Thick Walls of Faith
The Book of Nehemiah
Thick walls. If one is talking about insulation, thick walls are good. About a collision with the centerfield fence, thick walls are bad. About protection for a city in ancient times, thick walls are life and death. For Nehemiah, thick walls around the city of Jerusalem were a must. Thick walls were a matter of life and death.
Nehemiah lived in a time known as the "post-exilic" period. Quite simply, this means that Nehemiah lived after the time when the Babylonian Empire had come into Israel and leveled everything! The Babylonian Empire had torn down the city wall, destroyed the Temple brick by brick, and put a torch or sledgehammer to every home in Jerusalem. Then, the Babylonians took prophets, priests, and princes, (not to mention the king), into exile and made them slaves. But empires come, and empires go. Babylon conquered, and Babylon was defeated, by Persia. And so it was that Persia took its place as the world's most powerful state. But Persia tried something a little different: instead of keeping their conquered people in exile, they allowed the people to return home. Nehemiah lived during this post-exile, or post-exilic, time when the Israelites were allowed to return to their home.
But to what was Nehemiah returning? We know he returned to Jerusalem, but what was Jerusalem but a bunch of ruins? Some of the people not taken into exile had, during the exile, rebuilt their homes, but the city was nothing. At least not by ancient standards. Today, people often leave the city because cities are so dangerous. But in ancient times, cities were the place of refuge. Cities were safe. If one went out into the countryside, the law of the jungle ruled the day. In the countryside, they who had the strongest arms and quickest feet and best weapons were the law. The countryside was not a safe place. But cities were different because they had thick walls around them to keep the bandits out. The thick walls were what protected the people from their enemies. And so we see Nehemiah's problem: Jerusalem was in ruins. The city could not protect the people; it could not keep the enemies out. This is the background to Nehemiah's vision to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. If he could just rebuild the walls, Nehemiah knew that the city of God would protect the people of God. If he could just rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah knew that the people of God would enjoy the abundant life of faith.
But the situation with the Book of Nehemiah is a bit more complicated than I just described. Nehemiah the book was written during the time when a great debate was raging in Judaism during the four centuries before Jesus was born, as well as during Jesus’ life and ministry. On one side of the debate were the isolationists, represented by books like Nehemiah, Esther and Nahum, who argued that Israel’s survival depended upon keeping completely separate from the Gentiles. The isolationists argued that a big part of their former problem, a big part of what led them to be defeated by the Gentiles in the first place, was that they had perverted themselves with the worship of other gods because they had been too close to the Gentiles. The argument, then, was that God desired their purity and to keep their religious purity they needed isolation. Isolation equaled purity equaled protection from the Lord’s wrath.
On the other side of the debate were the interventionists, represented by books like Jonah, Ruth and Deutero-Isaiah, who argued that Israel’s purpose was to be a light to the Gentiles. The interventionists understood that purity was important, but they argued that Israel’s job, their purpose, was to fulfill God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah to make them a blessing to the nations. The interventionist argument, then, was that, while it was important to keep pure, if Israel as a people remained isolated and remote, then they would be unable to fulfill their destiny, which was to be the instrument of the Lord’s promise to Abraham.
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Sometimes I read the Old Testament and wonder, “That was then, this is now. Where is the bridge?” Paul turns an interesting phrase in Colossians when he calls the Old Testament "a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ." What Paul is saying is the Old Testament has its own historical reality but is also a metaphor for the faith experienced in Jesus Christ. The bridge between then and now, therefore, is that “thick walls” as a metaphor of faith, are that which enable us to know and to live the abundant life promised in Jesus Christ. Nehemiah built the walls of Jerusalem physically. We must build the walls spiritually, as individuals, as families and as the community of faith.
To build thick walls of faith begins with each one of us as individuals; a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. Our individual faith is the lower level of bricks in the wall of faith. To build the wall of faith as individuals means we learn how to take responsibility for our own faith by finding principles upon which to stand. For some Christians, the central principle in their life is "God is love." To say "God is love" is certainly a good and truthful principle. It not only reminds us of the core of God's character but calls forth a faithful response from us. For others, the central principle of their life is the Great Commission, "Go into all the world making disciples," The Great Commission is also a good and truthful principle. It reminds us of our calling as Christians to evangelize, which is a calling that many Presbyterian Christians may not feel overly comfortable with but which is part of the very essence of the Church. Some take as their central principle words from Jesus' last parable, "As you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do to me." This biblical principle reminds us of our calling as Christians to actions of social compassion and justice, which is also part of the very essence of the Church.
