Links for today’s readings:
Read: Nehemiah 13 Listen: (5:57), Read: Revelation 22 Listen: (3:59)
Links for Wednesday’s readings:
Read: Genesis 1 Listen: (4:55), Read: John 1 Listen: (6:18)
Scripture Focus: Nehemiah 13.6-11
6 But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission 7 and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. 8 I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. 9 I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.
10 I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. 11 So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.
Revelation 22.12-13
12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
“If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.”
— Orson Welles
Reflection: Wait for the Final Reel
By John Tillman
A calendar year is an arbitrary measurement, like a reel of a film. Before digital projection took over, a thousand-foot-long reel would hold about eleven minutes of film. Projectionists changed reels continuously to show complete films.
How is the story of this year ending for you? Whether it’s bad or good…it’s not really the end. It’s just one reel.
In 1986, Saturday Night Live imagined a new reel to end the Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. After the happy moment of the community coming together and George’s business being saved, they continued the story in a darker direction. Uncle Billy remembers where he lost the money. They discover “Old Man Potter” deposited it. They rush out, find Potter, and beat him to death.
The sketch wrapped up a loose thread from the original in a darkly funny way. However, it illustrates that, depending on where you end it, a story can go from bright and hopeful, showing the best of humanity, to dark and ugly, showing the worst. George’s story would also be very different if it ended at the bridge, before Clarence interfered in his suicide attempt.
Biblical stories change too, depending on when you stop reading. Nehemiah chapter 12 has a perfect happy ending. The hero accomplishes his purpose. Enemies are shamed. Jerusalem is restored. But there’s another reel. Corruption creeps back in—literally. The greedy villain who dogged Nehemiah through the whole story moves into the Temple! Nehemiah throws Tobiah out, but that wasn’t the end. Nehemiah ends by repeatedly calling on God’s mercy.
There’s much to celebrate in Nehemiah, but it’s not a simple, happy story about good leadership or a template for legalistic enforcement of religious laws. 400 years later, Jesus cleansed the Temple of corrupt and greedy robbers and confronted legalistic systems Nehemiah enforced.
Nehemiah is just a reel out of a film we are all in—struggling against sin and crying out for mercy. The story isn’t over when we kick villains out or when they crawl back to power. In this world, corruption consistently creeps back in.
When we fail or when we win, it’s just the rise and fall of a thrilling tale. In the final reel, the real hero returns. Our story ends with Jesus’ ultimate victory.
Where you end a story, changes what kind of story it is. Wait for the final reel.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
Happy are they whom you choose and draw to your courts to dwell there! They will be satisfied by the beauty of your house, by the holiness of your temple. — Psalm 65.4
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more about It’s Not Over When It’s Over
Can we save falling things? Perhaps. But failing that, we can rise from destruction…endure to the end. All will fall down. We will stand up.
Read The Bible With Us
It’s the perfect time to join our Bible reading plan. Invite friends to read with you at a sustainable, two-year pace.
