Joy and Strength

Joy and Strength
(Nehemiah 8:9-12; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9) J G White
10:30 am, Sun, Jan 19, 2014, Windsor UBC

Is it a joyful day for you?
Is it natural for you to have joy today?
  People ask me – a pastor – how are things at my Church.  “It is the best of times, it is the worst of times” is what I tell them.  Which is my experience of the past while.  I think of myself as a joyful, positive person, but it is not always easy.
It takes strength to be joyful!  Because life is hard.
D'ya know Amy Grant's song: We believe in God, And we all need Jesus / 'Cause life is hard, And it might not get easier.
“Fake it 'til you make it” is not adequate.
“The joy of the LORD will be your strength.”
Sometimes joy is a miracle, it takes a miracle.
And act of God, of grace.
Nehemiah 8.  The Joy of the LORD is your strength.
Strength comes from the Lord to us.
Phrase written on a piece of furniture in the room of a college student: “You have to try really hard to be happy.”
It takes attention upon our God to find deep joy.
     Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord, (Brenton Brown, Ken Riley)
     We will wait upon the Lord, We will wait upon the Lord.
   In the days of Nehemiah and Ezra, (400 BC) when the people of God had returned to the Promised Land, which was by then in a sorry state, they found and heard some of the Old Testament that had been lost.  The crowd is struck by the lessons of scripture and words of the covenant – promises they had not kept and ways of life they had completely forgotten.  They weep, because of how far they had fallen from living as God intended.
   But on that day of confession and mourning, they are told to celebrate.  Modern thinkers call celebration a spiritual discipline, an activity that helps put people in a place where God can work with them and transform.    Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to the LORD; and do not be grieved...
   A holy celebration can come out of sadness over failure.  The failure of oneself, the failure of circumstances.  Failures in you, failures surrounding you.
   Finale of Habakkuk (3:17-19):
Though the fig tree does not blossom,
and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails,
and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold,
and there is no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will exult in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
and makes me tread upon the heights.
There can be joy, despite circumstances.
There can be joy, despite our own failures.
   Joyful celebration comes when truth from God shows us our failures.  At least we know now!
   Like the words of Psalm 32 (1, 5).  Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
   Like getting the diagnosis of an illness.  Knowing helps a lot – eases our mind, we know what we can do, and have clearer expectations about our future.
   “Knowledge is power” - knowing gives us real options and actions.  The unknown leaves us helpless.
When those folks, 2400 years ago, heard the Law read for six hours that day, the laws of the Old Testament, they were deeply saddened.  But they were urged to celebrate, for God had met with them in the reading of the word, and now they knew.  Now they knew, once again, the patterns of life and worship that the Bible reveals.
   1 Corinthians 1.  A letter from Paul to a church.
   I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind...  (4-5)  Sounds very positive, eh?  You are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Oh, how very complimentary.  
   Yet look through the rest of this long letter.  Paul writes to them to deal with some serious problems.     There are division in the church – groups following certain leaders (1).  There is sexual immorality going on among the church people, even worse than the pagans (5).  Some are going to prostitutes! (6)  They are taking one another to court to solve their problems (6).  They are divided when they have fellowship meals to celebrate the Lord's Supper (11).  The church people are mixed up in their attitudes on how each one uses spiritual gifts in the fellowship (12-14).  And, they are confused about life-after-death: what the resurrection of Jesus and of them is like (15).
   Sounds like this little church, in a bustling Greek city, was in a mess.  But, as Paul says in his intro, Jesus Christ will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (8-9). At the end of the letter, Paul says, My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus (16:24).
   God strengthens us by gracious forgiveness.  This, of course, comes by Christ crucified.  God strengthens us by the presence and power of Himself, the Holy Spirit.
   The reading of the Bible Law to the Hebrews, 400 years before Jesus, had shown their failures. A few decades after the time of Jesus, Paul deals with the failures of the Corinthian believers.  All the warnings in the letter are instructive, and part of the healing and renewal those disciples needed.  They were still loved and included, by Paul, and by our Holy and Almighty God.  We are loved and included... by God.  There is our joy.

We believe in God, And we all need Jesus
'Cause life is hard, And it might not get easier
But don't be afraid To know who you are
Don't be afraid to show it.
If you believe in God, If you say you need Jesus
He'll be where you are
And he never will leave you
Sing to me now words that are true
So all in this place can know it...
We believe in God, And we all need Jesus
We will hear more about forgiveness next week.
The joy of the Lord will be your strength!

