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Are you one of those people who
loves change or hates change? Maybe somewhere in the middle? Maybe you see the necessity of change but you don’t like the discomfort it brings. Maybe you rage against change and then, when you finally give in, you realize you need it.
Everything in life is touched by change. Our bodies change and age, our relationships struggle and grow, and our world is full of change and instability too. But what about our relationship with God? Can our dance with the sacred withstand significant change?
Let’s look at a time in ancient Israel’s history when change rocked God’s people. Israel was exiled by Babylon, and when they slowly made their way back home they discovered that home wasn’t quite what they hoped it would be. Change can do that - it can upend you.
The Ezra and Nehemiah stories call us to prepare, rebuild, and intentionally choose healthy change. So if change is going to happen, let’s at least be ready.
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Rules work to shape your identity until they don't work for you anymore.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 1:Welcome. Welcome, everyone. It's so good to have you here at commons today. My name is Bobby, and I serve the Commons community as one of the pastors on the team here. And I add my Mother's Day greeting to you all.
Speaker 1:This week, I was trying to think of one of the best moments I've ever had with my mom. I mean there are loads of them. Right? And strangely, the one that I just kept coming back to was this. I was maybe 23 or 24 and I was just leaving my mom a voice message.
Speaker 1:And I was somehow so comfortable as I was leaving the message that I kind of blanked. Like, my mind drifted to a space where nothing much was happening. And instead of saying something like, okay, mom, talk to you later. I said, in Jesus name, amen. It was so strange.
Speaker 1:I turned this voicemail to my mom into a prayer. And maybe it wasn't that strange after all. Maybe it kind of was a prayer. Just leaving a message to be listened to by my lovely mom was maybe just that comforting in that moment. So no matter what your relationship is with motherhood today, maybe you are a mom, or you know that you just love your mom, maybe you've lost your mom, maybe you aren't sure if you want to be a mom.
Speaker 1:Maybe you do really wanna be a mom. It's just not happening for you. Maybe you're fighting some really big mom pressure. We get that motherhood is really, really complicated. But we still want to celebrate moms and all those who have mothered us well.
Speaker 1:And so I say thank you to the moms in this room. You show us a little bit more of God's heart for us, and we are so grateful. So thank you. Last week, we opened our series on change, and it is important to notice that our relationship with change is full of contradiction. We love change.
Speaker 1:We hate change. We resist change. We seek change. We process change. We are leveled by change.
Speaker 1:So we started last week asking the question, what grounds you in change? And the text for this series is Ezra and Nehemiah, two books in most bibles, but one in biblical studies. And Ezra and Nehemiah presents a people in the thick of change. God's people are torn from their homes in Judah and forced to live as subjects under the Babylonian empire and then the Persian empire. And eventually, Persia's king Cyrus allows God's people to go home.
Speaker 1:And while his motivations are not pure, the exiles start to flow back to Palestine. And when they get there, things are a mess. So they start to rebuild. They do the work to rebuild their altar. They do the work to rebuild their temple.
Speaker 1:They do the work to rebuild their identity. Only that part turns out to be much harder. We can relate to this, can't we? The start and stop nature of change, the inspiration that strikes us and then sometimes just fizzles, the plans that we make that slowly fall apart. It's not like when you set out to make a change, it's just easy peasy one, three.
Speaker 1:Right? Change is rarely that simple. And one of my favorite episodes from the opening chapters of Ezra is where the people lay the foundation of the temple. Now you'd think that after years of delay, they'd be 100% into this, and many of them are that thrilled. They clang cymbals.
Speaker 1:They blow trumpets. They sing only. Alongside the songs about the goodness of Yahweh, some of the elders start to sob. And it's not just a sniffle. They weep so loud that no one could distinguish the sound of shouts of joy from the sound of weeping.
Speaker 1:And the elders, they mourn because they remember the former temple. And change like this is noisy. I mean, here, it is literally noisy, but the effect of change in our lives is pretty noisy too. Every change involves a loss and every loss is felt as grief. Even when change is good, the truth that change is loss is grief has grounded me.
