Living Free
Sermon
A Word That Sets Free
First Lesson Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost (Last Third) Cycle C
Why are things not better in America? With the booming economy, the new freedoms won by the Civil Rights movement and the Feminist movement, why is there still so much poverty, inequality, and discrimination? Questions such as these that we are asking today were on the lips and in the hearts of ancient Jews around 520 B.C. Many, if not most, of these Jews in Judah (southern Israel) at that time had been exiles in Babylon during the Babylonian Captivity. Some eighteen to twenty years before they had been permitted to return to their homeland after Cyrus the King of Persia had conquered the Babylonians.
There was initially great joy among the Jews. For nearly forty years they had been aliens in a foreign land. For decades before that time they had seen the power of their beloved nation wane. They had seen the great Temple of Solomon, the dwelling-place of their God, destroyed. But now they were home! The day of liberation had come; they were free. Could it be that the coming of God's Kingdom, the new era of the Messiah foretold by earlier prophets (like Jeremiah [31:27-34]), had been realized?
The problem was that during the period of Haggai's ministry, these hopes and dreams had been dashed. The returned Jews were living in impoverished conditions. The harvests had been poor due to droughts (Haggai 1:5-6, 9-11). They had not rebuilt the Jerusalem Temple, ostensibly they said because the time was not right (Haggai 1:4). But Haggai came to set them straight.1 His words can set us straight today; by the grace of God, Haggai's insights can empower us to do something about America's social ills that we all lament.
Haggai's strategy in waking up his liberated (at least partially liberated) countrymen was to speak to the leaders of the Hebrews. People of God need to be bold in trying to bring about social, cultural, and religious change. Haggai was trying to move on all three of these fronts.
Religiously, Haggai's and God's agenda was obvious. They were committed to rebuilding the Temple which had been destroyed by the earlier Babylonian conquest. In essence, Haggai and God remind us that the key to personal renewal or the renewal of a nation rests with revitalizing and prioritizing the practice of faith above anything else.
Late in chapter 2, after our lesson for today ends, Haggai, on behalf of God, raises questions to the priests regarding proper worship practices (ritual cleanliness) (vv. 10-13). Apparently the people of Judah had not been observing all of the strictures on the performance of ritual sacrifices. Yes, Haggai's concern to put an end to the impurity had a religious motive, but it can also be interpreted as a call for cultural reform. In essence he was saying, "Let's get back to our heritage, to our cultural roots. Let's not let the oppression that we have endured in the past and our present dire circumstances lead us to forget who we are and the special things that make us unique as a people."
Finally Haggai addressed the question of economics. Yes, the people of Judah who had returned to their homeland were freer than they had been in Babylon, though not totally free. (The Persian Empire was still in control.) They had experienced some real hardships since returning home -- poor harvests and even hunger (Haggai 1:5-6, 11). In such circumstances, can you blame them for not believing that they yet had the resources to undertake a big project like rebuilding the Temple (Haggai 1:9)? Would you have handled it differently? Was it just not responsible stewardship to take care of the physical needs like housing first?
Haggai and God seem to be saying that in order to break out of social stagnation you have to do bold things. If you do not, you merely continue doing business as usual, with all the oppressive features of your society still in place. Is this why American society still has many of its old disparities, despite some of the new freedoms won in the 1950s and '60s? Is it the case that we did not take enough economic and social risks in the waning decades of the century?
At any rate, Haggai's plan for curing the inertia of the people of Judah was to announce that God would find a way to bring the prosperity of other nations to Judah. (Perhaps Haggai embraced the free market and international investments.) The Lord says that he will bring such prosperity, because the gold and silver of the earth, all its wealth, belong to him (Haggai 2:6-9). God is in control, and he delivers his people.
In order for these economic initiatives to bear fruit, though, it would take work. And that is precisely the point of our First Lesson. It and the whole book of Haggai teach that this worldly political action, freedom, and divine intervention go together.2 God sets us free, delivers his people, but we still have responsibilities to those set free with us. As the great American Reformed theologian of the mid-twentieth century, Richard Niebuhr, put it: "Responsibility affirms that God is acting in all actions upon you. So respond to all actions upon you as to respond to His action."3
Do you follow this point? Niebuhr contends that as you respond to the events of your daily life, act like you were responding to God's action. As you hear my words, respond as if it were God actually speaking to you. When you go to work tomorrow and a problem develops or the people you encounter are difficult, respond as if it were God with whom you are interacting. The person who is free does not have to do anything. But liberated Christians who believe that they are meeting God in their personal actions and in the socio-political dynamics of their day will want to get involved and serve their neighbors. That is how to "live free."
