Remembering and Reinterpreting After Exile

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

Sunday, January 21, 2007

The Rev. Jessica Commeret

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

For many of you, this may be the first time you have ever heard a reading from the book of Nehemiah in church or you may simply have little recollection of learning who he was in your education as a Christian.  I hope to give you a background on this book in general and then move to help us understand the story of this fairly nominal figure in religious history, Nehemiah and his priestly partner, Ezra. The story is powerful. The BREAD organization, of which our church is a member, has used the story of Nehemiah as a stepping stone for their work in our city of Columbus. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me tell Nehemiah’s story first.

Nehemiah was prominent leader in post-exilic times.  In non-academic terms, we enter the story of the Hebrew people late in the Old Testament, around 450 BCE.  To put the story in a broader historical context, the Israelites came out of Egypt with Moses long ago. They have occupied the land of Canaan, established a strong monarchy with David, Solomon, but none of this power and might, even warnings from many prophets, such as Amos, Micah, and Isaiah, allowed them to avoid the invasions of Assyria and Babylon.  The temple is destroyed. The people are taken into captivity and sent far away.

It is here that the book of Nehemiah enters the story.  The Jewish people have been in captivity for 150 years, give or take a few decades.  Imagine this world with me for a few moments.  It would be as if we were taken from our home land for generations, if our fears had come true during the Cold War and our nation came under communist rule and many of us were sent to Siberia to live and work.  Then, after 150 year or so, a leader of the USSR let us return to the United States. Pretty hard to imagine, yet this was the circumstances of the Hebrew people, now called the Jews.

Nehemiah, a Jew, worked in the government for the King of Persia, whose kingdom had over thrown the Babylonians and now was in authority over Israel. Nehemiah was a cupbearer, which meant that he had the unpopular job of tasting the wine of the king before the king tasted it himself, just in case it was poisoned. Not my ideal job, but someone had to do it.

Nehemiah knew that the King was allowing many to return to their homeland of Judah, and heard about what was taking place in Jerusalem. The Jewish nobles and rulers were exploited the “working class Jews” if you will. There was rampant debt and oppression of those on the bottom of the economic scale, the Temple wall was not getting rebuilt.  So Nehemiah asked the King if he could go to Judah. The King responds quite favorably and Nehemiah is appointed to be governor of Judah, a servant of the Persian state.

When he arrives in Judah, he takes note all that is going on—the injustice and the inability to build the temple. First, he focuses in on building the walls of the temple.  There is much hostility, but Nehemiah devises a way so that the walls can be built and that with God, the hostility is thwarted.

Nehemiah also charges the nobles and rulers of the day to stop oppressing the laborers and farmers and charging them interest on their land.  The people rise up alongside of him. Nehemiah demands of those in charge, those with the money and resources who are taking them from their own Jewish brothers and sisters, to share and allow everyone to have enough.  And they do so.

Nehemiah is remembered as a great reformer.   BREAD, an organization with around 50 congregations in our city of Columbus, is trying to bring the voice and the passion of Nehemiah that calls on the state-civic authorities to grant justice and fairness to the marginalized, the poor and the oppressed.  Your voice can also join these voices in the cry for justice and fairness with other congregations in the city of Columbus when it addresses the issues confronting the working poor in our city: lack of sufficient wages and access to health care, decent housing and transportation. Nehemiah reminds us that the civic government and religion need each other.  The voice of the religious can make a difference and speak truth to the powers that control.

The text specific for today, Nehemiah 8, is a chapter after all this has occurred, after the wall of the temple has been completed, after the poor have received justice.  And this is what follows: the text tells us that Ezra, a priest and religious leader in the community is told by the people to bring the book of the law and to read it to them. 

And boy does he read it.  He doesn’t just read a few verses—he reads until midday.  The reading of the book of the law goes on for a very long time.  Scholars believe that he was most likely reading from the book of Deuteronomy. Could you all sit for 6 or 7 hours listening to the book of Deuteronomy? Oh, I mean stand, because these people actually stood for that time. The text tells us that interpretation was also offered, so that the people could understand. And the people loved it! They stood as he read and lifted their hands and cried “Amen, Amen!” They responded even more radically and got on the floor, and laid prostrate remembering who their God was as they listened to God’s law. 

