Weep

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

This is the first time the people of Israel have heard the scriptures in forty years. I don't know if we can imagine forty years of exile, of not being able to worship in the temple. Not being able to sacrifice or pray or hear the familiar readings for forty years. Then when the old words are read, they weep, not in joy, but they mourn. They mourn all they have missed for forty years. They mourn because they are not in their building. They mourn this is not the exact way it was done. How do we know this? Because later on there is discussion on rebuilding the temple and the old folks say, "no, not like this, this wasn't the way it was." And they wait another forty years until the old folks die off to build it again. The big deal in this today though is being told not to mourn. Instead rejoice, feast, for this is a holy day and it is not for grieving. Because God has joy and God's joy is our strength.

One of the worst things a church can say is, "We've never done it this way." It is not that different from Israel's plight this morning. Scripture wasn't read before the water gate. It was read in the temple. I can just imagine people crying because this isn't the way its done. There are so many of these moments in Jesus ministry. Feeding five thousand, send them home, we've never done this before. Healing on the Sabbath day, what is he thinking? He must be healing from the Beelzebub, no ones done it this way before. 

We have our own time of this right now. Agape meal, no communion, new liturgy, we've never done it this way before. Yet here is the thing, have you listened to the words? Have you really taken them in? We can't sing, so listen, beat it out, take in the joy and sway. Have you heard the desire within? We long for, wait for the day when this might be different. One of the meals talks about living stones in our lives we take with us this day.

This whole Jesus thing was founded on sacrifice. Paul says it best in Philippians 2:5-11, the first hymn/creed of the church. Because Christ did not count equality with God as something to Lord over others, but surrendered himself even to death, death on a shameful cross. And it flipped everything on its head. 

See in Paul's day we like to think the early church all agreed and got along. This is not true. The Jerusalem church thought you had to be a good Jew to become a Christian. Paul didn't believe this. You were a follower in belief and works, can you hear the we've never done it this way before? Yet this is what our worship is based on today. Based, not designed because we don't use Philippians or the Ephesians creeds as ours. We don't hire an inn and meet there. We don't have someone come in and do a dramatic, memorized read of the scripture, we don't sing Psalms or are even acquainted with their old tunes. There are a lot of things we don't do anymore.

So don't weep and wail, the joy of God is our strength. Find the joy. This may be hard because its not the way we do things. Yet listen, is your joy in light? Is your joy in swaying and hearing the hymn inside you? Is your joy in the living stone, the one you bring home with you listened to turn over and over? Notice its cracks, notice the differences in color, notice what this awakens in you because this is God's joy. To awaken us to God's diversity. Just like Jesus did, just like Paul did, just like Nehemiah did because we find a God we didn't expect or see before.

So don't weep or wail today, find the joy. The joy which brings life. The joy which awakens something new. The joy of God is our strength.