The book of Ezra is about a homecoming.  The people of Israel have been away for decades, exiled and virtually enslaved in Babylon.  Practically speaking, they'd been overrun by the mighty Babylonian empire.  Spiritually speaking, they'd lost their fervor and God allowed them to suffer this hardship.

But now, thanks to a shift in power from the Babylonians to the Persians, and thanks to King Cyrus, and later King Darius, and for awhile Artaxerxes, the people of Israel get to go home to repopulate their land, to rebuild their temple and (in the book of Nehemiah) to rebuild the walls of the city.

The people come home in waves.  The last few chapters of Ezra are about Ezra himself.  It is confusing that he is sent by Artaxerxes, which reveals a flip flop for Artaxerxes and shows the non-chronological nature of the Ezra narrative.  We are left to suppose that sometime during Artaxerxes' reign, he was favorable to the relocation of Jews, and sent Ezra into the mix.  Ezra comes home with a new wave of re-settlers and a strong message for the people.  In essence, this is it:  Don't let what happened to our fathers and their fathers happen to us.  They allowed their faith to grow cold and to become diluted by intermarriage with people of other faiths.

Verse 9:1-2 puts it in simple terms.  "The people have not kept themselves separate from neighboring people and their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites.  They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them."

Realize, it uses the phrase "holy race" in verse 2, but we're not really talking about racism (though racism sure existed).  There were interracial conversions to Judaism then just as there are conversions to Christianity today.  And people could marry foreign–born Jews.  We're talking about people marrying those who don't have the same faith and values, and then suffering the obvious results – diluted faith.  In some cases, to show respect for false gods and values foreign to the ways of the One True God, they embraced a polluted faith – scholars call it syncretism – a goopy mixture of religions that no longer looks like the real deal.  Verse 10, "The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples."

So Ezra nails it on the head; and he aims high.  It starts with leaders – priests and officials have led the way (verse 2) in this unfaithfulness.

In verse 3, Ezra tears his tunic, pulls hair from his head and beard, and sits down.  All of this to say, "I'm really, really appalled.  And I think you know that I speak for God in this."  And the ones who "trembled at the words of God" joined in his lamenting.

Ezra's prayer of confession is a good model for the kind of prayer that serves all of our souls now and then.  "Lord, I'm ashamed.  We're ashamed.  We know the consequence of sin.  Dull and tangled up faith - Emotional separation from a holy God.  You've been so gracious, so many times.  We know what you require.  We can't plead ignorance.  You've punished us less than we deserve.  Not one of us can stand in your presence and pretend that we're faultless."

Then Ezra and the people fall down weeping.  They gather and develop a strategy for making things right.  We don't have much detail about how they separated themselves and cleaned house, but we only hope that they found a way that wasn't completely abusive or dismissive, leaving women or even children abandoned or completely vulnerable.  Most of you know that Old Testament stories are often peppered with brutality and even a God-consciousness that can be tainted by what we would consider primitive culture.  Our modern ways, especially when filtered through New Testament principles, sometimes leave our mouths agape as we read the Old Testament.

Still, there are lessons for all time in the Old Testament and lessons that are reiterated in the New Testament.  The most obvious carryover is the 2 Corinthians 6 passage on partnering with people who don't share our faith and values.  "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.  What could you possibly have in common?  Light and darkness?  Righteousness and wickedness?  A living Temple of God and a house of other idols?"  Verse 7:1 says much the same thing as Ezra's comments on pollution. "Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit."

That sounds so harsh, mostly because we're supposed to pretend that no one way of life is better than any other.

As a youth pastor, I remember the clang of the death knell for the faith of students when they'd start dating non-Christians.  I'd watch it every time – sometimes even under the ruse of missionary dating, Christian kids would get emotionally, romantically and then sexually attached to people without an active faith until – goodbye faith, replaced by shame, initially, and finally a confession fatigue and a dulled conscience  toward God.  Many or most we'd never see again.  And in almost every case, faith was thrown away for a relationship that lasts for a few weeks or months.  Not that some don't come back, but it's all just so sad.

Teens and singles date someone with shared core values, or else yours will be challenged, compromised and likely disappointed.  And why have an intimate relationship that excludes something as critical as faith.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul makes it clear that if you come to faith and you're already married to someone without faith in Christ, don't abandon.  Verse 17 says, "Each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God called him."  In other words, if you're married, stay married.

But if we have the luxury of choosing, choose critical partnerships with people who own our values.  And while Jesus constantly associated with worldly people and invites us to do the same, he affected them; they did not infect him.  He was a light and calls us to be lights.  He was salt (spice, preservative), and calls us to be salt.  Jesus connected in a thousand ways with broken, sinful people, and walked them toward wholeness, but warned us about being so friendly with the world to the point where we're the ones being coaxed toward a different set of values.

Obviously, this isn't just about intermarriage.  Almost anything, and so often good things, has the appeal and the power to dilute or pollute our faith.  We could be talking about the allure of self-medicating with alcohol or the frivolity of youth sports gradually stealing away our time with God and His bride – the community of faith.

