When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with
beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God; he said the days will come
when not one stone will be left upon another. Jesus and his disciples
had come in from Galilee into Jerusalem to the temple. The temple now
was one of the seven wonders of the world, one of the great wonders
of the world at that time. It was recently redone by Harrad at great
expense and not without a bit of brutality, but it stood as a symbol
gilded in many places with gold and it was absolutely stunning from all
accounts.
Now you can imagine the disciples, fishermen and folks from the
countryside, just walking around gazing at the place in shear
wonderment. Jesus had been sitting with them kind of people watching
in the temple and they had watched people put their offerings in and
this is when the widow's mite went in the Jesus makes comment and
there kind of people watching a Jesus speaks a little bit about giving
and automatically suddenly the conversation turns to the building.
That happens a lot for pastors if we start talking about giving people
start talking about the building. Now buildings are important, but let's
face it that's not the essentials center of what we're about as the
church. Buildings are important and good and we can thank God for
what we have but immediately and the folks start talking about the
temple and then Jesus gives them a dire statement followed by a series
of other things that really rock and sock those who were following
Jesus. I mean it shakes them up and I mean is still shakes us up to day.
One of my friends, whose a deacon at another church, said to me the
other day, "I looked at all three lessons as we do and I didn't like any of
them and my pastor's away and I got preach one of the services.
They're pretty bad, they're tough lessons."
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I said, "Yes, sometimes the gospel, the good news, has a tough side to it
too. " Our gospel is never delivered without a reality of the world to
which it is being addressed.
Jesus tells them that this temple is going to come down and indeed it
does. In 70 A.D. the temple is a torn apart by the Romans. It is just
spread out and they'd tell me that you can see stones miles away that
were just carted off. Some stones wouldn't be there. The temple was
destroyed. What blow to the people of Israel because the temple had
meant for them the presence of God. Before the exile, it meant that
God's on our side. And then of course the temple was sacked and they
were overcome by the Babylonians.
And then they came back and rebuilt and they said OK now God's back
with us, you know, God's back with us. There are still people like this.
They can only pray when they are in church because that's where God
is.
We know that's not true. God is out there, everywhere, God is with us
wherever we are, but at any rate they had a great deal of meaning in
this and now they were shattered. They were shattered. Does this
mean God isn't with us anymore?
Had they been listening to Jesus they would've heard that these kinds
of things are a reality that we're going to face even with God with us.
That there is a reality that affliction and problems and nation against
nation is part of what it means to be in a broken world. Much of what
Jesus says to them relates to what happens right after his cross. His
disciples are challenged, are kicked out of the synagogue, are dragged
before the rulers and authorities and some of them, as we well know,
face martyrdom for their faith.
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What Jesus says is true. The world will be shaken. The world will go
through a crisis, but notice the world that has not ended, that indeed
Jesus said it wouldn't end, not right away. We live in a world instead
that is full of things that scare us sometimes, I mean you read the news
and sometimes it makes you so uncomfortable and yet we still place
our hopes that maybe we'll get it all straightened out and it will all be
peaceful again. I mean, isn't that some of the loyalty to the candidates?
If only the right one gets in there then it will all get straightened out.
And this week we've got people who are all depressed because their
candidate did not win. We've got other people who are rejoicing. But
let's face it folks, no candidate from Washington is going to bring about
what God wants in this world. It's not their world. It's not the kingdom
that matters.
We as Christians believe that in a way the world did end way back
when. The world as we knew it, the world of sin and death where all of
that conquered and triumphed and kept the human spirit down; that
did end. It ended at the cross where God faced failure, persecution, sin,
death and brokenness and it brought about a new age in Jesus. We're
living in a new age you and I, one that has broken in but yet hasn't
already completely come. Jesus knew that we would still struggle that
there would be a reality of tussle and tumult and struggle. After all he
never said discipleship was easy, did he? If we take it seriously we
would want to conflict with people. We'd want to have some struggles
with the world that thinks it's the same.
But we live in a transformed world where God's kingdom has already
broken in through Jesus Christ, where the powers of sin and death have
already been conquered, where we don't have to worry about our
ultimate future.
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We have lots of penultimate problems, right, things all around us and
things that's we struggle through but the ultimate issue of our future,
of our eternal being has already been solved and God has already said
that in the future he has all things will come unto him and there will be
newness and restoration and life.
We live in a world that constantly struggles. We, like the disciples, can
hear these words and say oh, this is just awful; but on the other hand
we are his disciples today who know that the kingdom has already
broken in and that God's law is the reign that will be.
What do we pray every week when we say Thy kingdom come. Luther
says God's kingdom will come. God will make that happen. But we pray
Thy kingdom come we say may we be a part of it. Remember that from
your small catechism? Thy kingdom, God's kingdom will come
regardless of the tumult and the struggles. And that the peace that
Christ brings is a peace with God that when taken seriously in our lives
and lived out will begin to do acts of righteousness and justice and
kindness and compassion and it will touch the world around us.
Jesus says that indeed trouble will come, but he will give us what we
need and we will speak and testify to the truth that God is God and that
the Kingdom will come and goodness will reign and hope and life and
joy rests for us in spite of the troubles and the struggles.
Christians are not those who fearfully gaze into an uncertain terrifying
future. No, we are those who are able to live with confidence, not
confidence in ourselves or necessarily the works of these stuff around
us or whatever party you're a part of. No, we're confident that things
will turn out for God's best in God's time and we are privileged to help
serve and be a part of that. We don't believe were gonna survive. We
know nobody gets out of this life, you know, but we believe that in
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something greater than survival. We believe in the power of God in
Christ to make all things new - even us and that's good news.
During the last days of World War 2 a fellow emerged from a bomb
shelter after a long night of bombing and there was an old man selling
newspapers in the rubble and the fellow coming out of the bomb
shelter said, "Well who won the battle last night?", he said to the old
man kind of jesting a little bit.
The old man said, I don't know, I don't read the papers, I don't have to
worry about who wins the battles because I already know who has won
the war.
Now that's what we can say! There's lots of battles that we will see and
there are struggles. We can't pretend that discipleship is easy or that
everything is going to be smooth, but we know who's won the war.
Thanks be to God, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen
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