Biblical Text: Nehemiah 8.9-18
On Christmas Day last year I began my sermon by reading the first line of a few different books to see if people could name where they came from. As it went down well I thought I would play a similar game today. I’ll warn you now, this one may not be quite as easy. Are we ready?
Here we go (answers below)…
- “Mr. Bennet was among the earliest of those who waited on Mr. Bingley.”
- “It was the Dover road that lay, on a Friday night late in November, before the first of the persons with whom this history has business.”
- “Up jumped Bilbo, and putting on his dressing-gown went into the dining-room.”
- “On Monday, he ate through one apple, but he was still hungry.”
- “Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step.”
For those that were here at Christmas, you may remember that those were the exact same books I chose back then. The big difference? I’ve read out the first line of the second chapters. We had some clues of course, so it wasn’t impossible, but you had to know some background. But with only one sentence, you have very little context, and context matters.
The lectionary, that list of readings we use every Sunday in church, gives us a set amount of verses. Obviously it has to start somewhere, but that often means we have no context for what we’re reading. Our reading from Nehemiah this week is an excellent example. Here we have Ezra (a priest) and Nehemiah (a governor), along with some Levites (teachers in this case), saying to the people, ‘“This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.’
That’s a bit odd isn’t it? What is going on? Forgive me for a moment, but I’m going to presume that you haven’t read the rest of Nehemiah before coming here this evening, so let me give you a brief bit of background. The Israelites were exiled, taken away to Babylon more than 100 years before we come to the story. They have managed to keep their faith alive, but they haven’t been able to do all they would like, especially without a Temple. Many have forgotten the law, and because they’ve forgotten it, they haven’t kept it. Ezra came back to Jerusalem with a group of people to rebuild the Temple, and now Nehemiah is there too, to help rebuild the city walls, but things are certainly not back to normal.
So, once everyone has settled in Israel again, Ezra calls them all to Jerusalem to hear the law. Remember, very few people could read, and even if they could they wouldn’t have scrolls in their house to read whenever they want. So, everyone gathers together to listen to the law being read, and they had people there helping to interpret it so it could be understood.
When they do understand, they are heartbroken. All these commands and laws they’ve not been obeying. So much of God’s law that they’ve not been following. And they respond as they should, they weep. We see this again and again in the bible. When people realise they’ve walked away from God, they are upset. It’s usually what happens before great change…what we might call revival.
But that’s not the end here is it? Because the day is a festival to the Lord. And festivals are a time for rejoicing! So almost as soon as Nehemiah has told us people are weeping, he tells us the leaders encourage everyone to celebrate a festival to remember God’s goodness, the Festival of Sukkot, or Festival of Booths. These booths were simple protective structures made with branches and probably goat skin, meant to remind the Israelites of God bringing them out of Egypt, protecting them in the wilderness when they had no homes. They were to celebrate and, interestingly, to help those who were less well off celebrate too. No-one was to be excluded.
What is the result? There was great rejoicing. They had taken time to remember God’s goodness to them. And as the story continues in chapter nine they do indeed move on to confession of their sins.
What are we to learn from this passage? Aside, that is, that we need to read the Bible in context. I think the lesson for us can be rather simple. There is a time for repentance, and there is time for rejoicing. Sometimes we may sit before God and wonder at our lack of faith. Our failings may feel so great, the task too immense, that we wonder how we can call ourselves Christian. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, as long as, ultimately, it leads us back to God.
But there are also times for rejoicing, for remembering what God has done, where he has brought us from, how he has protected and watched over us. And that celebration can, should, involve more than simply singing songs and having parties – it can also involve looking out for others, blessing them, because God has blessed us.
There is one final point here, which is perhaps easy to miss. Our world talks a lot about independence, about being self-sufficient – but we need others. To remind us to celebrate, to remind us to repent, because we’re not always good at knowing what’s best for us. In this passage in Nehemiah, the people need their leaders to remind them of what is important. When it comes to faith, that’s why we need a church. And it’s not always the leaders, that’s for sure. We need others of faith to help us repent and rejoice, to help us live in the light of all God has done, and continues to do, for us.
Quiz answers
- Pride and Prejudice
- A Tale of Two Cities
- The Hobbit
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone