Advent Perspective: Back to the Start

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Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Back to the Start

By the tender mercy of our God,

the dawn from on high will break upon us,

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Luke 1:78-79 (NRSV)

I wanna be in the Light

As You are in the Light

I wanna shine like the stars in the heavens

Oh, Lord be my Light and be my salvation

Cause all I want is to be in the Light

From "In the Light" by DC Talk

The liturgical calendar begins with the season of Advent, a time of waiting that precedes Christmastide when we celebrate Christ's coming to earth as an infant.  The liturgical calendar ends with Christ the King Sunday, on which we look forward to the day when Christ returns to earth to defeat evil and reign over the earth in an age of peace.

Many congregations use the Revised Common Lectionary, a three-year cycle of Scripture readings that follows the liturgical calendar.  The readings for each Sunday typically include a reading from one of the Gospels, a reading from one of the other New Testament writings, a Psalm, and a reading from one of the other Old Testament writings.¹  This year, on Christ the King Sunday, the Psalm was replaced by a certain passage from the Gospel of Luke, commonly called the Canticle of Zechariah (Luke 1:68-79).  This passage is a song that was sung by a certain priest soon after the birth of his son.  Interestingly, this same song also replaced the Psalm last year on the second Sunday of Advent.

One day, an elderly priest named Zechariah was serving in the temple, and, while he was burning an incense offering to God, he was visited by an angel named Gabriel.  This angel told Zechariah that he and his wife Elizabeth, who previously had been unable to have children, would soon have a son.  This child, whom they were to name John, would grow up to become a great prophet who would have a major impact on the people.  At first, Zechariah would not believe Gabriel, because both he and his wife were well beyond child-bearing years, so Gabriel told Zechariah that he would be mute until his child was born.  Zechariah came out of the temple, unable to speak.²

Nine months later, Elizabeth gave birth to a baby boy.  When the time came to name the child, the family wanted to name him after his father.  Elizabeth said that the child would be named John, but the family remarked that nobody in their family had that name.  Zechariah, still mute, wrote on a tablet, "His name is John."  Suddenly, the old priest was able to speak once again, and then he broke into prophetic song.³

Zechariah believed that something big was on the horizon and that the dawn would soon break upon a people trapped in darkness.  He believed that the long-awaited Messiah would soon arrive to save the Jewish people from oppression.  He believed that the promises that God made to his ancestors would soon be fulfilled, and he praised God for God's faithfulness.  Zechariah believed that his newborn son would play a special role in these happenings by preparing the way for the Messiah.  To his son, he sang,

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

to give knowledge of salvation to his people

by the forgiveness of their sins.⁴

The placement of this song in the Lectionary reminds us that the church calendar is not a line but a circle: it ends where it begins.  As we look toward the Second Coming of our Savior, we immediately join those who awaited the first coming of their Savior.  Both Christ the King Sunday and the season of Advent are reminders that we are still waiting for the dawn to break; we are waiting for the day when our Savior comes into the world to set things right.  Our job as Christians is to be like the child to whom Zechariah is singing.  As people who both follow Christ and prepare the way for Christ, we are called to be a source of light for people who feel as though they are wondering in darkness.

On a personal note, sometimes passing by a familiar landmark causes me to reflect on where I was when I encountered it previously and how my life has changed since then.

When I encountered the Canticle of Zechariah last December, I was in a rather dark place.  I had recently left my home church, and the Bible study group that had been my faith community for the last five years had just decided to call it quits.  I felt that I had abandoned a community that needed me and that I was subsequently abandoned by a community I needed, and I wondered if maybe the latter was punishment for the former.⁵  I wasn't thinking very highly of myself at the moment, and I experienced a sense of homelessness because I no longer knew where I belonged in the Church.  At that time, the song made a lot of sense to me, since I felt that I was wandering in the darkness, waiting for the dawn to break.

When I encountered this song again recently, I realized how much my life had changed in the past year.  I no longer feel like I'm in such a dark place.  I have found my way to a church where I believe I will have many opportunities to grow.  I am starting to experience a new sense of community with fellow parishioners who have been very supportive of me.  Also, the last five months of preaching has restored a sense of purpose in my life.  I am thankful for all the people who, by simply shining they light they have been given, have illuminated the path for me.


