Sermon Nehemiah 8

Christians read our scriptures, in the light of the cross and resurrection of Jesus. We can't help it since it is such a defining moment in our history. So too it is with the Jews, the Old Testament; the Hebrew scriptures are seen through the light of an event called "The Exile". Exile: being sent away from home against your will.

This was the political strategy of the Babylonians. They would invade smaller nations then round up the leaders and anyone important and ship them back to their own country to assimilate them into Babylonian life. Of course they killed anyone who resisted or at least resisted outwardly. Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian kind, deported the Jewish people in two waves. First in 597 and then in 586 BC. He allowed them to remain in a unified community in Babylon, and rewards given to those who became "Good Babylonians". Give up their old God's. their old language, their old identities and become part of the great empire. And many did, perhaps most, but not all.

But we know from today's text, that a portion of them returned. A new leader, Cyrus the Persian allowed the Judaeans to return to their homeland in 538 BC. While most chose to remain in comforts of Babylon, a faithful portion took the hard road home to Jerusalem. Only to find their city in ruins, their temple gone, and the city walls devestated.

However, with the help of Nehemiah, whom today's text is named after we hear about the final ceremony when the city walls were finally restored. In great detail the time is remembered. And that makes sense, since if we look back at days where we shared in historical moments, the events often seem vivid. Like when World War II ended. Some remember the day, what they wore, what they did, who was their. They understand how in today's text, the people were full of joy, but also full of sorrow. Both knowing victory, but also understanding the cost paid.

This text is about the final restoration of the walls. The city was restored, the temple, although smaller, was rebuilt, the protective walls (the largest job which required a great collective effort of the people were restored.) This was the moment when the Jews were now a people again with the dedication of their city walls.

And yet, if we listen close to the text, there still is work to do. As the Jews were kept in captivity, their language began to change. When they finally returned to their homeland their language had substantially changed. Being away for two generations meant that their language had changed in dialect ... which became called Aramaic. The efforts of the Babylonians to eliminate the Jews had not succeeded, due to God's help, but the people were changed, the language had changed. When the Hebrew scriptures were read in Hebrew, the younger people did not understand what was being said; they were in two cultures. One foot in Babylonian Jewish culture, speaking Aramaic, and the other in their old home, with the language of Hebrew. They experienced the joy of what had been restored and the sorrow at what had been lost. Such it is with life and history.

And such it is with us Christians too. Last week, at the Friday night program, we talked about this historical period called the Exile. About how this 50 year event of exile and restoration was reflected in our Christian story of the cross and resurrection. For on the cross, Jesus takes on the sins of the world; takes on our forsakenness from God; takes on that which separates us from God. Becomes exiled on our behalf, and three days later, through the power of God's love which will not leave him or us forsaken, Jesus is resurrected. And yet, notice the resurrections stories, Jesus still retains the makes of the wounds of the cross. His resurrection body is new and uncorruptable. He has been raised to eternal life, and what a joy that is for him and for us. However the wounds are still part of who he is.

And perhaps that reality speaks to the whole of human history. We know the story, at one time human life was a paradise. We walked and talked with God until through our greed, we ate of the one tree amongst many that God told us not too and we were exiled. You know; Adam and Eve. And history is full of untold violence that stems from humanities greed.

However, in the fullness of time. God sent his son, Jesus. This aramaic speaker, this son of exile, to make humanities way back to God. To mend the exile of exiles. To remake our creation into a paradise where we walk again with God, and no one is afraid.

And so, we like Nehemiah's people, who gathered on that important day to give thanks that they were witnessesing the rebirth of the Jewish people as a nation. Just as we gather as witnesses to the restoration that God has brought about in restoring the Creation through Jesus Christ. And just like Nehemiah's people, sorrow is mixed with joy knowing what was lost, but also knowing the God still has work to do to finish what God has done. We too share this burden and joy, as we see what God still has left to do, in our lives and in the life of creation. However, even though we bear the wounds of the consiquences of our own sin and greed, or the sin and greed of others, because of what God has done through Jesus Christ, we can sing songs of praise to God, knowing with confidence that our Creation will be restored, as will our bodies. They will not be the same, for God will make them for eternal life and the scars of our exile will still remain, but the sorrow, the violence, and the greed will be gone. We know this because Jesus says so, and gaves his life that it might be so. Thanks be to God.

Scriptures
Nehemiah 8:1-3,5-6,8-10
Luke 4:14-21

Hymns
#316 Praise Our Maker
#697 O for a World
#670 Precious Lord, Take My Hand

Call to Worship
Come home to God, all who are weary!
Enter into God's gates, all who are seek a world restored!
Gather and give praise to the One who has redeemed the world!

Confession
You have done marvelous things God. You restored your people, Israel, after through their foolish and unfaithful ways they were sent into exile in Babylon. You sustained your people in that strange land where they could not find joy, and brought them back to the land you made for them. You restored them as a people, and set them on the path to restoration as your holy people.
In the fullness of time, you sent your son Jesus to restore your creation. To add the gentiles, through adoption, to your people Israel. You made strangers into children of God. You made outsiders into insiders.

You have called us to be your church. To witness to the world what you have done so others may learn of your power, and live lives of hope, purpose and faithfulness. While we gather with joy, we also share our sorrows. Lives broken by oppression and violence. Confusion in knowing how to deal with our past failures. Touble in knowing what we are to do as your people.

Speak your word to us that our sorrow may turn to joy. That our wounds be bound us, such that we might begin again. Bring us into your new land, and let our old lives become a distant memory. We turn to you as the Source of New Life. The One who can make all things new.

Offering
Remember again, children of God, that through the power of Christ you have been made a new creation. While the residue of the old life may linker and cause us to fall into old ways, we are a new creation. The power of the Holy Spirit, if we are willing, is working within us such that we can experience in this life the joy that God has for us in the next. Be confident in the grace of God and the sustaining power of Christ's spirit.