Buildings

Sermon for 2003 February 2, 6.30 pm Evensong, St Mary Magdalen, Sheet

Bible readings: Haggai 2:1-9, John 2:18-22

Two builders are nailing tiles onto a roof. One is throwing half the nails away.

We all know a joke or two about builders, better than that one I hope, and I’m sure we all have a builder story to tell, but where would we be without them? For one thing, we would now be meeting in a cave or a tent or in the open air. And the Bible too has many building stories to tell. The more you think about it the harder it is to find somewhere in the Bible that does not have something to do with building. The Ark, the Temple, the Church. Except the Lord build the house, their labour is but lost that build it. Jesus Christ is the corner stone. And I saw a heavenly city, the new Jerusalem.

And we have two building stories today. One is from a very obscure book of the Bible, the tiny book of the prophet Haggai, all 38 verses of it. Our reading told the story of a meeting of the Fabric Committee of the Jerusalem PCC (as it were) [PCC is Parochial Church Council – the local governing council of an Anglican church]. But what a committee this was. Three members: Zerubbabel, Joshua and Haggai. We’re in the time of King Darius, he of Daniel and the lions’ den. Darius ended up a good guy in the Daniel story [which we heard as a musical last month], with good reason. He seems to have been enlightened enough to send Jewish people from Babylon to look after affairs in Jerusalem. Zerubbabel was in charge of this group of people, appointed as the governor of Judea. Joshua was the high priest, part of the priestly line. And they were met by Haggai the prophet. As I said, what a Fabric Committee! I have to say it’s not quite the democratic model that we aspire to with our committees. No, listen to this, the word of the Lord came through Haggai: Speak to Zerubbabel, to Joshua, and the remnant of the people.

A quick look back at what Haggai first said, on (let’s call it) 1 June. He said, You’re back from exile, you’re rebuilding your houses, but haven’t you forgotten something? And he encouraged them to start rebuilding the Temple. They started on 24 June. Now it’s 21 July, which we have to admit isn’t long. But it seems that this new Temple was a bit disappointing. This isn’t surprising when you go back to the description of Solomon’s original Temple and its furnishings, which you can find in 1 Kings chapters 6 and 7. That’s worth a read. The first Temple wasn’t huge, about the size of this church, but the way it was built and lined with cedar and furnished with gold is just exquisite. This new Temple had been envisioned by Ezekiel and it was supposed to be a replacement, but by all accounts it seems to have been a bit of a pathetic one. Which makes it all the more interesting that Haggai goes on to say, The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house. And I don’t think he meant that it would be smartened up in the years to come. So does it mean that the buildings don’t really matter after all? I don’t think so. Because why then was it so important to get the people building in the first place? Look at what our Jerusalem Fabric Committee went through. They were told to be strong and to work hard. They were told that the Lord would be with them. They were reminded of the covenant they had made with him. They were told that his sprit would be among them. They were told not to fear. And they were given an amazing promise which should still be heard echoing round the walls of Jerusalem: And in this place I will grant peace [or prosperity], declares the Lord Almighty.

Of course the buildings matter. Actually, this is a dilemma we face, isn’t it? On the one hand, I’m glad there have been people with the vision to build our great cathedrals and churches. Think of that amazing church, Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, all the more remarkable because it is still being built, or just go to Chichester, or Winchester. Oh all right, or Portsmouth! And our lesser churches, like St Mary’s – I’m glad it was built, I think this is a gem of a building and I’m glad we have dedicated people like the Fabric Committee looking after it, and that we did something when the stone bee attacked and didn’t just let it crumble. But on the other hand, we could be a bit envious of the church communities that don’t have buildings. They borrow a school hall, rent an old cinema, meet in people’s homes. Is it easier to concentrate on the Kingdom of God if you don’t have to put your energy into steps and loos and pews and dry rot? Maybe – it proves that you don’t have to have beautiful buildings to be a worshipping community – but of course someone has to worry about those material things and there is something about the integrity of recognizing that we’re living in a material world and we are material girls and boys – I suppose that’s why it’s called the Fabric Committee (groan).

Before we get too bogged down in buildings, what about our reading from John’s Gospel? I love this. Jesus has just demonstrated a great outburst of anger, making a whip, driving people and animals out and overturning the tables of the money-changers. Outrageous behaviour. So of course he’s asked to prove his authority for doing those things. And you can almost see the glint in Jesus’ eye when he says, Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days. Now we know, and we know that his disciples knew (eventually) that Jesus was speaking about his body, but his critics fell for it. It has taken 46 years to rebuild this temple. (By now we’re on the 3rd temple, built by Herod, by all accounts grander and stronger than the previous ones, but as we know not immune from destruction). It just seems that Jesus is having a laugh at those who get completely hung up on the buildings issue. For buildings you could read "anything to do with the physical nuts and bolts of our church life".

The message of our two Bible readings is surely: yes, bricks and mortar are important, yes, the integrity of our approach to these things says something about our attitude to God, indeed it is part of our worship, but no, these things must never give us cause for fretting or disharmony and no, they are not everything. Last week we learned how Jesus turned water into wine, and the preacher pointed out that it would have been good stuff, the very best. Something we might have missed in laughing at how naïve Jesus’ hearers were, is that he could equally well have done just what he said, torn down the Temple and rebuilt it in three days, and it would have been well built.

How much more remarkable is what he actually meant, that he could allow the temple of his body to be torn down – that he could allow himself to be killed – and rebuild it again in three days, rise from the dead to prove that he had conquered not just the decay and destruction of buildings but the decay and destruction of death and sin. The material aspects of our faith and worship are there and plain to see and we shouldn’t neglect them any more than we neglect to clean our teeth or mend our fences that blow down in the wind. But we have something so much greater, so much more precious, to guard and to share. The good news of Jesus Christ. It is stronger than the thickest stone, it’s worth more than all the silver and gold, it’s more beautiful than the stained glass of Chartres, it will endure beyond the last name on the vicars’ board. The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house, says the Lord Almighty. And in this place I will grant peace, declares the Lord Almighty.

© Mike Knee, 2003