How the Hell did this Happen?

 

“How the Hell did this Happen?”

 

Haggai 1:15b-2:9
2:1 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:

2:2 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,

2:3 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?

2:4 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,

2:5 according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear.

2:6 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;

2:7 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.

2:8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts.

2:9 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.

 

 

The irreverent title of this weekend’s sermon is actually the title of a book by noted conservative satirist, P.J. O’Rourke. The author was addressing the Presidential election of 2016, and wondering, from the perspective of a classic Republican conservative, how an unpredictable, former-Democrat-turned-ultra-right-wing rich guy got elected to the nation’s top office. Even if you were a supporter of Donald Trump, you must admit that his election caught even him off guard, and his lack of advanced preparation for the office nearly paralyzed the federal government for almost two years. Even after his defeat for re-election in 2020, the U.S. State Department, and a host of other such departments, were understaffed and short on top leaders. The Biden administration has had to play a massive game of catch-up, in order to put much of the “service” sector of the government back on line. The inconsistencies of the Trump administration, likewise, were not surprising to a critic with long-standing conservative credentials like O’Rourke, who predicted the kind of disarray he brought to the office of President of the United States. On one hand, he could be “tough” on China over trade policies, while on the other, offering “solace” and heaping praise on totalitarian regimes such as Russia and Putin, and North Korea and Kim. When the global pandemic “came home” to the U.S., Trump launched “Operation Warp Speed” to create and perfect a vaccine, which succeeded admirably, while later attacking its leaders and undermining his own historic efforts to beat the virus. President Trump wrote executive orders aimed at reducing the jailing of African Americans for petty crimes (which has been labeled “mass incarceration”), and yet pushed law enforcement policies that many saw as racist over-reactions, especially when protests occurred over the shooting of unarmed African Americans, and the killing of George Floyd by Officer Derek Chauvin. The inconsistencies and undisciplined governance of President Donald Trump, while not surprising to the How the Hell did this Happen? author, P.J. O’Rourke, continued to amaze him and others when Trump refused to accept that he lost his re-election campaign in 2020, and has succeeded in sowing the seeds of doubt into the fabric of the American electoral process. O’Rourke died in February of 2022. Donald Trump lives to fight another day.

 

I relate this saga, because when I read this weekend’s lectionary passage from Haggai, and especially verse three--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?—all I could think of was O’Rourke’s book, How the Hell did this Happen? Haggai addresses a people that has had the blessing of God from their very beginning, has had the presence of God all along their journey, and now is hearing a fresh promise of God through the prophet. With all of this going for them, how could they possible putt things up so badly as to have even forgotten their “former glory”? Israel had a way of doing that. In a nutshell, when things were going poorly for them, or when they were threatened by a new enemy, they would cry out to God. But when things turned around for them—usually because God stepped in—they patted themselves on the back, took all the credit, and followed up by selecting dysfunctional leaders who offered little direction and let the wicked and power-hungry ones thrive, while the poor, the immigrants, and the “commoners” suffer. Sound familiar? Oh, and Israel never learns! Here we are in November of 2022, and the modern State of Israel, just recently fresh off the corrupt administration of Benjamin Netanyahu, having begun to rebuild at least some of their tarnished national image, has just held another election and guess who they are going to restore to power? Yep. The same scoundrel whose corruption manufactured the tarnish! Welcome back, Bibi. Where is another Haggai when you need him? Or Jeremiah? Or Elijah? 

 

Our own country is in the midst of one of those moments when the ending of a pandemic—a GOOD thing—has left us with high inflation and growing crime, due to the new “freedom” granted by public activity coming to life again. So, it’s time to start blaming someone for these, and with elections coming, the incumbents are in the crosshairs. Chances are, next Tuesday’s mid-term elections will swing the balance of power yet again. And chances are, the remedies that will be proposed will make matters worse, because that regime tends toward strengthening the position of the power-brokers, rather than the poor and downtrodden. The cycle goes back and forth, back and forth here, but the overarching results are not good for those who suffer and seem always to bolster those holding the massive purse-strings, be they the larder of government or the king’s ransom riches of the billionaire businessmen. The United States fits very well into the critique of government, corruption, and lust for power that cyclically infested God’s people Israel. If we—or Israel—would ever listen, God has something that would save us from this national crisis cycle. But will we?