I know what many of you may be thinking.  This is weird. Nehemiah, a guy I have never heard, and a story that has to do with the Book of the Law, which I am not really sure what that is in the first place.  Well, the Book of the Law most likely contained  what we know today to be the book of Deuteronomy which includes the 10 commandments and many other laws that we don’t necessarily keep in our society today, such as sacrifice and purity rituals.

By listening to the law, these people, whose story is also our story, are remembering who God is and what God has done for them. God has forgiven them for their disobedience and allowed them to return to Judah and rebuild the temple, the center of their religion.  God has listened and now they want to respond to God in gratitude for deliverance.

The idea of “Law,” particularly for Christians usually evokes a negative feeling. It often brings to the surface rules, legalism and rigidity.  To be honest, God’s law has often been misused and implemented as such.  What we are taught about the law and how the church has often used the law in the past are at odds. The church teaches that we are saved by grace because we have Jesus Christ. We no longer have to worry about the law convicting us because Jesus fulfills the law.  In many ways, we are taught to dismiss it, and say “we can live any way we chose because we are freed in Christ.” Sure, the ten commandments can be a moral guide, but to interpret them in our current context is something the church has a hard time doing, particularly mainline progressive churches that don’t want to come down to hard on people because the numbers in the pews are diminishing.

Again, this is something that this passage and our Jewish brothers and sisters can teach us, a religion that is often targeted as rigid and trapped by the law.  The law that was read was not something read to convict people or a list of rules to be obeyed.  It is read because the people know who the lawgiver is—a God who graciously redeems people and guides them on a historical pilgrimage. God has first called them and God calls us. God initiates a relationship with us and redeems us.  That should manifest in us, as it did with the people listening to Ezra long ago, a response of heart, being and strength.  They laid prostrate, lifted their voices in praise. The law is not to be seen something burdensome, but something we follow; values, objectives and goals we seek because we have been freed from the chains of making it mandatory.  In the words of John Calvin and in the tradition of Presbyterians, the law still has use for us.  The law is to be seen as a guide for how we live out our faith, how we pursue God, how we love God and our neighbor now that we have been given true freedom in Jesus Christ. 

So, after all, Nehemiah’s testimony does have something to offer us.  We need the reminder of Nehemiah’s action of challenging those that hoard all the resources.  We see that Nehemiah’s spirit is still among us in the bread organization because we need to have vision of justice and fairness in our city of Columbus—to be the prophetic voice. Just as the voice of the people along with Nehemiah rose up to challenge the systems alive in fifth century BCE, so we to can be a part of challenging the status quo of our systems that are supposed to be implemented in service of the people, not at their expense. So consider living Nehemiah’s story with us and attend the Nehemiah action on May 7.  Take one evening to bring you voice along with many of us here to help the working poor in Columbus.

But it is really important to note, that the story in Nehemiah does not end there.  The action is taken, but how does the community respond as change is occurring?  They listen to what God has to say.  In this case, they hear the text that guides their lives. They listen and respond in gratefulness to the God who has delivered them and continues to work in and among them. Ezra reads and interprets the law for them.  They have returned from exile and remember and reinterpret the Law: the most important word for them.

As a community of faith, we must also return to this place and read and reinterpret who God is and what God demands of us, so that we do the work comes from a place of deliverance from all the hardships of this world. Whether it’s in gratefulness for freedom, for a magnificent building, an education, for the healing of a loved one or simply acknowledging God’s strength in your life, remembering and interpreting who we are called to be in this world will provide us with a centering and a peace as we go back out into the world.

It is here to that we are reminded by the words that Jesus reads from Isaiah 61 in Luke 4:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

We are called by Jesus to continue to announce the year of our Lord’s favor, let the oppressed go free and good news to the poor.  Much reflection is needed to understand what that can look like. But may we, like Nehemiah and the people returning from exile, rise up and voice what it is that God requires of us because of all that God has done for us. But let us to remember, that we cannot rise up; we cannot be a voice for justice unless we remember that we are God’s, that God has come among us and freed us from the captivity of the “shoulds” and expectations of this world and freed to love God through our service in the world.  We are free to love and live in a new Kingdom, a world run with justice and fairness for all of God’s children.

Amen 

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