How frequently do you tell lies in church? How often do you recite Scripture verses, say prayers or sing songs expounding great, joyous truths you know your life does not express? For the past several weeks, I’ve had a campfire song running through my mind like a virus. It is a song we’ve all heard before, driven by one great line from our Scripture passage for today. I’ve been meditating on this gorgeous line from Scripture for weeks now and yet, as I hear the song in my head, there is a disconnection between my song, my life and my world.
The joy of the Lord is my strength;
the joy of the Lord is my strength,
The joy of the Lord is my strength;
the joy of the Lord is my strength.
Do you see the problem? Do you know what I’m talking about? We sit in our churches singing cheerfully about the strength of joy and yet we live in a world without much joy. We live in a world of angry, broken and sad faces. We sing our perky campfire songs over and over and over without noticing the meaning they contain is not our reality.
The joy of the LORD is my strength! Have you ever truly stopped to fully consider what this verse (and others like it) mean for the sad, dark eyes of this world? Open your Bibles to Nehemiah 8:8 (page 444 in your pew Bibles). In our story today, the Israelites have returned from their punishment in exile and rebuilt the wall around the ancient city under Nehemiah’s guidance. They stood strong and united against stiff opposition and lots of difficulty. And now they’ve gotten together for a Bible conference. Let’s listen to what happened on that day…
They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read. Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, "This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep." For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." The Levites calmed all the people, saying, "Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve." Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.
What gets us through the day? What gets us out of bed in the morning? What truly sustains us; what gets us past the inevitable sadness and difficulty of this life?
Is it family? Is it friends? Is it the adoration of the masses, the approval and popularity we receive from the world around us? Is it money? How many of us try to buy our way to joy? Or maybe it’s work; maybe all our joy, satisfaction and significance comes from a job title or duty description. Or perhaps our life is simply about our duty; joy isn’t supposed to matter that much. Maybe we feel a sense of indebtedness or simply view life as nothing but a discipline to be practiced. Or maybe we find our joy and significance in being the smartest kid in the room; answering all the questions others have difficulty answering. Or maybe we honestly don’t like our lives much right now and the only thing getting us out of bed in the morning is a dream of a better day to come. Or maybe life is just a drudge to be endured until the weekend finds us.
What keeps us going? How many of us can honestly say the joy of the LORD is our strength? Honestly? How many even understand what that really means? If you don’t feel like the joy of the LORD is your strength, if you don’t understand what that means, then this great Bible passage is for you today. This passage is a very simple three ingredient recipe, a three ingredient prescription for strong and sustaining joy. So what are these three ingredients?
The Exposure
The first one is found in verse 8. “They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading.” The first ingredient of our joy is exposure. The people were exposed to the Word of God and the people were exposed by the Word of God. They read from the book, the book was translated and exposited to them, the book was understood by them. And whenever that fully and genuinely happens, as the old Reformers and Puritans used to say, whenever the mirror of God’s Word is properly held up to people, the exposure taking place is always threefold. We see the mirror for what it is, we see ourselves for what we are and we see whatever is immediately around us for what it is. When God’s Word is properly exposed, we are exposed. Everything is exposed.
When I hear the Apostle Paul telling husbands to “love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her,” God’s standard for marriage is exposed, my inadequacies as a husband are exposed and the miserable marriages around me are exposed. When Jesus teaching us to “love our enemies” is properly translated and understood, there is three-fold exposure taking place. Whenever the Word of God is properly understood, there is exposure.
And we know exposure has taken place because someone, somewhere will immediately say something like what Isaiah cried out many years ago, “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” My eyes have seen God’s mirror! My eyes have seen myself! My eyes have seen the nastiness around me! I am ruined and unworthy!
Exposure and clarity like this must take place or we will never know joy. A.B. Simpson tells the wonderful story of a little boy once telling “his mother that he was six feet tall. When she doubted the statement, he assured her that he had just measured himself. His calculations were right but his ruler was not; it was only about six inches long. This is the sort of rule by which many Christians measure themselves.” Folks, there is only one rule against which we will all be measured; the Word of God. Only our exposure to and by this rule will lead us right.
The Sacred
But if this exposure happens, as it does here in Nehemiah’s day, our God immediately swoops into the situation with the second ingredient of His strong joy recipe. Look again at verse 9. “Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, "This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep." For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.” When exposure genuinely happens, when we finally recognize God’s standards and our terrible unworthiness, when we finally weep and grieve over our condition, Almighty God graciously steps into the situation and proclaims it sacred. Three times in this short passage, God declares the sacredness of the day. Almighty God sees our exposure, sees us naked and ashamed in the Garden and He covers us with His holiness. At the deepest point of our unworthiness, He offers us purity. He offers us fatty meat and sweet wine! He gives us and even the poor people all around us a party when we deserve nothing but pain and punishment! He runs down the road to the nasty prodigal, fully exposed in his sin, and says, “No son! This day is sacred! Kill the fatted calf, bring a ring and robe because this son of mine who was dead is now alive again!”
