January 24, 2010
Rev. Jeffrey L. Phillips, pastor
Selections from Ezra
Babylonian Exile 586 BCE, return in 539 – 47 years later.
Takes 23 years to rebuild the temple - re-dedicated in 516 BCE (70 years after its destruction)
Ezra and Nehemiah brought the people home, rebuilt the
This is a story about coming home and starting again
God’s grace: those who are exiles coming home again because God had moved the heart of Cyrus and stirred the spirits of the people.
God’s promise of restoration and salvation is fulfilled.
A story of coming home – can you hear the cries of joy in chapter 3 as the people laid the cornerstone of the new temple on the site where the old one had stood?
People are all so different, but one thing we all need is a place to call home.
Home is the place where, when you show up, they have to take you in.
Home is where you belong, even if you’re not there at the moment.
Home gives us our identity.
Home is a place of comfort and security.
Home is a place of familiarity and acceptance – “where everybody knows your name.”
When it functions at its best, church is like that – a spiritual home
Catholic Church advertising campaign
Soup ‘n’ Sundae
Exiles (the previously excluded or spiritually wandering) find a home
New members finding a home today
The church is a place of grace and acceptance – a community
My feelings of my church as a child
Metaphor of family (mission statement)
“All Are Welcome”
Sometimes (often, I hope) we do that.
However, when the exiles returned to Jerusalem, they encountered “people of the land” -
Either Israelites who did not go into exile, or foreigners.
Or both – mixed marriages between Israelites and foreigners.
Either way, the returnees looked down on them and this practice of “mixing”.
Ezra instituted “reforms” to abolish mixed marriages
The former exiles were in charge now; they wrote the OT, including Ezra & Nehemiah.
And still I wonder: what about those “people of the land”?
“The only thing worse than having no religion is having too much religion.”
Ezra was focused on the spiritual purity of the people.
These people were the “remnant,” the chosen of the chosen.
The problem with this is that the spiritually pure start to look down on those who are less “spiritually pure,” less chosen – those who haven’t gone through the same spiritually defining experiences.
“Holy,” which is what the Creed says we are, can quickly become “holier than thou.”
Holiness and righteousness are gifts of God; self-righteousness is our own elevated idea of ourselves, our communities, and our beliefs.
A community is a wonderful thing, but only when its boundaries are permeable, not rigid.
When they remain open to the new, even as they embrace their traditions
And that includes new people, and by new, I mean “different”
My family always had people stopping by without calling first. And we always had family and friends staying with us - exchange students.
Communities need to have fences, not walls.
Families and religious communities need traditions and identities, but, as they find and exercise their traditions and identities, they can become so wrapped up in them that they become more like clubs than places where all are welcome, including those with different traditions and identities.
Clubs are nice, but tend to be insular.
Friends, the church of Jesus Christ is not a club! We are “a house of prayer for all people,” as one Hebrew prophet describes the ancient temple.
We are not saved from the world, but for the world. We are not established to be an enclave, safe and sound from the worries of life, but a place to find spiritual resources and strength to re-enter the world – and even allow the world to enter us
Like the exiles of old, returned to their home, we, too, are a faithful remnant. But we are not here for our own comfort and self-congratulating. We are here as a witness to God’s faithfulness – to us and the whole world. We are a down payment for all those promises of God that are yet to be fulfilled among people we haven’t even met yet – who haven’t walked through our doors yet.
Churches often describe themselves as friendly, but what they actually are is friendly with each other, not new people.
Churches often describe themselves as welcoming, but for many people, the “welcome” they’ve received in churches hasn’t been so welcoming.
Singles and divorced
Liberals in a conservative church
Conservatives in a liberal church
People with doubts and questions
Racial/ethic minorities in predominantly Euro-American churches
People of lower income
Young or old, when they walk in, there’s no one their age (e.g. college-age)
People with disabilities & mental illness, or children with disabilities & mental illness
People who’ve had bad experiences with “organized religion.”
Lgbt people
“People of the land”
Jesus specialized in “people of the land”
Let the story of the return of the exiles be a lesson for us – a lesson with two parts
1. How wonderful it is to come home by God’s grace– and to have a home where…
2. How much we need to remember those who do not have a home
What you can do
speak to new people at church (or people you do not know)
keep thinking about how our church can be more welcoming of people who need to know the love of God, but are leery of church, and wonder whether they can plug into this love in the life of a community of faith
As Paul wrote in Romans 15: “Welcome one another, just as Christ has welcomed you.”
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