Readings: Haggai 1:15b-2: 9, Luke 20: 27-38
Let us
pray: Living God, you challenge us to live in the way of Christ,
so may your word for us be both comforting and disturbing, that we may better
be a transformed and transforming community in Jesus name. Amen.
Just like Rat and Mole, just like Toad and
Badger, we almost all of us have a need of some way, some place that we can feel
at home, be secure and safe and encouraged in familiar surroundings. For the characters of Kenneth Grahame’s story
who they were was tied up in where they considered to be home and, particularly
for Mole, it was unsettling to stumble across the home that he use to have –
the place where he had once felt totally warm and safe – and to find that
although he had moved on and was now living somewhere else and valued other
places – this, his old home, still had special and nostalgic memories.
For the Jews
of Haggai’s time, returned from exile, it was totally understandable that they
should try to recreate the splendour and glory of their former temple in
Jerusalem – it was what kept them going when they were away, this dream, and
now they were here – but they were disheartened. Not only was it a monumental task ahead of
them but it was also proving difficult in terms of finding quality material and
workmen, let alone their own energy, numbers and skills. It was never going to be as it was – things were
not going to be the same. It was too hard!
There is a
very obvious parallel too on this Remembrance Sunday. Those who have left their homes, all that is
known and familiar and safe, to head overseas in the horror and carnage of wars
– for many any semblance of reassurance or rest or security when they are in
the midst of such hell would be found in their memories of home and hearth. And yet for those who returned – nothing could
turn the clock back ( I have no doubt some would have tried) because not only
had the world they left changed irrevocably, they too, in their horrendous experiences,
were not the people that had left.
And the last,
very close to home, example that adds to this picture is that of the situation
in Christchurch after virtually every traditional church building was munted
after the earthquakes. Look to the
debates over the rebuilding of the Cathedral – exact replication or new
interpretation of church building for our time.
Enormous energies have been utilized for replication, restoring what was
once again, – and I don’t think I am wrong here to say mostly from people who
are not part of the Anglican faith community?
Even in the Presbyterian church debate over opportunities of new models
of ministry (where buildings are only part of a greater new picture) versus
rebuilding on the same site as in Knox Church, Bealey Ave are alive and
well. But nowhere are the faith
communities looking to want to try and go back to what was – they all seem to have
read and heard the Prophet Haggai’s words.
For Haggai
had heard the people’s frustrations, their disappointments, their hopes fading
for former glory, their disillusionment almost that God had abandoned them to
get through this themselves. He
understood their wanting to blame God (or at least God’s absence) for what they
saw as their failure to recreate the previous splendour of the house of God. There are some things you need to be reminded
of, says Haggai: first of all, although it may not be obvious, God is with you
and is working through you, secondly God keeps the promises made to your
ancestors – ‘my spirit abides with you, do not fear’[1] and
lastly God will provide – maybe not in the way of old but in a new way – there is
a bigger picture to trust God with.
And then he goes
on to remind the people that the glory of God is not for them and others to
discover in the completed edifice but rather that it is evidenced in the
presence of God with them in the building of it. Therefore any task attempted without the
presence of God is doomed to failure. You
could do the whole magnificent rebuild of the temple but it would be as nothing
without the divine presence. So don’t be dismayed – move on confident in the
presence of God and where that might take you.
Wherever God through the Spirit makes a dwelling , God is there to guide
and to stay, even though it may not be always obvious. They are huge words of encouragement to a
people who are struggling, who are at a place where energy and ability don’t
seem to be enough to the great task ahead of them.
For the re-creation
of a temple was essential, not merely as a building but to house that community
of faith living in response to God. They,
again like people throughout time, needed a place to gather and be sustained in
rich relationship with God and with one another. Just as they found new ways of doing this, maybe
for us it’s time to recognise that the richness of relationship with God and
each other is no longer to be found in splendid buildings, packed out church
services, overflowing coffers and endless new recruits.
Stop and
think about that for a while – how much of our energy and enthusiasm is sapped
by trying to holding up goals for success that have their source in what has
been rather than in the presence of God with us and our confidence in that.
Where might
God’s presence with us and in us manifest itself to the glory of God in this
new land?
Here are a
few thoughts. It might not be any longer
in asking or expecting people to come to us.
Our buildings on the whole express a ‘trust me’ understanding of church
which is no longer true. As less and
less people have experience of church, things happening behind impenetrable
buildings say instead secrecy and unknown.
People want more openness and transparency, want to see what is going on
before they will trust and engage. Our
buildings, often closed 6.5 days, are for many an enigmatic step too far.
Another
thought – it may no longer be expecting people to have any understanding at all
as to what God, Christ, church, scripture mean – or equally to have
interpretations drawn from a church that no longer exists. So our need to understand our own faith, to
express our own hopes and visions of God’s presence in our lives is incredibly
important. It’s not enough to have
someone else’s words opening the scriptures for us – we then need to take who
we are and share with others.
We also no
longer have the moral or historical high ground – we are expected to live as we
teach if we want anyone to take notice of us, to express our faith in the way
we live 24/7 not just Sunday morning.
The word Church no longer brings a hushed reverence, rather all too
often it instead brings derision and challenge.
We are challenged when our lifestyles contradict our words – and rightly
so. We have to fight to be heard, are
frustrated with our inability to be taken seriously and tear our hair out over
the world’s seeming fascination with extremes of faith to the exclusion of the
vast majority of believers throughout the world.
Our tools
too are different –I, as part of the Leadership Sub Committee, have spent time
discussing whether the current form of Ministry of Word and Sacrament – one Minister
to one Parish, one form of training to fit all, is any longer meeting our
needs, or should I say God’s need in this place.
Where the
role of, for example, the itinerant ministry of music that Malcolm Gordon is offering,
of the role of these new super Presbyteries in shaping and equipping the
ministry of all peoples?
And do you
know – when we gather all these thoughts together – there is a strange
thing. What we might be needing to turn
away from, have new thoughts about is actually not all that long-term
historically or in terms of our ecclesiology, our theology of church. Its not so long ago that Ministers of
yesteryear in NZ travelled huge distances, ministered and pastored to people
who they might have seen once every three months, of communities of faith where
the role of the elder was to lead that community of faith in worship and
teaching alongside the often absent Minister, of communities of faith who managed
just fine without superb buildings and in depth national heavyweight structures
and so on. It bears some reflection I
believe.
The early
church had to deal with despondency, issues of lack of trust and knowledge in
the wider community, interpretation of Christ’s word, they too struggled to
survive against world views and cultural disdain. So what’s new?
And the
truth that spoke to them then and that is still speaking to us today, the word
that gives hope and confidence to the body of Christ is that when we allow the
presence of the living God to be richly in our midst, to guide and nurture us,
there the glory of God will be found.
This will be a new energy, a differently shaped and resourced ministry
but the richness of God present and alive in this community will not change –
for our God is the God of the living, and will abide with us always – this is
the promise of relationship between God and humanity on which we can absolutely
trust. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Margaret Garland
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