The Rev. Noah Van Niel
November 10th, 2019
The Chapel of the Cross
Proper 27 (C): Haggai, 1:15b-2:9; Psalm 145: 1-5, 18-22; 2 Thess 2:1-5, 13-17; Luke 20:27-38
I know what you’re thinking: Who is Haggai? You’d be forgiven for wondering this, because the book of Haggai is easily overlooked. It’s just two chapters long, and doesn’t even fill two pages. It’s squeezed in right between Zephaniah and Zechariah, near the end of the Old Testament. If it wasn’t for Handel turning a couple of these verses into a memorable Bass recitative in his Messiah, it is possible this book would have been completely forgotten by modern readers.
So who is Haggai? Well, it’s hard to know who he was, but it’s very easy to know when he was. In fact we can date his writings to the day: “The second year of King Darius, in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month,” which translated into our calendar is October 17th, 520 BC. In fact all the events of this book take place in the year 520; a tiny sliver of time, but an important window into the state of things for the people of Israel under Persian rule. Remember, in 586 Jerusalem was destroyed and the Israelites were routed from their homeland by the Babylonians and had to live in captivity for almost 50 years. But when the Persian Empire overthrew the Babylonian Empire the Israelites were allowed to return home to rebuild their life there. Haggai, comes at a time when a small remnant of the faithful have returned to Jerusalem, found the city and most importantly the Temple, in ruins, and are wondering if it is even possible to rebuild it. It’s a daunting task, because anyone who knew the former glory of the Temple would be too old to help, and motivation for the younger generation, who grew up in exile and thus never knew the Temple, was hard to come by. So Haggai becomes, in essence, their cheerleader. He speaks to the leaders of the people in 520 BC and says, “C’mon y’all! We can do this! I know it looks bad, and you see these crumbled walls and empty halls, but take courage! For God is with us. His Spirit abides among us! Do not fear! The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, and in this place God will give prosperity.”
In 1966, after decades of growth and expansion, The Episcopal Church peaked at over 3.5 million members.[1] Today we have about half that. Over the last 50 years it has been a steady decline that is now accelerating, according to the latest numbers released from the Pew Research Center a couple of weeks ago.[2] Other progressive Christian denominations have also experienced a similar fate. I wasn’t born until this decline was well underway, but I wonder if those of you who grew up in the Church’s heyday of the post war years look around and feel a little like that faithful remnant Haggai was talking to, wondering where all the people are, and whether they are coming back. We may not be returning from exile, but the slow drip of secularism seems to be bleeding our churches dry and our future prosperity is very much in doubt.
I’m happy to report that The Chapel of the Cross is, to a certain extent, bucking this downward trend. Over the past few years we have seen growth in attendance and an increasing number of programs and offerings as well as increased connections with the those outside our walls, both near and far. In a world where decline is the norm, even modest growth is counted to be a great victory. There is a liveliness here, a vitality of Spirit, and for that we give all glory and thanks to God.
But that doesn’t really change the overall narrative, which remains bleak. We still bury more people than we baptize. We still struggle to pay our bills and balance our budget. But the real tragic irony, the thing that really upsets me, more than the attendance numbers and the tightening purse strings, is what this data says about our particular understanding and proclamation of who God is. While there are many factors that have contributed to this era of decline, it’s worth noting that over the past 50 years, The Episcopal Church—inspired the Holy Spirit—has made some important choices to be intentional about widening our welcome to all people and including them fully into the life of our Church. For example, ordaining women, ordaining Gay and Lesbian priests and bishops, performing same-sex marriages in churches. The motivation for this was our belief that the doors of God’s Kingdom are open to everyone, that God’s love is for all, that Jesus died for you, no matter who you are, and you are welcome here because you have been made in the image and likeness of God. This is the vision of God and of Christian community that we have been proclaiming over the last 50 years; the same period of time that we have been hemorrhaging members. Over this same time period other understandings of Christian community and of God, that I will call less inclusive, have also been promoted. And until very recently, many of those churches were heading in the opposite direction, and doing quite well. As we have taken great pains to widen our doors in welcome, in an attempt to embody the wideness of God’s mercy and love, more people have walked out than in. The more tolerant we became, the less invested people have become. If people vote with their feet, it’s seems pretty clear which vision of God they prefer, and it’s not ours. So if we wonder why Christianity is often portrayed in our culture as judgmental or exclusionary, it’s because that’s where the voices are! And though we may disagree mightily with their narrative of what Christianity is all about, we are left to preach our Gospel of expansive love to empty pews.
