Nehemiah's prayer is based in reality and honesty. If we don't begin there we will always find failure. Nehemiah knows that God's judgment on his people and their exile from Jerusalem were a result of sin and he and his family have participated in the sin and apostasy. We can't lay claim to innocence, we can only ask for forgiveness and we always do so based on God's merciful character. Mercy isn't a new concept in the New Testament, it has always been God's self-disclosure. If God were not merciful there would be no mankind at all.
Nehemiah recognizes the character of God's people and the character of God and then presumes to come before Him and ask for mercy based on his own repentance on behalf of the nation. Is that a plausible thing? The leader has to be the one to take this initiative on behalf of the people. Nehemiah literally knows nothing of the intentions of those who have returned. He doesn't know whether they simply want to rebuild the city or if they have come back with penitent hearts but he knows his own heart and his desire is to lead these people to rebuild from the desire to restore the honor of the Lord.
His prayer is based also on God's promise to restore them if they repent and on that basis Nehemiah is prepared to move forward with the plan. Finally, he asks the Lord to give him favor with this man, the king. His plan is not based in worldly things but rather in God's plan yet in order to move ahead he will need the cooperation and permission of the king. Now we are told of Nehemiah's position in life, I was cupbearer to the king.
Next we will look at that position and how God so often has put His people in position to accomplish His plan and purpose.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Missionary work and identification
What is Nehemiah's reaction to the news from the exiles? "As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven." Nehemiah was a man who was willing to weep over the city and the people of God. He loved the city and the nation. The first thing we must look for in our leaders, particularly church planters, is a passion like Nehemiah's, a passion willing to weep and mourn over the condition of the city and the people we are called to serve.
Nehemiah identified with the people in Jerusalem, he didn't see himself as their savior and he didn't respond by just praying for them. He also didn't romanticize the situation and plead with God for justice to be done based on the innocence of the nation. His prayer to God is based in two things that all our prayers need to have in common, God's faithfulness and our sinfulness. He doesn't ask why, he knows why. His prayer is based in reality.
Nehemiah's plea to God to hear his prayer is based in God's self-disclosure to Moses in Exodus 34 and grounded in the belief that God cares about His people and the promise we see in 2 Chronicles 7 that when the people, called by His Name, return and repent He will hear from heaven and restore them. Nehemiah follows that pattern of confessing the sins of the people but he doesn't confess "their" sins, he confesses "Even I and my father’s house have sinned." He is not standing above the people, he stands with them.
When we think about missions and, in particular, church planting, do we see ourselves as Nehemiah, one of them, or do we see ourselves as the one who brings the Good News as an expert or a righteous one imparting wisdom and knowledge to pagans? We do well to recall Nehemiah's attitude towards himself as a missionary as it is Jesus' way as well. Jesus identified with us sinners by taking the baptism that is for the repentance of sins even though he was without sin. Nehemiah and Jesus have this in common, their ministries began with identification with the sins of the people they were preparing to serve.
Nehemiah identified with the people in Jerusalem, he didn't see himself as their savior and he didn't respond by just praying for them. He also didn't romanticize the situation and plead with God for justice to be done based on the innocence of the nation. His prayer to God is based in two things that all our prayers need to have in common, God's faithfulness and our sinfulness. He doesn't ask why, he knows why. His prayer is based in reality.
Nehemiah's plea to God to hear his prayer is based in God's self-disclosure to Moses in Exodus 34 and grounded in the belief that God cares about His people and the promise we see in 2 Chronicles 7 that when the people, called by His Name, return and repent He will hear from heaven and restore them. Nehemiah follows that pattern of confessing the sins of the people but he doesn't confess "their" sins, he confesses "Even I and my father’s house have sinned." He is not standing above the people, he stands with them.
