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.
