Week #6 in the “When the Walls Fall Down” Series… Stay on Course 

Pikeville UMC

August 19, 2018

Review series

Today we conclude our series from the Book of Nehemiah.  Over the previous five weeks we have followed him in his quest to help rebuild the walls around the city of Jerusalem and – in doing so – help rebuild the morale and spirit of the Hebrew people.  

These events happened roughly 450 years before the birth of Jesus and, yet, the principles we can draw from this book are timeless. 

In our journey with Nehemiah, we have learned about how to respond when life takes us in unexpected directions.  Nehemiah teaches us that when the walls fall down in our lives we learn to:  pray, prepare, get to work, expect opposition and celebrate the victories.

If Hollywood were making a movie about Nehemiah, the movie would have ended last week with the successful reconstruction of the wall, but as we all know, Hollywood often struggles with the concept of reality.

Nehemiah 13: 6-13 (NIV)

⁶But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king.  Sometime later I asked his permission ⁷and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God.  ⁸I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah's household goods out of the room.  ⁹I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.  ¹⁰I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. ¹¹So I rebuked the officials and asked them, "Why is the house of God neglected?" Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.  ¹²All Judah brought the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil into the storerooms.  ¹³I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms and made Hanan son of Zakkur, the son of Mattaniah, their assistant, because they were considered trustworthy. They were made responsible for distributing the supplies to their fellow Levites. 

Introduction

Years ago, while on vacation in Orange Beach, Alabama, I found myself knee deep in the Gulf of Mexico when I had a totally absurd thought.  I thought, “You know, if I took off in this general direction and could somehow swim long enough, I would come ashore in Cuba.”  

I shook my head and laughed at the foolishness of that notion, but then it dawned on me, if I were off course only an inch when I started, and I never made a course correction, by the time I swam all the way to Cuba I could miss it by miles and never even know it. 

I was still laughing, when I sensed a nudge of the Holy Spirit that led me to ask myself a haunting question, “Is that what happens when the Church of Jesus Christ gets off course?  Do we swim past our destination without knowing it?”  

When a church gets off course, when we forget why we do what we do, we move from being God’s agents for the transformation of the earth to becoming clubs, cliques, community centers, museums seemingly anything but a church.  I have seen it more times than I care to remember and often I find myself asking, “How did that happen?”

It’s probably the same question Nehemiah found himself asking.  

Context

Last Sunday, we read of how the walls around Jerusalem had been rebuilt in just 52 days.  Many Jews had returned to the city and experienced a revival of their faith.  At some point, Nehemiah was appointed governor of Jerusalem.

After 12 years as governor, Nehemiah is summoned back to Persia.  How long he was there we do not know, but while he’s gone, things take a turn for the worse.  It was if the teacher called in sick and some poor substitute teacher was brought in.    Chaos ensued.

Yes, the Jews had pledged to God that they would separate themselves out from others and be holy.  They pledged that they would support the work of the temple and keep the Sabbath holy, but with Nehemiah gone it seems as if they had forgotten those pledges.  They have gotten off course. 

It gets worse.  The temple has been defiled by none other than Tobiah himself… the same Tobiah we met a couple of weeks ago who had attempted to prevent the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.  He’s not only managed to slither his way back into Jerusalem, he’s even storing his stuff in the temple like it’s his tool shed.

All this leads us to two questions.  First, how did the Jewish people get off course so badly?  Secondly, how can we avoid their mistakes and stay on course in our own quest to rebuild broken walls in our lives and community.

The first thing that may have gotten them off course was a… Failure to Focus

When we fail to focus, we become distracted from our reason for existence.  We tend to major in minors.  A pastor friend of mine was on a tour of antebellum mansions in Charleston, South Carolina.  On the tour, he engaged the elderly lady serving as the tour guide in conversation.  She asked him what he did for a living and – as he tells it – he made the mistake of telling her.  

She said, “I must tell you suh, that I am a Presbyterian, but I attended one of your United Methodist Women’s meetings once.  They were planning their annual banquet and they got into a fight over who would bring the butter.  Mildred said, ‘Alice I brought the butter last year.’  Alice said, ‘No Mildred, I brought the butter last year.’  Before long all of them were fighting over who brought the butter.  After fifteen minutes, I just said, ‘Never mind.  I’ll bring the [bleep] butter (only she didn’t use a bleep).”  

Now, I’m not a genius, but I’m thinking that’s a church that’s lost its focus.

