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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