In preaching class they taught us to know our congregations, so speak to their concerns. So as I was preparing this sermon, I asked myself “What do I know about the inner city? Well, when I lived on Eliot just south of Lake St I was mugged walking from my car to my front door. When my brother lived over on 28th and Columbus he was held up at knife point. When I lived over on 33rd, the other side of the freeway, my house was broken into three times in two months. So in many ways I have a very negative view of the inner city. But at the same time it’s also positive. Because in the inner city, at least people aren’t trying to pretend their problems don’t exist. In the suburbs I sometimes think that people are so busy trying to look good that they forget how to be real. But we all face pretty much the same problems because we all live in life, and life’s problems - the ones that matter - are the same for everyone. We struggle with temptation and priorities and discouragement. We all face problems from unemployment to crime, injustice and immorality, alcohol, drugs, broken marriages and rebellious children. Most stressful of all can be a sense of powerlessness, perhaps sometimes even hopelessness in the face of life’s difficulties. But wherever God is working in his church, because of what He can do and has done none of the enemies we face can conquer the love and joy and strength that He gives His people.
God knows everything about my life, and He knows everything about yours. And he has something to say to everyone, whatever their situation. The book of Nehemiah is particularly relevant to city dwellers, I think, because it was written for and about people trying to scratch out a living in a city crumbling into decay. Jerusalem had been sacked and burned by the Babylonians over 100 years before. The people had been carried off into captivity and the city left in ruins. When Cyrus, the Persian King, let the Israelites return, only a few dedicated people went back. They managed to rebuild the temple, but times were hard. The people who had moved in while the Israelites were gone were hostile. Crops had failed and people were hungry. The Arabs and the Greeks were fighting a trade war over their heads, and tradesmen in Jerusalem got squeezed out. The Persian army marched through on its way to Egypt, and then turned around and came back again, this time chased by the Egyptian army. To add insult to injury the Persians then raised taxes to pay for the war. (Does any of this sound familiar, by the way? Taxes and trade wars?) At any rate, the news that came to Nehemiah, who had a nice secure well paid job working for the king of Persia, was this: The walls of the city were broken down, the wooden gates hung broken and useless. Anyone who wanted could come and take over the city. The Jews who were left were really discouraged. They felt that God had abandoned them.
Nehemiah knew that God hadn’t abandoned them. He asked for, and got, a leave of absence from his boss, King Artaxerxes, to go put things right. The book of Nehemiah is the story of how one man who believed in God got everyone to work together. Nehemiah was quite a man. He had extraordinary gifts of leadership and faith. But he didn’t do it - he couldn’t do it - all by himself. Every person in Jerusalem had a part to play. And that’s how God works: he calls all of his people to get involved. That’s why Jesus built the church, so that all of us, working together, can get the job done.
The city of God is no longer just one place, one city, Jerusalem in Judea. The city of God grows wherever His people are working together to build His kingdom. And God is building that city, through the faith and obedience of every one of His people, right here and right now.
We’ll be looking this morning at the third chapter of Nehemiah. I’m not going to read the whole thing because it’s one of those chapters that often make people wonder why God included it in the first place. It’s almost as bad as the genealogies or the lists of nations. Let me give you an example.
Neh 3:1-6. Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the Sheep Gate. They dedicated it and set its doors in place, building as far as the Tower of the Hundred, which they dedicated, and as far as the Tower of Hananel. The men of Jericho built the adjoining section, and Zaccur son of Imri built next to them. The Fish Gate was rebuilt by the sons of Hassenaah.... Meremoth son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, repaired the next section. Next to him Meshullam son of Berekiah, the son of Meshezabel, made repairs, and next to him Zadok son of Baana also made repairs.... The Jeshanah Gate was repaired by Joiada son of Paseah and Meshullam son of Besodeiah.... Next to them, repairs were made by men from Gibeon and Mizpah Melatiah of Gibeon and Jadon of Meronoth....
It’s just a list of everyone who worked on the wall and what they did. Why did God include it? It sounds so BORING. I think it’s included to show that EVERYONE matters to God. He knows EVERYONE by name and EVERYONE counts. In verse 1 the priests worked. In verse 2 the men of Jericho (a suburb northeast of Jerusalem) worked next to a local Jerusalemite. In verse 5 the people of Tekoa (a town south of Jerusalem) worked, even though their rulers refused to get their hands dirty. In verse 6 the goldsmiths (who were rich) worked next to the perfume makers (who were artists). In verse 9 rulers of the city worked. In verse 12 the daughters of Shallum worked. Rich and poor, powerful and powerless, men and women, church leaders and lay folk, inner city, suburban and rural, all worked side by side. They all had a common goal which meant more than their differences. They were the people of God.
It is not always a good thing to have your name written down. . . . One month from today our income taxes come due. It’s not always comforting to realize that the IRS has your number. Sometimes it feels as though it would be better to be invisible, better if the work you do would go un-noticed. But mostly we do want to know that we count. We want to know that if we stand up, somebody will know our name and notice that we’re there. And I want to tell you that there is nothing you do for the glory of God that he does not know about and care about and rejoice about. Every time you encourage your kids, every time you help your neighbor, every time you put in a good day’s work - do it unto the Lord. The things you do for Jesus count. The things you do for Jesus last. The things you do for Jesus spread.
EVERYONE can build to last, right where they are, even if it doesn’t look as impressive as what some other folks do.
