It's not always easy to make a start.
That new exercise book; that new canvas or piece of wood; but you need to pick up your pen and write; to pick up a brush and put some paint on the canvas; to pick up your saw or your chisel and begin to cut. That’s the scary bit; the first cut. Am I cutting in just the right place? In verse 8 of our reading, the people who had come back to Jerusalem “got started” rebuilding the temple – literally bored a hole. It's the beginning of a new year. A time for getting started. On this first “proper” Sunday of the year I want to look at fresh beginnings. It's that first cut.
This temple, like this year, has a history. The very idea of a New Year as a total rebirth of everything – so that we can start fresh unaffected by what happened in the previous year – sounds very nice; but it's almost certainly rooted in paganism. Of course there is forgiveness for the past with God; and that is a good thing to appropriate at the beginning of the year. But we can't scrub out last year's history just by scrubbing our steps on Hogmanay evening. And you can't just switch resolutions on on new Year's day. If you did, they may well be all broken by now!
For this temple, as for this new year, the history was a mixture of good and bad; pain and promise.
Negatively, after years of warning from God because of their sin, and a series of attacks from the Babylonians, the Temple had been destroyed in 586BC when Nebuchadnezzar took the whole nation into exile in Babylon. And for over fifty years both the city and the temple lay in ruins, until Cyrus of Persia decided to allow some Jews back to their own country. And I guess there are some things we would be glad to leave behind in 2016 if we could. There are sins, failures and disappointments. We need to leave these with God in prayer and penitence.
And positively, this ruin had already started to be used for worship. When Joshua the High Priest and Zerubbabel the Governor came back the altar had been rebuilt and the routine of sacrifices offered (v. 1-6). They had celebrated the feast of Tabernacles,when they commemorate the people's forty years in the desert by camping out in huts for for forty days. Quite an appropriate festival for people worshipping in a ruined building and living in a half-build city. Sacrifice and worship. That was the first priority. So before we make a start, we need to honour and bring with us the good things. We need to make sure that we are worshippers.
The new start, the revival thing, doesn't just come out of nowhere. The Hebridean revival that is associated with Duncan Campbell, started with two elderly ladies, in their 80's Gaelic speakers, who were praying. Duncan Campbell says he didn't start the revival. “Revival was there before I ever set foot on the island. It began in a gracious awareness of God sweeping through the parish of Barvas...” First thing, is the time with God. Time to think, to pray, to celebrate, to repent. Worship first; then building.
So they made a start.
It's one of these moments in the Old Testament, when the historian gives us a clear date “In the second month of the second year after their arrival...” And they began in earnest to cut the turf, or to make a hole in the rubble. This was an organised, intentional community initiative, with money being spent, resources being brought in, a chain of command being established and skills being put to use. And, interestingly responsibility being given to people at quite a young age! We need to make a start.
Jesus once had a conversation with an expert in the Law, about how to have eternal life. Jesus asks, “What does the Law say?” The guy answers “Love the Lord your God with all your heart; love your neighbour as yourself...”
Jesus says “Good answer. Do this and you will live!”
The guy asks “Who is my neighbour?” And Jesus answers with a story – the parable of the Good Samaritan. It ends with a question: “Who acted as a neighbour to the injured man.” The answer, that sticks in the craw of the lawyer is “The one who had compassion. (He doesn't want to say “The Samaritan.”)
And again Jesus says “Go and do likewise.” Go and do. That’s not a call to activism. We do need the spiritual disciplines of waiting, listening, praying, worshipping. Without them, action is simply a frenzy of expended energy. But unless these things lead to action – positive, intentional, missional, disciple-making, incarnation action – they are merely hot air. Go and do. But what exactly?
We need to make a start – not building a physical temple but building relationships
1. ...with God. Taking positive steps in our relationship with God. On the Day of Pentecost, the people who had seen God at work and heard the story of Jesus, asked “What do we do about this message?” and peter answered “repent and be baptised”. We need to positive step of turning our lives over the God and making that public by being baptised. And journeying on with God we need to welcome the Holy Spirit and actively discover our gifts; to make the effort to pray and lean to pray effectively.
2. ...with one another, through being a real community. We may need to take time to talk to people; to get to know people we don't really know in the Church. Top open our homes to one another.
3. ...with people who don’t know Jesus, demonstrating his compassion and love. We all know people who don't know Jesus. Maybe we need to make time for these relationships – have a neighbour round for a curry...
"He is good...."
And when the foundations were laid they worshipped, praised, prayed. The foundations were also spiritual. The ultimate foundation of their temple, their life together as the people of God, was not in the Temple. It was not in the sacrifices that had been begun on a rebuild altar in the ruins of the temple. It was not in the vestments or the choir. It was in this: “You are good and your love endures.” It was, in other words, in the character of their God.
His goodness. Good is a big broad word. It refers to what is pleasing, plentiful, pure; it is about moral character but also about beauty and strength and sufficiency.
His steadfast love; hesed, love that calls us into a covenant relationship with Him.
“He is good, and his love endures” was the verse that had been sung when the temple was first dedicated to the Lord. (2 Chronicles 5. 13). It was part of their history, their heritage. And it was part of their promise.
Jeremiah 33. 10f prophesies that in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more the sounds of joy and gladness, … bride and bridegroom, and voices... saying, ‘Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is good; his love endures for ever.’ For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before.” We need to be hearing from God. I have been thinking a lot about a verse – just one verse – from Isaiah 7 – the background to the “Virgin shall have a child “ prophecy. It's v. 9: “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” If you will not believe you will not be established. But faith comes from hearing. And hearing from the word of God.
The sound of revival
Everyone gave a shout of joy and praise (v. 11) The Hebrew uses two different words for shout (lost in English). They called with a huge shout. The Message translation is good: “All the people boomed out hurrahs, praising God”. There is emotion; there is joy, there is a bit of letting go in this praise. It's unrestrained.
But the old men wept (v. 12) … Seeing the priests in their sacred garments, hearing the psalm being sung... for the older generation it brought back memories: maybe the very oldest could remember worshipping in that temple in its former glory as youngsters. Some would recall the national humiliation the oldest of them had lived through – years of exile in Babylon and Susa; the struggles to see that prophetic word fulfilled. It hurt. As simple as that. And they wept.
V.13 no one could distinguish the sound..... This is the sound of revival! Weeping in penitence and grief for the pain they had been through. Joy and hope and thanks for who God is. All mingled together. So you cannot tell the one from the other. And that is still the sound of revival: weeping and joy.
But it was heard far away,. “the noise they made was so loud that it could be heard for miles.” This is the sound of revival! When we have our hearts right; we are ready make a start, to demonstrate practical compassion in action; when we are dwelling on who God is, learning from the written word and responding to the prophetic word, crying out in penitence and in joy, then the shout that we shout will be heard for miles! It will have an impact on our world.
© Gilmour Lilly January 2017
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