Practising
Ezra 3:8-13
October 30, 2011
The Protestant Reformation was in the first place a matter of ideas that would change a civilization, yet like a lot of things, a building was useful to get the ideas across. Martin Luther pinned his ideas to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and while nobody was counting how many people read the 95 Theses, some influential people did and it led to trouble and eventually to a reformation. We are practising to be reformers, but once again it is time to stop practising.
Reformation is not a matter of fiddling around with cosmetic changes to our way of being, but a rebuilding of our foundations. It’s not easy to begin again from the beginning, a struggle to be reborn. No better place to begin than on the Bible’s description of a rebirth, the Second Exodus, when Israel returned from exile in Babylonia to re-establish its roots in Jerusalem.
We heard the story about how the exiles now returned home were in the process of laying a new foundation for the Temple in Jerusalem. The former Temple had been burnt down and destroyed by the Babylonian army in 587 B. C. Now after more than 40 years, the Jews were free at last again, but they had changed, no longer the same people they had been when they were first carted off to Babylonia as a defeated nation. They were older and younger. The leaders and intelligentsia who were exiled in 587 had to be in their 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, and their sons and daughters and grandchildren were now part of their number. These youngsters had never really known Jerusalem the way it used to be; many had never known any home, anywhere but Babylon.
However, they were talented and creative and put things into motion to rebuild the Temple, although it actually took better part of two centuries before it was fully completed - Zerubbabel and Jeshua were the almost forgotten people who made it a reality. Their biggest obstacle was not finding the money and resources and workers to build the Temple; it was all the other people in Judah and surrounding areas who claimed that they should have a part in the rebuilding. They appealed to the Persian kings, sued them in the courts so that there were work stoppages and delays; no wonder it took almost 200 years to complete the structure. All the litigants had to die out several times over. Even in the Bible things and relationships are never that simple and smooth.
The laying of the foundation was a grand event, an extravaganza by ancient Israelite terms, a worship service, trumpets blaring, responsive psalms being read and sung by priests and the people together. Then at the moment the foundation was formally laid, the people responded with a great shout.
We don’t do shouts much anymore, at least not in church. There are churches that do, but not usually us. The shout is a noise from deep inside that we don’t plan, because it comes from our astonishment at the work of God. It’s not that you and I can’t shout; I heard a few yesterday over at Taylor Field, so tell each other what’s the difference. One shout is not the same as another shout.
In Jerusalem the priests and Levites and other heads of the families, “old people” who had seen the first house on its foundation, wept with a loud voice when they saw this house. Then again, many shouted aloud for joy, pretty much younger folk we can assume. All the people shouted so loudly that no one could distinguish the sound of the joyful shouts from the sound of the weeping. But you could hear the shout far away.
Did you get it? You missed it? It’s about us; we are the ones shouting. Otis Moss III labeled them, “a Gospel shout” and “a blues moan.” The young people were so enthused at something new about to happen, while the old people recalled the travails of the old days and wept. We are in the midst of a reformation here and there are mixed feelings, some of anticipation, some of hesitancy. We are not building a temple, but reforming our Gospel calling, and I hope it will be with a shout at the end. But as with Jerusalem on that glorious day, it is not an either/or option. The Good News of the Gospel is always built on the blues moans of our heritage. Take good note that the Temple was built nevertheless, there was no going back to Babylon, no settling for a past without a future. There was so much shouting that you could not distinguish the Gospel from the blues, for they are part of one another. Can we practise our shouting?
Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan