Haggai 1:1-11; 2:6-9
November 7, 2010
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
“If you build it, he will come. If you build it, he will come.” So begins the fantasy of Ray Kinsella, a baseball-lover and a small town farmer in rural Iowa. Ray hears voices while he considers his small corn patch, and imagines that he is being called to build a fully appointed baseball field in the midst of nothing and in the middle of nowhere, so that the greatest baseball player, Shoeless Joe Jackson, will be lured back to life.
In the movie, Field of Dreams, Ray struggles against his family and the folks in his small town to turn a part of his property into a baseball field. Although skeptical, his wife is supportive. A year passes without incident. But Ray never loses hope. And eventually, the baseball players from the past come to play fulfilling our most personal dreams.
I tip my hat to the San Francisco Giants today for winning the World Series! When they built AT&T Park, the fans came to cheer, the players came to play, and the team of misfits won a championship. You never lost hope. I am proud to be a Giants fan too.
Like Ray Kinsella, the prophet Haggai is listening to voices and making big plans no one else believes. “If you rebuild the Temple,” Haggai promises, “God will come.” So begins the fantasy of the prophet Haggai. He and his people have been stuck out in the middle of nothing and in the midst of nowhere, in exile, in a cornfield of non-believers.
Haggai
Haggai is one of the Bible’s lesser-known prophets. His book is a mere two chapters long, but he had something important to say to the people of his day—and to us, as well. Haggai was a post-exilic prophet; he preached to the people of Judah after they return from exile in Babylon.
Judah has ceased to exist as an independent nation in 597 B.C., when the Babylonians dominated the nation and deported a large group of her citizens to Babylon. Two more deportations followed, one in 587 when Jerusalem was destroyed, and another in 582.
The people of Judah remained in exile until 538. A year earlier, the Persians conquered the Babylonians, and now the Persians, having a more humane policy, gave the Jews permission to return to Jerusalem and even agreed to finance the rebuilding of the temple. Not only that, but they restored to the Jews the temple vessels of silver and gold that the Babylonians had plundered.
Those who chose to return to Jerusalem must have seen a heart-breaking scene. The city walls were down, rubble lay heaped where homes had once stood, and the temple, the heart of Judah’s religion, was destroyed.
In the first year of coming back, the returnees made a half-hearted attempt to clear the temple foundations, but they soon lost interest and instead went to work on their own homes.
Who could blame them? Things really were not going very well. The people had to struggle daily just to get enough to eat. Their economy was in shambles. Dealing with harsh realities of daily existence occupied most of their time and energy. When Haggai comes onto the scene in 520, 18 years after the return, he observes: “Consider how you have fared. You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes” (Haggai 1:5-6).
Speaking the word of the Lord, Haggai tells the people they have their priorities wrong. Seeing the temple incomplete, he says, “Is it time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house, the temple lies in ruins?” (Haggai 1:4). No, he says, they should first rebuild the temple, take care of God’s house and then turn to their own comforts.
The people responded, and within five years, the work on the temple was complete. This second temple was not as grand as the original one Solomon built, but at least the people had a house of worship, and they greatly rejoiced.
No Great Cathedral
When I visit other churches, I often find myself thinking about how modest and simple our church is. There are many cathedrals, edifices and houses of worship that are grander than our church. AT&T Park is majestic compared to Ray Kinsella’s baseball field in the middle of an Iowa cornfield. Solomon’s temple was more splendid than Haggai’s temple.
When the people were rebuilding the temple, some of them viewed their work with disdain, assuming that it will not be as impressive as the former temple. Ezra 3:10-14 reports that some of the older members among the community wept at the new temple because they thought it could not compare to the old one. But Haggai exhorts the people to continue their work, taking courage in the presence and spirit of the Lord among them.
It’s the Lord who will determine the splendor of the temple, not the artisanship of the people or the beauty of the ornamentation. No matter how majestic or simple the temple might be, it is ultimately the Lord of hosts who will outshine any temple building.
When those who were around in 1906 came to see what happened to their church building, they must have felt much like the returnees who came back to Jerusalem from Babylon. The church building was in ruins. Today, we would like to say that after many building and rebuilding projects, renovating and retrofitting projects that our church has experienced in our 130 years of ministry that by now, we would have a cathedral. Instead, our unremarkable building is exactly what God wants us to have!
A remarkable church building doesn’t stimulate growth. An elaborate church building doesn’t improve giving. And an ornamental church building doesn’t motivate people to minister. To expect church buildings to stimulate growth, inspire healthy stewardship or motivate outreach is to expect church buildings to do the impossible. Buildings can’t minister. People do.
Gifts Planning
Today in our church calendar is Gifts Planning Sunday. Every year on the first Sunday of November, we want to highlight for you the importance of doing ministry with resources invested today for the future. Described in these new brochures are ministries that focus not our bricks and mortar or church buildings, but on how this generation of faithful people may enable future generations of people to continue doing God’s mission in the world.
Just like Haggai told the people in Jerusalem that now that you have built your own houses, it’s time to give priority to rebuilding the temple. We have our houses and condos, our savings and pensions, our cars and smart phones, we are invited to make giving to God’s work a priority.
We don’t need a church building that is fancier or more elaborate than others. It doesn’t have to be as splendor as King Solomon’s. But what God asks is that when we have sown much but still harvests so little, have eaten but still feel hungry, have drunk but never have our fill, have put on clothing but we don’t feel warm, have earned wages but it seems that our wages are in a bag with holes, that it may be time for us to look at our priorities.
When we reset our priorities on God, both when we are still living on earth and when we return to the Lord someday, we will find that God has never failed us. When God is important in our lives, God will take precedence over making ourselves comfortable.
When the people were rebuilding the temple, the Lord says, “I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of host.” The point here is that God is the authority over other nations and that all wealth comes ultimately from the Lord and belongs to God.
The silver and gold that we have in our possession is only with us temporarily. It is to be used for God’s work. And if you believe in the ministry of this church, we invite you to consider making a planned gift from your estate to support the life-changing ministries of this church in the years to come. If God is important in your life and that this modest and simple church has helped you to become the person God meant for you to be, then you may consider making a decision about the blessings that you have already received for the work of this church today and for generations to come.
Building for God
Haggai didn’t live long enough to see the completion of the temple. I’m sure Haggai would have loved to look ahead and see how the rebuilding of the temple all worked out. He would have loved to hear what the people might have said about the temple even when it was not as splendid as Solomon’s temple. But knowing the future wasn’t Haggai’s job. Knowing God was.
Neither Solomon’s or Haggai’s temple stands today. But God is still with his people, calling and inspiring us to be signs of God’s presence, offering peace and hope to all who have not yet found God.
If we build our lives in Jesus Christ, Christ is with us. If we keep on dreaming and envisioning that God has a remarkable mission for us through our modest and unremarkable building, God will never fail us.
While this modest and simple building is for God, let us be building for God a vibrant, sustainable, and life-changing ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. Who knows if our church building will be standing 130 years from now? But what is important is that you as God’s people know God today and in your commitment to strengthen God’s ministry through the Body of Christ known as the First Chinese Baptist Church, we will continue to know God and we will remain his faithful people in the many generations still to come.
Let us pray.
Prophetic Spirit and Fulfilling Redeemer, in every age you have spoken to us about the task at hand. You have equipped us in every era, not for what others have faced, but for what we ourselves encounter. Bless the health of this church and lead us to remain faithful and committed as disciples of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.