So we read in Ezra an account of those who returned.  After 70 years, not everyone wanted to return, of course.  People had lived their whole lives there and had no interest in uprooting and rebuilding.  They had no connection to Jerusalem and as Jeremiah had encouraged them to do they had settled down, married, built houses, planted gardens and made a life for themselves.  For them, it was not bondage or hardship.  In fact, they had become quite successful.  Look at Ezra 2:68.  Not only did they bring with them what Cyrus returned to the Temple but they brought their own accumulated wealth.

“When they arrived at the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, some of the heads of the families gave freewill offerings toward the rebuilding of the house of God on its site. According to their ability they gave to the treasury for this work 61,000 drachmas of gold, (1,100 pounds), 5,000 minas of silver (3 tons) and 100 priestly garments.”

Many of them had done well in captivity.  Unlike their exit from Egypt when all they had was what the Egyptians gave them, they returned with more than they left and, likely, more than what Cyrus sent with them. In fact, it marks the time when Jews first became known as merchants and traders.  They settled all across the Empire and adopted the language and customs.  Instead of being primarily farmers they became business people.  Instead of being tied to the land they developed the ability to move and live anywhere.  For the first time, they became international citizens of every country.

Ezra 3:10-13:
“When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel. With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:

“He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.”

And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.”

It’s a bittersweet return, isn’t it?  For those that had seen the glory and extravagance of Solomon’s Temple this was painful.  For those who had no recollection of it, this was an exciting moment.

This passage is so descriptive for many of us.  How do we go through similar experiences and transitions?  How do we remember without residing in the past – the glory days?  How do we keep our memories and comparisons from damping the enthusiasm of the next generation?

Last week we talked about the dangers of nostalgia.  It can be not only harmful but fatal.  You can imagine the response of those who had seen what used to be when they began to rebuild.  There is hope on the one hand but comparison to the former only creates despair and sadness.  That’s the critical point in re-building anything – a life, a city, a business, a nation.  You need to remember and forget all at the same time.  You need to look back and look forward.

“The Boll Weevil Monument in downtown Enterprise, Alabama, United States is a prominent landmark and tribute erected by the citizens of Enterprise in 1919 to show their appreciation to an insect, the boll weevil, for its profound influence on the area’s agriculture and economy. They moved from cotton farming to peanut farming. Hailing the beetle as a “herald of prosperity,” it stands as the world’s only monument built to honor an agricultural pest.

The Monument consists of a statue of a woman holding a pedestal with a boll weevil perched on top.As a tribute to how something disastrous can be a catalyst for change, and a reminder of how the people of Enterprise adjusted in the face of adversity, the monument was dedicated on December 11, 1919 at the intersection of College and Main Street, the heart of the town’s business district.”

There are always two responses to catastrophe – sorrow and opportunity.

“The great Chicago fire of 1871 destroyed much of central Chicago along with the new Palmer House hotel.  “When it looked likely that the Palmer House would be destroyed, its architect, John M. Van Osdel, buried the blueprints in a hole in the basement, and covered them with a thick layer of sand and clay. Sand and clay are the chief materials used in the building material known as terra cotta. The blueprints survived the fire, and Van Osdel became convinced that clay terra cotta tile would make an excellent fireproof material.”  It did and Chicago became the first fireproof city in the country.

Zechariah 8:1-8:
“The word of the Lord Almighty came to me.
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “I am very jealous for Zion; I am burning with jealousy for her.”
This is what the Lord says: “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the Faithful City (The City of Truth) and the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain.”
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.”
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “It may seem marvelous to the remnant of this people at that time, but will it seem marvelous to me?” declares the Lord Almighty.
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will save my people from the countries of the east and the west. I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God.”

While the last passage was about the response to the task of rebuilding this is about God’s greater vision for the role of Jerusalem.  It is not just rebuilding a city, is it?  It is a particular kind of city – the City of Truth.

That’s not normally what we think of when we think of cities, is it?  We think of sometimes dangerous and confusing places. We like to visit but we are careful when we go there.  The very word “urban” sounds intimidating and foreign.

But a place where people come to hear the truth is what God is describing.  Yes, it does sound impossible to us but not to God.  What these passages are describing is not just the physical rebuilding of the city but the rebuilding of the moral core of a city based on law and justice and righteousness.  The foundations of a city are not just physical, are they?  Look at Zechariah 7:8-10.

“And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.  Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.”

If you look closely at these chapters you will see the word truth in several places.  “Speak the truth to each other and render true and sound judgement in your courts; do not plot evil against your neighbor, and do not love to swear falsely.”

“Love truth and peace.”

What would it be like to be known as a city of truth?   What is the role of the church in a city like that?  I think it goes back to our lesson several weeks ago on the phrase “without a vision the people do what they please.”  The word vision means word of The Lord – not grand plan.  Without the word of The Lord, the people will wander.

Zechariah 10:2  “The idols speak deceit.  Diviners see visions that lie, they tell dreams that are false.  They give comfort in vain.  Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd.”

I think that is the role of the church in the city.  It is to be the one place where people hear the truth consistently.  Not harsh or judgmental but telling the truth in love.  Paul calls it exhorting one another.  In other places he calls it the gift of prophecy – speaking God’s words.

Look at verse 23 in chapter 8.  “In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the edge of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’ ”  God is with you.  Immanuel.

In a world of spin and lies and angles where no one even believes there is such a thing as truth and justice and righteousness, people seeking the truth should be able to come to the church and the church should be “salt and light” for the truth in the city.

The third passage this morning is from Malachi – the last book of the Old Testament.  Here we see the vision for the future Day of The Lord that is coming.  It is like the last episode at the end of the season.  We see a glimpse of what is next but it leaves us hanging.  What will that day be like?  When will it come?  How will we know?

Malachi 4:1-6:
“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.
“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.
“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

Again, it’s about rebuilding and we begin with remembering.  Not reminiscing about the times past but remembering the decrees and laws.  That is time and again the role of each generation – to pass on the values and expectations.  To have answers for our children when they ask.  To teach them through our daily lives.

Deuteronomy 11:18-21:  “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,  so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.”

This is the final re-building.  It is the rebuilding of the relationship with God himself.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

What was the original relationship between God and us?  It was one of father and children but that was lost in the Fall.  We turned our hearts away.  We have memories of what it must have been like but cannot recapture it.  It’s a longing we have for that relationship but it is in the future.  That is our hope and our expectation – to be returned to that relationship and a world that is free from the corruption of sin.  I like the way C.S. Lewis puts it:

“The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not IN them, but only came THROUGH them, and what came THROUGH them was longing. These things — the beauty, the memory of our own past — are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of the flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited . . . . The sense that in this universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret. . . .

“Our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation.” (C.S. Lewis, Transposition and Other Addresses, ch 2)

That is where Malachi and the Old Testament leaves us with a longing for being reunited with the Father.  We know there is something coming that will restore the world and repair the relationship that is broken between the Father and his children.  Between Malachi and Matthew there is one blank page in your Bible that represents 400 years of silence on the part of God.  No more prophets.  No more psalms or wisdom or stories.  Just silence until He speaks again and says, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  That is the beginning of the great restoration.  The great reconciliation.  The great repair.