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Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength with Pastor Ryan Braley
What happens when faith, hope, and joy intertwine on a journey across continents and back to the heart? Join us as we kick off this episode with a heartfelt prayer and a reflection on Nehemiah's timeless words, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." You'll hear about the emotional rollercoaster of dropping a son off at college, and then travel with us to the vibrant and impactful mission trip we took to Tanzania. Expect a full narrative soon with the entire team, but you'll get a sneak peek of the meaningful moments we experienced.
Experience Tanzania through our eyes as we share tales of barbecued goat, planting avocado trees, and the powerful connections we made with local pastors and communities. This episode features the remarkable Nordmeyers, my daughter Addison, and Jeremiah from Elk River. Understand how Central Lutheran Church has touched the lives of those in remote parishes, and how even simple acts can symbolize deeper partnerships and shared faith. From auctioning off papayas to building wells, you’ll get a vivid picture of the joy and strength found in our collective efforts.
Finally, journey back home with us, exploring the universal desire for belonging and redemption. Inspired by Maya Angelou and the story of the Prodigal Son, we discuss the Israelites' struggles and their ultimate return to joy and faithfulness. Whether you're celebrating small victories or grappling with past mistakes, this episode offers a poignant reminder of God's unwavering grace. Rejoice in the strength that comes from divine joy, and embrace the forgiveness and new life that awaits when we are called back home by God's love.
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God, we give you thanks this morning for this beautiful story. Do ask God that you would help it to come alive to us. And, god, would you help us to use our imaginations this morning and to yeah, to hear from your Holy Spirit. God, I pray for all the ways in which we have wandered off the path or have left home and tried to find something in faraway lands. Would you bring us back, god, would you welcome us home this morning? Would you resurrect the dead parts of our lives and would you pour water on the parts that are parched and dry? God, you know each person in this room intimately well and all the things that we need this morning. So would you restore our hope and our faith, all the ways in which those things have, yeah, maybe grown weak, and would you use the people on our left and our right to do just that? And may you use these prayers and this meal and these words to restore us in some way. God, would you ground us in you and your love and your grace. May we be people of grace and mercy and love this morning. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, you can be seated. Good morning everyone.
Speaker 1:Well, I got a number of things to cover here this morning, but I'm not sure I should be preaching this morning. I just got back from Chicago, and then before that I was two weeks in Tanzania, but we dropped my son off at North Central College, so this sermon is dedicated to Gavin, who is always here on Sunday mornings. He's not here this morning, but and so we dropped him off on Friday and then drove home last night, and so I'm lagged, I'm tired and I'm probably a bit emotional, which is maybe nothing that new, I guess, but anyway. So I do have my coffee though, so I feel pretty good, but we are in the middle of our you Pick series and the sermon this morning.
Speaker 1:The question was what does the joy of the Lord as our strength mean? Peter Dusterman asked it. And what does this mean? So Nehemiah says the joy of the Lord is your strength, and I'm going to answer the only way I know how to do that, which is to kind of unpack the context of this verse. What was happening when this was said out loud to the people? What were their thoughts, what were they thinking and feeling, and what are their emotions like? What did it mean? And so what does it mean that the joy of the Lord is your strength and what it might mean for us today here in Elk River and the surrounding areas in 2024. So we're going to try to do that this morning. Is that fair?
Speaker 1:But I also wanted to share a bit about our trip to Tanzania, and so I go look, I got to have like some time to give some, you know, like my slideshow and give you guys all the great stories and tell you all about Tanzania. Our two weeks there with our team and the creative arts team was like you have one minute to share some slides. I was like, okay, challenge accepted. So I'm going to do a whip through some slides and give you a quick glimpse of what Tanzania was like and then know that in a couple of weeks we'll have the whole team here. A lot of them are already here this morning, but and we're going to wear our African garb that they made for us and we'll give you some more stories and some more feedback and our testimonies and report back.
Speaker 1:But today I'm going to give you the Reader's Digest version. Is that all right? I got a couple of great photos I'm going to show you and then I hope you get a glimpse. There's our team. That's the Nordmeyers on the left. So Chet, I know they're here, chet and then Dave, anna and Nikki. On the left, the middle one is Addison. That's my daughter. She's 15. Then we have Janet McCarty, right there next to me, and that's me, the giant guy there.