Martin Luther King, Jr., made similar points when he claimed that "freedom is responsibility." Failure to exercise this responsibility accounted in his view for why the new freedoms won for African-Americans had not solved all the social problems. As he put it: "The great majority of Americans ... are uneasy with injustice but unwilling yet to pay a significant price to eradicate it."4 Most of the time we are not willing to live out our freedom responsibly.
Back in the sixteenth century Dr. King's insights were more or less endorsed by his namesake, Martin Luther. Of course Luther emphasized our freedom. The Christian, he claimed, is "lord of all, subject to none." But he also asserted that "a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all."5 Living free (in Christ) involves service to God and our neighbors. Maybe the problem with American society today is that Christians have not been exercising their freedom in service, not really living free.
How can Haggai's stress on assuming socio-political responsibility be reconciled to an appreciation that God alone is our Savior and Deliverer, that all that is good comes from him? (I do not want you to hear this sermon as an exposition on what you and American Christianity should do to improve our nation's plight.) Once again Martin Luther offers some helpful insights. In a 1520 treatise when he talked about Christians as both lords of all and servants to all, he put it this way:
The inner man [the Christian], who by faith is created in the image of God is both joyful and happy because of Christ in whom so many benefits are conferred upon him; and therefore it is his one occupation to serve God joyfully and without thought of gain, in love that is not constrained.6
The love that Christians show in exercising their freedom by serving others and by assuming socio-political responsibilities is not something that we have to do. God's grace has transformed you and me into people who want to take up these responsibilities. We do them happily and joyfully, Luther says. That is how you live freely. Freedom may entail a lot of work, but it is also a lot of fun.
Have we still given God the credit for all the good that happens through our exercise of freedom? In another passage Martin Luther compared the Christian to a cup into which God pours his love. God pours so much love into us that like a cup with too much in it that love flows out of us to our neighbors.7 How are we still free? An empty cup does not have any cares and fears about spilling its contents. Christians, neither do you have to have any cares and fears about exercising your Christian responsibility. Doing that will happen as spontaneously as a beverage spills out of a cup that is overflowing. Of course God has enough love to fill up your cup and my cup, so that his love will spill out of us to others. That is freedom, the kind of freedom that makes us instruments which God uses to give his good things to his people.
We began this sermon by asking questions about why things are not better in America, why with the new civil rights freedoms of the '60s and '70s, there is still much poverty, inequality, and discrimination. It seems like the problem is that we Christians have not been exercising our freedom. Instead of exercising our socio-political responsibility or functioning as overflowing cups filled with all of God's goodness and love, too many of us have been in bondage to satisfying our egos and desires. Too often you and I have been mired in that kind of bondage. Like the people of Judah in Haggai's day, we have been too "busy" to care about spiritual things, too hung up on the latest trend to guard our traditions and values, too preoccupied with ourselves to address the political and economic ills of our nation. We have not been exercising our freedom; we have not been "living free."
The book of Haggai may give us an indication of something else that has gone wrong in American society. Some Old Testament scholars have noted that although Haggai sees a connection between the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem and the Day of the Lord, there is no direct identification of this political undertaking (rebuilding the Temple) and the Kingdom of God.8 Americans may not have been sufficiently sensitive to that insight. Too often you and I act like our favorite socio-political agenda is God's one-and-only way, the way of realizing his Kingdom here on earth, and that anyone who disagrees with us is not in touch with the truth like we are.
Haggai teaches us some humility. He and God teach us that we need to be open to our neighbors' exercising their freedom along with ours. Part of what is entailed in exercising your freedom is letting your neighbors be free by recognizing that even if they do not agree with your politics they may still be doing a Christian "thing." Think of the polarization in American society today. Is that polarization a little bit the result of demonizing our opponents, of not respecting their freedom, and of not conceding that they might just be doing God's "thing"?
Why is American society so flawed as we enter the new millennium? We have not lived as free as God has made us. Enjoy your freedom, friends; use it! Use it responsibly; use it to set others free. God is pouring his love into you, giving you all sorts of opportunities to serve him and to work to set others free of all that still binds them. God is pouring his love and all those good things into you. They are spilling out of you now. Let them flow. God's gifts are free for others, and so are you. Are you not glad that God has made us free? This nation and the world can be better because of your freedom and its responsible use. Live free, God and Haggai say!
____________
1. von Rad, pp. 281-282.
2. For this insight I am indebted to Childs, p. 470.
3. H. Richard Niebuhr, The Responsible Self (New York: Evanston and London: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1963), p. 126.
