God is with us. 25th Sunday after Pentecost. November 10, 2013. A monastery had fallen on hard times. Their number had dwindled to very few and they seemed always to be grumpy with each other. The Abbot despaired of what to do with his fractured and frail community. In the woods nearby lived an old Rabbi, known as a holy man. The Abbot decided to go to see the Rabbi to see if he could help. The Abbot and the Rabbi sat and talked and wept together. As the Abbot was about to leave the Rabbi said, I cannot solve your problems for you my friend, but I will tell you what I believe. When you look at your community know that the Messiah is among you. The Abbot was shocked and thought all the way back as he walked through the woods about what the Rabbi had said. He gathered together the small group of monks and told them what the Rabbi had said. They all began to look at each other, wondering ... is it you? Is it HIM?? Is it ME??? They each thought about the words of the Rabbi and began to treat each other with greater respect, just in case! As time went on the people around sensed something different about the monks, a deeper attention to life, a deeper appreciation, and they were attracted and the community began to grow. Our first reading is from one of the shortest books in the Old Testament and also one of the latest in time. The last three books of our Old Testament are Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. Haggai and Zechariah overlapped in their ministry in the early 6th century BC and Malachi was around about a century later. And then the prophetic voice seemed to disappear from Israel, or perhaps the people just stopped listening and so stopped recognising and recording the prophetic words? There were prophetic voices from those centuries between Malachi and Jesus and we find them in the Apocrypha. But for Judaism (see 1 Maccabees 9:27) and for many Protestants the last prophetic voices from BC were Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. Some of the last of the Psalms were even attributed to Haggai and Zechariah (145-148 in the LXX – Septuagint – the 1st century AD translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek; 145 and 146 according to the Vulgate – the translation of the Bible into Latin by St Jerome in the late 4th and early 5th centuries) including the psalm which we read today, Psalm 145. In 538 BC Cyrus, king of the Persians decreed that the Jewish people in exile could return to their own land, rebuild Jerusalem and even rebuild the temple. Haggai was there, prophesying, in 520 while the rebuilding was very, very slowly getting underway. Some commentators interpret chapter 2, verse 3 to suggest that Haggai himself had seen the old temple which had been knocked down. Perhaps, though that would have made him quite old, the first temple having been destroyed 66 years earlier in 586 BC. (Early Jewish and Christian writers argued about his ‘age and possible experience of the first temple’). That sort of age is not unusual now but was very unusual then. It could be that he was stirring the memories of those who had seen the old temple. More likely he was actually saying – none of us saw it ‘as it was’. So rather than harking back to the past we are part of creating something new which looks forward. The people were getting discouraged though and they were slow to take up the opportunities for rebuilding – of Jerusalem, of the temple and even of community life. They were discouraged and depressed at the enormity of what was in front of them. That is being generous. Some commentators suggest that the people were getting slack and Haggai was there giving them a sharp prod to get on with it. Like Bishop Odo – to whom I have referred before – shown in the Bayeaux tapestry ‘comforting the troops’ by using his crozier to prod them forward into battle! The prod was not just to get on with the task of putting bricks and mortar together. It wasn’t even prodding just to get on with the rebuilding of community life. It was prodding to believe that they were not alone in facing what was before them! The central message in Haggai’s encouragement is in the last part of verse 5 and comes as a reminder, a message, a promise from God: “My spirit abides among you; do not fear.” (Haggai 2:5b). ‘I am with you. Dont be afraid.’ Does that sound familiar? It should. It is there all through the Old Testament. God saying to the people ‘I will be with you, I am with you.’ (Gen. 26:3; 31:3; Exod. 3:12; Josh. 1:5; Isa. 43:2). It is a core promise from God. Whatever happens, God is with us. Look at Psalm 145 again. Think of those as words which go with that encouragement from Haggai to the people standing in the rubble trying to rebuild! Blessing, thanking, praising God, ... recognising God’s hand and God’s presence in our lives. That builds confidence! There was a temptation for the people in Jerusalem who were Haggai’s audience to look back. They were a small group surrounded by rubble. They were surrounded by memories of the glorious past. Imagine standing in that pile of stones reading a book about the past – the wonderful descriptions of Solomon’s temple, the wealth, strength, military power of the people who had gone before! That would be really daunting!!! Looking at the past and being overwhelmed by it can easily be depressing. Haggai’s answer was to remind the people of that core promise of God. I am with you. Do not be afraid. Of course it also sounds familiar to us because it is a core promise of Jesus – to the disciples after the resurrection and especially at the end of Matthew’s gospel. There is something which goes with the reminder of God’s presence. It is about the focus with which we live. The encouragement is to live in the present – with an eye to the past AND the future, but live in the present. A popular quote reminds us of this: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift which is why we call it the present. (Thought to be derived originally from the poem ‘Yesterday is history’ by Emily Dickenson – 1830-1886). Living in the present is so important for getting a clear perspective, not being stagnated by the past or overwhelmed by the future. The experience of exile and then return was formative for the Jewish people and for Judaism. They were forced to rethink how they engaged with God because all of the familiar patterns were taken away. The seeds of what became rabbinic Judaism, the seeds of the synagogue pattern in which Jesus participated, the seeds of a deeper focus on learning and relationship rather than ritual were sown through the exile and return. Jewish faith was taken deeper, made more immediate and personal. This was all still unfolding though at the time of Haggai and the message was to hold onto what did not change even while everything else was changing and being unsettled – to hold onto God. The challenge and invitation is to live in the present, with the presence of God, deeply aware. This is where the story of the monks and the Rabbi weaves in again. Deep awareness of God’s presence, even an awestruck respectful awareness of the possibility of God’s unique presence in one another, changes community. It is attractive. Nostalgia for an earlier time when things were easier, bigger, stronger, more robust, more populated is not uncommon. In fact it is important to remember and to cherish those memories and to share them. It is important also to deal with the grief of that remembering when facing a very different present. I am sure there are many – both here today as well as in the community around – who looking at this building – remembering when it was full, remembering a different expression of life and worship in this space, remembering people here then who are not here now. That remembering is important BUT if it is where we stop then it will be stifling. Remembering which remains stuck in sadness will be constricting. The people who returned from exile were in a place of opportunity and they had the chance to remember and also to look forward. What was created from their time of grief was a new beginning, honouring but not constrained by the past, taking the heart of their experience of God and community life into a new shape and a new expression. Haggai is a prophet for us today. What was most valuable for the people then is what is most valuable for us today. God is with us. Do not be afraid. The walls and the shape and the patterns of life and worship may come to be very different, but and that will be ok, because God is with us. Now. Always Paul Mitchell
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 17:06:34 +0000
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