Take Courage!

Ahh, everything’s screwed up. Why should I care? Let others build their own skyscrapers; the White House is in shambles… But I have a GreenPeace sticker on my desk which reads, “Resist the Doom: Rainbows Bloom!” Scriptures to be read on the upcoming weekend affirm the positive, encourage us pew-sitters to get up and improve the picture. In these days of corruption and authoritarianism, we need these ancient words to defeat our modern-day malaise.

HAGGAI 2:1-9 was written to the recently released captives from Babylon, encouraging them to build another Temple on the ruins of the one destroyed. The Temple wasn’t merely a nice place to worship, it was a civic-center and a symbol of the Jewish Nation. Some who heard were the old folks who remembered the splendor of the Old Temple, and said, “We’ll never get that back.” Others were the new generation who only heard stories of the Old Temple, and were more interested in their own fields and flocks. Haggai not only wanted the building restored, but also the sense of the family of YHWH. “Take courage…I am with you, says the Lord of hosts….”

II THESSALONIANS 2:1-5, 13-17d is purportedly written by Paul while he was imprisoned in Rome, awaiting execution. He urges the Christians not to give in to the glitz of the world, or even to expect that the Day of the Lord has come. They and we are urged to wait creatively, accomplishing godly work through faith, and not yielding to the Devil of the Noonday Sun. The promise is that Evil shall be put down, eventually, and that the sky won’t fall today.

During Holy Week, various hair-splitters came to test Jesus. LUKE 20;27-28 is one of these occasions: some Sadducees, who don’t believe in resurrection (that’s why they’re sad, you see!) asked Jesus about seven brothers who, according to Jewish law, married Typhoid Mary to get sons. “So in the resurrection, whose wife is she?” Jesus replied that marriage is an earthly standard, and in heaven there are no marriages. (What? I won’t dance with my wife? But we have a gravestone saying “Forever”!) Jesus expects that folks won’t worry about this stuff, and get to work building the “Temple”, a Kingdom of God here on earth… The Sadducees spoke of Death, Jesus speaks of Life.

When I was in tenth grade, our church burned down. Here’s where I sang in the Jr. choir, where I was confirmed, where my buddies mostly attended. The only thing salvageable were the cups and plates. For several years, we worshiped in the high school. But in a few years, a new church was built on the space of the old one. Some said, “it’s not the same”; but the rest of us were overjoyed! Somebody had a vision, and the courage to keep on. “The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord.”

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Bring a friend to be touched by scripture scheduled by the Revised Common Lectionary to be read on the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com