A friend of mine sent me a Facebook message, asking that I post the above Scripture as an encouragement and a reminder of what it means to be the body of Christ.  This is what they wrote:

“God has given me word after word day by day that it is time that I should move the church to support each other. Putting our pride aside to focus on pleasing each other instead of ourselves. This will equip us to be a better witness to those outside of the church because who would want to come into a community that was really not a community at all. Because If we want to see others experience the love of Christ we must first learn to love each other.”

Keep that in mind as you read through and think about this Scripture:

Romans 15:1 We who are strong have to be a support to the feeble, and not give pleasure to ourselves. 2 Let every one of us give pleasure to his neighbour for his good, to make him strong. 3 For Christ did not give pleasure to himself, but, as it is said, The bitter words of those who were angry with you came on me. 4 Now those things which were put down in writing before our time were for our learning, so that through quiet waiting and through the comfort of the holy Writings we might have hope. 5 Now may the God who gives comfort and strength in waiting make you of the same mind with one another in harmony with Christ Jesus: 6 So that with one mouth you may give glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 So then, take one another to your hearts, as Christ took us, to the glory of God. 8 Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision to give effect to the undertakings given by God to the fathers, 9 And so that the Gentiles might give glory to God for his mercy; as it is said, For this reason I will give praise to you among the Gentiles, and I will make a song to your name. 10 And again he says, Take part, you Gentiles, in the joy of his people. 11 And again, Give praise to the Lord, all you Gentiles; and let all the nations give praise to him. 12 And again Isaiah says, There will be the root of Jesse, and he who comes to be the ruler over the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles put their hope. 13 Now may the God of hope make you full of joy and peace through faith, so that all hope may be yours in the power of the Holy Spirit. 14 And I myself am certain of you, brothers, that you are full of what is good, complete in all knowledge, able to give direction to one another. 15 But I have, in some measure, less fear in writing to you to put these things before you again, because of the grace which was given to me by God, 16 To be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, doing the work of a priest in the good news of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles might be pleasing to God, being made holy by the Holy Spirit. 17 So I have pride in Christ Jesus in the things which are God’s. 18 And I will keep myself from talking of anything but those things which Christ has done by me to put the Gentiles under his rule in word and in act, 19 By signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have given all the good news of Christ; 20 Making it my purpose not to take the good news where Christ was named, so that my work might not be resting on that of others; 21 But as it is said in the holy Writings, They will see, to whom the news of him had not been given, and those to whose ears it had not come will have knowledge. 22 For which reason I was frequently kept from coming to you: 23 But now, having no longer any place in these parts and having had for a number of years a great desire to come to you, 24 Whenever I go to Spain (for it is my hope to see you on my way, and to be sent on there by you, if first I may in some measure have been comforted by your company)– 25 But now I go to Jerusalem, taking help for the saints. 26 For it has been the good pleasure of those of Macedonia and Achaia to send a certain amount of money for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. 27 Yes, it has been their good pleasure; and they are in their debt. For if the Gentiles have had a part in the things of the Spirit which were theirs, it is right for them, in the same way, to give them help in the things of the flesh. 28 So when I have done this, and have given them this fruit of love, I will go on by you into Spain. 29 And I am certain that when I come, I will be full of the blessing of Christ. 30 Now I make request to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that you will be working together with me in your prayers to God for me; 31 So that I may be kept safe from those in Judaea who have not put themselves under the rule of God, and that the help which I am taking for Jerusalem may be pleasing to the saints; 32 So that I may come to you in joy by the good pleasure of God, and have rest with you. 33 Now may the God of peace be with you all. So be it.

For the next few weeks, I’ll be posting some thoughts on the idea of leadership as seen in the book of Nehemiah.  More specifically, I’ll be referencing some thoughts that have been authored by Captains Peter and Alison Lublink, Salvation Army Officers (Pastors) at the High Point church in Victoria, BC (that’s Canada, eh).  Back in 2007, they wrote a great study called “On Leadership” ([Download Now]), one for prospective leaders in the church and another for those already in leadership roles.  The prospective study is based on 1 and 2 Timothy, and the other for current folks is based on, you guessed it, Nehemiah.

