"Opportunities in Despair"
Sermon Presented November 18, 2007
Luke 21:5-19
I have visited some of the most beautiful cathedrals and churches in the world - in London, Paris, Quito, Washington DC and St. Benedicts, KS. When I stand and gaze out intricately cut and pieced prisms of stained glass, observe paintings and beautifully carved and painted figures of Jesus, Mary, and the saints, and admire the architecture, I am awe struck! The historical, spiritual, and visual impact of these edifices is beyond measure. Here, people experience deep reverence and worship. They experience God! These monuments have stood for centuries - some through wars and natural disasters. They are well-built and well-maintained. I can't conceive their complete demolition, with not one stone left upon another.
But Jesus told his listeners that the temple in Jerusalem would be completely demolished. Hear Jesus' exchange with members of his audience. I'm reading Luke 21:5-19.
Since the time of Jesus' death and resurrection, people have tried to read the signs of the time in order to determine when Jesus will come again. Thousands of books have been written and millions of sermons preached on how today's signs make Jesus' second coming imminent. Some have even sold their belongings and waited for the rapture of the saints. In the past decade, millions of novels based on this theme have been sold. People want this knowledge so they can be prepared. We try to interpret the signs so we can understand the mystery.
We are no different than Jesus' audience! We want signs from God to let us know we're on the right path. "God, give me a sign to let me know if I have heard correctly! If I put out a fleece, let it be dry and the grass around it wet, or vice versa. If I open my Bible, let my eyes fall on a word that is appropriate for my situation." And the sign that we often receive is no sign at all!
Luke places this exchange immediately following the story of Jesus' lauding a poor widow who puts two copper coins in the temple box - the only money she has! His audience quickly changes the subject, remarking on the beauty and the glory of the temple where they are now standing. The temple is glorious! Its beauty would dwarf the beauty of any cathedral I have seen. It took hundreds of years and great sacrifice to build. It surely must be God's permanent home. This comment is all the transition Jesus needs for his teaching.
Jesus says that soon this most holy place will be destroyed - not one stone remaining on another! I believe Jesus wants them to know that nothing is permanent; nothing is lasting; nothing, that is, except God and our souls. When they request a sign as to when this will take place, Jesus doesn't give them one.
Jesus' audience is no different than we. If we know company is coming, we can straighten the house. If we know we are going to move, we begin packing. If we know we are going to have a child or grandchild, we begin gathering items the baby will need. If we know the stock market will crash, we convert our shares into cash. If we know our tire is losing air, we will have it patched or replace it. If we know we're going to die, we make sure our will is current and we have spoken love and asked for forgiveness! We don't want to be caught unprepared! Knowledge brings the possibility of control through preparation. Jesus says there will be no sign given for the destruction of the temple, but there will be false prophets who claim to be Jesus. He warns them not to follow false prophets. He also tells them they will be persecuted by religious and governmental institutions because they follow him. NOT good news for them!
Then he adds a strange addendum. He says that this won't be a bad thing - but will be an opportunity for them to testify to the reasons they are his followers! Hello? No one wants to hear that kind of message!
Those who hear Jesus that day will remember his message a few days later when Jesus is crucified, but this is all future tense when Jesus speaks here. Jesus tells them not to worry about what to say because they will have the right words when they face their accusers. He tells them some will die, but not a hair on their heads will perish! That's a contradiction in terms if I've ever heard one. Jesus must be using veiled speech here! He must not be talking about our physical bodies here.
We don't want to face death, war, earthquakes, famines, plagues, persecutions or imprisonment, and I'm sure they didn't either. But that's what Jesus tells them their future holds. Having the opportunity to testify for Jesus doesn't sound like a very good prize for faithfulness! This isn't what the disciples bargained for when they signed on to follow Jesus.
Just as the temple at Jerusalem had a life span, so do our temples. Most often our temples fall because we neglect them. The temples we have erected are crumbling and we aren't acting to stop the erosion.
Jesus gives advice on what to do when our temples crumble. He tells us how to be faithful. He tells us that in the midst of our despair, there are opportunities to experience what is most important!
Many of you have heard me say that my divorce seemed like a death sentence to my dreams of being a pastor. Now I was a divorced woman pastor in a denomination that didn't want women pastors in the first place. But as tragic as that time was for me, God brought me to a new denomination and a new pastorate. From my despair came opportunity.
Now there is new despair brought on by my ex-husband's death on Friday. His death was unexpected and my grief is unexpected. I am trusting in God's faithfulness to bring opportunity for healing from that despair.
How will we be faithful to the end when we don't know when that time will be? First, Jesus says we are not to be misled. This isn't a time for naiveté! Next, he says not to despair. We don't need to prepare our defense ahead of time, but should trust that the right words will be forthcoming. And last he says to maintain stubborn hope. In other words, just keep on keeping on!
Let's not forget that Jesus is talking to his followers - those who will need courage to leave the ruins of the old system, and with new faith, handle the persecutions that go with it. The opportunity given to the persecuted followers is the opportunity to bear witness - to show the world our faith that God will carry us through the hard times.
Edwin Robertson, in a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, told of visiting Hanover after World War II and meeting a German Baptist pastor. The man's church building had been bombed and his congregation scattered. But he told Robertson: "At last I am free-free to be a minister of Jesus Christ. I am no longer trammeled by church programs." For the faithful there is freedom on the other side of crumbled temples. The faithful can be open to something new rising from the ashes.
As we ponder this scripture passage, knowing we are living 2000 years after Jesus spoke these words, we wonder what kind of faith it takes to believe what he said. I would like to read something written by Parker Palmer in A Hidden Wholeness that I believe is helpful. Palmer says: "The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring; these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in hopes of living without doubt, despair, and pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love. But in the spring we are reminded that human nature, like nature herself, can hold opposites together as paradoxes, resulting in a more capacious and generous life" (pp. 82-83.)
Sometimes it takes all of our energy to endure - to survive - as we struggle with faith and doubt, hope and despair, love and pain. But if we realize that "temples fall so that fresh forms of faith can rise from the ashes" we will find faith and hope and love on the horizon. We will experience the transformation of our temples.
