Are you familiar with the story of Nehemiah?
If not, I’d encourage you to take a look at the book of Nehemiah within the Bible, or google it, for greater context of this post.
On May 30th, 2020, I posted this shared photo post on facebook:
The caption read:
“This morning the tears flow freely.
Tears of rage, tears of sorrow, tears of grief, tears of weariness, and tears of hope.
You know what gave me hope? Even just a little bit?
I was reading the overwhelming positive and humanizing responses of businesses that have been affected during the protests.
And then while I was reading the story of Nehemiah, how he had to tear down parts of the already destroyed, rubble strewn, burned, and deserted Jerusalem before they could rebuild anything….
I saw how the people gathered together to rebuild together- all the while protecting one another, ready to drop everything and fight for eachother at a moments notice. And when Nehemiah saw the nobility oppressing the poor- to some extremes I might add- he stopped the work to set it right. And once set right, more people came from far outside of Jerusalem to help rebuild and protect.
One guy was a perfume maker, another a baker, out here rebuilding walls because the cause was far greater at the moment than his occupation.
And I cried as I envisioned what I want for us. I long for that rebuilding… Which one day that will happen, but in order for us to rebuild we must go through our present day- destroying the systems built to oppress and keep people in bondage. Then we must do the hard work of sifting through the rubble and seeing what can be salvaged- all long before we can begin rebuilding.
There were people that seethed at the rebuilding who attempted to divide and conquer, but Nehemiah and the other people didn’t let that stop them. They protected eachother while they rebuilt, and rebuked the terrible works of evil that wanted to pull them away- put them back to how things were.
It took a lot of time- But they eventually did it. There was no quick fix- but Nehemiah led the people in restoring the city and setting it and its people right.
May we do the work to set things right.”
I’ve been thinking about Nehemiah a lot during this time, and I keep finding parallels.
I realized for the first time yesterday that the people don’t really stop to worship or praise God until chapter 5. The striking thing about this moment is that it does not happen- seemingly could not happen- until after the injustice within the community was addressed. Nehemiah and the people could not continue the work of rebuilding the city until they addressed the oppression happening within their own communities….
Nehemiah called out the nobility for:
1. Oppressing the poor
2. Profiting off of them, their pain, and the dire life or death circumstances of survival they were facing.
3. Literally selling them off as slaves in the past, and selling their kids as slaves or loan insurance in the
present.
Nehemiah was angry about what was happening. He listened to the poor, saw how they were being treated, and the injustices against them angered him. He told the nobility what they had to do to make things right. He stood up for those that were being mistreated- in the midst of the threats of outside attacks and very important work to be done, he said “Enough is enough!”.
Now here comes the shocker….
The nobility… Well, they listened.
The nobility didn’t even try to give excuses. They were like- “You’re right. this is what we have been doing. It was wrong. We will do whatever it takes to set things right”. They cut their losses, stopped the awful practices, and made sure everyone had what they needed. And Nehemiah, he led by example! He even quietly gave up the provisions he was entitled to- I’m sure to help ease the pain and the suffering of the people, but the Bible says that he did this out of humility and because he saw that it was the right thing to do out of respect and obedience to God.
It wasn’t until that all happened- until the people did what they were supposed to do- that they all collectively praised God.
They listened. They recognized the wrongs. They swallowed their pride and did what they internally knew was right. Then, they worshiped. But it didn’t stop with praising God- they returned to complete the hard work of rebuilding.
Nehemiah effectively caused both personal, internal change and systemic change.
There have been a few examples lately of how the “White Church” (talking specifically about white people that claim Jesus right here) get things wrong.
Just over the past few days: We had the situation with Louie Giglio, and the situation with Sean Feucht.
Trying to set most of my personal thoughts on either situation aside, the majority of online responses I have seen to both situations by the “Black Church” and Black people who do not go to church seem to say that Giglio showed a small measure of growth by being willing to admit he was wrong and speak to needing to listen and unlearn his bias…..
And that Feucht guy just royally Feucht it up and leaned real hard into harmful white colonialist type ideals that were present in his bias. people felt that he appeared to want the culture and other people to bend to his superior spirituality and blessing of “revival”, instead of holding him accountable.
With Feucht, many seemed to feel rejected, run over, and not listened too. With Giglio, people felt his apology might have been weak, but it showed a tiny sliver of hope for him personally. It seems that people felt their platforms and influence could be used to encourage systemic change, but that neither were in a place to actually do that, and one may never entertain the thought. To quote Richard A Villodas Jr., “…our soul can be saved by Jesus, but one can still be caught in a system shaped by Satan.”
“…our soul can be saved by Jesus, but one can still be caught in a system shaped by Satan.”
Richard A Villodas Jr.
If we use Nehemiah’s story as a blue print- we can see that there is an order to things in order to get to a place of both lasting systemic change and to rebuild. There is room for collective breath and maybe even celebration along the way…. after the appropriate steps have been taken. That in itself promotes healing, further restoration, and innovation.
With that in mind…
I think sometimes we have dig around in the rubble, get good and dirty, before we can even do our internal work. That looks like listening to Black people, being slow to respond and taking time to really hear people.
That should spark internal work, and when that internal work begins- it will be ugly, painful, and messy. Only once we acknowledge what needs to change and then begin to change it within ourselves, can we continue to work towards the changes that must take place systemically. That is a LOT of work- facing your own internal mess and wrong doings so you can internally set things right on top of working towards larger systemic issues is no small feat…. But the beautiful trade off is when we can recognize the Imago Dei in each person we encounter and truly value them. When we can see what is respectful, right, and in obedience to God and choose to do it without excuses, then we will be able to celebrate and create something new that is beautiful, strong, and life changing.
So consider this an open invitation to join the journey….
While there is much work to do along the way, God can guarantee that there is much beauty to be found in it and much more to gain as well.
Will you come along with us?
La Bella Journeys: 