(Just a quick shameless plug for the Lublinks.  I’ve never met them, but what I do know is that Peter is a communication freak.  He loves it.  So, head on over to their Corps’ (Church’s) website (http://www.pointful.ca/) and take a gander for yourself.  Also, all you in the Central Territory will be glad to know that they are the special guests for the Young Adult Track at CBLI this year.  Bonus!)

The first session from their study starts this with a few comments on the idea of leadership itself:

“At its very core, leadership involves influencing people to accomplish a specific task set forth by the leader.  Understanding effective Biblical leadership however, involves not only influencing people towards a set objective, but involves the ability to discern the need which surrounds us and to which God calls us to act upon.  In chapter 1, and throughout the book of Nehemiah, we see evidence that Nehemiah not only leads with authority, but he is perceptive to the need which surrounds him, and to the action that God calls him to as a result.”[i]

With that in mind, let’s move to the text of Nehemiah chapter 1, verses 1-11:

“1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.

3 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.”

4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. 5 Then I said: “O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 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. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

8 “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, 9 but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

10 “They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” I was cupbearer to the king.”

As was said at the beginning, Biblical leadership is based on the ability to discern the needs which surround us and responding in the way that God wants.  In verse 3, after asking Hanani and a few other men about those who had recently returned from the Babylonian exile, Nehemiah is told that “the wall of Jerusalem” had been torn down.  This wall is reference to the events of Ezra 4:1-23.  In short, once the Jews had returned to the province of Judah they renewed themselves to God and started to rebuild the temple.  A group of people, described as “the enemies of Judah and Benjamin,” offered to help in this task.  But, Israel didn’t take it, and to spite them, “the enemies of Judah and Benjamin” set out to stop their building (see Ezra 4:23).

This, scholars say, is the reason for Nehemiah’s reaction; which is really the focal point of this chapter.  Because when he saw suffering, he responded in the right way.  He was eventually lead to “mourn, fast and pray.”  It’s interesting, though, that the text makes it clear that he did one very important thing before that.  He wept.  He cried.  He let the suffering affect him.

It’s easy to become calloused, and even easier to disregard the hurt and pain we see all around us.  But choosing to feel is the first step in responding to suffering in a Biblical way.  Sometimes we shy away from these emotions, but it’s actually the stepping stone to proper practice.  So, if you want to be a leader, you have to care, and you have to let the suffering of others move you.

It’s no mistake that half of Nehemiah 1 is Nehemiah’s prayer to God.  It’s a model of how we might pray if we chose to act the way God would want.  There are three distinct movements in this short prayer that can teach us how to pray:

First and foremost, Nehemiah remembers and reflects on God’s character.  This may be nothing but fluffy language to most, but it’s very crucial to remember who exactly it is we’re talking to when we pray.  Because when we do, we begin to remember all the things God is capable of.  We being to realize all of the things that God can do, and all of the things we cannot do, and thus the reason we need Him in the first place.  On top of that, we remember just who he is, the “stuff” God is made of.  I mean, it’s interesting that in a prayer in which Nehemiah confesses sin and pleads for Israel he starts by saying, “O, Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands…”  In remembering God’s unfailing love, he allows himself to pray with confidence, knowing that God is for him and not against him.

Secondly, he confesses Israel’s sin, his family’s sin, and his own sin.  He owns up.  He becomes open and honest with God.  And that’s the thing about being in the presence of a holy, perfect God.  God reveals his perfection (as 1 John 1:5 says, “God is light, in him there is no darkness at all), which in turn reveals our sinfulness.  And being a leader doesn’t mean being perfect.  Far from it!  True leaders fully recognize, admit and even boast in their weaknesses (check out 2 Corinthians 11:30, 12:5, and 12:9).  Good leaders don’t cover up their brokenness.  They confess it and allow God to work through them and trust Him for healing.

