Planting Bulbs

Haggai 1:15-2:9

on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month.

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.

Last week we talked about how sometimes, in addition to a prophet, even sometimes instead of a prophet, we need an advocate, and last week we had that advocate in Habakkuk. This week, as we read yet another one of the minor prophets, Haggai, we will see that Haggai is more than just a prophet as well. He’s also a cheerleader. And just like we sometimes dearly need an advocate, don’t we sometimes dearly need a cheerleader?

 

Like many of the minor prophets, there is almost nothing known about Haggai. But we do know when he was active—in fact, remarkably, we know precisely when he was active. Unlike most prophets, the book of Haggai makes it clear that he was active between the months of August and December of the year 520. This means that Haggai is the first post-exilic prophet we meet in the Bible. Jeremiah and Habakkuk—they were active during the Babylonian exile, which is why there was so much lamenting, so much grief and confusion and violence. Well the era Haggai finds himself in is one in which the Babylonians have been defeated by the Persians. And the Persians and their King Cyrus were actually very kind and fair rulers, and they allowed the Jews back into their promised land of Judah, and even encouraged them to rebuild their sacred temple. So that’s where we find ourselves today. The Jews have been back for several years now, and they’re settling in, they’re building the temple, everything should be great and hopeful and exciting, right? Nope—because nothing in the Bible can ever be easy, apparently.

 

The rebuilding of the temple is going slow. It’s going so much slower than anticipated and the people are getting frustrated and discouraged. They’re getting impatient; they want to snap their fingers and be transported to the time before the Babylonian captivity, before the grand Temple of Solomon was destroyed. In verse 3, when Haggai says to his discouraged people, “Who is left among you that saw the house in its former glory?” this is most likely a rhetorical, maybe even a slightly sarcastic question— because he’s asking who among them even remembers the Temple of Solomon. The answer is probably none. Because the absolute youngest one could have been to have remembered the former temple would have been 73. And while 73 is practically young by today’s standards, it certainly wasn’t in Haggai’s time. You see, the implication here is that is that the Judeans were getting discouraged because all they had right now was half a foundation. All they had was a hole in the ground and a little bit of stone, and they were complaining about how it would never compare to the temple of Solomon’s former glory, and they were on the verge of giving up.

 

But Haggai comes in and says, “Guys, you don’t even remember what that temple was like! We can’t compare, so don’t worry about it! Have trust in God, and let’s build something beautiful and perfect that will speak to us in this era!” I may be putting some words in Haggai’s mouth there, but that’s how I interpret his words.

 

But the Judeans had grand ideas about a new and perfect homeland—imagine this new generation of young folks, returned to the promised land after years of the elders reminiscing and passing stories down of the golden years before the Babylonians destroyed everything. Imagine how excited and hopeful they were to return to Judah and create that perfect society that they had heard so much about. But then they got there, and they found ruins. They got there and they had to start from scratch. They got there and they were faced with the reality of what it really takes to rebuild after violence and destruction, after years away in exile. They were met with the daunting and overwhelming task of picking up the pieces and turning nothing into something, and they were just not prepared.

 

We, I think, are in a similar spot. Now, thank God, not nearly as dire— we didn’t come back from Covid to a barren landscape of ruin, but we have had to work on rebuilding. We’ve had to work on finding our voice again in this strange time of hybrid worship and continued heightened anxieties and uncertainty. And I certainly hear the discouragement from folks, and I feel it alongside people sometimes. It’s a big ask to come back after a catastrophic pandemic that quite literally changed the way we lived and the way we see things and start up again; to come back and figure out how to do things differently, while also staying true to the roots and the fundamentals of our faith and our community. I think the Church, the capital-C Church—again, not our specific church, but rather the Church as a while—is is trying to find its identity again, trying to make its way in this world. Things haven’t just magically snapped back into place.

 

But there’s so much hope. There’s so much to look forward to. When I heard the news about Hartland’s two churches combining again for the Community Thanksgiving Dinner really warmed my heart. Because this church knows its identity, and still embraces it—that identity of radical hospitality, of feeding the community, of welcoming everyone in. This is a community that has the compassion and the drive to bring the things that really matter back—to find new and old ways to bring the community together, to look out for one another. And during our quarterly meeting a couple weeks ago, West brought up the Advent craft workshops, and the fond memories she had of them. Well guess what? We’re bringing it back. There’s an enthusiasm that still so present and alive in this community. And you also all have the patience that many of these Judeans seemingly didn’t have—you understand that times are changing, and the way the church and community functions need to change with it; you understand that a one-year hiatus of the Community Thanksgiving didn’t mean the end. You see the bigger picture, and you have hope and vision for great things that can happen in the future.

