of diversity and value the wholeness made possible in community?

This church has welcome and hospitality as one of its core values.

So many of you, in our Nehemiah community groups, shared about how you first connected with the congregation.

Time and time again, I heard the story of how you planned to visit a few congregations, but once you arrived at Immanuel, you never went anywhere else.

You felt love and support and welcome.

When I first got to Immanuel, I experienced that to be true as well.

I’ve learned you are quick to show up at the bedside of a friend and have often visited before I even hear someone is in the hospital or sick.

I see the care that is taken to make this a hospitable and welcoming place: from coffee time and funeral lunches to how you make space for others.

On the sign outside our building, it says, ‘All Welcome!’ and you really want to everyone to feel welcome here.

Just this week, I was working on our statistical tables and I thought about just how much our diversity has increased this past year as we officially welcomed IGF to be part of our church.

But we also have a wide range of ages… from nine-week-old babies to nonagenarians.

We are wealthy and we struggle financially.

We are healthy and we need healing.

Some of us have been educated on the streets and some of us have taught in universities.

We vote republican and we vote democrat and some of us don’t vote.

And even Cyclones and Hawkeyes and Panthers all attend here and are still somehow able to worship together.

More than that… we celebrate that diversity.

We learn from one another, we partner with one another, and share our diverse gifts.

But, sometimes I think the love and welcome of Immanuel is one of our best kept secrets.

There are folks in this neighborhood and larger community who do not know they would be welcome here…

Even though the sign says, “All Welcome,” there are people who might wonder, “even me?”

We might not force them to cast lots and make them come inside our church, but being explicit about who is welcome and showing and affirming that broadly might help our neighbors to see this as a place that they, too, could find belonging.

A place where they could share in ministry.

So one of our congregational goals for 2023 is that we want to become a place that is known as safe, comforting, and supportive for all people.

And our welcoming statement is a part of that, because it helps us be more explicit about what we truly mean by welcome.

But, it also invites us to truly become a community equally shared and shepherded by all.

There is another way that Nehemiah emphasized this kind of welcome and celebration of people from every walk of life.

You see, the time finally came to throw a party.

A real celebration for the completion of the wall.

And he could have just held auditions and picked the best band and singers and the most famous speakers.

But instead, he intentionally made sure that there were people from every part of the community present.

They were sought out from all the places they lived.

And they could have just had the party in one prime location… like the square where they rededicated themselves to God…

But instead, Nehemiah made sure that every single square inch of that wall was celebrated.

And in doing so, he honored and celebrated the work of all of the everyday people who played a part…

the goldsmith and the perfumer…

and the folks who carried stones and who held shields and who stayed up all night…

and the daughters and grandchildren who came to help…

He made sure that everyone who had been part of the work was valued and celebrated in the process.

When I think about the impact of a welcoming statement like the one before us, I think about how even inside this caring, loving community, there are folks who might have a part of their lives they aren’t sure is welcome.

They might hesitate to talk about their divorce.

Or worry about how their pew mates might accept their non-binary grandchild.

There are folks who might hesitate to participate in a small group because English isn’t their first language.

They might hold back their concerns about whether they can afford to stay in their home.

An explicit welcome helps us convey:

We not only welcome you, we celebrate you.

You are important to us.

And you have something to offer this community that we need.

This community belongs to you… just as much as it belongs to me.

But it also says, we will continue to have your back… just like we did before.

We will work to support you and walk alongside you in the future we are claiming together.

And if needed, we will go to bat for you in the struggles that you face in this world.

The celebration and dedication of the wall was also a celebration and dedication of the future for the city of Jerusalem.

They held before them a vision of the kind of place they wanted to be in thirty years.

A community where all parts were cherished and had a role to play.

A community that would hold one another accountable to the commitments they had made.

A community that would have one another’s backs whenever hardship would come.

And I hold this community in my prayers as you discern and think about the kind of place you want to be in thirty years as well.

Nehemiah: Renewing Our Commitment

Posted on February 5, 2023Leave a comment

Text: Nehemiah 8:5-10; 9:1-3, 38; 10:28-29

Last week, we talked about some of the opposition that the builders and Nehemiah faced while building the wall.

He had to deal with scandal and oppression perpetrated by his own officials…

but he also had to create plans to protect the people from enemies who wanted to attack and destroy their work.

And then suddenly, the work was complete.

It took just fifty-two days to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem.

FIFTY-TWO DAYS!

My drive home takes me down 63rd and they have been working to rebuild the bridges on Highway 28 over the Raccoon River since last summer and are only halfway done.

But these everyday folks rebuilt the walls of the entire city in fifty-two days.

So… what happened next?

Did they throw a party?

No. Nehemiah counts up the people.

He takes a census of all of the Israelites and counts up 42,360 people, an additional 7,337 slaves, 345 singers, 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys.

And they take up an offering.

You know, like you do.

And then do they throw a party?

Nope.

Because all along this has not been a story about rebuilding a wall.

It has been a story about rebuilding a people.

Rebuilding a community that was centered on God.

As we talked about in the first week of this series, in order to get to the good stuff and address their needs related to belonging and identity, they first had to make sure that they cared for safety and security needs.

But once the walls were built and the gates restored and the officials were brought back in line from oppressive practices… well, the people could breathe.

And they could begin to refocus on their relationship with God.

In fact, rather than Nehemiah initiating the next steps, he writes that the people gathered together and asked the scholar Ezra to bring out the Law of Moses.

Ezra also had a calling… to rebuild the faith of the people, and his story can be found in the first half of the Ezra-Nehemiah saga.

As a priest, he understood that a right relationship with God was the only true source for security for the people.

And he understood that God’s law was the foundation for that “right relationship.”

The people are ready to listen.

So Ezra pulls out the scroll of the Law of Moses.

Many scholars think that this was likely what we know today as the Book of Deuteronomy, or “Second Law.”

And from early in the morning until noon, he reads aloud from the scroll to the people.

