A friend
tells of taking a group of tourists to Jerusalem.
One of the stops was at the Wailing Wall—the site of the Temple that the Romans had destroyed in
70 AD. These tourists had barely gotten off the bus when one woman exclaimed,
“Wow, look at those stones!” She was right. For King Herod had used massive stones in building his temple. There were spectacular arches and gates with
one stone being 45 feet long and weighing over 570 tons. The Corinthian columns
were 37 ½ feet tall and were carved out of solid blocks of granite. Further,
King Herod had brought in large amounts of dirt so that his temple would sit upon an artificially created mountain at the
high point of the city. Massive retaining walls held it all together. In total, Herod
had created a large flat surface the size of 24 football fields. With its goal
overlay, from a distance the temple looked like a large mountain covered with snow.
Jesus’ disciples were
impressed. One of them shouted, “Look Teacher! What large stones and what
large buildings!” These men from rural southern Galilee had never seen such a magnificent building
in their lives.
But to his disciples’
awe, Jesus replied, “Do you see these buildings? Not one stone will be
left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
Leaving the temple grounds,
Jesus and his disciples then climbed up to the Mount of Olives. As they looked across the Kidron Valley, they could behold the beauty of the temple
in the distance. Peter, James, John, and Andrew could hold their questions no
longer. They approached Jesus and asked, “Tell us when will this be, and
what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?”
Jesus was very aware of the
political unrest all about him. He knew the Essenes had retreated into the desert
near a place called Qumran,
there to establish a pure religious society and to await God’s victory over the Roman occupiers. The Zealots were seeking to start a “holy war” to drive out the Romans, and they were engaged
in terrorist activities against the Roman troops and the government officials. Jesus
knew that it only was going to be a matter of time until the Romans had enough of this rebellion, and would come and destroy
Jerusalem
and the temple. Therefore, when Jesus spoke of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, he was not speaking
of the end of the world. Rather, he was speaking of the end of the world, as his disciples had known it. For in less than 40 years, in 70 AD, Roman troops under Emperor
Titus would sweep down upon Jerusalem, slaughtering thousands of residents, pulling down the walls of the city, and burning the temple
to the ground. Those Jews and Christians that would be fortunate to survive the
carnage would flee the city in terror. For them, it was the end of their world,
as they had known it.
But more importantly, it
was a new beginning. Christians fleeing from Jerusalem carried the gospel to every
corner of the world; wherever they settled, they established churches. The paradox of Christianity is that if Jerusalem had not been destroyed, causing
the Christians to flee the city, the Christian Church would have remained only a small sect of Judaism centered around Jerusalem.
In our own time, world changes
have brought new challenges for us:
Just a few years ago, we were certain that skyscrapers
had been built so sturdy that they would not crumble into a pile of toxic dust and rubble. We
were certain that hurricane driven seawater could not shatter well-built 100-year-old homes into scrap wood, and completely
wipe a beach clean for a mile inland. We were certain that the ocean could not
suddenly and without warning completely leap out of its seabed and devastate a coastal region. However, we know better now. For we live in a post-9/11 world
in which increased security and the possibility of terrorism is an accepted reality. Further,
since August 5, 2006, we have lived in a post-Hurricane Katrina world in which new construction along the Gulf Coast must conform to strict building codes, and disaster
evacuation signs are posted along major highways. Further, since October 8, 2007,
we have lived in a world where CNN has shown a Tsunami’s destruction of the coastal regions of Thailand and Southeast Asia. In
the face of these tragedies, people have buried their dead, grieved their losses, and begun rebuilding their homes, their
businesses, and their lives.
However, this is not new
to our generation. Every new generation has had to adapt in the face of new challenges.
I am reminded of a cartoon that depicted a scruffy, robed, bearded sidewalk prophet. He
was carrying a sign that read on one side, “Bad News! The World Is Coming
To An End!” And on the other side of the sign, he had written, “And
You’ll Just Have to Cope with It!”
Perhaps you remember, Alvin Toffler’s
book, Future Shock, that was published in 1970. In
that book, Toffler wrote, “change is a process by which the future invades our lives...” And throughout his book,
he sought to describe the ways in which people adapt—or fail to adapt—to the future that is crashing in upon them.
