WEBVTT 00:00:00.660 --> 00:00:07.719 Well, good morning to you all. My name's Tommy. I'm the rector here, and I love this Sunday 00:00:07.719 --> 00:00:12.240 every year. This is a Sunday in our church that we have come to unofficially refer to 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:18.039 as Launch Sunday. It's when people start to come back from their summer travel, when all 00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:22.879 of our ministry programming starts back up, our children's ministry starts up. And so 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:28.300 we've called it Launch Sunday for years now, and I love it. I love, as I look forward to 00:00:28.300 --> 00:00:33.799 the fall, every year I get excited. This year in particular, I'm excited as I look across 00:00:33.799 --> 00:00:39.539 the months to come. The coming year is going to be a very unique time in the life of our 00:00:39.539 --> 00:00:46.000 church. And that's, to go back a little bit, that's because of where we are in our story. 00:00:46.460 --> 00:00:53.820 We started this church back in 2007 in a living room, and we started with a commitment to seek 00:00:53.820 --> 00:00:59.340 the good of the city for the glory of God, to love the city long term. And by city, I mean 00:00:59.340 --> 00:01:07.040 the greater DMV region. And since then, we've been sort of wandering in the wilderness, you might say. 00:01:07.140 --> 00:01:13.299 We've had to move seven different times. That's probably been the greatest obstacle to us fulfilling 00:01:13.299 --> 00:01:18.740 that commitment to love the city for the glory of God. And so six years ago, we started praying 00:01:18.739 --> 00:01:23.419 together and asking God to lead us to a permanent home in the heart of the city where we could make 00:01:23.419 --> 00:01:29.979 a commitment to loving the city for generations. And we wanted a space that would allow us to be 00:01:29.979 --> 00:01:35.139 true to this commitment in a way that would outlive all of us. And thanks be to God, through an 00:01:35.139 --> 00:01:41.939 incredible movement of generosity from many people in this room, we now own a beautiful historic church 00:01:41.939 --> 00:01:47.379 space in the Shaw neighborhood, right in the heart of the city. And so this year, not only are we 00:01:47.379 --> 00:01:51.420 going to continue to do all of the wonderful ministry and things that happen in the life of 00:01:51.420 --> 00:01:57.060 this church, but it's also a year of preparation. It's a year of transition. It's a year where we're 00:01:57.060 --> 00:02:04.019 going to turn a corner and enter a new season of life and ministry together. So in this time of 00:02:04.019 --> 00:02:09.699 preparation, we're going to be working on the one hand to renovate the building so that we can move in 00:02:09.699 --> 00:02:14.699 next year. And you're going to be hearing more about that in the weeks to come. But we're also, 00:02:14.699 --> 00:02:20.699 equally if not more importantly, going to be doing the work of spiritual renovation, 00:02:21.699 --> 00:02:26.959 a spiritual renovation, seeking God's vision for the next chapter of our life together, 00:02:27.139 --> 00:02:32.620 seeking to be spiritually renovated and renewed in our own hearts and in our community. 00:02:33.099 --> 00:02:40.539 And so along those lines, we're going to spend the next several months, this will actually take us up 00:02:40.539 --> 00:02:45.239 to the beginning of the Advent season, looking at the book of Nehemiah. We're going to take a break 00:02:45.239 --> 00:02:51.699 from the lectionary, and we're going to follow the story of Nehemiah. And on the one hand, this is about 00:02:51.699 --> 00:02:57.219 someone who lived roughly 2,500 years ago. And you say, well, what does that possibly have to do with 00:02:57.219 --> 00:03:03.459 where we are today? What we find is the Bible is timeless. And because of that, it can be very timely 00:03:03.460 --> 00:03:08.939 in the way it applies to the here and now. And there are a lot of parallels between this story 00:03:08.939 --> 00:03:14.319 and our story and where we are in our story. And so I think there's a lot we can learn if we're 00:03:14.319 --> 00:03:20.460 willing to put ourselves under the authority of this book. So we're going to be looking at the first 00:03:20.460 --> 00:03:26.219 few verses this morning, Nehemiah chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. It's printed in the bulletin on page 11, 00:03:26.219 --> 00:03:31.219 and you have a little bit more of that chapter there for context. But we're just going to be looking 00:03:31.219 --> 00:03:35.520 at the first four verses. We're going to look at Nehemiah's vision, and then we're going to ask, 00:03:35.620 --> 00:03:41.039 how does that inform and shape and speak to our vision and where we're going as a community? So 00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:49.079 let's pray. Our Lord, Heavenly Father, we thank you for the ministry that you're already doing in our 00:03:49.079 --> 00:03:55.719 midst. We thank you for your faithfulness to us over all the years. We thank you that you're here 00:03:55.719 --> 00:04:00.659 this morning and that your Word is living and active. And we know that you speak to your people. 