Notes:

1. For more information about the Revised Common Lectionary, check out the following website: http://www.commontexts.org/rcl/.
2. Luke 1:5-25
3. Luke 1:57-80
4. Luke 1:76-77 (NRSV)
5. I now look back at that time as a moment of grace.  If I couldn't even keep a little Bible study going, then I should not feel responsible for the future of a whole church.  Sometimes freedom can be found in futility.

The fresco pictured above was painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio in the late 1400s and can be found in the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy.

Introspection: My Life as an SWCM

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

My Life as an SWCM

You call me Teacher and Lord - and you are right, for that is what I am.  So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.  For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.  Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.

John 13:13-16 (NRSV)

When you're fighting to believe

In a love that you can't see

Just know there is a purpose

For those who wait

From "For Those Who Wait" by Fireflight

Several years ago, I took a spiritual gift assessment at my home church.  While taking a spiritual gift assessment, a person reads a series of statements and places by each statement a number indicating how much he or she resonates with it.  Certain statements correspond to certain spiritual gifts.  When a total for each spiritual gift is calculated, the gifts for which a person has the highest scores are likely the spiritual gifts the person has been given.

Earlier this month, to complete the coursework necessary to be certified as a Lay Speaker in the United Methodist Church, I took a class on spiritual gifts.  In preparation for this class, I had to complete another spiritual gift assessment.  As I took the assessment, I noticed that there were statements about things like marriage, relationships, and sex, and I began to suspect that what is so glibly called the "gift of singleness" might be included as a spiritual gift in this particular assessment.  This is a gift I've never really wanted to possess - it's the type of gift for which I hope God kept the receipt - but lately I've been wondering if I might actually be called to singleness.

As I started tallying up my score for each spiritual gift, I saw that singleness was indeed listed as a gift on the assessment.  Dr. Charles V. Bryant, the one who developed the assessment, defines the spiritual gift of singleness as "the ability to offer God and the church a life free from marriage, family responsibilities, and sexual frustrations to spend time and energies necessary for certain Christian ministries."¹  The inclusion of this gift is not without a Scriptural basis.  Jesus himself said that marriage is not for everyone, and St. Paul noted that, without the demands of marriage, an unattached person is free to dedicate his or her entire life to God's work.²

Ultimately, my second spiritual gift assessment served as a reaffirmation of the gifts I discovered several years ago - knowledge and teaching - and it uncovered another gift in me I did not realize was a spiritual gift - humor.  To my relief, my score for the gift of singleness was not very high.  Though I do enjoy the freedom that singleness affords me, there are certain aspects of the non-single life I hope to someday enjoy.

Despite Scripture's affirmation of unmarried people, single people are generally marginalized in the Church, at least in my neck of the woods.  In my culture, churches are typically structured for married couples and families.

I am not the only single Christian who feels this way.  On social media, I follow a certain magazine that is geared toward Christian young adults.  I've noticed that a seemingly disproportionate percentage of articles featured on this publication's website is dedicated to helping unmarried Christians cope with the fact that they're single.  The editors of this publication would not see any need to offer this steady stream of reassurance to single Christians if the rest of the Church was not giving them a complex.

Before I started attending my current church, I attended a much larger church for a few months.  During that time, I began to think that what's called "men's ministry" actually had nothing to do with me, despite the fact that I am indeed a man.  For example, on one Sunday morning, I attended a men's breakfast, and the speaker that morning talked about a man's place in the household.  Disagreements with the speaker's perspective on gender roles aside, the message didn't really apply to me since I am neither a father nor a husband.  What is a man to infer about a church's definition of manhood if all of the church's functions for men are geared specifically toward husbands and fathers?  All men might be invited, but not all men belong.

I've been attending my current church since Easter, and the longer I stay, the more enchanted with it I become.  In the last couple of months, I've gotten involved with the church's United Methodist Men's group.  Unlike most of the men in the group, I have no wife or children, but I do not feel out of place, because this men's group, unlike others, is focused specifically on service.  In the past, this group has participated in construction projects for families in need, and the group is currently looking for other ways to reach out to the community.  In this group, to be a man is to be a servant.

