November 6th
Life amid the ruins

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November 6, 2022

Sermon:        Life amid the ruins

Scripture:       Haggai 1.5-2.9

Sometimes God fulfills our prayers but in ways that are less impressive than we had hoped for.  The Jewish exiles, returning from Babylon arrived to find a city in ruins and no Temple!  So, they set about to rebuild.  But what a shabby Temple it was – at least in comparison to Solomon’s great building.  The book of Ezra tells the story of the rebuild and the celebration that followed:

         All of the people shouted with praise to the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s house had been laid. 12 But many of the older priests and Levites and heads of families, who had seen the first house, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this house, although many others shouted loudly with joy. 13 No one could distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, because the people rejoiced very loudly. The sound was heard at a great distance.

How true of our experience this seems: joy and sorrow mingled.  But … ‘poor beginnings do not mean poor endings, when YHWH presides over the fortunes of the people.’  (James Newsome).

So what does this have to say to us today? Perhaps when we reflect on what has been lost in the past few years, and we see the pictures of destruction in Ukraine, and we feel discouraged and are tempted to just throw in the towel we will hear God's words through Haggai as words of encouragement for us too.

Worship begins at 10:00 am and ALL are welcome.