Building God’s House
Psalm 127: 1, 2, Nehemiah 2: 4-8, 17-20
What kind of house do you want to
build? I know, I know. Most of you have already built or bought your house. So
you already know that I’m asking you a trick question. I could be talking about
your dream home. What kind of house do you want to build? Don’t worry about
where. Just concentrate on what kind. What are the key ingredients for that
dream house of yours?
To build your dream house, you need
to have a vision. You need to see it in your mind’s eye, feel it in your bones.
You need to feel that feeling when you walk in, that the look is just right,
the feel is just so, the mood is warm and loving and soothing, almost like,
well, sanctuary.
What is your dream house? Is it
bricks and mortar? Is it by water? Of course, it’s a structure, but what kind?
Is it tall and stately or long and sprawled out? When you think of your dream
house, what kind of structure is in your vision? Is it a structure built of
earthly material—or is it of something else, something made of even sterner
stuff than wood or brick? A house is where you live. A house is where you feel
special. A dream house should have everything that is special to you. What is
it they say: A man’s home is his castle?
The book of Nehemiah and its
companion Ezra are stories about identity and rebuilding, of starting over, of
building not just walls and the temple, but also community. After seventy
years, the exiled community is allowed to return home. Of course, home is not
what it used to be. Jerusalem is not only more or less a relic of its former
glory; it is populated by the Jews who were left behind, together with settlers
of other ethnic origins. The old Jerusalem is gone. The question for Ezra and
Nehemiah and others carrying the commission of the King of Persia to rebuild—is
what would constitute the new Jerusalem? What vision do Ezra and Nehemiah carry
with them?
Nehemiah was born in exile. He has never
seen Jerusalem. His heritage is Jewish and he knows the stories by heart that
his people have told him. He is the cup bearer to the king. In that day, the
rank was of great importance. It would be the rough equivalent of Prime
Minister today. With all his importance in his job, he still weeps for that which
he has never seen, for the dream of restoring his heavenly father’s house.
Nehemiah has a vision. He prays to God for the right words, the right presence,
and then he says to the king: “send me to
Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.” And the
king says yes. Yes, go and rebuild your city. Nehemiah’s take on it was this: “the king granted me what I asked, for the
good hand of my God was upon me.”
Remember that dream house you were
imagining. What is your vision? It is big? Is it strong? Can it stand up to all
your needs and desires? If you can build what is in your heart, what will it be
like? For the people of Israel in the post-exile, they faced a daunting task.
The city lay in ruins. The people who had stayed were now scattered. The people
coming home from exile were strangers in the land of their fathers. They had
never set foot in the home to which they were returning. What was it that they
would build? What was their vision?
Building the walls of Jerusalem is
the first job that falls to Nehemiah. The people needed protection. They were
not surrounded by friendlies. This was renewal in the most literal sense. There
were no walls to the city. Before any work could even be contemplated on the
temple, the city must once again be secure. This was hard work, backbreaking
work, but Nehemiah had a vision from God. The task was finished in just fifty
two days.
If you read Nehemiah, you see who
rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. It was Eliashib the high priest with his
brothers and priests who built the Sheep Gate. It was the sons of Hassenaah who
built the Fish Gate. Joiada and Meshullam, other sons, repaired the Gate of
Yeshanah. And there was Melatiah and Jadon and Uzziah and Hannaniah and all
their kin.
Do you begin to get the picture?
Change the names and the address and the picture becomes Johnson Road in
Jefferson, SC, and the people becomes Clarks and Campbells and Catoes and
Sullivans and Kirkleys and Johnsons and Funderburks and Hortons. Nehemiah
gathered the people of God to rebuild the city of God.
Early in his career in ministry,
Eugene Peterson, whom you may know as the author of the Bible translation
called The Message, had a church to
build. His congregation, started from scratch, which had met in his basement
for a couple years, was now ready to build a church building. Architects were
interviewed by the building committee. It wasn’t fun. The experts all had plans
and recommendations, but none seemed to ask about what vision the church had.
They came upon a young architect who had never designed a church. He actually
visited several worship services before he agreed to take the job. He came to
know something about the identity of
the people for whom he was to work. From that, he could join his vision with
their vision. He designed something that reflected the identity of the church
family he had observed.
You know, Nehemiah had the financial
resources. He had the support of King Artaxerxes. He had letters of credit to
buy building materials. He could even use the king’s forest for the timbers he
would need. Finances were not a problem. But there were other problems. The
people had to be re-united. The people of the exile were strangers to the land and
to the people left behind. The people left behind had no leadership for
generations and had little to bind them together. When the two groups met, they
had little in common. The locals had intermarried with pagans. The religion of
their forefathers had eroded to the point where it was hard to identify.
So what Nehemiah had the most trouble
with was not the finances. He had the most trouble with uniting the people
under a common cause. They had no identity as a people, much less a holy
nation. The story of Nehemiah goes far beyond re-building the walls of
Jerusalem or even the temple. You know what’s funny? When the walls were about
halfway finished, the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites, all enemies of
the Jews, banded together and threatened to destroy the work. It scared the
people. They pulled away. Nehemiah rose up and exhorted the people. He told
them not to be afraid, to remember the Lord, who is great and awesome. He told
them to fight for their homes. The people came together again and finished the
walls.
As we get closer and closer to
beginning the task of rebuilding the physical part of our church, we would be
advised to study the story of Nehemiah. We, like the people of post-exilic
Jerusalem, have the financial resources to restore our walls. And we, like the
congregation of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church pastored by a young Eugene
Peterson, are having trouble settling on a design and an architect. Why? Maybe
it’s because we are still struggling a bit with finding someone to see us as we
are. We have an identity, but no one we
have interviewed has seemed to care much about that.
Our session and our congregation will
be ok. It just takes awhile to articulate our vision. We do have an identity,
but we also have an opportunity to recast that identity more in the image of
who God wants us to be than ever before. For this moment in our history, we
have this opportunity to rebuild our church buildings more in the image of God,
to find in the walls that we rebuild the presence of worship—and fellowship—and
discipleship—and mission—and ministry. We need to heed the words of Nehemiah: Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome,
and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your
home.
We have to have a vision. What does God
look like? What should the house of God look like? It will be our sanctuary
from the world, our launching spot of mission to the world, a place to call our
church home. Will it remind us of God? That’s the final plan we’re going to
find these next months, if we keep the faith. If we are to get it right, our identity has to
merge with that of God when we build his church.
Psalm 127 opens with a comment about building. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those
who build it labor in vain.” You
know, God has been in the building business since creation. He started with a
garden. He taught man and even instructed mankind how to build the ark, his
temple and so many more projects. And yet, God’s greatest building project has
had nothing to do with bricks and mortar. God’s greatest building project has
been all about sweat and blood. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” [Mark 12:
30, 31]. And
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
We can plan. We can
work hard. But if we are not planting God’s seeds, it won’t be God’s house. Unless the Lord builds the house… Theologian John Goldingray says it like this: “What is true about building and guarding is
true about all work. It is vain if it is not accompanied by God’s involvement;
it may unaccountably achieve nothing.”[1]
What does God’s house
look like? The look is just right, the feel is just so, the mood is warm and
loving and soothing, almost like, well, sanctuary. Surely, the presence of the
Lord is in such a place.
Amen Yes.
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