Investing in the City of God

Investing in the City of God*

Dr. Larry Thorson
November 18, 2007

Nehemiah 2:11-20

11 I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days 12 I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on.

13 By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. 14 Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; 15 so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate. 16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work.

17 Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace." 18 I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me.
They replied, "Let us start rebuilding." So they began this good work.

19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. "What is this you are doing?" they asked. "Are you rebelling against the king?"

20 I answered them by saying, "The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it."

The year was 445 BC, and the city of Jerusalem was in trouble. Over one hundred years earlier, the Babylonians invaded the city, burned the gates, tore down the walls, and carried the young people into captivity. So for over a hundred years Jerusalem sat in ruins. After a while, the people who remained in the city got used to things being so bad. Eventually, they couldn’t even see the problems because everyone learned how to cope with the misery.

One day, a Jew named Nehemiah entered Jerusalem for the first time in his life. He had grown up in exile, where he eventually became a high ranking civil servant in Persia. Although he had never been to Jerusalem, Nehemiah must have heard stories about the city on the laps of his grandparents. We can imagine their descriptions: “Oh Nehemiah, you should have seen how beautiful Jerusalem was with its towering walls and majestic gates surrounding the holy temple where God was in the midst of his people.” So when Nehemiah finally arrived into town to see Jerusalem for himself, he already had a vision of what he thought it would look like.

When Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem, he spent three days riding his animal around the city and was horrified at its conditions. We read what he saw in Nehemiah 2:11-16…

While the city was a mess I think he was even more horrified that the people who lived there had settled for these conditions. Let’s read verse 17… Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Can’t you see?

Some of you have lived many years in Hemet. You remember the apricot orchards and the potato fields. You remember the small town stores and the drive in theater. This was small town America, relatively crime free and wholesome.

The big draw in America for most of my life is to live in small town America but also have your Mimi’s and Home Depot. But eventually because everyone else wants what you want that small town becomes urban. Then people leave it because they want that small town feel back.

I’ve worked in urban areas on both sides of the country. One of the striking things about urban areas is that after a while, the citizens really don’t see how bad the conditions of urban life have become. I was appalled when I worked in the housing projects of Richmond, Virginia and was told the people couldn’t get fresh vegetables. Why? The only stores within walking distance of those vehicle less people were small, garage size mom and pop stores that couldn’t afford to stock fresh foods.

Like the people of Jerusalem in the fifth century BC, we do what we have to do to cope with the poverty and crime. And the favorite coping device has been to train our eyes not to see it. So we don’t see the homeless sleeping in the doorways, the woman who takes two buses to get to a grocery store, the children who play on streets where drugs are dealt.

We think that’s all in those bad old urban areas that we came from. Because as Americans we can move our families to better neighborhoods, and take roads that bypass the things we don’t want to see. So when we read about the shootings in our own town, they might as well be talking about Baghdad because, well, “I didn’t see it.”

Last Wednesday a distraught man was sitting in our reception area when I came to work. I had a thousand things on my agenda and he wasn’t on that list for the day. I so didn’t want to sit down with him but I was a little worried that he might be one of Jesus’ angels throwing a pop quiz at me so I sat down with him. Of all the strange requests we get all day, all he said he wanted was a safe place to sleep. So I let him take a nap in Pastor Scott’s old office. He eventually went his way.

The next day three women came into our office yelling that the Habitat office on our campus had discriminated against them by not giving them a free lunch because they weren’t homeless. The free lunches are intended only for the homeless and these women weren’t homeless. They were trying to take advantage of our generosity by abusing the system. As a result of lack of funds and volunteers and sometimes abusive clients, the free lunch program is being shut down.

But the needy in our town are not going away regardless of how well I can hide in my office. The medium income for the zip code of this church is just over $23,000 a year. The medium income for one of the poorest sections of Pittsburgh where some of our elders just got back from is over $30,000. To make matters worse the medium price of homes in that section of Pittsburgh is about $80,000 with plenty of livable homes for less than $50,000. Not true here.

So here was Nehemiah riding around town on his donkey looking this way and looking that way. All around him he saw the glorious past of that city now in destruction. He couldn’t look the other way.