I find it ironic that, for many Christian men, "Christian manhood" is centered around being a husband and a father, when Jesus Christ - the One from whom we get the word Christian - was, as far as we know, neither a husband nor a father.  Jesus was, by His own admission, a servant.  He once said that "the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve,"³ and He demonstrated this truth one evening when He knelt down and washed His disciples dirty feet.⁴  Because Christ was a servant, anyone who seeks to follow in His footsteps, whether male or female, must also be a servant.

Someday I hope to be a husband and maybe a father, but this wish may or may not come true.  Regardless of my marital status, I can always be a servant, and I must be a servant if I am to be a man like Jesus.  Right now, I'm glad that I have a group of friends with whom I can grow as a servant.

---

If you have experienced singleness in the Church, I invite you to share your experience in the comment section, especially if your experience has been different from mine or if you have a perspective different from that of a white male who attends a mainline protestant church.


Notes:

1. Charles V. Bryant.  Your Spiritual Gifts Inventory.  1997, Upper Room Books.  p. 27
2. See Matthew 19:10-12 and 1 Corinthians 7:32-35.  These references and others were provided in the assessment.
3. Mark 10:45 (NRSV)
4. John 13:1-11

The photograph of the leaf is public domain.

Sermon: The Man in the Tree

Delivered at Bethel United Methodist Church and at Salem United Methodist Church in Greenville, South Carolina on November 13, 2016

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

The Man in the Tree

Audio Version

[Jesus] entered Jericho and was passing through it.  A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.  He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature.  So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.  When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today."  So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him.  All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner."  Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much."  Then Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.  For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost."

Luke 19:1-10 (NRSV)

Oh Jesus, friend of sinners
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners
Break our hearts for what breaks Yours

From "Jesus, Friend of Sinners" by Casting Crowns

Jericho was, at one time, a cursed city.  When the Israelites entered the Promised Land after their long trek through the desert, Jericho was the first city they attacked.  The Israelite soldiers circled the fortified city once per day for six days.  On the seventh day, they circled the city seven times; the priests blew their horns; the soldiers shouted; and the walls of the city miraculously "came tumbling down."  They then invaded the city and slaughtered all of the people and livestock, sparing only the family of the woman who harbored Joshua's reconnaissance team.  They took no spoils but instead burned the entire city to the ground.  Joshua then declared that anyone who dared to rebuild the city of Jericho would be cursed by God.  At the cost of his oldest child, he would lay the foundations, and, at the cost of his youngest child, he would build the city gates.¹

Centuries later, a very wicked king named Ahab came to power, and, along with his wife Jezebel, he turned the people of Israel against their God.  At that time, a man named Hiel oversaw the reconstruction of Jericho, perhaps as an act of rebellion against Israel's God and heritage.  Just as Joshua had prophesied, Hiel lost his oldest son when the foundations were laid and later lost his youngest son when the city gates were built.²  After the city was established, the people of Jericho found themselves with a serious problem.  Contaminated water made people deathly ill, caused miscarriages, and rendered the soil unfit for growing crops.  Perhaps, rattling around in the people's minds was Joshua's curse.³  When the people turned to the prophet Elisha for help, he dumped a bowl of salt into the city's spring and pronounced the water clean.  Miraculously, the water no longer made people sick or caused the land to be unfruitful.⁴

By Jesus' day, Jericho had become prosperous.  Dates and balsam trees from the city were exported throughout the Roman Empire, generating a lot of revenue, and the location of the city within the Jordan Valley made it a gateway to Jerusalem and to the lands east of the Jordan River.⁵  This city also happened to be, according to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus' last stop on His way to Jerusalem.

In the city of Jericho, we meet a man named Zacchaeus, who was probably considered to be a curse by most of the residents.  An old children's song tells us that "Zacchaeus was a wee little man... and a wee little man was he."  This "wee little man" might have had a below average height, but he had an above average income.  He had amassed a great deal of wealth by working as a tax collector, and a prosperous city like Jericho was a good place to work as a tax collector.  In the days of the Roman Empire, tax collectors would bid on a district, and the one who could promise the most money to the Empire would be assigned to the district.  Any money he collected in excess of the amount he promised the Empire was his to keep.  This system, which obviously lent itself to abuse, allowed tax collectors to line their pockets quite nicely.  Some speculate that this broken system might have been retired by the time of Jesus, but, even so, it still would have shaped the people's opinions of tax collectors like Zacchaeus.⁶