Speaker 1:And then Jeremiah, who actually is Tanzanian but happens to live in Elk River. This is his family over here, bella City, and we are missing two people. Keith and Ryan were also with us, but they weren't in this picture because they were busy doing something else at the end of our trip. They were doing this Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Not bad, I know. They made it and everyone lived and survived. They got delayed coming out of Dar es Salaam. I don't know where they flew out of, but they made it. So, okay, my daughter came with me.
Speaker 1:I was super excited to have my daughter. She's 15. I was very pleased. It was a great time to have her. You know a good time of her life and I love taking pictures. My daughter is 15. Hang on one second. Sarah, who's 15, loves it when I take pictures of her in public. Just loves it. So we're boarding a plane to fly over to Kenya. Addison, let me get a great picture of you to capture this moment. Here's the picture that she gave me. Now, addison, can you please smile and look at the camera? So I got this one next. I don't think she understood the assignment, addison. One more try. Here's the next one I got. Forget it, I'm not.
Speaker 1:That night we landed in Dar es Salaam. I do have permission to share these photos. That night we landed in Dar es Salaam and I asked at dinner I go hey, what should I have? What's like a good local. And she goes, the lady goes you need to have barbecued goat. So I got some barbecued goat. It was awesome, very good. And I know you're wondering, ryan, were you able to find some coffee? Yes, I was. The next morning I woke up and I wandered outside, into the street in front of the hotel and I asked these guys hey, where's the coffee shop? They're, this guy here makes coffee. So the guy on the right in the under armor shirt has that silver pot full of coffee, hooked me up with some coffee. So I got these these lads for the morning and had some coffee. So I found some coffee. Then we have this slide. This is our team.
Speaker 1:When we landed in Cabana it was a long drive, like two days of driving, two long days of driving, I'm not kidding and we finally landed in Cabana Church. That's Pastor Nelson in the green suit and the Chuck Taylor All-Stars. He's wearing some Chucks and a suit. Yeah, never give me a hard time for wearing sneakers. Okay, that's Pastor Nelson. He's the pastor of Cabana Parish.
Speaker 1:By the way, your support, when you give to Central, any money you give to Central in the Globes, online through the app, we take 10% of that and we give it away to all kinds of ministries. And Cabana and Matagangelo. We support these two parishes all the way over in Tanzania, in this remote place called Njombe. And so your money, all these photos, your money, if you've given to Central place called Njombe, and so your money, all these photos, your money, if you've given to Central, has helped support this stuff, so you should be proud of that. You can give yourself a pat on the back. That's our team there. Oh, but this is Abu. It's Jeremiah's brother-in-law wearing number 36. And that's our team.
Speaker 1:Okay, next we have this one. I did find some coffee the next day as well, so, rest assured, I had some more coffee. Good to know. How about this next one here? This is Pastor Gervas, and Pastor Gervas is the pastor of the Modigangiola. Pastor Nelson is the pastor of Cibenam. He's the pastor of Modigangiola, more of a rural church that we also support out in Jombay region. And Pastor Gervas woke up that morning and said you know what I'm wearing? The collar, the purple coat and the red fedora. Yes, sir, I loved it. So we've got a picture of him. That's Keith on the right, on your right, that's Pastor Gervais. Okay, next slide Then we have.
Speaker 1:This is Anna and Chet and Addison with some kids at the Matagangola Parish. There were kids everywhere. It was awesome and we've got a picture of them. How about this next photo? Then? We've got this is janet planting an avocado tree that they gave to all. They gave each of us an avocado tree and then we planted them and dug you know, dug a hole, and they said we made this avocado tree represent and symbolize our partnership with central lutheran church. May it flourish, may it be evergreen and may it produce lots of fruit. We're like oh, that's so moving. And I want to add do you have an avocado tree in tanz? Because I do and Janet does, and also notice Dave in the background, in the far left corner with the white shirt.
Speaker 1:That's the dad pose, just supervising, as dads do, Just making sure everything's going fine, not helping, just supervising. If you're a dad, you know the dad pose. Okay, how about next? We got this one. These are the kids. I think this was the Cabeno. Is this Madagascar? I forget which kids these were. These are the kids. I think this was the Cabent. No, is this Mata Gajola? I forget which kids these were, but beautiful kids, they were just wonderful. We ran into a lot of kids over there at different schools. That's Anna and Addison. Just a wonderful time. Okay, next we have this great photo.
