Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Psalm 19;

In our reading from the Hebrew Traditions today we listened in as Ezra read from The Book of The Law to the returned exiled Judahites, and gave an interpretation of the scripture as he went. As he reads and explains, Ezra is flanked by the elders of the returned tribes, and the Levites the people who will assist in maintaining the culture of the community of God’s People, are moving amongst the crowd explaining and checking understanding. Ezra’s point, which is also my point this morning, is that The Law is not just rules to be obeyed is but a description of who the people are, it’s a list of identifying points (identity points) of the community. It’s not so much “thou shall not” as “we are the people who act and think in this way, and to belong is to participate on this common ground”. It’s classroom rules agreed by kids and teacher in the first week of school, it’s Laws of The Game interpreted by umpires and adhered to by players, it’s a Professional Code of Ethics for employees and volunteers in role. It is not legislation towards a universal criminal code, at least today in Ezra’s example it’s not.

This is a case of getting everyone in the renewed community all on the same page, literally so as well as figuratively, (he’s reading a scroll). And it’s everyone; they are gathered outside the temple gate so the congregation is not restricted to priests and everyone can come; it’s public space and the public are there and paying close attention. The reading time goes for six hours, and the people are rapt the whole time, listening and responding with “Amen” (which means “so be it for us”). Ezra goes paragraph by paragraph reading and explaining, and the Levites continue to move amongst the people checking in, asking, “did you get that? Are you following this? Yes, that’s correct, not on Saturdays.”

In Nehemiah 8:9 there is encouragement do not weep, this is said by Ezra the priest and Nehemiah the governor and the Levites (who will become both teachers and police). It’s okay to be moved and confronted by your failure and humanity, but God is gracious and this is an invitation to participate, not a condemnation and death sentence. You didn’t know, now you do. So, Nehemiah 8:10  let’s celebrate our newfound identity and the grace of God who invites us home, not just to the rebuilt Jerusalem but to a renewed covenant As God’s chosen people back in God’s promised land in the God’s holy city. Step up into your destiny, your identity and celebrate. Today is a day for joy, and the Joy of The LORD is your strength. God does not want beaten down people who respond like well-used Plasticine, God wants people who are happy to be here and celebrate the grace and life given in spades to the Chosen Ones as a sign to everyone else that God is good and God’s ways are life-affirming and constructive.

On this 26^th of January and all that it means for Australians I am mindful to ask is this picture of life what Australia’s churches look like to Australia’s people? Are their Christian neighbours people who are happy to be here, and who celebrate the grace and life given in spades to us as a sign to them that God is good and God’s ways are life-affirming and constructive? The Christian Church is not “The Chosen People” in the way that Israel was before the nations, but we do fill that role of God’s demonstration to the rest of the world. Are we the ones, those who know The Father and The Saviour and The Advocate, are we the ones who are the most optimistic, the most joyful, the most generous, the most happy and to be envied, in other words the most blessed? This is not a Prosperity Gospel that we should all be wealthy; it’s a Salvation Gospel that we should all feel secure enough to be joyful in all things.

The story we read in Nehemiah 8 tells of people returned from exile, and people who returned to destruction. Taken away as captives after defeat in war (annihilation actually) they have returned after seventy years (give or take) to the ruins of their destroyed city, to vineyards full of weeds and empty of grapes, to fields of sheep skeletons and hungry wolves. And God asks their priest and their governor to encourage them by reading The Ten Commandments to a public meeting, then going on with all of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. It seems a bit counter intuitive to me, if I were God I would have started with Psalm 23 and gone on to Matthew 5, but then I’m not God and that has always been a very good thing. It is important for broken people, or people in broken situations, to know that they belong, and the rules help with that.

