Epiphany 3 Nehemiah 8:1-10                     1/21/07
 

"JOY"
 

To anyone even slightly familiar with the text, "JOY" might seem a rather strange title for a sermon based largely on Nehemiah 8.

The people have been in exile, under Babylonian oppression, for many years; have lived through a war between Babylon and Persia; and have now been allowed to return home by the victors (and their new foreign ruler) to find their homes and their temple destroyed.

To add to the question about the title, we note that they have been called together to listen to a reading of the "LAW". But, not only was this to be an occasion for joy, but to a post-exilic Israeli this Law was Gospel. It was most profoundly their Good News.

Time and again the people of Israel offended God by refusing to obey Him, failing to practice justice and mercy, and bringing in worship of false gods. Time and again God warned the people and when they still did not turn around (the meaning of repent) God disciplined them in order to restore them.

This time God’s discipline was especially severe. Not only was Jerusalem and the temple destroyed and the people taken into a long exile, all sense of them being God’s special people was lost.

It may have taken decades, even centuries, for the people to come to their senses, see what they had lost and beg God to help them. Of course, there was always a remnant who remained in relationship with God and kept the faith alive.

When God felt the time was right and the people were ready, help came in the form of the Persian King, Artaxerxes. Upon winning the war with Babylon, he sent the people back home to rebuild.

Thus, we come to the story read today. The city wall has been rebuilt - major step in their restoration. Symbolically, this marks the restoration of Israel as a people. As part of the ceremony the priest, Ezra, is called to read the Law to the people.

It is important to realize what this means to Israel. We Christians inaccurately divide the Judeo-Christian faith into Law and Gospel, as though the Law is opposed to the Gospel. We see the Law as negative and something to be overcome by the Gospel.

But, the Law was good news to faithful Israelites. It was God’s gift to one people, a people whom He had chosen to be His own. The Law was to help define them as a people and be the means of maintaining a positive relationship with their God.

Thus, the reading of the Law was the mark of God’s restoration of Israel as God’s special people. It was the stamp on His promise to once again be in a relationship with them. It was their good news, their gospel.

And they wept. They wept out of grief for their former sins that broke the relationship. But more importantly, they wept out of joy.

In exile, they were no people and they had only a distant relationship with God. Now, they were "THE" people and knew that they had God among them and acting for them. We can only imagine what this meant to them and what joy they felt at hearing that it was so.

We have reason for equal joy though. Through Jesus we are granted forgiveness, are restored to relationship with God and have cause for great joy.

Each time we sin we rebel against God and reject our relationship with Him. Each time we repent - turn around and turn back to Him - the absolution assures us that we are forgiven and the relationship is assured.

We have every bit as much reason to feel joy as the people of Israel. Jesus frees us and returns us from exile. He makes the restoration of relation possible. We have every reason then to weep with joy every time we participate in the Confession and every time we leave the communion rail.

Our joy goes even farther than that though. Jesus ended the need for God’s people to go into exile ever again. He earned for us a never-ending relationship with God.

Thus, we have confidence that nothing can separate us from God - not sickness, not danger, not trouble, not deprivation, not the judgment of other people, not our own guilt or shame, not even death. Even in the midst of pain and sorrow we can have joy, because we know that we have God with us.

Now, I’ll be honest with you. I’ve struggle with this concept. When I first heard that there is a difference between happiness and joy, and that I could have joy even in the midst of events that brought anything but happiness, I rejected it. It didn’t make sense to me.

Furthermore, I can’t promise that if life hands me pain again I’ll be able to feel joy in the midst of it. I think maybe it’s part of the process of dealing with pain and growing, to question why, if God loves us and is with us, we have to go through bad experiences.

But, as we do work through the pain we come to see how the important thing was that God was in fact present with us. He was holding us up and guiding us through. He sent people to us to give us support and love. He gave us the courage to make it through.

Seeing over and over how God never gives up on us and never breaks the relationship with us, helps us come to see that God is with us always. This is the Christian’s greatest cause of joy.

Claiming the joy Jesus won for us becomes our strength as we endure times of pain and sorrow that are just part of living in a sin-scarred world.

We also have a joy-filled hope as we trust that ultimately our exile will end and Jesus will welcome us to our true home. There, joy will be ours without interruption or end, for all eternity.

Know that through the grace of God in Jesus Christ, we have been brought out of the exile of sin and restored to an everlasting relationship with God. Let us then, feel free to kick off our German and Scandinavian restraints. Feel the joy and feel free to weep or cry "Yahoo!" Amen.