Next week begins a relatively short, but concentrated period during which we at Hope Church will be
focusing on the next, big step in our life as a congregation. The capital campaign will swing into full
stride, and we’ll be looking closely at how we anticipate our new church being a vehicle for God’s
ministry in northeast Albuquerque. That being the case, I was taken by this morning’s Old Testament
reading from the book of Haggai. In it we have the beginnings of an important chapter in the history
of God’s people. And that story has certain parallels to what we’re experiencing as a congregation.
To see these clearly, I’d like to fill in some historical details.
Haggai is known as one of the Minor Prophets. This doesn’t mean they were less important than the
others. Rather, they were the prophets whose writings were simply shorter than those of the Major
Prophets, like Isaiah and Jeremiah. Haggai was writing in the year 520 BC. The Jewish people were
coming out of exile. The Babylonians had conquered Israel and Judah, and laid waste to their
capital, Jerusalem. The Jews had been enslaved, and could only look back and weep at the glory
that had once been their Promised Land.
But now the tides were turning. The Persians had just defeated the Babylonians, and their new king,
Darius, was sympathetic to the Jews’ need to worship their God in their own way.
The first wave of Jews had returned to Jerusalem. But plans to rebuild the temple were stalled. The
people were gathering back in their own city, but still didn’t have their place of worship, the center of
their community. In fact, they were barely eking out a living. They had very few resources.
In Chapter 1 of Haggai, God connects all of this to their need to rebuild the Temple. Through Haggai
He says, “You have sown much, but harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you
drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn
wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes.”
“Why? Says the Lord of hosts. Because my house lies in ruins, while all of you hurry off to your
houses. Therefore the heavens above have withheld their dew, and the earth has withheld its
produce.”
Now, please let me clarify something at the outset. I’m not saying that this is an exact parallel to us
building our new church. OK? I’m not saying that if you’ve had financial difficulties this year or the
tomatoes haven’t grown well in your garden, it’s because we haven’t built the church building yet.
But stated more positively, I think there’s a salient message here that
just may apply to us. You see, God is talking about matters of priority. The priority of placing God
and His work first in our lives. I think it can safely be said that, when we create the space needed for
us to be vessels of God’s work on this earth, blessings that we may not yet have experienced
become possible.
And in today’s reading God fleshes this out even further. One of the neat things about this passage
is that it can be dated to an exact date. The writer’s precision, combined with other historical
accounts, tells us that the word of God through Haggai in today’s reading came on October 17, 520
BC. So this past month was the 2527th anniversary of this event, if anyone’s counting.
God asks the remnant, “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?” I have to imagine that these were less than
encouraging words. Hardly the kind of thing that would inspire someone to rush off in search of the
hammer and nails, especially considering how they had so few resources and they were supposed
to rebuild something so glorious.
But the next words are God’s words of encouragement to His people: “Yet now take courage, O
Zerubbabel, says the Lord; take courage, 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.”
Does this one kind of hit home? “Take courage, Dan, says the Lord. Take courage, Jane, wife of
Ron, Howie of the house of Tischler and all you on the Bishop’s Committee; take courage you
faithful remnant at Hope! For I am with you. My Spirit abides among you. Don’t be afraid!”
I don’t know about you, but these words sure hit the mark for me. I have to admit that I’ve lain awake
a few nights thinking about the building project, and the messy state of the Episcopal Church, and
the imminent resignation of our Bishop. This is not a risk-free undertaking, especially in human
terms. But we’re not really endeavoring to do things on human terms, but on God’s terms. And God’
s terms usually include faith. The writer to the Hebrews once said that “Faith is the assurance of
things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen.” And St. Paul once said, “We walk by faith,
not by sight.” At this crossroads in the journey of our congregation, and in this strange time in the
Church, it occurs to me that the headlights are shining just a little way ahead of our bus. We can’t
see terribly far ahead, but it’s always enough to drive just a bit further. We have a God-given vision,
yet He’s giving us just enough illumination to keep moving forward with His plan. “We walk by faith,
not by sight,” but we’re approaching our destination.
And looking at this from as many angles as I can, I’ve seen nothing that suggests that God has
withdrawn His vision for Hope Church, or that we should be immobilized by fear about the future.
The Lord says, “Take courage! Keep working! My Spirit abides with you, so there’s no need to fear.”