It’s easily done.  We can become fixated on something we believe to be important – and it maybe it is – but it is not more important than our mission.  As a church, we exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  Period.  We utilize buildings, budgets and programs to the extent that they assist us in that process, but make no mistake, we serve Jesus not buildings, budgets or programs.  We’re about bringing people to Jesus and being a church that God can empower to rebuild broken walls in our lives and in this world.     

When we put anything ahead of that, we’ve failed to focus, and we can get off course.  

Crash into Conflict

Failing to focus is not a good thing, but it’s usually less messy than what happens when a church crashes into conflict.  Now, let’s be clear, conflict is normal.  It isn’t necessarily unchristian.  It is just not possible to put people together and not have conflict.  

The truth is, we are more likely to cause problems when we try to pretend everything’s okay and that there is no conflict.  That is true especially in the life of the Church where we tend to equate conflict with not being Christlike.  Some churches, but not this one I am sure, have leadership meetings with unanimous votes and then have the meeting after the meeting in the parking lot or circulating emails in which people complain about something that everyone just voted for.

In the book of Acts, we read of several conflicts in the life of the early Church.  Those conflicts helped make us who we are today.    Sometimes to get to where God wants us to go we have to work through conflict.  When we are determined to be followers of Jesus, and we are willing to work through conflict in a loving, Christlike fashion, we can come through it and be in a healthier place.  

In my first appointment, I managed to unite a church that was in conflict.  I mean if they’re all mad at me at least they’re united about something.  Right?

As I believe I have mentioned previously, my first appointment was to pastor two churches.  In the larger of the two churches, there had been some conflict prior to my arrival.  It took a couple of years, but eventually things calmed down.  We successfully made some improvements to the building and then decided to clean up the bell tower and ring the church bell.  But there was a problem, it had stuff in it.  If it helps, think of the garage in the Power Building before the youth cleaned it out recently – just on a smaller scale.

Among the items in the bell tower was a collection of about 15 small wooden chairs that had once been used by the children of the church.  They were probably 50 years old, hadn’t been used in at least 20 years, but no one had the heart to throw them away.  If we were going to clean the tower up though, they would have to go.  

In our board meeting, we decided we would give them away to anyone who wanted one.  Did I mention there were about 15 chairs?  You can see the problem I trust.  Everyone wanted one…or five.  

The math wasn’t working.  Tempers were getting shorter, and I was becoming afraid that all we had worked so hard to accomplish was about to be undone.  So, I rather foolishly stood up and announced that if we couldn’t work this out without everyone leaving angry, I would gather up the chairs and we would have a weenie roast.  Ta-da… just like that, everyone agreed.  They all agreed I was an idiot.  I had successfully united the church.  

Fortunately, before we reached the point where I would be placed in the middle of the weenie roast, a wise old farmer stepped in and volunteered to set the chairs out on Saturday morning at 7:30 on his way to do chores.  Anyone who wanted one should come.  Once everyone got one, people were free to take more than one with the understanding that no one would try to take off with all of them.  I never heard another word about the chairs. The crisis was averted.  I survived.  

Conflict is inevitable.  It’s not automatically unchristian.  It is how we deal with conflict that can be either beneficial or harmful.  Please Lord Jesus, help us not get off course because we crash into conflict.

I have seen churches lose their focus.  I have seen them crash into conflict.  I have even witnessed them suffer from a very prevalent disorder in American Christianity… I have come to call it as “The NASCAR Syndrome.”  

Suffer from the NASCAR Syndrome

At one time, my wife and I enjoyed NASCAR – that’s stock car racing for those who may not know what NASCAR is.  While we haven’t watched much in recent years, there was a time when we had our favorite drivers and watched the races on Sunday afternoons.  

While we enjoyed NASCAR, I know not everyone does.  Many people simply see drivers going around in a circle.  As one comedian said, “I’ve invented a GPS for NASCAR.  Turn it on and it says, ‘Turn left now.  Turn left now.  Turn left now.’”

There are, unfortunately, churches that approach their mission as if it was a NASCAR race.  

Churches that suffer from “The NASCAR Syndrome” simply go around in circles.   They say things like, “Let’s just do what we did last year.”  If they had a picnic last April, they’ll have one next April too.  After all, why reinvent the wheel?    

Such a church never stops to ask why it does what it does, or even if it is still God’s will for them to continue to do it.  They just do it.    