The Jewish people hated their Roman oppressors, and, because Zacchaeus was an employee of the Roman Empire who lived high on the hog thanks to the Roman occupation, he would have been regarded as a traitor by his fellow Jews.  Zacchaeus was not just any tax collector: he was the chief tax collector of his region.  Not only did he profit from his own collections, he also received a cut of the profits of all the tax collectors who reported to him.⁷  As chief tax collector – and chief scumbag – Zacchaeus had likely earned for himself the title of most hated man in Jericho.  In the eloquent words of N.T. Wright,
One can only imagine the reaction of neighbours, and even of friends and relatives, as Zacchaeus's house became more lavishly decorated, as more slaves ran about at his bidding, as his clothes became finer and his food richer.  Everyone knew that this was their money and that he had no right to it; everyone knew that there was nothing they could do about it.⁸

As the town pariah, this first-century Bernie Madoff⁹ longed for something that all the money in the world could not buy.  It was this longing that drew Zacchaeus to the traveling teacher, healer, and prophet known as Jesus of Nazareth.¹⁰  Perhaps he had heard something about Jesus' strange stories of lost sheep and wayward sons.¹¹  Perhaps he had heard that Jesus risked uncleanness to heal people whose medical problems had made them unclean and untouchable.¹²  Perhaps he had heard that Jesus once stuck up for a prostitute who crashed a Pharisee's dinner party and made an awkward scene at the dinner table.¹³  Perhaps he had heard that Jesus shared meals with undesirables like tax collectors as if they were some of His best friends.¹⁴  Perhaps he had even heard rumors that Jesus had chosen a tax collector like him to be one of His pupils.¹⁵

Whatever Zacchaeus had previously heard about Jesus, when he learned that Jesus was passing through Jericho, he knew that he had to catch a glimpse of Him.  When he went out to see Jesus, he could not see because of the crowd.  Naturally, he couldn't see because he was, as some people say, "vertically challenged," but it is quite likely that the crowd didn't want him to see Jesus.  All things considered, Zacchaeus was actually quite brave to go out among the crowd.  The size of the crowd would have afforded any angry resident of Jericho the opportunity to give him an anonymous shove, kick, or punch.¹⁶  Determined to see Jesus, Zacchaeus employed a skill he might not have used since the days of his childhood: he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a tree.  He probably just wanted to catch a glimpse of the mysterious Jesus of Nazareth and maybe even glean some words of wisdom as He passed by.  He had not anticipated what would happen next.  As soon as Jesus arrived at Zacchaeus's location, He stopped at the tree, looked up at Zacchaeus, and said, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today."

Zacchaeus turned over a new leaf after meeting Jesus.  He pledged to give half of his possessions to those in need, and he promised to make fourfold restitution to anyone he had cheated.¹⁷  According to the Jewish Law, anyone who confessed to fraud or theft was only required to repay the amount of the damages plus one fifth.  Fourfold restitution was reserved for deliberately destructive actions.¹⁸  Basically, Zacchaeus confronted the destructive nature of his actions, took ownership of all the ways he had wronged the residents of Jericho, and committed to set things right.  He resolved to leave behind a life of dishonesty and greed to embrace a life of integrity and generosity.
   
So what could Jesus have possibly said to Zacchaeus that would have caused such a radical change?  All we really know Jesus said to Zacchaeus is, "Hey, Zacchaeus!  We need somewhere to stay tonight.  Mind if we crash at your place?"

Jesus had a way of making the excluded feel included.

In the Gospel of John, we read that one day, while passing through a Samaritan town, Jesus sat down beside a well to rest while the Disciples went to the market to buy food.  When a woman came to the well to draw some water, Jesus asked her for a drink.  Women normally drew water in the morning, but this woman waited until noon so that she could avoid her peers, for a string of broken marriages in her past had given her a bad reputation.  It is remarkable that Jesus, a Jew, would even ask a Samaritan woman for a drink, since Jews and Samaritans generally hated each other, but Jesus was speaking with an outcast among outcasts.¹⁹  Jesus took the opportunity to have a heart-to-heart conversation with her that left her a changed woman.  She forgot all about her shame and told everyone in town about the man she had come to believe was their long-awaited messiah.²⁰

Never underestimate the power of a simple act of inclusion.  Simply sitting with someone, talking with someone, sharing a meal with someone, asking someone for help and gratefully accepting his or her help, or doing anything that says to someone, "I'm with you, and I'm for you," has the potential to make an impact in a person's life.