Speaker 1:And last week, we spoke about other actions that ground us through change. Maybe writing down the names of people who you know are in your corner, noticing moments of genuine wonder, and finding your own voice to speak up. Now feeling a little more secure, a little more grounded, the next question to ask is, what guides you in change? So guidance is where we're going today, and we're looking to the Ezra memoir for help. And I'd like to invite you to, again this week, just notice one place in your life where things are changing, And name that for yourself, and we'll hold that together as we pray.
Speaker 1:So please join me. Loving God, you hold the world and everything in it. And as we sit here in this peaceful place, we are aware that the universe swirls with chaos and loss. And somehow, we can experience some of your heart for us in both the calm and the terror. Jesus, you lived as we do.
Speaker 1:You are our teacher, our friend, our companion. And so won't you speak your word of life to us in the change that we name? The change that we sometimes fear, the change that we love, the change that we find life giving. Holy Spirit, will you breathe your comfort and your grace? We are here with you now.
Speaker 1:We are here with each other. And for all of this, we give you thanks. Amen. So does everyone know what a memoir is? I'm sure you do.
Speaker 1:But a memoir is a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of the events based on personal observations. So it's a story that you tell about yourself and what happened to you. Well, one evening last week, Jonathan and I were talking about memoirs, you know, just like as you do. And I was telling Jonathan how much I love memoirs. Like, I really love memoirs.
Speaker 1:I love to access people's thoughts in their memoirs. I love the way that people process their own stories. I love how the experience of another can give me the words, the language that I need for myself. And when I asked Jonathan, hey, do you like memoirs? He said he's maybe only read one or two.
Speaker 1:And he's a reader. Like, he reads books. I mean, I didn't divorce him on the spot, but I can't promise you, I wasn't thinking about it. Kidding, of course. But Jonathan redeemed himself when he quoted not a memoir, but a movie to show me that, yes, he still understood what I was saying.
Speaker 1:It's a scene from midnight in Paris, and Ernest Hemingway is explaining that, yes, his book is a very good book, and it is good because it is honest. And that's exactly what I was on about with my memoir monologue. I love honest stories. Give them to me with all of their mess and their grit. Honest memoirs can guide you through times of big change.
Speaker 1:As you witness someone else's journey, it helps you to think more deeply about your own. And that's where Ezra comes in. The character of Ezra doesn't actually show up until chapter seven. And in fact, chapter seven to 10 are called the Ezra memoir in biblical studies. And now when you begin a memoir, you wonder, okay, who is this person?
Speaker 1:And lucky for us, the text tells us who Ezra is, only it's a little bit, like, over the top. Like, it almost seems dishonest. But the truth is that the text is working really hard to establish Ezra's legitimacy. We're told that Ezra is from the priestly line of Aaron, so he's a pretty big deal. And we're told that Ezra is part of this later wave of returnees who returned to Jerusalem with the backing of king Artaxerxes.
Speaker 1:And we're told that Ezra is renowned, renowned for his devotion to the law of Yahweh. And Ezra's love for the law is hyped. There's even this legend which says Ezra dictated from memory 94 holy books that had been lost in the exile. So basically, Ezra is like the Samuel Tarly of the law. And FYI, my husband, even though you're not that proud of me, would be so proud of me for that Game of Thrones reference.
Speaker 1:So gold hand fist bump to all you Game of Thrones nerds out there. Maybe there aren't that many. There are some. But what does the law actually mean here? It's not like Ezra is traveling back in Jerusalem with a leather bound bible, you know, tucked up under his arm.
Speaker 1:No such thing like that exists yet. Well, the Aramaic word for law in the text can mean a number of things. Biblical scholar Catherine Southwood says, it could be the Persian law. It could be the Deuteronomic law code. It could be the Hebrew term Torah.
Speaker 1:It could be the Mosaic law that would later become the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. It could just be general instructions and edicts. Whatever the law is, it's important to see that Ezra and the rules that he teaches appear on the scene like a savior. And there's a connection for us here. When life is changing, when we perceive some sort of threat, we look for rules to guide us.
Speaker 1:Like, deep down, we think, just tell me what to do and I'll do it. And I get that. We don't want to feel out of control. We don't like to feel lost. We hate the vulnerability that change can bring.