Perhaps you’re inclined to wonder what in the world a story from five hundred something BC has to
do with us here today. Well, besides the principle we’ve just been talking about (that is, our grounds
for courage because of God’s presence with us) there’s also something much bigger. I’d like to take
us on a little side excursion to illustrate this.
Seminary in some ways was a real challenge. There was a terrific volume of material we were
supposed to master in what seemed like an impossibly short time. It’s been said that seminary is like
standing under Niagara Falls with a teacup. Given this, for me it really wasn’t until my last semester
at Trinity that things really came together and formed a complete picture. The class most
responsible for this was “Biblical Theology.” In this class we examined the Bible from Genesis to
Revelation to investigate whether there is an overarching message in the scriptures. Many
academics in our culture are denying that very thing. They’re questioning many things about the
scriptures and questioning whether they’re really useful in showing us a valid worldview, much less
the way to salvation.
I have to say, studying the entire Bible led me and most of my classmates to exactly the opposite
conclusion. It became very clear to me that, even though the books of the Bible were written by
many different people over a very long time, there’s an overarching story whose chapters are
intricately intertwined with each other. I could come to no other conclusion than that the Bible is the
inspired Word of God.
The reason I say this is to point out that the little book of Haggai is one small, but important chapter
in the larger story of redemption. You see, God used many people and situations to ensure that God’
s chosen people, Israel, survived. Why? Do you ever wonder that? Why would God take such
extreme measures, some of which are very hard for us understand to this very day, to make sure
that God’s chosen people survived?
Well, one clue can be found all the way back in Genesis. Do you remember the promise God made
to Abraham? He promised that all nations would be blessed through him. And there is one figure in
human history who would be the one through him this blessing would come. His name is Jesus.
Among other reasons, it was absolutely essential that the Jewish people would survive to provide the
nest from which the Savior of mankind would emerge. God the Father made sure that God the Son
would come into this world to fulfill the history of Israel and become the Redeemer of the world. So
when the Jews were exiled, through the Persian conquest God re-established Jerusalem and its
Temple to pave the way for Jesus’ eventual appearance, among other things. And from that point
forward, the kingdom of God has been among us.
And this is the piece that connects us back down the years to Haggai and the faithful remnant.
Because not only are we on the verge of constructing a home base for our ministries, but we at
Hope are acting as one part of the body of Christ to be agents of the expansion of God’s kingdom. It’
s a charge that goes all the way back to Abraham. Our mission is an important one, and our vision
has been given by God himself.
And the second big principle illustrated in Haggai’s prophecy is that if we’re faithful to the vision God
has given us, we’ll be blessed. Let’s look once again at our passage. Right after God encourages
the faithful to be courageous, because He’s with them, he says this:
“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, and in this place I will give prosperity, says
the Lord of hosts.” …“In this place I will give prosperity...”
Once again of course, this isn’t a precise parallel with our situation. I don’t necessarily expect that
riches from around the world will adorn the interior of our church, for instance. But we’re talking
about a divine principle: Blessing in response to faithfulness.
Out of curiosity, I did an online word search in the Bible for the verb “prosper.” In the NIV there were
29 hits, and the overwhelming majority of these had to do with those who do the Lord’s will
prospering. But what really caught my attention were two passages that sandwich today’s reading
chronologically.
The first is from the prophet Jeremiah, writing about 60 years before Haggai. Here’s what he writes:
“This is what the LORD says: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and
fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,’
declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a
future.’”
So we have a promise through Jeremiah many years before, being activated by the new prophecy
through Haggai. It’s all about the promise of God’s blessing in response to the people’s faithfulness.
The next passage is a history as found in the book of Ezra, about 80 years after today’s words from
Haggai. He writes, “So the elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of the
prophet Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished their building by command of the God of
Israel and by decree of Cyrus, Darius, and King Artaxerxes of Persia; and this house was finished on
the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. The people of Israel,
the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this
house of God with joy.”
I find these words to be very heartening in our position at Hope this morning. We, too, were given a
prophetic vision about this new church out there a little farther to the Northeast. We, too, are being
tested in our resolve. And I believe that we, too, are being given the message to take courage,
because in our own imperfect way, it’s the Lord’s work that we’re trying to advance. And if we’re
faithful in seeing that work through, I believe that blessings we never even anticipated are waiting for
us.
