“intermission” a popular movie right now in the … · a popular movie right now in the semmler...
TRANSCRIPT
“Intermission”
Preached on February 14, 1016 at Trinity Lutheran Church
Pastor Brahm Semmler Smith, based on Chapter 21 of the Story, and Nehemiah, Malachi
Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace and peace be with you all.
A popular movie right now in the Semmler Smith household is “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” A
certain three year old loves singing along to the songs, picking up the words much easier than her
father does. The live action singing and dancing is a hit, and is by far the most frequent request
for TV time in the evening. But the thing about Chitty Chitty is that this is not a short movie!
This 2 and a half hour movie goes much longer than the allotted TV time in our household, so we
have to watch it in sections. So long is the movie that it, like many movies of its time period, has
an intermission.
You remember those, right? Common still in our live production theaters, they were just as
common when movies first started becoming popular and hung around for many years. An
intermission gave the people time to take a stretch break, go use the bathroom, get some snacks,
catch your breath. Intermissions were a chance to regroup, and often times signaled a break, and
perhaps even a plot shift, in the story you found yourself engrossed in. Something different is
coming.
We have come to the end of our time in the Old Testament in the Story. It is week and chapter
21, and it has been a journey! From creation and God declaring it to be good to the first family
feuds; from the promise of the covenant and the forming of a nation to the same nation fighting
and bickering and wandering in the desert; from the people trusting in God and finding roots in
their promised land to forgetting their way and being defeated and dragged away as slaves. So
many years, so many stories.
In today’s chapter, we read about the rebuilding of the walls in Jerusalem after years spent away
in exile in Babylon. God has remained faithful. Similar to a couple of weeks ago as the
returning Jews had rebuilt the temple after their exile, Ezra and Nehemiah take on the task of
rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. Walls were important for cities of those times, as they were the
primary way of protecting themselves. And so Ezra and Nehemiah get the people working on
the wall, and rebuild it in 52 days. Even though the nations around them tried to prevent their
progress, it takes them only these 52 days to rebuild their great wall.
The wall is rebuilt, and the temple is rebuilt, and the Israelites are home! God has remained
faithful! Happily ever after? Still, things are not perfect. Still, the relationship is strained. Ezra
has to remind the people of all that God has done for them, which was part of the text that we
read in worship today. Remember when God delivered us? And fed us? And blessed us? It is a
common refrain for the Old Testament prophets, because so often the people forget.
Malachi, a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah, continues the tradition of the prophets and uses
his voice to warn the people to remain faithful. “Remember what I taught Moses! Remember the
commands I gave him! But in case you don’t, Elijah will be coming before the great day of the
Lord to help remind you all. God’s messenger will come to repair this relationship so that the
land will not be cursed.”
Won’t things every change? Haven’t we seen this before?
Last week I invited you to fill out some surveys about our time together in the Old Testament
and the story. Thank you to those of you who filled them out. A few comments kept popping
up. You liked how patient and forgiving God is in this story, and that God persistently desires
the people to be God’s people. And you recognized the theme of God’s upper story in our lower
stories, and how this informs our relationship with God.
But it wasn’t all fun and games for you. You were not big fans of the violence, and how at times
in reading the story it seemed like God was being cruel. It also frustrated you about how it just
seemed like the people didn’t get it, and continued to be disobedient and sinful.
And you asked these questions. Didn’t God have the power to fix this? Did God fail in the OT?
The responses were insightful and affirming. They were similar to conversations I have had with
many of you throughout these chapters. And for many, they focused on the issue of how much
control God has in these stories? Are the stories in the Old Testament about God prescriptive or
descriptive? Does God prescribe everything that happens? Or are the people describing how
they feel God is at work in their lives that at many times was imperfect and sinful and difficult?
Does God purposely kill off 180,000 Israelites while they were wandering in the desert, or did
180,000 Israelites die because they were wandering in the desert and they were trying to find
God’s presence in that horror?
The truth is, we get both in the Old Testament. There are 39 books in the OT that are not all
written the same. 39 books that involve history, poetry, songs, fables, and letters. Some books
are entirely about God’s power and creative presence and control. Others are about how people
respond to God’s presence in their lives and how situations turn out. And many books include
both! Both ways point to God’s position in our lives as the God of creation. I encourage you to
continue to ask these questions as you read scripture. How much of it is God’s control? Is God
really a divine puppet master? And how much of it is the people trying to make sense of God’s
presence in their lives? What does God have to say when things go well and things go poorly?
The story of God and God’s people is like a love story that carries on for centuries. A record that
skips over and over again, only God refuses to take the thing and change it or smash it, but lets it
play on. After these books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Malachi, there is relative quiet on the
scripture front. There is a 400 year pause in new prophets and scriptures. It doesn’t mean that
the relationship ends. It continues, and carries on, and through our history books we know that
the life of the Israelites and Jews continues to have major ups and downs. Rebellion, new
occupiers show up in the Romans, and continued issues with failing to live up to God’s
expectations in this relationship.
It’s time for an intermission. It’s time for a change in the story. A plot twist. A new song on
that record of God’s. As we get to it, remember all that has come. It hasn’t been all bad things.
But it hasn’t been all great things, either. It’s time for an intermission. It’s time for God to
change the tune, and prescribe a new way forward between God and the people to help us
understand God at work in this world. Get ready! It’s worth it. Amen.