Sermon Notes — July 19, 2026
“Impossible Dream”
July 19, 2026
Rev. Dr. Mary Beth Bernheisel
Nehemiah 2:1-5, 11-12, 16-20 (CEB)
The story is Man of La Mancha, and Miguel de Cervantes is the hero…sort of. As the story begins de Cervantes has been thrown into a dungeon during the Spanish Inquisition. He has with him all of his most prized possessions, and his most prized possession of all, a manuscript – a book that he is writing. As the story moves along, we discover that the manuscript – the book – is a story. It’s a story about a man named Alonso Quijano, whose alter ego is Don Quixote. Don Quixote is the real hero of the story because he – Don Quixote insists on seeing the world not as it is but as it should be.
In the story, Don Quixote gets into swordfights with windmills that he perceives to be giant monsters. He lavishes compliments on a peasant barmaid whom he perceives to be a beautiful princess and to whom he dedicates all of his acts of bravery.
One particular cut is back to the prison where Miguel de Cervantes is having a conversation with another inmate. His fellow prisoner mocks him for creating this fictional character, this Don Quixote, who insists on seeing the world as it should be. The prisoner yells as de Cervantes:
“A man has to come to terms with life as it is.”
And this is how Cervantes responds:
“Life as it is. I’ve lived for over forty years and I’ve seen life as it is. Pain. Misery. Cruelty beyond belief.”
Cervantes goes on to list all the horrors and hardships of life that he has experienced. And he ends with this:
“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies! Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams, this may be madness. To seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.”
Will you pray with me and for me?
This is the work of God’s children. To see the world as it should be and then dedicate ourselves to creating that world by the power of the Holy Spirit? This is the work of holy courage.
And so we turn to Nehemiah.
Nehemiah lived in the city of Susa. Susa was one of the capitals of the Persian Empire. If the name Susa sounds familiar, it’s probably because that was also where Esther lived, forty or so years before Nehemiah came on the scene. And don’t let the order of the books of the Bible fool you. The story of Esther precedes the story of Nehemiah, even though the book of Esther comes after the book of Nehemiah.
In Nehemiah’s time, the King of the Persian empire was named Artaxerxes, and Nehemiah served as his cupbearer.
Nehemiah was a Jew, just like Daniel and Shadrach, and Meshach, and Abednego, and Esther. Nehemiah’s family, like Esther’s family, had been part of the first deportation from Jerusalem when the Babylonians defeated Judah in around 587 BC. Daniel and his pals had been born in Jerusalem, but Esther and Nehemiah had been born in exile. They had never seen Jerusalem. They had only ever heard stories. And like Esther and Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Nehemiah was a favorite of the king. The role of cupbearer was pretty serious. It was Nehemiah’s job to taste the king’s wine, not only to make sure that it was good enough for the king, but to make sure that it hadn’t been poisoned. Cupbearers were among the most trusted and influential of the king’s servants. That was Nehemiah.
Now we have to back up a little.
After King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated Jerusalem around 587, King Cyrus of Persia defeated Babylon.
You’ll remember that this was the Babylonian empire ruled by King Nebuchadnezzar.
And this was the Persian Empire ruled by King Cyrus.
According to the book of Ezra, which comes right before Nehemiah, God moved in King Cyrus’s heart to send the Jewish exiles back to Jerusalem. Almost immediately after King Cyrus defeats King Nebuchadnezzar, he decides to send the Jews home.
In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia’s rule, to fulfill the Lord’s word spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Persia’s King Cyrus. (Ezra 1:1).
Not everyone went. Many of the exiles were quite happy with their new lives in their new land, and they chose to stay. But for those that chose to return, it was a triumphant time. Cyrus gave them back all of the gold and silver and temple equipment that Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from the temple in Jerusalem, so that they would have it when they rebuilt the temple. When they left, their neighbors in Persia gave them lavish gifts to take with them as well. The book of Ezra tells the story of how the exiles returned home and rebuilt the temple and reestablished their community.
The book of Nehemiah begins with bad news. Nehemiah has asked some of his fellow Jews about how things were going in Jerusalem and they tell him that
“Those in the province who survived the captivity are in great trouble and shame! The wall around Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been destroyed by fire!” (Nehemiah 1:3)
Nehemiah falls to his knees in prayer. He fasts and he weeps. He confesses his sin and the sin of his people, and he reminds God of God’s promise – God promised that if the people kept God’s commandments that God would gather the people back together in the land that God had given them – and in particular, Jerusalem.
