“Switching gears?”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Friday, December 17, 2021

Zechariah 7:8 – 8:8 (Forward, p. 49) CEV p. 968

People often say that they find the reading of the Scriptures to be confusing, and no wonder.  Today’s passage certainly gives fodder to that way of thinking.  The first second part (Zechariah 7:8-14) has one thought or theme, and the second part (Zechariah 8:1-8) an entirely different one.  Such is the contrast that you really wonder why the designers of the present lectionary saw fit to yoke the two together as one reading. From even a cursory, initial reading, it seems quite certain that they are two different oracles, two different messages from God, each written separately with different people and situations in mind.

The first section would appear to speak to a time when God’s people had turned their backs on Him and had refused to listen or to obey.  Indeed, they had neglected justice, kindness and mercy, and instead had habitually mistreated widows, orphans, foreigners and the poor.  Their plans and thinking, unfortunately, centred on how to hurt others.  So, as a result, God ‘turned His back’ on them, refused to hear their prayers and scattered them among the nations.

Second two speaks of an entirely different situation.  Here God, in His great love for Zion/ Jerusalem, will return to Jerusalem and actually make His dwelling there.  And, not only that, but He will restore its people and bring them back home and bring about peace and security and long life for its inhabitants.  All of this may well seem to be utterly impossible, for not for God.  He will, in fact, carry this out!

Our two passages speak of two aspects of God’s character.  The first speaks of His anger and disapproval over sin and over our mistreatment of each other, and of His determination to see that justice is done and sin dealt with and recompensed.  In other words, His covenant people, be that Israel or ourselves, have a responsibility towards Him and towards each other and He will hold us accountable for it.

The second part speaks of God’s mercy and love, such that even though we sin (and habitually have done so), He still loves, cares and forgives, and seeks to bring us home.  And, the surprising thing—at least as far as today’s passage goes—there is no indication that these wayward people have yet seen the error of their ways and repented or turned back to God.  No, the entire indication seems to be that God has, out of His great love, taken the initiative (as in Luke’s parables of the lost sheep and lost coin) to restore them and bring them home.  In other words, God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  As the apostle Paul says, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  Thanks be to God, that we get neither what we deserve nor what we ask for, but far, far more than either.  Amen.

Forward notes: “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Render true judgements, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another” (chapter 7 verses 9-10).

“Every year around the holidays, I look forward to opening the mail each day.  It’s a tradition, first on the refrigerator door and then onto the dining room wall, to tack up holiday cards for all to see.  It’s not about how many cards we get—or don’t get—in the mail but rather about remembering the people who’ve crossed our path over the years.

“I don’t think scripture is any different in its list of recommendations and remembrances: as these two verses suggest, followers of the Way are to ‘render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another,’ and later, to ‘not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’  This way of being is to mark our ordinary, everyday lives, but Zechariah doesn’t stop there. 

“Instead, it’s as if he adds a whole bunch of faces onto the dining room wall, for we are not to forget (and therefore oppress) ‘the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor.’  I can only hope to remember them too.”

Moving Forward: “Whose face are you remembering today?”