PRAYERS of the People
Today, a bidding prayer; you know what a bidding prayer is? You pray according to my bidding, my suggestions. In the silences will be our prayer. Let us pray.
God - our Joy, God - our strength, God - our Saviour:
We count our blessings this morning, and rejoice in all that You provide: we thank You for blessing us...
God of holiness, God of spirit, God of love, God of truth, God of oneness and threeness: we also express our love and thanks for You - Who You are...
God of creation and redemption, we know many failures in our lives, and we come before You as sinful creatures, confessing...
God of grace and God of glory, Your forgiveness & new life for us is amazing, coming to us in Jesus on the cross; we receive the promises of spiritual healing and reunion withe You...
God of mercy and power, so much of our praying is for one another, & those closest to us: we pray for some of them now...
God whose farm is all creation, as stewards of all that is around us, we pray for Your earth, and our part in it...
God whose so loved the world that You gave Your Son; we look with Your vision to people far and wide - many in need - and we pray to You...
God the Son, Jesus Christ, true and only head of the church; hear us pray for our own life and ministry as a fellowship called by You into mission...
God the Spirit, Comforter of the afflicted and Afflicter of the comfortable: we pray for justice and peace among people - both locally and globally...
God the Father, Giver of Joy; we rejoice in You now: may we rejoice in You always. AMEN.

Listen to the Bible

Listen to the Bible

(Nehemiah 8:1-12; Luke 4:14-21)

10:30 am, Sunday, Jan 27, 2013; Windsor UBC; J G White

I went to Synagogue once.  It was about 1995, in Halifax.  I wish I had a good memory for times like that, but mostly I remember my impression of events, not the facts and details.  I do remember the Torah was carried in, paraded in.  You know what I mean by the Torah?  The scroll, the Scripture, the Law: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. 

Some Christian traditions also do symbolic stuff with the Bible, carrying it forward, lifting it up, the whole congregation standing when there is a reading from Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.  Some of those ceremonies make an impression… especially if you are not accustomed to the ritual. 

Our Old Testament story today makes an impression upon me.  In the fall I drew our attention to this time in the history of the Hebrews when they had been taken from the Holy Land into exile, in Babylonia.  Seventy years later they got to return and rebuild.  Rebuild the city, rebuild the economy, rebuild their religion, rebuild their temple, rebuild their Jewish society.  It took a long time.  In the midst of this, the Law, the Torah, comes to light, and, one day in about the year 444 BC, big parts of it were read to the people.  They heard old words that were new to them. 

It is a dramatic scene, a big day.  The people gather together for the written Word of God.  The Bible takes centre stage. 

All the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate…   the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding. (N 8:1a, 2)  So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. (N8:8)

The whole Bible, as we now have it today, belongs to no one group.  It doesn’t even belong to one world religion – ours – because the Old Testament is also Jewish scripture. 

But where does it take centre stage?  Where does it draw a crowd?  I don’t mean a dynamic preacher, like Graham or Stanley or Osteen.  I don’t mean a musical performance of the Bible, like Handel’s Messiah.  Simply the Bible. 

For the first time ever I attended a hockey game at the Metro Centre, last night.  We were in ‘the nosebleed’ seats, at the very top, back row V in section 40.  The Mooseheads lost.  L  More than ten thousand people were in attendance.  The 50/50 ticket winner got over $16,000! 

The Bible could never draw a crowd.  Could it?  That is just what it did in 444 BC, in Jerusalem.  And when God brings people together, to God’s Word, dramatic things happen.  People are changed.  Whole cities are changed.  What would it be like if crowds from around Hants County learned that a message from their Creator would be shared with them?  They must not believe it is already happening. 

As I read the ancient story, I wonder how and when people seek God’s written Word, are hungry for it.  It was the crowds who told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. (N 8:1b) This convocation was called for by the lay people, not organized by the priesthood.  The citizens clearly knew about the scroll, had heard it was around.  They wanted to hear it!  What had they been missing for several generations?

We are seeing, in Canada, a few generations now who do not know much of the content or the power of this Text.  Where will hunger for this come from?  There must be glimpses given.  There must be people in the midst of them who are thrilled by the Message that’s here.  There must be a bit of salt sprinkled around who are ‘biblical’ men and women, people of the Book.

Anyone out there enjoy lobster?  I do.  I like it a lot!  How did I get my appetite for lobster?  There was a time in my life when I had never tasted it.  I saw others enjoying it, and longing for it, looking forward to their next lobster-boil.  So, finally, I got to try it, and I liked it!  Well, even the Bible tells us to taste and see that the Lord is good; His words are sweeter than honey.  If someone sees us loving the Word, the hunger to try it can grow.

And, when people are hungry for a word from the Lord, they listen intently to God’s written Word.  In Nehemiah 8 we read …and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.  (N 8:3c)  Like the true hockey fans at the game last night – watching intently and responding and cheering – the God-lovers and Bible-feasters follow closely and deeply what is here.

