“The Joy of the Lord is my Strength”
Neh. 8:1; 8-12, Phil. 4:4-7
Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, March 2, 2025
Last week I talked a lot about gardening. It must have been inspiring, because Dave and Barb were here again at the church this week weeding our plants. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we have some beautiful flowers blooming just outside the gate! Thank you, Dave and Barb. If any of you would like to help, let them know.
This Lenten Season, which starts this week with Ash Wednesday, we are talking about the Fruits of the Spirit. Last Sunday we talked about love and mentioned some weeds that we need to root out of our hearts in order for agape love to grow: the weeds of violence, lack of respect for others, as people made in the image of God, the weeds of injustice, prejudice, hatred, lust for power, and, finally, the weed of self-hatred. If we don’t love and respect ourselves in a healthy way, it will be difficult for us to love and respect others.
Today I want to talk more particularly about the fruit of joy. Although joy and humor are not the same thing,
they are often associated. Do you know what happens if you boil a funny bone? It becomes a laughing stock. Some would say that is humerous.
I got you all to laugh – or at least smile, I hope. Laughter is good for us. We all know the phrase “Laughter is the best medicine.” But is laughter the same thing as joy? It depends on where it comes from. A snicker when someone falls down or makes a mistake is not joy. Laughing at others’ weaknesses or making fun of them is the opposite of love and joy. But a laugh that wells up from deep inside, that joins with others in laughter, too – laughing with someone, not at them – that is akin to joy. Happiness is also not the same thing as joy – happiness depends on what is happening, but we can feel joyful even when things are not going well. Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said, “By their fruits you will know them;” “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit…For people do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a bramble bush.” But how do we become “good trees”? How do you change a bramble bush into a grapevine? Remember what I said a few weeks ago –
the first step is deciding to follow Jesus, no matter what. That is key, because you won’t get any further in the Christian life without making that decision. Then we talked about abiding in the vine. Jesus is the vine, we are the branches. We need to stay close to him – and to each other – the other grapes in the bunch – if we want to bear good fruit.
But how can we be good trees or vines, and bear these good fruits of the Spirit? Our scriptures today give us some clues. In Nehemiah’s time, the people of Israel had recently returned from seventy years of exile in Babylon. A new emperor sat on the Babylonian throne. He gave permission for those who wanted to return to their homeland to go and rebuild the city of Jerusalem and its temple. Nehemiah took charge of rebuilding the wall around the city, which had lain in ruins all those years. When the wall was finished, Nehemiah and Ezra, the priest, assembled the people and read to them from the book of the law, the Torah, the first five books of what we would call the Old Testament. When the people heard the Torah being read, they began to weep.
Perhaps they were overwhelmed at hearing all of the commandments that they had not obeyed – or had not been able to obey, because the Law of Moses required that sacrifices be offered in the Temple, and their temple had been destroyed. Perhaps they wept at hearing the story of their ancestors in the faith – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of Joseph’s sojourn in slavery and how he had saved his people from famine; how Moses led the slaves out of Egypt and brought them into a land flowing with milk and honey, that very land to which they had returned after so many long years. They remembered all the old stories that told them who they were and reminded them whose they were, the people of God. They wept as they remembered all that God had done for them and their ancestors. They let God’s word soak into their hearts.
Soon their weeping turned into joy – as they repented of their wrongs and remembered the greatness of God, joy welled up in their hearts. Nehemiah told them, “do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength…And all the people went their way… rejoicing, because they had understood the words” that God had spoken. If we understand in our hearts what the Lord is saying to us, and meditate upon those words, we, too will be filled with joy: words like “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” (Jeremiah 31:3); “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” (Psalm 23:1); “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is God’s steadfast love toward those who fear and revere him; as far as the east is from the west, so far God removes our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:11-12); “I came that you may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Dwell on these words. Believe them. They are words of life. They are words of joy.
This passage also teaches us that joy comes from serving others, from giving out of our abundance to those who have less. Notice that the people who go their way rejoicing celebrate with a feast and “send portions…to those for whom nothing is prepared.” They could not rejoice when others were going hungry. Sharing our bounty multiplies our joy, shows that we love our neighbors, and pleases God. Doing good things for others lifts our spirits, too. Reading, and meditating on the words of the Bible; sharing what we have with others in need –
these actions are sure to nurture joy in our lives.
