A Framework for Flourishing - transcript of Sermon St Oswald's November 26th 2023

 This sermon concluded a sermon series covering Nehemiah. 

Sermon November 26^th St Oswald’s

Nehemiah 13.15-22 & Romans 12.1-2

Do you like to buy a tour guide after you have visited somewhere, like a National Trust property or English Heritage site?

As we draw our journey with Nehemiah to a close, I would like to suggest this book, Restore, Renew, Rebuild – the life of Nehemiah and the mission of Jesus.

This would help cement our learning and insights from the book of Nehemiah.

It picks up many of the themes and ideas we have explored.

I would also encourage you to listen to Ezra and Nehemiah being read, remembering that in some earlier versions of the Bible they would have been one book.  The YouVersion Bible App enables you to do that, I’m sure others also will have this feature.

What is fascinating, especially with listening to Nehemiah, is the lists of people’s names. It is also good to hear them read out and to hear their pronunciation
.

On Tuesday Jane and I went to see the film ‘Journey to Bethlehem’ and as the music at the end was good, we lingered longer and read the credits, and everyone gets a mention no matter the part they played in the production.  

I remember going to the Thiepval Memorial with Jane and searching for the name of her grandfather who was killed during on the Somme during World War 1. It felt important to find his name amongst the many thousands etched into the memorial.

On Wednesday last Church Army held its AGM and as part of the Trustee’s report it was noted that the Marylebone project in London had offered 39,000 nights of accommodation offering shelter, hope, safety, and support to women who would otherwise have remained on the streets or in situations detrimental to their well-being. And to help understand what that means there was a short snapshot from one of the women who received helped and support.

Names, people, individuals, matter to God and they should matter to us.

As we watch with horror at what is happening in Israel and Gaza, I am reminded of a quote sometimes attributed to Stalin, “A Single Death Is a Tragedy; A Million Deaths Is a Statistic.”  Let us never lose sight that we are talking about thousands of individuals each with their own uniqueness and each made in the image of God.

And in the Nehemiah story, each individual person makes their own contribution.

All of that is something of an aside, but a very important aside.

Turning now to Chapter 13 of Nehemiah and the section we read outlining Nehemiah’s sabbath reforms.

When we read this, and indeed any related text to the sabbath, we need to be cautious in thinking that we can simply lift it out of its context. Which was a community seeking to live in communion with their God in the Middle East in the 5^th century B.C. We cannot simply pick it up and plonk it down into a capitalist-based society like ours in the 21^st century and declare a mandate for the way we should live our lives now.  The Bible is not that kind of book.

Remember, a text, out of context, can become a pretext.  

What can we learn then by meditating and reflecting on passages such as this from the Hebrew Bible.

Well once we have recognised that we cannot simply lift any text and its ideas into our context and ideas there is much we can learn, much wisdom to be imparted. But that takes work and devoted dedication.

Yes, you can gain much by reading the Bible at a fairly simple surface level, and that’s great. However, if we are hungry to know God’s will and ways then we need to spend time exploring the Bible and not just bits of it, but following themes, words, and concepts across the whole corpus.

And the sabbath which Nehemiah speaks of here is one such theme.

The Bible Project has several hours of podcasts exploring the theme and the essential importance of understanding the sabbath on which so much else emanates.

Therefore, we could hardly begin to explore the depth of meaning, all the hyperlinks, and all that sabbath means.

But I do want to offer something for us to ponder on and consider.

Sabbath, or Shabbat, means literally to cease, desist – so basically stop, and also allied to it is rest.

(Noah’s or Noach, from the Babylonian word ‘nukhu’ means rest)

This of course we know comes from the creation account of God’s work of creation and then on the seventh day resting.

And here we can begin to follow Alice down all sorts of rabbit holes and if anyone wants to join me at another time chasing some rabbits, I am well up for that. 

In the pre-fall state there is a work, such as God did in calling the world into being, of ordering and setting boundaries for the sea and the land and the sky, which was completed in six days.

And God calls humans into partnership to continue this work so that the Eden project spreads out across the world, bringing order, abundance and flourishing, pushing back the chaos and darkness.