When we think about missions and, in particular, church planting, do we see ourselves as Nehemiah, one of them, or do we see ourselves as the one who brings the Good News as an expert or a righteous one imparting wisdom and knowledge to pagans? We do well to recall Nehemiah's attitude towards himself as a missionary as it is Jesus' way as well. Jesus identified with us sinners by taking the baptism that is for the repentance of sins even though he was without sin. Nehemiah and Jesus have this in common, their ministries began with identification with the sins of the people they were preparing to serve.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Nehemiah and the Mission
One of my treasured companions on the journey of pastoring a church is Nehemiah. He was an extraordinary man with vision, passion, perseverance and courage. His example is one for all of us, perhaps particularly church planters, to know and to follow.
His great achievement in life was overseeing the rebuilding of the walls of the city of Jerusalem after its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Nehemiah lived about one hundred years after this and likely had never been to Jerusalem himself. He was, however, Jewish and for that reason loved her very stones. It is the city of God, chosen by Yahweh as the place where His glory would dwell, the place where the mercy seat was where the people could come and make sacrifice and receive pardon and restoration to covenant with the Lord and with one another. No sacrifice could be made or accepted outside of Jerusalem.
The introduction to the book of Nehemiah, chapter 1, begins in an odd way. He tells us that he was in Susa which was a Persian city (now Iran) and his brother came with some men from Jerusalem. Nehemiah questioned them as to the Jews of the exile and the state of the city itself.
All we know at this point is that he is in Susa and yet he is concerned with the welfare of his fellow Jews and the city of God. We don't know his personal situation in Susa or anything else about him. We know, however, that he cares about God's people and God's city. The welfare of the people and the city that is God's dwelling place are central to him and their condition reflects on the God of the city and the people. If the people are poor and the city is ruined, the God of both is equally abashed. We know that Nehemiah cares about both because He cares about God.
That has to be the first priority for church planters, do you care for God and for people. In the new covenant in the blood of Jesus, our sphere of care isn't defined by geography or by nationality. Jesus opened the way for all people to become covenant people without respect to race,nationality, or ethnic origin. He gave us the right to become children of God, adopted into His family in new birth. Jesus also said a time was coming when worship wouldn't be defined by or confined to the temple in Jerusalem. There is no need for the sacrifices of the temple, His sacrifice on the cross would be sufficient for the sins of the entire world if we would believe in Him. Geography was no longer a barrier to worship and the entire world now was a place where God's glory could be found in His people.
Church planters and all pastors have to begin with a passion for the glory of God and for people, we have to have the Spirit and the heart of Jesus, we have to be concerned about the same things Nehemiah was concerned with and they must be the first concerns of our lives.
His great achievement in life was overseeing the rebuilding of the walls of the city of Jerusalem after its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Nehemiah lived about one hundred years after this and likely had never been to Jerusalem himself. He was, however, Jewish and for that reason loved her very stones. It is the city of God, chosen by Yahweh as the place where His glory would dwell, the place where the mercy seat was where the people could come and make sacrifice and receive pardon and restoration to covenant with the Lord and with one another. No sacrifice could be made or accepted outside of Jerusalem.
The introduction to the book of Nehemiah, chapter 1, begins in an odd way. He tells us that he was in Susa which was a Persian city (now Iran) and his brother came with some men from Jerusalem. Nehemiah questioned them as to the Jews of the exile and the state of the city itself.
All we know at this point is that he is in Susa and yet he is concerned with the welfare of his fellow Jews and the city of God. We don't know his personal situation in Susa or anything else about him. We know, however, that he cares about God's people and God's city. The welfare of the people and the city that is God's dwelling place are central to him and their condition reflects on the God of the city and the people. If the people are poor and the city is ruined, the God of both is equally abashed. We know that Nehemiah cares about both because He cares about God.
That has to be the first priority for church planters, do you care for God and for people. In the new covenant in the blood of Jesus, our sphere of care isn't defined by geography or by nationality. Jesus opened the way for all people to become covenant people without respect to race,nationality, or ethnic origin. He gave us the right to become children of God, adopted into His family in new birth. Jesus also said a time was coming when worship wouldn't be defined by or confined to the temple in Jerusalem. There is no need for the sacrifices of the temple, His sacrifice on the cross would be sufficient for the sins of the entire world if we would believe in Him. Geography was no longer a barrier to worship and the entire world now was a place where God's glory could be found in His people.
