When we get back from holiday earlier in the week there was a pile of post on the doormat, all needing to be sorted out. I wonder how you feel when you see a letter on the doormat. Some are marketing bumph and go straight in the bin. Some look official: on the bright side a pay slip, on the cloudy side a bill of some kind. Hand written ones are getting rarer and rarer. Perhaps you recognise the handwriting and are filled with joy or dread as you open the envelope. Nehemiah had been getting some letters. The first one seems harmless- come and meet with us. But he\u2019s recognised the writing on the envelope and knows that all is not as it seems. He knows the writers from his past dealings with them, and knows that they mean him no good. In fact they mean him harm. So he refuses to be distracted. He keeps the main thing the main thing. He\u2019s been given the task of rebuilding the walls, a great project, and he is going to continue getting on with what he\u2019s been tasked with doing. He refuses to be distracted. <\/p>\n
As a bit of side note, have you noticed how people trying to communicate with you can be a real distraction. For some of us it is almost impossible to ignore a ringing telephone. It has taken me some time, but I have got to the point where I can hear that ring as an invitation to a conversation. If it\u2019s convenient I\u2019ll answer, but if it\u2019s not- for instance if I\u2019m sitting at a meal with the family then I won\u2019t. My kids tell me that it can be the cause of rifts in teenage friendships if someone sends you a text message and you don\u2019t respond as soon as you\u2019ve read it. When I was thinking about this sermon there were a couple of times when I got distracted by emails coming in and getting caught up in responding to them. <\/p>\n
We live in the society with the greatest number of possibilities for communication that there has ever been. The irony is that although we might have many connections, somehow there is an epidemic of loneliness and a loss of depth and meaning in much of our communication. I wonder if some of this might be due to the fact that we are bombarded with messages, just as Nehemiah was bombarded with letters, but rather than sticking to the task we\u2019ve been given, with the people that we\u2019ve been sent to work with, we get distracted by the chatter.<\/p>\n
By the fifth letter, Sanballat has decided to up the ante. He\u2019s getting nowhere with the \u201clet\u2019s just meet for coffee\u201d line, so now he starts making accusations, trying to play on Nehemiah\u2019s fears.<\/p>\n
I love this line, \u201cIt is reported among the nations, and Geshem says it is true…\u201d Well, if Geshem says it\u2019s true then it must be so! It is back to playground. \u201cI\u2019ve heard you said you were better at football than me, and Billy says it\u2019s true.\u201d If it weren\u2019t so serious it would be infantile. And then at the end comes the threat, \u201cI\u2019m going to tell on you if you don\u2019t do what I want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately this threat is a bit more serious than telling the teacher. If what Sanballat had been saying were true, and it did get back to the King then there would be serious trouble for Nehemiah and the people. Even if it weren\u2019t true and it was reported to the King, then there was likely to be trouble. Kings in that era were not famous for making sure they had all the facts before sending in the army. <\/p>\n
It would have been perfectly reasonable for Nehemiah to be worried, to be anxious, to fear for the project he\u2019d been given to do. But he refuses to be distracted, he knows that what they are saying is not true, and he trusts God to protect them as they are faithful in doing what they have been told to do. Though, to be honest, Nehemiah\u2019s response also has the sound of the playground about it, \u201cYou are just making it up out of your head.\u201d He calls Sanballat\u2019s bluff. He knows that there is no evidence for the things that Sanballat is saying, he knows that the King has sent him to do this work, and will back him up, and he trusts God. <\/p>\n
He knows what Sanballat is trying to do, he is trying to intimidate, to induce fear, fear that will discourage and weaken the workers and prevent the completion of the task. He recognises this, and he is not having it. <\/p>\n
So what about us, what can we do in similar circumstances. <\/p>\n
The first thing that we can do is to isolate the chatter. When we are facing a long and challenging task, we experience voices that discourage us. Some are just the distractions of normal life- all those emails and messages clamouring for attention that can distract us and pull us away from the focus that we need to complete the task we have. <\/p>\n
