When You are the Answer to Your Prayers
Have you ever been angry? I mean really ticked off. The kind of anger that makes you want to go western on someone or thing, or pull out the black flag and start turning over tables or mopping the floor? The kind of anger that bleeds over easily into your prayers, and you are like the Psalmist saying, “God, why don’t you do something about this injustice or wrong?” Have you been there? I have. Oh, and I really hope you have because the opposite of love is not hate but indifference. I mean, when something you love or God loves is threatened, you ought to feel anger. And, as we see in the prayer book of the Bible, the place we take our anger first is to God.
But what if, after praying your anger to God and pleading with him to do something, God looks back at you and says, “Why aren’t you doing something?” Last week we saw the beginning of a calling to act. This week we see that Nehemiah is the answer to the prayers he prayed! I was surprised as I contemplated this, how often in the Bible the prayers of one of God’s people are answered in their own humanity. I think God is still doing this, but we haven’t really been listening—praying, yes; listening, well maybe not. This week we actually see this happen in the life of a man in the Secret Service to the king who is the oppressor of his people. How does that grab you? I know you are thinking, “Man, I am glad I will be on Spring Break; that might plow a bit close to the corn, as my forebears in Mississippi would say."
Anyway, I hope to see you if you are not traveling; and if you are, safe travels. But even if you are away, I have a recommendation for you. Our denomination has published resources on how to aid the people in the Ukraine through strategic ministry partners we have in the area. Please take the time to look this over and see how God might be calling you to be the answer to your own prayers there. Here is the link to the page on the EPC website: https://epc.org/donate/internationaldisasterrelief/
Blessings,
Jim
When You are the Answer to Your Prayers
March 13, 2022 • Rev. James M. Holland • Nehemiah 2:1–8
Holding, Folding, and Going All In
January 30, 2022 • Rev. James M. Holland • Ezra 4:24—5:4
Years ago, Kenny Rogers had a song called “The Gambler”. It was about a young man riding on a train, bound for nowhere, and meeting up with a gambler. The gambler decided after looking at the young man that he needed some advice. He basically told him, every hand is a winner and every hand is a loser, so you have to know when you hold, when to fold, or when to walk away. Israel found themselves in a situation where they were looking at the hand they were dealt and decided to fold and walk away. They read their hand through the eyes of the opposition they faced and the odds against them looked bad, so they stopped working on the temple. They started with great zeal but, when local pressure and political pressure mounted, they folded. For fifteen years, they folded. We learn, however, that it wasn’t just political pressure; it was just not a priority. Finally, Haggai the prophet takes them to task for neglecting the temple and urges them to “go all in.” In fact, he suggests that the reason they work hard but have no satisfaction is because they have relegated God to the side. This is the subject we’ll consider this Sunday. What does it look like to be “all in”? How do we sustain passion? How do we stay committed over the long haul? Tough questions in a day of infinite browsing and little commitments. But it should be eye-opening and will suggest a way towards real freedom. I hope to see you Sunday! Remember, if you are new to St. Patrick and would like to know more about our vision, values, mission and ministries, join me at 9:15am in the Adult Sunday School area for our Inquirers’ Class. Just make it to the coffee machines, and we will find you and get you in the right classroom. Blessings, Jim
The Shape of Kingdom Story
April 3, 2022 • Rev. James M. Holland • Nehemiah 4—7
The Shape of Kingdom Story Every year in the early spring, anger starts to build. I look out over my garden and it is fallow; yet weeds are starting to sprout everywhere. I survey my yard and the brown dormant grass is sprinkled with spring weeds. Teri’s beds are a mess, as well. For months this has been okay, but now it is not okay. My vineyard is also a depressing sight—it looks like a bee hive of branches, in no particular order. So, I am ticked. For this to be beautiful, something has to be roused from lethargy; priorities will have to shift—what I want is on the other side of hard! I belong to this place—that is why I feel anger. For it to bloom, I will have to push back the weeds that threaten to overrun everything. Anger is not enough. Anger just gets me going. The real work is in inventorying the needs for weed control in my yard, followed by trips to TSS and Russell’s Farm Supply. Cleaning out my sprayer, mulching leaves, picking up sticks. I have just a few Saturdays to get this done and other good things will have to wait, while hours upon hours are spent in back-breaking labor. Everything is out to wreck what I am trying to achieve—weeds, moles, raccoons, deer, bugs beyond reckoning, and weather. Not to mention, my own laziness and desire to do other things. Trouble without! Trouble within! Last week we saw Nehemiah set his people’s hair on fire. With the exception of the Tekoian nobles, everyone showed up to do work they were not good at, sacrificing personal glory for God’s glory. They were angry for God’s glory and so they came to work. This Sunday we see it takes much more than anger to get things done. Without anger, I suppose nothing worthwhile gets started, but what it takes to keep going is more like virtue. All kingdom building has a similar shape. There will be trouble without and trouble within, and it is so discouraging you want to quit. And yet, real kingdom-building perseveres. That is the part of the story we enter into this Sunday. I hope you will join us. We also have a bunch of new family members to introduce you to as well. Speaking of perseverance, I don’t know about you but I am ready for the dog days of Lent to give way to resurrection. It is coming––hang on! Blessings, Jim
Remember Me For Good
May 1, 2022 • Rev. Joshua Smith • Nehemiah 13:1–14
Remember Me for Good I ran into an acquaintance today who asked what I plan to preach this summer. When I told him we’re going to be exploring the Messianic Psalms, he lit up. “I’ve been asking this question and no one knows: why do the Jews want a Messiah when they don’t believe in Hell?” I was a bit taken aback at first, because, while I do earnestly believe that salvation from Hell is a primary eternal benefit, it’s been a long time since I assumed that Jesus’ only earthly objective was securing a heavenly afterlife. As a Cordovan, I grew up in the shadow of Bellevue Baptist Church, whose be-sainted Dr. Adrian Rogers famously said, “Some people just want to make the world a better place to go to hell from.” He was rightly pushing back against the idea of a social agenda without respect to the eternal state of souls before God. Indeed, “for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” And yet, Jesus also teaches us to pray that God’s “will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven,” and to reduce his insistence on love of neighbor to perpetual altar calls would be a tragic violation of the text. So, what is the relationship between eternal salvation and social reform? As we finally wrap up our semester-long series, Nehemiah seems to be wrestling with this tension, too. He doesn’t have our separation-of-church-and-state baggage, which, as we will see, really muddies the waters for him when it comes to the use of force. (Ezra pulls out his own hair; Nehemiah will pull out yours!) Still, his position as governor of a theocratic region gives him perhaps a better vantage point from which to explore the relationship between eternity and the here-and-now. Does he get it right? No. But, as it turns out, an anticlimax at the end of the Old Testament does exactly what it’s designed to do! And "the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." So, join us for one more week of Muddling Toward Messiah before we turn our attention to a summer of Psalms that speak with much more clarity and comfort about the God-Man, Lord and Savior of Heaven and Earth. - j