Building the Church
Haggai 1:15-2:9[1]
There are a lot of people wringing their hands about the church these
days. They are mostly concerned about
the lack of participation on the part of younger generations in traditional
churches. So commentators of all stripes
are weighing in about why younger people aren’t going to church and what we can
do to reverse that trend.[2] While many are
wringing their hands about the future of the church, I think there are just as
many people actually in churches who are worried about the past. Remembering “the good old days,” they are
desperate to find the solution that will make it possible for us to re-create
those days, when the pews were mostly filled instead of mostly empty. Unfortunately, those days are gone for good.
I imagine that our situation isn’t all that different from the way it
was in the days of the prophet Haggai.
He was one of the exiles who returned to Judea from Babylonian
captivity. And when they returned, they
found that Jerusalem, their cities and towns, and especially the Temple, were
all in ruins. There were those who
looked at the ruins of their culture and their temple and who worried about the
future: how would they survive? And
there were those who looked at those same ruins and grieved over past greatness
that had been lost. But for all their
worrying and all their grieving, I’m not sure they knew what to do about
it. Ezra had restored the worship of God
and the study of the Torah, God’s
word. Nehemiah had led the people to
rebuild the wall around Jerusalem to protect them from their enemies. But the temple itself lay in ruins.
And so the word of the Lord came to Haggai. He rather pointedly reminded them that their
efforts to restore their lives and to provide for their future had been in
vain. Apparently they struggled with
crop failures, food shortages, inflation, and famine--not to mention the
lingering threat of their enemies who would like nothing better than to see
their restoration project fail. And the
word of the Lord came to them: “You have looked for much, and, lo, it came to
little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of
hosts. Because my house lies in ruins, while all of you hurry off to your own
houses” (Hag. 1:9).[3] Apparently, everyone was devoting their
efforts to ensuring and securing their own fortunes--rebuilding houses,
planting crops, trying to maintain their feeble hold on the land of their
ancestors. And apparently, their efforts
met with more failure than success.
Haggai basically asks them this: “Is it a time for you yourselves to
live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” (Hag. 1:4).[4] And Haggai’s words had their effect: “the
Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel ..., and the spirit of Joshua ..., and
the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the
house of the Lord of hosts, their God” (Hag. 1:16).
But even though the people set about the work of rebuilding the temple,
there were those who remembered the former temple, Solomon’s temple. And in comparison, this new temple looked
pretty shabby. It was a poor reflection
of the original. Once again, Haggai came with the word of the Lord: he
recognized that this new temple was “as nothing” in comparison with Solomon’s
temple. But his message was this: “take
courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you,
says the Lord of hosts” (Hag. 2:4).[5] Even though the results of their work may
have been disappointing to those who had seen the original temple, the word of
assurance that Haggai spoke to the people was that the “Lord of hosts” was with
them. That was the whole point of the
temple: it was to be a place where the people could come to encounter the
presence of God in a unique way.[6] And so he told them to go on with the work
despite their misgivings.
I would imagine that there are many in our day who are saying similar
things about the church--or about their church in particular. Some would even say that the church as a
whole is obsolete and it’s a waste of time to try to renew the church. It seems that more and more people agree with
that view, preferring to be “spiritual but not religious” because they don’t
believe in any form of institutional religion.
And yet, I would ask them what specific form of “spirituality” they
actually practice. It’s one thing to say
you’re “spiritual, but not religious.” But
the fact of the matter is that every form of spirituality takes place in
buildings that house a community with specific rituals--whether it’s a Christian
church or a Jewish synagogue or a Buddhist Sangha or an Islamic Masjid. Human spirituality thrives only when we
practice it together, and it thrives on specific practices, like praying the
Lord’s prayer, or observing the sacrament of communion, or listening to the
Scriptures read and preached.[7]
Regardless of the nay-sayers who pronounce the doom of the church, the
promise Haggai made to the exiles in Judea applies to us today as well: we can
do the work because God is with us. The
situation in which the church finds itself in the present may very well be
disappointing in comparison with a former time.
