November 14, 2004 - 24th Sunday After Pentecost - Father Andrew Green

FIRST READING: Isaiah 65: 17-25
SECOND READING: 2 Thessalonians 3: 6-13
GOSPEL: Luke 21: 5-19

This is one of the few Sundays of the year in which the Old Testament reading sounds more like good news than the Gospel does. Did you hear that in Isaiah about the wolf and the lamb, I think, feeding together? Everybody but the snake is going to get along. Isaiah is writing to a people who have been through the mill and letting them know that, at the end, God is going to put everything right. On the other hand, we have a different situation among the people to whom Jesus is speaking and to the people who are reading this Gospel that Luke has written.

This Church is 62 years old. The part where I am standing right now was built 62 years ago. The expansion at the front and the sides and all around, $1.6 million worth, was built just nine years ago, and it still isn't paid off yet. The Meditation Garden in the courtyard there was just finished this last summer. When people come into the Church - not necessarily everybody - but there are a lot of folks who come in, and they look at the windows; they hear the music; they walk out in the Meditation Garden; or they walk through the quiet of the colonnade; and they see where people have been buried and their remains have been placed; and people think, "Oh! What a beautiful place! How wonderful! What a beautiful Church this is!"

The people whom Jesus is speaking to have come in from out in the boonies. They are from Galilee. That is kind of like saying they are from Desert Center. They have walked in, and maybe this is even their first time seeing the Temple. Because, remember, Jerusalem is on a hill, and the Temple is on a hill within the city; and the Temple is pretty huge. They are looking at it, and they are commenting about how beautiful these stones are. Imagine a stone that is about the dimension of the pews in the center aisle, about half-way through and about as long and about as wide, all stone, and they put those together for the foundation. They were amazed at these stones, and Jesus spoils their party! They are here for the first time. Jesus, we think, has been to the Temple several times from the time He was a little boy. They are just amazed at how gorgeous this Temple is. They are just getting ready to feel how wonderful it will be to be in God's presence when they are in this Temple, and they are commenting on how gorgeous it looks. But Jesus says, "You know - those stones are pretty neat, but pretty soon there is not going to be one of them on top of another. They are going to be in a rubble." Jesus is telling them, "Pretty soon, all the sheet-rock is going to be torn off. Pretty soon, there won't be any of this foundation left." The Meditation Garden is going to be dead and gone and all turned to weeds. There are going to be wars; there are going to be insurrections; there are going to be revolutions; things are going to be so bad that even your family, if they haven't already turned against you, may turn against you. And now He has them really excited. First, they are all excited about the building. Now, He has them all excited about the end of the world, and they are going from how big this building is to how big the catastrophe is going to be. And that is the point Jesus is trying to make with them. They are excited about all of this external stuff, and He is saying, "But when all that stuff happens, the end isn't yet. It is just the beginning".

The question is, if we are not supposed to concentrate on the building, and if we are not supposed to concentrate on the catastrophe, what are we supposed to concentrate on? When we built this expansion nine years ago and we dedicated it, one of the things that I said - I may have even said it as a part of a sermon right after that - I said that this is a beautiful place. I remember when Virginia was kind of doubtful about whether she was going to like the new Church. She was very concerned that it wouldn't feel like Church to her anymore. And I remember when she came up to me afterwards, and she said, "It's Church". It meant a lot. People come in, and they have those experiences, and, what I told the congregation at that time was: Everything we have just built, everything we have raised all this money for, that we have engaged in this mortgage for, is disposable. It is all here to be used up, because, if it is not used up, some day it is all going to be in a rubble anyway. It is not here for this building to be worshiped. It is here to serve. This whole building, all of this property, and maybe, if Jesus is correct in the Gospel here, maybe even some of our lives, are disposable. The only thing not disposable here are the people.

Now, there is another way of saying that. I read this week of a guy named Lindy Black, in Sermon Nuggets, who said, "When the building burns down, and the pastor leaves town, all that is left is the Church".

When the building burns down, and the pastor leaves town, all that is left is the Church.