King Artaxerxes notices that Nehemiah is sad and asks him why. Nehemiah says to the king,
Why shouldn’t I seem sad when the city, the place of my family’s graves, is in ruins and its gates destroyed by fire?” (Nehemiah 2:3)
Artaxerxes and Nehemiah chat for a while, and at the end of their conversation, Artaxerxes arranges for Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem and Artaxerxes commits to making sure that Nehemiah will have everything he needs to rebuild the wall around the city
But all is not well.
There was no part of the Jewish return to Jerusalem that went smoothly, despite the fact that God had put it in King Cyrus’s spirit to let the exiles return. And the reason that nothing was easy was power. Here’s the map of the Persian empire again.
There’s no possible way that one King could keep track of all that land and all of those people, and so, as you might assume, King Artaxerxes appointed representatives all over the empire to rule on his behalf. These representatives – we’ll call them governors – they weren’t happy about the exiles returning to the lands that they were in charge of. Why? Because Cyrus’ intention in sending the exiles home was to let them decide their own future. To let them determine how they would live together. And that meant less power for the governors. And the governors didn’t like that. They liked being in charge.
These governors tried to stop Ezra and his company when they went back to rebuild the temple and reestablish the community. Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab, who appear in our text today, are just the newest governors to oppose the rebuilding of Jerusalem. And they will be a thorn in Nehemiah’s side for the rest of the story. They mock Nehemiah, they yell at him and they call the Jews who are rebuilding the wall names – they call them feeble and weak, and they accuse them of being unable to finish the job they started. They try to intimidate Nehemiah and the other Jewish leaders so that they will stop the building project. But Nehemiah encourages the Jews to keep going, to ignore the threats and harassment. God is on their side, Nehemiah reminds them. There is nothing they cannot do.
God does not call Nehemiah back to Jerusalem because he’s the most qualified contractor. God calls him back because he is the most qualified to remind the people of who they are and whose they are. He shields them from the wiles and tricks of their enemies, and he seeks the wisdom of God in every decision.
God has given him a vision of the world as it should be, and Nehemiah has the holy courage to persevere until the world is as it should be. The people in power like the world as it is. It benefits them. It rewards them. It keeps them comfortable at the expense of others. They will do anything to keep the world as it is.
Holy courage insists on the world as it should be, even when the powerful people stop at nothing to keep the world as it is.
I’ve been reading some of the works of Rev. James Lawson this week. Rev. Lawson was a United Methodist preacher who worked alongside Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rev. Lawson was part of the core group of organizers who launched lunch counter sit-ins in downtown Nashville, and do you know what I found out that I didn’t know before? The members of the Nashville Christian Leadership Coalition, the organization that started the sit-ins, they talked and strategized and planned for eight months – eight months. It took eight months of discernment – listening to God and to each other – before they began to try to desegregate downtown Nashville. And then they did it. They went into the stores and they bought items in the stores and then they sat down at the lunch counters, where they weren’t allowed to sit. They did this for four months. Lawson himself was kicked out of Vanderbilt Divinity School for his participation. This is holy courage.
Where in the world did these men and women get the idea that they could – and should – find ways to change the world so that the world is as it should be.
They learned it from Jesus. Jesus’ entire life was a life of holy courage. Jesus, the only son of God, knew what God desired for the world. And he lived it out. He showed us God’s desire for the world. He ate with the people whom everyone else considered “less than.” He put aside any concern for his own reputation for the sake of sharing God’s unconditional love. He spent time with the people who lived on the margins – the people who were poor, harassed, left out, unacceptable. He saw the divine image of God in every single person he encountered and he connected with that divine image. There was no one he encountered who he considered unworthy of his time and his attention and his love. When people rejected him, he loved them. He loved them so completely and so unconditionally that he allowed them to execute them and then asked God to forgive them for it.
This is holy courage. This is the work of God’s children. To see the world as it ought to be and then give ourselves to making that world through the power of the Holy Spirit.
At the end of Man of La Mancha, Alonso Quijano is on his deathbed. He remembers nothing of his alter ego, Don Quixote, who sees the world as it should be and not as it is. He doesn’t even remember Aldonza, the peasant barmaid to whom Don Quixote devoted all of his acts of bravery. He doesn’t remember until she says to him,
“Everything – my whole life – you spoke to me and everything was different. And you looked at me and you called me by another name, Dulcinea.”
To see the world as it should be and not as it is. To give dignity to those whom the world would discard. To seek justice for those whom the world tramples. Holy courage. The work of God’s children.