But friends… here is just how far away from the faith and their heritage the people were…

Ezra read the words, presumably in Hebrew… but the Levites, the priests, had to translate.

These, after all, were people who had grown up and spent their whole lives in Babylon and Persia.

Or, they were the everyday folks who had been left behind and lived under oppression and they didn’t have priests and schools and institutions in place to continue their traditions.

They were all strangers to their own culture and they didn’t understand their own language

And when they understood what the laws of Moses were asking of them, they wept.

Out of shame.

Out of guilt.

Out of frustration.

This did not feel like a joyful discovery… but rather it only highlighted in their hearts how far away they were from God and who they had been called to be.

At one of our meetings with Global Ministries, we spent some time listening to the stories of Native American United Methodists.

I can’t help but think of how the United States brutally removed indigenous people from their lands, when I think about the time of exile in Babylon for the people of Judah.

And in so many instances, our federal government and the religious partners who helped manage schools, focused on assimilation and removal of native culture, rather than allowing their traditions to flourish.

The same happened to Africans who were captured, sent halfway across the world, and forced into slavery.

As the General Board of Global Ministry, we watched together, “More than a Word,” which explores the use of Native American mascots.

What struck me among the stories were the voices of younger people who grew up either on reservations or even in more traditional white culture, but who were rediscovering their cultural identity.

Their identity had been forgotten. Or even worse, it had been described to them as shameful, something that had to be destroyed.

And it was hard for some to find a safe space to explore what that identity and history meant in their lives.

So part of their weeping was about a loss of that identity.

But the other part of their grief came from knowing just how far they had been from keeping God’s laws.

Suddenly, the rules were laid out for them plain as day, and they didn’t know how they could possibly ever make up for what they had left undone.

But Ezra and Nehemiah don’t see this as a moment to pile on shame.

They urge the people to dry their tears, to end their lament, to let go of their guilt and instead to gather in their homes and feast and give thanks.

Because this is a fresh start!

As one of my favorite hymns reminds us:

This is a day of new beginnings,

Time to remember and move on,

Time to believe what love is bringing,

Laying to rest the pain that’s gone.

This is their chance to let go of the past and put into practice the word of God that they have rediscovered.

What has come before this moment is in the past.

This moment they get a clean slate to start afresh and rededicate themselves to God.

As they continue to hear God’s word read, they rediscover rituals and traditions.

One of these is Festival of Booths that takes place in the seventh month… and lo and behold, they are in the seventh month!

So they follow all of the instructions and for the first time in generations, they honor this week-long holiday.

They also hear once again words that shape their identity as a people.

They remember how they were called together out of slavery in Egypt to be a people, set apart and holy.

That meant things like following a certain diet, refraining from intermarriage, and being dedicated to the Sabbath…

None of which were things that they had been practicing.

So, later that month, they join for a fast of repentance and recommitment.

They rededicate themselves to the law, trusting in the God who has been steadfast and merciful.

All of the officials, priests, and officers, singers, temple staff, gatekeepers and all of the people who were old enough to understand joined together in a binding oath to follow what they read about in Deuteronomy.

They recommitted themselves to the law.

Their focus was on crossing every t and dotting every i.

Keeping the Sabbath.

Refraining from intermarriage.

Practicing Jubilee.

Offering to support the temple.

Dedicating their first fruits.

Bringing in the tithe.

As we think about what it means to rebuild our community, a huge part of what we need to do is remember who we are.

A key difference between us and the people of Judah at this time is that we have a different frame of reference and a different calling.

We are not called to be a people, set apart and holy, isolated, focused on following every letter of the law.

God knows that we will fail if we try… because the people of God failed over and over again.

Last year, we joined together in UMC 101 and we explored together some of OUR foundational beliefs and practices.

We remembered things like:

Our focus on grace and faith put into practice.

The call to reach out and share the love of God with all people.

A charge that makes room for difference and invites us to use our brains and celebrates diversity.

All grounded and centered in the core of Christian tradition… praising the God of all creation who became flesh and lived and died and rose again so that we might truly know life.

In Jesus Christ we have been redeemed and made right… not because we followed the law, but by his grace, and God continues to empower us by the Holy Spirit.

And we remembered that our congregation exists for a purpose.. to help people accept and confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and to live their daily lives in light of their relationship with God.

This is who we are.

A people who love God and accept the grace God offers… and then live out that love and grace in our daily lives.

We are called to be a witness… a light and a leaven in society, a reconciler in a world that is divided, to go into places of pain and show Christ’s hope. (Book of Discipline ¶220)

In just a few minutes, we will be invited to the table.

Just like the people of Judah embraced their traditions and practices, this is a practice that is at the core of our being.

This is a place where we are empowered to start again.

This is a place where we recommit ourselves to God and one another.

This is the place where we find God’s strength and grace for the new beginning that awaits us.

Friends, it doesn’t matter what has come before.

There is no reason to weep or grieve or feel shame for what has been done in the past.

Because here we receive the grace of God that is our new beginning.

So may we, too, come and recommit our hearts to God on this day.

Nehemiah: Having Each Other’s Backs

Posted on January 29, 2023Leave a comment

Text: Nehemiah 4: 1-3, 6-9, 16-18; 5:1-7

Here at Immanuel, we have team of folks who have working together on a safety and emergency response plan.

One of the things that this group has discussed is that there are different kinds of potential threats to a community.

Those that are external, like a tornado… and those that are internal, like a fire.

And so you need to respond differently to each.

With an external threat, sometimes you need to hunker down and shelter in place.

But an internal threat might require you to exit the building and get to another location.

In all these plans however, our focus is on working together as a community to make sure people are safe and cared for.

Nehemiah shares his account of the call he receives from God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem… and in the process rebuild the community of the people of Judah.

Last week, we talked about how so many people responded and rolled up their sleeves and got to work on this effort.

Each took on their part of the project with enthusiasm!

And yet, it was not all smooth sailing.

The project immediately faced obstacles and threats that could have derailed the entire thing.

Some of these were external threats… from groups that opposed seeing Nehemiah succeed.