Speaker 1:So you know, last Advent we Addison and Anna raised a bunch of money to build a well over in Tanzania. They worked with Jill Pouliot and Ryan McCarty with what they call the One Week, one Well Project, and Jill and Ryan have helped build lots of wells over in Tanzania, and then you guys helped build a well over there as well. Now sometimes you give money to an organization and you're like I don't know where that money went. I know it sponsored a goat somewhere or a kid somewhere, but I know well, this is the money you gave to Central and it built this well. So these are the kids in this area where the well was built. That sign now that's Ryan in the background and Addison and Anna. Here's the well. Go to the next slide. For me, that's the well that you helped build. Yes, and these young ladies read this beautiful letter about how it changed their whole little village there, this little community. Because of this well, they don't have to march forever to get water, and so if you gave to that well project last year, or have given to one week, one well before, you've built actual wells in Tanzania, we saw many of them.
Speaker 1:Did you know that there's one for Meadowvale too? Check this out. Oh, actually, before we get to Meadowvale, well, they would do offerings on Sunday morning. This is great and they would bring money to the front. You'd bring your money up to the front as an offering to the church and if you didn't have money, you would bring some crops like papayas, and then at the end they'd have all these crops like rice and papayas and avocados and beans, and they would just be up at the front here and they would auction them off. Like, okay, who wants to buy the rice? And who are off the rice? Like, oh, I'll pay this many, you know, shillings, for that many shillings and they would give it to somebody. So, a bunch of folks. They auctioned papayas, avocados off and bought them for us and so they sent us away with like avocados and papayas, it was wonderful. So next sunday, if you don't have money to bring for an offering, just bring some fruit, we'll auction it off and we'll give it away. So these are addison anna's papayas and we ate them and they were outstanding, delicious papayas.
Speaker 1:Okay, next slide. Yeah, here's the Meadowvale. Well, did you know Meadowvale built a well Over in the Njombe region of Tanzania. Do you know this? It's got Meadowvale on the wall. What's the Meadowvale? Well, not to be outdone. Of course we have this. Well, this is the Meadowvale. Well, the Lincoln Elementary School. Well, yeah, you've got to be kidding me. I'm telling you the fingerprint of Central and the Elk River area on this region in Tanzania. It was astounding. So Meadowvale has a well, lincoln has a well.
Speaker 1:Parker, we could use some help. Actually, this Advent we want to buy a bus. Cabana is beginning a new school and they need a bus. We need thousand dollars and the girls are gonna try to raise that money this advent in a variety of ways, but so we're gonna. We're gonna solicit some businesses and hopefully get some grants or some gifts and and like thirty thousand bucks for a bus to drive kids to school is, like seems pretty easy for us, so maybe parker can help anyway. But there's the lincoln.
Speaker 1:Uh, well, how about this one? Then we got another photo. I'm almost done. Oh, we went and visited the kindergarten and these little kids were just the cutest. This is Addison's feet with a bunch of their shoes. Okay, how about this one then? This is Anna giving these little kids. We brought a couple soccer balls over just to have some fun with these little guys and, by the way, it was kind of cold there, but we're Minnesotans, we weren't that cold. These little guys and little ladies they were like had stocking caps on and coats and they were freezing. We're like this isn't so bad, we're from Minnesota. It actually was kind of cold in the morning. You can see your breath. Okay, next slide. But we brought them some soccer balls.
Speaker 1:This is Jeremiah Jumped into the classroom. He knew all the answers. Of course he did, because he's a grown man. Of course, my favorite story is we got in front of this whole school, a huge school and they're introducing all of us and they bring him forward. There's Jeremiah bring him forward and they were speaking Swahili and they're like what they were saying was like this is an African-American and they were so proud to introduce him as an African and they're like this is the first African-American they've ever seen. And Jeremiah's like I'm actually, it's kind of close, you live in America, close enough and we all just kind of clapped, it was great, like no, he's an African, he's from Tanzania, but whatever. Okay, then I got one more. Oh, this is Dave and that's his family in the background. In case you didn't know, that's his family there.
