This week we consider a passage that is largely a list of names. Yet the lessons of this chapter have deep and far-ranging impact for us, especially for us Americans. We love to individualize and compartmentalize, and that is certainly in the text. We Americans do many things well, because we still run on the fumes of a Christian past. But we must also heed the lessons of Nehemiah 3, about making the seams strong. A wall is only as strong as its seams.