But some of them were internal threats and problems within the community itself.

First, let’s look at those external threats.

Nehemiah had been sent with authority from the king of Persia to rebuild this wall.

But the reach of the Persian Empire was vast and covered far more than this little corner of the world.

Regional governors had been appointed to oversee all of these different areas of what we now know as the Middle East and they didn’t all get along with one another.

Early on in chapter 2, we are introduced to Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arab, who oppose the efforts of Nehemiah before he even gets started.

“They were very angry that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel” (Nehemiah 2:10, CEB)

But why were they so upset? Why did they care?

Well, they each represented groups that had been ancient enemies of the Israelites.

When God helped Moses lead the people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, they forcibly displaced and battled with many other peoples and cultures.

Some of these groups would have rejoiced to see their neighbors brought to their knees and definitely didn’t want to see them rise in prestige or power again.

But there also may have been a sense that the Israelites were getting special treatment being allowed to restore their community.

Maybe they had a bit of jealousy about work of restoration that wasn’t happening in their own city-states.

So they begin to ridicule and attack the Jews and diminish the work that is being done.

One of my favorite taunts comes from Tobiah, who exclaims, “Why, if a fox climbed that wall, it would fall to pieces under his weight.” (4:3, MSG)

What a puny little wall, he is saying.

What shoddy work, done by miserably unqualified people.

At first, the people of Judah were kind of inspired and energized by these taunts… redoubling their efforts until the wall was nearly half of its intended height.

But, as often transpires – violent and hateful words began to become physical attacks.

Sanballat, Tobiah, and these enemies of the people began to plan an assault against the wall.

Living under constant attacks can be exhausting.

Before too long, the words got under their skin.

The people began to believe that they couldn’t be successful.

“The builders are pooped, the rubbish piles up; We’re in over our heads, we can’t build this wall.” (4:10, MSG)

Through it all, Nehemiah turns towards prayer and asks for God to hear their cries.

And then, he gathers up all of the people and gives one of those inspirational speeches that lifts their hearts.

“Put your minds on the Master, great and awesome, and then fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes!”

What is more… he puts into action a plan so that the people will be unstoppable.

He creates these partnerships so that half of the people stood guard with shields and lances and the other half would work at rebuilding with a tool in one hand and a spear in the other.

Each person had someone else who had their backs.

Because they were all spread so far out in different parts of the city, they used trumpets to rally folks together if an attack came from any direction.

And when they needed to, they took turns and switched places… which was vitally important, because they worked from dawn to dusk.

When evening came, no one returned to their own homes, but they camped out and slept in their clothes, guarding the wall.

Faced with an external threat, they hunkered down and sheltered-in-place… keeping their eyes focused on God and committed to having one another’s backs.

Friends, I think of all of the ways that our church did that throughout the pandemic.

We may have had to hunker down, but we didn’t give up the things that were important like worship or small groups… we just found a new way to connect with online and printed worship.

We formed care groups so that we would be responsible for checking up on one another.

Elder care ministry and teacher buddies were formed so that folks who might be more vulnerable had extra support and encouragement.

And as we are coming out of this pandemic season, I think about those external forces of competition that we might be facing.

The Samaritans and Ammonites and Arabs in this story didn’t have to be their enemies, and yet as they battled for attention and resources, they believed lifting yourself up means putting someone else down.

Our “enemies” aren’t quite so obvious.

But we, too, are competing for people’s time and attention in the multitude of things that pull at them from different directions.

And sometimes, we can feel as if we are having very little impact and can get discouraged.

Maybe we start to cry out, like the Jews did:

We are pooped and burnt out and can’t possibly compete. We are never going to be able to get back to where we were.

And so we, too, need to encourage one another and have one another’s backs.

We need to give one another permission to take turns and share the load.

We need to celebrate the progress that we ARE making and all of the small ways that God is working in our midst.

One simple way, today, that you can do that… In the foyer we have a table with cards that say, “What I love about my church.”

Fill one of those out and add it to the wall…

and take some time to read all of the good and encouraging things that others are saying about who we are and what we are about.

Alright, we’ve talked about some external threats… but what about when the call is coming from inside the house?

All of this great work is happening in rebuilding the wall, but before too long, Nehemiah starts to hear some complaints from the people against one another.

You see, the everyday folks who lived in and around Jerusalem still had to feed their kids and tend their flocks.

And decades of first Babylonian and then Persian rule had nearly wiped them out with the taxes and levies that were enforced.

What is worse… governors and officials who had been appointed to oversee these collections in the past had lined their own pockets through excessive fees and charging interest.

The people had nothing left. They were burnt out and overextended.

Some of them were forced to sell their children into slavery or mortgage their land just to eat.

What good would it do to build the wall and bring Jerusalem back… if the people were gone and the land was no longer theirs?

So Nehemiah calls all of the leaders together and holds them accountable.

No longer would interest be collected.

Fields and vineyards and children would be returned.

The leaders are there not for their own personal self-interest, but for the good of the whole…

Centuries of prophets had called out this kind of selfish and oppressive behavior in the time before the exile… and Nehemiah made his leaders commit to walking in the ways of God.

In the life of our community, the internal threats we face are a bit different.

But I do wonder about the ways that we have burnt people out who are overextended…

How might we need to work to share our burdens of ministry more equitably?

What would it look like if we each worked to give of our time and talents to support the work of the whole ministry of this church… instead of relying upon those who are already carrying the load?

I also wonder about who we have forgotten and who has been pushed to the margins.

We have done really excellent work of reaching out to support some groups like our elders.

Are there neighbors whose voices and lives have we overlooked?

For many years when I first came to Immanuel, Imani was a completely separate church that shared part of our building.

For the last four years, we have created the same kind of space for Immanuel Gospel Fellowship, but now they have become part of our larger Immanuel community.

What does it really mean, however, to extend welcome to people of a different culture or ethnic background?

What does it really mean to claim them as a part of us and us as a part of them?

And what would that look like for welcome of homeless neighbors?

