We might think of it as the Richard Nixon memorial text: “all the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate” (Nehemiah 8:1). The purpose for this gathering was to listen to Ezra the scribe reading the Bible: he “brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding” (8:2). It was kind of a combination revival meeting and very-large-group Sunday School class: “Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen,’ lifting up their hands” (8:6), and in the meantime the Levites explained the lesson to smaller groups within the assembled multitude (8:8).

Many people wept, hearing the words of the Covenant (8:9). Perhaps they especially wept at the readings from Deuteronomy that had warned of exile and offered hope of restoration after repentance – as they lamented all the heartbreak and loss that they, and their parents and grandparents, had suffered during the Exile.

Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites declared: “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep. … do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (8:9-10). And so all the people shared in feasting, making sure no one got left out, and glad because they had understood the meaning of the text that had been proclaimed to them (8:12).

There are hard lessons to be learned along life’s way: struggles and failures, anguish and lost opportunities. Yet in the end, the call of our Lord is not about despair, but about deep and powerful celebration of God’s astonishing grace. The joy of the Lord is our strength.

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In all our frailty and failures, O God, in all our lament and repentance over lost opportunities, give us this confidence, O God: that we belong to you. Teach us to look for the strength we need neither in boasting over what we have done nor in imagining what we imagine we might yet accomplish, but in the joy of your sustaining presence.

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