“REBUILD MY HOUSE!”
(Haggai 1:1-8) - Sermon to the General
Synod of the Church of England
London,
Westminster Abbey, 24 November 2015
Few prophetic oracles in the Old Testament can be dated so precisely
as that of Haggai, which we have
just heard in
the first reading. We
can place it between
August and December in the year
520 BC. The exiles, after the deportation to Babylon, have come back to rebuild
the Temple in Jerusalem. They set to work, but soon grow discouraged, each preferring
to work on his own house instead. In to this situation comes the prophet Haggai,
sent by God with the message we have heard. The Word of God, once it is
proclaimed, remains forever alive; it transcends situations and centuries, each time casting
new light. The situation
deplored by the
prophet is renewed in history
each time we are so absorbed in the problems and interests of our own parish,
diocese, community – and even of our particular Christian denomination - that
we lose sight of the one house of God, which is the Church.
The prophecy of
Haggai begins with
a reproof, but
ends, as we
heard, with an exhortation and a
grandiose promise: “Go up into the hills, fetch timber and rebuild the House, and
I shall tak e pleasure in it and
manifest my glory
there” - says the Lord ”.
One circumstance makes this point particularly relevant. The
Christian world is preparing to celebrate the fifth centenary of the Protestant
Reformation. It is vital for the whole Church that this opportunity is not wasted
by people remaining prisoners of the past, trying to establish each other’s
rights and wrongs. Rather, let us take a qualitative leap forward, like what
happens when the sluice gates of a river or a canal enable ships to continue to
navigate at a higher water level.
The situation has dramatically changed since then. We need to start again
with the person of Jesus, humbly helping our contemporaries to experience a personal
encounter with Him. “All things were created through him and for him”; Christ
is the light of the world, the one who gives meaning and hope to every human
life – and the majority of people around us live and die as if He had never
existed! How can we be unconcerned, and each remain “in the comfort t of our
own panelled houses”? We should never allow a moral issue like that of
sexuality divide us more than love for Jesus Christ unites us.
We need to go back to the time of the Apostles: they faced a pre-Christian
world, and we are facing a largely post - Christian world.
When Paul wants to summaris e the essence of the Christian message in
one sentence, he does not say, “I proclaim this or that doctrine to you.” He
says, “We preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor 1:23), and “We preach ... Jesus
Christ as Lord” (2 Cor 4:5). This is the real “articulus stantis et cadentis Ecclesiae”,
the article by which the Church stands or falls.
This does not mean ignoring the great theological and
spiritual enrichment that
came from the Reformation
or desiring to
go back to
the time before
it. It means instead allowing all of Christianity to benefit from its
achievements, once they are freed from certain distortions due to the heated
atmosphere of the time and of later controversies.
Justification by faith, for example, ought to be preached by the
whole Church — and with more vigour than ever. Not in opposition to good works –
the issue is already settled - but rather in opposition to the claim of people
today that they can save themselves thanks to their science, technology or
their man - made spirituality, without the need for a redeemer coming from
outside humanity. Self - justification! I am convinced that if they were alive today
this is the way Martin Luther and Thomas Cranmer would preach justification
through faith!
Unity is not a simple matter. One has to start with the big Churches,
those that are well structured, putting together that which unites them, which
is vastly more important than what divides
them; not imposing uniformity but aiming
at what pope
Francis calls “reconciled
diversities”. Nothing is more important than to fulfil Christ’s heart desire for
unity expressed in today’s gospel. In many parts of the world people are killed
and churches burned not because they are Catholic, or Anglican, or
Pentecostals, but because they are Christians. In their eyes we are already
one! Let us be one also in our eyes and in the eyes of God.
The Anglican Church has a special role in all of this. It has often
defined itself as a “via media” (a Middle Way) between Roman Catholicism and
Reformed Christianity. From being a “via media” in a static sense, it must now
become more and more a via media in a dynamic sense, exercising an active
function as a bridge between the Churches. The presence among you of a priest
of the Catholic Church, in circumstances of such special significance, is a sign
that something of the kind is already happening.
Let us conclude by returning to the text of Haggai. After the people
of Israel, in obedience to the prophet’s invitation, had returned with renewed
fervour to the task of rebuilding the temple, God sent His prophet again, this
time with a message full of hope and consolation:
“But take courage now, Zerubbabel – it is the Lord who
speaks -, courage, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, high priest; courage, all you people
of the country – it is the Lord who speaks. To work! I am with you, the Lord of
hosts declares; and my Spirit is present among you. Do not be afraid!” (Hg 2, 4-5).
Zerubbabel was the political leader at the time, and Joshua the
religious leader. I believe that
the Lord wanted
me to be
among you today,
above all to
tell you that He is addressing
this same message to you, at the inauguration of your Synod and also in view of
the meeting planned for next
January between the
leaders of the
entire Anglican communion: “Take
courage, Your Majesty, Sovereign
of this nation,
courage, Justin, Archbishop
of Canterbury, courage Sentamu,
Archbishop of York, courage, you bishops, clergy and laity of the Church of
England! To work, because I am with you. Says the Lord!”