Or community members who rely upon food stamps?

Or our youth who are LGBTQ?

How can we partner and work together and make sure that people know that we have their backs?

Threats to community are abundant and can be internal or external.

But in all things, let us keep our eyes minds focused on God, who is great and awesome, and work together as a community to have one another’s backs.

Let’s fight for our children, our families, our neighbors, and our community.

Amen.

Nehemiah: Side by Side

Posted on January 22, 2023Leave a comment

Text: Nehemiah 2:11-18, 3:1-4 (5-32)

Last week, we laid out some of the context for the Book of Nehemiah…

A people who found themselves in the in a transitional time… a time of rebuilding and resettling and restoring after the Babylonian Exile.

Nehemiah is granted authority from the Persian King Artaxerxes to return to Judah and rebuild the walls.

And the King gives him some authority… he basically appoints him as the governor of the region and sends along supplies as well.

So what happens when Nehemiah arrives?

Does he immediately gather all the people and tell them what to do?

No.

He checks everything out for himself.

His brother had told him about the condition of the walls and the gates, but he takes the time to do his own inventory.

He prayerfully explores the city walls and the gates.

He climbs over the rubble.

He makes his way through the ashes.

He spends days listening, looking, pondering.

This week, our Nehemiah Community groups were tasked with just that – to spend some time looking, listening, and paying attention to what is happening in our community.

Before we dive in and even think about rebuilding, what do we see?

Each fall, our Administrative Council is asked that question.

While it can sometimes feel like an excess of paperwork… apologies to our District Superintendent, Ron!… the truth is that our annual charge conference forms force us to notice our context.

And some of the things that we saw last fall as we looked out around us was that we are largely a middle-class neighborhood, but we are growing in our diversity.

At the same time, there is a limited availability for services like transportation and health care.

These great Beaverdale brick homes are great for newer families and older established neighbors, but there has been a lot of turnover in the last year or two.

But we also find ourselves in a place that is very community oriented… our Merle Hay and Beaverdale neighborhoods put on a lot of community events and community social media groups demonstrate how people look out for and show up for one another.

Some of the needs that we see include continued food insecurity… Our Little Free Pantry gets emptied out nearly every day.

There are rising costs all around us for food, fuel, utilities, child care, and more.

Our community continues to lack affordable housing and we’ve had homeless neighbors camp out on our property.

We lack access to the mental health services so desperately needed.

Folks around us in the community need spiritual support and are looking for identity and belonging.

Nehemiah took in all that he saw.

And to be honest, he probably found a whole lot more wrong with the city than just the wall.

But he had a call from God to start somewhere.

After he looked and listened he pulled together the people to talk about what God had put on his heart.

But he also drew their attention back to what was all around them.

“Face it: we’re in a bad way here. Jerusalem is a wreck; its gates burned up. Come – let’s build the wall of Jerusalem and not live with this disgrace any longer.” (2:17, MSG)

He shared with them what he saw, but also connected with their own investment in the situation.

To be honest, these folks knew the walls were in ruins.

They had lived this way for years… decades, even!

And maybe they hadn’t done anything because they thought someone else would.

Or maybe they hadn’t done anything because it was too overwhelming.

Or maybe they had just gotten used to how things were.

But Nehemiah invited them to see anew what was all around them… and then invited them to do something concrete to make a difference.

And the people responded with enthusiasm! As the Message translation puts it, the people rolled up their sleeves, ready for the good work.

He didn’t recruit them.

He didn’t assign them.

He didn’t force them.

He simply helped them see what they knew… and THEY realized they could do something about it.

Next Sunday, leaders from our church will share with you more about our goals for this year.

We all see the needs around us and we believe God has called us to engage in and partner with our community so that all who hunger might be fed by God’s grace.

Some people are hungry for connection… for welcome… for support.

Some people are hungry to know God more deeply.

Some folks are just plain hungry.

And we think there are some concrete things that we can do… that God is asking us to do… to make a difference.

From groups to support people through illness or grief…

To outreach and mission activities where we connect with our neighbors…

To the ways we can be intentional about rebuilding relationships and truly showing welcome to all people…

What we hope is that when you hear about some of our plans and goals for this next year that you, too, will want to roll up your sleeves, ready for the good work ahead of us.

For you see, the leaders of this congregation can’t do it all by themselves, no more than Nehemiah could rebuild the whole wall himself.

The task is too big and the work is too important.

And the truth is, the church, the Kingdom of God, the Body of Christ, that we are rebuilding is not about one person or about a small group of leaders.

It is going to take all of us, taking responsibility, hearing the call, and doing our part.

Timeline

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Now, for the sake of kindness, I didn’t have Virginia read ALL of chapter 3 in the Book of Nehemiah.

But what we find in that chapter is that one by one, people figured out what their part of the rebuilding was.

They didn’t get assigned.

They just rolled up their sleeves and tackled their part of the project.

This graphic, created by Mark Barry, walks through all of chapter three of the Book of Nehemiah starting with the Sheep Gate which is in the middle on the right hand side.

Eliashib and the other priests get to work on reframing and setting the doors and focus on building the wall all the way to the Tower of Hananel.

But then verse by verse, Nehemiah lays out who decides to take responsibility for a part of this project.

The children of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate…

Next to them Meremoth made repairs…

Joiada and Meshullam repaired the Mishneh gate…

Uzziel, who was a goldsmith, made repairs on another section…

A perfumer by the name of Hananiah focused on the next section… (whew, imagine how many blisters he must have had after the first day of work!)

Folks like Benjamin, Hasshub, Azariah, and Zadok focused on the repairs to the wall outside of their own houses.

On and on it goes throughout the entire chapter.

Leaders, workers, business owners. White collar and blue collar.

Young and old.

Skilled and unskilled.

Side by side and shoulder to shoulder they worked.

They brought together their families and relatives from surrounding areas.

People from the countryside flocked in to help.

Everybody found something they could do.

The question before us in these coming weeks is to listen for our part.

