The day of small things

Passage for reflection: Zechariah 4: 1 - 14

At the height of this pandemic, we started to remember those key people without who much of life would grind to a halt. We stood outside our houses and clapped all those working in the NHS and we appreciated lorry drivers and refuse collectors and people on supermarket tills and people started to value people who before were largely forgotten. 

I’m asking us to revisit doing that appreciation again. I actually think life at the moment as we approach winter is really complicated for so many people and we really need to value those who quietly but diligently make life better for us. I had to go for a PCR test last Tuesday as for some reason I’d developed a dry cough and was struggling with my breathing. The York centre on the park and ride at Poppleton runs like clockwork. From the folk directing you into the right queue, to those checking your ID, to the man who did the necessary down my throat and up my nostril, the whole experience went well because people were kind and efficient and knew what they were doing. I said thank you to each of them which I think was a bit of a shock! Then another day this last week we had to have our drain unblocked at the manse. Two men arrived to do what isn’t the pleasantest of jobs! Again I thanked them and there was genuine surprise from them I’d bothered to do that. 

Is doing small things largely unnoticed faithfully going to get us anywhere? 

We may need to hear again the word of the prophet Zechariah, spoken to a people captivated with the big: do not despise the day of small things.

When the returned exiles of Israel began rebuilding the temple under the leadership of Zerubbabel, the young rejoiced; the old wept (Ezra 3:10–13). Compared to Solomon’s temple, which the grey-haired among the people still remembered, the new sanctuary seemed a mere stump. Their dreams of the kingdom, restored to its former glory, suddenly died in a day of small things.

To which Zechariah responded,

Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” . . . Whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice. (Zechariah 4: 7,10)

While the elders of Israel wept over this day of small things, the God of Israel did not. Despite his big plans for his people, he is not afraid of the small. Nor is the small any sure sign of his displeasure, as we so often are tempted to think: If God were really in this, things would be bigger by now! No: God had rescued them, God was with them, and God’s plans would prosper — even through a day of small things.

To be sure, God’s mission in the world does not culminate in a day of small things, and we would be wrong to rest content in such a day. But we also would be wrong to despise it. Instead, consider a lesson from Zechariah and Scripture’s other prophets: if we are genuinely faithful in the day of small things, our small obedience will become big — but not usually right away, and not often in the ways we expect.

The big God is apparently patient enough to endure centuries of small days. His kingdom, which will one day cover the earth, does not begin big. It grows from one old man and his barren wife (Isaiah 51:2). It grows from “the fewest of all peoples” (Deuteronomy 7:7). It grows from a mustard seed and a bit of leaven (Matthew 13:31–33). It grows from an embryo in the womb of a virgin (Isaiah 9:6–7). It grows from twelve uneducated men (Acts 1:8).

This week remember the folk in shops you visit, like the man who wipes down the baskets in Booths, remember GPs and receptionists in your local surgery, remember the drain men and those who do the jobs we would rather not do, remember those who keep your church running for you - not the minister -  but those who turn up to put heating on and those who just serve quietly day by day without who we would not function. Celebrate faithful plodding on where it feels like there are no results. One day the small offerings will become big. Remember the mustard seed. 

Do not neglect the day of small things…

What will it mean for us to worship a God who works like this? It will mean praying for the big, longing for the big, and working for the big — all while faithfully and contentedly devoting ourselves to the small. Pray for revival, and then get on with being church where you are. Dream of the knowledge of God’s glory flooding the earth and then bring a taste of that glory to your neighbour next door. Preach a grand vision to dozens or hundreds on Sunday, and then sit and listen to the wounded one on Monday.

The day of big things is coming. Until then, do not neglect the day of small things.