Church planters and all pastors have to begin with a passion for the glory of God and for people, we have to have the Spirit and the heart of Jesus, we have to be concerned about the same things Nehemiah was concerned with and they must be the first concerns of our lives.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
The Journey Home
I preached today on the parable of the Prodigal Son and had an interesting question afterwards. A woman asked if, because she couldn't accept certain things, she was the elder brother. My answer is simple, the prodigal came back confessing, repenting and offering to make restitution and it was in that posture that the father received him back to the family. The elder brother refused to accept a repentant sinner back as a brother, referring to him only as this son of yours.
The Pharisees problem was that they were unwilling to receive sinners or the man, Jesus, who welcomed them. Jesus, in every encounter we know about through the Gospels, confronted the sin in the lives of those He met. The woman at the well in John 4 is offered living water but before she can receive it, Jesus deals with the sinful lifestyle she has chosen. The prostitute who washes his feet in the home of Simon the Pharisee, hears the parable about a man who was owed money by two others, one a very great sum and the other an insignificant amount and both debts were forgiven and discharged. Simon was asked who loved the man more, clearly the one who was forgiven more. Jesus acknowledged sin in the woman's life. The woman caught in adultery was told to go and sin no more as was the man healed at the pool at Bethesda.
When we are asked to celebrate sin or deny it, it is not pharisaical to say no and refuse to join the party. We must all come to the Lord acknowledging that we are not worthy to be called His children and to deny that is to deny the cross. It is hard to do this and we should be careful about our attitudes towards others, but we have to be truthful. If we aren't we are only offering what Bonhoeffer labeled cheap grace which is no grace at all.
The Pharisees problem was that they were unwilling to receive sinners or the man, Jesus, who welcomed them. Jesus, in every encounter we know about through the Gospels, confronted the sin in the lives of those He met. The woman at the well in John 4 is offered living water but before she can receive it, Jesus deals with the sinful lifestyle she has chosen. The prostitute who washes his feet in the home of Simon the Pharisee, hears the parable about a man who was owed money by two others, one a very great sum and the other an insignificant amount and both debts were forgiven and discharged. Simon was asked who loved the man more, clearly the one who was forgiven more. Jesus acknowledged sin in the woman's life. The woman caught in adultery was told to go and sin no more as was the man healed at the pool at Bethesda.
When we are asked to celebrate sin or deny it, it is not pharisaical to say no and refuse to join the party. We must all come to the Lord acknowledging that we are not worthy to be called His children and to deny that is to deny the cross. It is hard to do this and we should be careful about our attitudes towards others, but we have to be truthful. If we aren't we are only offering what Bonhoeffer labeled cheap grace which is no grace at all.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Remembering (part 2)
Remembering is what we say we do in Communion in my tradition. It is the kind of remembering God's people have always been called to do. The festivals of Judaism were intended to recall the past by remembering but they were also meant to place the participants in the situation they were remembering. During Sukkot the people erect booths to live in during the period of the festival to recall the difficulties of their ancestors in the period of the exodus. That kind of remembering is intended to do more than create a memory, its intention is to immerse yourself as much as possible in the memory in order to make it a present reality. After that experience, you are able to be more thankful for the everyday things that we take for granted due to having done without them for a period. Such festivals also have a future orientation, looking to the eschatological fulfillment of an even greater promise than the current blessed state.
Communion is meant to do the same for Christians. We are not simply remembering fondly the work that Jesus did in the worship service by obeying his command to keep the feast. We are also recalling our present need of His sacrifice, appropriating it for today by confession of our sins and remembering His work of securing our forgiveness. We are also awaiting the fulfillment of the promise of eternal life in His kingdom. All come together in remembering His death and passion and looking for the coming again in glory.
We sometimes need to remember who we are like Will had to do in baseball. We need to be reminded who we are, whose we are, and all He has done for us. We need to remember the past and the present in order to see the future with hope. The work of remembering God's goodness and grace in the past, experiencing it anew by praising Him in the present, remind us that the future is in His hands.