00:04:01.219 --> 00:04:07.159 And we know that even more than food, as your Word says, we need to hear from you. We need your Word, 00:04:07.439 --> 00:04:12.319 Lord. That we're not meant to live on bread alone, but we need the Word of God, Lord. We need you to 00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:18.980 do your work in us. If we are in need of comfort, I pray that you would comfort us. If we need to be 00:04:18.980 --> 00:04:23.019 challenged or convicted, we pray that your Word would do that, Lord. In all these ways, we pray that 00:04:23.019 --> 00:04:28.699 you would do your work through your Word in us. For your glory and in your Son's name, amen. 00:04:28.699 --> 00:04:35.479 Amen. So first of all, let's just look at what's happening here and where Nehemiah's vision comes 00:04:35.479 --> 00:04:44.319 from. A little history just to get us all on the same page. God had originally established the nation 00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:52.199 of Israel for a very particular purpose. He called this nation to be a light to the nations. His desire 00:04:52.199 --> 00:04:57.920 was that Israel would be the means through which He would bless all the nations of the earth. 00:04:58.819 --> 00:05:04.420 But as you follow along the story in the Old Testament, His people became increasingly unfaithful. 00:05:04.519 --> 00:05:10.899 And instead of being a blessing to the nations, they increasingly became like the nations. And 00:05:10.899 --> 00:05:17.599 they worshiped idols instead of God. So skipping over a lot of history and a lot of ups and downs of 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:23.020 faithfulness and unfaithfulness, some kings being wonderful and some kings being horrible, right? 00:05:23.020 --> 00:05:28.680 Ups and downs. We finally get to a point where God essentially says, okay, if you want idols that 00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:33.900 badly, I'm going to bury you in idols. I'm going to give you more idols than you know what to do with. 00:05:34.400 --> 00:05:41.960 And He allows first Assyria and then the Babylonians to come in and to conquer His people. In 586 00:05:41.959 --> 00:05:49.199 BC, God allows the Babylonians to conquer Judah. And they destroy the city of Jerusalem. They capture 00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:56.060 most of the citizens and they take them a thousand miles away from their homeland to be dirt farmers 00:05:56.060 --> 00:06:03.539 in Babylon. But then as history goes, the Babylonians were eventually conquered by the Persians. 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:11.039 And we read in the book of Ezra that God moves in the heart of the king, Cyrus, to begin allowing the 00:06:11.040 --> 00:06:18.200 Jews to return as He had promised to begin to rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem. 00:06:18.200 --> 00:06:22.480 So we read about the first part of that in the book of Ezra and the rebuilding of the temple. 00:06:22.780 --> 00:06:30.300 And this brings us in history up to the story of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is a young professional. 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:36.820 He is living in a major urban center. He's at Susa, which is one of the capital cities of the Persian 00:06:36.820 --> 00:06:40.460 Empire. It's where they would spend the winter months because the climate was better. 00:06:40.459 --> 00:06:47.299 And he is working for the administration. He works for Artaxerxes, who's the king of Persia. He has a 00:06:47.299 --> 00:06:53.680 pretty important job, and we'll learn more about that next week. Nehemiah has lived his entire life 00:06:53.680 --> 00:07:02.839 in exile. He's grown up in exile. He's grown up hearing about his homeland, but only stories that 00:07:02.839 --> 00:07:08.679 his grandparents might tell. But he knows that the Jews are returning. He knows there's been a couple of 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:15.600 waves of Jews returning to try to rebuild Jerusalem, the temple and the city. So when one of his brothers 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:22.420 and some friends return from a trip to the homeland, Nehemiah is very eager to hear how things are going in 00:07:22.420 --> 00:07:32.920 Jerusalem. But the news is not good. Hanani says, things are awful, great trouble and shame. The walls are broken 00:07:32.920 --> 00:07:40.660 down, the gates destroyed by fire. The people are destitute and suffering. And if we look back in the 00:07:40.660 --> 00:07:46.020 book of Ezra, that tells us why this is the case. There's an external challenge and an internal 00:07:46.020 --> 00:07:52.680 challenge. The external challenge comes in the form of a corrupt pagan government and a culture of 00:07:52.680 --> 00:08:00.860 hostility. King Artaxerxes, the king Nehemiah served, had halted work in Jerusalem when he first took office 00:08:00.860 --> 00:08:06.519 20 years earlier. And he did that because as much as they wanted to practice religious tolerance, they also 00:08:06.519 --> 00:08:13.100 didn't want to allow any one group to get too powerful because that might be a threat to his power. And so he 00:08:13.100 --> 00:08:19.060 halted work. He said, you know, things are going a little too well. Let's slow it down a bit. And then the 00:08:19.060 --> 00:08:25.620 surrounding tribes, none of whom liked the Israelites at all, they took advantage of this lack of government 00:08:25.620 --> 00:08:31.060 protection, and they came in and they destroyed whatever work had been done. So that's the external 00:08:31.060 --> 00:08:38.340 challenge. The internal problem comes in the form of widespread unfaithfulness among God's own people. 