Speaker 1:And then here's Janet in front of a giant I think it's a bobo tree. Yeah, giant tree. I had to circle her because you couldn't really see her. It's such a big tree. And then here I think we all are. Oh, no, I got some more coffee, just so, you, I had to make sure you knew I got some coffee.
Speaker 1:This is in the Ruaha Park and they had hippos and leopards and lions and it was so dangerous. You couldn't walk from one building to the other, walk from one building to the other. You had to walk with these messiah warriors. They were like these two, actually several men that would walk you from place to place because they they knew how to keep you safe when there were elephants around or any other kind of dangerous animals. So these are our messiah guides. They would guide us from house to house or to the lunches or the meals and, um, there they were. It's julius and I forget the guy in the purple's name. But okay, then, I think that's my last one. I think think I won.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, here we are in the Indian Ocean and it's Jeremiah and Jeremiah's dad. Right there in the middle. They hosted us for a whole day in Dar es Salaam. It was super cool and they toured us around and we got to see the city. It was a wonderful time.
Speaker 1:And then also, if I hope, you enjoyed that, but here's what happened on the way home. We're in Dar es Salaam, we show up at the airport and I'm ready to go, ready to fly home. We've been there for two weeks. It was awesome, but I wanted to go home. I miss my family and my friends and you guys, and I wanted to go home. We show up there and I had this app on my phone called Time Shifter.
Speaker 1:It helps you prepare days in advance for the time changes, and I followed it to the T. If you know me, I love this kind of thing. I'm like, oh yeah, I'm gonna do all the things. It tells you when to sleep, when to eat, when to drink coffee, when to avoid light, when to get light, and so days earlier, you're not jet lagged, and it worked like a charm on the way out there, on the way back, I'm ready to go. I got my time shifter app ready to go. We show up. I've had coffee all day long. I'm ready to get on the plane and fly to nairobi and like, oh, your flight's been delayed and your connection flight you've missed it. So you're gonna, we're gonna reroute you through amsterdam and here and there, and you'll be two days late back.
Speaker 1:Getting back home, I was like I what you don't understand, my time shifter app. I got to keep on the protocol. I didn't put any hair product in my bag. I don't have anything for, I don't mind if I can't shower, but my hair, what am I going to do with it? So true story though they put us on a different flight, like, okay, it won't be two days late. We found you a different flight, we'll fly you through Nairobi to Amsterdam. To home, you'll be a day late and we're like fine. And by this point we were like so frustrated, like that's fine.
Speaker 1:So we spend the night, or we fly out of Dar es Salaam to Nairobi, and we had to spend the night in the Nairobi-Kenya airport. Have you ever slept in an airport before? Yeah, okay, have you ever slept in the Nairobi airport? It was something, man, and I'm like oh, my sleep protocol, the time shifter says don't sleep. So I'm like, I'm not sleeping. So I stayed awake most of the time. I took an hour nap because it told me to, and I wandered around the airport Half in a day is like a zombie. I'm trying to find water. I got nothing else going on. We'll watch some women's judo. I didn't. I'd never seen judo. Apparently, judo is where you wear like pajamas and you just kind of fling each other around by your pajamas. I didn't know. It's an Olympic sport. I watched that, but then I flew out.
Speaker 1:So the next morning we flew out of Nairobi and flew to Amsterdam. We didn't know it, it, but we had to spend the night in Amsterdam too. We didn't know it till we were like it was too late. We're like so we show up in Amsterdam and I wanted like, well, at least we can kind of get a cab and kind of tour the city. Well, when we landed in Amsterdam, I didn't know what day it was, what was up, what was down, I was exhausted. I didn't have, I didn't have caffeine in a long time, I hadn't slept it had been like two days, I don't even remember and I started getting a migraine. I the check-in counter, I'm like I think I'm either gonna pass out or vomit. So they're bringing me coffee. I'm trying to get some water.
Speaker 1:So I went to our rooms in amsterdam and I just cashed out and woke up like four hours later, missed this, I didn't go on that. We all wanted to go on a tour of the city. We couldn't. We were too tired and exhausted and sick and whatever. So had a meal, went back to bed, woke up in the morning, flew home to home to Minneapolis, and finally got home. But the whole time I just wanted to go home. You know what I mean. Like I had to be home by Thursday. My son, gavin, was going to college on Thursday, so we had to be home for Thursday. I didn't want to miss that. Crumble cookie had my favorite flavor that week. It was the classic pink sugar. That was my favorite cookie and the classic pink sugar I had to have. That was my favorite cookie and I wanted to my family.