4. King, Where Do We Go From Here?; Martin Luther King, Jr., "The Ethical Demands For Integration," Religion and Labor (May, 1963), pp. 3-4.
5. Luther, The Freedom of a Christian, in Luther's Works, Vol. 31, p. 344.
6. Ibid., p. 359.
7. Ibid., p. 371.
8. Childs, p. 470.
There was initially great joy among the Jews. For nearly forty years they had been aliens in a foreign land. For decades before that time they had seen the power of their beloved nation wane. They had seen the great Temple of Solomon, the dwelling-place of their God, destroyed. But now they were home! The day of liberation had come; they were free. Could it be that the coming of God's Kingdom, the new era of the Messiah foretold by earlier prophets (like Jeremiah [31:27-34]), had been realized?
The problem was that during the period of Haggai's ministry, these hopes and dreams had been dashed. The returned Jews were living in impoverished conditions. The harvests had been poor due to droughts (Haggai 1:5-6, 9-11). They had not rebuilt the Jerusalem Temple, ostensibly they said because the time was not right (Haggai 1:4). But Haggai came to set them straight.1 His words can set us straight today; by the grace of God, Haggai's insights can empower us to do something about America's social ills that we all lament.
Haggai's strategy in waking up his liberated (at least partially liberated) countrymen was to speak to the leaders of the Hebrews. People of God need to be bold in trying to bring about social, cultural, and religious change. Haggai was trying to move on all three of these fronts.
Religiously, Haggai's and God's agenda was obvious. They were committed to rebuilding the Temple which had been destroyed by the earlier Babylonian conquest. In essence, Haggai and God remind us that the key to personal renewal or the renewal of a nation rests with revitalizing and prioritizing the practice of faith above anything else.
Late in chapter 2, after our lesson for today ends, Haggai, on behalf of God, raises questions to the priests regarding proper worship practices (ritual cleanliness) (vv. 10-13). Apparently the people of Judah had not been observing all of the strictures on the performance of ritual sacrifices. Yes, Haggai's concern to put an end to the impurity had a religious motive, but it can also be interpreted as a call for cultural reform. In essence he was saying, "Let's get back to our heritage, to our cultural roots. Let's not let the oppression that we have endured in the past and our present dire circumstances lead us to forget who we are and the special things that make us unique as a people."
Finally Haggai addressed the question of economics. Yes, the people of Judah who had returned to their homeland were freer than they had been in Babylon, though not totally free. (The Persian Empire was still in control.) They had experienced some real hardships since returning home -- poor harvests and even hunger (Haggai 1:5-6, 11). In such circumstances, can you blame them for not believing that they yet had the resources to undertake a big project like rebuilding the Temple (Haggai 1:9)? Would you have handled it differently? Was it just not responsible stewardship to take care of the physical needs like housing first?
Haggai and God seem to be saying that in order to break out of social stagnation you have to do bold things. If you do not, you merely continue doing business as usual, with all the oppressive features of your society still in place. Is this why American society still has many of its old disparities, despite some of the new freedoms won in the 1950s and '60s? Is it the case that we did not take enough economic and social risks in the waning decades of the century?
At any rate, Haggai's plan for curing the inertia of the people of Judah was to announce that God would find a way to bring the prosperity of other nations to Judah. (Perhaps Haggai embraced the free market and international investments.) The Lord says that he will bring such prosperity, because the gold and silver of the earth, all its wealth, belong to him (Haggai 2:6-9). God is in control, and he delivers his people.
In order for these economic initiatives to bear fruit, though, it would take work. And that is precisely the point of our First Lesson. It and the whole book of Haggai teach that this worldly political action, freedom, and divine intervention go together.2 God sets us free, delivers his people, but we still have responsibilities to those set free with us. As the great American Reformed theologian of the mid-twentieth century, Richard Niebuhr, put it: "Responsibility affirms that God is acting in all actions upon you. So respond to all actions upon you as to respond to His action."3
Do you follow this point? Niebuhr contends that as you respond to the events of your daily life, act like you were responding to God's action. As you hear my words, respond as if it were God actually speaking to you. When you go to work tomorrow and a problem develops or the people you encounter are difficult, respond as if it were God with whom you are interacting. The person who is free does not have to do anything. But liberated Christians who believe that they are meeting God in their personal actions and in the socio-political dynamics of their day will want to get involved and serve their neighbors. That is how to "live free."
Martin Luther King, Jr., made similar points when he claimed that "freedom is responsibility." Failure to exercise this responsibility accounted in his view for why the new freedoms won for African-Americans had not solved all the social problems. As he put it: "The great majority of Americans ... are uneasy with injustice but unwilling yet to pay a significant price to eradicate it."4 Most of the time we are not willing to live out our freedom responsibly.