00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:45.139 So there's sort of corruption and persecution from the outside, and then there's widespread unfaithfulness 00:08:45.139 --> 00:08:52.019 on the inside. So Nehemiah hears about all of this, and how does he respond? And this is what we see in the 00:08:52.019 --> 00:09:00.259 passage that we're looking at. It says in verse 4, as soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and 00:09:00.259 --> 00:09:09.980 mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. So he is heartbroken over the 00:09:09.980 --> 00:09:17.360 brokenness. And the first thing he does is to pray because he knows that the only one who can restore 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:25.920 the brokenness is God. And we can imagine him crying out and asking God, what do you want to do through 00:09:25.920 --> 00:09:32.560 me in this city? The brokenness is so great, and I'm so small. What do you want to possibly do through me 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:40.379 in this city? How can I be a part of the work that you're doing to restore what is broken? And out of 00:09:40.379 --> 00:09:46.179 that time of prayer and fasting, God gives Nehemiah a vision. And what we see is that Nehemiah essentially 00:09:46.179 --> 00:09:53.899 gives the rest of his life to this vision. He dedicates his life to two things, to physically 00:09:53.899 --> 00:10:02.019 rebuilding the city of God, to spiritually rebuilding the people of God. And he does both at the same time. 00:10:02.019 --> 00:10:06.980 And throughout the book, you really see the rebuilding of the wall and the city as an almost 00:10:06.980 --> 00:10:14.399 metaphorical parallel with the rebuilding of God's people. Nehemiah devotes himself to both. And that's 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:20.759 really what the rest of the book is about. Now, I want to ask what this has to do with us. How does it 00:10:20.759 --> 00:10:28.639 connect to us? Now, remember, Israel was supposed to be the light of the world, right? Jerusalem was 00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:34.919 supposed to be a city on a hill. If you imagine being in the darkness and it's nighttime and you're 00:10:34.919 --> 00:10:39.240 in the wilderness and you're looking for some shelter or refuge, and you imagine off in the 00:10:39.240 --> 00:10:44.799 distance up on a hill where it's not blocked by any other hills, you see all of the lights of a 00:10:44.799 --> 00:10:49.139 great city radiating out into the darkness. And in that moment, if you're lost and wandering in the 00:10:49.139 --> 00:10:53.559 wilderness, that would represent all of the hope and life that you could possibly hope for, right? 00:10:53.559 --> 00:10:58.939 And so he says, originally, we see that Jerusalem was supposed to be that city on a hill, the light 00:10:58.939 --> 00:11:06.299 shining out into the darkness, offering hope to the world. But in Matthew chapter 5, right, this is 00:11:06.299 --> 00:11:12.059 hundreds of years after it's become clear that Israel and Jerusalem failed to do that. In Matthew 00:11:12.059 --> 00:11:19.659 chapter 5, Jesus is talking to his disciples. And here's what Jesus says. Now, imagine the crowds are 00:11:19.659 --> 00:11:25.819 gathered on the hillside, and his disciples gather around him, and Jesus begins to teach. And here's 00:11:25.819 --> 00:11:37.779 what he says. You are the light of the world. You are a city set on a hill which cannot be hidden. 00:11:38.620 --> 00:11:43.600 You are the light of the world. You are the city on a hill. He's not talking about Israel. He's not 00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:50.360 talking about Jerusalem. He's talking about his followers. He's talking about what will come to be 00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:58.779 known as the church. In other words, what we see here is Jesus taking his place in the history of 00:11:58.779 --> 00:12:05.980 God's faithfulness and God's work in the world as what we might call the true and better Nehemiah. 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:12.180 Jesus is essentially saying, I have come to do what Nehemiah never could have done. I've come to 00:12:12.179 --> 00:12:18.159 accomplish what Israel and Jerusalem never could have accomplished. And when we compare them, we see 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:25.199 this parallel. Like Nehemiah, Jesus looked and saw all the brokenness of the world, and he saw the 00:12:25.199 --> 00:12:32.379 failure of Israel to be what God called her to be, and it broke his heart. Like Nehemiah, he devoted 00:12:32.379 --> 00:12:39.959 himself to rebuilding and restoring all that is broken. But Jesus goes even further than Nehemiah could have. 00:12:39.960 --> 00:12:46.400 He actually is willing to give his life on the cross to defeat the very source of brokenness, 00:12:46.560 --> 00:12:54.759 which is sin and death. So what Jesus is building will last for eternity. What Jesus is building is 00:12:54.759 --> 00:13:04.879 never going to fade. And what is Jesus building? Right? Jesus is building the church. His primary mission, 00:13:04.879 --> 00:13:11.840 his primary means of bringing renewal to the world is through the community of people who follow him. 00:13:12.120 --> 00:13:17.879 Right? He says to Peter in Matthew chapter 16, after