Five hundred years after Nehemiah, Jesus Christ also came to Jerusalem riding a small colt. He too spent a few days in the city, and then lamented, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem... How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not.”

Jesus wasn’t just talking about Jerusalem. He was talking about the City of God. It can still be built, any place, any time that people gather together under the wing of the Savior and see that “their” troubles are our troubles. Once you see “the trouble that we are in,” you face a great choice. Either you will become frightened, self-obsessed, and anxious about your property values, and your rights that someone is violating, or you’ll see how it is, and invest in a great vision for how it can be in this city.

So Nehemiah saw the mess his city was in and this was his response starting in verse 17… “Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace." 18 I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me.”

This is how the people responded to Nehemiah’s sermon in v.18, They replied, "Let us start rebuilding." So they began this good work. Now I don’t know what Nehemiah’s preaching style was like but when people respond like that we say “he can preach!” They refused to isolate or insulate themselves, and they gave up tending their own gardens. Instead, they said “Let us start rebuilding.” And in spite of huge obstacles, the city of Jerusalem was rebuilt. Anything can be rebuilt when everyone is committed to the common good.

Now why was it that for over 100 years the people who remained in Jerusalem could live in a deteriorating city and do nothing, but after listening to Nehemiah they decided to invest themselves again in the city? Certainly their preacher had to do something more than make them see the city was in trouble. Yes, he also told them one other thing. “I told them,” Nehemiah explains, “that the hand of my God had been gracious upon me.”

I believe from experience that people who find grace at the hand of God see their city differently. They are not so quick to tell others to take care of themselves, because they remember that a Savior has taken care of them. They don’t rush by human need looking the other way, because they can’t forget the Savior didn’t rush by them. And best of all, people who know that they have been blessed by a gracious God do not believe for a minute that God has ever been exiled from the city. We believe God is in the midst of the worst drug infested streets of our city because we have experienced his gracious involvement in our own lives.

The reason God has blessed us and our family is so we can be a blessing to the families around us. That’s why we have the Family Center across the street. But when I first walked into that building a little over two years ago and saw how it was being used or not being used I wanted to say with Nehemiah “don’t you see the trouble that you are in?” On the walls were fading pictures of young children, some of whom I later found out had grown up and were in high school in 2005. The youth room looked as if the rapture had occurred and all the youth had suddenly gone up to heaven leaving their scrapbook pictures spread out as reminders that they had been there. I saw the boxes being stored on the beautiful racquetball floor knowing it hadn’t seen a game in many years. I saw holes in the basketball floor from a long gone gymnastics program. I saw the letters on the marquee outside half fallen off but trying to advertise a long gone open gym night.

That’s why Darryl Von Driska, who is a long time resident of this valley, long time active participant in this church and a board member of Valley Wide Recreation approached his board about partnering with us to restore and operate that building for the purposes of which it was built.

That’s why I formed a task force to look at what it would cost to renovate and staff a program worthy of that caliber of building. You can pick up their report in the narthex after the service.

That’s why I also recommended sending three elders and Coach Carter to spend some time with the folks at the Pittsburgh Project which is a major Christian organization ministering to poor of North Pittsburgh which ironically started the same year our Family Center was built.

That’s why we’re having a congregational lunch after this service where we can talk about the possibilities for that building. I sure hope that you can attend. We will have another lunch on Sunday January 13 after worship to talk some more about where we can go and to hear a proposal for ministry from the team to Pittsburgh.

While we’re not yet ready to make a commitment concerning the Family Center, that will come later next year. It is time today to make a commitment to God and this church. You’re not just being asked to support a budget. You are being asked to respond to the grace of God in your life. If you believe that God has saved you in Jesus Christ and has blessed you with eternal life then I ask you to commit your life, your time and your money to our Lord.

Pledge cards were mailed out last week. If you brought yours today I want you to drop them in the offering plate this morning. If you are willing to commit more time to our Lord by volunteering with us would you take a prayer card and write what you would be willing to do.

And with your pledge to investing in the church, we can do it. All we need is your commitment. Amen.

*This sermon was adapted from a sermon written and delivered by Dr. Craig Barnes at the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 13, 2005. Used with permission.