Some are more threatening, external voices that cast doubt on our motives (you\u2019re not really doing this for Jesus, you\u2019re doing it because you want to be well thought of) , that cast doubt on our capability (who are you kidding, you can\u2019t do this, it\u2019s beyond you), that threaten us with external forces (this is going to make you unpopular with your boss). These kinds of messages can distract us, can make us fear, can make us question. Now, some questioning in humility is a good thing, but when we have tested the call of God with others, and are following it in good faith, then we can stand in confidence and ignore these external voices, they are making it up out of their heads. <\/p>\n
There is another voice that speaks into these situations, though, and I personally find this voice the most difficult. It is my voice. It is my voice reading the internal scripts of past failure, of self doubt, of self-accusation. It says some of the same things that the external voices say, but it is much more difficult to shut up, because it comes from inside. Somehow we need to find a way to tell ourselves that \u201cyou are just making it up out of your head.\u201d <\/p>\n
For me that is made easier when I share what is rattling around within my skull with people who I trust, and who can tell me the truth, and can pray with and for me. It is made easier when I read the promises and assurances of the Bible and allow them to sink into my soul and quiet the other voice. \u201cYou are my Son, whom I love\u201d, \u201cI will bring you out into a spacious place.\u201d \u201cthe Lord\u2019s my shepherd, I\u2019ll not want.\u201d \u201cI will never leave you or forsake you.\u201d \u201cIf we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as the voices of other people, and our own voice, there is also the voice of the accuser, of Satan. It was Satan, the father of lies, who spoke through Peter to Jesus, casting doubt on his call to go to the cross. Jesus was not to be distracted. He had the discernment to know that this was a diabolical intrusion into the conversation. He did not pull any punches, but neither was it something that he suggested Peter had made up out of his head. This was something that had been put into Peter\u2019s head by Jesus\u2019 enemy, and he named it as such. You are a stumbling block because you only see the human concerns, you do not have in mind the things of God. <\/p>\n
If Nehemiah had been distracted by human concerns: what the King might be thinking, how they were ever going to get this wall built, all the opposition, then the walls would never have been rebuilt. But he didn\u2019t \u2013 he had in mind the concerns of God, and so the task was completed.
\nIf Jesus had been distracted by human concerns: his own pain, the grief of his friends, the consequences of betrayal, then we would never have been saved. We would still be lost in sin and death. But he didn\u2019t \u2013 he had in mind the concerns of God, and so the task was completed. <\/p>\n
If we are to maintain our focus on the concerns of God, and not be distracted by human concerns, if we are not to be weakened but to have a strength restored then we need to be wise to the voice of the accuser, the one who lies about us, to the voice of Satan. This is not to see a devil under every bush (after all being distracted by worrying about Satan is as much a distraction as anything else). But it is to be vigilant and to recognise the tone of voice and type of things that Satan says to us \u2013 accusations and lies, and to refuse to listen.<\/p>\n
Finally we come to the positive prayer that Nehemiah teaches us to pray. \u201cNow strengthen my hands\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end it is God who is the source of our strength. We can do nothing on our own, nothing in our own strength. In fact, in the upside down Kingdom of God it is those who are weak, and aware of that weakness who have most access to the strength of God. Those heroes of the faith that we might have, from Nehemiah himself to Peter, to Paul, even to Jesus, they were all painfully aware of their own human frailty and weakness, and so were able to rejoice in the strength that God gave them to complete the tasks that God had given them. <\/p>\n
I am a great one for over thinking things. Liz refuses to go into B&Q with me, because I can stand for 20 minutes looking at different screws trying to decide which one is going to be best for the particular set of shelves I\u2019m looking to put up. All the things that need to be taken into consideration, the voices of past failures to pick the correct fixings, the worry that I might be wasting money by over engineering, the concern of a false economy if I get ones that aren\u2019t robust enough. I am paralysed by the voices and it stops me doing anything with my hands. <\/p>\n
We cannot live our lives like this. We need to get on with it. It is right and proper to take counsel, to be wise, but we cannot listen to the voices forever. We need to tune into the one voice that matters, that of God, put the others on mute, acknowledge our weakness, ask God to strengthen our hands and get on with it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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