My dear friends, I look forward to that day, hopefully soon, when we, too, will be able to say that we
celebrated the dedication of this house of God with great joy. In the name of the Father, and the
Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
focusing on the next, big step in our life as a congregation. The capital campaign will swing into full
stride, and we’ll be looking closely at how we anticipate our new church being a vehicle for God’s
ministry in northeast Albuquerque. That being the case, I was taken by this morning’s Old Testament
reading from the book of Haggai. In it we have the beginnings of an important chapter in the history
of God’s people. And that story has certain parallels to what we’re experiencing as a congregation.
To see these clearly, I’d like to fill in some historical details.
Haggai is known as one of the Minor Prophets. This doesn’t mean they were less important than the
others. Rather, they were the prophets whose writings were simply shorter than those of the Major
Prophets, like Isaiah and Jeremiah. Haggai was writing in the year 520 BC. The Jewish people were
coming out of exile. The Babylonians had conquered Israel and Judah, and laid waste to their
capital, Jerusalem. The Jews had been enslaved, and could only look back and weep at the glory
that had once been their Promised Land.
But now the tides were turning. The Persians had just defeated the Babylonians, and their new king,
Darius, was sympathetic to the Jews’ need to worship their God in their own way.
The first wave of Jews had returned to Jerusalem. But plans to rebuild the temple were stalled. The
people were gathering back in their own city, but still didn’t have their place of worship, the center of
their community. In fact, they were barely eking out a living. They had very few resources.
In Chapter 1 of Haggai, God connects all of this to their need to rebuild the Temple. Through Haggai
He says, “You have sown much, but harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you
drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn
wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes.”
“Why? Says the Lord of hosts. Because my house lies in ruins, while all of you hurry off to your
houses. Therefore the heavens above have withheld their dew, and the earth has withheld its
produce.”
Now, please let me clarify something at the outset. I’m not saying that this is an exact parallel to us
building our new church. OK? I’m not saying that if you’ve had financial difficulties this year or the
tomatoes haven’t grown well in your garden, it’s because we haven’t built the church building yet.
But stated more positively, I think there’s a salient message here that
just may apply to us. You see, God is talking about matters of priority. The priority of placing God
and His work first in our lives. I think it can safely be said that, when we create the space needed for
us to be vessels of God’s work on this earth, blessings that we may not yet have experienced
become possible.
And in today’s reading God fleshes this out even further. One of the neat things about this passage
is that it can be dated to an exact date. The writer’s precision, combined with other historical
accounts, tells us that the word of God through Haggai in today’s reading came on October 17, 520
BC. So this past month was the 2527th anniversary of this event, if anyone’s counting.
God asks the remnant, “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?” I have to imagine that these were less than
encouraging words. Hardly the kind of thing that would inspire someone to rush off in search of the
hammer and nails, especially considering how they had so few resources and they were supposed
to rebuild something so glorious.
But the next words are God’s words of encouragement to His people: “Yet now take courage, O
Zerubbabel, says the Lord; take courage, 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.”
Does this one kind of hit home? “Take courage, Dan, says the Lord. Take courage, Jane, wife of
Ron, Howie of the house of Tischler and all you on the Bishop’s Committee; take courage you
faithful remnant at Hope! For I am with you. My Spirit abides among you. Don’t be afraid!”
I don’t know about you, but these words sure hit the mark for me. I have to admit that I’ve lain awake
a few nights thinking about the building project, and the messy state of the Episcopal Church, and
the imminent resignation of our Bishop. This is not a risk-free undertaking, especially in human
terms. But we’re not really endeavoring to do things on human terms, but on God’s terms. And God’
s terms usually include faith. The writer to the Hebrews once said that “Faith is the assurance of
things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen.” And St. Paul once said, “We walk by faith,
not by sight.” At this crossroads in the journey of our congregation, and in this strange time in the
Church, it occurs to me that the headlights are shining just a little way ahead of our bus. We can’t
see terribly far ahead, but it’s always enough to drive just a bit further. We have a God-given vision,
yet He’s giving us just enough illumination to keep moving forward with His plan. “We walk by faith,
not by sight,” but we’re approaching our destination.
And looking at this from as many angles as I can, I’ve seen nothing that suggests that God has
withdrawn His vision for Hope Church, or that we should be immobilized by fear about the future.
The Lord says, “Take courage! Keep working! My Spirit abides with you, so there’s no need to fear.”
Perhaps you’re inclined to wonder what in the world a story from five hundred something BC has to
do with us here today. Well, besides the principle we’ve just been talking about (that is, our grounds
for courage because of God’s presence with us) there’s also something much bigger. I’d like to take
us on a little side excursion to illustrate this.
