When you can’t take it anymore 

September 26, 2021

Today we’re starting a new sermon series called Doing Good. I’d like to start with a blessing and a prayer. Holy God, we ask you to speak through these messages, that you would stir our hearts and minds to believe we can do exceedingly more through you, to make a difference in people’s lives, and to give glory to you in all we do. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. 

Today’s message is about how God uses ordinary, everyday people. God works miracles through them! If you’re open to God, I believe he will speak to you and give you the faith to do something that outlasts you. I want to warn you that, when God uses you, it’s likely you’ll pay a price. You’ll experience pain, rejection, heartache, failure, doubt and discouragement. Other people may laugh at you, misunderstand you, but when your sacrifices impact another life, you won’t thank about the price you paid. Because of your faithfulness God will be honored and people will be different. 

So, we’re going to study Nehemiah for the next four weeks. An ordinary man whose heart was broken over the situation of his people. He had this feeling: “Somebody has to do something. It might as well be me.” And he moved through grief, to action, to mobilizing others and didn’t let resistance stop him! He did something good. 

So today we’re talking about when you can’t take it anymore. Nehemiah is such an inspiring story of determination and adventure and rebuilding. Nehemiah was not a pastor, he was not a king or a prophet, he was not a warrior. He was an ordinary person that heard something that crushed his spirit to the point where he had to do something about it. 

Nehemiah’s occupation was cup bearer to the king in Babylon. He was like a butler. He was very trusted by the king. He might hear information as he serves the king and need to keep it confidential. One of the most important parts of his job, in a world where there were always people who wanted to kill the king, the cupbearer would taste the wine before the king did.  If it was poisoned, Nehemiah would get sick or die, and not the king! So, Nehemiah needed to have a good life insurance policy! 

Nehemiah was just an ordinary guy, a servant. In Nehemiah 1, vs. 2, Nehemiah says, “Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.” 

The reason Nehemiah asked his brother and the others, “How are things going in Jerusalem?” is because 140 years before this, Jerusalem was destroyed by a foreign army. The temple was demolished, the city, the gate torn down. And about 25% of the people of Israel were forced to leave their homes and move 600 miles away to Babylon. Nehemiah’s ancestors were probably among those. But there’s good news! After 50 years, the exiles were allowed to return home to Jerusalem. But most of them, like Nehemiah’s ancestors, didn’t return. Nehemiah still cared about his homeland and wanted Jerusalem to be rebuilt. He wanted his nation, his religion, and the people he still felt he belonged to, to rebound and prosper. So, he asked his brother and his friends, how are things back home? 

Verse 3 of Nehemiah says, “They said to me, ‘Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.’” That once great city is not at all what it used to be. It’s a burned-out security structure. Other nations will find it’s a piece of cake to attack the city and conquer it again, since the wall is broken down. Verse 4 Nehemiah says, “When I heard these things, I sat down and wept.” 

What do you do when something breaks your heart? You sit down and cry. What’s interesting is that when Nehemiah heard this news, he was over 600 miles away, living a comfortable life, serving the king, in a thriving city.  He’s eating and drinking the food and drink the king gets! He’s probably posting selfies that say, “hey, just serving the king!” #Blessed to serve! He could have heard this bad news about Jerusalem and said, “Oh, too bad for them! Good thing I’m not there.” No, he let the pain into his heart.  

Let me ask you, what breaks your heart? Maybe it’s children who don’t have enough to eat. Maybe it’s homelessness. Maybe it’s people suffering from addiction. Maybe it’s people who have been trafficked or abused. Or kids with disabilities. Or people with cancer, diabetes, autoimmune disease, or other health issues. What is it that breaks you heart or burdens you? 

In 2013 I was serving as pastor of St. Peter’s, UCC, Tremont and the Lutheran church in Tremont. And St. Peter’s church got flooded with about 3 feet of water. The basement was muddy and damaged. What could we do, did the church have flood insurance? No one on consistory knew. Everybody was so busy with their flooded basement or cleaning up their mother’s flooded basement, they couldn’t focus on the church. The church’s boiler was damaged. The kitchen in the basement and appliances were ruined. I felt so depressed. Then I got a call from Rev. Karl Jones, our conference disaster coordinators. He asked about how the church did in the flood. He mentioned he could come out if I wanted. I said, yes, yes, YES! The best part is he notified the conference who called me: yes, the church has flood insurance! So, service pro came in and the church got a good cleaning out. Consistory made the hard decision, there was no reason to replace the kitchen because it would just keep getting flooded. The whole experience had a big impact on me: I know what it feels like when you have damage and don’t know what to do. Flooding breaks my heart. 