Communion is meant to do the same for Christians. We are not simply remembering fondly the work that Jesus did in the worship service by obeying his command to keep the feast. We are also recalling our present need of His sacrifice, appropriating it for today by confession of our sins and remembering His work of securing our forgiveness. We are also awaiting the fulfillment of the promise of eternal life in His kingdom. All come together in remembering His death and passion and looking for the coming again in glory.
We sometimes need to remember who we are like Will had to do in baseball. We need to be reminded who we are, whose we are, and all He has done for us. We need to remember the past and the present in order to see the future with hope. The work of remembering God's goodness and grace in the past, experiencing it anew by praising Him in the present, remind us that the future is in His hands.
Friday, February 26, 2010
It's funny how the journey of life twists and turns and sometimes it takes a long detour to get back to where you were. I had that experience today. Two years ago our youngest son, Will, had a fantastic year of baseball as a freshman in high school capped off by a summer of playing with the varsity team in which he led the team in nearly every batting category. Shortly thereafter he was told that he needed to lose some weight to be a regular player on the team. He was too heavy and it was something he needed to change. What didn't need to happen was what did happen, he lost 90+ pounds in a seven month period and his ability to play the game was severely diminished because he lost most of his strength. His sophomore and junior seasons were near total washouts, only three at bats during his junior year.
I watched his hopes and dreams die and his joy in baseball, something at which he had excelled all his life, completely leave. In the process, my wife and I both died within, our own joy gone and our hopes for Will's future dashed. It has been a very difficult time for us emotionally. What had previously been one of the great joys of our life, baseball fields and baseball friends, was a place of deep pain.
In those two years Will committed himself to a physical fitness regime I could never have imagined. He became the healthiest eater I have ever seen, ran every day, worked out seven days a week in the gym, and hit baseball in the batting cage five days a week. In those two years of hard work, work he had never done before, his return on investment was zero. Over the last two weeks he has come home from either practice or scrimmage games prepared to quit baseball forever, we really thought it was done. His confidence was completely gone, at bats particularly were painful. In that same time he has become the best first baseman I have ever seen at the high school level.
Today, he hit his first home run in over two years. What I asked him when he got home was, "Is your amnesia gone?" That was what it looked like to me when I saw him at bat and when he got to home plate to a raucous greeting by his teammates, a young man who had long ago forgotten who he is but who suddenly remembered in two at bats. I too, rediscovered my joy in watching Will play baseball. If he had come home and told me he was done with baseball today I would have been okay with his decision, I needed him to remember how talented and gifted he is, so that he can call on those resources of faith in his life and I needed the healing remembrance as well.
Tomorrow - the spiritual implications of remembering.
I watched his hopes and dreams die and his joy in baseball, something at which he had excelled all his life, completely leave. In the process, my wife and I both died within, our own joy gone and our hopes for Will's future dashed. It has been a very difficult time for us emotionally. What had previously been one of the great joys of our life, baseball fields and baseball friends, was a place of deep pain.
In those two years Will committed himself to a physical fitness regime I could never have imagined. He became the healthiest eater I have ever seen, ran every day, worked out seven days a week in the gym, and hit baseball in the batting cage five days a week. In those two years of hard work, work he had never done before, his return on investment was zero. Over the last two weeks he has come home from either practice or scrimmage games prepared to quit baseball forever, we really thought it was done. His confidence was completely gone, at bats particularly were painful. In that same time he has become the best first baseman I have ever seen at the high school level.
Today, he hit his first home run in over two years. What I asked him when he got home was, "Is your amnesia gone?" That was what it looked like to me when I saw him at bat and when he got to home plate to a raucous greeting by his teammates, a young man who had long ago forgotten who he is but who suddenly remembered in two at bats. I too, rediscovered my joy in watching Will play baseball. If he had come home and told me he was done with baseball today I would have been okay with his decision, I needed him to remember how talented and gifted he is, so that he can call on those resources of faith in his life and I needed the healing remembrance as well.