During my first two years of college, I was, for the most part, a loner and a hermit, mostly because I was a commuter.  Though I occasionally hung out with some of my high school friends who also attended the same university, I typically drove to campus every day, attended my classes, and then went home.

At the beginning of my Junior year, I learned about the Wesley Fellowship, the Untied Methodist group on campus.  The young men and women in this group knew how to make a person feel welcomed, included, and loved.  During the fall, I joined the group for a retreat at Lake Junaluska, and, during the retreat, we had a healing service.  When my turn came to sit in the middle of the circle, everyone placed their hands on me, and I felt the love of everyone in the room.  On one Friday evening not too long afterward, I went to the campus chapel to attend a lecture.  I saw some of my friends from the group sitting together on one of the pews, but, because the pew was full, I took a seat on the pew behind them where I would still be able to talk with them.  Three of my friends – Kim, Ginger, and John – stood up and moved back to sit with me.  I doubt they even remember doing this, but this small act of inclusion meant a lot to me.  Another friend turned around and said, "We could have squeezed you in."

It it any wonder that I would remain involved with such a group for three years after I graduated?

Being involved with the Wesley Fellowship changed my life.  For years, I had known that I needed to be a Christian, but this group made realize that I actually wanted to be a Christian.  I began to see church less as an event I attended every Sunday morning and more as a community built on love.  I think that maybe the inclusive nature of the group is part of what gave me the desire to make sure that the people around me feel included.

Theologian Paul Tillich describes God's grace as that which reaches out to us in our darkest moments, when we are at our lowest, and says, "You are accepted.  You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know...  Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!"  According to Tillich, in the moment we are "struck by grace," nothing might seem different, yet somehow everything is changed.²¹  To receive God's grace is to accept that we are accepted by God, and to extend that grace to other people is to accept them just as they are.

Does it sound offensive to you that someone as criminally unacceptable as Zacchaeus should be accepted just as he is?  If you find such an idea repugnant, you would have been in good company among the crowd in Jericho that day.  When Jesus made His request to stay at Zacchaeus's house, people began grumbling about the fact that He would be willing to associate with such a despicable sinner, but, to borrow a phrase from St. Paul, "where sin abounded, grace abounded much more."²²  Grace can be offensive to us when we become a little too sure of our own goodness and forget that we too are in need of grace.

It is not our place to change people: that job belongs to God, and to God alone.  Our job is to love our neighbors and even our enemies as Christ loves us, following His example.  In the words of John Pavlovitz, "It's a really bad idea to set out to change another person.  Instead, set out to love them, and they will become whatever they are supposed to become"  Jesus did not tell Zacchaeus that he needed to change; instead, Jesus simply reached out to him and accepted him just as he was.  Zacchaeus was changed by the grace Jesus showed him: he saw past the person he had been and began to see the person he could be.  He was saved from his former self and from the alienation his actions had brought him, and a new faith was born within him.

Jesus says of Zacchaeus, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham."  Abraham, who had the faith to leave everything familiar to him and go to the place where God had called him to go, is the revered ancestor of the Jewish people.  One question that comes up multiple times in the New Testament concerns what it means to be a child of Abraham, for it is not merely a matter of ancestry.  In one Gospel, Jesus suggests that a child of Abraham is one who does Abraham's works.²³  St. Paul argues that a child of Abraham is one who shares Abraham's faith.²⁴  I find it noteworthy that Zacchaeus did not express any desire to leave everything and follow Jesus like a number of others who encountered Him.  Following Jesus on His travels would have been an easy way for Zacchaeus to get out of dodge, away from all the people who hated him, press the reset button on his life, and start over.  Instead, he chose to stay in Jericho to repair his relationship with the people of the city and to make amends to the people he had wronged.  It requires great faith to venture out into worlds unknown, like Abraham, but sometimes we need great faith just to face the world we know.

We cannot change people, and, if we attempt to change people, we will only do more harm than good.  We can only love people and accept them just as they are.  Ironically, knowing that we're loved and accepted just as we are can change us in profound ways.  We, who have received the love and grace of God, must extend this love and grace to others.  When we love other people as Christ loves us, allowing God to work through us, there is no telling what kind of miracles God might work in their hearts.