Peter confesses him to be the Christ, he says, 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:25.460 on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. What I'm building 00:13:25.460 --> 00:13:33.820 is never going to crumble. It's never going to burn. So the church is the new and better light to the 00:13:33.820 --> 00:13:43.040 world. The church is the new and better city on a hill. St. Augustine writes about this in his book, 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:49.400 The City of God. I say book. It's actually a lot of books. It's a lot of volumes. But he writes in The City of 00:13:49.400 --> 00:13:57.900 God that in our world there are two cities that coexist one on top of the other at the same time. The first is what 00:13:57.899 --> 00:14:04.019 he refers to as the city of man. This is earthly society, which is characterized by the love of self 00:14:04.019 --> 00:14:12.579 and the prioritizing of self over others and God. The earthly city of man is marked by self-interest. 00:14:12.819 --> 00:14:17.500 It's marked by pride. It's marked by the pursuit of pleasure and worldly achievements and wealth 00:14:17.500 --> 00:14:23.519 and power. Right? Think of the D.C. region. Think of the culture we live in. Think of the primary 00:14:23.519 --> 00:14:32.919 reason that most people move here. Typically, it is for some opportunity, some hope for connection 00:14:32.919 --> 00:14:41.419 and networks and opportunities for education, career advancement. There's a lot of reasons people 00:14:41.419 --> 00:14:47.159 come here, and many of them very legitimate, but connected to the core values that hold sway 00:14:47.159 --> 00:14:54.899 in this region. And then Augustine says, within the city of man, there is another city, the city of God. 00:14:56.079 --> 00:15:03.480 In the midst of the city of man, you have this other city, this alternate community of people who 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:10.919 love and follow Jesus, of people whose lives are marked by holiness and by righteousness and by 00:15:10.919 --> 00:15:19.519 justice and compassion, people who show the rest of the world what things would be like, what things 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:27.519 could be like if everyone loved and followed Jesus, if everyone lived lives of obedience to God. 00:15:28.099 --> 00:15:36.179 They put that kind of alternate reality on display. So they use things like sex and money and power in 00:15:36.179 --> 00:15:42.120 radically different ways. They engage politics. They talk about things like sex and gender. They 00:15:42.120 --> 00:15:47.439 handle conflict and relationships. They treat the poor in ways that look radically different 00:15:47.439 --> 00:15:54.659 from the surrounding community. They put an alternate way of life on display, a life that doesn't glorify 00:15:54.659 --> 00:16:02.259 the idols of the earthly city of man, a life that glorifies God and God alone. This is the city of God 00:16:02.259 --> 00:16:09.080 that exists within the city of man. And the church we see, the church, the community of Christ followers, 00:16:09.299 --> 00:16:16.700 is called to be a city within the city, the city of God existing within the city of man. 00:16:18.179 --> 00:16:26.620 So as we read through Nehemiah this fall, it's tempting to see this simply as an urban renewal project 00:16:26.620 --> 00:16:31.000 or a building project. And in one sense it is, and in one sense we can apply it that way. 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:38.220 But what we should really see when we see Jerusalem in this story, what we should really see is we 00:16:38.220 --> 00:16:45.700 should see the church. What Nehemiah is called to do is to build a home for God's people in the midst 00:16:45.700 --> 00:16:53.039 of this greater Persian empire, right? But he's trying to build a home for God's people. He's trying to 00:16:53.039 --> 00:17:00.460 build a place where they can come and worship and study the Scriptures and pray together and live lives 00:17:00.460 --> 00:17:07.819 of holiness and in those ways to begin to be a light to the surrounding community, right? He's 00:17:07.819 --> 00:17:13.460 attempting to build a home that will make it possible for them to be that city within a city, 00:17:13.460 --> 00:17:18.980 right? And we'll talk about this more in the weeks to come, but for them to be able to do that, 00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:25.819 they need walls and they need gates, right? They need walls that allow them to be a culture that is set 00:17:25.819 --> 00:17:33.119 apart, right? To be a countercultural community, but they also need big open gates so that they can 00:17:33.119 --> 00:17:38.720 go out into the world and so that they can welcome people in. They need both walls and gates, and that's 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:45.480 what they're rebuilding. But the purpose is to be a home for God's people so that they can be a city 00:17:45.480 --> 00:17:51.740 within the city. And this is the whole reason our church is here alongside with other gospel-centered 00:17:51.740 --> 00:17:59.420 churches throughout the area. We are essentially here to build a city within a city. And that's 00:17:59.420 --> 00:18:04.440 essentially what we're here to do. And so this year in particular, I think that we are standing in 00:18:04.440 --> 00:18:09.839 the shoes of Nehemiah because, as I said at the beginning, he dedicated himself to physically 00:18:09.839 --> 00:18:15.400 rebuilding the city of God and to spiritually rebuilding the people of God. And as we look at 00:18:15.400 --> 00:18:21.780 the year to come, we're doing the same thing. We're doing the same thing. I mean, by God's grace, 00:18:21.860 --> 00:18:25.360 we have this beautiful church building in the heart of the city, and so we are quite literally 00:18:25.360 --> 00:18:31.500 doing a building project. We are working to physically renovate that space to prepare it 00:18:31.500 --> 00:18:36.300 so that we can move in. We have essential work we have to do, like removing hazardous material and 00:18:36.300 --> 00:18:42.960 putting it in HVAC and doing basic things that will allow us to safely welcome people in to that space. 