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3rd
February 2013 - Evening - Revd. Preb Maureen Hobbs |
Sermon
for Sunday 3rd February - Evening (Candlemas)
Haggai 2. 1-9
John 2. 18-22
I was very pleased
to receive an excited email from Chrissie Ringrose this week
with the news that all looks fair for the next Scarecrow Festival.
For some of you - who are involved in the planning, this will
be old news. But others may like to note that it is being planned
for the 27, 28 and 29 September this year. I know it took, and
no doubt will take again, a great deal of planning and hard work
but the last one was so fantastic that I cannot help but be excited
at the prospect. Let's hope for a lovely late September with
plenty of sunshine to attract the crowds.
One of the things I remember from the last one, two years ago,
was the wonderful atmosphere in the whole village. And the way
that this church seemed to be buzzing all weekend long as it
occupied the central point in an event that included everyone
in the community - whether regular worshipper or not. Of course
it will be a little sad to reflect on the people who will not
be able to take part this time - I think particularly of Bob
Owen (may he rest in peace) - but I am sure that others will
seek to outdo their previous, ingenious artistic efforts. Mind
you, the new Archbishop might not make such an immediately recognizable
figure as a scarecrow .... not unless he starts cultivating some
bushy eyebrows very soon!
The other wonderful thing from the last Scarecrow Festival was
the impetus that arose from it to improve our Church Porch and
the initial impression that visitors receive of our building.
In my version of the Bible our first reading that we heard tonight
is headed "The future glory of the Temple". The context
is the Exile - that catastrophic event that occurred in Jewish
History around 550 years or so before the birth of Christ, when
the Babylonians defeated Israel and carried all of the nation's
leaders and intellectuals off into captivity - leaving only the
poorest peasants behind. Several generations passed before it
became possible for a remnant of the people to return from the
area we now think of as Iran.
And when they did return they found their capital city, Jerusalem,
largely derelict and the great temple - the centre of their faith
and culture as a distinct people under God, a sad and neglected
ruin. To rebuild it took an immense amount of resolve and courage
- not least to persuade the Persian king, Darius, to allow it
to happen - and tonight's reading tells us how the prophet Haggai
tried to do his bit in strengthening the will of the people,
and particularly that of the governor and the High Priest, to
undertake the work. Haggai tells them that they are doing God's
work; that it is his will now to rebuild the Temple and to see
it rise yet more glorious from the ruins of its destruction.
And if they fulfil God's will in this way, then the people may
look forward to increased prosperity and good fortune.
Well our plans are rather more modest - and I am pleased to say
that we do not start from a wreck to begin with, but I hope too
that our building plans will not only enhance this place for
generations to come, but will make it even more obvious that
as a church community we are not inwardly focussed, but outward
looking to the community in which we are placed and which we
serve. And of course we follow in a long line of stewards of
this building who have sought to improve and beautify this place
and make it more impressive as the central point in this village
where people might expect to find God in their midst and to offer
their worship.
Now I know only too well that for some people, any change to
the building with which they have grown up and which seems to
them like a refuge from all that is uncertain and changing in
the world at large, can seem like a threat. They would rather
that everything remain the same as we have inherited it ....
but that really has never been the way of the church - and I
dare to say it is not the way of the faith to which Jesus calls
us, which is living, breathing and dynamic.
Jesus shocked the religious people of his day by saying that
if the Temple were to be destroyed, he personally could raise
it again in three days. That seemed a laughable claim to those
who heard him as they looked around at the great columns and
courtyards, the porticoes and the paving that surrounded them.
The work begun when the exiles returned from Babylon was ongoing
and had still not finished, and the building seemed to them more
wonderful and impressive and permanent than ever before.
With the benefit of hindsight we know that within 70 or so years
of Jesus's crucifixion the temple was completely destroyed by
the Romans and the people yet again dispersed. Not until 1948
would there again be a Jewish homeland that included Jerusalem.
And even today it is still a site of contention and conflict.
The Great Temple has still not been rebuilt - indeed may now
never be rebuilt. However, the temple that was Jesus himself
- though of course it was broken and destroyed on a cross, -
did indeed rise in three days and has gone on to inspire Christians
for over 2 millenia since!
At Candlemas we remember the dedication of Jesus to God by his
earthly parents. The first time that he was taken to the Temple
in Jerusalem - and the day when his future began to be spoken
of both in terms of glory - and of destruction.
It is a natural human instinct to want to improve and beautify
the places in which we live and which we consider sacred - both
for God's glory and for our own. But the real future glory of
the temple can never lie with bricks and mortar, stone and glass,
but in the faithfulness, or otherwise, with which we follow the
teachings of the One who came to reveal God's glory to us in
the form of a man, and who taught us what God's love might truly
mean. |
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