November 9, 2025: God of the Living

Old Testament Reading: Haggai 2 1-9
The Gospel: Luke 20: 27-38 
      
Our scriptures today give us recipes for hope in this life and the next.

The Haggai scripture was written in an in-between time. The kingdom of Judah had been defeated and the Temple of Solomon destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. Haggai the prophet is writing 66 years later in 520 BCE when King Darius was rebuilding the Temple, which would be completed in 515 BCE. One can imagine with both the remembrance, possibly a generation past of the old temple and kingdom and the time and effort it takes to build a new one, that people could become discouraged. But God is telling the people through Haggai to take courage. And what are they supposed to do with that courage? Work! “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 in you; do not fear.”

God was referring back to when Moses led the people out of Egypt almost a thousand years before as evidence that God keeps his promises. God has the long view and certainly plays the long game and we too need to take courage and work.

In Haggai’s time the work was literal work on the Temple but rebuilding a Temple is also having hope for a future where your faith, your kindom, and your very bodies are safe again. God not only reminds them to have courage but assures them that this new Temple, this new time in their lives, will be even better than before, “The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of Hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity.”

The people were moving from a time of war and destruction to rebuilding and hope for the future. God is essentially telling them to keep the faith and that faith will be rewarded. And while it would be easy to think of this as a prosperity gospel where God will make them all rich, that is not what God meant by prosperity. There are many Hebrew words which get translated to the word prosperity. Shigshug which means general flourishing, shalom, which means peace, wholeness, and well-being, hatzlaha for success, tsalach - to push forward, and revaha for welfare and comfort. 

None of these words translate to being rich in the way we might think. Instead, they translate into working to achieve comfort, having one’s needs met, feeling complete and at peace. Rebuilding the temple and their lives makes their faith community whole again. 

For us, taking courage and working is not so much about a building - although we certainly have a beautiful church here that we work to maintain. No, instead we need to have the courage to do God’s work, first for ourselves and, when we can, in our community and beyond. 

For some of us, that courage might be pushing forward through challenging times of illness, loss, change, or poverty, knowing that God is with us, supporting us through the daily struggle, holding us up until we can again walk on our own.

 For others we are called to be God’s peace builders helping to give comfort and restore others to wholeness and well-being, to help them flourish again as all God’s children can and should. Peace builders also seek to work with all God’s children, those like them and those very different from them for the good of all. 

I have felt the call to be a peace builder in this challenging time. As such, I drafted a letter calling for peace and cooperation and sent it out to over 30 leaders of all different faith communities from Springfield to Pittsford. My idea was that the letter could start a conversation. Maybe I could work with other faith leaders to edit it and then we could send it as a letter to the editor to local newspapers. The letter goes like this:

We are living in a time and a place where it is easier to blame our neighbor rather than work with them, to use drones to drop explosives rather than food, to look the other way, rather than help. But that is not what we are called to do. Our faith reminds us that “You shall love your neighbor as yourself “ (Leviticus 19:18). And the reality is that all humans are our neighbors no matter their shape, size, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, gender identity, economic status, ability, sexual orientation or religion, as we are an inter-connected web of life. If a neighbor has been turned into an enemy, which is happening all over the country and world, then we are reminded to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). 

Imagine how much better this country and world would be if we could lead with love rather than hate? Love makes us pause when we feel wronged, to try to find the reason why and maybe consider if we had any part in the problem. Love encourages us to be patient and to forgive. Love makes us work harder to find common ground and to compromise. Love makes us speak with respect and kindness even when we disagree. Love allows us to see from another person’s perspective. 

If the love bar is too high, maybe we could start by remembering some of Robert Fulghum’s lessons in his iconic essay “All I ever needed to know I learned in Kindergarten”: “Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you are sorry when you hurt somebody.”

There are enough resources on this beautiful planet to support all who live on it. We each have a part to play in making this country and world a more peaceful and cooperative place where everyone has at least the basics they need to survive, including a recognition of and respect for their dignity as a fellow human. It begins by thinking of everyone as our neighbor, despite our differences, and working towards peace and wholeness one neighborhood at a time. 

Please join us, 

This week Reverend Terry Hanley from Grace Church and I met with Rabbi Woll from the Rutland Area Jewish Center and she is on board. A Rutland area Catholic priest is also willing to sign it and this Tuesday, I will be meeting with the Rutland Area Interfaith Council to see if others will discuss this idea and possibly help edit it or sign on so we can get it out. 

It’s a beginning. We take courage and do God’s work by reaching out and showing love to our neighbors. 

And yet, we know that eventually, our time on this planet, in these bodies will end and we might be like the Sadducees questioning the resurrection and trying to trip Jesus up about it. After all, since they did not believe in the Resurrection, why did they ask Jesus a question about which of the seven brothers would get the wife they had all married while on earth?

Jesus, the master of reframing the question, pointed out that the afterlife is nothing like life on earth. We are not going to a Heavenly Disney Land or resort complex, but begin anew as angelic living children of God. As the scripture reminds us, “Now he is God not of the dead but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.” 

Death is a return to God, a oneness with God, after our time here on earth as courageous workers is complete. We join the cosmic dance of the universe where we dance with abandon and unity, blending our shalom, our peace and wholeness, seamlessly with God’s as we become one with the light of the world. Surely this is not death but life reimagined in a gloriously beautiful way. 

It is the Creator’s Breath of love that tells us not to fear, that gives us courage to do the work that needs to be done for ourselves, for our families, for our community and for the world. How wonderful would it be if we could think of it not as work but joining the beautiful, peaceful dance of life here on earth, which will prepare us for the transcendent, joyful, and enlightening cosmic dance of Heaven unburdened by the needs and cares of these bodies when our number is called. Shall we dance?

Amen.

Pastor Michelle Fountain

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