Amen.


Notes:

1. Joshua 6
2. 1 Kings 16:29-34
3. Rob Bell.  "Salt in the Water."  Mars Hill Bible Church Podcast, 05/02/2010.
4. 2 Kings 2:19-22
5. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Luke.  2001, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 276
6. Barclay, pp. 76-77
7. N.T. Wright.  Luke for Everyone.  2004, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 222
8. Wright, pp. 222-223
9. I think I originally heard Rob Bell make this comparison in one of his sermons.
10. Barclay, p. 278
11. Luke 15
12. Luke 5:12-16; Luke 8:43-48; Luke 17:11-19
13. Luke 7:36-50
14. Luke 5:29-32
15. Luke 5:27-28
16. Barclay, p. 278
17. Several years ago, I learned from my pastor that there is some ambiguity in the original Greek text in regards to the verb tense Zacchaeus uses.  Zacchaeus might be telling Jesus what he will do, but it is possible that he is telling Jesus what he already does.  The latter reading is reflected in the Common English Bible.  Zacchaeus is typically understood to have been a greedy and dishonest tax collector, but it is possible that he was actually an honest and generous tax collector who was misjudged by the people.  I have chosen the conventional reading for the purpose of this sermon.
18. Barclay, p. 278  (See also Leviticus 6:2-5 and Exodus 22:1.)
19. Adam Hamilton.  The Way: Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus.  2012, Abingdon Press.  pp. 127-128
20. John 4:1-42
21. Paul Tillich.  The Shaking of the Foundations.  ch. 19
22. Romans 5:20 (NKJV)
23. John 8:39
24. Romans 4:16

Zacchaeus was painted by Niels Larsen Stevns in 1913.

Sermon: Take Courage! (2016)

Delivered at Dacusville United Methodist Church in Easley, South Carolina on November 6, 2016.

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Take Courage!

Audio Version

In the second year of King Darius, in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say, Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory?  How does it look to you now?  Is it not in your sight as nothing?  Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt.  My spirit abides among you; do not fear.  For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts.  The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts.  The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the Lord of hosts.

Haggai 1:15b-2:9 (NRSV)

I've been on a losing streak

Hit so hard I couldn't speak

But when I hear Your voice it fades away

From "Brand New Day" by Fireflight

Once day, the prophet Ahijah met a taskmaster named Jeroboam by the side of the road, just outside Jerusalem.  The prophet removed his robe, ripped it into twelve pieces, and then gave ten pieces to the taskmaster.  The glory days of Israel had come to an end.  King Solomon - the very same king who prayed to God for the wisdom to lead his people and went on to oversee the construction of the temple - had let his power go to his head, and he was leading his kingdom down a very destructive path.¹  In 930 BC, that same taskmaster led an uprising against Solomon's successor Rehoboam, and Israel was riven in twain.²  Ten tribes seceded to form the northern Kingdom of Israel, while the two remaining tribes became the southern Kingdom of Judah.  Each kingdom fell under a long line of corrupt rulers who lead the people away from God.  A host of prophets tried to turn the two kingdoms back to God, but, for the most part, all they could do was to watch helplessly as the two kingdoms spiraled into chaos.

Divided, they fell.  In 720 BC, King Sargon II of Assyria conquered the Northern Kingdom's capital city of Samaria and took the population of the city captive.³  In 587 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon breached the walls of Jerusalem, captured and blinded the King of Judah, burned down the Temple of the Lord, leveled the city, and took many of the people into captivity.⁴  The exiles found themselves by the river in Babylon, weeping over the downfall of their homeland and seething with rage toward their conquerors.⁵

Despite all that had happened, the story of the Jewish people was not over.  "I know the plans I have for you," God said through the prophet Jeremiah, "plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope."⁶

The exile of the Jewish people came to an end nearly fifty years later in 538 BC, after the Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Persian Empire under the leadership of Cyrus the Great.  Cyrus, who is remembered by history as both a conqueror and a humanitarian, sought a peaceful coexistence with the peoples he conquered.  In what is considered to be one of the world's earliest declarations of human rights, he allowed the people who had been displaced by the Assyrians and the Babylonians to return to their homelands to rebuild their homes and religious centers.⁷  The Bible suggests that God put the idea into Cyrus's heart to allow the exiles to return to their homes and rebuild.⁸  The Book of Isaiah even refers to Cyrus the Great as the Lord's anointed.⁹  The Hebrew word translated into English as anointed is mashiyach, from which we derive the word messiah.¹⁰

