Shaken Not Stirred
I’m sure we’re all familiar with the classic moment in James Bond films where he orders a martini and says he wants it “Shaken, not stirred.” It turns out that Ian Fleming, the original author of the Bond Books also preferred his martinis this way because he believed stirring a drink would diminish its flavor. But, when I read this week’s reading from the Old Testament, this quote was exactly what came to mind. Shaken. Not Stirred. It’s a strange association, to be sure, but that’s where my mind went. It turns out there’s some science behind whether or not a drink should be shaken or stirred, and shaking increases a beverage’s antioxidant capacity. But also, shaking might make the drink appear cloudy, but it also makes it cool faster. I didn’t say it was a great metaphor, but it’s still where my mind went. The prophet Haggai wanted the people shaken, not stirred.
When I think about the difference between a person being shaken or stirred to action, I believe there is definitely a difference. To stir someone to action is to prod them or push them into doing something. However, shaking a person means disrupting their reality more sharply. I think the difference is that you get shaken OUT of something or get stirred INTO an action. Haggai was trying to disrupt the people’s reality. He was trying to bring about change much more quickly. He was trying to shake them out of complacency.
Haggai is one of the “minor” prophets in the Old Testament. His primary goal was to convince the people, who had returned from exile, to build the second temple. These events took place after the return from Babylonian exile- probably around 538 BCE. There’s not a lot of information on Haggai the person, but there seems to be quite a bit of tension between him and the people in regards to the “right time” to build the temple. The book of Ezra tells us that there was an initial push to rebuild sometime during the reign of Cyrus, but that was 18 years prior to the events in this book, so clearly that hadn’t happened. Haggai is unimpressed.
He calls the people to task for not prioritizing the building of the temple. Haggai is upset that they have built homes for themselves but haven’t built a house for God. They’ve prioritized their own health and safety over their religious responsibility, and Haggai thinks this is wrong. He wanted to motivate the people to rebuild the temple. He wanted to shake them out of their lethargy and move them forward as those who had returned from exile. And perhaps he had a good reason? It seems that things in the years since the return had not been great the harvests weren’t plentiful and there wasn’t really enough food and drink to go around. This seems to me a perfectly valid reason for not going through the trouble and expense of building a giant temple to a God that just had you out in exile.
The politics of the moment weren’t so great either. Yes they had returned from exile, but they were not a kingdom. They didn’t have a king. They barely had a community. They had a Persian governor, Zeraubbabel, a descendent of David, but he wasn’t a king in the Davidic line. Politically building a brand new temple in a kingdom that didn’t technically exist probably wasn’t the best idea either.
But Haggai didn’t buy either of these excuses. He was convinced that God wanted the people to build the temple and that God wanted the temple 18 years ago or, you know, right this minute. See, in Haggai’s mind, rebuilding the temple would re-establish the kingdom and return the people to control over themselves. It would “be a signal not of a restored kingdom of Israel, but of a renewed and transformed Israel, a resurrected Israel, with renewed identity as the covenant people of God.” This was a call to remember the covenant made at Sinai, but also the promises to David. This was a call to be transformed by the exile, not just recover from it. Haggai was calling for complete transformation. He was calling for them to be shaken from their exilic mindset. He wanted them to move forward.
But even though Haggai did convince them to build the second temple, it was not an easy process. They “had neither king nor kingdom, neither borders nor army, and neither treasury nor surplus.” What they had, was a Persian governor and a pushy prophet. Neither of these things was actually very useful in temple building. But the prophet was convinced that the temple was a worthy project and he used everything within his power to urge the community forward.
He was trying to remind them that God continued to shake them. In his prophecy to them, God says, “I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor.” All of this shaking up was going to lead to something spectacular. And that’s exactly what did happen eventually. The second temple would be completed by 516 and ushered in a time period known as “Second Temple Judasim.” In many ways building the temple did resurrect Judaism and would set the stage for the development of early Christianity.
By shaking the community into action, and continually pushing for what he felt was important, Haggai was able to inspire the community to build the temple and reinvent themselves after the exile. He shook them to action.
I think this is an important message. Sometimes, we too need to be shaken not stirred. We need to be shaken out of mindsets and patterns that are no longer serving us. We need to be shaken up, pushed, and even challenged to do something new and different. Sometimes, we even have to be shaken into believing in our own power and our own personal resurrections. I have had a shaky week- It has been very good at some points and very low at others. I had a very successful presentation at a major conference which was fantastic, but jarring. The next day got bad news that shook my faith in my ministry and in my value as a minister. And the death of a colleague has shaken me to my core. And I wonder what I am being shaken for- what is the purpose- what is the goal?
Action. I’m sure I’m being shaken to do something. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but I’m going to listen. God has promised to shake us and on the other side of that shaking is something good. Even if it's just a really good martini.
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