Ezra 3: "Courage my friends, it is not too late to make a better world"

  

We had a good time at the Rally Day: Picnic in the Park the other day. It was a really great mix of the parts of our Salvation Army group in the Valley. Many of you here today, of course, were there on Friday. There were a number of volunteers and their families; there were a number of staff and their families; there were a number of children we know from kids’ club and other places; there were customers from the store; there were some of our friends who use or have used our services over the years. It was even an outreach as some people just dropped by and I even saw one or two people I know from the community as well: it was great. It was really great to have people from these different parts of The Salvation Army family here have an opportunity to do something together and maybe get to know each other a little better.

For the second year in a row this Picnic in the Park doubled as our Rally Day. Rally Day is a word we use in The Salvation Army to celebrate the end of Summer and getting ready for the upcoming fall programs. When we get all the final dates set with all the different people involved, when we know, we will let everyone know when everything is happening. Some of the events already starting are Della’s groups: Wednesday coffee time, Friday morning walks. We just started coffee time after church again after a couple of years absence.

Before Covid we used to have a Monday hiking group too. I was reminded of this yesterday as Susan, Heather and I when to Fossli Park. That was a place that we went to with our group before covid. 

  

This year’s fall programs do feel a little strange. As with much of the word, we are still getting into the swing of things after 2 plus years of Covid. We need to update our phone and other contact lists as people have changed, just as circumstances have. Some of the typical church activities like Bible Study we haven’t done in a long time – it will seem very strange to do this again, a good strange but strange, nonetheless. Other things have changed a few times over the last 2 plus years – sermons have become much shorter as have services. Somethings – just like with many other organizations and businesses - we have even forgotten how to do parts of them. You see this with all the community events that are starting up here and all over our world after a couple of years break: people have forgotten how to do things we used to do all the time. We are getting back to normal and maybe it is a ‘new normal’ but it doesn’t quite feel normal yet.

We read from Chapter 3 of Ezra this morning. In the book of Ezra people are beginning to return to the way things were after a minimum 20-year break. We know how difficult it is trying to remember how to do things after a two year break, imagine returning to your old job after a 20 year break and trying to remember how to do everything or imagine returning to your church and having to set up the church calendar after a 20 year break or imagine returning to your old town (along with a few hundred other people) after a 20 year break and trying to find your old house, your old job, and trying to remember the way you used to do everything. Now, that 20 years is a minimum number. People who were the first to be deported could have been in exile from Jerusalem for anywhere from between 48 and 70 years, the full length of the exile.

This is what the book of Ezra-Nehemiah is: people trying to return to normal or a ‘new normal’, as we say now, but trying to make it as close to the old normal as possible – but instead of trying to pull everything together after a 2-year gap, they are trying to pull it together after a, in some cases, 70 year gap.

Now, I know that you haven’t all had the luxury of reading and reading about Ezra this week, so I’ll remind you of a bit more of the context and background. Israel was conquered by the Assyrians ca. 720 BCE and Judah was conquered in 597 BCE (586 BCE, the Temple in Jerusalem is destroyed) by the Neo-Babylonians/Chaldeans. By the year 539 BCE the Persians in turn had conquered both the Assyrians and the Chaldeans and this sets up the events in the books of Ezra-Nehemiah that tell the story of the exiles returning home from Babylon to Jerusalem, returning to the new normal.

Ezra and Nehemiah are two books in our Bible but they were actually written on one scroll called Ezra-Nehemiah and these two books, this scroll talks about many of the problems that the Judeans had returning to the new normal. In reading the book you get the feeling that some people may have thought that they could just go back to the way things were before, some people seemed to have an idealistic view, some seemed tentative, some practical, and others were afraid, very afraid.

All of these responses reminded me of people in our world, our country, our community, and our churches today. Now that the precautions and the measures adopted for Covid-19 are coming to an end, some people seem to hope that everything will return to an idealistic version of the old normal, the way things used to be – at least the good parts of the way things used to be. Some people remember times when all the churches in this country were full. Some people in The Salvation Army remember days of large bands and even large junior bands. Some people remember this and some people remember that. The longer ago the memories the more fondly we remember them too – but - at the same time we can’t quite remember the ways we used to do things just 2 plus years ago just before covid-19 struck. Sometimes it seems like we (or at least I) can’t even remember what we did yesterday.

The passage that stuck out to me as I was reading and re-reading the opening chapters of Ezra was 2:70-3:3:

The priests, the Levites, the musicians, the gatekeepers and the temple servants settled in their own towns, along with some of the other people, and the rest of the Israelites settled in their towns.

 

When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem. Then Joshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening sacrifices.

 

The people settled in their own homes – they returned to the new normal even though some of the people were very afraid; they met together and made sacrifices to the Lord. My friends there are some uncertain times still ahead here as we worship the Lord and as we return to our new normal. As we re-start Bible studies, coffee times, kids club, and other things, it will be a new normal. It won’t be they way things were 2 years ago; it won’t be the way things were 20 years ago or 70 years ago but we are returning to this new normal of worship and service and I invite you all to join us in whatever way you can as we figure out together exactly what is this new normal way of serving God in this time and place.

I want to share one more story with you today. This is from when Susan, the kids and I were in Victoria recently. I have always liked a picture my father-in-law had of Tommy Douglas and himself leaning on a fence. 

 

This is a great picture. Susan told me a little bit about the picture the other week. This picture was apparently taken at Susan’s grandma’s farm. She invited Tommy Douglas to visit one day when he was on the Island and he did. When he was there he had a good conversation with Susan’s dad – and it was during the conversation that Tommy Douglas convinced Bob Skelly to enter politics. Susan’s dad then went on to be a leader of the party and the longest ever serving MLA for this riding. It is a great picture. There is another poster at their place of Tommy Douglas with a quote that says, “Courage, my friends, it is not too late to make a better world”.  And that reminds me of a quote – almost the dying words of Jack Layton, “My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.”

I think this is a very important reminder and a great encouragement for everyone and especially for us as we embark on our new normal. It is my hope that as we go forward in this new church season, we will remember “My friends, [that] love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.” For “it is never too late to make a better world”

Let us pray.

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