 

What God offers us is a promise—a promise of prosperity. In the Haggai text, God offers the “gold and silver,” which are God’s, and promises to “restore the splendor” of our “house,” making it even greater than the “former splendor.” What will it take to receive this promise of the Most High? Well, first of all, the prophet says we must speak to the leaders. They are in charge, and unless we can convince them there is a “better way” to run the country, we’re dead in the water. Secondly, God says that the very foundations must be shaken. We can take that to mean that we must break the “cycles” of attack, blame, and electing new leaders with the same empty promises. As long as “liberals” and “conservatives” in the United States or “Labor” and “Likud” in Israel, see this as a political duel to the death, we are doomed. “Shaking the foundations” of leadership means finding common ground and working together, something that sounds like an impossibility now, but remember, nothing is impossible with God. It will require a change in focus, away from power and dominion to the needs of the people and paying attention to fixing the problems that affect “the least of these,” as Jesus would say. If we continue to pat ourselves on the back while in power—and I’m aiming this at both parties—then we will never find the prosperity the promise of God entails. 

 

One of my pastors used to say, “God’s work, done God’s way, gets God’s provision.” I think that is exactly what Haggai is trying to tell Israel, and we Americans should be listening, too. And American Christians are not in the right “camp” either, right now, as we seem bent on telling others what they cannot do, rather than having the compassion to see that what so many can’t do is survive. Homelessness is rampant, immigrants—long the lifeblood of our democracy, as well as much of its hardcore workforce—are being persecuted at best and deported, at worst, and gun violence is paralyzing our communities. The fact that you are spending an extra $25 to fill your Land Rover is not the central problem facing our nation right now. We have eschewed the presence and promise of God, which necessarily require us to love our neighbor as ourselves and find solutions for those who suffer. Remember, God’s work done God’s way gets God’s provision. People of faith can’t even come to an agreement on what God’s WORK is, let alone how we do it in God’s WAY. The prophets are trying to remind us that God’s WAY is an holistic way—one that addresses the needs, desires, and talents of ALL of God’s people, not just a select few who happen to agree with our little evangelical clique. At a national level, Republicans, if left to their own devices, will pull back the positive forces of government in order to offer bigger tax cuts to those who fund their efforts, and Democrats, if they get their way, will spread resources thin trying to placate the needy factions that put them in power, without addressing the root cause of poverty, and the ignorance that creates it, feeds the national sin of racism, and causes people to turn away from participatory governance. In all cases, the proverbial both/and that could legitimately help us adopt more compassionate and “Godly” policies for all, is being drowned out by the eternal either/or of fighting political factions. This is why Haggai begins his prophecy by saying we must speak to the leaders.

 

We should note here that Jesus actually tried to do all of these things when he walked the earth. He “spoke to the leaders,” religious and political. He “shook the foundations” by aligning himself with the powerless, the sick, and the marginalized. He told us how to do “God’s WORK, God’s WAY.” And he got killed for it. This is not easy business, friends, as power and money do NOT go quietly into submission to the legitimate needs of the common folk, nor do they easily “agree” that fixing the broader problems of society will be in their best interests. Somehow, we must convince “the leaders”—political and holders of the purse-strings—that it WILL be in their best interests, and in those of their children and grandchildren, if we make the world better and safer for all. And that if we do, the third “leg” of God’s promise will kick in—God’s PROVISION!

 

From a Christian perspective, we must come to realize that Jesus wasn’t a Republican, Jesus was not a Democrat, Jesus wasn’t a Socialist, and he certainly wasn’t a Libertarian or a Totalitarian. Jesus was what God decided to put God’s best foot forward in—Jesus was human. (Please note that I’m not discounting the divine element of Christ here, and am not arguing against the doctrine of the Extra-Calvinisticum, or the continued presence of the divine in the human Jesus, but am making an important point.) Unless God decides God made a mistake in creating humanity, God believes we are still the best hope at bringing the promises of God to fruition on earth. God could have sent Jesus as a divine emissary to supernaturally “fix” us, but chose instead to invest in our very humanity with God’s own Son. That’s saying something. AND it speaks to those who tend to eschew the concept of the divine and see themselves merely as “humanists.” Christians should work quite nicely with humanists, as our aims should be the same, at least in terms of God’s work. We may disagree in some of God’s ways, but if we succeed together in bringing about God’s provision, no one will be unhappy about it, and it might even make a powerful witness to all.

 

If we don’t get serious about some of this business, it well may be God who looks at the world and asks, “How the hell did THIS happen?”

 

And finally, Jesus told us to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” This was his universal plea to pray for all of the people of God and those who govern them. As yet another American election is afoot, and one In Israel has just ended, it sure sounds like a good first step to me! Shalom, Dear Ones! Amen.