Speaker 1:But honestly, there are limits to laws. There are restrictions when it comes to rules, and we're gonna see more of that later with Ezra. But first, Ezra is set up in the text as this restorer to the Jerusalem community, and his broken and scattered people have stalled out in their resettlement. So Ezra arrives to make change. But how does our boy, Ezra, go about this restoration?
Speaker 1:Well, a letter from king Artaxerxes in Ezra seven gives these permissions to Ezra. Moreover, you are to take with you the silver and gold that the king and his advisors have freely given to the God of Israel whose dwelling is in Jerusalem. With this money, be sure to buy bulls, rams, and male lambs together with the grain offerings and drink offerings and sacrifice them on the altar of the temple for your God in Jerusalem. Now, it's the specifics in these verses that offer guidance in this restoration. God's people are in the thick of change.
Speaker 1:They are no longer exiles, but they're not yet flourishing in their homeland. And it's these holy objects, these tactile things that are sent back to help restore their identity. Now don't go thinking that the Persian king's motives are altruistic here. But even as the province of Judah is being exploited, Ezra finds a way to spin this exploitation into something restorative for the people in his care. But how can gold and lambs and bulls and grain offerings restore people?
Speaker 1:How do everyday objects become something sacred in our story? Well, maybe it's as simple as a sous sous. When my niece Emery was a baby, she loved her soother. And the one in this picture isn't real. It's a Snapchat filter.
Speaker 1:She's like three, and she sends me Snapchats. Now, there was a time when Emery went to bed with like four or five soothers. Soothers were her favorite thing. She'd have one in her mouth, she'd have one in her hands, and she'd just have a few more kicking around her crib just in case in the night, she'd let go of one, she could always find another one. These little objects, they soothed her.
Speaker 1:And there's actually a psychology to these small things. Attachment objects help with the transition to independence. And in an article for the British Psychological Society, doctor Christian Jarrett says that even as we get older, we see our things as extensions for ourselves. We use them as a signal for ourselves and to others about who we want to be and where we want to belong. And Doctor.
Speaker 1:Jarrett says reflecting on our things can even help us with a fragile ego. Change will challenge your sense of yourself. And holy objects, just small tokens, can remind you of who you are and who you want to be. Just simple things can guide you through complex change. And I know it's a bit of a paradox that holding tight to something small can free you in a big way, but they can.
Speaker 1:You don't have to drift through change without these little anchors. Small objects can do some of the work for you. Maybe it's a journal, a photo, even a favorite film that speaks to you about who you want to be. Maybe it's a song or a piece of jewelry or a rock from a hike that reminds you of something you accomplished. It could just be a coffee mug, a pair of running shoes, a tree in your backyard that shows you what you need.
Speaker 1:You're allowed to love these things. And even though there's wisdom in knowing that your stuff cannot actually love you back, there are small things in your life that can guide you through change. The stuff of the everyday. Hiding out to show you what's important to you, offering you hints for how to move forward. And as your identity is reflected in these objects, you are a little more empowered to action.
Speaker 1:And Ezra and this new wave of returnees make a pit stop along the way. Before they arrive in Jerusalem, they stop at the Ah Avah Canal in Babylon, and Ezra proclaims a fast. And the text records Ezra's words like this. There, by the Ah Ava Canal, I proclaimed a fast so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask God for a safe journey for us and our children with all our possessions. So the people, they fast.
Speaker 1:They petition God. They measure out heaps and heaps of silver and gold and bronze for their offerings and God answers their prayer. And then Ezra declares, you as well as these articles are consecrated to the Lord. And the Hebrew word for consecrated is kodesh. It means holy.
Speaker 1:And the theme of holiness is even more common in the scriptures than love. When something is holy, it's thought to be perfect. It's set apart. It's pure. And in biblical literature, there are obvious places that are holy.
Speaker 1:There's the tabernacle, the temple, Mount Zion. But here are the people. They aren't in the temple. They aren't even in the holy city. They're just camping out by a canal in the land of exile.