This makes me mad. And sad. But not hopeless. Because I look around and I see some incredibly remarkable, faithful, generous people who love God, love each other and love this church—not just our Church but The Church; people who believe that God is as we believe God to be: loving, merciful, kind and gracious, and that the way we as communities grounded in Christ can love one another as he loved us is to be welcoming, and inviting. But if we believe in this God of love, if we take pride in our Church and what it stands for, if we do not agree with the prevailing picture of Christianity as portrayed in our culture, if we believe in a Gospel grounded in mercy and peace and justice, if we believe the Church still has an essential role to play in shaping people’s hearts and minds, then we have to stand up and own it! And start showing up for our Church, not for our own glory but for God. When we are at our best, we are a window into the heart of the universe, modeling our life together on sacrificial love that Jesus showed us to be the nature of God, Almighty. This is our story because we believe this is God’s story. But in order for people to hear that story we need you. We really do. We need you like Haggai needed that faithful remnant to get to work to rebuild Jerusalem, not for their glory but for the glory of their God. Because if we keep losing people and cutting budgets our story reads like bad news, not good news, and no one’s going to listen to it.
Now I understand the irony of making this appeal to the faithful remnant of you who make up the core of this particular community. Believe me, we are so grateful for all that you offer and do for this Church. I do meant not to scold, but to exhort, because the battle is bigger than just us. If we—The Chapel of the Cross, We, The Episcopal Church, We who believe in a God whose Love is open and available to all who want it—want to reclaim the narrative of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, we need to get to work. If we want more people to come to church, we need to start by coming to church more regularly ourselves and inviting people to come to church with us. According to that same Pew study from last month, Religious affiliation isn’t the only thing declining rapidly in recent years, regular religious attendance is dropping off as well. More and more people are moving to the once a month plan and the people who were already on the once a month plan are moving off altogether. Everyone has a theory about why this is the case from Sunday kid’s sports, to the proliferation of brunch place, but the bottom line is, we need to commit to showing up. Not so Chapel of the Cross can feel good about our attendance numbers, but so the world can see and know that our God is a God of love, and that message is worth celebrating every week. And I know we shirk from saying it, but part of participating in the life of the church is contributing financially to support the work and worship that proclaim our particular hope for humanity and our vision of God. Because say what you will about our brothers and sisters who peddle that different understanding of the Gospel than we do, but people go…and people give…a lot.Next week we conclude our Annual Campaign. As of this week, we have received 330 pledges. Last year we received in total 527 pledges. We currently stand about $600,000 short of our goal. That’s a lot of ground to make up in a week. If you have given, thank you. If you are waiting, please don’t. If you know others who need a reminder, give them a call. Because if we don’t make our goals, yes, there will be cuts and those will be painful and they will clip our wings right when we as a community are getting ready to soar, but even more disheartening is that it will give more credence to the line that the wider you open your arms as a Church, the more you have to tighten your belt because such a vision of God isn’t inspiring to people; that our vision of what Jesus is all about is unappealing and dying. Our church will suffer, but more importantly our vision of who God is will suffer yet another blow. When you come to church, when you invite others to church, when you give money to support our church you are not just making sure The Chapel of the Cross has what it needs, you are staking a claim of what you believe in. So yes, come because you like the sermons, come because the people are nice, give because the music is beautiful, but give because you believe in God, and not just any God but a God of overflowing love, who is powerful enough to bring life out of death and you think the world needs to hear about it. And do so as an act of faith because we believe that God is with us and will see us into a time or prosperity and abundance not of scarcity and decline.
We lose touch with Haggai after 520 BC. We don’t know if he died, or just stopped writing, or what. But I hope he lived, even for just a few more years. Because within just five years the Temple was rebuilt. And it would stand for almost 600 more. It worked. He was right. They could do it. And by the grace of God, they did. It’s daunting to look around us right now and think that we can rebuild the image of Christianity into one of abundant love and life for all people. But we can do it, because we are not alone in doing it. Take, courage, says the Lord…take courage. Take courage all you people; for I am with you…My Spirit abides among you, do not fear! And let’s get to work.”
[1] https://episcopalchurch.org/files/2004GrowthReport(1).pdf
[2] https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/