Saturday, November 14, 2015

“When Things Fall Apart” - November 15, 2015


Mark 13:1-8


               I heard an Australian climatologist being interviewed on WHYY last week.  He pointed out what someone who had died in 1915 might have thought of the world if they had come back in 1965, just fifty years later. The world would have changed from horse to car, from kerosene lamps to electricity, from outdoor to indoor plumbing. Then he suggested that we apply that to our own lives. Fifty years from now things will be very different, for good or for ill.

               He was talking about much more than technology.  His topic was climate change and our possible responses to events that seem terrifyingly inevitable at this point.  Some of our most familiar cities may find themselves becoming islands and some islands may be underwater. New Orleans and Venice, New York and Amsterdam are all extremely vulnerable. The deserts of the world are likely to expand. Sections of the Middle East may become as uninhabitable as Death Valley.  Other places may see rainfall where there has been little for centuries. Species may find their habitat totally changed and their range shifting.  Our eating habits will need to change. And yes, our technology and our social practices will need to change to meet these situations. And if history is any indicator, much of it is likely to be accompanied by warfare.

               He was not trying to be alarmist. In many ways it's merely practical to think about these things before they happen, and to be prepared as best we can.

               It is also good to know that we are not the first to face terrible changes. It is good to know that Jesus himself taught his disciples and how to face times like that, when everything falls apart.

               At the time Jesus walked the earth, the temple in Jerusalem had been undergoing reconstruction and expansion for decades and would have years more to go. The goal was to make it grander and better able to handle large crowds. It's a lot like what's going on in Mecca now where the Saudis are building a large hotel around the grand mosque to accommodate much larger groups of pilgrims than they could handle in the past.  The disciples were very impressed by all of this. 

“As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’ [Mark 13:1]

It was progress and even if it was being built by King Herod, whom everyone hated, they probably could not help being at least a little bit proud of the whole project.  Jesus took a different view. 

“Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’” [Mark 13:2]
When it all came to a screeching halt, as Jesus said it would, the whole world itself changed for them.  When the Romans overran Jerusalem in the year 70 A.D., the destruction of the temple brought everything crashing down around their ears.

               That city was, to them, the center of the world and the focus of their spirituality.  The temple was the spot where heaven touched earth, and the place where God was to be worshiped.  And then it was gone. It was destroyed, turned to rubble, and to this day all that remains is one small section of the foundation, which we call the Wailing Wall.  And well that the people standing there should cry, because if the temple is the place where you meet God, and the place is destroyed, where do you meet God then?

               In the long run, the destruction of the temple would mean the transformation of the Jewish religion from one centered on sacrifice to one centered on the Scriptures.  It would also mean the split of Christianity from Judaism. But living through that must have been torment even for those who did not have to endure the terrible war that forced the change.

               Again, if you lose the place where you meet God, and if you lose the ability to follow the practices that bring you into God’s presence, are you cut off?

               Climate change?  Do you not think that will bring dislocation in the life of the church?  When whole populations have to leave one area and go to another, won’t that mean a whole new set of expectations?  That will mean changes in language and ways of worship and what we consider normal in how we interact with one another.  Even in places untouched by population shifts, what does a change in the weather mean?  Older buildings will need to be retrofitted.  Heavier storms will be hard on roofs.  In our area, we can expect more snow, and that means more snowplowing and more Sundays when it’s hard to get to worship.  The growth in tropical diseases means we will be asked to do more to address not only natural disasters but ongoing health crises.  We have the capacity; the United Methodist Church has been one of the leading groups in efforts to eliminate malaria in Africa and we have made some headway, although there’s a long way to go.  But put that in the context of everything else and it’s likely that we will have to practice simple living more and more as a spiritual discipline, not just as a nice thing to do.

               We will have all kinds of upheaval.  But we will, by God’s grace, find ways to live and thrive, as we did when the temple was destroyed two thousand years ago. 

               Jesus made a comparison of that temple to himself. He said that if it were destroyed he would rebuild it in three days, and later the church understood this as a reference to his death and resurrection. The Romans knocked Jesus down, or rather lifted him up onto a cross, but when they had done their worst, God returned him in a way that means he can never be destroyed again.  The temple could be knocked down, and the Romans could and did prevent its rebuilding.  Now there is a mosque on top of the site and more fighting about who gets to pray where.  From a Christian perspective, though, that doesn’t matter. 

               Our access to God is not through buildings or monuments, but through Jesus, and he has promised that wherever two or three people gathered in his name he is there in the midst of them. His Spirit is with us right here and right now. It can also be with us standing in the parking lot and praying. It can be with us in a hospital room. It can be with us when the world itself comes crashing down.

               In all the changes that come along, and we are facing huge changes in the years to come, Jesus will continue to be present.  Do not let the things that scare us, even the apocalyptic changes that could happen in the world at large, make you think that he is not there.
“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.” [Mark 13:8]
We will find ways to work through whatever needs to be worked through. We always have, and we always will, and may even find greater grace along the way.


               Thanks be to God for that.  Amen.

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