Broken Walls

Nehemiah 1

Just before Easter, we were celebrating the Seder meal, and it was such a fantastic reminder of how important the Exodus from Egyptian slavery still is to the Jewish people. God stepped down into the world and showed his power through mighty plagues and empowered Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. When they needed Him most, God showed up in power and might. And this happens again and again throughout the history of God’s people. But unfortunately, soon after God shows His power and love, His people stray. They begin to follow their own ways and stray from God’s will. As this happens over and over, God gives His people words of warning. He raises up judges to minister to and lead His people. He sends prophets to preach truth, to point His people in the right direction. If they refuse to listen, God’s enemies overrun His people. How many of us have had to hit rock bottom before we stop and return to God?

To get to Nehemiah, you’ve got to go back a bit. Over one hundred years before Nehemiah, Babylon, led by Nebuchadnezzar, had demolished Jerusalem in 586 BC. He carted off many Jews, especially artisans and craftsmen, notably Daniel and Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednigo. Jerusalem was destroyed, especially the Temple. You have to understand how important the Temple was to worship and that the Jews were too poor to rebuild. But shortly thereafter, the Persian king Cyrus defeated Babylon. He enacted an edict that sent displaced people back to their homelands with the right to rebuild their places of worship. So exiled Jews in Babylon got to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild. Over a hundred years, and quite a few leaders later, Nehemiah returned and found “the wall of Jerusalem broken down and its gates burnt down.” (Nehemiah 1:3)

Now, I can imagine that many of you have already started thinking, “We’re pretty well set on buildings.” Thankfully the building we’re in is in pretty good shape. But Christian life isn’t about buildings. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the Temple, the massive curtain that separated the inner court from the Holy of Holies, was torn from top to bottom. And, as Paul writes to the church in Corinth, the place of God’s dwelling changed – from the Temple building to God’s follower. Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16)

The situation Nehemiah finds in Jerusalem is a city with broken down gates and walls, a city without defenses. Immediately upon seeing this, Nehemiah is overcome by grief and sorrow, and he sits down and weeps and mourns.

Today I want to talk about broken walls and gates. In my four years here, I have discovered that we are a people whose walls and gates are broken down. But I’m not talking about physical gates and walls; I’m not talking bricks and mortar. The gates and walls I’m talking about are spiritual and emotional. Our spiritual and emotional walls and gates are broken down.

Some of you have remained blissfully unaware of the battles that have been fought in this church. To you, people are people, and your job is to just love them all. This message might not hit you the same way it hits someone else. But be aware, that even if you are not in the midst of a battle, even if you’re new here and you’ve never shared a cross word with anyone from this church, that there is a war being waged, and the battleground is right here.

No, the skirmishes that we see on an unfortunately too-regular basis are not the war. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

Satan has continually attacked, and we are left broken and exhausted. Who might be bold enough to admit that they’ve felt the attacks of Satan, that, at times, you’re tired of fighting, that there are times when you’ve felt like giving up?  Your walls and gates are broken. Your defenses are shattered.

Nehemiah comes back to Jerusalem and sees the devastation. And I have seen the devastation here in Millersport. One thing I’ve learned as an itinerate Methodist Pastor is that much of the destruction predates the pastor. Each pastor walks into the destruction that has been there for years. When Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem, he saw destruction that dated back 150 years. How long have you been broken? How long did it take for your relationships to go sour? When did you pick sides and, in the end, find that both sides lost?

Let’s start, then, with admitting that we have issues. They say the first step to overcoming a problem is admitting that there is a problem. When Nehemiah sees the problem, he weeps. Then he gets to work. His first step is to fast and pray.

I don’t want to go too quickly beyond this step, because we can too easily just take one ruin and replace it with another. What might happen if we begin to fast and pray on behalf of this church? This is what I’m going to ask you to do this week. Fast and pray about the ruined walls and gates in this church.

