October 17, 2021 Sermon - Returning from Exile (1st Normal Public Service after 18 month Covid Pandemic)
It is tremendous to be able to gather for the first time in 18 months. With the exception of the baptism service on August 1 of this year, we have not met together, in person, as the gathered body of Church at the Mission for a year and a half. Anybody see that coming? Not me.
And during this 1 1/2 years, this difficult, painful 18 months, a lot happened. Covid happened, forcing us all into lockdown for extended periods of time.
A lot of us suffered from the isolation of it all. Days on end of either zero contact or very limited contact if we had a phone. Virtual contact by video if we were fortunate enough to have the internet.
Exile. Not a fun place to be. What is exile? It’s being where you don’t want to be, against your will.
For the Jews, Exile meant being separated from the land they loved, the promised land they had been given by God, but which they lost access to because of their disobedience to God. They were driven out by foreign powers by God’s design.
If you’re familiar with the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah, you know that as prophets they called out the people of Israel who were in exile;
they called them to repentance, called them to return to God so as to be healed and restored spiritually, as so that they could be able to inhabit the land once again they had been given.
Nehemiah stands out in part because he was a regular guy, not a priest like Ezra nor a prophet like Malachi.
He served the Persian king in a secular position before leading a group of Jews to Jerusalem in order to rebuild the city walls.
Nehemiah’s expertise in the king’s court equipped him for the political and physical reconstruction necessary for those from Israel who remained after 70 years to survive.
Under Nehemiah’s leadership, the Jews withstood opposition, and came together to accomplish their goal. Nehemiah led by example, giving up a respected position in the palace for hard labor in a politically insignificant district.
Nehemiah’s humility before God gave an example for the people. He did not claim glory for himself but always gave God the credit for his successes.
Nehemiah recorded the reconstruction of the wall of Jerusalem, Judah’s capital city.
Together, he and Ezra, who led the spiritual revival of the people, directed the political and religious restoration of the Jews in their homeland after the Babylonian captivity.
Nehemiah’s life provides a fine study on leadership. He overcame opposition from outsiders as well as internal turmoil.
He exercised his administrative skills in his strategy to use half the people for building while the other half kept watch for the Samaritans who threatened attack.
As governor, Nehemiah negotiated peace among the Jews who were unhappy with Persian taxes. He showed a steadfast determination to complete his goals.
Accomplishing those goals resulted in a people encouraged, renewed, and excited about their future.
So Nehemiah has a lot to say about returning from Exile. And as we consider the struggle and plight of the people of God who were in exile, I think we can glean a lot of valuable insights.
1. Exile wasn’t the end of the world. Even when we’re in exile we can and are empowered by God to grow
When the Israelites first learned that they were going into exile, it was the worst possible news. They thought it was the end of the world. But it was only the end of the world as they knew it.
For the Chosen people, the reason for their exile given in Scripture was that they had continually disobeyed God, despite a ton of dire warnings, and had drifted into the worship of false gods.
Their hearts moved far away from the God who loved them and called them to Himself.
For us during the pandemic, although all kinds of people have given all kinds of explanations of why they think the pandemic happened, we have no sound Scriptural basis to claim any such knowledge without being presumptuous.
Among a whole lot of points is the fact that the pandemic impacted literally the entire world. Everyone suffered.
Our own Pastor Arleen and her husband Paulo were hospitalized due to Covid.
A friend of mine from the 2017 Invictus Games Chaplaincy Team died back on September 20 from Covid.
The entire world has been impacted by this plague. And so each of us can choose to learn something from our experience.
An important thing to note is that even while they were in exile, God never for one second abandoned His people.
They had long ago walked away from Him, but he never abandoned them. In fact, God sought their blessing even while in exile, while in captivity. And He promised an end to the exile.
Jeremiah 29:4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
Exile wasn’t intended to be just horrible. In fact here God says to really just carry on as though they were not focussed on their exile, their situation of hardship.
“Build houses, plant gardens, get married and have families. Keep growing.
“Also, by the way, while you’re there, be a blessing. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city that you’ve landed in. Pray for God’s blessing. Why? Because as it does well, so will you”.
And then, in the same passage, the passage that gives us some needed context for a very famous and beloved verse of Scripture, God promises the end of exile.
10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.[b] I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
So, exile wasn’t the end of the world. Even when we’re in exile, even during a pandemic, even during lockdown, we can and are empowered by God to grow.
I worked with a lot of folks over the pandemic, either one-on-one by phone or video conference or in one of our two online Bible Studies, and I saw how, even as we all struggled, we also kept growing.
Some led Bible Studies for the first time. Some chose to do assessments of their spiritual state, focussed on growth and then learned months later, much to their surprise, that they really had changed, become better. They grew in their discipleship.
They sought the Lord with all their hearts and God met them. This was also my experience. I had more time, mostly because I didn’t have to travel every day, to spend in God’s presence, in His Word, in prayer and supplication for you guys.
So this Covid exile, so to speak, was a beginning for some and not at all the end of everything. But like everything in life, we have to choose what we’re going to do with what we’re given.
2. When exile ends we have to choose whether we need to/how we/if we will rebuild
Nehemiah faced a hard and daunting task. The walls of Jerusalem, which really represented the ability of the people of God to live together in safety and prosperity upon return to their homeland, those big walls needed a lot of work.
So Nehemiah called together the people and organized them and gave them tasks to do toward the goal of rebuilding.
Nehemiah was the leader, but each person and each family had to decide if they were going to be a part of rebuilding. Those who decided “Yes!” then had to organize their hearts and their lives toward their part in rebuilding, their role in serving.
