Sermon by Rev George Hemmings
When I was growing up, I spent my weekends and holidays working on our family farm. I’d come home from boarding school and straight away be put to work. There’d be a long list of jobs to do, like mowing the acre that was our front yard, or weeding the garden beds. And even if I managed to get all the other jobs done, there was always one that never seemed to end. That was fencing. There was always some section of fence that needed to be repaired or rebuilt or tweaked. Fencing was a never-ending job. I’d go out with Dad, day after day, working on one section, then moving along and working on the next section. Even though we only had a small property, I worked out that the external fences alone were about 5 kilometers long.
A similar task faces Nehemiah and the people of Jerusalem at the start of chapter 3. Nehemiah’s arrived in the city, with permission from the King to rebuild the walls. He’s given a rousing speech and the people have responded with a resounding yes. But now the work begins. No doubt, the reality of the task before them sets in. The walls around Jerusalem were probably between 4 – 7 kilometers long. And if you recall from chapter 2, the walls weren’t in good nick. In his inspection tour, there was a whole section that Nehemiah couldn’t ride around. There would’ve been massive amounts of rubble all around the walls that would need to be cleared before work could even commence. And there wasn’t a massive workforce to get the job done. There were almost certainly less than a thousand people living in Jerusalem at the time. Chapter 3 only records about 30 groups of people onsite. The people of Jerusalem had their work cut out for them.
But amazingly we don't read of them grumbling or complaining. Instead this chapter records that the people threw themselves into the work. Everyone, or at least nearly everyone, got involved. It's easy to miss, but as you read through the list of names you see rich and poor, men and women, important and unimportant people working alongside each other. People from every level of society and every walk of life are mentioned in honour roll.
The first worker to get a mention is chapter 3 is Eliashib, the high priest. Along with him the other priests who would've normally worn ceremonial robes, roll up their sleeves and lead the people in the building project. They set to work rebuilding the section of the wall closest to the temple. And they rebuild the sheep gate, the entrance that sacrifices would've been brought into the city and the temple. And when they're done they dedicate their work to God. The chapter starts like this to show that there's more going on here than just building a wall. It's not about the bricks and the mortar, but about building up God's kingdom.
So it's no surprise that it wasn't just the stonemasons, the carpenters, and the labourers who built the wall, while everyone else just sat around and watched. We read of goldsmiths, perfumers and merchants getting involved. It might be that someone who knew what they were doing had to supervise them, telling them what stone to put where. Or maybe they just did menial tasks like carting away the rubble. But Nehemiah records their efforts. Their part in building the wall was just as important as everyone else's. The work wasn’t just left to just a chosen few.
Later on we read of various governors, rulers and leaders who put their hands to the trowel and get involved in the work. Imagine the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, or the members of the State Cabinet, turning up at the church building site and grabbing a shovel, digging foundations or manning the cement mixer. High and low, people got involved in the work.
Moreover, we read of people from surrounding districts coming in to lend a hand. The workforce mentioned in chapter 3 includes people from towns like Jericho, Tekoa, Gibeon, Mizpah and Zanoah. There was no immediate benefit for these people. A wall around Jerusalem isn't going to keep Jericho safe. In fact, it would have cost them to leave their own homes and lands to go to Jerusalem and help with the work. But they too see that there's a bigger picture here. The people of Israel were inspired by vision and so they came together to build the wall. Its’ about being on board God’s building project.
But not everyone gets involved do they? In our own experiences, there’s always a few naysayers, a few people who hold back from the work. The same was true for Nehemiah. If we read the chapter carefully, we see that while the Tekoites came to lend a hand, their leaders stayed home. Verse 7 says they weren’t willing to get their hands dirty. We’re not told exactly why, but we can imagine they were too proud, too proud to stoop to manual labour, to take orders from Nehemiah, the foreigner, or just too proud to be out their mucking it out with common people. As we’ll see next week, this is only the start of the opposition that Nehemiah and the people will face. What’s surprising here is how the Tekoites respond. They don’t follow their leaders lead, but throw themselves into the work. Amazingly, they don’t just build one section of the wall, but in verse 27 they repair another section! It’s as if they want to prove to Nehemiah and the others that they’re worthy. They want to prove they understand that building the wall is ‘the work of their Lord.’
Other groups match their enthusiasm; some build more than one section of the wall, others built long stretches. The people were committed to the big project, to getting the work done. As the last verse we heard read, from chapter 4 – ‘The people had a mind to work.’ They threw themselves into it. Chapter 3 is a memorial of the dedication, the zeal, the passion of the people for the work.
