Unmovable, Unbreakable, Unshakeable
Artwork by Tyler Chernesky. Image left: "On edge," September 15th, 2025. Image right: "I've built my own oasis in this not-always-so-good world," March 15th, 2024. Find more from Tyler on Instagram at: one-each-week
Proper 27 (32), Year C
As I’ve sat with this Sunday’s lectionary passages, some lyrics we sang together at last summer’s EP Gathering continue to echo in my heart. The tune is called “Bookmark Prayer” by the Scottish musician Simon de Voil who highlights words from the well-known prayer of St. Teresa of Avila. (And let me express my thanks here to Sharon Huey for incorporating this opening chant into our times of worship this past July). Here are the lyrics:
Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you.
Everything changes, God alone remains.
Hold patience, for nothing is wasted,
Presence in all things,
God’s with us in all things.
Good news, yeah?
Our readings this week, invite us to pull up a chair alongside the prophet Haggai, receive some encouragement from the Apostle Paul, and step into a scene with Jesus in conversation with a crew of Sadducees. What I hear in all three of these passages is a God who is unmovable. God the unbreakable. God the unshakable.
Haggai speaks to a people who’ve endured 70 years of exile. The Babylonian empire, now collapsed, has sent God’s Beloved back to a ruined Jerusalem to commence the rebuilding.
“Take courage,” the prophet proclaims.
“Take courage, you leaders, Zerubbabel and Joshuah.”
“Take courage, you populace, feeble as you may feel, weary as you may now be.”
“Take courage, and remember,” Haggai declares.
Remember: God is with you.
Remember: God has always been with you.
Remember: God is for you.
Remember: You’re not alone.
Remember: God is sovereign—Lord of hosts—Lord above all.
Remember: God is not deterred by what deters humankind.
Remember: The Lord, your God, is always doing a new thing—and it’s good.
Good news for the worn-down remnant. Good news for us.
Here’s the message that I hear as I sit with the prophet’s words:
Get back to work.
Renew your commitment to participate in God’s great restoration project once again.
You, my Beloved, have a purpose, afterall.
Everything changes, God alone remains.
Skip forward 500 years, and the message is similar. In his letter to the church in Thessalonica, Paul dons a similar tone. Here, we pick up The Story to find another "remnant" facing problems. Namely, persecution and violence from Greek, Roman, and Jewish neighbors. And, as our particular passage highlights, wrong information concerning the day of the Lord’s return—falsity that sends a wave of fear and disorientation through this tiny/mighty assembly. Think about it with me: a vulnerable group, presently suffering mistreatment, have somehow fallen prey to a bizarre notion that Jesus has already come back. In light of their condition, members of this early faith community would be right to wonder if they’ve missed the boat! They’d be right to wonder if Jesus’ coming—to reconcile his people together, to himself—is no longer a realistic expectation. Both scenarios are legitimate grounds for fear, confusion, and despair.
“Do not be shaken,” Paul says.
“Do not be alarmed, Beloved.”
“Stand firm.”
“R-E-M-E-M-B-E-R what you’ve been taught.”
Remember: God is with you.
Remember: God has always been with you.
Remember: God is for you.
Remember: You’re not alone.
Remember: God is sovereign—Lord of hosts—Lord above all.
Remember: God is not deterred by what deters humankind.
Remember: The Lord, your God, is always doing a new thing—and it’s good.
Good news for this shaken and stirred remnant. Good news for us.
Here’s the message that I hear as I sit with the apostle’s words:
Get back to work.
Renew your commitment to participate in God’s great restoration project once again.
You, my Beloved, have a purpose, afterall.
Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you.
And then we step into a scene with Jesus. Here, a group of Sadducees appear hellbent on entrapping Jesus with their well-crafted, hypothetical attempt to refute the doctrine of resurrection. And of course, Jesus cannot be moved. He merely, calmly, illuminates the flaws in the argument while simultaneously affirming a resurrection reality. Cool as a cucumber, our Lord. (I love that about Jesus).
Beloved, friends, what are we to take from these unique glimpses into God’s wider Story?
Here’s what I’m holding onto this week:
The world stands on unstable, wavering, shifting, breaking ground. And the deceiver is always at work with helter skelter schemes attempting to instill fear, despair, and confusion in the hearts, minds, and lives of God’s children.
It has always been this way.
Conversely, God’s Kingdom—already here in part, ushered in through Jesus’ work on the cross—rests on a firm, unshakeable, unbreakable foundation where fear, despair, and confusion (read: death) are squashed beneath the throne of Christ. The throne of grace, forgiveness, renewal, and resurrection.
This is the good news we carry, my friends—from generation to generation.
So, get back to work!
May you be strengthened, encouraged, and given a supernatural jolt of fresh energy to continue your very good labor as a participant in God’s great restoration project, this week. Day by day, hour by hour, in the place God has planted you for this season. May your life, already rich with purpose, be a living witness to the power and reality of Christ’s resurrection.
Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you.
Everything changes, God alone remains.
Hold patience, for nothing is wasted,
Presence in all things,
God’s with us in all things.
Rest in that. It has always been this way.