Text: Haggai 1:1-15 (see below)
When was the last time you read the Book of Haggai? Have you ever heard of the prophet Haggai?
That’s what I thought….
While the text does not identify the author directly, this very short book (38 verses in total) describes the ministry of the prophet Haggai and how he exhorted the people of Jerusalem to get to work in rebuilding the Temple of the Lord after the Babylonian exile. Haggai was a contemporary of Zechariah. While they dealt with some of the same themes, these two prophets preached in very different ways. Haggai was the practical exhorter and Zechariah was the apocalyptic mystic. Haggai didn’t mince words while Zechariah spoke in metaphor and illustration. Haggai called the people to work and Zechariah summoned the people of Israel to look to the future in hope. These are two important prophets in the Hebrew lexicon and we do well to read their words again.
When you were a little kid, what did you enjoy building? A LEGO castle? A train set? Perhaps something a bit more formidable like a tree house or soap box derby car?
I used to love to play in the block corner in Kindergarten and build replicas of all the fabulous buildings that I saw each day living in New York City. My friends and I would try and construct the Empire State Building, The Chrysler Building and the Flat Iron Building. Miss Liddle, my teacher, would have to use all of her teaching ploys to lure me out of the block pile to finger paint.
While Christians today are not called to rebuild the Temple of the Lord, we can be about developing the inner temple of our souls. When was the last time you looked inward and carefully regarded the shape and condition of your spiritual life? Like the Temple in Jerusalem, does it lie in waste? Is there some repair work that you know needs to be done? Are you content with your inner temple or do you wish to make improvements?
The season of Advent is a good time to get started with the reconstruction of your soul. Here are some ways to fortify your temple: be in prayer each day at a regular set time; read the Bible daily (start with Haggai!!); do something that brings you joy; spend time outdoors in God’s creation; do something for someone else without regard for credit or recognition. These are small and simple ways to begin the task of rebuilding your Temple. In the words of the prophet Haggai: ‘What are you waiting for? Get busy.”
Love One Another - Brian
There are twelve days left to Saint Thomas' Day.
The Open Heart
C. Trungpa
When you awaken your heart, you find to your surprise that your heart is empty. If you search for the awakened heart, there is nothing but tenderness. You feel sore and soft, and if you open your eyes to the rest of the world, you feel tremendous sadness. It occurs because your heart is completely open, exposed. It is the pure raw heart that has the power to heal the world.
Source: A Path With Heart by Jack Kornfeld
Haggai 1:1-15
In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house. Then the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your panelled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: 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.
Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured, says the Lord. You have looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because my house lies in ruins, while all of you hurry off to your own houses. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the soil produces, on human beings and animals, and on all their labours.
Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of the prophet Haggai, as the Lord their God had sent him; and the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, saying, I am with you, says the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month.
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