Speaker 1:I just wanted to go home and I remembered the great quote by Frank Baum in the wonderful book the Wizard of Oz. He says, hey, there's no place like home. There's no place like home. Yes, I wanted to go home so badly. How about this quote too? Oh, there's our journey. Go ahead and back. For me, sarah, there's our journey. That's Tanzania and then Kenya and then Amsterdam and then all the way back over to the US. So it's kind of this roundabout way. But yeah, frank Baum says this Go ahead. For me, sarah, there's no place like home. And then go ahead. One more. For me, sarah. Margaret Sankster says there's nothing half so pleasant, as, again and William J Bennett says it this way he says home is a shelter from storms, all sorts of storms.
Speaker 1:The great poet Maya Angelou says this about home. She says that the ache for home lives in all of us. And I realize, as you probably do, home is not just my house on Upland Street, but home is my family and my community, the people I know, my friends, my neighbors, the familiar places and faces and relationships that I have, and my roots that are deep and all the things that are in this place, my calling the local shops. It's a part of who I am, it's a part of me, this thing that I call home. It's the place where I belong. I feel loved and accepted and secure. It's home and I wanted to go home so badly.
Speaker 1:It reminded me of a story I actually preached on this story a couple of Sundays ago at Cabana in Matagangola, about a young boy who tells his father I want all my inheritance, I'm going to leave home and go out into a faraway land and do my thing. It's the story of the lost son in Luke 15. And the father gives him the money and the son takes off from home looking for I think he's looking for home, not realizing that he was just at home, the place of love and acceptance and security and belonging. He leaves there and goes and looks for something else, or looks for home in some other places and can't find it, and he wakes up in the worst possible place the nairobi airport watching judo on the screen. No, he wakes up in a pigsty and he comes to his senses like what, what am I doing out here? He squandered all the money. He had nothing left, nothing to give, nothing to, no food to even eat. He's eating the food the pigs are eating and he wonders could I go back home? Would I be welcomed back home? Would the father, who loved me back there and wanted me, would he love me again? Would he want me?
Speaker 1:The things that I did were absolutely offensive to my father. He has every right to disown me and no longer talk to me at all. My behavior merits nothing less than his disowning of me. But is it possible I can even maybe go back and be welcomed home as a slave? And so he begins this long journey home, because the ache in all of us for home is deep.
Speaker 1:I don't know about you, but I've found myself in my own life and I'm 44 now looking back a lot of times and you know there's times you wander away from home. You're like what am I doing out here? And the older you get, the harder it is to think about those things, because you're like god dang it, I'd give anything I could to go back and fix that, but you can't. You can't go back, and the question is can I go forward, though? I can't go back and fix the past. Where is the past? Well, I can't do that, but can I go forward? Is there any way to be welcomed back home? Moving forward, Can I indeed go back home again? I think we all just want to go home, don't we? I want to be welcomed home, I want to be loved and accepted, I want to belong and be secure in this place that we call home, and the people of Israel were no different.
Speaker 1:And this book? Open your Bibles to page 380, by the way, if you don't mind, 379, 380. This is the book of Nehemiah, and it comes at a point in Israel's history just after they've been captured by Babylon. So, if you remember a quick history lesson, israel was the people of God, and God gives them this beautiful land. It's like, hey, I'm going to bless you, I'm going to want you to live in the land, you'll be my people, I'll be your God, we'll live in this beautiful covenant relationship and just kind of live in my ways. Do what I'm asking you to do, not because I don't want you to have any fun, because if you live in tune with me, the creator, you'll have life and if you walk away from that, you'll have the opposite of life, which is non-life or death. So he gives this land. They're living in this land. But the people of israel thankfully we have, we don't have this problem today.
