Reflection by The Rev'd Dr Deborah Broome

This Sunday’s reading from Haggai speaks to a people discouraged by what they see.  Here’s how the prophet puts it:

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 who 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 will come, and I will fill this house with splendour, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The latter splendour 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.”                             (Haggai 1:15b-2:9)

People had returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon and one of the things they had to do was restore the temple so that worship could recommence.  And what a shabby temple it was, compared to the wonderful building constructed under king Solomon!  The people of the prophet Haggai’s time who had seen the temple of Solomon in all its glory before they were taken away into exile wept when they saw what was being built by those who’d returned.  That’s the background to this reading on Sunday. 

We can surely understand the desire to have beautiful places of worship, special places set apart for people to gather in. That’s partly what lies behind the efforts to restore buildings like the old Christchurch Cathedral or our own willingness to spend money fixing up our buildings.  But of course, how can human hands build a house worthy of God’s glory? Our church buildings, whether they’re made of stone or timber or concrete, can never adequately contain the presence of the living God. Nor – remembering that “the church” is really the people and not the building – can any congregation effectively represent God to the community all of the time.

This is where we need to remember that God comes to be with God’s people not because we deserve it, because we act in certain ways, and certainly not because of our wonderful buildings, but because God wants to be with us. The old covenant formula “I will be your God and you will be my people” still holds true, as does the insight in John’s Gospel “the Word became flesh and lived among us.” It is the presence of God with the people that matters and not where the people meet. God is always doing a new thing, and part of Haggai’s message is that those who have known the past with God should be hopeful for what God will do amongst them in the future. “Take courage … for I am with you.” Take courage – for God is with us today, in our communities, in our worship, and in the new things God is doing among us.