Funny thing about a NASCAR race… the drivers spend hours in a racecar going upwards of 200 mph, but at the end of the race they are right back where they started from.   A church that suffers from the NASCAR Syndrome isn’t going anywhere either.  Let’s do what we did last year.  Rinse.  Lather.  Repeat.  

Unlike NASCAR though, a church can’t win doing that.  It will run out of gas, get tired and frustrated and ultimately feel as if what it’s doing doesn’t matter…and it probably isn’t mattering much at all.  

When we lose our focus, when we crash into conflict, when we suffer from the NASCAR Syndrome, we get off course.  Like my asinine thought about swimming to Cuba, we lose our way and swim right past our destination.  

The question is, “How do we stay on course so that we can get to where God desires us to go?”

It starts by our asking God to remind us of why we do what we do.  We ask God to break our hearts for this world the way Nehemiah’s heart broke for the broken walls of Jerusalem and for his fellow Jews.

Correcting the Course 

Years ago, I came across the story of a United Methodist pastor named Matthew Woodley.  Matthew had gotten off course and was on the verge of leaving pastoral ministry.  I want you to listen to this.  These are his words:  

Two years ago I nearly ditched the pastorate.  I started focusing on the negatives of my job: the Saturday-night sermon-anxiety attacks, a pitiful raise, the disintegrating basement tiles in the parsonage.  After eight years of frantically meeting needs, pleasing people, and tracking down plant stands for weddings, I could identify only trace elements of spiritual growth in my congregation. A dangerous ice slowly spread throughout my heart—the ice of cynicism, the ice of pastoral sloth, an attitude that didn't care if people changed because, of course, they didn't want to anyway.

God didn't answer my prayer for escape.  Instead, God resurrected the call to ministry during our family vacation to Libby, Montana.

While I was reading and praying at an elementary school park, three children with bag lunches, dirty clothes, and dirt-streaked faces plopped themselves on the grass beside me. Before I could object or move, the oldest child launched into a complicated story of family dysfunction: "Hi, my name is Deanna, and I'm 12; my sister is Kristy, and she's 10; and Mikey, my brother—doesn't he look fat in his Lion King T-shirt?—is 6. Actually, though, we all have different dads. My dad is dead; Kristy's dad disappeared; and Mikey's dad beats him up, so our mom is divorcing the creep. My mom and her fiancé, Larry, are at the casino because they need time alone, so she bought us all a barbecue burrito at the Town Pump and told us to stay in the park for two hours. Can we sit by you?"

In order to be polite, I said yes, then asked if they lived in town.

"No," Deanna, the family spokesperson, answered again. "We used to live in town, but my mom lost her job. Now we live in a tent.  I wish mom could get a new job.  I don't like living in a tent. By the way, what's your job?"

"Well, I'm a pastor."

After a long silence, she asked, "Mister Pastor, can you tell me something?  I've heard stories about Jesus walking around healing people, loving people.  Why doesn't he do that anymore?"

I launched into a lecture on the Incarnation.  Three children simply stared at me with big, love-hungry eyes. I looked at Deanna and Kristy, with their limp burritos, and fat, little, abused Mikey, with barbecue sauce smeared on his Lion King T-shirt. 

I stopped lecturing. With tears welling in my eyes, I said, "Deanna, Kristy, Mikey, let me start over. Do you have any idea how much Jesus loves you right now?"

How did God rebuild my call to ministry? He broke my heart again—with his love for these three children.

Conclusion

The catalyst for Nehemiah’s journey to Jerusalem to rebuild its broken walls was a broken heart.  When God breaks our hearts the way God broke Nehemiah’s heart; the way God broke that pastor’s heart with those three children, we cannot see this world in the same way.  We see broken walls, and those broken walls drive us to our knees to pray and puts a fire in our spirits to do something about the brokenness around us.  We don’t have time to waste arguing over who is bringing the butter, dealing with immature attitudes or just doing what we did last year so everyone will be happy.  There are broken walls…broken lives… a broken world to rebuild and it is time for God’s people to get to work.

We pray.  We prepare.  We get to work.  We expect opposition.  We celebrate the victories and we stay on course.  If we do that, walls won’t be the only thing rebuilt.  Broken lives, broken hearts and broken spirits will be rebuilt as well.  

Nehemiah brought hope to the Jews, but – as he discovered – the work is never truly completed.  Nor is ours.  So, may God be with us in our efforts.  In the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit… amen.