However, the narrative tells us that some kind of deceiver comes and lures the couple into disobedience.  (Spot a rabbit hole)

For which, we have come to use the term, the Fall.

Darkness, disorder, and death come as a result of becoming separated from the source of Life which is God.

Work then becomes a labour, a hard task, something that must be done to help keep body and soul together but which we know in the end is a mere chasing after the wind.  (See Genesis 3.17-19)

All that we are, all that we might acquire, no matter the size of the barn and how much grain we have, it’s all going to come to nothing.

This ‘post fall work’ is also now not a work of God, but one of survival.

This is exactly what we see in the passage we are reflecting on.

‘In those days I saw people in Judah treading out the winepress on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine. Grapes, figs, and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath.’  

This is the type of work after the fall, and it was taking place on the Sabbath, the Shabbat, the ‘ceasing day.’

Why was this such an issue? Because of the many things keeping Shabbat meant and still means today.  

It recalls that place of perfection and completion on the sixth day of creation.

Because Shabbat is a gift our time to God, just as much as we might offer other gifts.

Because Sabbath also looks forward to the time of restoration of all things as we read in the Book of Hebrews…

“There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.…”  Hebrews 4.9-11

Because Shabbat reminds us of that other work, to be a kingdom of Priests, holy unto God. 

Exodus 19.6 “you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

Hyperlink that to 1 Peter 2.9

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.”

Because keeping the Sabbath reminds us that God alone is the source of all life.  Raising the question of dare we trust in God’s provision or are we going to try and gather two days of manna on the same day.

Because keeping the Sabbath in this way, with this in mind, serves as a witness to the surrounding nations, that we are looking to God and trusting in God’s provision.

Because keeping the Sabbath and all the related feasts and festivals gives a rhythm and a pattern, a framework on which you can flourish and learn to love God and love your neighbour.

Some of you will remember ‘God in my Everything’ by Ken Shigematso with the strap line…

“How an ancient rhythm helps busy people enjoy God.”

For those who built their framework I wonder how it is doing.

Nehemiah saw plainly that the framework of festivals and especially keeping the Sabbath had fallen into disrepair, and that it needed building up even more than the physical walls they had just built.

Keep in mind what we have been considering from Nehemiah, the traders wanting to work on the Sabbath, then listen to this account from Number 15. 32-36 (No slide)

 Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation; and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him. Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone   him with stones outside the camp.” So, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as the LORD had commanded Moses. (Nb. Individual actions affects community and the community carry out the execution, stoning means no one person is culpable of another person’s death)

Consider how far the Israelites had shifted in their behaviour with regards to keeping the Sabbath from this account to the behaviour of those with whom Nehemiah remonstrates.

It may be a fair conjecture to say that Nehemiah’s contemporaries where merely doing what everybody else was doing, seeking to work to keep body and soul together, working in order to survive. 

Allow that thought to land and see if you might begin to see some of the wisdom, some of the insights we might begin to draw from both stories.

They had lost sight that everything they had come from God and had lost their trust that God would provide enough.

They had lost sight that they were called to be a kingdom of priest, a holy nation, God’s own people. To be a light to the surrounding nations.

As we come to step away from Nehemiah this is a good reflection for us to ponder on. Especially as we have our own physical building project. We might have a lovely building and great facilities but then loose sight of our calling… 

“…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.”   (No slide)

Let me spell it out – if you have aligned yourself with Christ, perhaps in Baptism as Alan spoke of a few weeks ago, if that is you, then this is you and me, this is now our calling.  

And all that we have been thinking about, the reasons for Sabbath observance, that hasn’t changed.

Except we are no longer a community living together but are a dispersed mission community living in a culture that works 24/7 365 days a year.

How we build our framework for flourishing so that we can love God and love our neighbour as ourselves will be complex.

However, we can draw wisdom from our reflection on Scripture.

And as we heard Paul offers some good advice to help us.

Romans12 1-2…

“With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, and sisters, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”

We need to ensure that the framework of our life has a pattern, a rhythm and a structure built on firm foundations with Jesus at the centre - with Christ alone as our cornerstone. 

https://youtu.be/izrk-erhDdk?si=gM77RAKzut7ycpXf