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Commentary
Today's readings share one common thrust. Each in its own context sheds hope over the horizon of history. To a community under hardship and facing bleak prospects Haggai promises a new tomorrow of God's making. 2 Thessalonians is addressed to a congregation experiencing internal confusion and stress triggered by intruders promoting an escapist version of the gospel, probably some form of gnosticism. Call it Gospel Lite. The writer reminds his readers in his own way that cross and crown are inseparable; there are struggles to come but love's far-reaching victory is certain.
In the gospel reading Luke reports a "here's looking down the nose at you" sort of question posed to Jesus by some fat cat Sadducees. The Lord's answer silences them, to the delight of a listening scribe, and takes our breath away with a promise of things to come and defies our human powers to conceptualize.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Haggai 1:5b--2:9
Haggai's words are directed to a hard-pressed band of resettled Jews in post-exilic Jerusalem. The city and a small slice of Judean territory were now a subprovince of the Persian empire. Though granted a measure of self-rule, the city was a shadow of its former self; the glory days of the temple were a fading memory. It was a time to rebuild, but present hardships, bleak prospects, and lack of cohesion stifled the spirit.
Before thinking about the singular way Haggai differs from the other prophets, verses 1:6-10 are worthy of some creative brooding. The words in verse 6 will resonate with many hearers today who find it difficult to keep up financially. What is of special interest is the way the prophet in 1:7-11 links up the external situation of the people with their internal condition.
I have never quite known how to handle those sermons of the prophets that speak of hardships imposed by external circumstances as somehow linked to inner spiritual deficiencies. They often speak of plagues and famines as sent by God and that makes us pause, but I wonder if they were not on to something. Does the outside of life sometimes mirror the inside of life?
Here's interesting reflection in a book by Robert Brustein, Making Scenes, A personal history of the turbulent years at Yale, 1966-1979 (Random House, New York, 1981). Brustein was director of the Yale School of Drama and tells the story of those days which were for him a time of intramural tension and controversy at Yale. Of a summer spent at his summer home on Martha's Vineyard when the controversy was at its height, he had this to say.
There are periods when the exterior world seems to parallel and reinforce your internal feelings. At this time all our appliances decided to break down simultaneously. The pump was losing its prime at least once a week; the motor in the washing machine had frozen; the hot water heater was blowing fuses; the boat wouldn't start ... I used to imagine that all our appliances would choose the same moment to complete their cycle of planned obsolescence. That summer my fantasy was coming true, and I was reaching the end of some planned obsolescent cycle myself. (page 204)
Brustein went on to become Director of the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard. New doors have a way of opening.
How many of us can think of times when the outside of life mirrors the inside of life? There are more thoughts that can emerge out of this reflection. Certainly we sense today that there can be a tie between inner turmoil and social disorders. This reflection leads us to the singular difference between Haggai and the other prophets. Where the other prophets had thundered against the temples and shrines and the preoccupation with ritual and ceremony to the neglect of grand ethical and moral mandates, Haggai has but one summons. He calls the people to rebuild the temple. Here is the other side of the coin. Worship, rituals, and ceremonies have a necessary place in the lives of people. They are as Calvin noted "helps to our infirmity."
This is an appropriate Sunday for Haggai to show up in the lectionary readings for in many local churches this is also Stewardship Sunday. This is the time of year for making church budgets and seeking pledges of financial support. It is a fit time to focus on the importance of the local church and the centrality of Worship, Word and Sacrament in the nurture of the inside of life. Haggai's promise of a new tomorrow is the necessary reminder that it is our job to put the wood on the altar. God sends down the fire. An appropriate hymn for the day would be "Would We Be Building; Temples Yet Undone ..."
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
Some who falsely claimed apostolic approval for their views were trying to convince the Thessalonian Christians that the Lord had come. In all probability they were Christian gnostics who promoted some sort of elitist inner enlightenment as the coming of the Lord. In contemporary terms they were proclaiming a Jesus without a cross, an Easter without Good Friday, and an inner spirituality void of personal and social moral responsibility. In verses 2:1-8 the author, in his own way, reminds the congregation that Friday comes before Sunday. I take his words about the man of lawlessness as his way of reminding his readers and hearers about the depth of human sinfulness in history and the gospel's ongoing struggle with the dark side of individual and collective life. The writer shares with Haggai the hope of a new day.
Luke 20:27-38
This is an encounter of Jesus with the Sadducees. They were the wealthy lay nobility and represented a powerful voice within the Sanhedrin. They were conservatives who recognized only the first five books of the scriptures and rejected the interpretations of the Pharisees. Nor did they share the latter's belief in a final resurrection. Their interests centered on wealth, position, power and the good life in the here and now. They were also quite severe in their penal attitudes. They pose to Jesus the sort of trick question they used to ridicule the Pharisees. (Note their view of women as possessions that lies behind the question.)
Jesus ignores their silly question and quotes to them from the scriptures that they honor. They are silenced, much to the delight of a scribe for whom the Sadducees were competitors in the power game. Jesus, in effect, tells all of us that what is yet to come is a totally different ordering of created life far beyond our human powers to conceptualize. What ego makes us think that things to come will be the way things are now?
