Rebuilding Brokeness
Nehemiah 1:1-4
If there is one thing which should summarize the Christian church, it is mission. The Gospel and the church is about rebuilding or healing brokenness. We’ve learned this and lived this even moreso since Katrina. To date, "The United Methodist Church has helped over 59,000 people who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. Over 45,692 volunteers (3320 teams) volunteers from around the world have served in our disaster recovery ministry. That’s a donation value of $40,468,015. What we have found is that we are not just rebuilding homes. We are rebuilding lives as well. By rebuilding homes, we are healing the brokenness which has been caused by Katrina, Rita, FEMA, the Lousiana Recovery Corporation and many others.
Today begins our sermon series on the book of Nehemiah. the theme of which is rebuilding. We’ll see it in two sections. The first is about rebuilding the walls of the city of Jerusalem, the city of God, for a city without walls doesn’t have a defense and without a defense you cannot have an offense. The last half of the book is about rebuilding people’s lives.
How did Jerusalem and the people of Israel get to this point? How about a minute and 30 second survey of the history of the people of Israel? The first date we can accurately establish in the Old Testament is God’s call of Abraham about 4000 years ago. Then around 1550 BC, God called Moses to free his people from slavery in Egypt. About 300 years later God called David and raised him up to be the first king of Israel. David unified the tribes of Israel, expanded the kingdom to the largest Israel has ever been in history and secured the borders so that Israel was a relatively safe place to live. David’s son Solomon amassed great wealth during the very prosperous and peaceful times for Israel as it took control of the trade routes which ran through Paelstine and charged taxes on the items passing through. This enabled him to build the city of Jerusalem into a magnificent city and to construct the Temple of God. In 730 AD, there was a civil war and the tribe of Judah in the south split from the 11 tribes in the north, weakening Israel’s defenses from the threatening nation of Assyria to the north. In 586 BC the Babylonians, which is modern day Iraq, attacked Jerusalem, utterly destroying the city. They burned the temple, the symbol of God’s identity and presence amidst the people of Israel, and they demolished the walls of the city. They then kidnapped all of the educated, religious, political, scientific and financial leaders of Israel. In 445 BC, God calls four people, Esther, Ezra Nehemiah, and Zerubabbel, to restore the city of God and thus the movement of God on earth.
Nehemiah task is to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. Now walls represent two things among others. First, they represent boundaries and structure. People without boundaries and structure in their life create children without boundaries and structures in their lives which create communities without boundaries and structures, and nations without boundaries and structures. That ultimately means chaos. Second, walls also represent vulnerability. A city with its walls torn down is vulnerable and susceptible to attack. We know what it means to be vulnerable and susceptible as a city and what that does to the people living there. One thing you need to understand is that the world at that time was a very dangerous place. You could not travel even on the major roads of the day without fear of being attacked and perhaps even murdered. Israel at this time was very much like the Wild West without boundaries, structure and government to ensure the safety of the people. We learned in the days after Katrina when the levees broke that utter chaos reigned. New Orleans became a very dangerous place as the criminals and the desperate took control of the city. When safety is not present, there is no trade, and without any trade there is no economy and without a strong economy, there is poverty.
God is concerned about more than just your spiritual well-being. The earth and all that it contains belongs to God. So God is about restoring people, relationships, families, communities, economic systems and the environment. This is why we as God’s people should be concerned about such issues as global warming. Image. You see the God we worship is a God of restoration. God’s call to these four people, Esther, Ezra Nehemiah, and Zerubabbel, is not to go to a new place and start over but to go restore that which had been broken down.
The sermons series we are starting today is entitled [re] which means to do over. God is a God of do overs or new beginnings. Each week in the real estate section there is an article of someone’s personal possession which had been damaged by the storm waters of Katrina and the process of restoring it back to almost like new condition. Now if you know anything about restoration, you know that it can cost significantly more to restore something than to just throw it away and buy something new. It can cost upwards of 3-4 times or even more than the cost of just buying something new. Why would anyone in their right mind do that? An article in the Times-Pic on Jan. 1st about the restoration of the artifacts from the Krewe of Rex from the floddwaters of Katrina answered this with one simple word: History. Those items represented our history. It tells a part of our story. We worship a God of history. In fact, the word history really means His story. It’s why God doesn’t say when we rebel and mess up our lives or the lives of the people around us, “Man you messed up. I’m done with you.” Instead, God prefers to restore and renew us into new life. God is a God of do overs. It means to take the same person and do a do over. It means to take the same person and give them a new life, a new beginning, and a new purpose. God does not make throwaways. His purpose is always to seek to restore.
It’s the same thing with marriage. Marriage is hard. There are always trying times in marriage. Everybody reaches a time in their marriage when they say, “I am done with this thing. I’m tired of hurting, tired of laboring to no avail. I just want to go find somebody new.” But there’s just one problem: that’s not God’s purpose. God’s purpose is not to throw away but to take the same two people and create a new marriage, the same two people and create a new love. God never throws away but instead always seeks to restore and renew.
One of the questions that many Christians ask is what is God going to do with the Jews? Think about all of the Jews which have died and never had a chance to accept Jesus as their Savior? Romans 11, “All Israel will be saved for God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.” When God calls you or makes a promise to you, that promise cannot be undone, no matter how bad you may mess up. It is why God is a God of do-overs and restoration. God is not willing that any be thrown away but rather that all may come to life. That’s why we’re here! We’re not here to have fun, accumulate toys and play golf. We’re here to be a part of rebuilding God’s kingdom here on planet earth. How? Through God’s people. Ezekiel 22, “I looked for somebody, anybody who would build up the wall and stand in the gap on behalf of the Lamb.” God is looking for people, anybody, to build up what has been torn down. God is looking for people who are not going to just hear God’s word and sit on it. God is looking for people who are willing to get up and move to stand in the gap or breach the levee for other people. God is looking for people to build a wall around broken relationships and marriage. God is looking for people to build up broken educational systems and broken economies.