Speaker 1:But the people of israel are obstinate. They're like they want to do it their own way. They want to have their own go of it. They want want to be the gods of their own lives. On many occasions it's like a comedy of errors. How many times in which they wander off the path and walk away from God Again. I'm glad this is not our problem today as Christians. Right, and God's like stop doing that. I want you to live in my ways and have life. If you live outside of that, it's like going to a desert for water. You cannot find life out there. But they keep on persisting and they walk off the path again and again and again. And I think God finally says fine, if you want it that way, I'll let you have it your way. You want to be God? Okay, now, I don't think he does it easily or early. He waits a long time. He's like fine, fine. God's kind of stubborn too. He's like I'm not gonna let. Fine, if you want it your way, I'll let you have your way. So god sort of steps back and then what happens is they begin to suffer the consequences of their own sins and babylon comes in and destroys everything and takes him captive and drags him out of the promised land, the land of milk and honey that god had given them.
Speaker 1:The, the temple was burned to the ground, razed to the ground. All they knew was taken or destroyed. The community was ruptured. Remember, breaking the laws of God was not just about breaking legal statutes, that's fine. It was also about a breaking of relationship. God said, hey, I'll be in a partnership with you, you'll be my people, I'll be your God, like a friendship, like a marriage. God said, hey, I'll be in a partnership with you, you'll be my people, I'll be your God. Like a friendship, like a marriage. And that was what was broken. The relationship was broken. It was devastating. The temple, which was the house of God, the place where heaven and earth met, and this actual, tangible place, was destroyed. Their practices, which defined them as people, their worship practices, they had things that revolved on the economy and animals and all they knew that like guided their daily lives. It was all gone, the Torah gone, the land that God had given them as a gift gone.
Speaker 1:They're living under foreign rule in a strange place, in Babylon of all places. This is the exile, and the exile was like the premier problem for Israel in the Hebrew Bibles. And they're, of course, in exile because of their own knuckle-headed ways. Maybe you've felt like you've been in exile, like you wandered off the path so far, and you're out there, living in the land of Nairobi, airports and pigsty, and like what am I doing out here? And for Israel, it was their own doing and they were. I'm like, what am I doing out here? And they're far from home, living under foreign rule, away from the love and grace and goodness of God.
Speaker 1:I think that they think Because the question in their minds had to have been man, we've finally done it, the grace of God has dried up, we're done, for this is the punishment we've been deserving for a long time and now we've finally gotten it and this is the end for us. But lo and behold, 50 years later, after living in exile for 50 years, the text is that God begins to bring them back home. And so they start coming back, and they're coming back to rebuild. They rebuild the temple, they rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. But here's the question lingering, I think, in the back of their minds Will we be welcomed home, though? We can go back to the land, but will it be the same? Will the God who loved us back then and wanted us back then? Will that God love us now? Will he want us now? Will the grace and mercy we received back then will we receive it now? Or has God's love for us finally dried up and shriveled up? Can we really go back home? I think they were longing to go back home, but wondering what it would be like. So they start to rebuild, and they rebuild the temple, and they rebuild the walls, and Nehemiah talks about how they rebuilt these walls.
Speaker 1:By the way, ezra and Nehemiah were one book. We separate them in our Bibles, but a lot of times scholars believe it was just one book, written by Ezra. And so they rebuild. And then, in this climactic moment in Nehemiah, ezra gathers.
Speaker 1:Ezra was a priest, he was a teacher of the law. He gathers the people together. You, he was a teacher of the law. He gathers the people together. You're talking about thousands of people, exiles, far from home, not knowing which way is up or down, if God loved them or not, what will happen next? No hope.
Speaker 1:And he gathers them together out to the rebuilt temple. Here they are, and he gathers them together and begins to read them the scripture, the holy, sacred scripture that God had given to Moses, the book of Moses. And Ezra stands them all up. They all stand up and he begins to read aloud the scriptures of the law of God and the book of Moses. It's wild.
Speaker 1:He does it, by the way, in a very specific place. It's called the Watergate. I have a picture of it for you. This is the Watergate. No, that's the wrong Watergate. Sorry, one more for me. There we go. I could not make that joke. Come on now. This is the Watergate. That was the other Watergate. This is the east side of the temple and they call it the Watergate because there was the Gihon Spring right nearby.