And third, Nehemiah pleads with God.  This is point of all the weeping, of all the feeling, and all the mourning.  Nehemiah was wrecked by the plight of his countrymen for the preliminary purpose of asking God to intervene (we’ll see that his response consists of other things as well).

In those days he was a cup-bearer, and a good one at that.

About a year ago I was doing my laundry at a laundromat in Blue Island, IL, and was neglecting some reading that I needed to do.  So I resolved to doing what I usually do when I’m bored – walk around.  A lot.  It’s also something I do when I need to think.  So I started my journey shortly after I put my clothes in the wash and made my way over to this bulletin board for the city.

This bulletin board was quite clustered.  Half in Spanish and half in English, it featured all sorts of different ads, some more professional than others.  There were apartment rentals, baby sitters looking for work, English lessons, and more.  And it seemed like the less professional ones were authored by more desperate persons.  For instance, there were some that were typed up, had some pictures, and had tear away telephone numbers.  But the ones that really wanted someone to hire them or rent out their apartment were hand written on a scrap of notebook paper.  There was this one hand written note that was a self proclaimed baby sitter.  Good with kids apparently.  I would not be trusting that person with my kids.  No chance.

In the middle of this random assortment of want ads was this yellow post it note.  And hand written on it was the note:  “I am a Latin America man seeking a sincere relationship”, and on it was his phone number.

It took me some time to really process this, but finally I understood what drove this person to actually write that.  We’re all looking for relationships, for connection, for community, and this guy didn’t have it, and he was going about it in all the wrong ways.

This desire to belong is normal, it’s necessary, and it’s a part of who we are.  The Bible is completely in line with this idea of working together and living in community.

There’s a passage in the book of Ecclesiastes (Ecc. 4:7-12) that says:

7 Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:
8 There was a man all alone;
he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil,
yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
“For whom am I toiling,” he asked,
“and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”
This too is meaningless—
a miserable business!
9 Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:
10 If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

This idea of being together is what we were created for.

We were created to be connected with people, but more importantly we were also created to be connected with our Maker, with the God of the Bible.

We were created for a constant and consistent relationship with God.  See following God is not about showing up to a building for an hour on Sunday.  It’s not just about sitting in a ridiculously uncomfortable pew inside the four walls of church.  It’s like trying to say that your relationship with your best friend consists of hanging out for an hour a week.  When we think this way, we put God in a tiny box.

The book of Genesis, which literally means the Beginnings, is a story about how the world began, and the beginning of the people of Israel.  And in it is the description of, the setting, of what things were like between God and man at the very beginning.  Years and years ago, this is what it was like.

First it describes the actual creation process, how God created everything.  It talks about how God first made the heavens and the earth.  He made night and day, the sky, the ground and the waters.  Then he made things to fill that stuff – birds to fill the sky, fish to fill the seas, and so on.

In chapter 2, we see that God creates the first man, Adam.  Then later on, God saw that there was no suitable helper, or partner, for Adam, so he took one of his ribs and created the first woman.  Eve.

However the most important thing about this setting is that at this point, Adam and Eve are living in perfect community with God, with their Creator.  There is no wrong at all.  It even says “the man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”  At one point, it talks about how God was walking around in the very same garden they were living around.  That’s what we were created for.  An unhindered, life giving relationship with God.

At one point, God creates some trees that were for Adam and Eve to eat from.  We read in Genesis 2:8:

8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

So God created the tree of life, and then the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Then skip over to verse 15:

15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

Again, at this point, the man and the woman were living in perfect community with their Creator.  There is the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  They could eat from any tree, the tree of life included, but just not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A good way to think about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is experience of good and evil.  In other words, from eating that tree, the result would be experiencing good and evil.  Whereas eating from the tree of life would be experiencing life, without death.  And the thing of it is that God intended us to eat the tree of life.

