The Latter Splendor

​Here is a phrase you won’t hear very often, except perhaps from me. I love the prophet Haggai!
 
Haggai is one of the prophets we call “minor” because his book is so short—just two chapters taking up less than two pages. That makes Haggai easy to overlook.
 
And you can’t hear much about Haggai in Church. Our reading for today is the only time Haggai appears in our three-year cycle of readings. Today is it for Haggai!
 
But Haggai was important in his own time, and Haggai has a valuable message for us. We just need to know a bit about the historical context to get that message.
 
Long before Haggai’s time, under Kings David and Solomon, Israel had been a prosperous and united kingdom. But the kingdom declined under their successors until, about seventy years before Haggai’s prophecies, it totally collapsed. The Babylonians—modern-day Iraq—conquered Israel, abolished the monarchy, destroyed much of Jerusalem, including the Temple, and deported the kingdom’s leading citizens. It was an almost unimaginable catastrophe.
 
But exile wasn’t the end of the story. During Haggai’s childhood, Persia (modern-day Iran) conquered Babylon and let the people of Israel return home and begin rebuilding their shattered institutions, starting with the Temple.
 
That was a miraculous turn of events. But life back in Jerusalem for the returning refugees, now including Haggai, was hard. Their neighbors were hostile. They struggled to feed themselves. Their commitment wavered, and, among other things, they abandoned construction of the Temple.
 
Enter Haggai, exactly the prophet his people needed in that moment. Haggai inspired his people to resume construction on the Temple, and they got it done. That was Haggai’s great contribution in his own time.
 
But what makes Haggai relevant for us is the message with which he inspired his people.
 
Haggai begins by looking back. Haggai asks, “Who is left among you that saw this house [meaning the Temple] in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?”
 
Given that the old Temple had been destroyed more than sixty years earlier, that is a question for the elders among them. To the elders, Haggai names the temptation of nostalgia, the temptation to look back at the good old days, however defined, and to lament the sad state of the present.
 
Looking back can be a good thing, of course. We have spent much of this centennial year celebrating our history as a parish. As Christians, we need to benefit from the wisdom of our ancient tradition. 
 
But nostalgia can be a temptation for many of us, particularly the elders among us. Nostalgia can be a temptation for us as individuals, as citizens, and as members of the Church. I only go back fourteen years here at Saint David’s, but I look back with fond regret to January 2020, just before the pandemic hit us, as a golden moment. When our Bishop was here, he named the temptation to look back at the 1950s and 60s, when Churches tended to be full, particularly with children, as a golden age.
 
Nostalgia for particular moments in our past can become a trap if we get stuck there, if we try to recreate what was rather than focus on what is and what could be. As Bishop Fisher said, the 1950s aren’t coming back. Neither is January 2020. That was then, and this is now.
 
In Haggai’s day, nostalgia must have been very tempting indeed. The old Temple really had been glorious. The beginnings of the new Temple probably did seem like nothing in comparison. There was no chance, humanly speaking, that Haggai’s people could build anything to match what they once had had.
 
But Haggai didn’t let his people get stuck in the nostalgia trap. “Yet now,” says Haggai, “take courage.” Take courage and “work.”
 
Take courage, Zerubbabel (the political leader). Take courage, Joshua (the religious leader). Take courage, all you people of the land. Don’t worry about the past. Face the challenges of the present. Be bold. Do the work God has given you to do.
 
Then Haggai reminds them about the foundation of their confidence. It was NOT their own wealth or strength. It WAS the presence of God. “I am with you, says the Lord of hosts….My spirit abides among you; do not fear.”
 
That is a good reminder for us, too, as we begin our stewardship campaign, and put together a budget for next year, and recruit new leadership. We, too, can take courage, no matter what challenges we may face, because God is with us. God’s spirit abides among us.
 
Finally, Haggai points his people towards the future, which will be glorious in its own way. God promises to “fill [the Temple they are building] with splendor,” and “the latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former.” Look forward, not back, if you want to see real splendor.
 
The promise Haggai brought to his people, the promise of a splendid future to match anything they had in the past, came true in multiple ways.
 
Haggai’s contemporaries did indeed complete construction of the Temple in the very year of Haggai’s prophecies. The building itself wasn’t particularly impressive, but, under the circumstances, just getting the Temple built was.
 
The Temple they built was a first fulfillment of God’s promise. During Haggai’s lifetime, that had to be enough. Just as importantly, it was a sign of more fulfillment to come.
 
And more fulfillment did come. A few centuries later, Haggai’s prophecy came true in a more obviously literal way. King Herod dramatically expanded the Temple built by Haggai and his contemporaries, and the physical splendor of Herod’s renovated Temple really did surpass the splendor of the ancient Temple of Solomon.
 
But Haggai was talking about more than a building, however glorious. What made the Temple important was not the splendor of the building, but rather the presence of God in the building. God’s presence makes any building glorious. To those with eyes to see, our building is as splendid as Solomon’s Temple or Herod’s Temple because the God who inhabited the ancient Temples inhabits this place too.
 
And, of course, God’s presence is not limited to buildings.
 
In what was surely NOT a coincidence, Christ was born at the very same time that Herod was so magnificently expanding the Temple building. Christ, who comes as God with us. Christ, whose body is the true temple. Christ who gathers us as his body, who makes us the true and glorious Temple of the Holy Spirit.
 
We, the people of God in this time and place, are the latter splendor Haggai promised.
 
But Haggai calls us to look past our own present, just as he called his contemporaries to look past their present. The Christian hope, our hope, is not in buildings. Our hope is not even in each other. Our hope is in God. Our hope is resurrection, eternal life, God’s kingdom in all its power and glory.
 
Through Haggai, God promised his people a glorious future, if only they could trust in God’s presence and God’s promises. Through Haggai, God promises us exactly the same thing.
 
My prayer is that we can respond as faithfully as Haggai’s contemporaries did, that we can take courage and do the work that God gives us to do, and that we can always look forward in hope. And I pray that in Christ’s name. Amen.