So what did you make of tonight’s Bible reading? Did your heart sink as you heard and saw the list of unpronounceable names making up the entirety of Nehemiah 3? Perhaps you listened carefully to see how many would make the reader stumble (giving thanks that you weren’t doing the reading!). Or maybe you thought to yourself, I missed Countryfile and I came to church tonight, for this? So what do you make of tonight’s Bible reading?
At first glance, I too, I must confess, wondered what to do with it. A list of names, of people we don’t know and haven’t heard of. Should we just skip it and move on to the good stuff? And then I remembered the verse from 2 Timothy 3:16, which says that ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.’
So God has told us that this chapter - even this chapter! - is God-breathed and is useful. And so, the question isn’t what am I going to do with this chapter, as much as it’s this: what is God going to do with us through this chapter. What is God saying to us in these words?
If tonight is your first night with us, then you might wonder where we are and what’s going on. This book is the memoir of Nehemiah, the cupbearer to the king of the Persian empire. Nehemiah was still in exile when he heard a report about the city of Jerusalem - its walls still broken down and its gates burned with fire. So Nehemiah mourned, and prayed, and planned. The king has sent him to the city to rebuild its walls, and at the end of last week he had arrived and surveyed the city, making his plans.
Chapter 3, then, is the official record of the building work. And while we might see it as just a list of names, it’s important to remember that these are people just like you and me - people involved in working for the Lord in building up his city. I was reminded of a fundraiser that my home parish organised when they were building one of the two church halls. Everyone could pay £1 and sign their name on a big white tablecloth. Then all those signatures were stitched or embroidered into the tablecloth, and it was put on display. If I went to see the tablecloth, I’d know quite a few of the names and the people, but you’d maybe only know my name (if you could read my writing!). And in a hundred years’ time, even people in Dromore might not know many of the names, let alone in two and a half thousand years’ time. But that tablecloth is a record of the people who contributed in some way to the building of either the Clayton Hall or the Cathedral Hall.
Nehemiah chapter 3 works in the same way. Here are people who were committed to the Lord’s work, who made their contribution, not just in financial terms, but in physical terms.
Finally (in the introductory remarks!), this chapter has a lot to teach us for the task that we are facing. We may not be building with stones and mortar, but we are called to building work - as we build the kingdom, each one being careful how we build - as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3. So how do we get on with our task of building up the church? Nehemiah will show us how he did it, and how we might get some insight into how we do it too.
So let’s dive into the chapter, in an entirely appropriate way - you see, this chapter is a list, and so the sermon structure tonight will be a list - of things that strike us as we read it.
Firstly, the leaders took the lead. It’s the high priest and his fellow priests who went to work and built the Sheep Gate and part of the wall. They took the lead, and set the example. This came out in a book on the Battle of Waterloo, which quoted one soldier’s testimony. It said that some officers were of the ‘Go on’ type; but the soldiers appreciated and respected the officers who were of the ‘Come on’ type.
The priests were the ‘come on’ type. They got going, and encouraged everyone else to join in. And it’s highly significant where they started. The Sheep Gate. That’s at the north-east corner of the city, at the temple, where the sheep for the sacrifices were brought into the city. ‘They dedicated it’. That’s maybe like our laying of the first stone ceremony. It’s certainly the start of the building up of Jerusalem. We need leaders who take the lead.
Secondly, the builders each do their bit. It’s not that the priests built the whole wall right around the city. But when they did their bit, then everyone else did their bit too. All in all, there are 41 sections of wall that are described here. Each person or team do their bit, and between them, the whole wall was built up.
Everyone seems to have known what they were doing, and where they were responsible for. One of the words that jump out at you is the word ‘next’. The next section, or next to him. Each person did their own bit, as everyone else did their bit too too.
Another repeated phrase is where people built the section outside their house - Jedaiah (10), Benjamin and Hasshub (23), priests (28) etc. Perhaps there was good reason to build those bits well, because they’d be looking at them, and those bits would be defending their houses! But it also meant that they didn’t have far to go to do their work.
How good are we at working together as a team? Each playing their part, sharing the workload? Or are we prone to just try to do everything ourselves?
Thirdly, we see some people went the extra mile. There are a few people who, when they had finished their section of wall, then went and built another section. Notable among them are Meremoth (4, 21) and the men of Tekoa (27). They could easily have said, we’ve done our bit, it’s someone else’s job to do that bit. But they got stuck in to work on a second section.
Are there other ways that you could get involved? Something more that you could be doing as we build the kingdom here?
Fourthly, some people refused to help. We’ve mentioned the noble men of Tekoa, who worked to complete not one, but two sections of the wall (5, 27). But that was no thanks to their nobles. These high ranking nobles thought that the work was beneath them, and so refused to get involved. As Nehemiah writes, ‘their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors.’ (5).
There’s a challenge here for us - do we think of ourselves too highly, or of some kingdom work as too lowly for us? Let’s remember that we serve the Lord of heaven, who humbled himself and made himself nothing, taking the form of a slave for our sake.
Fifthly, a variety of people were involved in the work. We see the variety in a number of ways. It’s striking that verse 12 mentions that Shallum repaired his section with the help of his daughters. It must have been unusual for girls or women to have been involved, but they too played their part.
Variety is also seen in the range of professions involved. We’ve already mentioned the priests, but there are also goldsmiths (8) and perfume-makers (8); temple servants (26), and merchants (32). Not quite the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker, but not far off! In other words, it wasn’t just the professional builders who got in involved. Everyone, whatever their background, helped in the work.
And everyone, wherever their home, helped in the work. Many of the builders were residents of the city of Jerusalem - certainly those who built in front of their houses. But there are plenty of other placenames as well - Tekoa (5), Gibeon and Mizpah (7), Zanoah (13), Beth Hakkerem (14), Beth Zur (16), and Keilah (17). Wherever they lived, they cared about Jerusalem, the city of God, and worked for its welfare.
And for us, too, no matter our background - our family, our place, our past - we can be used by God in his building work. Even if we were strangers of the covenants and promises, Gentiles by birth, we are brought in by faith (see Eph 2:11-22). Even if we have committed wickedness, those sins that keep us outside the kingdom - sexual immorality, idolatry, theft, greed, drunkenness, slander and swindling - we have been washed and sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor 6:9-11).
Conclusion
So now that we’ve surveyed the chapter, what do you make of it? There’s more to see here than first met the eye. The list of ancient builders speaks to us of how to engage in God’s building work - as the leaders take the lead; and everyone does their bit; and even goes the extra mile; not thinking the work beneath them; and getting involved whatever their gender or age or background.
As Paul challenges the Corinthians, so he challenges us as well: ‘Each one should be careful how he builds.’ Are you building on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ? And what are you building with - things that will be burned up - the wood, hay and straw, or things that will survive - gold, silver and costly stones.
May each of us be careful how we build.
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday evening 30th September 2018.
No comments:
Post a Comment