Working together

Remember how Nehemiah said to the people ‘Come, let us rebuild…’ Well, Nehemiah 3 describes exactly that. Everyone pitches in. Everyone plays their part. They work together. They build side by side, shoulder to shoulder. Each has a section of the wall to repair and together, they repair the whole.

Teamwork.

Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the Sheep Gate. They dedicated it and set its doors in place, building as far as the Tower of the Hundred, which they dedicated, and as far as the Tower of Hananel. The men of Jericho built the adjoining section, and Zakkur son of Imri built next to them.  Nehemiah 3:1-2

Some just had to step outside their door to begin the work.

Beyond them, Benjamin and Hasshub made repairs in front of their house; and next to them, Azariah son of Maaseiah, the son of Ananiah, made repairs beside his house.  Nehemiah 3:23

It makes you wonder why they hadn’t started before…..despair? fear? the hope that someone else would do the work for them?

Lots of obvious lessons here. I probably don’t need to spell them out.

I’m thinking about us building God’s kingdom here on earth….quite often, we’re all getting on with doing our own little bit, but what if somehow all the dots were joined up – what would the picture look like then?

Firstly, we need to be playing our part…..not waiting for someone else to do the work, not paralysed by fear or despair. As Voltaire said ‘Il faut cultiver notre jardin’…..we have to deal with what is directly before us before all else……we have to tend to the immediate people and immediate environment that surrounds us….we see that here, where the people literally repair and restore the wall in front of their own house.

But if we were all doing this….if we were all loving our neighbour as ourselves…..if we were all bringing heaven into hell, God’s kingdom into our patch or earth…….then together, we would be having an immense impact. We were talking about this at our house group – about how we could have an impact in the community – and we agreed that we don’t actually know what anyone else in the church is actually doing already….and if we took the time to discover that and join up the dots and co-ordinate what we were already doing, then the impact could already be quite significant.

We also acknowledged that working together on a joint project, having a common purpose, really does unite people. I see that in the community work I do at Asda. The world knows the importance of serving – volunteering and helping others – all sorts of companies are putting schemes in place to encourage their workforce to volunteer and get involved, because they can see the benefits for the company and the individual. The church is in danger of getting left behind on this. And we should be the ones leading the way.

This is what love looks like in action. Repairing. Restoring. Rebuilding.

This is what faith and hope look like in action. Repairing. Restoring. Rebuilding.

Physically doing what we can to make the world around us a better place.

Emotionally in our own lives.

And doing what we can to bring resolution in relationships around us.

Here’s a few small examples from my day at work yesterday…..

I arrived to find some tension and misunderstanding between my manager and the charity setting up at the front of the store. I had to work to bring resolution and reconciliation to the situation.

When the snow came, so did the slush. I had a roll of blue paper by my side to mop up the snow that was brought in on buggies etc so that no one would slip.

When I heard negativity and criticism, I tried to counter it with positivity and encouragement.

When I was tired and on my break, I tried to listen to the lovely lady in the cafe who clearly needed someone to chat to.

At the end of the day, I worked hard to leave the checkouts really clean and tidy and ready for my colleagues going in today.

It doesn’t sound like a lot, I guess. But that was me trying to rebuild and restore and repair; trying to bring a small piece of God’s kingdom into that place and into those lives.

We all do that everyday.

There’s no excuse not to.

But maybe we need to pray for a Nehemiah to co-ordinate what is being done and bring a fresh vision and sense of purpose.

Just think what we might achieve then!