Speaker 1:Also, the Pool of Siloam is right over there and they would get water into the temple through this gate. They would bring it in, especially during the Feast of Sukkot. The Feast of Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles or Tents, was when it was an eight-day festival, an eight-day celebration, and the priest, every day would go out to the Pool of Siloam and get a bunch of water and he'd bring it into the temple and he'd pour water over the altar. And he'd take a bottle of wine and pour wine over the altar and they would celebrate. The people would just cheer and go crazy. It was an eight-day festival and it was all about water. By the way, jesus later on, on the eighth day of the same festival, gets up in the temple and says hey, if anyone's thirsty, come to me, I've got living water. So it's no accident that he does this.
Speaker 1:So the priest is there in their poor water and they would pray for rain. That's what this festival is all about. They pray for rain. They knew that rain meant life. They're an agrarian society. With no rain, it meant no crops, no fruit, nothing to eat, no water for their livestock or their animals. It meant famine if you didn't get rain. It meant death. Without rain. Rain meant life. So they begged God. They poured the water over the altar. God, we know you gave us rain last year. Please give us rain again. Rain was mercy, rain was grace, rain was hope and life and goodness and sustenance, and they depended on God for rain. They needed God to save them by giving them rain. So they'd pour water over the altar, they'd pour wine and they would celebrate and pray and ask God for rain.
Speaker 1:It's in that spot that Nehemiah gets up and Ezra and the Levites, and they begin to read aloud the scriptures of God. Remember they hadn't had the Torah for 50 years, they didn't have the words of God, and they're wondering will God love us again? Will the reigns of God, the grace and mercy and forgiveness of God ever fall on us again? And there they are, in front of this water gate and they begin to pour forth the words of God in the book of Moses. And the people are astounded. They begin reading it early in the morning, at sunrise, and they go all the way to noon. So that's several hours of reading the scriptures. By the way, if you think my sermons are long, check out Nehemiah and the people are like hanging on every word as the rains metaphorically begin to fall on them. Can we go home again? And they hear the words of God pouring forth from this water gate place when Ezra reads them. It's an unbelievable scene. And they're praying and asking God for rain. God, return your mercy and your grace and your life to us. We know we've wandered off the path and we've worshipped other gods and we've had other things. But God, please give us rain again. And the people, when they were reading the scriptures, they stood up. Stand up. Please would you Close your eyes.
Speaker 1:Imagine thousands of people, the people of Israel, the people of God, the chosen ones of God, who disobeyed God again and again and again. Wayward, broken people, obstinate, recalcitrant people who wanted to be the gods of their own lives and God's like fine. And they find themselves in exile, far from home, under foreign pagan rule, away from the temple, the house of God, no Torah, no family, no community, nothing. And they're wondering will God ever love me again? And Ezra gathers them together and they stand up and he begins to read them, the scriptures. And Ezra gathers them together and they stand up and he begins to read them, the scriptures. And it might have been something like this this is Deuteronomy 6.
Speaker 1:Deuteronomy says these are the commands, the decrees and laws the Lord, your God, directed me to give to you and to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to go into, so that you and your children and their children after them may fear the Lord, your God, as long as you live, by keeping all his decrees and commandments that I give to you, so that you may enjoy a long and fruitful and prosperous life. Hear O Israel, listen, israel. I might say it like this Listen, central Lutheran Church. Hear and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in the land, flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, your God, promised you and your fathers. Listen, o Israel, listen, central the Lord, our God is one. Love the Lord, your God with all your heart with Israel. Listen, central the Lord our God is one. Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Central these commands, these words that I give to you. They're going to be on your hearts, the center of your being. Impress them, teach them to your children, talk about them as you sit at home and when you walk along the road, and when you lie down, when you get up. In other words, bring them with you everywhere you go. These are the words of life. Be careful that you don't forget that the Lord God brought you out of slavery and out of Egypt to save you and rescue you and the people.
Speaker 1:The text says cried out amen. I said the people cried out amen. The people cried amen, and they fell on the ground and they wept. Now you don't have to do that, but you can be seated. And they fell on the ground, they cried and they wept. Why were they weeping? Why would they weep? They look back 50 years gone. They look back 50 years gone, decades, generations gone. What they could have had, it's gone. I think their hearts are broken for how far they wandered off the path.
