Sermon: The God of Small Things

Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord (Zechariah 4:6)

Imagine for a moment that you are the preacher this morning from America, here today and gone tomorrow, and you have a very few minutes to say something that you hope and pray will make a difference to the congregation listening to you. The awe-inspiring nature of the task is made more so by the fact that we are worshipping over the bones of St. Cuthbert who risked his health, his comfort and his earthly life to bring the word of salvation (as Bede wrote) to those who did not know it. 1

In America we are told that the English have ceased to go to church. But that is not true, for you are here. I have been told that Durham Cathedral has a genuine congregation of regular worshippers. How encouraging! I wish I could know you. But I can leave that up to the Lord, because he knows. Each one of you is known to God better than you know yourselves. And so, even though you and I don't know each other in a human way, we are known to each other in the Spirit of God. Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. That is the great text that we have heard in the reading of the prophet Zechariah this morning.

What an interesting combination of lessons we have today! Our first passage speaks of the Temple at Jerusalem. The great and famous Temple of Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians when the people were carried off into exile. These events caused the greatest crisis in the history of Israel, but it was not just a social, political and psychological crisis, it was a “theological emergency.” Remember, these were the chosen people. God had bound himself to them as their covenant partner for all time-or so they had thought. With the demolition of the Temple and the Babylonian exile, it seemed that the very existence of the covenant had been permanently undermined.

After two generations of humiliation in the great capital of Mesopotamia, the children of Israel were permitted to straggle back into the Promised Land. There was nothing remaining there to raise their spirits. The legendary days of David and Solomon were gone forever. Meager buildings, poor agriculture, and a depleted population were all that was left. There were no signs of a return to greatness. In the prophet's words, the return was, at best, a day of small things. The leaders were not men of stature. The name of Zerubbabel, who is featured in our reading this morning, is hardly one to ring down the ages, even if we could pronounce it. And yet...and yet. Zechariah the prophet brings this word from the Lord: Whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the governor of Judah, a position which barely registered in the power structure of Near Eastern empires, yet God has destined him to rebuild the Temple. The image is of Zerubbabel standing over the construction site with a plumb line in his hand preparing to lay the cornerstone for the new house of worship. It seemed a feeble undertaking, “a day of small things,” but the promise of God is the foundation upon which it will be built. Listen again to this great text: This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain...”

What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall fall flat-because I, the Lord, have purposed that this Temple be built. Because God has determined this, no setback can halt it, no obstacle can block it, no opposition can defeat it. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

Well, indeed, the Second Temple was built, and at length the incarnate Son of God came to teach in its precincts. It was strange teaching, indeed. The temple elite were unnerved by it. They said to Jesus, “What sign have you to show us...?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The [religious leaders] then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed...the word which Jesus had spoken. (John 2:18-22)

Jesus himself replaces the Temple of God. That is why we read in today's selection from the Book of Revelation that St. John the Divine saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. How wonderful it is to see all these passages from different parts of the Bible which interpret and confirm one another. Every day of my life I pray to the Lord that he would increase the love of Scripture among us, not in the sense of fundamentalism, but in the sense of a deep joy in God's Word-light for our path, bread for our journey, living water for our parched souls. Even this mighty edifice will some day crumble into dust, but the Word of our God will stand forever.

And so we are promised an eternal future in the City of God where the risen Lord Jesus Christ will pour out his inexhaustible love upon us for ever. The noble immensity of Durham Cathedral is only a fragment of a hint of a suggestion of God's transforming power and the destiny he has in store for us. This is not some vague generic God who takes whatever shape we want him to depending on the “spirituality” of the moment. This is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. This is the God who is going to create a new heaven and a new earth. Here is the promise: Behold, the dwelling of God is with men...He will dwell with [us], and [we will] be his people... he will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. That is the promise of the God who is able to raise Jesus from the dead.

But now let us ask ourselves a question. Who will enter the City of God? What does it say? These are the people who will not get in: the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, Everybody I know is on that list. That includes present company. You don't think so? You don't think you're a murderer? Or a sorcerer, whatever that is (Harry Potter might have a problem). But what about cowardice? What about lying? Above all, what about idolatry? At some point or other, that item includes every one of us. So what do we do now?

I have always remembered a woman in my parish who, when she knew she was dying, began to enumerate the good things she had done and the bad things she had refrained from doing. After a few minutes her voice trailed off and she said, “I did the best I could.” It seemed to me that she realized the inadequacy of such an attempt to bargain her way into heaven. I was very young and inexperienced at the time; I wish I had done then what I would do now. I wish I had spoken with her of the Son of God, the Lamb without blemish who died to take away all her sin, who rejoices to hear our confessions and to receive our repentance. Something is going to happen to us in the space between this world and the next; the Scripture says (Jude 24) that we are going to come before the presence of his glory without blemish. How can that be? We are not capable of such perfection.

But God is capable. As they say in the African-American church, “God is able.” As St. Paul teaches, God is able to take the small things and build them into a great temple for himself. He is able to call into existence the things that do not exist (Romans 4:17). We cannot do this. Only God can do it. Not by [human] might, not by[human] power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. By his Spirit, we are being made over into new people. We cannot trust ourselves, but we can trust him.

So I end as I began. Why are you here today? Is it habit, or curiosity, or nostalgia, or a genuine seeking after faith? I do not need to know, for God knows. Whatever your reason, it is good enough. May this service of worship be a blessing to you, because the Lord will never despise the day of small things, but will cause you to rejoice in the fountain of the water of life. Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.

Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever.

Amen. (Jude 24-25)

1 For those who might not know, St. Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede are both buried in Durham Cathedral