Nehemiah
8, verse 10 – Now go home and have a feast.
Share your food and wine with those who haven’t enough. Today is holy to our Lord, so don’t be
sad. The joy that the Lord gives you
will make you strong.
Nehemiah
had been through a difficult time. Prior
to this chapter there is an account of the trials and tribulations that he
faced as he took on the task of getting the broken down city walls
rebuilt. His vision was to restore
Jerusalem to its proper place and he put a great deal of energy into making
that happen. He did so despite the fact
that, as he advanced this project, he met a fair amount of opposition. Externally there was opposition from the
Samaritans and from within Jerusalem Tobiah and Sanballat had plotted to kill
him. But now, the walls have been
completed, the gates have been hung, officials have been appointed, life is
settling down. The law has been read to
the people by Ezra – and now Nehemiah calls them to a time of celebration. The joy that the Lord gives you will make you
strong.
I
want to draw four things from this particular verse, verse 10 of Nehemiah
8. I think there are things to learn as
we think of Nehemiah and his contemporaries.
First
of all, we and the people are told to have a feast. They are told to go home and have a feast –
but I don’t think the location is the important thing. What is important is the feasting. A feast is a celebration. I really think that we are not as good as we
should be at celebrating. Too often
church seems dull and boring. We ought
to be asking ourselves why that is.
Anything with God at the centre ought to be exuding joy and
celebration. Of course, I know, as you
do, that things can be a struggle, that we face all sorts of challenges. But when that’s how it feels, when things are
getting you down, when everything seems a struggle, remember this: God is with
you. That’s not going to get rid of all
the difficulties, but it should make you see things differently. Let’s do a bit more celebrating, feasting –
even if the feasting is just a cup of coffee with someone else.
That
brings me nicely to the second point – share your food and wine with those
who haven’t enough. Sometimes we are
really good at sharing, and sometimes we are so selfish, and just want to keep
things to ourselves. Let’s give sharing
the priority that it should have. That
is surely a critical part of our mission.
We need to share with the desperately poor in other parts of the world –
and we can do that through our support of the likes of Christian Aid. We need to share with those whom we
encounter. Who is it that we would cross
the street to avoid? Now, it might be
right, sometimes, to do just that – but, I suspect, not very often. How, too, do we share with each other as we
should. What is it that the song says:
‘and they will know we are Christians by our love.’ Is that how we live? Putting it another way – somebody once said,
‘If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to
convict you?’ Now, there’s a thought!
Third,
this verse also says: today is holy to our Lord, so don’t be sad. I would certainly encourage you not to be
sad. But let’s concentrate on the holy
bit. What are the things that you see as
holy? And what difference do they make
to your life? A holy thing, whatever it
is, is a thing linked to God. In what
ways does God touch your life? And what
difference does it make? That’s another
big thought, another big question.
So
the fourth thing from this verse takes us back to the point that we have
already mentioned – the joy that the Lord gives you will make you strong. I sometimes say that, out of that wonderful
list of the fruits of the Spirit that Paul gives us in Galatians 5:22, the one
that I most need, the one that I most tend to be lacking is patience. I think that’s true but, if there is
close-run second, it is probably joy. Am
I bubbling over with the joy of God – because if not, why not? This joy is so excessive that it just spills
over. It is infectious, overwhelming –
and it is part of the presence of God.
