sermon notes Jan. 27 Neh. 8, I Cor 12

Now I realize that most of you came in this morning thinking, I haven’t heard about Nehemiah in ages. It fits the new year, as it deals with rebuilding. Our sense of rebuilding here seems ot be a return to the glory days of this church where money flowed in, where we had more than triple our membership, and incidentally when Alton had a thriving business climate. That is a noble goal, but still we should ask what spiritual support, what attitudes and actions do we owe each other?Quite simply, it asks us to invite each other into our lives.

Nehemiah talks about the Christian task of renewing the Scripture every time we open it. When they book  is read before the people, they had translators or interpreters there. I think of the house of the interpreter, as I am sure you all did, in Pilgrim’s Progress.Not only do thye need to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, they need to rebuild a sense of community. Nehemiah ahs faced obstacle after obstacle in his building project, but he wants to build it into the community structure of Scripture. Here interpretation seems to be a communal process as well.

Nehemiah deals with the difficulties of a restoration, or better a reclamation project.Just as the rebuilding of the temple left many disappointed, the difficult process of rebuilding the walls of jerusalem, to make it a proper city again, brings to mind the slow comeback of New Orleans. When I was younger, habitat for Humanity spent a lot of time rehabbing older buildings but many groups switched over to an easier process of building from scratch.

In our time, I do not know if the rebuilding of a wall is the best image. I am honestly unsure about it. Part of being a community is having boundaries. On the other hand, Scripture indicates that
christ broke down the dividing wall of hostility.Building up the body of Christ.-energy source-exercise-permission-emphasize commonality and respecting differences. I tend to be concerned about spiritual health and disciplines. It is good for me to see the work of the spirit of God as penetrating every part of the church, the body of Christ. Yes, we have this magnificent structure and it costs money.Still, we ask what sort of body of christ does this magnificent church structure shelter? Is it part of a gilded age or is it extra ornamentation for Paul’s vision of the church says no to hierarchy and status concerns. The body of Christ has a sense of a home being more than a house. It has to include a recognition that we are in the same boat, on the same team. It calls for a real sense that we are so connected that the suffering of one, the joys of another, touch us deeply, even so deeply that it  has happened to us.

Paul keep putting syn/together to start a series of words in this passage,to mean  only together, only with each other.Yes, we are a diverse lot, but we are interconnected. As John Donne would say no one is an island. More than in It’s about a boy where Hugh Grant can assent to being part of an island chain. In our time, the move is ecological, where things fit together in an inter-related fashion.moves away from arrogance and envy and a tightly bound sense of privacy. I’m a private person, I like to mind my own business, and this radical call that everyone in the church is my concern alarms me, even if I weren;t a pastor called to just that spiritual fact. the old saw, a chain is as strong as its weakest link applies here. The strongest are not only bound to the weak but may seek to outdo one another in honoring those folks. (burden) How do we learn to allow ourselves to become part of the community?