Readings:
Haggai 1:15b - 2:9
The time is 520 before the Christian
Era. Twenty years earlier, after 60 years of imprisoned exile
in Babylon, the people of Israel had been repatriated to their homeland. When they came back they were excited by the
promise of rebuilding their land, their farms, their kingdom, and the temple of
their God at the heart of it all. But the work has been harder than they
thought, and twenty years later little progress has been made. The people are discouraged, dis-spirited and
depressed, and it shows in how self-centred and apathetic about the kingdom of
God they have become.
2 Thessalonian 4:1-4, 13-17
The Second Letter to the Thessalonians
was written several decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus, when the
first flame of faith in the power of God to save all the world through the
risen Jesus is beginning to flicker in the ongoing winds of time. The kingdom of God has not come as the
believers thought it would. The world
and their life in it continues as before.
There have been rumours of the messiah appearing in different places,
but as far as they can see Jesus has not returned as they expected. They are confused and discouraged, and this
letter is written to encourage them in the life of faith.
There are moments
when the human heart is caught and lifted up to a wisdom beyond the
normal.
Like in 1918 when people talked of “the war to end all wars.” The phrase summed up how humbling, terrifying, and horrific the First Great War was, and helps explain why nations of the world – a good number of them at least, came together two years later in 1920 to establish the League of Nations as a way of preventing war like that from ever taking over the world again, and of giving all nations and governments a way to work together to build a good world for all.
Like in 1918 when people talked of “the war to end all wars.” The phrase summed up how humbling, terrifying, and horrific the First Great War was, and helps explain why nations of the world – a good number of them at least, came together two years later in 1920 to establish the League of Nations as a way of preventing war like that from ever taking over the world again, and of giving all nations and governments a way to work together to build a good world for all.
Like in the 60’s when
“Give Peace a Chance” moved from being a Montreal hotel bedroom sit-in sing-along
to become a mainstream pop anthem, the slogan “Make Love, Not War” moved from
hippie love-ins in San Francisco parks to popular culture, and “Ban the Bomb” became
the text not just of placards carried in the street but also of international
treaties signed by the world’s super-powers.
There are moments
when the human heart is caught and lifted up to a wisdom beyond the normal.
And then there’s the
rest of the time.
Like the 1930’s when
the League of Nations was unable to prevent aggression by the Axis powers, and we
slid into another Great War with even greater violence and more intentional atrocities
than the first. And into so many other
increasingly destructive wars since even with the United Nations as a
replacement for the League of Nations.
And like our own day
when we look around, look back and look ahead, and wonder how after so much
good will and progress in decades past, we have reverted to so much hatred and
vitriol, so much division and tribal violence, so much fear and aggression all
around the world as our daily diet of news and coffee time discussion. With vested interests in control of the halls
and courts of power. With fear and
self-interest overruling love and altruism.
With countries hardening boundaries, and building walls to hide behind
instead of bridges to cross and meet together.
With governments letting go of their calling to protect and care for the
poor and the weak, for the Earth and the well-being of what has been given. With so many losing the wisdom and energy to
look and live towards the benefit of all in a land beyond self-interest.
Like in the time of
Haggai, a prophet of God to the people of Israel 520 years before the Christian
Era. After sixty years of imprisoned
exile in Babylon the people had come home in hopeful procession, happy for the
chance to rebuild their homes, their land and the temple of their God. They felt called and energized to work together
for something big, holy and good.
But then reality set
in. The grit and grime of the daily
grind. The dust and dirt to deal with on
the way to their destiny. The
tiring-ness of the tasks and the temptation to settle for something a little
bit less, a little more self-serving than what was really necessary.
So twenty years on,
the towns and farms are still a shambles.
The economy is still weak and fragmented. The kingdom is a puppet regime of top-down order
and control. And the temple? The place of God in their midst? Is still just a bare foundation, but far
enough along that everyone can see how much less than their dreams and their
memories it will be.
So in the midst of
the people’s discouragement, depression and general retreat from the higher
vision, what is a prophet to do? How to
invite the people back to the wisdom and vision that at first had carried them along
and lifted them to a higher level?
First, the prophet
acknowledges and echoes the people’s discouragement and depression. Gives expression to what they see and how it
makes them feel. And this is important. Is maybe something that today’s leaders do
not always take time for. In their rush
to present themselves and their parties as the answer to what grieves us, they
don’t the time and the risk to sit and dwell for a while with the people in
what they are facing, and what they see in the world.
And then, instead of
looking back at what was and lamenting how far they have fallen from it (the
normal and the easy response), Haggai looks to the future – the promised
future, though; the eschatological future, the future not just of human cause
and consequence, but the future of God’s own action and good will. And there is a big difference between the
two.
The Lord of hosts,
Haggai says, is going to “shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the
dry land” and “will shake all the nations, so the treasure of all nations shall
come.” For “the silver is mine, and the
gold is mine, and the latter splendour of this house shall be greater than the
former,” says the Lord of hosts. In
other words, Haggai reminds the people that the Earth and all that is in it and
all that it will be in the end is not ours, but God’s. And at the end as in the beginning God by
God’s own ways of working will bring it to be.
Which leads to the third
thing, the promise that all along the way from here to there God is with
us. That the roller coaster of history
does not make God sick enough to bail out; but instead makes God only all the
more ready to hold our hand and give us the courage we need to carry on in our
high calling no matter what the present moment is like.
Take courage, O you kings of the Earth;
[the prophet says],
take courage, O high priests and
pundits and so-called experts;
take courage, all you people of the
land, says the Lord;
work, for I am with you, says the Lord
of hosts,
come together and build what is meant
to be,
the good thing you saw and let guide
you to a higher purpose
when we first started this journey
together.
The promise is that
God is with us. In the grit and grime of
the daily grind. In the dust and dirt we
deal with along the way. In the tiredness
we feel and the temptation we face to settle for something less, and more
self-serving than the well-being of all.
And it’s those who let themselves be guided by that vision, who let the
flow of God’s work in the world go through them, who let the vision of
God’s healing of all the world be at the heart of their life, and who let their hearts be shaped day by day by a wisdom beyond the normal, who are the
people of true and good courage that the world is in need of.
It’s not something we have to
manufacture or make up. Not something we
have to force into being. It’s something
instead we need only decide to open our heart to, and let flow through us in
any way we can, day by day and all along the way.
So before we sing our
next hymn, can we join in affirming what we believe – repeating together the
words of the New Creed of the United Church of Canada, and asking for the grace
to be able to take these words to heart, and let them renew our courage today
for living day by day in the ways of God?
We are not alone,
we live in God’s
world.
We believe in God:
who has created and is
still creating,
who has come in Jesus,
the Word made
flesh,
to reconcile
and make new,
who works in us and others by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God’s
presence,
to live with respect in
Creation,
to love and serve
others,
to seek justice and
resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus,
crucified and risen,
our judge and
our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us.
We are not alone.
Thanks be to God.
Hymn VU 684: “Make Me a Channel
of Your Peace”
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