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:48.500 So we're doing the work of physical renovation, but we also need to do the work of spiritual 00:18:48.500 --> 00:18:54.640 renovation. We need to prepare ourselves for the mission that God has for us. 00:18:56.200 --> 00:19:03.180 No matter how nice a building we have, it will mean nothing. It will mean nothing without a community 00:19:03.180 --> 00:19:09.700 that understands what it means to inhabit that space for the glory of God. And so we have to take 00:19:09.700 --> 00:19:15.360 seriously the work of spiritual renovation. And friends, it has been a full year, right? 00:19:15.660 --> 00:19:23.519 If we look back to when we closed in January, I will just say personally, in 17 plus years of 00:19:23.519 --> 00:19:30.200 ministry as a head pastor of Church of the Advent, this has been the single hardest year of my entire 00:19:30.200 --> 00:19:35.440 ministry. And I don't think that there's a coincidence there. I don't think that when we put down 00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:41.600 a commitment and we say we're going to commit to bringing the gospel in this way, in this space, 00:19:41.600 --> 00:19:45.600 and we're going to give ourselves to this, I don't think that it's a coincidence that there's an 00:19:45.600 --> 00:19:51.059 enormous wave of opposition that comes spiritually. And so this has been an incredibly challenging year. 00:19:51.160 --> 00:19:56.759 There's been an enormous amount of challenge and division in our church, of slander and gossip, 00:19:57.279 --> 00:20:03.340 and seemingly irreconcilable conflict in our church. But there's also been, right alongside that, 00:20:03.339 --> 00:20:08.240 incredible fruit. We heard some testimonies at the children and youth ministry training yesterday 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:13.359 of ways that God has been working over years to raise people up and call them into ministry 00:20:13.359 --> 00:20:18.939 to love and to serve our children. And so we see this incredible fruit. We see this incredible opening 00:20:18.939 --> 00:20:23.779 of doors in the Shaw neighborhood, people who are excited to welcome a church in, people who can't 00:20:23.779 --> 00:20:27.839 wait to be a part of what we're doing. I've been overwhelmed at that. And then there's also been 00:20:27.839 --> 00:20:33.259 overwhelming challenges. And I think in the life of the church, typically when you're seeing a lot of 00:20:33.259 --> 00:20:38.619 fruit, you're also going to see a lot of opposition, right? If you're not seeing any fruit, then probably 00:20:38.619 --> 00:20:41.960 very little opposition. But when you're seeing a lot of fruit and when you're seeing God really 00:20:41.960 --> 00:20:46.359 doing things and working in the lives of His people, you're going to see opposition. 00:20:47.019 --> 00:20:51.180 And along with all of this, the good and the bad, the simple reality is there's a lot of change, 00:20:51.220 --> 00:20:56.559 and change is hard. Even the best change, even change that we all know we should want, 00:20:57.059 --> 00:21:01.740 change is hard. It's hard when things that we are used to are different. And it can be 00:21:01.740 --> 00:21:06.700 destabilizing and disorienting, and we can feel disoriented. And this is a year where, 00:21:06.819 --> 00:21:13.039 frankly, there's a lot of change. And so, we need, what we really need is a renewed sense of clarity 00:21:13.039 --> 00:21:17.819 and a renewed sense of passion around the mission that God has called us to. 00:21:18.940 --> 00:21:23.859 And there are a few things I think we can learn from this passage that speak specifically to that. 00:21:23.859 --> 00:21:30.859 Number one, when we look at how Nehemiah responds, we see that the first thing he does, 00:21:30.939 --> 00:21:37.279 the first thing we see Nehemiah doing is that Nehemiah simply listens, right? As we think about 00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:44.000 how do we seek God's vision, how do we seek clarity over what we're called to be in this next chapter of 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:51.439 our life together? The first thing that we see Nehemiah doing is listening. A lot of well-meaning 00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:57.440 Christians make the mistake of rushing in to help, assuming they already know what the needs are, 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:04.380 and assuming that whatever the need is, that they are the answer. And that can sometimes do good, 00:22:04.460 --> 00:22:10.779 but it can a lot of times lead to more harm than good. And so, as we begin to develop a vision for 