“God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24)
This week is the last in our series on Nehemiah and we are thinking about Holy Worship. The work is completed, the community gather, the word is read, praise to God is given, and they commit themselves again to being the people of God. Yet in ch. 13 Nehemiah returns as the people have not maintained the call to live holy and distinct lives, which it could be argued is because they’re not dedicated to Holy Worship.
Over the last five weeks, we’ve been looking at the story of God’s people using the books, Ezra and Nehemiah and exploring how it speaks into our year of discernment. Ezra begins in the context that Jerusalem had been invaded by the Babylonians and the final tribes that had been present in Jerusalem, not already taken into exile, were taken into exile. The king of Persia issues a decree allowing Zerubabel to take people back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of God, and we thought about how God will build his house, how his kingdom will come, how his promises came true in the time of Ezra, and how his promises will come true for us, his kingdom will come, his kingdom will grow, God will build his house.
60 years pass and Ezra is sent to Jerusalem, and he reads the law, that’s his calling, a teacher of the law and the reading of the Lord challenges the people and convicted them and so they study and obey God’s word, changing their behaviours to fit. As we do the same, it makes us know God’s promises and plan as we discover, who is, and who we’re supposed to be.
We then moved on about 12 years, and Nehemiah hears about the state of Jerusalem, about his fellow Jews that are there, And he’s stirred up to pray and fast and to mourn, and we thought about fasting and praying and how we’re called to stand in the gap – to think about the needs of our community, and as we are discerning in this year ahead to think about where we can be standing in the gap, where are the needs in our community.
Last week we saw in chapter 5, the problems of hunger and poverty that existed we saw how Nehemiah dealt with that, and it made us think about how we are called to be living examples, living out kingdom values, loving our Neighbour.
This encounter in Nehemiah is an interlude between the work of rebuilding the walls.
The story of Nehemiah continues with ongoing opposition and particularly tobiah the ammonite features quite heavily and played a part in our chapter today that we’ve just read. Tobiah and another official had been quite destructive in the rebuilding and heavily opposed – in chapter 6 we see ongoing opposition, there were death threats against Nehemiah. Letters sent back-and-forth trying to intimidate him. However the wall is completed they get the job done – the exiles return and there’s a whole list of those who came back and then in chapter 8 onwards Ezra again comes and reads the law. With the rebuilding there was in the wall, a pulipt, a podium built on which the law could be read. Ezra once again reads God’s word to those assembled and this leads to worship to confession and oath taking. all the things we have explored over the last few weeks happen here.
This year as we’re thinking about what is next with our journey with God here in Ramsgate. I imagine we’ll go through similar processes of re centering on God asking him what are we here for.
In these chapters building up to our reading today We have the regathered community of the people of God in Jerusalem again with the completed wall, the temple and the community fully intend to keep God centre. The wall includes a place where the word of God is taught.
At the end of chapter 12, after everything’s been put in order, the wall is dedicated. And it’s in this context that we start with chapter 13 where it says in v1 ‘on that day the book of Moses was read, aloud in the hearing of the people’.
What chapter 13 deals with is the fact that there have become problems with their worship, even in the event of everything that had been done. There were ongoing issues.. I think there are three things in todays chapter that Nehemiah disliked about their worship 1) it was polluted 2). It was limited and 3) it had been demoted.
What is worship? Why do we gather? It might help to think also about what things the world worships. The world often worships, money, pleasure, celebrity status, power. These things are invested in and take the focus.
John 4:23, says: ‘yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the father in the spirit, and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the father seeks.’ There is a sense here, that bringing God the glory, prizing him above Everything else is true worship. Worship is realising it is because of Jesus we have the freedom in life that we have.
One commentator defines worship this way: ‘worship is the act of attributing, reverent, honour homage to God. In the new Testament, various words are used to refer to the term worship. One is prone to worship, which means to bow down to God or kings.’
For us as Christians Jesus is the king of Kings and Lord of Lords. How do we bow down to him – give him worship in the whole of our lives. How do we empty ourselves of our entitlement and self interest and worth built on our own successes and realising where our true successes come from.
Nehemiah sees the worship of those in Jerusalem in chapter 13, as not being true worship. Nehemiah has left Jerusalem and he hears of these things that are going on and so returns to take action.
He has heard that their worship has become polluted – tobiah the ammonite has been given a space in the temple courts, likened to a small warehouse. his own possessions and stuff are being stored there. The items for worship and grain for offerings are removed. Tobiah was someone who was completely opposed to the rebuilding of the wall, had plotted and undermined and issued death threats, and yet the high priest who had intermarried into Tobiah’s family allowed the articles of worship to be discarded. The worship had been polluted – it was not being kept holy for worshipping the creator, God, the God, who had fulfilled his promises, and brought his people back once again to Jerusalem..
Is there anything that resonates for us about how our worship might get polluted? I’m not saying it is but it’s got me thinking but how do we keep it focused on our God who is holy
The second issue Nehemiah had with their worship was that it was limited. The levites had not been provided for as had been the instructions in scripture and so they had to go back to their fields and do other works so that they could survive and live, and therefore the worship had been limited because the Levites, who were there to enable the worship of the people of God were unable to be there. What might limit our worship?
Lastly the worship was demoted – other distractions were getting in the way of worship. The people of Judah were treading wine presses, bringing in grain, loading it onto donkeys selling food, not keeping the Sabbath holy.
Difficult isn’t it in this day in age because a lot of things happen now on Sundays. Our culture is has changed and sometimes Sunday is the only day that all family members are off together, or there are exciting opportunities, drama, football dance, and competitions that can happen those days too. How do we keep worship a priority
nehemiah felt strongly about correcting these issues with their worship to maintain Gods reputation amongst the peoples. To fulfill their duty as the people of God
We are on a mission from God – if we begin with worship putting him at the centre of it all what will God do- what will we learn? what will it change in us? Let’s make worship a priority and not allow it to be polluted, limited or demoted.
What is God stirring up in us in this year ahead to fuel the ministry in years to come? How can we maintain our worship of God loving him with our heart soul mind and strength? As we wait expectantly for Jesus’ kingdom come.
St. Luke's Church Ramsgate 