So God brings together a team of four people: Esther, Ezra Nehemiah, and Zerubabbel. Notice this movement starts out being led by a woman. Pause. Jerusalem the city of God could never be rebuilt if it were not for Esther, the slave and concubine of the king of Persia (modern day Iran) if she was not willing to risk her life to stop the genocide of the Jewish people. Not knowing that she was Jewish, the king became attached to Esther and made her his queen. As he was plotting to kills all of the Jews, Esther went before the king to reveal her true identity and step in and plead for her people, thus risking her own life. In that confrontation, listen to what she said, “If I perish, I perish but I must stand in the gap for God’s people.” Her imploring of the king softened his heart to the Jewish people. If she had not done that, the king would have never let Nehemiah go back and begin rebuilding the walls and in the process of making Israel the people of God and a nation once again.
Now Zerubbabel was called to go back and rebuild the temple. What is the significance of the temple? The temple is the place where the people of God come together and it is the center of their identity. If evil can keep us separated then we can never be used by God as a force for rebuilding his kingdom and the city of God. It is only when we come together focused on God and His work that we are united. When we focus not on what the yats want New Orleans to become or the old liners want New Orleans to come or the city planners from all over the world want New Orleans to become but what God wants New Orleans to become that we are united. Zerubbabel rebuilt the central place where the people came together to hear the word of God, where once again they would be united in faith under one God and focused on His will.
The third person is Ezra who was called to rebuild the altar. Today in the Methodist church, we don’t have an altar, we have a communion table. This is the focus of our worship. But in ancient Israel, the altar was a place of sacrifice and was the central focus of their worship and life. When you made a sacrifice to God, you were giving yourself to him. So the altar represents the place where God’s people give themselves to Him. Today, when we come to this table it focuses our passion and recalls the sacrifice of Christ for us and asks for our response, which is giving our lives to God, realigning our priorities. And fourth is Nehemiah who is called to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem so the people of God could have a strong defense allowing them to go on the offense which would make them a missional force for God’s purpose in the world.
This is why we are the body of Christ! God did not call us together so that we would just assemble to sing songs, catch up with each other and host potluck dinners. God has created each of you for this time and this place with particular gifts, talents, experiences and even failures. Romans 8:28 reminds us, “and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” How have your failures helped you to become the person that you are today? What have you learned from those experiences which has benefited you? How has God used those experiences in your life to prepare you for this time? God needs all of you, the good and the bad for his rebuilding purpose.
When Paul speaks of the body of Christ and its different parts, it reminds us all are needed to do the work of rebuilding. Most people in the church today have sat for years and received incredible nourishment without ever really passing that on to others. That can only cause one thing: spiritual constipation, everything going in and nothing going out. If you are not receiving instruction and spiritual nourishment and passing it on, then you are not a functioning member of the body of Christ. This God we worship is a God of growth and change. He is a God of restoration and do-overs and he does that for everyone. God doesn’t just use any people. Realize God uses broken people. Verse 4, “When I heard these things, I sat down and wept for some days I mourned and fasted and prayed for the God of heaven.” Restoration begins with brokenness and God will only use people whose hearts break for the things which break God’s heart. Let me say that again. God will only use people whose hearts break for the things which break God’s heart. Why did God choose Nehemiah? Nehemiah had a very successful life. He was on the king’s senior management team in charge of food services. Now Nehemiah is in Suza which is modern day Iran. He is 750 miles away from Jerusalem which when you are traveling on foot is the equivalent of the other side of the world. He had never been to Jerusalem in his life. Now Nehemiah lived a very comfortable life, he ate the food of the king and lived in the palace of the king but his heart was connected to the passion of God for the hurting of Israel. His heart was one with God for the children of Israel.
What we learn from Nehemiah is this: brokenness precedes building, even before you can ever lay the first block. Brokeness precedes moving forward. If you want to move forward in any area of your life whether that be professional, relational, financial or spiritual then you first must become broken. You have to name it and claim it. When you begin to hear the voice, whatever the call, whatever the cost, you say use me. Not my will but thine be done.
Third, take a moral and spiritual inventory. And so in this place of complacency in his life, God speaks to Nehemiah. How do you hear God when He speaks? You have to sit down. What does that mean? To sit down means to pause from all of your business and take an honest look at what your life is in this moment. It is a time to do fearless, moral and spiritual inventory. You will never connect with God’s purpose for your life until you stop being so busy. Busyness is the way we medicate our shallowness, and the world as well as the church is full of busyness. So we stay busy doing good things rather than making sacrifices and doing great things for God. Jesus called this seeking first the kingdom of God. God created you for success in life but success in God’s eyes is not the same as the world which measures it by power, wealth and possessions. Instead success is God’s eye is being faithful to God’s will. It’s doing the will of God in your life. The danger is if I don’t take the time to seek assessment in the face of God then I might be pursuing the good things of success rather than the great things of God.
The process of rebuilding begins first with the question, “God, what indeed is really broken? Is it the words I use? Is it my relationship with my spouse? Is it my indifference to your re-building in the life of other people? Is it my negligence of your word? Is it an addictive behavior in my life?” How many of you are willing to pray today, God I want you to get it right in my life. What is my broken reality of my walk with you God? The thing we’ll learn next week is that Nehemiah dealt with his own stuff first. He confessed his own stuff first. Brokeness precedes moving forward.
Bow your head right now and name that place or area of brokenness in your life that you want God to work on, for God to move you out of that place of complacency and pray God I want you to get it right in my life. I am hungry for something more in my life. Use me for your greater purpose. It is in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
