3rd Sunday of Ordinary Times

What is your favorite type of story? Are you a big fan of spy thrillers? Do you have a shelf full of P.D. James or Agatha Christi murder mysteries? Is Science Fiction your favorite genre? No, don’t tell me you like those Romance Novels you can buy at the grocery store checkout. Since grade school, I’ve liked to read biographies because real life is often more entertaining than fiction.

We all like good stories. A well-crafted story, either written or spoken, is engaging and entertaining. We find it interesting how people confront challenges, come to decisions and make choices in their lives. Sometimes we can see other people’s stories in ways they can’t and therefore learn lessons they overlook.

In today’s Gospel, the evangelist Luke tells his patron Theophilus he has tried to craft a good account of the story of Jesus’ life, and he has tried to be careful in his work to get it right. Luke tells Theophilus he compiled a narrative of the events of Jesus’ life by consulting eyewitnesses to Jesus’ public ministry and those who are ministers of the word. Luke has reviewed other written accounts and sources to formulate his version of Jesus’ life, and Luke says he has woven them together in a sequence, a good story Luke hopes will help pass on the faith.

We love stories because we are living a story. We need to know our stories to reflect on them and learn not to fall into the same dumb choices and bad decisions we have made in the past. We need to slow down, recall, and reflect on our stories if we want to grow in life. Maybe that would be a good exercise for many of us on these long winter nights. Give some thought and reflection on the story of your life.

Our little stories aren’t important because of us, but because they are part of a larger story that is God. God has a significant role in developing the outline of our life stories. God decided the vital particulars of them. We get to fill in the details. Or at least some of them. God chose when we would be born, who our parents would be, and many of the circumstances in our lives, such as birth order and other vital characteristics. Our story is all part of God’s story.

That is the lesson our first reading teaches us today. The Book of Nehemiah comes from the Old Testament, and it makes for an exciting story. Nehemiah is a Jewish man living in Persia, present-day Iraq, and Iran. He is part of the Jewish people who were exiled from Jerusalem a couple of generations before. The Jews had angered God by not being faithful to God and becoming corrupted by sin. Their unfaithfulness made them susceptible to conquest by their enemies. Babylonia conquered the land, destroyed Jerusalem, and took many people into exile.

Despite being a foreign exile, Nehemiah holds an important office under the King of Persia. He is the King’s cupbearer. That sounds menial to us, but it was similar to being the President’s Chief of Staff today. He was a close advisor to the monarch.

Nehemiah lives in this position of power and luxury when he learns the real story of his origins and conditions in his native land. He discovers Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its walls have never been rebuilt since the enemy broke them down years before. That was a disgraceful position for Jerusalem, and it meant anyone could just come into the town. It is as if it were standing naked and exposed.

This condition is of concern to Nehemiah, and it causes him to become depressed and moves him to want to rectify the situation. At significant risk, Nehemiah requests a leave of absence from his position as the King’s advisor so he can go to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. He also asks the King for the material to fix the walls and the military force to bring it about.

Surprisingly, the King appoints Nehemiah, governor of Judah, rather than giving him a leave of absence. Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem and, despite many roadblocks and obstacles, rallies the people and gets the job done in less than two months.

That is where we pick up in today’s story. The wall is finished, and it is time to celebrate. The people begin with a religious service and the reading of scripture. Our first reading tells us:

Ezra, the priest, brought the Law before the assembly,

Which was made up of men, women,

And all who were old enough to understand.

The priest was reading from the part of the Bible called the Pentateuch. That is the first five books of the Old Testament called the Law of Moses, and it tells of the covenant God had established with the Israelites as they wandered in the desert. The people of Jerusalem had never really heard the Law because they had neglected it like they neglected the city walls.

Nehemiah said:

The people had been weeping

As they listened to the word of the Law.

As Ezra the priest read the Law, the people realized they hadn’t been faithful to God’s Law out of ignorance. Now they came to realize how God wanted them to live and the beauty of God’s commands. They hadn’t understood the great quality of life God wanted for them if they followed God’s Law. They are crying because they are genuinely sorry about the neglect of their faith.

But that isn’t the result God wanted for the people. Nehemiah tells them God wants them to rejoice that now they know God’s desire for them, they need to celebrate rather than weep.

Then Nehemiah said,

“Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks,

And send some to those who have nothing prepared.

Nehemiah wants them to rejoice because:

This day is sacred to our Lord.

Do not be sad and do not weep

For the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Nehemiah encourages the sad people to move beyond their sorrow, and they should rejoice in what God is now doing in their lives.

We all have regrets in life, and we are conscious of negative things that make us sad. None of us can pretend we are like Frank Sinatra and claim we have lived life “My Way” without regret. If you have nothing to regret, you don’t know your story very well, or you just aren’t being honest with yourself. Everyone gets some things in life wrong, and we regret it.

We regret partying too much when we were in school and failed to appreciate our chance at education. We lost a long-standing friendship because of a misunderstanding. Our marriage fell apart because we were unfaithful and didn’t fight for it. We feel we should have been a better parent, stood up against injustice in our workplace, or given a suffering person more support.

I regret not being a more forceful person at times. There have been times when I have allowed myself to be bullied into not taking the risks I feel God was calling me to take for the Gospel. I have let people convince me to be satisfied doing things the way they always have been done rather than being adventurous and courageous in responding to God’s will.

Last week I told you that earlier in my priesthood, I took some courses where writing my autobiography was one of the course assignments, and I had to present it to my classmates for feedback. The first time I wrote my autobiography, I admit it wasn’t complete. There were parts of my life I didn’t feel comfortable delving into and sharing with practical strangers. I didn’t want to think about them. I regrated things in my life and didn’t want to face them just then.

God wants to redeem our regrets. To redeem us from our faults and failures is why God sent Jesus into our world as Savior. If we all face our regrets and bring them to the Lord, we will experience spiritual growth and more satisfying lives. God wishes to give us all control over the story of our lives. God wants us to feel empowered to confront our regrets and use them for our good. God desires for us to have the opportunity to write the ending of the story of our lives.

Looking at our lives, we might regret our financial decisions, actions in our marriages, and the way we raised our children. Maybe we regret not being more faithful to God. Our commitment to faith has been shallow, and we have treated it only as an obligation to get out of the way as quickly as possible. Like the walls of Jerusalem, we can rebuild our relationship with God.

God gives us that chance through confession, the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is God’s gift to us for the opportunity to surrender our regrets and experience the joy of God’s grace. I’m in the Reconciliation Room at the back of the church every Saturday afternoon from 3-3:45. Believe me, I’m not that busy and wish I was much more in demand. If that time isn’t convenient for you, we can make an appointment. After the people of Jerusalem regrated their unfaithfulness, Nehemiah told them it was time to rejoice and celebrate. He told them to find new strength in God, go ahead and write a new ending to their stories, let it be one of faithfulness and joy that they can be the holy ones of God. That is the same message God wants us to hear for ourselves today.