Haggai 1:1-15
The Daily Office
Haggai prophesied in the period after the Babylonian exile, when the Jewish people were allowed to return to their homeland near Jerusalem, but had few resources with which to rebuild their country, much less the magnificent Temple of King Solomon. They were a people crouching in fear and self-doubt. But what had their crouching gotten them?
"And then a little later, God-of-the-Angel-Armies spoke out again: 'Take a good, hard look at your life. Think it over. You have spent a lot of money, but you haven't much to show for it. You keep filling your plates, but you never get filled up. You keep drinking and drinking and drinking, but you're always thirsty. You put on layer after layer of clothes, but you can't get warm. And the people who work for you, what are they getting out of it? Not much - a leaky, rusted-out bucket, that's what.'" (The Message)
We as a church face the same temptation, somewhere between the poles of "maintenance" and "mission." We need to pay the bills, fix the leaks, and make our home a beautiful offering to our Lord. But if we say, "We can't do this or that form of outreach because we don't have the money," then who will want to be part of a community that is too insecure to reach out for the new things that God wants to do through us? And how will we then be able to pay the bills, fix the leaks, and make our home a beautiful offering to our Lord?
Where is our Temple? It is most certainly in the beauty of our churches and in our worship. But the Temple of our coming Lord is also in the world crying out for help. "Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates; behold the King of glory waits! The King of kings is drawing near; the Savior of the world is here."
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