This day is sacred! This completely exposed and often painful day is not at all about your brokenness; it is about new beginnings! Can anyone name any place in all of Scripture where God did not offer sacred grace and holiness to the exposed, grieving and suffering? You cannot because such a thing doesn’t exist. This day is sacred. This is the day of exposure the LORD has been waiting for. The Father of the prodigal has been standing at the end of the road longing for this day to come. This exposed moment is not about suffering; it is sacred.
The Joy
And when any of us finally and fully experience this gracious offer of sacred celebration, this is where the strong, sustaining joy we need to carry on enters the picture. When we are fully and painfully exposed as the humbled Israelites were here and Almighty God covers our exposure with His precious offer of sacred celebration, we will be overwhelmed with joy. Any other response is inconceivable! Look again at verse 12 of our passage. “Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them. Once we understand what we truly are, once we understand what we are truly being offered, we will find our lives bathed in a strong and sustaining joy beyond all we could ask or imagine.”
Almost exactly 10 years ago, the Texas murderess Karla Faye Tucker was executed by lethal injection for the drug-crazed, brutal pick-axe murders of two people. Many of you will remember her case because, after her conversion in prison, she was such a sweet, completely transformed and joyous person even traditional death penalty advocates couldn’t imagine killing her. A few weeks before her execution, she was interviewed by Larry King from death row. Throughout the interview, it was apparent Larry King couldn’t understand her strong, cheerful, joyous and serene demeanor. Finally, at the very end of the interview, Larry commented about her strange upbeatness. He said, “You have to explain that to me a little more. It can’t just be God?” Karla Faye Tucker quickly, with sparkles in her eyes and tears beginning to well up, said, “Yes, it can. It’s called the joy of the Lord. When you have done something that I have done, like what I have done, and you have been forgiven for it, and you are loved, that has a way of so changing you. I mean, I have experienced real love. I know what real love is. I know what forgiveness is, even when I did something so horrible.” I have been completely and utterly exposed for all I truly am. I have been exposed to the world as truly “the chief of sinners.” And yet God has not met my exposure with disgust and rejection. God has proclaimed this exposed moment, this exposed person sacred. Almighty God has given me a party when I deserved punishment and pain. You tell me; how can I possibly not be joyous?
At the risk of exaggerating the point or being insensitive to the genuine life struggles represented in this room, if you are not sustained and strengthened by the joy of the LORD today, you are either not allowing yourself to be fully exposed by the Word of God or you just don’t understand the sacred celebration God is offering you. It is as simple as that. The joy of the LORD is our strength. Those are not idle, idealistic or poetic words. They are life to us!
My friend Pat McCurdy has some real challenges in his life. Many of those challenges come as a direct result of sinful choices made years ago. Pat has been fully exposed and, like all the rest of us, is in the process of fully embracing the sacred celebration God offers us. But sometimes things get hard for Pat, just as they do for all of us. A few weeks ago, Pat went up to Ely to get away, get refreshed and spend some time with some of our friends there. He had a wonderful time. One afternoon, while walking through the woods, Pat asked God to give him something special to take pictures of and remember. No sooner did Pat pray this prayer than a huge dragonfly landed on Pat’s sweater, posing long enough for Pat to take as many pictures as he wanted. As Pat studied the little thing, it almost seemed as if it was just sitting there smiling back at him as some sort of buggy, cheerful messenger of joy from God. One week later, on another walk, a large grasshopper did almost exactly the same thing, landing in almost exactly the same place on Pat’s sweater. Only this time, the goofy, buck-toothed grin on the joyous grasshopper’s face was unmistakable! Just in case you missed the point last time, Pat…I love you, son! I love you more than words can say!
Pat doesn’t deserve special favors like this from God. Pat doesn’t deserve this sort of love. Whether we call it a miracle or just cheerful coincidence, my friend Pat doesn’t deserve it. None of us do. We don’t deserve a quiet walk in the woods with dear friends. We don’t deserve the blessings we receive. We don’t deserve the smiles and the sunshine. We don’t deserve anything sacred or precious from God. And we certainly don’t deserve what Jesus did.
But Almighty God says this day is sacred. This exposed moment is special. Call out all the peaceful dragonflies and all the grinning, goofy, buck-toothed grasshoppers, kill the fatted calf and bring out the best wine, because this day is sacred. My child has come home.
That ought to make us happy! That ought to fill our hearts with such strong, sustaining joy we can face anything this world can throw at us. The joy of the LORD is my strength.
We can sing that song honestly now, can’t we?
Amen.