All the while, there are subtle infusions of godless philosophies gradually undermining our better instincts – some of the isms that contradict God's plan for us.

Individualism hammers away at us, urging us to swallow lies about our self-importance and to believe that we can have fulfilling life in isolation from community and accountability.  

In the book "The Master Trend," Cheryl Russell identifies growing individualism as the chief culprit infusing our society with divorce, crime, public apathy and overall selfishness.  People are now raised to think for themselves on behalf of themselves, and personal needs are given priority over community needs, family needs, social commitments, and moral convictions.

One interesting statistic – in 1940, only 11% of women and 20% of men agreed with the statement, "I am an important person."  Fifty years later, 66% of women and 62% of men said yes.  Now, through our 21st century lenses, we'd cry out, "Why did people in the 1940's have such low self-esteem?"  The reality, of course, is that that generation saw their lives and their importance in concert with family and community.  I think it's good to know that God has assigned enormous worth to each and every one of us.  But the sad thing is our losses in regard to community and family.

Out of individualism grows CONSUMERISM.  Nothing is really good unless I think it's good.  If it's good for me, I'll buy it.  If I don't like it, I'll pass on it.  So we have become a shopping center of ethical and moral ideas and most are choosing whatever seems to be a bargain or a timely fetish.

MORAL RELATIVISM is the obvious outgrowth, where people no longer buy the notion of absolute truth and we become our own gods with our own systems of right and wrong.  And this weird thinking sits quietly in church pews.  Pollster, George Barna, more than a decade ago, found that 1/3 of self-described evangelical Christians believe that all people pray to the same god and that faith in Christ is not absolutely necessary, so long as one is a good person (obviously not what Jesus and the Bible teaches).  73% of evangelicals said they don't believe in absolute truth, only 5% less than the population at large.  Has it gotten better or worse in the last ten years?  Some say better, and this latest generation of young adults is world weary and distrusting its moral relativism.  We'll see.

So, even Christians, with all the biblical input to the opposite, say, "Sex outside of marriage may be wrong for you, but not for me or my kids," or "cheating on my taxes or cheating my employees or cheating God might be wrong for you, but for me, I have a free pass."

Other isms make their claim.  Pluralism can be good – the Bible teaches respect for all people.  But if we lose the ability to discern and debate the relative merit of ideas and philosophies – even religions, ours included – then we are vulnerable to every funky and freaky worldview.

Again, as we talked about last week, who are we willing to give authority to in our lives?  Ourselves?  God?  Oprah?  Who's in charge?

My experiences (personal and observational) point toward a sad spiral when Jesus isn't given authority, and an inexplicable peace and spiritual progress when He is.

The Christian way is the better way.  Jesus has so completely proven himself and his way of thinking and living to be the very best way to carry on in this life and to be secure about the next life.  If I believe this, why would I be shy about urging every friend and even a few enemies to adopt and embrace Jesus and His teachings?

But we're so saturated by this culture – so afraid of offending or sounding unsophisticated.  We don't, ultimately, love people enough, even to throw them a life preserver. Or we're disappointed by our own faith, or lack of zeal, and suffering from confession fatigue until a worn-out cynicism steals the space that once belonged to eager teach ability.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Lord, we've become a people who are not easily ashamed.  Saturated by the culture around us, we've compromised too often.

We know that his shift poisons our minds, stifles our growth and sabotages our model for others.

You've always been gracious – receiving us, accepting us, and even redeeming our frailties.

We know that you ask for more – a lifestyle that's set apart for You and Your purposes.

Thank You so much for giving us more than we deserve and punishing us less than we deserve.

We bow down today, humbled in your presence and determined to start again – Your way.

                                Amen

My goal today is not to make us feel ashamed, though I fear that it takes far too much to shame us these days.  I don't feel called to preach a downer, but to be quite matter-of-fact and then to let the Holy Spirit work on all of our hearts doing the aftermath.

Just a few strong encouragements:

1. Any real and complete cleansing can only come through Jesus, from Jesus and by Jesus.  His love and grace, and his sacrifice on the cross, have ransomed us and we are free and forgiven.  Every day should be guilt free and even susceptible to every kind of joy.
2. But we're not so free that we can be dismissive about the disparity between our savior's model life and our own lives.  With every kind of spiritual discipline and spiritual help (prayer, confession, meditation, scripture reading, fasting, simplicity, community, accountability, surrender, submission, you name it…), we're called into an ever-transforming, never stuck or settled, journey of spiritual growth.

And part of that means being careful of those involvements that dilute or pollute, weaken or water down the virility of our faith lives.

Hebrews 12:1

God's calling us to an edgy faith; struggling and yet at peace; striving and yet at rest; questioning and yet resolved; never completely satisfied with our maturity levels, and yet increasingly content with the lives God has given us." To love him yet still to pursue him, this is the soul's paradox of love," writes Tozer.  It's true in all of our critical relationships.  There's no place to sit down and say, "Enough."  We keep moving and growing and seeking and asking.