As you engage with our town hall next week and hear about our plans for this year… what are you being called to roll up your sleeves and get involved with?

What is your part of the rebuilding?

Maybe it is something that is already close to you… a part of our shared ministry that you want to refocus on.

Or maybe your call is to bring together your family and relatives to join in the work.

Maybe God is nudging you to put your skills and training to work in a new way for God.

Or maybe, your part is to do something you’ve never tried before… like the perfumer who starts laying bricks to help out.

As Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthian church:

“Christ is just like the human body – a body is a unit and has many parts; and all the parts of the body, even though there are many. We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jew or Greek, or slave or free, and we all were given one Spirit to drink. Certainly the body isn’t one part but many… You are the body of Christ and parts of each other.” (1 Cor. 12:12-14, 27 – CEB)

What are we, as a church community, if not the Body of Christ.

The Holy Spirit that flows through us connects us to one another.

And every single one of you are important.

Every single one of you has something to offer.

Every single person who is connected to this community has a role to play in this rebuilding.

The needs around us are great.

There is much work to be done.

Friends… Come – let us rebuild.

Nehemiah: Help Us Rebuild

Posted on January 15, 2023Leave a comment

Text: Nehemiah 1:1-6b

The Book of Nehemiah is set during the reign of the Persian Empire and after the Babylonian exile. The people of Judah were in exile for 70 years as of their officials and leaders were been taken from the land. There had been a time when Israel was united and powerful and growing. But there had also been a time of conflict as their kingdom divided in two. The northern kingdom, Israel, fell in 740 to the Assyrians… the tribes scattered to the winds.

The oldest among the exiles remember what it was like before the Babylonians took over Judah. They remember what it was like before Jerusalem fell. They remember but they often wonder… Will things ever go back to the way they were? Will we ever go home? Will we ever return to our former glory? Is this our new normal?

That is a question that I’ve heard sometimes in the walls of this church. The pandemic has been a difficult time… of change, of loss, of frustration and conflict. In some ways, it has felt like an exile and there were moments we wondered if it would ever end. We find ourselves in a place kind of like the people of Judah did… maybe at the end of something, but unsure of what is coming next. And when we think about getting back to what was… well, some parts of this world seem to have shifted back to how we remember… stadiums for sporting events are full, for example.

But other things have changed and might never be the same. We might never truly “go back.” We shop more online, our workplaces have changed, we spend a more time in our own households instead of out socializing. Some of those changes we celebrate as we think about how it has created accessibility and better balance in our lives. But we should also think about how these shifts have impacted us in negative ways. What are the ways that our world has broken down? What are the things that need to be repaired and restored?

When the Persian Empire, led by Cyrus, defeats Babylon, there is a shift in the policy of the oppressors. Those leaders who had been taken by force from Judah are allowed to return home. The Persians are still in charge, but there is a greater degree of freedom and governance. There is a group of folks led by Zerubbabel who head back to rebuild the temple. Then another wave of folks return with Ezra and introduce some religious reforms.

The book of Nehemiah starts around 445 BC… nearly 100 years after those groups first start to go back. So realistically, this is about 150 years after Jerusalem fell. Nehemiah is serving as the cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes… which means, he has the King’s ear. And he gets word from his brother, who has just returned from Judah about how things are going there.

The news isn’t great. Those who survived exile and those who returned were struggling. Jerusalem was still in shambles. For nearly 100 years, people have been able to start rebuilding, but progress just wasn’t being made. The community was falling apart and when Nehemiah heard this, he wept.

Which led me to think about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Developed in the 1940s by Abraham Maslow, this pyramid describes different needs that drive our behavior in the world. At the very bottom level, we all have bodily, or physiological needs for things like shelter, food, and clothing. Basic needs, we call them. The next level up are our needs related to safety. We all need stability, structure, freedom from fear… which can come from laws or work or property.

And the truth is, unless these fundamental needs are cared for in a person’s life – they simply cannot think about worrying about any of the needs farther up the list. In the same way, when you no longer can care for needs higher up the pyramid, it begins to impact the needs below it. A person who is starving is not focused on their reputation. A person who has no employment or safety begins to struggle to provide for food or shelter. Someone living in fear cannot work towards self-fulfillment. Someone who lacks a place to sleep is not spending their day working to build friendships. For 150 years, the people of Judah were simply trying to survive.

Over these last couple of years, so much of our lives have been refocused on some of the fundamental needs in our lives. We cut back only to what was essential. We focused on our health and embraced masking to keep ourselves and others safe. We adapted practices to make sure we could purchase basic needs online. Schools and businesses put up plexiglass and changed their air filtration systems. Everything in our lives has been focused on those bottom two levels of the pyramid.

Friends, we, too, have been in survival mode. And we needed to be in survival mode. We did what we could to keep our heads above the water and that was all we had the energy and capacity to do. And that is okay. The ways we adapted to better care for ourselves was a good and holy thing.

So, what does all of this have to do with community? Well, you can move both ways up and down this pyramid. We are discovering that a lack of social connections can also have a great impact on our health. You see, we also have a need to belong. Dr. Richard Slatcher at the University of Georgia writes, “we humans are engineered by evolution to crave contact with other humans.” Studies have shown significant connections between loneliness and mortality and morbidity. And yet, these needs related to love and belonging are higher up the pyramid. Connection. Friendship. Respect. Growing in Faith. We aren’t able to really focus on them unless we can first care for our physiological and safety needs.

Nehemiah turns to prayer and fasting and hears a call to respond. He confesses all of the ways that he and his people have turned their backs on God and asks God to listen to his prayers. He believes in the promises God made… that God will gather up the scattered people and put them back together.

And the thing he believes will be the start of this action is to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. That is the nudge in his heart. That is his calling. And I think part of why this is so important is that because it is only when the people can live in safety… only when they are protected… that they can start to think about other needs – like their need for connection and community.

Yes, he embarks on a building project… but the goal is ultimately to rebuild the people of Israel. It is about the restoration of God’s people. It is about a return to the faith. It is about remembering who they were and getting back to what it means to care for one another.