Tomorrow - the spiritual implications of remembering.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
My own Journey
You never know where the journey will lead. Twenty-nine years ago I thought I had irretrievably lost my way on my own journey. I was on the edge of flunking out of college, I had let my parents down, I had let down my friends, I had let down myself, and I had let God down. I had spent a semester partying constantly and was doing my best to tune out God's voice. I knew I had a call to ministry but I was equally clear that I didn't want to hear that any longer, so I did what I thought I had to do to drown out that voice, I self-medicated as much as possible.
As exams approached, I knew that I had to do better on one exam than I had any right to expect in order to stay in school. I remember Dec. 18 quite well because I had reached the point where I had studied harder than ever in my life and the chances of it being enough were nil. I went back to my dorm room where I had a shotgun a friend had loaned me to go squirrel hunting with (it was a very different time then but I still think you weren't allowed to have a shotgun in your dorm room) and stuck the barrel of the gun in my mouth with every intention of killing myself when someone came into my room and I quickly put the gun down. I never got a chance to be alone to finish the job that night or the next couple of days. As expected, I came up a bit short and was done with my Sewanee career.
Clearly my life didn't get better that day and it would be another 17 years before I would be willing to hear and answer the call to ministry. There was a lot of pain, a lot of running, and a lot of bargaining with God in between, but there was also a great deal of joy, laughter, love and life that happened in there that I am glad to have experienced. I am fortunate that God sent someone into that room that night to save me from giving up at a time when it all looked bleak.
Sometimes the journey is hard because of us and our failures and shortcomings, but I can say today that God was faithful, more faithful than I could ever have known or expected, more faithful than I ever deserve, but that is who He is.
After the sin of the golden calf in Exodus, when Moses has broken the tablets on which the Commandments are written, he goes back up the mountain to intercede for the people and God renews the covenant. Like Adam and Eve, the terms were obedience or death and they had already broken the first commandment and rejected Him, and yet He renewed the covenant with them. In that moment Moses asked to see the Lord. At that time, the name of the Lord was simply known as "I AM." On this day, Moses got an expanded understanding of his God, The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation." (Exodus 34.5-7)
I understand that reality of a merciful God who abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness, I have experienced it and I daily walk in that reality only because He kept me from my own will in 1980. For that I am deeply humbled and truly thankful and prepared to walk with Him wherever He leads me today.
As exams approached, I knew that I had to do better on one exam than I had any right to expect in order to stay in school. I remember Dec. 18 quite well because I had reached the point where I had studied harder than ever in my life and the chances of it being enough were nil. I went back to my dorm room where I had a shotgun a friend had loaned me to go squirrel hunting with (it was a very different time then but I still think you weren't allowed to have a shotgun in your dorm room) and stuck the barrel of the gun in my mouth with every intention of killing myself when someone came into my room and I quickly put the gun down. I never got a chance to be alone to finish the job that night or the next couple of days. As expected, I came up a bit short and was done with my Sewanee career.
Clearly my life didn't get better that day and it would be another 17 years before I would be willing to hear and answer the call to ministry. There was a lot of pain, a lot of running, and a lot of bargaining with God in between, but there was also a great deal of joy, laughter, love and life that happened in there that I am glad to have experienced. I am fortunate that God sent someone into that room that night to save me from giving up at a time when it all looked bleak.
Sometimes the journey is hard because of us and our failures and shortcomings, but I can say today that God was faithful, more faithful than I could ever have known or expected, more faithful than I ever deserve, but that is who He is.
After the sin of the golden calf in Exodus, when Moses has broken the tablets on which the Commandments are written, he goes back up the mountain to intercede for the people and God renews the covenant. Like Adam and Eve, the terms were obedience or death and they had already broken the first commandment and rejected Him, and yet He renewed the covenant with them. In that moment Moses asked to see the Lord. At that time, the name of the Lord was simply known as "I AM." On this day, Moses got an expanded understanding of his God, The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation." (Exodus 34.5-7)
I understand that reality of a merciful God who abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness, I have experienced it and I daily walk in that reality only because He kept me from my own will in 1980. For that I am deeply humbled and truly thankful and prepared to walk with Him wherever He leads me today.
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