EVERYONE has a job to do. And everyone is accountable to do what they can with what they’ve been given to work with. Let’s look at a few more examples. Some people took responsibility for huge sections of wall:
Neh 3:13-16. The Valley Gate was repaired by Hanun and the residents of Zanoah. They rebuilt it and put its doors and bolts and bars in place. They also repaired five hundred yards of the wall as far as the Dung Gate.... The Fountain Gate was repaired by Shallun son of Col Hozeh, ruler of the district of Mizpah. He rebuilt it, roofing it over and putting its doors and bolts and bars in place. He also repaired the wall of the Pool of Siloam, by the King’s Garden, as far as the steps going down from the City of David. Beyond him, Neh son of Azbuk, ruler of a half district of Beth Zur, made repairs up to a point opposite the tombs of David, as far as the artificial pool and the House of the Heroes.
Some people had smaller tasks to do:
Neh 3:23: Beyond them, Benjamin and Hasshub made repairs in front of their house; and next to them, Azariah son of Maaseiah, the son of Ananiah, made repairs beside his house.... [3:28] Above the Horse Gate, the priests made repairs, each in front of his own house. [3:29] Next to them, Zadok son of Immer made repairs opposite his house. Next to him, Shemaiah son of Shecaniah, the guard at the East Gate, made repairs.
You see, it all depends on what kind of resources you have. The ordinary people, the ones without great names or positions or wealth, mostly just repaired the walls in front of their own houses. They took responsibility for their own places. Each one did what they could, and it counted.
Jesus told a parable about this very thing in Matthew 25. It’s the story of the man who entrusted his servants with some property while he went away on a journey; to one he gave 5 talents (about $50,000), to another 2, and to a third only 1. The servant who had received 5 talents made 5 more, and the one who had received 2 talents made 2 more. He who had received only 2 talents was rewarded for what he had done, not criticized for not doing as much as the one who had been given 5. But the servant who received only 1 talent had done nothing with what he had been given, and was harshly rebuked. We are responsible for making a difference with what we have been given to work with.
The Jews were building the wall for two reasons. It was partly for protection: from foreign armies during war, and to keep some sort of control over who came in and out of the city, especially at night. But the new wall and gates were also to display that they had an identity as God’s people, and a pride in being God’s people, that made them stand out from those around them. They didn’t want just to surrender to the culture around them, but to stand for something special. The new city walls showed that they honored the name of God, and wanted His city to be a credit to Him.
What we build today both protects us and honors God as well. But what is it that we are building? And what are we building with? It’s not the sort of task Nehemiah and his people had. The materials we build with are the ones that make up the armor of God in Ephesians 6. Our building blocks are truth, righteousness, peace and faith, and the tool with which we work is the word of God. Through the word of God we can know and live the truth of the Gospel. Through the word of God we can share in the righteousness of Jesus. Through Jesus we can know peace with God, and make peace with both our neighbors and our enemies. Through faith, trusting in God’s word, we can make it through the hard times. Through the word of God we can know how to live.
What is it that we are building? We are building ourselves, each other, and the church. And as we learn, obey, and share the word of God, truth, righteousness, peace and faith are built up in our lives and the city of God begins to take shape. We are building character and we are building community. And we need one another to do it.
EVERYONE needs his neighbor:
Neh 3:30-32. Next to [Shemaiah whom we met in verse 29], Hananiah son of Shelemiah, and Hanun, the sixth son of Zalaph, repaired another section. Next to them, Meshullam son of Berekiah made repairs opposite his living quarters. Next to him, Malkijah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs as far as the house of the temple servants and the merchants, opposite the Inspection Gate, and as far as the room above the corner; and between the room above the corner and the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and merchants made repairs.
Nehemiah started his list at the Sheep Gate, and ended 32 verses later at the Sheep Gate. If we took a map of Jerusalem and traced around it we would see that wherever one person ended his work, another person began. There were no gaps in the wall. If any gaps had been left in the wall, it might as well not have been built. It would have been useless.
We need each other. A Christian in isolation is a contradiction in terms. To be a Christian is to be part of the family of God, part of the body of Christ. To be a Christian is to live in community. One cannot love God and hate his neighbor, or even ignore his neighbor. We have responsibilities toward one another. Chapter 4 of Nehemiah explains how the Israelites who were building the wall were being attacked by their enemies. The way Nehemiah handled it was to have half the people work and the other half carry weapons, and there was a trumpeter with Nehemiah. When one group was attacked, he would sound the horn, and people working on another section of the wall would come to their help.
We need to work together. We need to pray for one another. We need to watch out for each other, and to help one another when we’re sick or in trouble or sad or lonely or defeated. We can’t manage alone.
As the old song says, “Let the circle be unbroken.” Every time the bond between two members of the church is broken the people of God are hurt and the city of God is damaged. But it happens all the time. Why is that? What is it that destroys the fellowship among Christians? Misunderstanding destroys community. Injustice destroys community. Anger, envy and lies destroy community. And each one of these comes directly out of lack of truth, righteousness, peace or faith.
EVERYONE of us can have as much of these as we ask for. God offers us unlimited truth, unlimited righteousness, unlimited peace, and unlimited faith. His spirit will build these in us, if we ask. And as He builds these qualities in us, we can help reach out to make them happen between ourselves and our neighbor, and the city of God will begin to take shape.
Nehemiah was quite a man, and the wall he got the people to build was quite an achievement. But he didn’t do the work. The people did. And if we take our cue and our inspiration from Nehemiah, we can build a city to rival Jerusalem.
In the city of God there is identity and there is purpose. Each one of God’s people matters, and each one of God’s people belongs. In the city of God there is no unemployment, and in the city of God there is no homelessness. And the city of God is ours to build, if we commit ourselves to the task.