Do you see where Jesus is going with this? That the big building doesn't mean great Church; that catastrophe and wars and persecution doesn't mean, "Oh my God! Everything is coming to an end!" It is just the beginning, because, when these things happen, you have an opportunity to witness. When these things happen; when you experience a beautiful new Church; when you experience a quiet place for meditation; when you experience persecution, hatred, and prejudice; when you experience war - when you find yourself in a position when the election is over, and your fellow didn't win . . . . Have you ever been there? I can guarantee you that everybody in this congregation has been there at least once in the last ten years, because everybody that is happy now may not have been happy eight years ago - even in times like that, the end is not yet here. It is just the beginning. It is an opportunity for you to witness. It is an opportunity for you to witness that the things that are behind this building, the things that are behind our faith, the things that are behind the beauty of our choir, are more real than this building and are going to last beyond any persecutions and beyond any catastrophes.

Think about this. The people to whom the Gospel of Luke was written were reading this about ten years after the Temple was already knocked down. The first readers were reading it about ten years after that, and it wasn't that long after the city of Pompeii had been destroyed because of a volcano. So, when you see that about the sky darkening and changing color, some of those folks saw that. But that is not what is important. What is important is it is an opportunity to witness to the love of God that is greater than buildings or the destruction of buildings, greater than persecutions, and greater than winning elections. The love of God is what we have the opportunity to witness to, and that is our challenge.

Now, when St. Paul was writing to the Christians in Thessalonica, they were excited. They didn't have a big Church. They were meeting in homes or out by the river or anyplace that somebody couldn't find them. They were excited because they believed that the end of the world was coming soon, and that Jesus was going to be back momentarily to take them away. So, some of them are getting the idea that, "You know, Jesus is going to be back so soon, I can let up. Jesus is going to be back so soon that my witness isn't important anymore. Jesus is going to be back so soon that I can take a break and go on vacation." Some of the coolest words in the whole Bible are right there, "Let them that won't work not eat". Now, this is not about works righteousness. This is not about that you have to do lots of good deeds in order to get on God's good side, so He doesn't send you to Hell. This is about people who are so excited about Jesus coming back soon, that they don't realize Jesus' coming is simply an opportunity to witness, and, until it gets here, it doesn't matter how soon or how far away it is, because we are still called to be God's people witnessing to God's love to a world that doesn't know it.

We are the ones who are called to witness to a world that only sees a beautiful building. Let's face it. Beautiful buildings for Christians are simply better mousetraps. They are buildings that are attracted to people and draw them in. But why do we draw them in? Because we have a witness of God's love that we want to share and that we want to give them. So, interestingly enough, sometimes we have this mousetrap all decked out to help to bring people in, and they walk in and say, "You can't sit there, that is my chair". We forget why we are here. Whether we forget because we are thinking about the building - whether we forget because we are thinking about whatever the current persecution is, whatever the current prejudice is, whatever the current crisis of finances is - or we forget because the Lord is coming back soon, and I am so excited I can't stand it. Whenever we do it, we are missing the boat. Jesus invites us to always be ready to share the good news - in good times, to witness to God's love; in bad times, to witness to God's love - and especially if you have been through the bad times, to be able to let people know that God brings you through them. If you have been somebody who experienced loss in an election, you might remember that, five years ago, you thought it was the end of world, but we are still going on. If you have been somebody who has suffered through the end of a relationship or has experienced actual prejudice and hatred, and you have lived through it to the point that you could actually love the person who hated you, Jesus is asking you to be ready to share that witness. You don't have to write it out. You don't have to have it on a card, ready, in case somebody should stop you on the street. You will know when the time comes, and Jesus will help you. But, it is why we are here. It is why this Church is here. It is why that garden is here. It is why our liturgy is here. All of it is here to help us be ready to witness to God's love.

So, I want to invite you to not be somebody who is here just because you like the sermon (I thought there would be more excitement about that!), not because you like my wife's witness, not because you like the architecture - I want you, for whatever reason you came here, to remember that this is the place where God is touching your heart. This is the place. This is the altar where each one of us is fed, and this is the altar where every need can be fed. This is the altar multiplied around the world in many different kinds of churches where Christ is available to take care of anyone in crisis, catastrophe, or anybody riding so high that the Lord just ought to take them back to put them out of their misery. That is why we are here - to witness to that love of God.

And so, I invite you to remember that, even if things are going your way today, Christ will be there tomorrow, and He promised He will bring you through.

AMEN