00:22:10.779 --> 00:22:15.420 ministry, not only in Shaw, but in all the communities and neighborhoods where we live, 00:22:15.420 --> 00:22:22.000 a ministry that is possible because we have a permanent space, one of the first things we're 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:27.019 going to do is we're going to do a lot of shutting up and a lot of listening. We're going to take a lot 00:22:27.019 --> 00:22:32.019 of time to listen and to learn. We're going to have opportunities to hear from other leaders in the 00:22:32.019 --> 00:22:36.420 community who are already doing great work. We're going to have opportunities to sit at the feet of 00:22:36.420 --> 00:22:40.420 some people who have been serving in some of these neighborhoods longer than some of us have been 00:22:40.420 --> 00:22:45.279 alive. And we're going to do a lot of listening and learning. We're going to be building relationships, 00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:51.080 more relationships with other churches and local leaders and seeing how we can be a part of the good 00:22:51.080 --> 00:22:57.500 things that are already happening. If we are called to be doing the work of building a city within a city, 00:22:58.140 --> 00:23:02.340 if we are called to bring light and life where there's darkness, that begins with awareness. 00:23:03.720 --> 00:23:09.279 That begins with being aware of the needs around us, the gaps and the holes and the places where 00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:14.680 people are needed. So, the first thing Nehemiah does is he listens. He listens to Hanani. Tell me 00:23:14.680 --> 00:23:20.059 the report. What's going well, what's not going well, right? The second thing we see Nehemiah doing is 00:23:20.059 --> 00:23:28.980 it's very simple. He listens and then he cares. Now, that should seem obvious, but he actually cares. 00:23:29.460 --> 00:23:37.399 His mission flows out of a genuine compassion and a genuine empathy, a holy discontent, if you will. 00:23:37.400 --> 00:23:46.600 You know, that's a phrase that kind of refers to that sense of the burden that we feel over the brokenness 00:23:46.600 --> 00:23:52.180 that we see in the world. It's that burden that comes from not sitting separately from it, not seeing 00:23:52.180 --> 00:23:57.420 yourself as being somehow other or disconnected, but being a part of the world that you live in. 00:23:57.560 --> 00:24:02.740 And the brokenness that this person or this community might be experiencing, there's a solidarity there 00:24:02.740 --> 00:24:07.940 where you feel the burden of that brokenness. That's what we see in Nehemiah, this holy discontent 00:24:07.940 --> 00:24:14.200 over the brokenness that he sees. And the point here for us is really that Nehemiah is willing to 00:24:14.200 --> 00:24:20.120 be emotionally engaged. He could have responded to Hanani's report very differently. He could have 00:24:20.120 --> 00:24:24.519 said, man, that's too bad, but hey, that's a whole lot right now. I don't really have time for this. 00:24:24.740 --> 00:24:28.220 I've got a lot on my plate right now. I've got this government job. I've got a lot going on. 00:24:28.220 --> 00:24:35.039 So, go talk to somebody else about it. But he doesn't do that. And, you know, I was reading 00:24:35.039 --> 00:24:40.860 this and I was thinking a lot of us do. We work crazy hours. A lot of us have young children. 00:24:41.759 --> 00:24:48.920 Some of us work crazy hours and we have young children, right? And most of us, I think, there's 00:24:48.920 --> 00:24:54.839 a lot of people in our church who are in a kind of age and stage of life where we sort of say, 00:24:54.839 --> 00:25:01.740 I really don't have any bandwidth for anything beyond just making sure that we are getting the 00:25:01.740 --> 00:25:05.740 homework done and that our kids are going to practice and that they're going to school on time. 00:25:05.879 --> 00:25:09.839 We're just trying to tread water, right? We're still trying to figure out bedtime because we're 00:25:09.839 --> 00:25:14.119 only getting three hours of sleep a night. You know, we're just trying to keep our heads above 00:25:14.119 --> 00:25:19.720 water. And there's a lot of legitimacy to that, right? I mean, life, especially in this area, can feel 00:25:19.720 --> 00:25:24.059 very overwhelming. It can feel very frenetic. And you throw a couple of kids in the mix and you just 00:25:24.059 --> 00:25:30.059 feel like I can barely, I'm barely holding on. But the point is, if God has called you to be a part 00:25:30.059 --> 00:25:35.659 of the church, whether it's this church or another gospel-centered church, chances are it's because 00:25:35.659 --> 00:25:41.879 God is calling you to be part of something bigger that He's doing in the city. And the thing that we 00:25:41.879 --> 00:25:45.460 have to come back to again and again and again, and especially now that we're on the cusp of moving 00:25:45.460 --> 00:25:49.679 into a permanent space, the thing that we have to come back to again and again and again is the church 00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:55.360 does not only exist to meet the needs of its members. The church may be one of the only 00:25:55.360 --> 00:26:00.460 institutions out there that exists to meet the needs of the people outside its walls, the people 00:26:00.460 --> 00:26:05.860 who are not members, the people who don't show up on Sunday, the people who may not even know we exist. 