DOING OUR PART - by Rev Gilbert Wong
Texts: Nehemiah 3:1-5, MATTHEW 7:21-End
1 June 2008
Introduction
While reading this text of Nehemiah, it reminds me of the rebuilding of Church of the Ascension. There are many similarities of division of labours and each committed to the tasks assigned to them. And how some time, someone along the line of the chain of command did not follow through and how it eventually affected the end result. We witness this in our day to day living where instructions are not followed and the problems are created.
There are a few things to note about this very long message of 32 verses of Chapter 3 of Nehemiah.
First, doing our parts means that there is a clear division of labour
The entire chapter 3 really is a description of assignments given to different groups of people. This division was to enable each group to know their duties and responsibilities. And yet this division does not mean separation as if their work is totally unrelated to the rest of the project. They were kept together with the view of advancing the good of their country. Even females helped out in the work (a rare sight in a male dominated work).
This may be obvious to all of us here and yet this is not entire the case all the time. The usual argument is that we should not use management principles of the world which is essentially secular to govern the affair of the church which is spiritual. I remembered clearly one such tension during the Billy Graham Crusade was in Singapore in the 1970s a particular group of churches would not support him and his ministry. The reason: he was making use of billboards, banners, and flyer with his face on them. These churches believed that only Jesus Christ should be glorified and not men no matter how famous they are. These churches would rather live with inconveniences and ineffectiveness of their ministries than to glorify a human in the limelight.
In our modern day, there are still churches and Christian organisations that would not have any overall plan or direction. They simply have the conviction that the Holy Spirit moves as and when he wills and the church is only to cooperate and obey him and not to set the agenda for God by forward planning.
To them I have two responses:
(1) This division of labour exercised by Nehemiah was first and foremost spent in prayer. Of course we were not told if he spent time praying through every single of those names mentioned in Chapter 3. But we can be certain that Nehemiah had spent time praying and consulting before deciding what should be done. He visited the site of the damaged and decided that a rebuilding had to be done.
(2) Some Christians generally tended to see the division between sacred and secular too sharply. The OT sees the world in at least three categories – that of elected, unelected and non-elected.
God’s people are the elected and set aside by God to be a holy people. This is taught clearly in the NT as well especially in 1 & 2 Peter. And then there is another category called the unelected. These are countries that God wanted to eliminated and has also warned his elected people not to mingle with them such things as idolatry, adultery, and basically summed up in the Ten Commandments. And then there is the non-elected. This group is neither elected nor unelected, they are simply neutrals that could be used either for good or evil.
Like Jethro’s advice to Moses to divide up his work to several groups. Jethro was certainly no elected like Moses was, neither is he unelected that he needed to be terminated or avoided but was non-elected. And God gave that wisdom to Moses through Jethro.
So our Parish Life Review is a process that COA undertakes but those on the team and those participating in this process should be done with a heart of prayerfulness and not merely on a methodological processes.
A clear division of labour is needed but it is the manners by which it is being used that we are judged by God. And this is what we observe in our gospel reading today.
Secondly, doing our parts means that there is clear danger disobedience in Christian ministries
Doing our parts may not always necessary means that we are obeying God. Oftentimes, I have been asked by Christians how come certain leaders who clearly are not teaching according to God’s word and yet could perform many convincing miracles.
The answer may lie in Matthew 7:21-29. The miracles in Matthew 7:21-23 - of prophesy, demoniac deliverance, and many mighty works in Christ’s name - are not necessarily false; it is possible to prophesy by the Spirit’s inspiration and yet be disobedient to God and unsaved
In 1 Samuel 19:20-24, we read that “(20) Then Saul sent messengers to take David, and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. (21) When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied. (22) Then he himself went to Ramah and came to the great well that is in Secu. And he asked, ‘Where are Samuel and David?’ And one said, ‘Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah.’ (23) And he went there to Naioth in Ramah. And the Spirit of God came upon him also, and as he went he prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah. (24) And he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and lay naked all that day and all that night. Thus it is said, ‘Is Saul also among the prophets?’
We know what happened to Saul? He strayed and fell from grace.
So the debate about whether it is in the listening that is more important than the doing. Which is more important? In 7:24-27. the rabbis debated whether hearing or doing the law was more important; most concluded that hearing it was more important, because one could not do it without hearing it. But they did insist that both were necessary. Again the image is of the day of judgement. The idea of ultimately being judged for hearing but not obeying was familiar (see Ezekiel 33:32-33). But no Jewish teachers apart from Jesus claimed so much authority for his own words; such authority was reserved for the law itself. Some of Jesus’ more biblically literate hearers may have thought of Proverbs 24:3 (‘by wisdom a house is built”) and the contrast between wisdom (which builds a house in 9:1) and folly in Proverbs 9:1-18).
7:28-29. the teachers of the law never claimed as much authority as Jesus had (7:24-27); they derived their authority especially from building on previous tradition.
The admonition to depart is from a psalm about the vindication of the righteous (see Psalm 6:8; cf 119:115; 139:19).
Both are important but these acts cannot of itself bring us to heaven! If you remember 1 Corinthians 13, it reads that the acts without love cannot be of lasting value to God. It could done in faith and with hope but without love, they are nothing worth.
Let us all be deeply aware of our motivation to do things. Finally, our works will be put through the fire.
10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work
That is precisely what our Collect for today says,
Lord, you have taught us that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love, the true bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
We pray that God do help us as we do our part in the spiritual building of this church as we use the talents God has endued upon us and secondly to be deeply aware that our work will be tested with fire to reveal the essence of our intention.
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