November 10, 2013
Pentecost 25
Haggai 2:1-9
2nd Thessalonians 2:1-5,13-17
(prayer)
Back in 1999, before he went all anti-Dixie Chicks, Toby Keith released a music video about a revenge story aimed at the cheerleader from high school who wouldn’t give him the time of day back then, but might be impressed that he was a success now. ‘How Do You Like Me Now?’ was the question.
//
The prophet Haggai asks a very similar question (less sarcastically) in our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures today as the exiles (who had returned from 70 years as refugees in Babylon) had to view the devastation that had befallen Jerusalem and the great Temple of Solomon: Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?
//
Last weekend, I attended an event for members of the United Church’s Alberta and Northwest Conference held at Gaetz Memorial United Church in Red Deer. Some of you may know that I was a minister at Gaetz just before I came to work with this congregation.
Like we do here, Gaetz has a wall full of pictures of the current and former ministers of the congregation. I had to endure many sarcastic comments from others who asked me: who is that young guy in the picture? You see, the “Blaine” of 13 years ago had quite a bit less gray in the mustache. The photo in Gaetz’s ‘rogue’s gallery’ testified to that fact. [So does the one down our hall here, as well, by the way]
//
Our memories of the past, do not always match what we find in the present. Most changes are expected to some degree or another; some changes are relatively inconsequential; some things change for the better; other things make us long for the good old days.
And yet, in spite of our most honest nostalgia, the clocks (in reality) only move forward (daylight savings time doesn’t count).
Here is what is real: we are in the present, moving into a time to come. What’s past is gone. Only the future can be changed. That is where our focus needs to be, even as the lessons of the past may guide us.
//
//
Tomorrow is Remembrance Day. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, most Canadians will pause in silent reverence. The date and time is traditional: drawn from the signing of the armistice agreement at end of the First World War in 1918. Poppies are worn because of the memorable words of John McCrae’s poem from that time:
In Flanders’ Fields the poppies grow...
between the cross row on row
At its conclusion, this (so-called) Great War (from 1914-1918) was proclaimed as the war to end all war. You don’t have to be a professional historian to realize that since (after only a few short decades) The Great War became known as the ‘First’ World War that wars did not end on November 11th, 1918. In fact, warring endures through to this precise moment in history. Somewhere, RIGHT NOW, soldiers are fighting for their version of justice and freedom, against another army with its version of freedom and justice. // The war to end all war: didn’t happen!
In 1989, author David Fromkin penned his history book on the aftermath of World War 1 - about the impact of the geographic puzzle-work of the redrawn maps of what was the Ottoman Empire. The book has an interesting title: 3
“The Peace to End All Peace”.
//
//
It was the 6th century BC philosopher Heraclitus (hair-e-klii’-tus) who said “the only constant is change” [actually a more literal translation is ‘nothing endures but change’.]
It is seldom a wise plan to be stuck in the past - even a past that holds great value for us.
This is true because where we go from here - how we go from here - is of critical importance. The past informs, but what happens in this moment (and in the moments to come) need to be our focus.
//
//
//
There is a small music studio in the Texas hill country called the Blue Rock Studio. It gets its name from this huge rock that sits in the Blanco River just below the studio.
It has been there as long as anyone can remember: hundreds of years? Thousands of years? Tens of thousands of years?
The rock (3 metres tall and 4 metres wide: probably weighing about 20 tonnes) is featured in the studio’s logo.
Early on Halloween morning last week, there was a big rain storm in those hills - I read online that almost a half a metre came down in a matter of hours: there was some flood damage to homes near the river - certainly lots of mud and water to clean up. The studio is up on a hill, so it suffered no real damage. But the next morning, a glance at the river made it obvious that something had changed.
The Blue Rock was gone.
On Nov 2nd, a group of staff and recording artists went on a hike and searched downstream, but the big Blue Rock could not be found - presumably - in the rush of the water - it had broken up and is now many smaller rocks, scattered around the riverbed, maybe for kilometres.
The only reason I know about this is because one of the artists (who went on the hike) wrote a song about this new reality and recorded it that evening. The song was later posted to YouTube and then shared around facebook where my spouse noticed it and told me.
A line from the song goes...
After the fact, we want to try and understand what has happened.
// // //
To the people of ancient Judah, for centuries since the time of King Solomon, the Jerusalem Temple had been central to their identity: culturally and religiously.
In fact, disagreements over the importance of this temple, split the people of Israel into two distinct nations after Solomon’s death: those in the north who resented the place the temple had taken within the life of the faith (especially in relation to even more ancient sites like Bethel (near Jacob’s well) which had long been seen as a place where God might be especially known) and those in the south who had come to believe that the stone temple was the physical dwelling place of God.
As a remnant of the southern people returned from exile, filled with the stories of this wonderful and amazing building, only to see it in the ruins of defeat, they had a crisis of faith - where was God? - where could God be known, now?
//
Some early Christians experienced a similar crisis of faith. We can see that struggle in today’s reading from the 2nd Letter to the Thessalonians.
//
It is almost universally agreed by biblical scholars that First Thessalonians is the oldest document in the New Testament, written by the Apostle Paul around the year 50 (some 20 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection).
One of the topics Paul addresses in 1st Thessalonians surrounds a belief that the second coming of Jesus would be an imminent reality. Paul and other early Christians believed that the risen Christ would soon return to redeem his people. Concerns had arisen in Thessalonica that some people had already died but Jesus hadn’t returned yet. Paul still believed that the second coming was imminent, so he wrote that “those who have died” and “we who are alive, who are left” “will be caught up in the air together... and will be with the Lord forever.” The message in 1st Thessalonians was to be ever-ready for the Lord will come unexpectedly, “like a thief in the night”. //
Most mainstream biblical scholars contend that around the year 100 (some forty years after the Apostle Paul’s death), an anonymous author using Paul’s name and copying the style of the first Thessalonian letter wrote 2nd Thessalonians to a community now even more distressed about the delay of the second coming. It was now some seventy years after Jesus’ resurrection; virtually all of the original disciples and apostles are gone. The message to these second and third and fourth generations of the church was that - it hasn’t happened yet because it is not time yet: God’s view of time is different than ours - there must be still things that have to happen before Jesus comes again, the letter writer wrote. The role of the people was to “stand firm” in what they we taught. Hold true to the traditions that had already begun to develop in the relatively young Christian Church. Don’t lose your faith.
//
//
We are shaped by our pasts, but we need not be defined by our pasts.
As time rolls on, we change - indifferently, for the better and for the worst - how will we respond in the next moment is deeply important.
-What have we learned?
-What will we take with us in the unknown next moments of our existence?
//
// [end]
We may ask those questions in the context of Remembrance Day. How will we respond to our nation’s experiences in war and peace?
We may ask those questions in the context of our relationship with the divine.
How do I believe that I connect with God? Is it in a physical place? Is it a state of being? What am I waiting for? What place will we make for our traditions and rituals? How can they speak to our faith today? What might be on the horizon?
Time will tell.
//
Let us pray:
Ever-present God, be with us now as we wonder about our past, our present and our future. Inspire us to know that we are not alone. Amen.
**offering**
No comments:
Post a Comment