Do you have the same kind of zeal for building the church? Nehemiah and the Israelites faced a big task, building a big wall. We’re facing a big task, a big building project of our own. If you haven’t driven by Station Street this week, you’ll be pleased to know the work has finally started. The trees are gone, the asbestos is gone, and the cottage is looking even more airy than it used to! Hooray!
Should we follow the example of Nehemiah 3 and get our shovels and tools and head down to Station Street? Well, we can all get involved in giving to the building project, but we might not want to let some of us near the plans, let alone the power-tools! (If you think that is bad, you should see what happened last time I picked up a chainsaw!) But the reality is the building itself is a white elephant. In some ways the building’s irrelevant. Just as we looked at when we drew this picture a few Sundays ago, the church isn’t about the building it’s about the people. The building is just what allows us to get on with growing God’s kingdom. And God wants all of us to be involved in this work.
Building the wall isn’t a job Nehemiah could do himself. The work was too big for just one person, it took everybody to get it done. Building the church isn’t a job that God’s left to just a few individuals. It’s something he wants all his people to be involved in. The wall wasn’t just left to those who were gifted stonemasons. And growing the church isn’t just the responsibility of those who amongst us who are gifted in explaining the gospel. It’s a job that we’re all to be involved in. And so, just as we saw goldsmiths and rulers, perfumers and priests, working together to build the wall, God wants all of us, no matter what our jobs, our roles or gifts, to grow the church.
How can we do that? Well, one way is just by gossiping the gospel. It’s by introducing God into your everyday conversations. Just talking about your relationship with God like it’s the most important thing in your life. And it’s through speaking about St. Thomas’, just like you might your football club, your school, your favourite coffee shop, your business. Talking about Messy Church with your colleagues at work the next day, sharing with the other parents at your school about Tom’s Crew, inviting your classmates to Youth Group. It could be inviting your friends to the Trivia Night next week, as a way of getting them along, helping them to meet other Christians.
The good news is to, that we can work together on this! In chapter 3, we read of some individuals who setout to build sections of the wall on their own. But most of the time we read of small groups working together. Some are groups of workmates, like the priests, others are family units, some are neighbourhoods, or villages, pitching in to help each other out and to build sections of the wall. Teams working together to help one another, to supply the different skills, abilities needed to get the job done.
The same is true of the growing the church. It’s one of the reasons we have small groups at St. Thomas’. So often, they’re where the real action takes place. Where you can study and learn the bile in small group, delve into it more detail than we can here at church on Sunday. Where can pray for one another, where we can care for one another. Where lots of things can take place like discipleship. And they’re how we encourage each other to press on with sharing the gospel with those around us. It’s even where new ideas can be generated, new visions for activities we might do to contribute to the work of growing the church.
I’d go as far as to say small groups are at the centre of the building project of St. Thomas’. It’s like the YA small group taking a lead in running the Alpha course last year. And’ it’s just bible study small groups, but groups like the Tom’s crew team, working together to grow the church. This week the MOPS team met together and what was encouraging was to seem them discussing not just how to grow MOPS, but how to grow St. Thomas’.
Of course, as we work as small groups, we need to also work together as one big group. All of the individuals and groups in Chapter 3 needed to work to one set of plans. Can you imagine what the wall would have been like if every group built their section their own way? It would have been a holey disaster! The wall would’ve resembled the Australian rail network, each section with it’s own gauge, nothing quite matching up. That kind of disunity is annoying if you need to travel across the country by train, it’s worse if you’re trying to build a wall to protect a city. But it’s down right disastrous if you’re trying to build the church. You end up with a fractious family. While we work individually, and as small groups, we also need to work together. That’s why we have just one mission statement for St. Thomas’. And so every group needs to ask, how are we going to fulfill that mission, in our own little area?
And to achieve that we need good leadership, to coordinate our efforts. There’s no doubt this was a big part of Nehemiah’s job in building the wall. Not just planning the work, but coordinating the people’s efforts. Ensuring people didn’t just build where or how they wanted. (Otherwise there would have been a fight for the good bits of the wall!) And he would have kept enthusing them. Reminding them on the hard days, of what they were working for. Encouraging them to press on, especially as we’ll see next week in the face of growing opposition. And Nehemiah worked hard at building the wall himself. At St. Thomas’ we’ve got our own Nehemiah in Chris, providing direction and encouragement. And Chris works hard too! So he deserves our support, our thanks, our respect and obedience. He points us back to our vision, points us forward to our goal, and points us up to our Great God whom we are serving.
We can all get involved in building the church, no matter where we are what we do. If goldsmiths and perfumers can get up and build a wall, we can get up and build the church. Even as the building work goes on at Station Street lets get on with building St. Thomas’ here and now.
