Sermon from Nehemiah 1:1-11 for July 8

You may have heard, Noah James Farley, our grandson, and Brian and Rachel's son, made his appearance on Independence Day at 8:22pm, possibly a statement about his future plans! 

Right now, his life consists of eating, peeing and sleeping, with a few hours of staring at the very weird people who keep gurgling over him. Life is good! And when it isn’t he squalls!

But still, life is simple and simple is good!

It’s hard for some of us in this very complex world to understand simplicity. It seems old fashioned and perhaps uninformed. We like variety and we like choices, we seem to favor complexity over simplicity. We have gotten used to being able to pick what we like. Over 200 channels on TV and even more online!

But what we miss is the costliness of choice, our loss of focus, how uncentered we have become, drifting from one input to another. Try going out for ice cream.

In the old days having chocolate, vanilla, or a twist was simple, though boring. But it was easy. The customer, you or I, had only three possible choices. And the vendor had to only make space for two kinds of ice cream.

Then we put it in a dish or on a cone. Not a tough choice and one the vendor could easily accommodate. But now, how about a waffle cone or waffle dish? Sprinkles, chocolate or multicolored? Hot fudge or caramel sauce, or peanut butter, or strawberry or marshmallow? And 45 flavors! More and more choices.

Now across the whole front of Twin Cone, or on the board at Blueberry Mountain or at the Riverside Creamery (yes, I like ice cream, don’t be judgy) are endless possible choices. It’s amazing! It’s wonderful!

And it is overwhelming!

And costly, not only for the vendor who has to make sure that all those possible choices are available, but also for the customer who must pay something extra to make all those choices available.

Simple is good, especially when it allows us to cut through complexity and see what is important, what is at stake, what must be done, and who must do it.

Complexity can obfuscate. It can cloud our vision. It can make it hard not only to see God, but it can also make it hard to see what God is doing; and then what you and I must be doing as God’s people!

We live in a complex world. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, email, text, messaging, snapchat, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, BBC, PBS, all with stories, both real and unreal, full of details told in such a way to cloud our understanding, our vision, our calling, pushing us further and further apart.

We can’t have civil conversations about much of anything, and even the tiniest differences between us feel at times like great big iron curtains of separation. Life is not simple. Life is not clear and obvious. And so, neither is our calling. An old joke tells the story. It goes:

I once saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!"

He said, "Why not? Nobody loves me."

I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"

He said, "Yes."

I said, "Are you a Christian?"

He said, "Yes, a Christian."

I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?"

He said, "Protestant."

I said, "Me, too! What franchise?"

He said, "Baptist."

I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?"

He said, "Northern Baptist."

I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"

He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist."

I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?"

He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region."

I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?"

He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912."

I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.

Walls of separation.

For God’s people simplicity and clarity of vision is essential. We need to see who is on the Lord’s side and it is not always just the folks who agree with us. Rather it is the people God has called to labor beside us. 

We, as a church mission, are thinking of going to Texas to do some flood remediation there. What we need is people who will do God’s work, not necessarily ones who think exactly the same things!

Nehemiah could have gotten caught up in the complexity of life in Persia. It was an amazing place and an amazing time. Here he was a Jewish man, an immigrant who practiced a minority religion, with remarkable responsibilities right in the middle of the Persian Empire.

He held the position of cup bearer, a position with the highest security clearance. Because of palace intrigue and the possibility of poison, he was to protect the king, and his confidential relationship gave him a position of great influence!

So, he could have focused his time and energy on the Persian equivalent of the Game of Thrones, living and working as he did at the behest of Artaxerxes, king of the Persians.

Instead, what worried Nehemiah that November, was not Persian politics, not court intrigue, but instead what God was doing with God’s people. In all that you have heard and seen of contemporary life, where do you see God at work?

He had heard that the Jewish people back in Jerusalem, the 2% of the Jews who had gone home with Ezra after Cyrus the Persian had defeated the Babylonians and released them back home, were in a bad situation, and he was overwhelmed with grief. When was the last time you grieved over what is happening to our brothers and sisters in Christ here in the US and around the world?

Nehemiah was just a cupbearer to the King, but God had plans for Nehemiah!

What are you? Just a teacher? Just a farmer? Just a …? 

The truth is God has plans for you too!

There is more to Nehemiah’s story, and over the next couple of week’s we’ll tell it, but for right now, here is a question we can wrestle with: Why has God got you where you are, and what is it God has next for you to do?

Be faithful my friends!

Amen.