His will for us is life, not death.  Good, not evil.

Then we read chapter 3:1-8

1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man[a] and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.

There was separation.  The perfect community between God and Adam and Eve was broken.

Pastor and author Rob Bell describes it this way:

“In the first chapter of Genesis, when God creates the first people…the story begins with humans in right relationship – in healthy, life-giving connection – with their maker.  All of their other relationships flow from the health of this one central relationship – people and God.  They’re connected with the earth, with each other.  They’re naked and they feel no shame.

And then everything goes south.

They choose another way.

And they become disconnected.

God goes looking for them in the garden, asking, ‘Where are you?’  The first humans make coverings of fig leaves, and then they’re banished from the garden.

Disconnected from each other.

Disconnected from the earth…

…And this is where you and I come in.  We were born into a world, into a condition, of disconnection.  Things were created to be a certain way, and they’re not that way, and we feel it in every fiber of our being” (Sex God, pages 39-40).

We were made for relationship with God, with our Creator, but you and I were born into a world that is separated from God.  Why?  Because God chose to distance itself from his creation?  No!  Because man chose to distance himself from a loving God.

It can be pretty easy to fall into a trance of sorts, to go on what some of my friends and I like to call, “autopilot.”  It’s a sad condition one slips into when they’re not careful that is characterized by, “just going with the flow.”  You just do whatever it is your supposed to do without ever putting any thought into it.  It’s a habit of showing up to usual places without knowing why, performing duties that used to be powerful without passion, and going through life without realizing that it’s passing you by.

It can be a sad place to be.

For whatever reason, I think people tend to get to this place in winter.  Blame it on the lack of sunlight.  Whatever the cause is, I’ve been noticing it in people a lot recently.  They say things like, “I just don’t feel the same as I used to.” Or, “I’m just doing it because it’s expected of me.”  There seems to have been a loss of purpose somewhere.  When we start to go on autopilot-in other words, when we start to do things without knowing why-it’s generally because we’ve lost sight of our vision and purpose.  We’re like a plane without a destination.  We’re moving, but we’re not aiming at anything.

Jesus always knew what his purpose was.  As a leader, as a person, as the Messiah, he knew what was demanded of him.  In Luke, there’s a story where Jesus calls a tax collector-a despised person in society for pocketing people’s money-to follow him, to be his disciple.  The text reads that “Levi got up, left everything and followed him.”  After this, Levi decides to throw Jesus a huge party.  It was a banquet, in fact.  One so large that the Pharisees and teachers of the Jewish law noticed that most of the party guests were fellow tax collectors, and they weren’t happy with it.

See, Jesus always knew that he was to be a friend of sinners, of those who were sick, far from God, and yet desired to be close to him.  He knew that it was those who knew they were sick, who had problems that needed to be fixed, it was those people that Jesus knew he needed to go to.  So he did.  And he was clear about it.  He kept it at the front of his, and everyone else’s, mind.  He even says at one point, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

He knew where he was headed.

He knew who needed him.

So that is what he aimed for.

The thing of it is, our aim isn’t too different from that of Jesus.  In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes that we are Christ’s ambassadors-his representatives-and that he is making an appeal through us.  The appeal is, “We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:20b-21).

Just last night I watched a video of Haiti’s ambassador to the U.S.-Raymond Joseph-relay to Americans and the rest of the world the devastation that is facing his country.  He had to speak clearly about their needs, the future, and what needs to be done.  He was speaking on behalf the entire country to relay this story.  He was their messenger.

God wants to be doing the same through Christians everywhere.  We are his ambassadors, telling people everywhere what God’s message is to the world.  That “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19).  We are called to the sick, those that need a doctor.  We cannot lose sight of that as a Church.  Going on autopilot would mean forgetting this very import aim.