Nehemiah 6 1-16
There is something depressingly familiar about Nehemiah’s account of the reconstruction of Jerusalem; the building of a wall in the teeth of local (and one suspects, the equivalent of international opposition); the mutual mistrust of the returning Jews and local inhabitants; clandestine plots whether real or imagined; the unswerving certainty and justification that they were doing God’s will; and the support of a world power as sponsor. The book of Nehemiah and its companion, prequel is the modern term, Ezra, foreshadow in an uncanny way the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine two and a half thousand years later.
This foreshadowing serves to emphasise the very real story that Nehemiah is telling- in the first person, and about his own experiences. There is no hint in this account that the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the reestablishment of Jewish religion and culture in Judea might be in any way symbolic; they are historical facts. This is in striking contrast to Isaiah’s prophecy which you may possibly remember I preached about when I was last in this pulpit. Isaiah’s prophecy only predates the events described in Nehemiah by a few years but it is entirely different. You may remember the entrancing and idealistic picture that Isaiah draws of the re-established Jerusalem which must be at least in part a metaphor for a re-established world or indeed heavenly order. That vision of Isaiah was the origin of the new, heavenly, Jerusalem which reappears most strikingly at the end of Revelation.
For Nehemiah the gates and walls of Jerusalem were not Righteousness and Salvation, nor were they made of precious stones. In fact, elsewhere he gives the gates the prosaic names of the Dung Gate and the Water Gate (we can’t fairly lay the unfortunate overtones of the latter gate at his feet). Factual, down to earth as the account is, even Von Ranke would admit that history is seldom written without some point. Events are not recorded or written about afterwards for the sake of it, but to demonstrate something. In the Jewish classification of the books of the Hebrew Bible, there is no History. The acronym for the Hebrew Bible-TANAKH- that is, the Torah, Nabil and Khedim is the Law, the Prophets and the Writings. History is a form of prophecy; a demonstration of God’s working His will in the world. In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, there is a strong sense that how the Jews returned and the way they rebuilt their city and the temple and re-established their religion and respect for the Law, were a model for the future conduct of these matters. In this way although not called Righteousness and salvation, the gates and the walls and the way they were built were models of righteousness and the way to salvation.
The principle behind this model was an unswerving sense of destiny, most apparent of course when the Jews did indeed swerve and “did evil in the sight of the Lord” and usually brought down his wrath on themselves. History like prophecy was a story of destiny, how God had chosen his people and destined them for land of Canaan, Palestine, or Israel. His people had been removed from their proper home into slavery in Egypt and again in Babylon. The exiles from Babylon saw their return as a re-enactment of their predecessors escape from Egypt; they to would come back and possess the promised land. It is because he knows he is part of this story that Nehemiah is so utterly convinced that Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem the Arab are up to no good; this is the the driving force behind his unremitting labour to rebuild the walls o Jerusalem ait is what is behind Nehemiah’s suspicion, even paranoia about anything which might hinder his purpose.
It is not an attractive story, but as is sometimes the case with biblical story telling, the main point is rather hidden under apparently irrelevant, even contradictory narrative, which is alien to our thought process. It is true of some of Jesus’ parables where decidedly odd behaviour is apparently commended, masking for us the central, single point of the story. So the central point of Nehemiah’s story is confused with suspicion; that central point is the total confidence that Nehemiah has in the rightness of his cause; his certainty that he is carrying out God’s will, and fulfilling his peoples’ destiny.
I must feel ambivalent about confidence; I look on the blinkered belief in Biblical fundamentalism with as much horror as the I do the insouciance of conservative Catholics. Neither seem to share anything with the often ambivalent teaching of Jesus and both have led and continue to lead Christians in most unchristian hatred and persecution of each other, and anyone who exercises the independent mind with which she or he was born. But I also envy the confidence of Nehemiah and I too think God has a plan for us all- I’m less absolutely certain as to what it is, and suspicious of those who are certain. Faith implies some certainty, however much it questions and however much reason may counsel caution. We need confidence to carry out God’s work whether it is building walls or building the kingdom here in Hampstead.
This confidence is especially relevant in this stewardship month. Stewardship is about the resources needed to carry out our mission, and that mission is in a small but real way to build a New Jerusalem. This month especially we need to see ourselves as part of God’s plan and to act it out. We need to be inspired by the symbolism of Isaiah, but equally conscious of Nehemiah’ pragmatism- even if it is sometimes a little unattractive or not quite “nice”. And like the returning Jews we are asked to contribute money- not perhaps talents of silver and Darics of gold and bronze basins but money all the same and we are asked to contribute labour too- not heaving stones onto walls, but to complete and continue those many tasks which like the walls of Jerusalem are never quite finished. So please be inspired by Nehemiah’s single mindedness and consider carefully what you can give to this church and its attempt to build a Jerusalem in London in the twenty fourth century after Ezra and Nehemiah. Amen.