Just like the rest of human
society, the Christian Church has had to adapt to the cultural shifts that are occurring every 10-15 years. Will Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas in their book, Resident Aliens,
wrote about those shifting cultural changes. Will Willimon told how, on an evening
in 1963 in Greenville,
SC, his world
shifted. For on that night, the Fox Theater defied the state’s time-honored
blue laws and opened on Sunday. Seven youth from the local Methodist Church’s “Methodist Youth Fellowship”
had skipped church that evening in order to see a John Wayne movie playing at the Fox Theater. Will Willimon wrote, “On that night, Greenville, South Carolina—the last pocket of resistance
to secularity in the Western world—served notice that it would no longer be a prop for the church. The Fox Theater went head to head with the church over who would provide the world view for the young.
That night in 1963, the Fox Theater won the opening skirmish.”
In the face of those cultural
shifts we, the church, are seeking to meet the challenges. We are getting smarter in how we share the gospel in a secular
worldwide culture. We are learning how to find common ground with peoples of different faith traditions, working together
in meeting common human needs. We are learning how to help our people to understand
the gospel challenges presented in the scriptures, and to rediscover how the sacraments convey God’s presence to us.
We are learning that the church’s front doors are no longer just doors
to the inside and the outside of a church building. Rather, the church’s
front doors are the doors through which Christians pass into the new mission field. Such
is the new world we live in.
For a number of years as
I have driven the interstates in West Virginia, I often see signs with the printing, “Be Alert for Falling Rocks!” And, I have learned that the WV Department of Transportation was serious in putting up those signs. One day when I was living in Huntington, I was traveling between Huntington and Charleston when a small boulder rolled off a mountain. It landed
about 100 feet in front of me, and right in front of a Mercedes traveling in the same direction. When the Mercedes struck
the boulder, its left front wheel and tire were destroyed. The car came to a
sudden stop on the interstate. However, that accident and other incidents of
falling rocks have not stopped people from driving throughout West
Virginia. We have
learned to cope with falling rocks, just as we have learned to cope with darting deer. We
have just coped—we have just remained alert! Likewise, Jesus’ challenge
to his disciples and to us is to remain alert—and to see each new challenge as filled with new possibilities for ministry.
Moreover, there is one more
important thing to note in this scripture. That is, that God has not left his
world alone to travel on its own way. Moreover, even when all time ends—even
that ending will not be an end to God’s creation. Rather, that ending simply
will be the beginning of God’s transformed creation.
During some of my first years
in ministry, I served as the Chaplain at the Pee Dee Mental Retardation Center in Florence, SC. While there, I loved playing checkers with a resident
there named Larry. Larry was then in his mid-70’s. Larry had been born into a poor family in SC. As a child, Larry
had not developed motor and cognitive skills as quickly as other children his age. In
an effort to help Larry, in the mid-1920’s his family had placed him in the state mental retardation facility. In my getting to know Larry, I soon discovered that Larry had an intellectual brilliance,
which he applied to the game of checkers. Larry always would win the city-wide
senior citizen checker tournaments. And when I played Larry, I was totally outclassed!
I would make my first move, and from that point onward, Larry totally controlled
the game. After about five moves on my part, Larry would smile and in one sweeping
move quickly eliminate all of my checkers. Larry could see a series of patterns developing with every move that I made, patterns
which he ultimately would use to win the game.
In Jesus’ teachings
on the Mount of Olives, Jesus
promised that in each new ending in our lives God enables us to discover new beginnings in our lives. Moreover, like Larry winning all those checker games—in the end, God ultimately will bring about God’s
good purposes for God’s creation. Therefore, we do not need to be anxious
about the future. Instead, we can remain focused and faithful to the tasks presented to us in the present.
It is as the beloved hymn goes:
God is
working his purpose out as year succeeds to year;
God is
working his purpose out, and the time is drawing near;
Nearer
and nearer draws the time, the time that shall surely be,
When the
earth shall be filled with the glory of God, as the waters cover the sea.