Speaker 1:You ever have that moment where you look back man, what was I doing? And you can't go back, you can't change it. But your heart breaks because the way you hurt people or hurt yourself or didn't live to the fullness of your capacity, you can't have it back. It's remorse, guilt, shame, regret. And you cry and you weep and they fell on the ground and they wept. And you weep and they fell on the ground and they wept and they wept bitterly and openly. Can we ever go back home? Will we be welcomed home? And then Ezra and Nehemiah and the Levites said get up and say hey, look at me, stop crying, don't weep, don't mourn. Here's the scripture. I'll show it to you just to prove to you this day is holy to the Lord. Don't mourn and don't weep. Today we're going to celebrate, why? Because they're actually in the middle this day. They're in the middle of a feast, another festival called the Festival of Trumpets, and on those festivals you don't weep or mourn. And also Israel. You're back, you're back home. Now that you're here, we're done weeping. I know you can't go back, but we're going forward. So today we celebrate.
Speaker 1:My wife has a birthday every single year. I don't know if your birthdays work that way, and I always ask her like Katie, what do you want to do for your birthday? What do you want for it? She's like I just want no one to be mad at me. Okay, done. Why? Because birthdays are not a day for folks to be mad at each other. Birthdays are a day for celebration. Are you with me? So nehemiah then says this I think I've next slide to say look, go your way, eat the fat. That's a good thing. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to those who don't have anything ready. Like so, share this. We're gonna celebrate, we're gonna party, we're gonna dance and sing and we're going to celebrate, for this day is holy to the Lord and do not be grieved. Why? Because the joy of the Lord is your strength. Do you see it? Now? Listen, you can come home, you're welcomed home. When the son comes down the road, the father sees him and he runs to him and he kisses him all over his face and he puts a ring on his finger and a cloak around his back and then they throw a party.
Speaker 1:When the woman in just the chapter or earlier in that chapter looks for the coin all day long and won't stop looking until she finds the coin and finds it, gathers all the neighbors like hey, come on over, rejoice, I found my coin here. I have it the scripture Go ahead for me, sarah. Yeah, rejoice with me. When the shepherd goes and finds the lost sheep, he's like yo, everybody, come on over, I found the sheep. Rejoice. Because when something is lost and is found, when something's dead and it comes back to life, what can you do but celebrate? The joy of the Lord is our strength. Now, how do I know that God has joy? Well, because they're all alive. He could have let them die in Babylon, he could have cut them off, but he didn't want to. He wants to reign grace and to mercy and forgive us a new beginning on his people and start over, and he does the same thing for you and I. And, by the way, it's the joy of God. That is your strength.
Speaker 1:How many of you in here you don't have to raise your hand, but could use some strength today? Well, you can try to muster up on your own and just have a positive outlook or have a good self-esteem or try to like just, you know, have a good hair day, or have the right outfit, or read the right outfit, or read the right self-help book, whatever, but those things don't work. Who brought Israel back from exile? God did not them. Who found the sheep that was lost? The shepherd goes and finds him. The woman looks all day for the coin. That coin didn't find itself. That coin doesn't know what's going on. Who welcomed the son home? The father does the son's begging to be a slave, but the father's like no, no, you're going to be my son again and we're going to have a party.
Speaker 1:We have a deep longing, deep in our souls, to come home and, by the grace of God, we're welcomed home. Now we have an easy time thinking of God as being angry. We have no problem with that. Oftentimes we can picture an angry God. If I asked you to close your eyes and imagine it, it would not be that hard. But a God is full of joy and grace and goodness that wants to, because he's full of joy to welcome you home. I know you've done some crazy stuff in your life, I get it.
Speaker 1:Paul says it this way. Paul says, hey, where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. Now you might be like, oh, but Ryan, that gives us permission to sin. No, no, no, that isn't the point. The grace and goodness of God is the only thing that can change our hearts. And we've been welcomed home. Stand up, please, would you. I promise I'm done. I told you I shouldn't have been able to preach today, but Central, may you know this morning that God indeed is waiting for you, longing for you to come home. You're welcome back home. God loves you, god forgives you and God wants to raise you from the dead. It's the joy of God that sustains us, that gives us strength each and every day, and if you need strength, you can try to muster up on your own and try to save yourself and be happy enough, or you can let go and release it and just receive the grace and the reins of God and come home. You, indeed, in every way, are welcome home, amen.