Friends, we don’t have a physical building project before us today… but I do think that we have some rebuilding to do as a community. The world we find ourselves in is increasingly disconnected from one another. Students are less engaged in our schools. Our social circles have become smaller. “The Great Resignation” isn’t just about the workplace… we are seeing less people showing up to volunteer and give of their time to one another and their communities. We are more isolated than ever.

And as I have been praying about where to start and what to do, one of the things I keep hearing is that we need to start right where we are. We need to strengthen our relationships with each other. We need to work to better care for one another. We need to take the time to pray together, to talk with one another, to listen and to share… And so, we challenge you to step up, join us as we study Nehemiah, and help us rebuild our community.

But friends, there is one more essential component. When I first turned to the Book of Nehemiah, I was sure that I had found a perfect resource for this task. After all, the whole focus is about how Nehemiah brings all these people together to accomplish a great project, refocuses their faith, and everyone rejoices! But as I kept reading more of the details of this story, the more complicated it got.

The Book of Nehemiah starts with a man in tears… but it also ends with Nehemiah in tears. In the end, they build the wall, but he isn’t really successful at transforming the people. And that’s because Nehemiah is missing something that we aren’t… The love and grace of Jesus Christ that transforms our heart and the power of the Holy Spirit that truly can change this world.

As we will sing at the end of our service today:

Come set Your rule and reign in our hearts again

Increase in us, we pray, and unveil why we’re made.

Come set our hearts ablaze with hope, like wildfire in our very souls.

Holy Spirit, come invade us now.

We are your church. We need your power in us.

May it be so. Amen.

UMC 101: A Doctrinal History of Difference and Charity

Posted on January 23, 2022Leave a comment

Text: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of the first wave of exiles who return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the walls of the city.

But just as important as rebuilding was rediscovering who they were as a people.

In our passage from today, Ezra reads aloud to all of those gathered the words of the Torah.

It becomes obviously very quickly in our lesson today that the people didn’t know what it contained.

Generations of Judeans had experienced exile after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians.

They had been removed from their homes and their lives were upended.

In many ways, they forgot who they were and the God who had saved them.

As Ezra reads from sun-up until noon, the Levites help to interpret and make sense of what is being read and the people weep with emotion because they now understand God’s word.

But this isn’t simply a recitation of laws.

It is the history of their people.

It is the story of creation and the stubborn, sinful nature of humanity.

It is a story of redemption and rescue.

It is a story of how God never gave up on the people and faithfully kept the covenant.

And while in some ways, the people are grieved by what they have lost and forsaken, the leaders see this as an opportunity for celebration because we have rediscovered a path forward.

And so, the people rededicate themselves to some basic practices that would help them remember who they were and be faithful to God’s instruction in their lives.

Right now, the United Methodist Church is having a sort of identity crisis.

There are folks who would describe themselves as more traditional who want to recapture what they believe it means to be faithful to God’s instruction in their lives.

In their own discernment, they are grieved by what they believe has been lost or forsaken, but are turning it into an opportunity to discover a new path forward.

And as such, the Wesleyan Covenant Association is preparing to form a new denomination that will allow them to do so: The Global Methodist Church.

I believe that one way or another, this new denomination will form in 2022 and there will be a split in our denomination.

From conversations that we have had previously in this congregation, I believe that most of the folks here would not characterize themselves as part of the movement to leave.

You might be more progressive in your thought, or maybe you value being part of a community where many perspectives are welcome.

But there is a lingering question that keeps coming up…

Where will that leave the United Methodist Church?

I believe it is just as important for those of us who remain to remember who we have been to discover where we might be going.

What is the story of our people… and how does it make us weep and grieve, and how can it be an opportunity for our future?

When we began United Methodist 101 a couple of weeks ago, we talked about what we hold in common with other Christians, but also how our emphasis on faith and love put into practice meant we emphasize certain beliefs – like grace and service and community accountability.

As the Book of Discipline puts it:
“The pioneers in the traditions that flowed together into the United Methodist Church understood themselves as standing in the central stream of Christian spirituality and doctrine, loyal heirs of the authentic Christian tradition… grounded in the biblical message of God’s self-giving love revealed in Jesus Christ.”
p. 56

And yet, like a stream that ebbs and flows, the doctrinal history section of our Book of Discipline paints the picture of a church has never been rigid or unyielding.

There is a core “marrow” of beliefs, but beyond these “essentials,” there is room for difference.

Or as Wesley put it, “As to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let think.” (p. 56).

We have the freedom and ability to both hold on to the core of Christian beliefs and to think and reason and disagree with one another in love about everything else.

I think this is a vital and important thing to remember as we make our way forward in this hyper-partisan and divided world.

In his 1750 sermon, “Catholic Spirit,” Wesley lays out what it means to be charitable in our thoughts.

Quoting from 2 Kings: 10:15, he lays out what it means to be one in heart… to be right in heart.

It isn’t about sharing the same opinions, or even sharing the same worship practices.

No, Wesley lays out what he believes are the essentials:

First, he wants to know if your heart is right with God.

Do you believe in God and believe in Jesus, and is your faith and belief “filled with the energy of love?” (John Wesley’s Sermons, p. 304)

In this limited time that we have on earth, are you trying to do God’s will.. more afraid of displeasing the one we love, than of death or hell?

Second, is your heart right with your neighbor?

Do you have love for others, full of goodwill and tender affection?

Not just the folks who love you, but even your enemies… “Do your bowels yearn over them?” Wesley asks… which is kind of like staying, do you spend your time worrying about them – praying blessings over even those who would curse you?

And do you live out that love in actions? Do you take care of the wants of their bodies and souls?

If so, take my hand.

Let’s show love to one another… the kind of love described in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, full of patience and humility.

Let’s pray for one another that the love of God and neighbor would grow in our hearts.

And let’s join together in the work of God in the world.

As the Methodist movement grew in Great Britain, sermons like this, along with the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England and Wesley’s commentary on the New Testament, became the standards for teaching.