Speaker 1:And with some relatively small actions, they flipped the switch on what this place now means to them without even getting where they want to go. Without even stepping outside the border of Babylon. They see themselves for who they are. Holy, set apart, heading home. Small actions can guide you to a sense of holiness too.
Speaker 1:Where the land that you stand on is sacred. Whether you're in a place of worship or just walking through a park. Whether you're pleading with God in the morning or just taking a deep breath on your yoga mat, whether you're doing what you love or you're feeling kinda distant from yourself, small actions, little exercises can guide you through big change. So a few weeks ago, I walked into the room where Jonathan was playing a game on his iPad, and I said, I'm sure you'll probably say no to this, but I'm wondering if you'd be willing to do some meditation with me. And because I married the raddest guy, he just said, sure.
Speaker 1:Which now that I think about it is actually how Jonathan answers most of my requests, so God bless that man. And now, almost every evening since this request, the two of us settle in with our noise canceling headphones. We open up the meditation app, and Jonathan jokingly counts as said, three, two, one, meditate, always kind of makes me laugh. And then we meditate. Now, meditation is not solving all my problems, but I think it's helping me to be present.
Speaker 1:You know, just a little more aware of an actual moment. Not distracted, not obsessing, just present. And any moment where we are honestly present, where we see the truth of who we are is holy. There's purity to presence like that. And I don't want to miss any of it.
Speaker 1:Whether it's an ancient prayer by a canal or partner meditation with noise canceling headphones, small actions can guide you through very big change. Other actions may include just taking a walk, saying no, smiling at a stranger, texting a friend, learning something new, making love, getting a therapist, sleeping in, taking a trip. Small care filled actions will guide you through change. But some of us, we like a few more rules, don't we? Well, once Ezra and his entourage arrive in Jerusalem, things get pretty intense when it comes to the interpretation of the law.
Speaker 1:There's this moment where the people are in the middle of a worship experience and some leaders come in and say to Ezra, the people of Israel have not kept themselves from the neighboring people and their detestable practices. They have taken their daughters as wives. They have mingled our holy race with the people around them. Even the leaders are guilty of this unfaithfulness. Now let's be real.
Speaker 1:This is kind of gross. Right? Naming people and people groups as detestable, seeing women and daughters as pollution, that's gross. But what's going on in Ezra and Nehemiah is that the people are concerned with the greatest sin in their history, the sin of apostasy, the sin of not solely worshiping Yahweh. So even though they are back in their homeland, they perceive a threat to their identity.
Speaker 1:And it's helpful to realize that again and again in human history, ethnicity as an ideological construct is used by people to hold onto part of their identity they perceive to be under threat. And Ezra really gets into the blame game here. Ezra tears his tunic, he pulls out his hair, and sits down appalled, and others join him. Then Ezra prays a long prayer. The people confess, and there's even an investigation into the matter eventually.
Speaker 1:Every man who is found to have married foreign women is to divorce these women and send them away. And so the women and children we are told are sent away. Now scholars tell us that it's not the law alone that forces this action. It's the interpretation of the law. So, yes, crowds and crowds of people side with Ezra.
Speaker 1:These people have undergone so much trauma, so much displacement, so much fear that they say, yeah, it's those other people. They are to blame for us knowing not knowing who we are anymore. So let's get rid of them. But even as we are shocked by the cruelty and the lack of compassion and the judgment in these verses, we read this verse in chapter 10. Only Jonathan, son of Asa'el, and Yaziah, son of Tikvah, supported by Meshulam and Shabbatay, the Levite, opposed this.
Speaker 1:They opposed this interpretation to the law. And the word for opposed in Hebrew is Ahmad, and it means to take a stand. They can't we can't exercise Ezra's interpretation against intermarriage from the text. The interpretation is there, alongside the people search for home and their desire to belong. It's a gritty memoir.
Speaker 1:But there are other voices there too. People who stand up, who are named, and who say, the way that you live, the law is not for us. We oppose. And this is the reality of our tradition, of any tradition. Rules work until they don't.