Seminary in some ways was a real challenge. There was a terrific volume of material we were
supposed to master in what seemed like an impossibly short time. It’s been said that seminary is like
standing under Niagara Falls with a teacup. Given this, for me it really wasn’t until my last semester
at Trinity that things really came together and formed a complete picture. The class most
responsible for this was “Biblical Theology.” In this class we examined the Bible from Genesis to
Revelation to investigate whether there is an overarching message in the scriptures. Many
academics in our culture are denying that very thing. They’re questioning many things about the
scriptures and questioning whether they’re really useful in showing us a valid worldview, much less
the way to salvation.
I have to say, studying the entire Bible led me and most of my classmates to exactly the opposite
conclusion. It became very clear to me that, even though the books of the Bible were written by
many different people over a very long time, there’s an overarching story whose chapters are
intricately intertwined with each other. I could come to no other conclusion than that the Bible is the
inspired Word of God.
The reason I say this is to point out that the little book of Haggai is one small, but important chapter
in the larger story of redemption. You see, God used many people and situations to ensure that God’
s chosen people, Israel, survived. Why? Do you ever wonder that? Why would God take such
extreme measures, some of which are very hard for us understand to this very day, to make sure
that God’s chosen people survived?
Well, one clue can be found all the way back in Genesis. Do you remember the promise God made
to Abraham? He promised that all nations would be blessed through him. And there is one figure in
human history who would be the one through him this blessing would come. His name is Jesus.
Among other reasons, it was absolutely essential that the Jewish people would survive to provide the
nest from which the Savior of mankind would emerge. God the Father made sure that God the Son
would come into this world to fulfill the history of Israel and become the Redeemer of the world. So
when the Jews were exiled, through the Persian conquest God re-established Jerusalem and its
Temple to pave the way for Jesus’ eventual appearance, among other things. And from that point
forward, the kingdom of God has been among us.
And this is the piece that connects us back down the years to Haggai and the faithful remnant.
Because not only are we on the verge of constructing a home base for our ministries, but we at
Hope are acting as one part of the body of Christ to be agents of the expansion of God’s kingdom. It’
s a charge that goes all the way back to Abraham. Our mission is an important one, and our vision
has been given by God himself.
And the second big principle illustrated in Haggai’s prophecy is that if we’re faithful to the vision God
has given us, we’ll be blessed. Let’s look once again at our passage. Right after God encourages
the faithful to be courageous, because He’s with them, he says this:
“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, and in this place I will give prosperity, says
the Lord of hosts.” …“In this place I will give prosperity...”
Once again of course, this isn’t a precise parallel with our situation. I don’t necessarily expect that
riches from around the world will adorn the interior of our church, for instance. But we’re talking
about a divine principle: Blessing in response to faithfulness.
Out of curiosity, I did an online word search in the Bible for the verb “prosper.” In the NIV there were
29 hits, and the overwhelming majority of these had to do with those who do the Lord’s will
prospering. But what really caught my attention were two passages that sandwich today’s reading
chronologically.
The first is from the prophet Jeremiah, writing about 60 years before Haggai. Here’s what he writes:
“This is what the LORD says: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and
fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,’
declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a
future.’”
So we have a promise through Jeremiah many years before, being activated by the new prophecy
through Haggai. It’s all about the promise of God’s blessing in response to the people’s faithfulness.
The next passage is a history as found in the book of Ezra, about 80 years after today’s words from
Haggai. He writes, “So the elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of the
prophet Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished their building by command of the God of
Israel and by decree of Cyrus, Darius, and King Artaxerxes of Persia; and this house was finished on
the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. The people of Israel,
the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this
house of God with joy.”
I find these words to be very heartening in our position at Hope this morning. We, too, were given a
prophetic vision about this new church out there a little farther to the Northeast. We, too, are being
tested in our resolve. And I believe that we, too, are being given the message to take courage,
because in our own imperfect way, it’s the Lord’s work that we’re trying to advance. And if we’re
faithful in seeing that work through, I believe that blessings we never even anticipated are waiting for
us.
My dear friends, I look forward to that day, hopefully soon, when we, too, will be able to say that we
celebrated the dedication of this house of God with great joy. In the name of the Father, and the
Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Hope and a Future
(Haggai 1:15-2:9)
(Haggai 1:15-2:9)
November 11, 2007
Fr. Dan Tuton
Fr. Dan Tuton