Haggai is a prophet no one has ever heard of. Even the prophet with whom Haggai is most closely linked, the prophet Zechariah, is a prophet few know. Unlike the giants of the prophetic literature: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and even Amos, Joel and Hosea who are, if not household names, at least names with which most church people are familiar, Haggai remains in the shadows. In our Bibles, following the top ten Biblical prophets, is this group called the Minor Prophets. These Minor Prophets are called minor because their books in the Bible are short and their influence was minor at least in comparison with the prophets we do know. Just because they are called minor does not mean they did not have important things to say – something which is certainly true of the prophet Haggai whom we encounter today.

Haggai was active in the post-exilic period, the time when the exiled Israelites were allowed to return to Babylon, around the year 520 BC. When the Persian King Cyrus conquered Babylon, he not only allowed the captive Jews to return to Judah but he also encouraged them to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem. This was a golden opportunity! But what did the Jews do? They focused on themselves and rebuilding their own homes instead of working both to restore their homes and the Temple. The first part of Haggai is an oracle of judgment against the Jews for failing to complete the Temple. Then Haggai lets us know that the Jews responded to God’s admonition. The rest of the book contains oracles of encouragement for the Jews as they pursue the rebuilding of the Temple with the final section being a celebration of this great project. This truly is a book of the Bible that has a happy ending. There is lot packed in the mere 38 verse which comprise this little blip of a Bible book.

At the same time that Haggai has a happy ending, it also contains a raw accounting of the Jews struggle to stay on the right path. The Jews had returned from captivity, something which should have been a joyous occasion eliciting much gratitude but instead they lost their focus on God and became selfish and worldly; they were consumed with building their own homes and cared nothing about rebuilding the house of God. Each family had its own urgent desires. In returning to a long-deserted and neglected land, much had to be done to make up for lost time. However, they carried this drive to provide for themselves to a great extreme and secured luxuries for themselves while the foundation of the temple which had been laid years before, remained simply that, a foundation or even a foundation littered with weeds and rubbish.

Life in our world is no more or less complicated than the world of the Jews in the 6^th century BC. Life pulls us in many directions and certainly there are times we have to focus simply on survival. The people of southern California, as was true of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, have to focus on the very basics: food and shelter. But even in the midst of striving for the basics, there has to be room for God in our lives. Perhaps when we are victims, our relationship with God needs to be a directly focused one way street, pleading and asking for help in the midst of desperate circumstances such as the Jews experienced during the exile or the people of New Orleans experienced during Katrina. Being forcibly removed from our homes is devastating whether it is because of a fire, a hurricane or a political take-over as in the case of the Jews. However, even in the most desperate of circumstances, the ability to give thanks to God is in the hearts of the faithful. Many of the victims of the fires in Southern California were able to give thanks simply for being alive. As our lives come together, as the balance is regained, we are called to give thanks. For the Jews it meant being a part of rebuilding the temple, for us it means being a part of building the church.

What does it mean to build the church? In some cases it can mean quite literally building a building, a new church, an addition or remodeling as in our youth house. Building the church results in developing relationships with other parishioners, people who share your faith, share your values… Those who are working on transforming the old rectory into a youth house are not only saving St. John’s a great deal of money, they are developing bonds with each other that are invaluable. Working together is a rich way of developing spiritual bonds. Those on vestry who have worked so hard to develop by-laws for the church have developed a bond. That particular project may sound unexciting but by-laws are essential for the functioning of this church. The best thing about it is that the people who have worked on this or any other project have developed relationships. When we work on projects as a community we quite literally build the church. We learn how to encourage each other and work for the common good. Sometimes we get caught in cycles of discouragement. Discouragement with regard to good things is a weed that grows without sowing. There are problems that have caused discouragement with regard to the youth house but part of our spiritual growth is to learn how to move from discouragement to encouragement, one of the great fruits of the spirit.

We are in the middle of building the financial base of the church by means of our pledges. Last week the vestry distributed the stewardship mailings to many of you as you left church because we are trying to be good stewards of our finances by using as little postage as possible. The letters contained words of encouragement to you the people of this church because you are the ones on whom this community depends. You are the ones who hold us together. You are not consumers of spiritual food. You have not come here just to receive the bread of life; you are here to be the bread of life. One of the best reasons I have ever heard for attending church is that you might miss an opportunity to be there for someone who needs you if you decide to stay home on any given Sunday. You might miss that opportunity which will not only help someone else but it will help you. When we give we receive. It is that simple. When we contribute to the common good whether it is through our church, our schools, our community or any of the many other ways in which we give to others, we receive more than we are ever able to give. Who can deny the strength received from the gift of giving, from the gift of giving away our time, our resources and our faith.

The other way we build the church is by giving our faith away, by helping others to have the chance of receiving the gift of faith. We Episcopalians tend to be passionate about our tradition as well as our faith. Many Episcopalians are folks who are recovering from any number of other denominations that are heavily focused on the judgment of God rather than the love of God. We are a people of encouragement; this is how we build our church. We take the hands of people we know who are in desperate need of encouragement and say: "come rest in the arms of Jesus, come and know that God loves you and will be with you right where you are."