Saratoga Federated Church

New Beginnings

The Book of Ezra, Chapters 1-2

September 9, 2006

When God Gives a Vision

Ezra, a companion piece.

Most scholars agree that Nehemiah is written by the same author as Ezra – often called "the Chronicler" by scholars – likely Ezra himself.
There is even some shared text between the two (if anyone wants to find them and let me know, enjoy the hunt).
There is a clear progression of thought. Ezra tells the story of the temple under reconstruction, but it's vulnerable. The city has no walls. Nehemiah is about rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.

Setting the stage for Ezra.

2 Chronicles 36:15-23 – The ebbs and flows of Israel's covenant loyalty. The rise and fall of conquering dynasties. (Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Turks).
Israel has suffered the consequences for their most recent disregard, and they have been overrun and enslaved by the Babylonians for 70 years. That's enough time for many to forget the faith of their fathers and to assimilate into Babylonian culture. The land has been virtually abandoned.
Now enters Cyrus, King of Persia. He and his overrun the Babylonians, and someone cues Cyrus about a previous prophecy from Jeremiah (25:1-14) (Note: The Old Testament is not always chronological, but rather set up by types of literature. Ezra is part of the historical writings or the "chronicles." Jeremiah is among the prophetic books). Part of the fun of Old Testament study is piecing together the eras and their corresponding Old Testament records.
So the words of Jeremiah 29:10-14 come true. Hear these famous words in their original context.

Cyrus has a vision.

The hero of Nehemiah is Nehemiah, the one who leads new waves of people home to rebuild the walls. The hero of Ezra is really Cyrus. He has a vision for:

rebuilding the temple
repopulating the land
enlisting everyone, Jewish or not to donate resources
to reposition the articles of worship (most notably, the Ark of the covenant, made famous by Indiana Jones, which held the 10 Commandments and the Shekinah of God, is missing, possibly burned in the destruction of the first temple by Nebuchadnezzar).

Why Cyrus?

He is just the latest in a long line of conquerors among a fairly godless people – or, rather, a people who had many gods.
Perhaps from the Jeremiah prophecies, Cyrus develops sympathy for a religion that predicts his conquest and a people who represent the God of Jeremiah.
Or maybe, as it says in Ezra 1:1, the Lord simply moves Cyrus' heart. And then Cyrus simply cooperates.

It starts with vision.

Some define vision in glowing phrases like these – Vision is unusual foresight or discernment. Or vision is the capacity to sense what can be from what is not yet. Or vision is a direct mystical awareness of the will of God. I like to simplify and say that vision is seeing what God wants to do and finding a way to cooperate.

It's pretty much textbook visioning.

Cyrus spreads the vision to the scattered tribes.
He recruits and authorizes Jeshua and Zerubbabel, and others. In the end, 42,360 people, plus servants and animals, make the trek back to their homeland.
Of course, he had the advantage of being King. But there's not much about the story that sounds heavy handed.

With the vision comes provision, an absolute necessity.

Pro-vision – Giving "for the Vision." If today's church believed and behaved as if our giving was really a passionate outpouring of our enthusiasm for a compelling vision, why, I get all bleary-eyed just to think how thrilling church life could be.
By the way, Cyrus gives. Then the neighbors of the Israelites give (amazing, they give to their departing neighbor). Then the Israelites themselves give. And off they go to rebuild the temple.
But don't think for an instant that this is just about a building. Yes, the temple in Jerusalem was a huge icon of the faith. It was the greatest building of the ancient world, and a resting place for the ark and the Shekinah of God. Pilgrims would come from all over the ancient world to worship the one true God; and its destruction was both the product of the spiritual deterioration of the people and the pinnacle of it.
Rebuilding the temple was only part of it. Repopulating the land, reawakening dormant spiritual sensitivities (now piqued because of the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy) and reestablishment of a people bonded by a common faith in a powerful God – all of this huge! This isn't just a glorified building project. This is revival! A new beginning. A fresh start.

For a few months now, we've been rebuilding a sanctuary. A few weeks from now, we'll be worshiping there. Someone will undoubtedly accuse me of preaching from Ezra during theses several weeks because of its correlation to our own season together. Of course I am; and ultimately I have visions and hopes for our life together with God that include this project of ours. And I'm not alone.

Two years ago, a very prayerful group of church leaders, probably all of them more God-conscious and God-loving than Cyrus of Persia, received and collaborated and called all of us into a compelling vision for our church over a 5 year period, with implications far beyond 5 years. The first and most critical part of that vision is transformation. All of us need transformation as we acquire and declare and learn to live our faith. The church needs transformation as we become more prayerful, out-reaching and evangelistic people, and as we give special attention to critical matters like baptism as a threshold experience, leadership development and stewardship. We are so gifted by God, and any spirit-sensitive person knows that we are deeply compromised by our sheepishness about committing time, talent and treasure. And if our commitment grows and we're transformed as individuals and as a church, then the world will be transformed. This is not radical or even negotiable. This is Christianity. Growing together in Christ and then changing the world. We want to seed new ministries, boost existing ministries, send and support missionaries, while all of us see our own lives with a sense of mission and our church as a regional resource center for God's church. Transformation, me and you, the church and the world, and it's all happening.

Second, our vision is expansion. Three interesting approaches to expanding our ministry are in various stages of development. By forming strategic partnerships with other ministries, we actually want to send "go teams" from this church to places like Rohi Temple of Reconciliation, to spread ourselves out and to give critical help to strategic ministries in our area.

We are also looking at the growing home church movement around the world with some curiosity, and a few small groups have indicated curiosity about what it would take to be more than a small group cell of the larger church, but rather an embryonic church.

And we're looking at satellite ministry sites, like the high school, and even some surrounding communities.

This whole arena (expansion) is the hardest one to get traction in. Why? This church is hard to leave, even for the best of reasons, and this whole concept is new to this church (though not, obviously, to other thriving congregations who plant churches as the norm).

Third, and finally, we have a vision to renovate the sanctuary, our primary meeting place, and only for reasons that support transformation and expansion. No one in the visioning process or in the leadership culture of this church wanted to renovate the buildings over the last seven years simply to cushion our own nest. It's only and always about reaching more people in more meaningful and lasting ways.