Nehemiah 8 paints a picture for us.  We see a moment when people worship God, because of the Word, and to receive the Word.  That scene from 2,450-some years ago is a great worship scene, centred on the written-down Word of God.  …and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. (N 8:5b-6)

The basic ways humans gather and worship are common throughout the millennia.  Now, we Baptists here don’t get too excited – raising our hands up, or kneeling, not to mention bowing low enough that our faces touch the floor.  When we pray we do what someone called the Protestant slouch.  And we don’t stand to hear a reading from the Gospels, nor sing a Psalm very often.  At least here we do have scripture readings; much Baptist and evangelical worship does not even have Bible readings, save what the preacher quotes during the sermon.

Our worship together, centred on the Holy Bible, is something under scrutiny in our world today.  Some of the critics find what we and other Christians do on mornings like this: boring, unimportant, outdated, irrelevant, silly. 

Here is a worship moment… any of you recognize this?

The movie, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, is a science-fiction comedy.  In this scene, we get a glimpse into the liturgy on a planet where the Deity sneezed the universe into existence, and the believers await the coming of a Great Handkerchief. 

The Handkerchief is coming, beloved; let us pray the Almighty will exhale a breath of compassion on us all.

 (Leader and congregation breathe in and face upwards.)

Almighty Arkelseizure, we lift our noses, clogged and unblown, in reverence to You.  Send the Handkerchief, O Blessed One, so that it may wipe us clean.  We ask this, and all things, in Thy precious and alliterative Name. 

(The whole congregation sneezes.) Achoo!

Bless you.                                                   (Douglas Adams)

The criticisms of our worship and scripture can teach us.  Hopefully, we can laugh at ourselves, become humble, and learn to see what others see when we sing and pray and preach, in real life.  When our singing and praying and preaching becomes about our real life – God be praised – we know grace.

We visited that scene in the Synagogue of Nazareth when Jesus was handed a scroll to read from – the scroll of Isaiah.  He read a text he selected, and then commented on it.  “You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.” (L 4:21) Have you ever heard the Bible read, and known, in your bones, that the words were alive, real, coming true?  It happens again and again, in the simplest of ways.

I never shall forget a little service at the end of a seminar in Kentville hospital, a seminar on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.  All day had been about folk who are forgetting and loosing themselves, wandering and shuffling around.  Rev. Don Jackson was there, part of the presentation, in a secondary stage of Alzheimer’s himself. Then we heard these words from John 21, where the resurrected Jesus Christ says to disciple Peter: 

Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go." (J 21:18)

That strange little verse spoke out to us in a new way.

The written Word of God is life-giving to people who listen.  Many people have this feeling that the Bible condemns them.  “Why read more or have it preached at me if it will give me guilt and shame?”  Yet it is the Word of life!

When those folk, rebuilding their lives in Jerusalem in 444 BC, heard what the Law of God said, it must have hit them like a heavy weight, a mighty rulebook, a description of their failures.  No wonder they wept.  But now at least they knew.  And it was all there, on the scrolls, to describe their very special life and mission with Almighty God.  One thing it prescribed was a festival they were to celebrate, that very month, honouring God’s journey with their ancestors. 

So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, "Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved." And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them. (N 8:11-12)

To understand is to know what you can do now.  Do you say: Prayer changes things?  Can we also say the Bible changes things?  Changes attitudes, changes behaviors, changes people’s health, changes our work, changes our pleasure, changes our plans, changes our relationships?  The Word changes things.

Many of us do not need to know more of the Bible.  As someone has said, we believers are fat on the Word; but we are famished when it comes to living it.  What we need is to do more of what we already know, from scripture.  I plan to begin a small group study in February based on a DVD of Dallas Willard and John Ortberg.  (No one has signed up yet!) The teaching is from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Do what the Master says.  We know much of what Jesus teaches.  Do it.  What’s the concluding statement of Christ’s sermon?   "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!" (Mtt 7:24-27)  Many believe, but do not act.

We listen to the Word that comes from God.  Many of us have so much Bible in here [our brains] already.  Romans 10:8 quotes Deut. 30:14 when it says, The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart"…  Listen to what you already have. 

Act upon what you now know.  To remember is not enough.  To know is not enough.  To learn is not enough.  To understand is not enough. To value the message highly is not enough.  To believe it is not enough.  To defend the authority of the Word is not enough. 

Act on the Word.    Do it. 

One – step – at – a – time, our lives get built, by God.  This is amazing!  Listen and do.  Hear and act. 

    This is cause for joy and celebration!