00:26:06.900 --> 00:26:13.039 The church is one of the only institutions that exists for their sake, right? Being a city within the 00:26:13.039 --> 00:26:20.059 city means that the whole city should be better because churches like ours are here. Now, that 00:26:20.059 --> 00:26:26.799 sounds very presumptuous. But if we are truly called to live into the calling that we see here in this 00:26:26.799 --> 00:26:33.139 text, then the city should be better. I'm haunted by this question that we ask here and there. If our 00:26:33.139 --> 00:26:42.159 church were to disappear tomorrow, would anybody miss us? Would anybody notice? Would anybody care? 00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:45.759 Would there be any needs that aren't met, any gaps that aren't filled because all of a sudden we 00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:51.640 cease to exist? I mean, being a city within the city means that the whole city should be better 00:26:51.640 --> 00:26:58.220 because we're here. Neighborhoods should become more vibrant and communal. Wherever Christians live, 00:26:58.300 --> 00:27:02.140 those neighborhoods, people should say, you know, I don't know what it is about that block, but they 00:27:02.140 --> 00:27:06.259 all know each other. And they have this great block party every year. And then this person hosts a 00:27:06.259 --> 00:27:12.700 Christmas party. And then this person…and it's…what a…neighbors in D.C. don't normally act that way. 00:27:12.859 --> 00:27:16.420 Neighbors don't normally want to have anything to do with each other. But they all seem to like each 00:27:16.420 --> 00:27:22.539 other, right? Rates of loneliness should go down because there should be a community where it 00:27:22.539 --> 00:27:26.599 doesn't matter if you're not good at fitting in or you're socially awkward or you're highly 00:27:26.599 --> 00:27:31.579 introverted or you, you know, or you have a hard time trusting people or…it doesn't matter because 00:27:31.579 --> 00:27:35.799 there's this community where even a person like you is going to be welcomed in because people are 00:27:35.799 --> 00:27:43.039 just committed to loving you. Workplaces should become more humane because there are people who 00:27:43.039 --> 00:27:47.220 are in positions of influence within their organizations and they're able to set the 00:27:47.220 --> 00:27:51.460 policy and they're able to figure out how they should be treating employees and not taking advantage 00:27:51.460 --> 00:27:55.579 of them. And in a…in a culture where most people are just expected to work through the weekend 00:27:55.579 --> 00:28:00.539 and never take a day off, you've got Christians in places where they're saying, well, these employees 00:28:00.539 --> 00:28:05.200 are not going to do that. We're not going to…we're not going to cannibalize their parents to make 00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:10.940 sure…or their families to make sure that we can hit our bottom lines. You know, this should be a 00:28:10.940 --> 00:28:14.799 place where…where…where politics…so, you know, wow, those people, the way they talk about this 00:28:14.799 --> 00:28:18.879 upcoming election in November, it's just different. Like, they have lots of different opinions and they 00:28:18.879 --> 00:28:23.480 disagree on the policy, but they also seem to really love each other and they want to understand 00:28:23.480 --> 00:28:28.339 each other and they're willing to try to work across differences. It's not just a polite ceasefire. 00:28:28.339 --> 00:28:31.799 We're not going to talk about it so we can get along. It's a, let's talk about it because I 00:28:31.799 --> 00:28:35.759 really care about your perspective and I might have something to learn from you kind of approach, 00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:40.059 right? The way we can get…racial healing should be accelerated because there are people that are 00:28:40.059 --> 00:28:44.839 actually going out of their way to try to build relationships, right, across racial and socioeconomic 00:28:44.839 --> 00:28:48.939 lines. And there are people who care about that and they're prioritizing that, not just on Sunday 00:28:48.939 --> 00:28:56.379 or as part of a program, but as part of the way they spend their off time, right? Their friend group 00:28:56.380 --> 00:29:02.280 reflects that commitment. Their close friend group reflects that commitment, right? The city should 00:29:02.280 --> 00:29:08.900 be better because there is a city within the city. Now, this doesn't mean we have to solve every 00:29:08.900 --> 00:29:14.060 problem. It doesn't mean we have to take on every issue. This is why it's great that there is a…the 00:29:14.060 --> 00:29:18.540 city needs lots and lots and lots of churches, different kinds of churches with different strengths 00:29:18.540 --> 00:29:24.660 and weaknesses. And only Christ can handle all the brokenness of the world. But there are certain areas 00:29:24.660 --> 00:29:32.920 certain areas of brokenness where God may very well be calling you, where God very well may be calling 00:29:32.920 --> 00:29:40.420 us to step in. So, we see Nehemiah hearing about the brokenness because he's listening. And once he 00:29:40.420 --> 00:29:45.320 becomes aware of what's happening, he cares. He emotionally engages. He doesn't stand apart from it. 00:29:45.360 --> 00:29:52.820 He says, you know, he's crying out to God, what do you want to do through me here? And then thirdly, 00:29:52.819 --> 00:30:02.179 Nehemiah prays. He knows that apart from God, all of our efforts are in vain. And so, the first thing 00:30:02.179 --> 00:30:09.939 he does after learning about the state of the city is to fast and pray. And what we see in this is 00:30:09.939 --> 00:30:15.039 Nehemiah not just falling into despair, oh, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. 