You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach. These are the words of Nehemiah at the onset of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem upon his return from exile. His heart's burden was for Jerusalem, for a city that was broken by persecution and captivity. I grew up in Detroit: a city whose heart I believe is "broken" and whose soul is persecuted by a statewide, even national rhetoric that typifies prejudice. It doesn't help matters when the city is caught up in scandal. Failing schools, economic crisis, unemployment, high crime: these are all the chronic symptoms of a city on the beyond the brink of a nervous breakdown. In the eyes of America, Detroit is a "reproach".However, hope did not come in an economic stimulus package when Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem. As his contemporary would write in Ezra 8: 22-23, "[he] prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel." As we all know, programs are not going to save our hurting cities. As the Church of God in our cities, we must return to biblical Christianity, return to biblical discipleship as the impetus for real change. Social gospel ain't no Gospel. Emergent talk does not walk very far without biblical spiritual transformation and discipleship. Racial reconciliation efforts run into identity crises. Nehemiah did not return with his own agenda, his own plan, his own way. His way was found in the Lord.
3000 plus years of biblical truth still apply. God is still the same yesterday, today, and forever. God did not entrust us with biblical truth to then deconstruct it and remold it upon the framework of man's philosophy. When we overpoliticize Jesus, the Savior becomes a poster child for the type of revolution aiken to Che Guevara (notice the Jesus t-shirts). However, God heals our brokeness through nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ.
The same biblical truth that formed the backdrop of the Civil Rights movement, is the same biblical truth that felled the walls of Jericho. It is biblical truth that defeats giants. And as those entrusted with biblical truth it is our privilege and responsibility to take biblical truth at its word, to repair the walls, and to no longer be a reproach. As hearts respond to the voice of Jesus Christ, as hearts relinquish control to the Savior, as hearts humble themselves and pray and seek God's face and turn from their wicked ways, then will God bring about healing and forgiveness. Then we will witness a community of God loving God and loving neighbor.