In exile, normal disappeared for God’s people back in that day. Likewise for us, during the Covid pandemic normal vanished.
We had to figure out how to live in the middle of a worldwide plague, how to navigate isolation and lockdowns;
how to maintain our mental health when we were largely cut off from our community.
For those who spend much time online we also had to sort through how to handle the huge amounts of misinformation and absurd conspiracy theories that kept spreading.
Sadly they spread through the Christian community, who I would have expected to be way more discerning and wise than many were.
For many, this added a level of pain they’d never experienced, because whole families, not to mention all kinds of friendships, were and are severely strained due to conflicts over those conspiracy theories I mentioned.
Just like we are known by our fruit, theories are known by their fruit.
So now that the pandemic has lightened up a little, so much so that we are able now to gather in person, which was not possible even a few months ago, you and I have to figure out if we’re going to be a part of the rebuilding.
And those of us who say “Yes! I will be a part of the new thing that God is doing”, we have to sort through how we will make our contribution.
Honestly, I hope that we all decide to be a part of the rebuilding, now that we are coming out of the pandemic.
And finally and perhaps most practically,
3. We have to decide what new life we will help build for ourselves with God’s power?
This is pretty personal. As much as I’ve talked about people growing and making new discoveries about themselves and about God during this plague, there has been a great deal about the pandemic that has been quite negative.
For some of us it’s been an uphill battle maintaining our mental health. We’ve had to fight depression, anxiety and we’ve struggled with our addictions.
Maybe we’ve grown in some areas but we feel we’ve slid back in other areas.
God’s people in Nehemiah’s day had to put up walls to defend the city against those from the outside who would encroach upon it, who would try to overrun it.
Back then as now, all unfortified cities are extremely vulnerable to negative outside influence. An unfortified city would always have a short shelf life.
How will you fortify your life? You are the temple of the Holy Spirit, a place where God dwells. What walls need to go up in your life?
I’m not talking about living a small, boxed in, walled life that keeps everyone out. That’s like living in permanent lock down and no one wants that.
My question is this: What are the boundaries that you need to establish in your heart so that you remain focused and dedicated to God?
What habits do you have that have been controlling you that you need to start exercising control over? (Pause)
This can be mental habits as well. In your thought life, do you typically default to worrying about things that you can’t control?
We all do that to some degree, but if worrying, being a worrier becomes a defining part of who we are, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that’s not a good thing.
You’ll recall that Jesus talked a fair bit about NOT worrying. He’s calling us to control that very normal human tendency to fixate on worrying about life that, although yes it’s common, it’s also a destroyer of joy. And God wants us to live in His joy. Amen?
Have addictive behaviours been more of an issue for you during the pandemic?
What boundaries do you need to re-establish? What thoughts do you need to learn to nip in the bud, to say “no!” to when they first enter your mind, so that they don’t take over your mind?
That’s the problem with sin. It starts with an idea, and if we don’t kill that idea right away, set up a boundary that says: “No!” right away, that idea takes on a life of its own that, in a terribly familiar way, leads right to death.
The key to overcoming is always your relationship with God. What do I mean by that?
1. Run to God. Our first and greatest defense is to live in a right relationship with God. In James chapter 4 we receive some clear and helpful direction:
? Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God” (v. 4).
James was saying: Stop toying with the world! Quit flirting with the devil! Instead, make the intentional choice to align your life with God, which the Bible tells us how to do, and so live at peace with God.
Someone said: The person who lives in friendship with this world (v. 4) does not view sin as a big deal. And it is through the sins we tolerate that Satan gains a foothold into our lives.
Therefore, James urges us to take sin seriously. Grieve over it. Weep over it before God. Turn to God and away from the sin that so easily entangles us.
? V7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you.“Submit to God” (v. 7).
This means to “put yourself under God’s authority.” Entrust yourself to His loving care and power. Follow what He says to do and how to live your life.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (v. 8). We can resist the devil only if we are living in close fellowship and intimate communion with God.
2. Humble yourself before God.
Pride is a weird thing. Pride makes us vulnerable to Satan’s attacks. Pride was the devil’s downfall, and he wants us to be prideful.
It is one of his chief weapons in his warfare against us. “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18). But James teaches us “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Jas. 4:6).
? “Humble yourselves before the Lord” (v. 10).
To humble ourselves before God means to stop resisting Him (v. 7), to fall prostrate before Him, to submit to Him, and to lean on His power.
3. Take up the Word of God.
? By “the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17)
we “stand against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:11). The devil’s primary weapon against us is deception. (See 2 Cor. 11:3.) God’s truth protects us from Satan’s lies.
? Jesus responded to the devil’s temptations by quoting the Word: “It is written … it is written … It is also written” (Matt. 4:4,5,7).
If Jesus Satan’s attacks with Scripture, we also should meet the tempter’s attacks on the same basis. (See also Ps. 119:9-11.)
Jesus was able to use God’s Word because He knew God’s Word. If we do not know the Word, we cannot use the Word.
A sword can deflect an enemy’s attack only if we are able to handle it skillfully and precisely; otherwise, we are left vulnerable.
So church, we are back. We are back to worshipping the Lord together in person, and it is such a blessing. May we never take for granted the privilege of being able to join together in worship and adoration of the living God.
May we, like Nehemiah and the people of God in Nehemiah’s day, make the effort to focus our energies on rebuilding.
May we focus on being a blessing, on being salt and light in our community. May we encourage one another and lift one another up in prayer before the Lord.
And together may we hear His voice as He leads us by His Holy Spirit. Amen?
We are now going to celebrate the Lord’s supper or Holy Communion.