I have been doing a lot of work with the leaders of Stawell congregation in particular around the Regulations and the Constitution of the UCA, and less so in the Basis of Union. Why all this legislation? Because that is how we know we belong. We are not the church with the pope and the cardinals; there’s nothing particularly wrong with that church, it’s just that we are someone else. We are not the church with the local board of management in charge of everything and everyone, and limited accountability beyond ourselves; I am less enamoured with that style but that’s okay because we are something else. We are not the church with the uniforms, and even though we are one of the churches with special colours and robes we are not a church where these are compulsory. Similar to how the Uniting Church governs itself; the rules of Synod, like the rules of Ezra, are not tram tracks, they are guard rails. Like the Western Highway on the other side of Ararat we have multiple lanes of divided highway in which to travel, with white lines and metal barriers and a median strip to keep us safe from other traffic. We keep left so that we don’t get cleaned up by people wanting to travel faster than us, and we stay right so that we don’t clean up those travelling slower. But, with the rules in mind and some sense of trust from the government and the other drivers implicit in us being given a licence, we are good to drive wherever we want. That’s how God’s regulations work, and that is what Ezra is doing. “As Jews, we do this…” the Bible says; but as long as you do this, and don’t do the things that Jews don’t do, (like worshiping the Canaanite gods), you are free to live quietly and peacefully in Jerusalem. Confident that God has your best interest at heart, and is instructing you in the good ways (keep left of the median strip and any double lines on the highway, and stay left if you want to do 95kmh in the 110kmh zone), your life should be carefree for the most part, and safe and joyful. It’s only when you begin to act in ways that are not community minded (such as doing 110kmh in a 60kmh zone) that you need to be concerned of prosecution, and even then it’s not arbitrary punishment; rather it is about helping you remain within the community of likeminded people and helping others to live in carefree, safe and joyful ways. This is especially so when our city is in ruins and we’ve forgotten how to live properly in God’s freedom, because the last people to read the book were our great-grandparents, our cohort was never told what our parents had forgotten, and we were born into exile in Persia and raised to obey our colonial masters. We have forgotten how to belong to the People we truly are, we have forgotten our culture and our language, we have forgotten how to live in our country. But God has not, and God has sent leaders in Ezra the priest and Nehemiah the governor, and the Levites, our Spirit Man and our Law Man and our clan teachers, to remind us. Lawgiving is about homecoming, which is what Moses on Sinai was actually about in the first place.

In Psalm 19 we get support for this thinking, that God has everything in hand and in order, and that we have been let into what was never supposed to be a secret anyway. The heavens are telling the story of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork we read in Psalm 19:1: the glorious work of God is utterly obvious if you know how to look. You don’t need to know where to look, because it’s everywhere; but you need to know how to look, which is the key to belonging. So, how do we look? We look with expectation, we look with worship, we look with belonging which says “this…all of this…majestic stuff…this is my God’s doing, the God whose I am, the God to whom I belong.” In Acts 27:23 Paul uses those words about himself in public testimony as his ship is about to be shipwrecked, saying the God to whom I belong, and whom I worship had sent an angel to tell him that the ship would be lost but Paul’s life and the lives of those who were aboard with him would be saved. Paul knew how to look at the storm, as a place where the God of Paul would act to deliver Paul because that is what Paul’s God does. Jesus saves, it’s there in his name.

I mean, just look at this: read Psalm 19:7-14 and extrapolate, read and hear and see the confidence of the man who know where he belongs (in the middle of God’s provision) and how (by obedience to the classroom rules). If you never break the law you’ll never be prosecuted, but we obey the law not to avoid prosecution but to remain in fellowship with the great, wise, holy, generous, and loving One.

Today we commemorate the two hundred and thirty seventh anniversary of the arrival of eleven ships on Cadigal Land and Eora Country, ships containing the absolute scum of British society at the time: a cohort, rapists, drunkards, murderers, heathens, idolators, thieves, blasphemers, and the prisoners they were sent to guard. Today is two hundred and seventeen years to the day since William Bligh faced his second mutiny, and may or may not have been found hiding under a bed. Whatever your views on 26^th of January as a day for Australians, and whether today is for you a day of celebration or condemnation, a day marked for the anniversary of fresh beginnings or fervent conquering, for better or worse (and richer and poorer, and sickness and health), today is a day of belonging. It is Australia Day for all of Australia; not just Sydney, not just monarchists, not just activists, not just whitefella. How we belong is up to us, and what our belonging means to us is up to us, but if we choose to belong then we get all of it. Belong to Australia and you get the green and gold, and the union flag, and the southern cross, and the blood on the wattle. It’s all or none regardless of what you think, you don’t make the rules, you only have the choice to follow them or ignore them. Belong to God, and you get wisdom and security, because as Ezra explained it you don’t make the rules, you only have the choice to follow them or ignore them.

Today the question is, how do you belong to God and to the Church, and if you do belong and you do see the merit in what God offers, how will you encourage others to belong to God and to us? The invitation is to be joyful in all things, can you share that? Do you believe it, even on Australia Day?

Amen.