Evening Service, Sunday, April 26th

Lectionary Readings for the Evening Service, Sunday, April 26th

Haggai 1: 13 - 2: 9

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. In the second year of King Darius, in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say, 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? Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the Lord of hosts.

I Corinthians 3: 10-17

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter

I would like to continue the theme of Neil’s sermon this morning. He said that this time—our time—now, must be, simply, a time of waiting.

None of us asked to be in this place where we are. None of us thought that we would be separated, isolated, asked to wait for it all to end, in this kind of way.

But it has happened, and we are here, in the midst of it. In the midst, then, of this new and strange experience of waiting, our question might be, where do we encounter God?

In our readings tonight the prophet Haggai and the missionary Paul seem to reply with two contrary answers. Haggai had set the remnant of the people of Judah to work, to rebuild the ruined Temple of Jerusalem, the house of God, the wonder and the pride of ancient Israel. This is his single message: The Lord God says through his prophet, Take courage, take courage….take courage Work, for I am with you; my spirit abides among you; do not fear. The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former.

The shame of their exile in Babylon had ended; they had returned; it was time to restore the former glory of God’s dwelling place in Israel. It was time to rebuild God’s house.

But Paul does not say to the congregation in Corinth that they are to set to work to build a house for God—he says this: You are God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells in you; God’s temple is holy; you are that temple.

Is one right, and the other wrong? Where does God dwell? Where is God to be encountered?

Is it in the beautiful buildings that have been built with love and prayer and filled with the finest offerings we could bring? For we have surely felt God there. Or is it within us, holy temples to God wherein God’s Spirit abides?

We have been mourning the loss of those places where we have been used to gather for the worship of God and for communion with one another. That mourning is real; it has been a great loss to us all. But God is surely not confined to any dwelling place, as we human beings are.

And though we would not have asked for it, I think that surely this time that we wait to re-enter those holy buildings is a gift from God’s own hand.

The waiting itself is the gift.

So the question becomes, where will God encounter us in this waiting? Our culture has said, Oh, if those children are busy they will stay out of trouble, and, approvingly, he works all the time! and, the elderly should keep themselves occupied, as if the level of our activity measures the value of our days. But the Christian faith disputes this.

Something I read yesterday struck me with great force. It is by Mauro-Giuseppe Lepori, General Abbot of the Cistercian order, in this week’s Tablet. He talks about how important it is to be still.

Our current situation, he says—-It is within our grasp to live it freely, even if it has been forced upon us. Freedom does not consist in constant, unlimited choice. Freedom is the grace to be able to choose that which restores our heart to integrity even when all is taken from us. Even when our freedom has been taken from us, we are in the presence of God, and are offered the greater freedom of being still before him….This pandemic…is thus for all of us an occasion to be still, not just because we have to be, but because the Lord invites us to stand before him, to recognise that he, at this moment, comes to meet us in the middle of the storm of our circumstances, in the middle of our fears.“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

God is within us. God is in our midst, even as we are separate, one from the other. God is everywhere, because God is larger than any place.

If we have the courage to be still, we will meet God. And we will know both the assurance and the peace of His presence.

Forget about people who warn you: What are you going to say that you did during this time of enforced waiting—-what did you do, what did you accomplish, how did you use your time?

It’s not about that.

It is about reconstructing the place where we offer ourselves to God, having hungered and thirsted for His presence, finally able to receive it as a gift.

Silence and stillness—this can be the quality of our waiting. And this kind of waiting will be endlessly fruitful!.

Amen.

The Revd Dana English

The United Benefice of Holland Park

April 26, 2020