 

Despite the fact that we’ve had some eerily, unseasonably warm weather this past week, stick season has clearly come upon us. This is a time of transition, sure, but we generally don’t think of this time of year as a time of new life, rebirth, or new beginnings. But for the ancient Judeans, it was. Chapter 1, verse 2 reads, very specifically, “…in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month…”, which places this right around the time of the Jewish harvest festival Sukkot, and right after the Jewish New Year. And Sukkot is also called the Festival of the Booths, because as part of their festival, they would build these temporary shelters, or tabernacles; this is likely because during the harvest season, farmers would build these booths in the fields to take shelter between rounds of harvesting. But they’re also significant in that they were reminders of the tabernacles the Jews were forced to build during their exile, wandering in the desert without a homeland.

 

So you know, it makes sense that the people, while finally celebrating their holidays in their promised land once again, would have some very mixed feelings—yes, it’s incredible they’re back and celebrating publicly, not having to hide their faith; they’re back where they’ve wanted to be—but then they look at the tabernacles set up for Sukkot, and it’s a reminder of the exile they came from, and that’s kind of all they have for a temple at the moment. They see these temporary shelters, reminders of the difficult times they came from, and then they see this half-finished foundation. I can understand why this would be discouraging. I can understand Haggai’s people feeling frustrated and impatient, anxious for the day when Judah would get back to its former glory.

 

So we have Haggai here—reminding his people of God’s encouraging words, “take courage, all you people of the land; work, for I am with you…according to the promise I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear.” Remember that revised covenant from Jeremiah 31—that God’s law and Love is now written on the people’s hearts. It does not have to be in some fixed place. It is in those tabernacles surrounding the unfinished foundation of the new temple. There is no need to fear or be discouraged when God is with them regardless of where they are. And yet—God still wants this temple built, and the people still want the temple built. If we backtrack a little, to chapter 1, God, through Haggai, says, “Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your panelled houses, while this house lies in ruins?...Consider how you have fared. You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothes yourselves, but no one is warm…”. So the Judeans don’t quite have their priorities right. They’re doing all the practical things one should be doing—building homes, feeding themselves and their families, harvesting, but they’re not fully sated. They’re not yet fulfilled. Because they haven’t quite figured out how to be a faithful people in their new homeland. Because they’re essentially starting from scratch, and they’re trying to recreate something that just isn’t recreate-able in the new and changed world in which they find themselves.

 

Now back to today’s passage—God, through Haggai, encourages the people, “The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former.” The people have been too bogged down with what was, and what is not now, rather than what could be, and what should be. They don’t realize that the new temple, and this return to the promised land can be different, can even be better than it was before, that comparing what exists now, to a world they never even knew just isn’t productive or helpful. That’s why we need a cheerleader in our corner—that’s why we need someone like Haggai to remind us: “take courage;” “do not fear;” to remind us that God’s “spirit abides among [us]” no matter where we find ourselves— if we are in our own personal exiles; if we are rebuilding something that feels like it’s beyond repair; if we feel lost and uncertain about the future…

 

And I know this church is in good shape—we have plenty of Haggai’s in this congregation. We have youth like West, always up to volunteer, coming up with brilliant ideas like bringing the Advent workshop back; and speaking of crafts, we have people like Janie White, arriving at church with beautiful homemade crafts, like her Hearts of Hope she made and passed out few weeks ago; we have people like Tom Ramsey, taking on his various church roles with so much enthusiasm, passion, and compassion. The list goes on and on.  

 

Despite the leaves blanketing the ground, despite the shorter days and longer nights, there seem to be new beginnings brewing. Again, we don’t traditionally think of this time of year as a time of newness, but why not start? Haggai took Rosh Hashana and Sukkot as a time to remind his discouraged people that their promised land was ready for a new beginning, that with God’s spirit alive in their hearts, they would be able to work to build something even more meaningful than what came before. Haggai was planting seeds of hope, of encouragement, cheering his people on when they needed it most, as they were losing steam. I’m seeing those same seeds planted by so many in this congregation today. It’s truly inspiring.

 

As Maggie said at Bible study last week, despite the hibernating plants, the falling leaves, the stark Vermont landscape, right now, we’re planning daffodil bulbs in preparation for the Spring. Amen.

 

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An Advocate, not a Prophet