We also taught our theology through a rich history of hymns and practices of community like the General Rules we talked about last week.

And each year, the preachers were called together at a conference where Wesley would instruct and supervise their work.

These were the boundaries of our doctrine.

And then, these standards were shared in an American context.

The Methodist movement grew up alongside the American Revolution and when England lost and the Church of England left the colonies, American Methodists were left without churches or leadership.

Reluctantly, John Wesley realized the necessity of an independent church and provided a basic liturgy, doctrinal statement, hymnbook, and General Rules.

At the Christmas Conference of 1784, the Methodist Episcopal Church was formed with the Articles of Religion as its only core doctrine.

But there was an interesting shift that happened. Unlike Anglicans, who were required to subscribe to the Articles, Americans simply were instructed to keep their teaching to within those boundaries.

Or as the Book of Discipline puts it: “The doctrinal emphases of these statements were carried forward by the weight of tradition rather than the force of law.” (p. 60)

Truth be told, we launched out into the frontiers of the continent and placed much more focus on that “practical divinity” that launched the Methodist movement… evangelism and nurture and mission… instead of worrying about formal doctrines.

The same was true for the formation of the Evangelical Association and United Brethren traditions. Spreading the good news and calling believers into a life of witness and service was more important than theological speculation.

Philip Otterbein and Martin Boehm came from German Reformed and Mennonite traditions respectively, but the leaders of these traditions discovered that although they had differences, they were brethren…

Jacob Albright who began the Evangelical Association, was a German Lutheran who was formed in a Methodist class meeting.

These distinctive theological traditions all rally around the core essentials of the faith… our love of God and neighbor put into practice in the world.

“If your heart is with my heart, give me your hand”

shows four bars representing Methodism, German Reformed / Mennonite, Lutheran, and Free Church traditions that flow into the UMC

In this graphic by Rev. Jeremy Smith, we get a glimpse of those different streams of theology and tradition that flow into the United Methodist Church today.

Naming the richness and diversity of the church, our Book of Discipline also reminds us that “Currents of theology have developed out of the Black people’s struggle for freedom, the movement for the full equality of women in church and society, and the quest for liberation and for indigenous forms of Christian existence in churches around the world.” (p. 61)

All of that means that as we have become a global denomination…

As we open our arms to folks of different theological traditions…

As we allow language, culture, and lived experiences to encounter our traditions…

Then, rather than become more rigid or uniform, our church expands its ability to keep discerning the most faithful way to live out the gospel in real life, in this community, today.

Next week, we will talk about some of the tools we have at our disposal as United Methodists for that work.

But we do so without sacrificing the core of what we believe.

All along the way, we have continued to include in our doctrinal standards the Articles of Religion from the Methodist Church, the Confession of Faith of the EUB Church, the standard sermons of Wesley and his Explanatory Notes on the New Testament, and the General Rules of the Methodist Church.

And we protect this core in our constitution, which declares that these may not be revoked, altered, or changed.

What I have come to understand, however, is that while we might all cling to that same “marrow” of essential beliefs, there is much that we will disagree on.

John Wesley gives us this advice: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, charity (or love).”

Earlier I asked the question:

What is the story of our people… how does it make us weep and grieve, and how can it be an opportunity for our future?

I must admit that my heart weeps and grieves right now for two reasons.

First, when I remember and rediscover this rich history of theological difference, I have a hard time coming to terms with why my siblings in the United Methodist Church might want to leave and separate from me around a theological difference that isn’t at the core of those beliefs. Why can we not stay united around our essentials?

But I also am grieved by the idea that our continued holding together has caused immense harm to our LGBTQ+ siblings, because we have not in fact created space for freedom. In fact, at our General Conference in 2019, we made our positions around human sexuality more rigid and punitive.

We are stuck in a system that has winners and losers based on the outcome of a vote.

Our denomination is currently echoing the partisan divide of the nation and the hostility, misinformation, and bad feelings that it engenders.

This week, I stumbled upon a hymn written by Charles Wesley that seems written for this moment. Echoing the same message as his brother’s sermon, “Catholic Spirit”, “Catholic Love” call us to return to the core of love of God and love of neighbor.

WEARY of all this wordy strife,
These notions, forms, and modes, and names,
To Thee, the Way, the Truth, the Life,
Whose love my simple heart inflames,
Divinely taught, at last I fly,	5
With Thee, and Thine to live, and die.

Forth from the midst of Babel brought,
Parties and sects I cast behind;
Enlarged my heart, and free my thought,
Where’er the latent truth I find,	10
The latent truth with joy to own,
And bow to Jesu’s name alone.

Friends, in the midst of a world and a denomination full of division, what might it mean for us to embrace the charity and love that the Wesley’s called us to embody in all things.

Instead of focusing on partisanship and fighting for our own way, maybe we need to simply focus on love.

Maybe we can show one another a love full of patience and humility.

Maybe we can pray for one another that the love of God and neighbor would continue growing in our hearts.

And maybe, even if we practice in different ways and move in separate directions, we can still find ways to join together in the work of God in the world.

May it be so.

Ezra and Nehemiah… rewriting history

Posted on February 9, 2011Leave a comment

In my local emergent cohort, we have been reading Phyllis Tickle’s Prayer Is a Place: America’s Religious Landscape Observed. As this book has been in the back of my mind, I have been thinking about how we look back and view history. As my carpool buddy Tim put it, we are always rewriting history and every history has a slant.

As I dove into Ezra and Nehemiah then this week with our Disciple study, I have been wrestling with how they, too, are rewriting history. They come parading back into the land they were so visciously torn away from and suddenly begin setting themselves apart, above, against those who are already in the land. They are so terrified of being punished again by God, of being sent back into exile, of having all of this tenuous peace destroyed that they immediately begin talking about righteousness and what makes them righteous. All of the foreign wives they fell in love with and the children of those marriages have to go. This is about purity, this is about a common identity, this is about trying their darndest to not make the mistakes of the past.

