The minor prophet Zechariah has all sorts of images, at least in the first half of the prophecy. The images make Zechariah feel a bit like Revelation. In fact, Revelation makes a good parallel for another reason -- in both instances, the one sharing the prophecy is part of a minority group, which may be why the vivid imagery is used. From a minority perspective, you cannot call out the ones who rule, so cryptic images are used to represent the prevailing powers.
We also are reading Psalm 137, which expresses the Israelite perspective on how it felt to be in exile.
Gowan suggests that the plight of the Jewish exiles fits Peter Berger's, a sociologist of religion, concept of a "cognitive minority," which is "a group of people whose view of th3 world differs significantly from the one generally taken for granted in their society" (Gowan, Theology of the Prophetic Books: The Death and Resurrection of Israel, 145).He notes that the Babylonian cities were dominated by giant temple towers, which made it hard for the exiles to see any relevance to their worship of Yahweh, who apparently could not protect the Temple in Jerusalem or save the exiles (Gowan, 145).
The challenge/decision to be made with this sermon is whether to make it more of a teaching sermon -- I could share what each of the individual visions represent, for instance -- or to try to find a theme from Zechariah.
The Gsopels of Matthew and John quote Zechariah 9: 9 as part of the Palm Sunday story.
What strikes you from Zechariah?
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