Understand that there are all kinds of reasons for putting up walls. I remember hearing the old reports from East Germany where they were claiming that they built the Berlin Wall to keep Westerners out – those West Germans were just clamoring to get into the east. Yeah, and if you believe that, I’ve got a big piece of the Berlin Wall to sell you. The walls in Nehemiah’s time were there to protect Jerusalem from invaders. And with broken down walls, with broken relationships, with years-long grudges, with long-held, never healed fights, all this leaves us vulnerable to attacks by the Enemy. Here’s one way Satan likes to work in churches: he likes to distract us by making us fight with one another so we can’t adequately worship. Sometimes it looks like this: when I was in seminary, I had an issue with one of the worship leaders. It was a case where I had been promised one thing, but Todd had something else in mind, and Todd was in charge, so what I wanted and was told would happen didn’t. So for weeks, whenever Todd was up in front, leading worship, I would stand there with my arms crossed, thinking bad thoughts, unwilling to worship fully. Yeah, that’s exactly what Satan wanted. I let broken walls get in the way of my worshiping God. I couldn’t get past Todd up there. Meanwhile, Todd didn’t even know that I was upset at him.

Did you see what happened? I had a grudge against a fellow Christian, and Satan used it to keep me from worshiping God. The worst thing is that I’m not the only one who has ever done this. There is a problem, and with me, the problem was not Todd. The problem was me. There is a reason that Nehemiah began the rebuilding, not with bricks and mortar, but with prayer and fasting.

So let’s look at Nehemiah’s prayer. Nehemiah begins with the context – who he is praying to: “O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, (Nehemiah 1:5)

Remember that we are called by the One True God. Nehemiah’s prayer was in the midst of a pluralistic society in which the Persian king was allowing everyone some freedom to worship his own god. But Nehemiah knows that his god is the One True God, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God.

This is key, because this is the only god who can rebuild. Some of us need to acknowledge that we’ve been seeking other gods. What gods have you called upon to fix the ruins?  Maybe you never noticed the destruction around you. You’ve lived among the ruins so long that you don’t notice the living conditions. I truly believe this is the case for many people. You love this church, you love the history you have experienced here, and to even admit that there are problems is foreign to you. You see the broken down walls and gates, but you don’t see them. But if you do, what has been your response? If you knew about them and didn’t do anything, that’s worse than not noticing. By not doing anything, you demonstrate that you just don’t care. Or maybe you took it upon yourself to do something about it, but you never took the time to fast and pray and maybe get God’s perspective…

When I was in college, I became the “kitchen steward” of my fraternity. This means I was in charge of the kitchen. The first thing that happened when I took over the kitchen was the brand new health inspector closed our kitchen down. She had the nerve to slap a big “condemned” sticker on the door. It wasn’t that bad. I mean, didn’t most kitchens have cooks who smoked while cooking (and stubbed out their cigarettes on the floor)? Did other kitchens have refrigerators that kept the food cold enough? Or dishwashers that actually got the water hot enough? Perhaps the kicker was the bad water damage on the wall. Anyway, we got to work fixing things. We fired the cook, we checked the manual for the fridge and the dishwasher and figured out how to regulate them. But the wall was another story. We started by sanding down the bubbly wall, but all that did was create a big hole. We knew that an inspection was coming, so we stuffed the hole with newspaper and spackled over it and repainted. And we got our kitchen back.

The problem with this kind of “fix” is that it does not fix the problem. Getting a new pastor does not fix the problem. Leaving the church does not fix the problem. Only God can fix the problems in a church. So before we go about fixing walls and ruins, let’s find God’s will. Otherwise, all we’re doing is filling the problem with newspaper and spackling over it.

So Nehemiah prays: let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. ⁷ We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. (Nehemiah 1:6-7)

The first thing Nehemiah prayed was a prayer of confession. He continues his prayer, remembering God’s instructions to Moses and asking for success in his mission, but before he does that, he confesses that the Israelites, including himself and his father’s house, have sinned against God. They have not obeyed the commands, decrees, and laws they gave Israel through Moses.

This week, our task is to spend time in prayer and fasting, prepared to come back next Sunday and confess our sins. The only way for God to give this church success is not for the church to simply get a new pastor, but for the new pastor to also get a new church. We are asking God for success as a church – to faithfully make disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world; to faithfully serve the poor, the needy, the lost, not only physically, but spiritually as well. To break down strongholds, to overcome years of sins. To break free from the trap of “doing things the way we’ve always done them” and expecting different results. To experience true freedom in Christ, through whom “I can do all things.”

This week as you pray and fast, pray Psalm 139:23-24: Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Next week we will come prepared to confess our sins by symbolically placing them at the foot of the cross. But that won’t work if we simply come up and put something down without allowing the Holy Spirit to work in each of us. The walls are broken down, and we’re under attack by Satan. The enemy won’t stop attacking, but we can begin to rebuild the walls through prayer and fasting and confession of sin and forgiving one another.