Just as the people of Haggai’s day needed foundation stones and timbers
to build the temple, so we have specific things we can do promote new life in the
church today. They aren’t secret: the
means we use to build this or any other church are the same as they have always
been: prayer, worship, studying Scripture, sharing our story, helping those in
need, working for peace, promoting community, inviting others to join the
community.[8] I think we can do
this work to see the church thrive in our day because we know that we are not
doing the work on our own. The most
important factor in renewing this or any other church is not that we
are building the church, but that as we do our work, it is the Lord
who is building the church. And he has
promised that it will not fail (cf. Matt. 16:18)!
[1] ©
2013 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by
Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 11/10/2013 at First Presbyterian Church of Dickinson, TX.
[2]
Cf., for example, recently Addie Zierman, “5 Churchy Phrases That Are Scaring
Off Millennials,” 7 Nov 2013 blog on The
Washington Post, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/wp/2013/11/07/5-churchy-phrases-that-are-scaring-off-millennials/;
and Rachel Held Evans, “Why Millenials Are Leaving the Church,” 27 July 2013
blog on CNN, at http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/27/why-millennials-are-leaving-the-church/.
[3]
Cf. Hans-Walter Wolff, Haggai, 54,
where he says, “The people say: ‘Because the times are hard there is no time
for the temple’ (2b*, 9a*). Haggai counters: ‘It is because you have no time
for the temple that the times are hard’ (9b*). The prophet reverses cause and
effect, and thereby strips bare the truth.”
[4]
Cf. Elizabeth Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi,
99, where she says Haggai insists “that not foreigner nor fate nor workings of
nature control the Judeans’ lives, but God.
Human life in its context in history and nature is in the hand of the
Lord of Hosts. Therefore, beyond all
other concerns, God’s people should be concerned about the relation with him.”
[5]
Cf. Robert L. Smith, Micah–Malachi,
156–157, where he points out that this would have discouraged the work in
general, and Haggai was effective at encouraging them to take up the work
nevertheless. Cf. also Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi, 101: “The old ones forget
that it was not Solomon but God who filled the temple with glory, and so they
mourn the past that can never return.
Worse still, they obstruct the new glory that is arriving, for as long as
God is on the scene his people may confidently expect things which eye has not
seen nor ear heard. The Lord who has
done so much in the past an establish new symbols of his presence in the
future. The God who rules past, present,
future can manifest himself in ways yet undreamed and unknown. The future that Haggai holds out before his
discouraged and sorrowing countrymen is nothing less than a universal
reordering of all things and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth.”
[6]
Cf. Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi, 97: “When
God is present with his people, that presence is symbolized by concrete
reminders of his actions among them: for Israel, by a temple with an Ark
containing tablets of law, even by a pot of manna (cf. Exod. 16:32-34) and
Aaron’s rod (Num. 17:10); for us, by a cross, a Bible, and a table set with
bread and wine.” Cf. also W. Eugene March, “The Book of Haggai,” New Interpreters Bible VII:717 : “The
Temple was a place chosen by God where human beings could expect to encounter
God, to be challenged and renewed by the divine presence.” Cf. similarly, Gerhard Von Rad, Old Testament Theology, II:281-82.
[7]
Cf. Henri Nouwen, Here and Now: Living in
the Spirit, 95: “We cannot live a spiritual life alone. The life of the Spirit is like a seed that
needs fertile ground to grow. This
fertile ground includes not only a good inner disposition, but also a
supportive milieu.”
[8]
Cf. Diana Butler Bass, Christianity for
the Rest of Us, 45; cf. also The Book
of Order 2011-2013, p. 5, F-1.304, which summarizes the calling of the
church in “The Great Ends of the Church,” which was adopted by the United
Presbyterian Church of North America in 1910
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