Holy Faith, Santa Fe Daniel November 2018 Psalm 16 Hebrews Mark

Transcription

1 Robin Dodge Proper 28 Year B Holy Faith, Santa Fe Daniel November 2018 Psalm 16 Hebrews Mark In the name of the one, true, and living God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen In today s Gospel we meet the disciple with the edifice complex. You know, the one who comes out of the temple and says to Jesus, Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings! We don t know which disciple it is, and it s probably just as well, because whoever it is wouldn t be able to live down this outburst! It could be any one of the disciples, and who could blame them? They re simple folk from the north in Galilee and they have just come to the big city Jerusalem and they re overwhelmed by things they have never seen before. But Jesus brings them quickly back to the purpose of his mission and their journey to Jerusalem. Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple. He asks them, Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down. Jesus prediction comes true when, forty years later, the Romans destroy the temple in Jerusalem. And so we re confronted today with the question, where do we put our trust. Where do we put our trust? Some of us may be like that unnamed disciple we have our own edifice complexes. We put our trust in things which today may look mighty and solid, but ultimately we put our trust in things that are not going to last. We put our trust in our good health, until one day we re knocked for a loop and have to slow down or our loved one is given a diagnosis that means only a few months to live. We put our trust in our 1

2 relationships, until one day there is estrangement, absence, or bereavement. We put our trust in the solidity of our national economy, until one day the stock market crashes and we lose our job or our savings, and the whole country is pushed to the brink of the fiscal cliff. We may even have an edifice complex about Holy Faith! We may love this building, this community, and the way we worship but that love may get in the way of our true mission of being transformed by the loving grace of Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, all these things are not ends in themselves, but point to where we are to put our trust in Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us that the end time is coming. Jesus says, When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places, [and] there will be famines; this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs. It may sound as if we re already in the end time with continued mass shootings in public places, wildfires in California, refugees streaming from Central America, superpowers battling in Syria, Israelis and Palestinians killing each other in the Holy Land, nuclear proliferation among states like Iran and North Korea, famines in Africa, it would be understandable to think that the world is coming to an end. But Jesus says, don t be alarmed, this must take place, but the end is still to come. That doesn t sound very reassuring; it s hard not to be alarmed. But putting our trust in Jesus Christ means that we don t have to worry about the end time. Jesus will take care of it. Jesus tells us that [t]his is but the beginnings of the birth pangs the birth of a new world order ushered in by the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. 2

3 As the leaves drop from the trees leaving behind stark silhouettes, the hours of daylight shorten and the darkness of the night comes that much earlier, the Church, in its wisdom, uses this season to proclaim the message of the coming of the end time as we will soon prepare in Advent for the second coming of Christ in all his glory. As the signs of endings are all around us, Jesus Christ shall endure. When he predicted that not one stone of the temple would be left upon another, he was days away from his own death. In fact, some of his enemies accuse him of blasphemy by using this prediction against him, falsely testifying that he claimed he would destroy the temple and after three days build another. Of course, Jesus was speaking metaphorically. After three days, Jesus rose from the dead and he himself became the new temple. He himself became the chief cornerstone of a new religious order that replaced the old temple rites. The letter to the Hebrews tells us that Christ s sacrifice on the cross was once for all of us, for all our sins, for all time. The priests of the old temple would offer sacrifices day after day that could not take away sins like the sufficiency of Christ s one sacrifice of himself. Thus, we have the confidence to enter the new sanctuary of Christ s body by Christ s own sacrifice, by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus is the new temple which cannot be thrown down, and in which we are called to put our trust. While Christ has already achieved victory over sin and death, Christ s final victory will not come until the end time when all the world confesses Jesus as Lord. In the meantime, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews encourages us to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet 3

4 together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as [we] see the [End] Day drawing near. It is no coincidence that on this day when we gather in the pledges that will support the mission and ministry that emanates from this parish church, we are reminded of the theme of this year s stewardship campaign: the three questions Jesus poses to Peter, Do you love me?...do you love me?... Do you love me? and Jesus charge to Peter, then Follow me. Jesus poses these same three questions to us. Do you love me? Then feed my lambs. Do you love me? Then tend my sheep. Do you love me? Then feed my sheep. Here at Holy Faith, we are called to encourage one another, to stir up one another to love, to do good works. With the support of time, treasure, and talent from all of us, we are called to feed those inside and outside the walls of this edifice who are hungering physically, we are called to tend those inside and outside the walls of this edifice who are suffering or rejoicing, we are called to feed those inside and outside the walls of this edifice who are hungering spiritually. We are called to put our trust in that which shall endure: the transformative, loving grace of Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus Christ yesterday, today, and forever. As signs of ending are all around us in the words of the sequence hymn that we just sang written by Dean Nelson darkness, death, and winter days shroud our lives in fear and sadness, numbing mouths that long to praise. Come, O Christ, and dwell among us! Hear our cries, come set us free. Give us hope and faith and gladness. Show us what there yet can be. Can it be that from our endings, new beginnings you create? Life from death, and from our rendings, realms of wholeness generate? Take our fears, then, Lord, and turn them into hopes for life anew: Fading 4

5 light and dying season sing their Glorias to you. Speak, O God, your Word among us. Barren lives your presence fill. Swell our hearts with songs of gladness, terrors calm, forebodings still. Let your promised realm of justice blossom now throughout the earth; your dominion bring now near us; we await the saving birth. That saving birth is for us but the beginnings of the birth pangs, the saving birth of a new world order ushered in by the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. As signs of ending are all around us, consider where you put your trust, consider what things look mighty and solid today but won t be here tomorrow, consider what your edifice complexes might be. And then let them go, and put your trust in the everlasting Jesus Christ. Amen. 5