Now what is needed is not merely to have a life theme but to dance with that theme. You may not be aware of this, but I am a great dancer! I have no skill in dancing but I make up for lack of skill because I also have no shame in dancing. Some people think dancing requires rhythm and style…uh, no. Dancing requires passion! Those who think dancing is about rhythm and style worry that, because they don’t have either, people look at them and think they look goofy when dancing. I, however, know I look goofy, but I also know that dancing is about enjoyment and community and feeling the music, groovin’ to the tunes. I don’t care how I look, which is why I’m such a great dancer. The first group lives from the outside-in, worrying if they measure up; I say we all need to live from the inside-out, be who we are, allow our identity in Christ to find its natural expression. Groove to the tune of Jesus, my people!!!
Yet, that said, let is also be said that no one is an island; we all live in relationships. Some of us who are single may eat and sleep in a house or apartment by ourselves, but we all still live in relationship with those around us, “friend-families” let’s call them. Our most significant relationships are with our families, which leads us to the middle level of bricks in our wall of faith. To build the wall of faith with our families means we learn how to share with one another what God is doing in our lives. A well-known fact is that fifty percent of all new marriages will end in divorce. A less-known fact, however, is that only two percent of couples who pray together will end their marriages in divorce. Why is this? The reason why is that something happens when we build thick walls of faith as families. Something happens when we learn how to talk with one another about our faith in God.
A study by the Search Institute of what influences children to grow into faithful adults reported that the number one most important factor was home worship. The faith families share at home is the faith that gets transferred to our kids: the prayer, the weekly devotions, the reading of the Bible, the service projects during the holidays and throughout the year. We seem to have let go of this a bit in the Presbyterian Church, but faith shared among families is one of the cornerstones of our tradition. For the first three centuries of the Presbyterian Church there was no such thing as Sunday School. We didn't need it because children learned faith in the home.
We now live in homes with electronic walls. The internet, CDs, TV, DVDs and video games permeate our living rooms. It used to be that parents could protect their children from predators: lock the doors of your home and the kids were safe. Now, however, the predators are inside the home in the form of electronic media. I’m not saying become a Luddite and turn off all electricity, but I am saying parents have a heightened responsibility to monitor and set limits for one’s children and youth. What values are being learned? What language is being heard? Are we confronting the values of our culture of violence in the movies we allow? Are our young men learning to honor our young women through the video games they are playing? Are our young women learning the importance of good boundaries through the chat rooms they visit? Are the walls of faith being built in our homes?
Finally, there is the church family, which leads us to the upper level of bricks. To build the walls of faith in the church means to learn how to share a common vision. Jesus said, "A House divided against itself cannot stand," Our church mission statement says that we seek to be a place where “Communion with God, community with one another and compassion for the world” can be expressed by all. This statement, in a few words, summarizes our vision for the people of God. It says who we are as church family. It says that our primary mission is about relationships: with God, one another and the world. One of the more important things we need to understand about this mission statement is that no one of us alone can fulfill our mission. No one alone can be a family. No one alone can build an atmosphere of faith. I certainly cannot do it, Not even the Session alone can do it. This mission is a corporate mission. We are in it together. And together, as we share our common vision, we build the walls of faith.
The story is told of the parishioner who was going about announcing that he would no longer attend church services. The man was advancing the familiar argument that he could communicate just as easily with God out in the fields with nature as his place of worship. One winter evening the pastor called on this member of his flock for a friendly visit. The two men sat before the fireplace making small talk. They talked about everything but the church. After some time the pastor took the tongs from the rack next to the fireplace and pulled a single coal from the fire. He placed the glowing ember on the hearth. The two men watched silently as the coal quickly ceased burning and turned an ashen gray while the other coals in the fire continued to burn brightly. The pastor did not say a word. After a bit, the parishioner said, "I'll be at services next Sunday."
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You know, thick walls is a comforting metaphor; there is great value, necessity, in having walls to protect us. The isolationists in Israel during Nehemiah’s time were correct in saying the walls would help keep them pure. But there is also a downside to building walls. The walls that kept them pure also kept them insulated and isolated to such an extent that they knew not how to live out their calling to be “a light to the Gentiles.” Today, we have the same great debate.
“Let’s build a wall on our southern border,” we hear people scream. Yet, isolation did not work for the ancient Israelites and may not work for us. Thomas Friedman’s book The World Is Flat tells of a McDonald’s whose drive thru is connected to India. The Indian in Bombay takes the order and then emails it to the local McDonalds; they have increased efficiency and productivity by like 30%. We can build all the walls we want on our southern border, but it will not help us with our problem. Our problem is not 10 million Mexicans wanting low paying jobs; our problem is 1 billion Indians and another 1 billion Chinese wanting middle wage jobs!
This is merely an economic example to illustrate a point, and I’m going to let the politicians worry about what to do with economic globalization. My purpose is to help us recognize the downside to building walls of faith so big and thick they are impermeable to the outside world: our biggest spiritual issue today is not the toxicity of some parts of the outside world; rather our real dilemma is to learn how to deal with the world in ways that express our identity, that allow us to be who we are, that live from the inside-out, that groove with Jesus.
There is a time and a place to build a wall.
And there is a time and a place to let the walls come down.