Among those who returned to Jerusalem were Zerubbabel, the man who would serve under King Cyrus as the governor of the province of Judah, and Joshua the high priest.  These two men would oversee the construction of a second temple.  Their first objective was to rebuild the Brazen Altar so that the people could resume the ritual offerings and celebrations prescribed by the Jewish Law, even before the new temple was completed.  After the altar was completed and the people had resumed their religious practices, work began on the foundation of the temple.  Once the foundation was completed, the people rejoiced; however, many of the people who were old enough to remember the glory of the first temple cried out in despair at the sight of the new temple's foundation.¹¹

After the foundation was laid, the Jewish people began to face resistance from the "people of the land," the descendants of Israelites who married Assyrians, who will come to be known as the Samaritans.  At first, the Samaritans offered their assistance in a veiled sabotage attempt, but, when their assistance was refused, they began to bribe government officials in order to frustrate the efforts to rebuild the temple.¹²  After the death of Cyrus the Great in 530 BC,¹³ the Samaritans wrote a letter to the new king of Persia, claiming that the Jewish people intended to revolt once they completed work on the temple.  To maintain control over the province of Judah, the king sent his deputy to Jerusalem and ordered that all work on the temple be stopped immediately.¹⁴

In 522 BC, King Darius I ascended the Persian throne.¹⁵  The former king was gone along with his cease-and-desist order, but the people were still hesitant to resume construction on the temple.

In the book 11: Indispensable Relationships You Can't Be Without, Methodist theologian Leonard Sweet argues that each of us needs what he calls a "butt-kicker."  Sometimes, on our journeys, when obstacles block the path ahead of us or when disappointment knocks us down, we might be tempted to throw in the towel.  At times like these we need someone to kick us in the rear end, spiritually speaking, and get us moving down the path once again.  Sweet writes, "When you're spiritually neutered, or when you've become complacent and complaisant, when you begin to shrink from your mission, you need a [butt-kicker] to keep you loyal to your dreams."¹⁶  The Jewish people had been through a lot - civil war, political turmoil, the destruction of their homes, exile in enemy territory - and, just as they began to make some progress in rebuilding their temple, their culture, and their lives, their efforts were quashed by the powers that be.  The Jewish people needed someone to spur them on to continue on the journey they started.

Enter Haggai.

Like any good butt-kicker, the prophet Haggai calls his audience to move forward.  At the insistence of Haggai and his fellow prophet Zechariah, the people of Judah resume work on the temple,¹⁷ and, once construction is underway, Haggai continues to encourage the people.  "Take courage!" God says to Zerubbabel, to Joshua, and to the people of Judah through the prophet.  "Work, for I am with you... according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt.  My Spirit abides among you; do not fear."

The journey of faith is a journey into the unknown at the call of an invisible God to do things we would have once thought impossible.  Haggai's prophecy reminds us that the journey of faith requires courage.  It takes courage to set out on a journey when the path ahead of us is hazy, when we do not know where the journey will take us, when we do not even know how we will complete our journey.  Haggai's prophecy echos the words that God has said so many times to God's people: "I am with you."

"I will be with you," God said to the Jewish patriarchs when they faced difficulty.¹⁸

"I will be with you," God said to Moses when he was afraid to return to Egypt.¹⁹

"I will be with you," God said to Joshua as he prepared to led the people into the Promised Land.²⁰

"I am with you," God said to the exiles far from home in Babylon.²¹

The prophecy even foreshadows the message of comfort Christ leaves with the Apostles as He sends them out to proclaim the Good News throughout the world: "I am with you always, to the end of the age."²²

On the journey of faith, the road ahead of us can become dark and cloudy at times.  God promises to be with us every step of the way, and we are invited to draw strength from the well of God's presence.

Taking a step in faith requires courage when we have allowed the disappointments of the past to fester into an attitude of negativity.  The Jewish people worked hard to rebuild the temple and establish a sense of normalcy after returning home, and their efforts were rewarded with harassment and a cease-and-desist order.  It is only natural that they would be reluctant to pick up their tools and start building once again.