Back in the sixteenth century Dr. King's insights were more or less endorsed by his namesake, Martin Luther. Of course Luther emphasized our freedom. The Christian, he claimed, is "lord of all, subject to none." But he also asserted that "a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all."5 Living free (in Christ) involves service to God and our neighbors. Maybe the problem with American society today is that Christians have not been exercising their freedom in service, not really living free.
How can Haggai's stress on assuming socio-political responsibility be reconciled to an appreciation that God alone is our Savior and Deliverer, that all that is good comes from him? (I do not want you to hear this sermon as an exposition on what you and American Christianity should do to improve our nation's plight.) Once again Martin Luther offers some helpful insights. In a 1520 treatise when he talked about Christians as both lords of all and servants to all, he put it this way:
The inner man [the Christian], who by faith is created in the image of God is both joyful and happy because of Christ in whom so many benefits are conferred upon him; and therefore it is his one occupation to serve God joyfully and without thought of gain, in love that is not constrained.6
The love that Christians show in exercising their freedom by serving others and by assuming socio-political responsibilities is not something that we have to do. God's grace has transformed you and me into people who want to take up these responsibilities. We do them happily and joyfully, Luther says. That is how you live freely. Freedom may entail a lot of work, but it is also a lot of fun.
Have we still given God the credit for all the good that happens through our exercise of freedom? In another passage Martin Luther compared the Christian to a cup into which God pours his love. God pours so much love into us that like a cup with too much in it that love flows out of us to our neighbors.7 How are we still free? An empty cup does not have any cares and fears about spilling its contents. Christians, neither do you have to have any cares and fears about exercising your Christian responsibility. Doing that will happen as spontaneously as a beverage spills out of a cup that is overflowing. Of course God has enough love to fill up your cup and my cup, so that his love will spill out of us to others. That is freedom, the kind of freedom that makes us instruments which God uses to give his good things to his people.
We began this sermon by asking questions about why things are not better in America, why with the new civil rights freedoms of the '60s and '70s, there is still much poverty, inequality, and discrimination. It seems like the problem is that we Christians have not been exercising our freedom. Instead of exercising our socio-political responsibility or functioning as overflowing cups filled with all of God's goodness and love, too many of us have been in bondage to satisfying our egos and desires. Too often you and I have been mired in that kind of bondage. Like the people of Judah in Haggai's day, we have been too "busy" to care about spiritual things, too hung up on the latest trend to guard our traditions and values, too preoccupied with ourselves to address the political and economic ills of our nation. We have not been exercising our freedom; we have not been "living free."
The book of Haggai may give us an indication of something else that has gone wrong in American society. Some Old Testament scholars have noted that although Haggai sees a connection between the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem and the Day of the Lord, there is no direct identification of this political undertaking (rebuilding the Temple) and the Kingdom of God.8 Americans may not have been sufficiently sensitive to that insight. Too often you and I act like our favorite socio-political agenda is God's one-and-only way, the way of realizing his Kingdom here on earth, and that anyone who disagrees with us is not in touch with the truth like we are.
Haggai teaches us some humility. He and God teach us that we need to be open to our neighbors' exercising their freedom along with ours. Part of what is entailed in exercising your freedom is letting your neighbors be free by recognizing that even if they do not agree with your politics they may still be doing a Christian "thing." Think of the polarization in American society today. Is that polarization a little bit the result of demonizing our opponents, of not respecting their freedom, and of not conceding that they might just be doing God's "thing"?
Why is American society so flawed as we enter the new millennium? We have not lived as free as God has made us. Enjoy your freedom, friends; use it! Use it responsibly; use it to set others free. God is pouring his love into you, giving you all sorts of opportunities to serve him and to work to set others free of all that still binds them. God is pouring his love and all those good things into you. They are spilling out of you now. Let them flow. God's gifts are free for others, and so are you. Are you not glad that God has made us free? This nation and the world can be better because of your freedom and its responsible use. Live free, God and Haggai say!
____________
1. von Rad, pp. 281-282.
2. For this insight I am indebted to Childs, p. 470.
3. H. Richard Niebuhr, The Responsible Self (New York: Evanston and London: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1963), p. 126.
4. King, Where Do We Go From Here?; Martin Luther King, Jr., "The Ethical Demands For Integration," Religion and Labor (May, 1963), pp. 3-4.
5. Luther, The Freedom of a Christian, in Luther's Works, Vol. 31, p. 344.
6. Ibid., p. 359.
7. Ibid., p. 371.
8. Childs, p. 470.
