Things Fall Apart...And It's OK

 

The Second Temple of Jerusalem by Alex Levin

Well, the scriptural hits keep coming in this post-election season. 

Nothing like having "The Little Apocalypse" in a very shortened version to work with for preaching after a week of announced nominees for Cabinet positions who are horribly unqualified and even dangerous. I mean, a guy who was under investigation by his own party for sex trafficking minors as the potential attorney general of the United States?! A man who is a rabid anti-vaxxer and claims to have a dead worm in his brain to lead the Department of Health and Human Services? A defense secretary who thinks our military is too "woke" because women are allowed into combat roles? And we're going to let a woman who has a warm relationship with one of our worst enemies be in charge of our national security? 

It's cartoonish and outlandish. And a dangerous game of chicken to see how far the Republican-controlled Senate will bend to the president-elect's will. 

The one upside from the Gospel reading: we know that, in the end, God didn't make the crucifixion the end of the story of Jesus. Nothing was easy, but eventually...goodness, Love, and light prevails. 

We just have to keep that hope alive and not give in or accept despair as the answer.

See what you think.

Texts: Mark 13:1-8, 1 Samuel 2:1-10, the Collect for Proper 28, BCP 236

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We’re going to try an exercise.

Close your eyes.

Take a breath in and let it out.

Now imagine a structure…a huge building.

It’s made of rocks the size of a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

There are magnificent gold-plated shields hanging in a decorative fashion on the walls.

There are huge towers.

People come in through arched entry ways…thirteen to fourteen feet high.

There are Corinthian columns and a series of several stone steps that lead into a courtyard the size of a football field.

Keep that structure in your mind.

 Now open your eyes.

That building…the temple of Jerusalem…captured the imagination of the disciples.

It was huge! It was so big…so powerful…and it was the central gathering place for all of Jerusalem.

It was a market place.

A place of worship.

It was the biggest Wow of all the Wows… the mightiest symbols of strength for the Jews who were living under the control of the Roman Empire.

This is the Temple Herod Antipas had constructed.

The first Jerusalem Temple… the one King Solomon had built…was wrecked by the Babylonians…many centuries earlier.

 

It took years and years to build it again.

So there was some pride among the Jewish disciples when they gazed upon this massive building.

And now Jesus says…it’s all coming down.

Everything.

Not one stone left on top of another stone.

This scene is what follows Jesus’ lecture on the greed of the treasury. 

And just like with the treasury…Mark tells us that Jesus is sitting opposite the Temple…as he predicts its demise.

The disciples have that pit in the stomach feeling when they hear all this from Jesus.

Perhaps some of us also felt a little queasy listening to how something so grand and prominent and important is destined for destruction.

It’s as if September 11^th…and the twin towers of the World Trade Center…came crashing to the earth again.

And Jesus says, “It’s OK. This needs to happen.”

But why?

This whole chapter in Mark’s Gospel is what scholars call “The Little Apocalypse.”

It gets that name because of all the language about earthquakes and upheaval and wars and such.

The word apocalypse means “revelation.”

And there’s a lot being revealed here.

So let’s pull back the curtain on the scripture and take a look at what was happening at the time that Mark was putting pen to papyrus.

That will give us some appreciation for this Gospel reading…and may give us some insights for our lives now in the 21^st century.

Scholars have dated Mark’s Gospel to just before the second destruction of the Temple about 70 CE.

There was a war between Jewish Zealots and the Roman Empire.

The Zealots were the rebel forces determine to overthrow their Roman oppressors.

Rome…which had more might and military was also in the throes of chaos with internal battles occurring in their power structure.

Because Rome wasn’t always well organized…the Zealots would win the occasional battle.

But their main focus became protecting the Temple in Jerusalem.

And there was heavy recruitment to join the Zealots in defending the Temple.

The community hearing Mark’s Gospel were living in this time.

They were among those being asked to take up arms.

So this conflict and these realities were the constant news feed happening on the street.

When Jesus talks about hearing of “wars and rumor of wars” that’s what was in the air.

And the Jesus of Mark…was not a warrior of the Zealot-kind.

Jesus was…and is… a countercultural figure.

His mission didn’t involve picking up a sword as the answer to the oppressor.

Protecting the Temple would not be the priority for Jesus.

His fight was to free people from power structures…including those of a temple that had become an exploitative system under the Roman authorities.

This is also another pivotal moment in the journey of Jesus to the cross.

He’s moving from acts of healing and his ministry…and now is delivering one last sermon to his followers about what is coming as they enter Jerusalem.

It’s going to be rocky.

It’s going to be scary.

People are going to be coming after you.

And it’s going to be OK.

He likens all of this to being like a woman in labor.

And any mother can tell you that labor is not the most joyful moment of pregnancy.

And as any person concerned with women’s healthcare can attest to…pregnancy can be a dicey and dangerous adventure…especially with the first child.

But once the labor is through…and the child is born… there is rejoicing.

There is new life… and a future.

These birth pangs…these endings…this tearing down of the Temple…Jesus says…

”Yeah. It’s gonna go down.

But don’t give up.

Don’t fall into the trap of hate and despair.

Keep your eyes and your heart open to love and hope.”

These aren’t simply saying platitudes he’s making up on the spot.

Just as Hannah sang her song of vindication against the mighty… Jesus’s words are meant to remind those listening to him of the warnings of their Jewish prophets…such as Zechariah.

Amy-Jill Levine…a New Testament scholar at Vanderbilt…notes that there’s nothing new about him warning of false prophets.

Those who pass themselves off as the self-proclaimed mouthpieces for God… existed before Jesus….written up in the Book of Deuteronomy.

These cautions from Jesus should not be new to us either.

If we have been gathering to worship…

if we have been receiving the sacrament of bread and wine in the faithful belief that we are being re-membered into the body of Christ…

then we have a place in this experience with Jesus of knowing that Love is the way toward life…and that light that keeps us moving in a Godward direction.

As our collect this morning says…are holy Scriptures are written for our learning.

We hear this Gospel, we read these words with the intention that we are to mark these words…learn from them…inwardly digest them.

Jesus offers these words of warning us so that we are not  blinded by the bright shiny objects.

We must be careful about putting too much stock into the things we think are great and powerful.

Finally…Jesus gives us these words as a preparation for how to live through moments that feel peculiar and unsettled.

We call that “liminal space.”

Liminal spaces are those times in our lives where things feel neither here nor there.

Grief is often described as a “liminal space.”

It can feel foggy…and strange.

Almost as if we’re moving at one speed while everything else around us is functioning at a different almost frenetic pace.

When we’re in that time…a place between what was and what is coming…we have Jesus telling us to understand that we will go through difficulties and hardships…but—as the poet Maya Angelou says—just like air…we will rise.

This is the promise of Jesus: that we are never alone.

And this is the promise of hope in everlasting life:

that no matter what…those who keep their eyes fixed on the love and light of God will not get lost in the dark and despair.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.