Sometimes we use negativity to numb ourselves.  When we choose to be hopeful, we leave ourselves vulnerable to possible disappointments, but, if we just assume that nothing good ever happens in life, we will never have to worry about being disappointed.  Hope is easily misplaced, and false hope often leads to disappointment and heartache, but despair brings with it a twisted sense of certainty.  Shane Hipps compares a person who chooses the certainty of despair out of a fear of false hope to a farmer who tosses a handful of seed into a fire.  Though there is no guarantee that the seed will take root and grow if it is scattered on the ground, there is a zero percent chance it will ever bear fruit if it is thrown into a fire.²³  Hope can be risky, but with greater risks come greater rewards.  On the journey of faith, God has promised to be with us, guiding us and empowering us, but we will never know what possibilities await us unless we step out in faith and hold God to His word.

Sometimes we find ourselves trapped in the past, not by negativity, but by nostalgia.  We long for life as it was back then:

back then in the "good old days,"

back then when life seemed simpler,

back then before everything fell apart,

back then before cynicism set in,

back then when we felt more hopeful.

The sad truth is that nostalgia is ultimately a longing for something that never existed in the first place.  The anxieties of the present lead us to romanticize the past, but the so-called "good old days" were almost never as good as we imagine them to be.

Haggai's prophecy directly addresses the nostalgia of the elders returning from exile, those who had witnessed the beauty of the first temple and despaired when they saw the foundation of the second temple.  God says through the prophet, "The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former... and in this place I will give prosperity."  We cannot move forward when we're living in the past.  In the words of Rob Bell,
There's a certain kind of despair that sets in when we believe that things were better back then.  When we're stuck back there.  When we're not fully present.  When we're still holding on to how things were, our arms aren't free to embrace today.²⁴
Sometimes we think that life will never be like it used to be... and we're exactly right.  The past is behind us, but, if we are willing to let go of our nostalgia and step out in faith in the present, then we just might find that God has a bright future in mind for us.  The future will never be like the past, but it might be better.

Through Haggai, God announces, "I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor."  Though the temple had been plundered and destroyed in the past, God promises that it will be filled with beauty and splendor once again.  "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine," God says.  I believe that, if God truly puts dreams into our hearts, then God will not leave us without the means to turn those dreams into realities.  If our dreams truly come from God, then we can count on God to provide the material and spiritual resources we need to achieve those dreams.  After all, the resources are God's to give.  To borrow an expression from our Quaker brothers and sisters, "The way will open."  We should not feel inadequate to pursue our dreams.  It has been said that "God does not call the equipped; God equips the called."

Haggai's prophecy is a call to leave behind both the nostalgia and the negativity that would trap us in the past and to step boldly into the future. We can step out in faith because we know that God is with us.  Haggai's prophecy is as true for us today as it was for the Jewish people over 2500 years ago.

Take courage!  The Lord is with you.

Amen.


Notes:

1. 1 Kings 11:29-39
2. Wikipedia: Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)
3. ibid
4. Wikipedia: Siege of Jerusalem (587 B)
5. See Psalm 137.
6. Jeremiah 29:11 (NRSV)
7. Wikipedia: Cyrus the Great
8. Ezra 1
9. Isaiah 45 (NRSV)
10. Blue Letter Bible: mashiyach
11. Ezra 3
12. Ezra 4:1-5  (See also Wikipedia: Book of Ezra.)
13. Wikipedia: Cyrus the Great
14. Ezra 4:6-24
15. Wikipedia: Darius I
16. Leonard Sweet.  11: Indispensable Relationships You Can't Be Without.  2008, David C. Cook. ch. 3
17. Ezra 5:1-2
18. Genesis 26:3 and Genesis 31:3 (NRSV)
19. Exodus 3:2 (NRSV)
20. Joshua 1:5 (NRSV)
21. Isaiah 41:10 (NRSV)
22. Matthew 28:20 (NRSV)
23. Shane Hipps.  "Miracles and Maple Trees."  Mars Hill Bible Church Podcast, 10/16/11
24. Rob Bell.  NOOMA Today | 017.  2007, Flannel. 

The painting of Zerubbabel showing his plans to Cyrus the Great was painted by Jacob van Loo in the 17th century.