Dear Readers and Listeners, Friends in Jesus Christ,
Our watchword for today is taken from the Book of the Prophet Haggai, Chapter Chapter Two verse Four, “Take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you,” (NRSVB). The background to this verse is found in the history of Israel and the rebuilding of the temple after the returned of the exiles from Babylon. Those who remembered the splendid Temple of Solomon, destroyed seventy years earlier, were concerned. They could not see how it would be possible to reconstruct anything comparable to the previous temple. God spoke through his prophet, Haggai, to the governor, Zerubbabel, the High Priest, Jehozadak and the returned captives. He told them to take courage and start to work on the foundation of the temple. God promised that despite their misgivings, the restored temple would ultimately bear witness to someone far greater than Solomon. God also promised that the nations would be stirred and would become desirous to worship God and come to the temple. God would then, personally, fill the temple with his splendour, as God did when Solomon dedicated the first temple to the Lord, the God of Israel. “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former,” as we read in Haggai, Chapter Two verse Nine, (Amplified Bible).
Living life on earth will bring us individually, as groups, as congregations, as nations, as the whole wide world, in situations where we will have to rebuild the ashes of our hopes and dreams, the ruins of our temples and treasures. Our hands feel numb, our minds are in confusion and our hearts are broken. We wonder how we would be able to restore what we had, how we would be able to recreate a fraction of the beauty and blessedness that we previously enjoyed. Nothing seems the same, our hope has been shaken.
The world, and her people, stood at many events in the history of mankind and beheld destruction. Every generation suffers their own calamity. When all hope is lost and all human agency exhausted, God comes and says to us that he cares. He is the One who owns all the silver and gold in the world. He is the One who has all the wisdom, the One who will strengthen the hands of the weary and give courage to those who have lost hope. God is the One who is carrying us during the world wide pandemic, he comes to us in love and works hope and courage in our hearts.
We are called to work with God in this world. Jesus told his disciples in the Gospel of John, Chapter Five verse Seventeen, “My Father has worked, even until now. He has never ceased working; He is still working and I, too, must be at work,” (Amplified Bible). We are called to have hope and take heart for our work is not in vain, we are partners with God and Jesus Christ, working in his vineyard. We may not see the fruits of our labour yet, but it will surely come to fruition. The Apostle Paul wrote in his First Letter to the Corinthians in Chapter Three verse Nine, “For we are fellow workers, with and for God,” ( Amplified Bible). Choosing to be a co-worker with God and Christ in this world, as part of the Body of Christ, we are light bearers, hope givers and peace makers. We are partners in building a temple, not made by human hands, but by God’s grace as we come with our prayers and praise to call on God to restore us.
Father, we thank you that you have called us to labour with you. We thank you that we may co-create with you a world where peace and good tidings abound. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, may your House be filled with your glory and your peace, Amen.