TAKE
COURAGE
HAGGAI
2.1-9
NOVEMBER
11, 2007
WESLEY
UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Douglas
Norris
Take
courage! I like that phrase from the Scripture lesson this morning.
Take courage. It is an action, something we do. Evidently, courage
just doesn’t happen. Courage doesn’t come naturally or easily.
When we don’t take courage, we experience the opposite. Be afraid.
withdraw, retreat, give up, resign yourself to whatever is happening.
Take
courage was urged by the prophet, Haggai. In all my years of
preaching, this is the first time I have preached from the book of
Haggai. Haggai was a prophet who lived in the last part of the Old
Testament period. He was with the people who went back to Jerusalem
following their captivity in Babylon. Babylon (Iraq today) had
conquered Judah and taken many of the leaders to Babylon. Seventy
years later, when Persia (Iran today) conquered Babylon, King Cyrus
allowed the Jews to return home to their homeland.
What
a joy that must have been, to return home, back to the homeland, back
to their farms, back to the temple. As Solomon’s temple had been
destroyed by the Babylonians, they decided to rebuild the temple.
However, there were problems. They lacked funding, they met with
opposition from the local residents and opposition from the Persian
government and there were voices of discouragement, folks who
realized they could not possibly rebuild a temple as glorious as the
previous temple. The previous temple had been built by King Solomon,
who had all kinds of tax revenue. In fact, Solomon’s heavy
taxation of the people led to the revolution which divided the
kingdom into two: the northern kingdom called Israel with its
capital in Samaria, and the southern kingdom called Judah with its
capital in Jerusalem.
So,
there they were. The old-timers remembered the previous temple and
knew they did not have the capability of replicating it. Haggai
asked, 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?” They had lost their enthusiasm for reconstruction.
They did not want to do what God was calling them to do. They would
rather give up than forge ahead. They didn’t have the resources or
the inner strength to stand up to the opposition of the local people
and the Persian government.
Therefore,
preached Haggai, take courage! 2.4-5, “Take courage, all you
people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the
Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came
out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear.” Don’t
lose heart. Don’t give up. God is with you. God will act. God
will handle the opposition. 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.” We know about shaking. We
had an earthquake last week. The earth is not stable. Our lives are
not stable. There is little in life that is absolutely sure. And,
the Lord likes to shake. When we get complacent, God shakes us up.
When we get discouraged, God shakes us up. When we get lazy, God
shakes us up. “Come on now, pay attention,” says the Lord. God
wants us not to depend on our accomplishments or count on our
achievements. God wants us to have faith in him, to depend and trust
in God.
Therefore,
take courage. Courage requires an action. Take courage in God’s
presence. Take courage in God’s goodness, and work on behalf of
God’s purposes. Two weeks ago, I preached that God is ahead of us,
calling us to follow. Last week, I preached “Run, run with
perseverance the race that is set before us.” Today’s message
is: Take courage, face the future and do God’s work. Don’t
shirk. Don’t fear. Don’t give up. Take courage.
Are
there life changing decisions you need to make? Is there anything in
your future you fear? When faced with important decisions,
discouragement, weariness, despair, change, there are several
postures open to us:
1)
We can look backward and lament the passing of the good old days.
Like the old-timers in Haggai’s time, we can long for the splendid
temple of the past. Of course, we forget that the good old days are
often not as good or golden as we remember them. As I said two weeks
ago, you can choose to live your life by looking in the rear view
mirror. Do you believe that the best days of your life are in the
past? Do you believe that the best days of our church are yet to
come?
2)
We can deny the future, deny that change is required, deny the task
that faces us, cover our eyes, pretend it is not happening, and
glibly retreat into the lounger, turn on the TV and drink beer.
3)
We can retreat into fear, wring our hands, despair, feel sorry for
ourselves, give in to hopelessness, be afraid.
4)
Or we can take courage. Resolutely face the future, believe in God’s
promises, roll up our sleeves, get involved, and do God’s work.
Take courage is an action.
Two
examples of courage. It was a cold day in Minnesota, when
14-year–old Michael Dowling was caught in a blizzard in the winter
of 1880. He stumbled through the snow for hours, finally seeking
refuge for the night in a haystack. In the morning his legs and
hands were frozen. Sixteen days later both legs and one arm were
amputated. But he refused to pity himself. “I won’t be laid on
the shelf for the rest of my life,” he vowed. Instead of feeling
sorry for himself, or retreating into a shell, he took courage. With
an artificial arm and artificial legs, Michael Dowling became
Superintendent of Schools, Education Commissioner for the United
States, President of the Minnesota Bankers Association, Speaker of
the Minnesota House of Representatives, and a world-wide spokesman
for the care of the disabled.
On
one of his world travels, he found himself trying to talk to an
extremely bored Sultan about the needs of the handicapped. Dowling
tried his best to penetrate the Sultan’s indifference, but to no
avail. Finally, Dowling quietly sat down and removed his right leg.
Then, his left leg. Then he reached over with one good arm and
removed his other arm, and tossed all three limbs on the floor in
front of the Sultan. When Dowling reached for his head, the Sultan
sprang from his chair! Dowling got his attention! With a sense of
humor, Dowling courageously lived his life to the fullest in spite of
his handicaps.
The
second example of taking courage. A week ago Friday, Ellie and I
attended Patsy Moore’s Memorial Service at the First United
Methodist Church, Palo Alto. We knew Patsy for 37 years. 17 years
ago, when I was pastor, I recruited Patsy to be the Special Events
Coordinator. She coordinated weddings, memorial services, banquets,
etc. She coordinated over 500 weddings! The previous week she and a
neighbor were taking their daily walk when she tripped on an uneven
sidewalk. She fell forward, hitting her head on the pavement. The
paramedics were called and she was taken to Stanford Hospital. She
slipped into a coma and a few days later when she came out of the
coma, she was paralyzed from the neck down. She was breathing with
the aid of a ventilator. Several vertebrae in her neck were
irreparably damaged. She could not talk, but was able to mouth words
and was understood much of the time. On Thursday, her doctor sat
down with her and explained there was nothing that could be done.
She would remain paralyzed for the rest of her life.
As
they talked, Patsy took courage, and with faith in the future,
believing in eternal life, she asked for the ventilator to be removed
and to allow her to die. The doctor told her to think about it for a
few days. On Sunday, her oldest son arrived from the Philippines
and, with her family, Patsy took courage and reaffirmed her decision
to end her life. When the pastors came to visit later that day, she
asked, “When will my service be?” She was the planner, ever the
coordinator, and she wanted to know the plans.
While
on the plane from the Philippines, her son wrote her a letter. He
read the letter to her. She listened with her beautiful, affirming
smile and said, “Read it at my service.” He did, and what a
glorious service was held in celebration of her courageous, faithful
life, a woman who trusted in God. There were over 600 people there,
followed by a buffet at her home. She was a woman who was not afraid
of dying. Christians know there are options worse than death.
Christians know that death is not the end. We believe in the
resurrection of the body and life everlasting.
Michael
Dowling, with one arm and no legs, took courage to live. Patsy Moore
took courage to die.
Take
courage! As you face the future; when you make life changing,
difficult decisions, take courage!
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