C Cycle – 3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 25

Neh.8:2-4a, 5-6,8-10

We all know how unpredictable life can be.  In the past hundred years worldwide, we have experienced two pandemics, two world wars, a great depression, the dust bowl era, floods, earthquakes, civil wars, and civil unrest.  In our first reading today Nemiah and the Jewish people have experienced exile, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.  They have just been freed and have returned to Jerusalem and are overwhelmed by the destruction.  Where was God when they needed Him?  Nemiah gathers them together and reads from the scroll, a reminder that God had not abandoned them.    

What went through the minds of those exiled as they like the people of North Carolina and California returned to see total and complete destruction How do you even cope without resources or help from anyone else?  All they could think about is their own inability to start over and rebuild. Rebuild their temple, their homes, their city, and their relationship with God.  Before he reads from the scroll, Neimiah turned to prayer seeking wisdom and to be a source of restoring the Israelites faith in God. In his words, he “…sat down and wept and mourned for days; and (he) was fasting and praying before the God of heaven” (Neh.1:5).

Neimiah reminds the people they had failed to live up to the covenant. That failing is one we are familiar with for we must admit is the human condition. We cannot resist that one sin that haunts us. Even if we do rid ourselves of that one sin, we will discover other sins and have minimized their impact on us.   Paul echoes this reality about us when he wrote “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom.3:23).  Nehemiah thanks God for His faithfulness and His promise to restore them and to never abandon them. 

Gathering the people together Nehemiah reads from the book of the law for hours and the people wept and prostrated themselves before the Lord.  Repentant, yes but beyond repentance was their sheer joy because of God’s mercy.  Did they pay a price for their sins? Of course, they did; they were in exile, Jerusalem was destroyed but God’s mercy is evident and palatable.  They are experiencing what each of us should experience as we come into the presence of God.  We should experience God’s mercy, His love, His faithfulness, and we should feel His forgiveness. God is not distant, and the scriptures tell us He is constantly revealing Himself to us.

 
No sin is too great to be forgiven, nor does it separate us from God.  We should realize we separate ourselves from God because we feel unworthy.  Any barrier that exists between us and God has been erected by us not God.  If God seems absent it is our action that has kept us from experiencing God’s presence.  No absence from the presence of God is too long for us to reestablish a relationship with God.  No failure on our part to pray, to read the scriptures or to attend mass is enough to condemn us. 

This reading sets us up to grasp the height, the depth, and the immensity of God’s love for us.  Jesus as He begins His ministry tells us He came to free the captives.  Us who are held captive to sin, to false images of God’s mercy and keep ourselves in bondage because we believe we will never overcome sin.  Our human nature keeps condemning us for our inability to remain faithful to the covenant.  Jesus says he will heal the broken hearted. 

What does that mean?  Each of us has been betrayed by love.  Parents who have failed to love us in a manner that we know is unconditional.  Their own brokenness and Expectations have caused us to know love does not heal all things.  The human love we experience is so far from God’s love how can we ever allow ourselves to be loved by God.  Because of our own brokenness, we protect ourselves by never revealing our weaknesses, our wants and desires and we control when and how we love.

That does not allow us to let God into those places where He can reach those places and set us free.  Nemiah is reminding us how much we need to pay attention to the Word of God.  For in the scripture stories, we get a glimpse of what mercy looks like.  The workers in the vineyard parable teaches us it is never too late to go into the presence of the Father.  The parable of the Sower of the seed, teaches us how easily we can want what God offers us but fail to allow it to grow in our hearts.  The parable of the prodigal son is the greatest lesson of forgiveness in the scriptures. 

The Father is waiting, looking, hoping for us to return and to allow His forgiveness to restore us.  Instead of seeking that mercy and allowing it to flood over us, cleansing us, healing us, and giving us a new image of who we are satisfied with so much less.  That son only wanted to be a slave in his father’s house.  It is time for us to heed the words of the scriptures and prostrate ourselves before our God.  It is time to acknowledge we needed a savior and embrace the forgiveness given to us by Christ. 

It is time to become who God created us to be as daughters and sons of the living God and acknowledge with the Spirit to guide us we can become new creations in Christ.