Speaker 1:Many of us have opposed rules against us too. Rules that kept us away from power, rules that put us against the crowd, rules that say that the change that we long to see will never happen. So just get used to things the way that they are. Well, the late Jean Vanier both comforts and disturbs us with these words about change. In his book Becoming Human, Vanier writes, change in one sort or another is the essence of life.
Speaker 1:So there will always be the loneliness and insecurity that come with change. When we refuse to accept that loneliness and insecurity are part of life. We close the door on the many possibilities for ourselves. Our lives become lessened. We are less than fully human.
Speaker 1:Rules work to shape your identity until they don't work for you anymore. Taking a stand can be lonely, but it can also open you up to great possibilities, to a deeper sense of your own identity, to the fullness of humanity. So what do you do when the change that you're experiencing actually takes you outside of some rules, outside of some expectations? Maybe the way that things have always been. Well, Shulam Dean wrote a memoir called All Who Go Do Not Return.
Speaker 1:And it's his honest and at times very heartbreaking story of what guided him through change. And Shulam was raised in an ultra orthodox Jewish sect called the Skiver, one of the most insular Hasidic sects in America. And Shulam was a good Skiver. He married, he studied, he had five children. But along the way, Shulam starts to ask questions.
Speaker 1:He's drawn to the outside world and has this driving need to know everything about what's outside. His exploration starts with something so simple, just a radio. For years, this radio sits in his home. This object, he promises his wife not to listen to, but then one day, he turns on the radio in secret. He finds a station, and he listens.
Speaker 1:And this opens Shulam up. Soon, he buys a car. He gets a computer. He blogs under the the pseudonym Hasidic rebel. And eventually, living in his community as a law abiding skiver is no longer tenable.
Speaker 1:So Shulam is forced to leave. And when he goes, he loses his family. He loses his community. He even loses his faith. But one day, Shulam is hiking on the Sabbath, and he writes, stepping carefully across streams, climbing cliffs, up one mountain and down another, I would sing the songs I had sung so many years during Sabbath, afternoon meals.
Speaker 1:The day is most esteemed of all days. A Sabbath day for God. When I keep the Sabbath, God will keep me. And Shulam sings these songs even though he no longer believes them. And as Shulam takes in the view on this hike, he settles down in a quiet space for lunch and reflects.
Speaker 1:It was Sabbath afternoon and I was desecrating it by hiking and eating Treif. I would reflect on the fact that such simple pleasures were so meaningful. It felt exhilarating to be able to do what for so many years had been forbidden for fear of not heavenly but human judgment. Shulam's memoir might seem like it goes from community to exile, from family to isolation, from even life to some kind of death. But when you hear him tell his own story, in all honesty, the opposite is true.
Speaker 1:Yes. The decision he makes are so hard. And the path he chooses is nearly impossible. But then he comes to this clearing and he can finally know himself to be more whole. And the truth is, I actually can't tell you what will guide you through change.
Speaker 1:It could be a book you didn't even know you needed to read. It could be letting go of some rules that just don't sit right with you anymore. It could be a tiny object reminding you of love, just dangling from a gold chain around your neck. The Eastertide word for the surprising places that guidance finds you in change is resurrection. Resurrection is the guidance that shows up where you least expect it.
Speaker 1:Resurrection is the new way forward when there seem to be no possible way. Resurrection is the insistence that life lives on. Even after all that you've lost, you live on. So maybe the rules in your relationship aren't working for you anymore. Maybe the interpretation of how to live your faith is just not working for you anymore.
Speaker 1:Maybe the way that you used to be isn't even working for you anymore. Change it. The good news is that there are new ways, new interpretations, new rules to live by, and they are everywhere in holy objects, in holy actions, in the holy law written in your own heart. Guidance will find you and it will free you. God's liberating words for you are coming for you.
Speaker 1:In fact, they are already here. Let's pray together. Loving God. What does it look like for us? As Jean Vanier wrote, to welcome change as the essence of life.
Speaker 1:There are times when our road of change is marked by loneliness and insecurity. Jesus, will you keep us from fear? Will you keep us from division? Will you keep us from limitation? Spirit of the living God present with us now.
Speaker 1:Will you enter the places of change in our lives and will you use all of it to heal us from what harms us. Amen.