Things to come

November 18, 2018                            Mark 13:1-8

After sitting in the temple last week and commenting on the scribes and the offering of a poor widow, Jesus and his disciples have now left the temple and are heading toward the Mount of Olives, opposite the temple’s location.  From this perspective they were able to really look at the temple and marvel at its splendor. 

This temple is what was known as the second temple, or Herod’s temple, because Herod oversaw a massive overhaul and marvelous additions, in order to cement his legacy and place in history.  Herod considered the Temple at Jerusalem to be his masterpiece.  And that it was.  Scholars believe the temple itself rose to an impressive 150 feet high, covered in brilliant white stones and gold plates.  Each of these white stones that constructed the temple were 200-400 pounds each, one stacked on top of the other.  This temple area was then surrounded by courts.  The entire structure sat atop Mount Moriah and could be seen for miles.

So it wouldn’t be anything abnormal to hear someone comment on the magnificence of the temple.  But what seems to be a casual comment garners a rather unexpected response from Jesus.  Jesus said, “yes - these buildings are enormous…and the whole thing will be demolished.  Not one stone will be left upon another”. 

Wow. 

And it seems that the remainder of their trip to Mount Olivet, no one spoke.  After a response like that, who would?  I’m sure they’re all pretty anxiety ridden at this point, and such a negative response wouldn’t have lifted anyone’s spirits.  So while they were sitting on the mount, Peter, James, John and Andrew, that inner circle, came to Jesus and asked him “what did you mean?  When will these things happen?  What signs should we be looking for?”

Legitimate questions…probably the same questions I would be asking.  So what was Jesus’ response?

He said don’t be deceived.  Many people will come in my name.  Many will follow them.  There will be wars.  There will be rumors of wars.  Nation will rise up against nation.  There will be earthquakes, famines and all sorts of natural disasters.  These things are just the beginning of the suffering associated with the end.

That’s all.  And accompanying this response was the almost trite “don’t be alarmed”.  Don’t be alarmed?  Really?  My anxiety skyrocketed just reading that! 

And just by coincidence, right after reading these passages, my phone dinged.  It was a facebook message.  Someone forwarded me a recording of Paul Harvey.  I remember Paul Harvey as a kid…my dad listened to him every day to get “the rest of the story”.  This forward was a Paul Harvey broadcast from 1965, that dealt with how the devil would invade the world.  And it was full of…you guessed it…predictions.  The person that sent it was just amazed at the accuracy of Mr. Harvey’s predictions…and this was the same person who begged me with tears in their eyes not to leave my home on 12/21/12, the day the Mayan calendar ended….

Then I got curious.  I wanted to know how many “end of the world” claims had been made…and when I looked it up on Wikipedia, I had to scroll many, many times.  The earliest was 66 AD, and the furtherest out being 2280.  So I narrowed my view to the lifespan of this church (roughly 1925 being Mayna and 2018 being Greyson) and there were 96.  That’s more than one per year on average! And there were the “usual suspects” on the list of contributors…Nostradamus, Rasputin, to Cotton Mather, a puritan priest who was involved with the Salem Witch Trials, to more modern names like Tim LaHaye, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and even one near and dear to us…John Wesley.

As I read over this list, I started looking at the mechanism or means in which we were to (or in some future cases, are to) meet our end.  There was, as we mentioned, the end of the Mayan Calendar, there was Y2K, there were aliens, earthquakes, comets, storms…I could go on and on.  They were all pretty scary. 

And that led me down another “google” rabbit hole (as is easy to do)…and I looked up a list of what Wikipedia names “messiah claimants”, or people since Jesus who said they were Jesus.  Immediately my mind went to David Koresh and the Branch Davidians…most of us here will remember that.  Since him there have been 4…and before him there were 30.

And neither of these lists contained Jonestown or Heaven’s Gate.

What is going on here?  And despite these warnings from Christ, we find ourselves sucked in by these fantastic predictions. 

And I began to wonder…why would these warnings follow an actual prediction?  Why would these cautionary statements be grouped in the same conversation with the grim foretelling of the Temple?  Why the massive contrast?  Why did the temple have to fall?  None of this seems organic.  Which led me down yet another rabbit hole….

Their temple.  Their church.  The place they came together to seek forgiveness of their sins through sacrifice, offer their tithes, pray…not unlike us.  So why did their beautiful, magnificent, awe inspiring place of worship have to fall? 

We have looked at the temple itself…but I think we need to look inward.  Last week we heard about the Scribes, and the corrupt things they were doing without guise.  Openly.  Without shame.  We’ve read time and time again the conflict between Jesus and the temple Rabbis and Leaders and at one point Jesus charges them with turning his Father’s house into a den of thieves.  It seems that this house of God is crumbling from the inside.  This place of worship, this dwelling place of God no longer did what it was supposed to do.  And maybe it was so far gone that there was no hope…it had to be destroyed.  Maybe that was the dynamic shift that humanity needed. 

So what is the church?  I love that today’s Gospel lesson in Mark is paired with this lesson in Hebrews because the union is so beautiful.  Hebrews 10 starts by showing us that the temple isn’t necessary for us to worship in.  We aren’t expected to bring sacrifices yearly.  Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient.  And then we see what we know as the modern church.  People who draw near with a genuine heart and faith, considering each other in love and good deeds.  People who meet together, not out of habit, but out of concern for each other, encouraging each other.  Educating each other.  Leading, serving, helping, and all the things we do for each other…all the things we GET to do for each other.   

So while the temple was destroyed, and we are warned against all sorts of bad things, if there’s one thing that you take away from today’s message, I hope it’s this:  the church isn’t here, it’s here.  It isn’t the pews, the windows, the pulpit or any of these things. Look at your neighbor.  Look at the people sitting around you.  Look in your heart.  This is the church.  It’s something that can’t be destroyed.