I found myself greatly disliking these two books as I read them through this time. I lamented the fact they were so exclusionary, so focused on works and rightousness and reclaiming what was theirs. I had never seen the texts in that way before, and it troubled me.

But I realized that we also have a group of people who grew to experience God very differently in the land of exile than their brothers and sisters who were left behind in Israel. And so when they come back, they find folks who did not sit by the waters of Babylon and weep. They find folks who managed to go on worshipping God in the land without the temple. They find folks who are now complete strangers to them… adversaries.

Having this revelation about Ezra and Nehemiah helped me to see how difficult it is to lay claim to a space in the world without pushing others away. In any attempts to define ourselves, we inevitably also say what we are not. We tell our stories in such ways that show how we have arrived at a certain place and that might mean that others must be written out of our histories. Is this a good or a bad thing? Is it simply reality?

Alongside these two accounts, we also find the prophet Haggai who tells this story without such an exclusionary tone. We find the story of Esther who was in the diaspora and who saved her people by her relationship with the gentile king.

What a wonderful thing it is that our sacred texts can hold these contradictions together. That we can witness to both our struggle to self-identify and to include, to be a people among people and to be a people set apart. What it means to be faithful in this world is not a black and white story, but it is a complicated interweaving of telling our stories, saying who we are and who we are not, working to make the best of our lives in a given place, our attempts to be faithful, our mistaken journeys down wrong paths… and through it all, God is still God.

And thanks be to God that in each of our readings of these sacred texts we are lead deeper into a realtionship with God.

What does “The Book” say?

Posted on January 24, 2010Leave a comment

This week, my husband and I borrowed a steam cleaner from his dad and we spent the past few days cleaning our carpets. They get a regular vacuuming, but never a deep cleaning like the one they just received.

I got to thinking during that last hymn – take time to be holy – that if I just changed a word it could have been our theme song this week – take time to be clean.

This morning, I woke up and because just yesterday we did all of the upstairs carpets in the main living areas, it was very strange to walk out and see nothing there. Our dining room table was in the middle of the kitchen along with some chairs. Everything else had been stuffed into our spare bedroom – end tables, chairs, bookshelves, you name it.

If the carpet is dry – tonight but probably tomorrow, we will begin the work of putting everything back into place.

In a much bigger way, that is what is happening in our reading from Nehemiah this morning.
Ezra and Nehemiah came before the people to say that it was time to put their lives back together.

For the past generations, everything had been in disarray – like our couch standing on its side by the front door – because the people had been living in exile in Babylon. They were away from their homes and the countryside that they loved and everything familiar.

But when Cyrus of the Persians conquered Babylon – he allowed all of the Jews to return home. And so Ezra the priest, and Nehemiah who became governor led the way.

They knew that rebuilding and putting every piece of their lives back together was the first priority. As Rev. Timothy Schehr describes it,
Nehemiah’s plan was to reconstruct the walls of the city of Jerusalem. That would give them a sense of security. Ezra’s plan was to rebuild the faith of the people. He understood that a right relationship with God was the only true source for security. / Ezra also understood that God’s law was the foundation for any spiritual rebuilding.
So they start this whole project by getting all the people together and reading the scriptures. From early in the morning until noon, God’s law was read aloud to the people. And as they took the time to listen to God’s promises and God’s desires for their lives together – the people began to weep as they realized how unfaithful they had been.

But instead of lamenting along with the people – Ezra and Nehemiah instead urge the people to celebrate. Because this is a day of new beginnings – this is their chance to let go of the past and to actually put into practice the word of God that they have heard.

From time to time in our lives – we need a fresh start and a new beginning. I know that while I wasn’t looking forward to doing the cleaning we did this weekend, it sure feels good to have it done now.

And our spiritual lives need a bit of scrubbing and spit and polish at times too. A chance to step back and really hear God’s word for our lives with new ears and a fresh new commitment to live it out.

When we hear the scriptures, we are reminded of who we are supposed to be. In the gospel of Luke this morning – Jesus enters the synagogue and he too – reads scripture. As he reads from Isaiah, we find out a little more about who Jesus is and what his church (all of us) will be and do.

“He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

We are called to do all of these things – because we were meant to be a blessing. We are called to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world bringing hope to the poor and setting the oppressed free and healing those who are sick.

This morning in Sunday School – we talked about being blessed to be a blessing. And we talked about the fact that a big part of that blessing has to do with money.

First of all – many of us are called to be a blessing to our families. We have people who depend on us and we need to provide for them and bless their lives. This might be our immediate family or our more extended family – but our family nonetheless. And to do so, takes money. Money for utilities, money for food, money for clothing.

But once we have provided for our families and our own needs – everything else that we have is the Lord’s! Everything else is the opportunity to bless someone.

I have never had a great relationship with money. As a young woman I had far too easy access to credit and at that time not a care in the world. Today, I still carry with me some of the debt that came along with plane tickets to visit family and friends and eating out and shopping.

But I don’t think I ever really thought about money as a spiritual issue until I really spent some time in the scriptures.

I found out that there are over 800 verses in scripture that talk about money. Over 800!!! Why does God care so much about our money and what we do with it? Because we are blessed to be a blessing.

I have here with me some of those many passages about money and finances. Here in my hands are just a tenth of all of the scriptures about money in our Bible. And I think, like the people of Israel – we too might weep with shame and regret if we spent time reading them all out loud to one another.

But like that community that was gathered, I want us to look at some of these scriptures and to really think about how they are each opportunities for us to put our lives back together – how they represent a fresh way of looking at our money that will help us to do God’s will.

As we pass these out, spend some time with the people around you reading the passages that you have. And then out of all of the ones you received, come up with just one thing that we should celebrate – one way that we can be a blessing to others if we put the wisdom of the scriptures into practice.

….do it!…. (We spent about 7 minutes reading our scriptures to one another in small groups and lifting up a piece of wisdom to share with the whole community)

The word of God, for the people of God… thanks be to God.

Photo by David Siqueira