00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:25.759 He turns his grief into prayerful action, right? This year, prayer is going to be a major focus. 00:30:26.200 --> 00:30:30.920 It's always a major focus in the life of our church, but this year, it's especially going to be so. 00:30:31.399 --> 00:30:36.079 Because we are devoted, as I look to the future of Advent, I see us being a community marked by 00:30:36.079 --> 00:30:42.960 prayerful action. Marked by, if you've ever heard the phrase, contemplative activism. People who 00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:49.799 understand the rhythm between retreating and hearing from our heavenly Father and being renewed 00:30:49.799 --> 00:30:55.120 and restored and filled up, learning how to rest, and then going out and engaging the world, 00:30:55.620 --> 00:31:01.519 right? And this rhythm is essential. This rhythm is essential. And so, what does it mean as an 00:31:01.519 --> 00:31:08.980 Anglican community in the heart of D.C. to be a center of contemplative activism, right? I was struck, 00:31:08.980 --> 00:31:13.620 I said this yesterday at our youth training, youth and ministry leader training, which was wonderful, 00:31:13.720 --> 00:31:19.160 by the way. You know, that Dallas Willard famously, there was a question put out, when you think of 00:31:19.160 --> 00:31:24.839 Jesus, what's the, what, if you could only describe Jesus in one word, what would it be? And, you know, 00:31:24.860 --> 00:31:30.420 we probably all can think of different things. Dallas Willard, famous, just many of us would say 00:31:30.420 --> 00:31:39.460 great hero, says, relaxed. Relaxed. And you think about all the things that Jesus did, and He was 00:31:39.460 --> 00:31:46.380 turning over tables in the temple, relaxed. Everything He did was intentional, purposeful, 00:31:46.759 --> 00:31:53.180 directly connected to the mission that His Father had given Him. And He was acting out of a place of 00:31:53.180 --> 00:31:59.860 rest, resting in His Father, resting in the love of His Father, resting in the clarity of the purposes 00:31:59.859 --> 00:32:06.759 that His Father had given to Him. Rest, right? And I just wonder, what would it be like to be a 00:32:06.759 --> 00:32:12.699 community that is, we are activists, we are out, we are engaged in the local politics, we're engaged, 00:32:12.959 --> 00:32:18.079 we're partnering with other local organizations, we're building, we're working and strategizing to 00:32:18.079 --> 00:32:23.579 solve real world on the ground problems in this city, but we're doing it not with that frenetic pace 00:32:23.579 --> 00:32:29.619 where it all depends on us, we're doing it from a posture of contemplation and peace. 00:32:30.259 --> 00:32:35.519 We know what the Sabbath is, and we actually keep it, right? What would that look like for us to be 00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:39.219 that kind of community? So there's going to be numerous opportunities for prayer and worship. 00:32:39.359 --> 00:32:42.939 We're going to have a prayer team that's going to be reaching out to people, members and regular 00:32:42.939 --> 00:32:48.059 attenders, throughout the fall, telling you ways that we want you to be praying and also asking how 00:32:48.059 --> 00:32:52.659 we could be praying for you. We're going to be doing prayer walks in the Shaw neighborhood, 00:32:52.799 --> 00:32:57.099 opportunities just to walk and pray. Our middle and high school youth group is going to be spending 00:32:57.099 --> 00:33:01.099 all fall learning different ways to pray. So in all these ways, it's going to be an emphasis. 00:33:02.279 --> 00:33:08.799 So in all the things that I've just said, like Nehemiah, over the next year, even as we do the 00:33:08.799 --> 00:33:13.679 work of physical renovation in our future home, we are also going to be doing the work of spiritual 00:33:13.679 --> 00:33:20.319 renovation in ourselves as we seek to be the city of God within the city of man. Let's pray. 00:33:20.319 --> 00:33:27.879 Lord, we thank you for your word, and we thank you that we can turn to stories that are so old, 00:33:28.079 --> 00:33:35.460 and yet in many ways that are surprising, parallel our own. And that's only possible because it's all 00:33:35.460 --> 00:33:42.359 the same story. It's only possible because we are simply being enfolded as one chapter in your story 00:33:42.359 --> 00:33:47.059 that you've been writing that started at the beginning of time that will go into eternity. 00:33:47.059 --> 00:33:54.079 Lord, help us to understand our place in your story. And Lord, give us the resources that we 00:33:54.079 --> 00:33:59.279 need to live it out. And as we undergo this physical renovation and as we undergo the spiritual 00:33:59.279 --> 00:34:04.319 renovation, we pray that the end result of both would be the same, that your name is held above 00:34:04.319 --> 00:34:10.639 all other names, that this city is no longer known as a center of human power and influence, 00:34:10.639 --> 00:34:15.920 but as a place where Jesus is King. And we pray in your name, King Jesus. Amen.