Years ago, at my seminary church, folks asked for a Bible study on Prophecy. I prepared good lessons on Ezekiel, Jeremiah et al–but what they expected was some sort of discourse on Jean Dixon or another astrologer of the day. I suspect that the urge to know what’s gonna happen soon is a universal quest. People in biblical times were concerned with portents and signs; and even in more modern times some soothsayer or another convinces his or her followers to sell their property and wait for the Lord on a hill far away… Scripture to be read on the upcoming weekend addresses this search for ‘knowledge’–and exhorts the faithful hearer to patiently wait for the Lord’s Good Time.
The overall message of HAGGAI (who reads Haggai?) is to urge the remnant remaining in Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity to get to work in rebuilding the Temple. So what if it didn’t match the glory & majesty of the old one? The message in 1:15 – 2:9 is to live in the Present without wallowing in the Past–or dreaming about the Future. “Yet now take courage…take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord.” The prosperity of YHWH is at hand!
When II THESSALONIANS 2:1-5, 13-17 was written, the congregation was evidently waiting for (and debating) the Day of the Lord. Some thought it immanent, others thought maybe it had already happened! Were they “Left Behind”? When will God step in to establish a rule of righteousness? In the meantime, how shall we live? I have a poster somewhere that says that “Some people are so heaven-minded that they’re no earthly good.” Not just individuals, but entire communities of Christ! The sky is not falling; don’t run in fear, God’s still in control…
LUKE 20:27-38 begins with the humorous story concocted by the Sadducees, who don’t believe in resurrection or eternal life ; that’s why they’re SAD, you see (thanks Nancy Adams). According to them, Typhoid Mary killed off seven husbands before she died herself. SO–in heaven, whose wife will she be? “Get real, “says Jesus, “in heaven there is no marriage, that’s an earthly or cultural tradition.” He must not have read the Obituaries which describe how the Dearly Departed are greeted by their relatives and pets, and now they’re all dancing together forever. The Sadducees spoke in terms of Death, but Jesus answered in terms of Life. “Now he is God not of the dead but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.” Jesus does not answer all our questions about where/when/how–but he does point us to a God who remains faithfully involved with Children of the Resurrection.
Martha Sterne reminds us that, “the move into the future is not just a repeat of the past and a faint echo of further glory. InGod’s future we are moving toward and cocreating a surge of wonder, grace, beauty, power and love.” (FEASTING on the WORD, C 4:271
In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King
Please join me every Tuesday to be confronted by scripture texts assigned to be read on the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com
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