November 7, 2004 |
See also: [2007] [2001] |
Commentary by Paul S. Nancarrow
Haggai 1:15b-2:9
Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5,
13-17
Luke 20:27-38
Haggai 1:15b-2:9
This prophecy dates from the Return from Exile, and concerns the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. It is a message of hope and encouragement, directed especially to Zerubbabel and Joshua in their roles as leaders of the people, but including the whole people in its scope and promise. The rebuilding of the Temple was proving to be far more difficult, both economically and politically, than the returnees had anticipated when the project was first begun, and it seems that some were questioning whether God was with them in the effort. In response to this doubt, the prophet Haggai calls the people to take courage and to continue to rebuild: “work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts.” Haggai recognizes the real frustration of the project: “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory?” as it was before the Exile, he asks; “how does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?” But along with this realism, Haggai sees reason for hope; like Second Isaiah before him, Haggai sees a connection between the Exodus and the Return; and just as God was faithful to be with the people then, Haggai affirms that God will be faithful to be with the people now. Therefore Haggai can proclaim God’s word, “My spirit abides among you; do not fear.” Haggai discerns God’s aim for the people, an aim for prosperity and well-being; so Haggai affirms that if the people will work with God’s aim, even in the midst of present difficulties, the gift of prosperity will be realized in time. The reference to “shaking the heavens and the earth” may be an apocalyptic image (as it is certainly so interpreted when quoted in the Letter to the Hebrews); or it may refer to a new occurrence of phenomena such as those that accompanied the Exodus. Either way, whether the “shaking” indicates the end of the age or a new action of God for the people, the point is that the larger international and natural communities will work with God, as the faithful people work with God, to fulfill God’s aim for restoration and peace. The prophecy can be a message of encouragement and hope for all people of all times who work in God’s spirit to make the peace in difficult times.
Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21
The psalm is chosen to echo and extend some of the themes from the Haggai reading. Where Haggai promised the “splendor” of the future Temple , the psalmist meditates on the “splendor” of God's majesty and wondrous works. Where Haggai invokes the witness of the Exodus to bring hope to the Return, the psalmist echoes that “one generation shall laud God’s works to another, and shall declare God’s mighty acts.” Where Haggai calls the people to work faithfully, because God is faithfully with them, the psalmist proclaims that God “is near to all who call on God, to all who call on God in truth.” Because God “fulfills the desire of all who fear God; also hears their cry, and saves them,” therefore the faithful can be comforted and strengthened to do as God calls them to do.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
The second lesson sounds an apocalyptic note which echoes through all the propers for these final Sundays of the church year. In the first segment of the reading, Paul warns the Christians at Thessalonika “not to be too quickly shaken in mind or alarmed” by the notion that the Parousia is at hand. While it is part of the Christian hope to await the return of Jesus and the fulfillment of human history, it is merely “deceptive” to read the events of the present as signs that the end has come; when the end does in fact come, it will be unmistakable. Besides, Paul says, the fulfillment of Christ’s mission cannot happen until the “rebellion” and the appearance of “the lawless one.” As with so many apocalyptic images, it is tempting to try to pin these down to particular meanings. It be that the imagery of the lawless one “taking his seat in the temple of God” and “declaring himself to be God” are references to the Roman emperor Caligula’s order to have a statue of himself erected in the Temple in Jerusalem (an order that was never actually carried out); or it may be that Paul is, in effect, saying that the real end will be so bad that even Caligula’s blasphemy will look tame by comparison. But however the images may be interpreted, Paul’s point seems to be that the Thessalonians should not be overly concerned with the timetable of the End. Instead, they should “stand firm” and “hold fast to the traditions” that work out their “sanctification by the Spirit” and their “belief in the truth.” It is by being faithful in the present that they will be open to fulfillment in God’s future. From a process point of view, we could say that the anticipation of being gathered together to Christ in the future gives an aim and a purpose to each present moment, an aim and a purpose that can comfort and strengthen our hearts “in every good work and word.”
Luke 20:27-38
In a classic controversy story, a contingent of Sadducees attempt to undercut Jesus’ teaching by means of a reductio ad absurdum. Intending to show that the idea of resurrection is incoherent, the Sadducees pose an unlikely situation in which a woman is married to seven brothers in succession, each brother dutifully fulfilling the obligation of Levirate marriage, but each one dying before raising up children for the original husband. If all eight are rejoined in the resurrection, the Sadducees ask, which of them will be married? Jesus responds that they have misunderstood the nature of resurrection: the Sadducees have merely projected the conditions of this life into a sort of indefinite prolongation; Jesus, however, affirms that the resurrection life will be a different kind of life, and relationships among the “children of the resurrection” will not be subject to the same limits as relationships in this age. This passage could be taken as having an anti-marriage bias: e.g., that sexuality and procreation are lesser goods, to which “those who are considered worthy” of the larger life will no longer need to stoop. Much Christian tradition has indeed regarded celibacy as more “angelic” than marriage. But this passage could also be taken in a more positive light, as suggesting that the kind of intimacy which requires the exclusivity of marriage in this life, will in the resurrection life be much more inclusive. Resurrection life is life in God; as Jesus says, to God “all of them are alive”; or, as process theology has it, all the moments of our lives enter into God and are held everlastingly in God, so that the pattern of moments that makes us who we are does not perish but is alive in God. Resurrection life is a life of intimacy with God. Further, since all are alive in God, in equal intimacy with God, we can know each other in and through God with an intimacy that goes deeper and broader and higher than intimacies we can achieve as “belonging to this age.” Read in this light, the story is more than just a contentious bickering over a fine point of first century theological speculation; it is more than a questionable account of the value of marriage; it is an invitation to look forward to a quality of life in God filled with an intensity and harmony of love we can now only barely begin to imagine.
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