Sermon: Nehemiah 8: 1-4a,8-12/ Colossians 3:12-17

Theme: Rebuilding the Walls and Drawing near to God

About this

I prepared this talk for a service in my village church in October 2020.  We were going into winter after the first Covid lockdowns – life hadn’t really opened up again.

As I read it again it still felt pertinent.  We live in a damaged world and it is important that we take our responsibility for this.  God’s response when we do this is not one of condemnation.  S/he longs for us to rebuild our walls and draw closer – see the error of our ways and choose the path of love as we move forward.

I have edited it very slightly.  There is a link to the Nehemiah passage: the Colossians passage is the last paragraph of the talk!

Link to Nehemiah:  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+8%3A+1-4a%2C+8-12&version=NIVUK

I’m not sure how familiar you are with the story of Nehemiah.  It is worth putting this passage into context.  Nehemiah worked for the King of Persia – a position that gave him money and power – but when he heard about the situation in Jerusalem – the walls destroyed, the city in ruins - he was overcome with grief and asked the king for permission to leave and rebuild it.  In the chapters leading up to our reading we learn of Nehemiah’s prayers and action, of how he worked with the people of Jerusalem to re-build the city walls – if you read chapter 3 you will find a list of all the people who were working together to repair the wall.  You get a sense of the people all catching hold of Nehemiah’s vision and joining the work.  The work doesn’t come without problems – Nehemiah had to sort out situations which had caused some to be living in poverty, he faced opposition to what he was doing and people tried to stir up problems for him with the king – but Nehemiah held steady and with a huge team effort the wall was completed and ‘by the seventh month the Israelites were settled in their towns’, many of them returning from captivity.

For me there’s a picture here already of our spiritual lives.  Because we lose our way: we get captured by other things around us, and our walls get damaged.  We need to recognise this, as Nehemiah did, and come back to God and rebuild our walls – as a community and as individuals. These are difficult times.  I wonder where we’re feeling damaged at the moment.  I wonder what has captured us.  I wonder what it is we need to return to, and where we need to start re-building?  These are difficult times for us as individuals, as a church, as a village, as humanity.  Are we alert to what is happening in all this spiritually and are we ready to come back to God and start re-building?

Back to our passage.  Nehemiah has returned to Jerusalem.  The people have worked; the walls are rebuilt; the people of Israel are together again.  So, is it time for a party? Not just yet. First, they gather together to hear from the ‘book of the teachings of God’.  From early morning until noon – men, women and children, stand and listen to the teachings of God.  Listening attentively with the Levites explaining to them what was being said.

What struck me as I read this passage was their response.  The people cried as they listened to the words of the teachings.  Why did they cry?  My first thought is that they must have been exhausted with everything that they had been through both in the last few months, and before then.  I wonder if they could really believe where they were and what they were doing.  But from what is said their tears were not tears of joy at the completion of the wall, or tears of relief that they are coming together as a people.  These are tears of regret and repentance.  As they heard the word of God they realised how far they had strayed.  They realised just how far they had gone wrong.  And not just them, but their ancestors before them.

I am struck that we are in a very similar place.  When we gather to hear God’s word does it not show us just how far we have strayed?  And not just us but our ancestors?  The world that we live in is a result of our greed, our selfishness, our desire to be right, our desire to have an easy life.  We live in a broken-ness of our own creating – where many experience loneliness, where there is hate, prejudice and discord, where people suffer from hunger and violence, in which the very planet that sustains us is reaching breaking point.  When we gather to hear God’s word, we see how far we have gone wrong, and -yes – our reaction is surely to cry.

But the second thing that struck me in this passage is the response of the leaders.  They say, in verse 9, “This is a holy day to the Lord your God.  Don’t be sad or cry.”  And Nehemiah in verse 10 says: “Go and enjoy good food and sweet drinks.  Send some to people who have none, because today is a holy day to the Lord.  Don’t be sad, because the joy of the Lord will make you strong.”  The joy of the Lord is our strength – familiar words.

When we come to God, when we listen to his word, when we recognise all that we have done wrong – all the ways in which we have ‘strayed’ - he doesn’t condemn us, he loves us more.  ‘Draw near to God and he will draw near to you’.  The people of Israel had been scattered, Jerusalem had been destroyed, but this was a time of rebuilding and regathering, of drawing near to God.  Even as we recognise all the ways in which we have gone wrong we are drawing near to God.  And when we draw near to him in this way, he draws near to us and brings us joy. 

Verse 12 says: Then all the people went away to eat and to drink, to send some of their food to others and to celebrate with great joy. They went away to celebrate, and to share with each other.  Do you see that already they have understood something different?  They don’t want anyone to be missing out – all are included.  So, verse 12 finishes: They finally understood what they had been taught.  They understood, and they went with a new energy to live in a new way. 

When I hear God’s teaching in the context of all that is currently happening in the world, in the reality of my daily failures and disappointments, I think I begin to understand.  I am so thankful that God is greater than I can imagine; I am so grateful that God is love; I find peace and joy in knowing that I can’t fully understand God but that doesn’t stop him being with me and opening my eyes to see him at work.  And my understanding gives me energy to live in a new way – not to keep God’s love to myself but to share; to grow through connecting with others.

How do we make the joy of the Lord our strength, in such an uncertain and difficult time?  I think we begin by recognising where we have gone wrong.  We listen to God, we rebuild and restore, we live in a new way.  And we keep doing that: each time drawing a little closer to God.

The New testament reading for this week could have just been read as todays talk.  It is a clear passage about how to live.  I’m going to read it just now and I would ask that we let it show us where we have gone wrong, and encourage us to live in a new way because God loves us.

Colossians 3: 12-17 

God has chosen you and made you his holy people.  He loves you.  So always do these things: show mercy to others, be kind, humble, gentle and patient.  Get along with each other and forgive each other.  If someone does wrong to you, forgive that person because God forgave you.  Do all these things; but most important, love each other.  Love is what holds you together in perfect unity.  Let the peace that Christ gives control your thinking, because you were all called together in one body to have peace.  Always be thankful.  Let the teaching of Christ live in you richly.  Use all wisdom to teach and instruct each other by singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  Everything you do or say should be done to obey Jesus your Lord.  And in all you do, give thanks to the father through Jesus.