Something breaks your heart. Let it break your heart, just like Nehemiah let the state of Jerusalem break his heart. But don’t stay there! Move on to prayer. Pray to God. Nehemiah prays a beautiful prayer: “Lord, the God of heaven, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. He confesses his sins and the sins of his people. He remembers God’s promises. And he asks God to help him with the king of Persia, soften his heart, so he lets Nehemiah take a leave of absence and rebuild the city wall in Jerusalem. Here’s the spoiler alert: Nehemiah gets that wall built by the end of the story! 

Nehemiah teaches us, A mess can be the beginning of a miracle, when you take it to God. This week I “went” to the Church Marketing Conference, online. There was a speaker, Jon Erik Moseler, who told an inspiring story. One day, his mother told him she had stage 4 kidney cancer. She asked him, “Am I going to die?” Nobody wants their mother to ask them that. Jon Erik said, “Yes, we’re all going to die. But you know the problem is most people don’t really live. So, we’re going to live now. I can’t add days to your life, but I can add life to your days. 

His mother was originally from Norway. When she was a little girl, the Nazis came to their town. Her father was a priest. He knew German and he gathered intelligence from listening to the Nazis and passed it along. Her family moved to the U.S. when she was a little girl. In 60 years, she had never been back, and never heard from anyone in that town, Tromso, in the Arctic circle. So, when his mother got the cancer diagnosis, Jon Erik said, “Mom, we’re going to go back to that town where you’re from.” And they flew there. His mom used a wheelchair or the carts in the airports to get through the airports to the gate. Well, they visited Tromso, but there were no birth records there. The Nazis had burned all the records. The town was all rebuilt, and they didn’t find the church where her father was the pastor. They were about to leave for the airport to go home, and she said, “It’s a shame we didn’t find my father’s church.” She was tired, but Jon Erik said, “Let’s go to that church we passed when we came from the airport.” So they went to the church. The pastor was there. Jon Erik said the name Eikeburg. And the pastor came back with a dusty picture of her father: Pastor Eikeburg! Then a woman came in the church and grabbed his mother’s cheeks: she was her babysitter who used to push her in a stroller! And they took them downstairs and showed them the old church record book, where her father had written her name, Randi, when she was born! It turns out if you’re part of the pastor’s family, they kept your records in a separate place. The church people never knew what happened to Pastor Eikeburg and his family. The people were glad to see them, and they  prayed for her. 

Jon Erick said going through the airports on the way back to America, his mother didn’t need a wheelchair. She walked through the airports! And although when she got her diagnosis, she was told she would have 5 years or less to live, it’s now been 7 years, and she’s still living! He’s mother had hope and started to dream again! It’s a good thing they went on that adventure! Why didn’t they go to Norway years before? Because it took cancer, showing them life is short and you need to live now. A mess can become a miracle when you take it to God. 

I think there is something good about the messes in our life, and the bad news in our life. Because every amazing story begins with a mess. We so often rise to the occasion when there is a mess. Today I want to urge you to consider, what is your burden? What can’t you take anymore? That’s your homework: to ask yourself, “What breaks my heart?” When you cry about it, care about it, and take it to our all-powerful, miracle working God, God can make a miracle from your mess. 

Nehemiah was an ordinary man, with a burden for a broken-down city wall. He wept about it, prayed about it, and went to the king of Persia, his boss. I read this story of Nehemiah and wonder, why on earth would the King of Persia want to rebuild Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, a foreign country? Well, strange but true, the king wanted to help. Nehemiah was so passionate, the King of Persia wanted to help him!  

Our God cares about our burdens and troubles, and he wants to use us to help other people, to rescue those without hope and show God’s faithfulness. So, weep for the troubles of life, but believe God can rescue us, and others through our faithfulness! God brings miracles out of messes. Amen.