Nehemiah 8. 1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Grace is the foundation of all that is holy!
“How lonely sits the city that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become,
she that was great among the nations!
She that was [royalty] has become a [commoner].
“She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks;
among all [who love her] she has no one to comfort her;
all her friends … have become her enemies.”
“All her friends have become her enemies …”
You might remember, that’s how I began the sermon at the start of the year, on the first Sunday of Advent. We began with gloom … despair … agony …. The reading for the morning was from Jeremiah. And these words were from Lamentations, another book attributed to the prophet.
Jeremiah’s known as the weeping prophet. Because of his grieving, his mourning, over the destruction of Jerusalem, by the Babylonians, half a millennium before Jesus. Jerusalem’s the city “that once was full of people.” And Jeremiah had been there. Before. During. After. He had seen it all. The fear – no – the terror. The violence. The bloodshed. When all was done and said, Jerusalem was nothing more than a pile of rubble. The palace destroyed. The temple in ashes. The wall around the city in ruins. When Babylon was through, nothing was left. Not even the people. The rich and the powerful, the talented and the able, were led in chains back to Babylon as trophies of war. Only the poor remained. The poorest of the poor. And for the next forty years – give or take … that’s all that remained of the holy city.
But then, the world changed, as the world always does. And people returned, more a trickle than a flood. But slowly, surely, they rebuilt Jerusalem. Brick by brick. Beam by beam. They undid the chaos Babylon had created. Houses were rebuilt. The altar. The temple. Finally, as the piece de resistance, as the magnum opus, the wall encircled the city, once more. And the people celebrated! Darkness had turned to light! Tears became songs! Death was life!
The passage from Nehemiah, the words we read a few minutes ago, is an account of that celebration. Jerusalem had been raised from the dead! Judah had been born again! And with that in mind, listen again to the reading …
All the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate. Ezra brought out the book of the law before the assembly. He opened it and read from it. Facing the square. Before the Water Gate. From early morning until midday. And the ears of all the people were attentive. Then Ezra blessed the LORD and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” They lifted up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshipped the LORD, their faces to the ground.
From destruction to restoration! From exile to homecoming! From defeat to victory! But it got me wondering. Why did they wait so long? Why did they wait … until all the walls had been rebuilt? The walls of their houses? The walls of their temple? The walls of their city? It’s been two chapters since the walls around Jerusalem had been completed! Ten chapters before that since the temple had been finished! But for some reason, they’d waited! Waited until now to gather … in the square … before the Water Gate … to remember! Remember who they were! Remember why they were!
Think about it. Their entire world had been cracked. Shattered. Everything – everyone – gone. Carried away. Led off. Eventually, their children, their grandchildren would return. To start over. To begin again. But it is only after they were done that they took the time to remember. It’s as if all the time they’d spent in the wilderness meant nothing! As if the time they’d spent in Babylon, meant nothing, at all! When they had no walls! When there was no Temple! When they had no square to gather in, no gate to gather before!
But then, maybe that’s why the destruction of the city was so traumatic. The city itself had become the foundation of faith. No longer the other way around. Faith being the foundation of the city. It was the walls that became sacred, the walls that became holy. So, without the walls, they had nothing to believe in. Nothing to believe within. But it’s not walls that guarantee that faith exists. It’s not walls that ensure that faith survives. Just as a lack of walls isn’t a sign that faith is no more. We of all people should understand that!
Faith depends on one thing and on only one thing: god’s grace! god’s charity! god’s love! If grace is present, faith is, as well! Bold! Daring! Confident! If grace is missing, well, there’s nothing to believe in! You see, love needs no walls and love needs no squares and love needs no gates! Truth is, without the walls, Israel was still Israel! Israel is STILL Israel! Just as the church remains the church! No doors! No steeples! It doesn’t matter if the people are no longer fill the city; god continues to fill the people! With them! Between them! Among them!
Church is determined by two things. People and grace! Grace and people! With walls or without! With or without windows or doors! In the mud pits, in the wilderness, in the land! Even in Babylon itself! Wherever grace is proclaimed, wherever gospel is administered … inPerson … online … that is where god is! Where god is, the church is, as well!
So, my friends, we don’t have to wait! To wait until we have walls, again! Wait to remember! We don’t have to wait to become! And we don’t have to wait to be! We are, already, the church! Even here! Even now! Without walls of our own!