Two other ways to grow the fruit of joy are through prayer and thanksgiving, especially prayer in which we cast our burdens upon the Lord – and leave them there! Paul wrote to the Philippians from prison, expecting that he could be executed at any time, so it might be his farewell letter. Biblical scholar Marcus Borg says that Philippians “stands as testimony to what Paul wanted most to communicate as he faced the possibility of his own imminent death. In this sense it was his last will and testament.” What final advice does he give the church in Philippi, a congregation which he held dear to his heart? “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice…The Lord is near.” God is there for you, so rejoice! Then he gives them advice which we also would do well to heed: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Yesterday we celebrated a wonderful World Day of Prayer here. Each year the World Day of Prayer features a different country and we read the stories of women from that country, as we pray for people all over the world. This year the women of the Cook Islands were featured. One of the stories we heard was from a young woman from the Cook Islands called Mii (Mai). During the COVID pandemic, she knew many people who had died. Then her own father was exposed to COVID. She was worried that her entire family would die. She writes, “I started to pray. I pleaded with God to look after my family. I didn't know what would happen next. I turned to the Lord and asked for guidance. I was terrified and scared, but I knew that prayer would help me to feel calm. And it worked. I stopped crying and the pressure lifted from my heart. And then I realized that God knows every detail of my life. God knows my distress and fear. God knows. And knowing that God knows and cares about me helps me to feel calm when I am afraid…God knows everything we are going through.”
Worry and anxiety are weeds that will kill the joy sprouting up in our garden. Paul says, “Tell God what is wrong and ask for help.”
We don’t need to use fancy words. We can go to God as a child goes to a loving parent or grandparent.
Eugenia Anne Gamble, author of Tending the Wild Garden: Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit, advises: “If you notice yourself ruminating about anything in an unproductive way and begin to feel the energy drain from you and joy begin to evaporate, stop instantly, take several deep Spirit breaths, and allow what you are worrying about to take a shape in your mind’s eye. Perhaps you will want to form it into a small ball of energy. Take the ball and toss it into the waiting hands of Jesus. As you toss it away, pray, ‘Take this burden from me, Lord. It is too heavy for me to carry. Fill its place in my heart with your presence and your joy. Thank you. Amen.’ Even if you pick up the ball again almost immediately, space will be clearing and joy will ripen. Eugenia continues, “You have a choice…We cannot always control what happens to us or the pain inflicted on us by others” but, “We can gently release the hurts and resentments that are joy-robbers, or we can cling to them. When we faithfully practice releasing negative emotions, we automatically stop resisting the positive ones.”
Finally, one of the best ways to ripen the fruit of joy in our lives is thanksgiving – just consciously speaking the words “thank you, God” can make room for joy to grow. Paul writes, “…with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
If I am starting to worry about things around me, I try to remember to give thanks for all the good things in my life – that I am healthy, have work that I love, have a home to live in, family and friends who love me, more than enough to eat. Life is good! Thank you, God!
To close, let’s do a little guided meditation. Get comfortable, place your feet flat on the floor to ground you; close your eyes and relax – now think of something that is bothering you or that you are worried about. Imagine you are holding it in your hands. You roll it up into a ball. It’s heavy. Now you see Jesus with his hands stretched toward you. He says, “Give me your burden.” Give it to him. Let him take it.
Feel the peace that comes over you as you relinquish that worry or anxiety. Now, let’s all say, “Thank you, God!” [repeat] Joy is a fruit of the Spirit that is within our reach, a fruit we can share with others. May the joy of the Lord be your strength today and always. Amen.
References:
“I Made You Wonderful” was prepared by the World Day of Prayer Committee of Cook Islands for the worship service and educational activities for the 2025 World Day of Prayer (WDP) annual celebration. Copyright © 2023 World Day of Prayer International Committee, Inc.
Gamble, Eugenia Anne. Tending the Wild Garden: Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit. Presbyterian Publishing. Kindle Edition, 2024.
©Deborah Troester, 2025