Homiletic imagination is tempted to take off with that phrase, "and Jacob." Link it up with the same mention in Luke 13:28. It is quite a comforting thought to know that Jacob also lives with God. He was a real schemer and scoundrel. Think of it: there is room for us, warts and all. Incidentally, Joseph of Arimathea was a Sadducee. I wonder if he was in this group that posed the question?
In the gospel reading Luke reports a "here's looking down the nose at you" sort of question posed to Jesus by some fat cat Sadducees. The Lord's answer silences them, to the delight of a listening scribe, and takes our breath away with a promise of things to come and defies our human powers to conceptualize.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Haggai 1:5b--2:9
Haggai's words are directed to a hard-pressed band of resettled Jews in post-exilic Jerusalem. The city and a small slice of Judean territory were now a subprovince of the Persian empire. Though granted a measure of self-rule, the city was a shadow of its former self; the glory days of the temple were a fading memory. It was a time to rebuild, but present hardships, bleak prospects, and lack of cohesion stifled the spirit.
Before thinking about the singular way Haggai differs from the other prophets, verses 1:6-10 are worthy of some creative brooding. The words in verse 6 will resonate with many hearers today who find it difficult to keep up financially. What is of special interest is the way the prophet in 1:7-11 links up the external situation of the people with their internal condition.
I have never quite known how to handle those sermons of the prophets that speak of hardships imposed by external circumstances as somehow linked to inner spiritual deficiencies. They often speak of plagues and famines as sent by God and that makes us pause, but I wonder if they were not on to something. Does the outside of life sometimes mirror the inside of life?
Here's interesting reflection in a book by Robert Brustein, Making Scenes, A personal history of the turbulent years at Yale, 1966-1979 (Random House, New York, 1981). Brustein was director of the Yale School of Drama and tells the story of those days which were for him a time of intramural tension and controversy at Yale. Of a summer spent at his summer home on Martha's Vineyard when the controversy was at its height, he had this to say.
There are periods when the exterior world seems to parallel and reinforce your internal feelings. At this time all our appliances decided to break down simultaneously. The pump was losing its prime at least once a week; the motor in the washing machine had frozen; the hot water heater was blowing fuses; the boat wouldn't start ... I used to imagine that all our appliances would choose the same moment to complete their cycle of planned obsolescence. That summer my fantasy was coming true, and I was reaching the end of some planned obsolescent cycle myself. (page 204)
Brustein went on to become Director of the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard. New doors have a way of opening.
How many of us can think of times when the outside of life mirrors the inside of life? There are more thoughts that can emerge out of this reflection. Certainly we sense today that there can be a tie between inner turmoil and social disorders. This reflection leads us to the singular difference between Haggai and the other prophets. Where the other prophets had thundered against the temples and shrines and the preoccupation with ritual and ceremony to the neglect of grand ethical and moral mandates, Haggai has but one summons. He calls the people to rebuild the temple. Here is the other side of the coin. Worship, rituals, and ceremonies have a necessary place in the lives of people. They are as Calvin noted "helps to our infirmity."
This is an appropriate Sunday for Haggai to show up in the lectionary readings for in many local churches this is also Stewardship Sunday. This is the time of year for making church budgets and seeking pledges of financial support. It is a fit time to focus on the importance of the local church and the centrality of Worship, Word and Sacrament in the nurture of the inside of life. Haggai's promise of a new tomorrow is the necessary reminder that it is our job to put the wood on the altar. God sends down the fire. An appropriate hymn for the day would be "Would We Be Building; Temples Yet Undone ..."
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
Some who falsely claimed apostolic approval for their views were trying to convince the Thessalonian Christians that the Lord had come. In all probability they were Christian gnostics who promoted some sort of elitist inner enlightenment as the coming of the Lord. In contemporary terms they were proclaiming a Jesus without a cross, an Easter without Good Friday, and an inner spirituality void of personal and social moral responsibility. In verses 2:1-8 the author, in his own way, reminds the congregation that Friday comes before Sunday. I take his words about the man of lawlessness as his way of reminding his readers and hearers about the depth of human sinfulness in history and the gospel's ongoing struggle with the dark side of individual and collective life. The writer shares with Haggai the hope of a new day.
Luke 20:27-38
This is an encounter of Jesus with the Sadducees. They were the wealthy lay nobility and represented a powerful voice within the Sanhedrin. They were conservatives who recognized only the first five books of the scriptures and rejected the interpretations of the Pharisees. Nor did they share the latter's belief in a final resurrection. Their interests centered on wealth, position, power and the good life in the here and now. They were also quite severe in their penal attitudes. They pose to Jesus the sort of trick question they used to ridicule the Pharisees. (Note their view of women as possessions that lies behind the question.)
Jesus ignores their silly question and quotes to them from the scriptures that they honor. They are silenced, much to the delight of a scribe for whom the Sadducees were competitors in the power game. Jesus, in effect, tells all of us that what is yet to come is a totally different ordering of created life far beyond our human powers to conceptualize. What ego makes us think that things to come will be the way things are now?
Homiletic imagination is tempted to take off with that phrase, "and Jacob." Link it up with the same mention in Luke 13:28. It is quite a comforting thought to know that Jacob also lives with God. He was a real schemer and scoundrel. Think of it: there is room for us, warts and all. Incidentally, Joseph of Arimathea was a Sadducee. I wonder if he was in this group that posed the question?
