"The Only Thing That Last Is….Grace"
1 Samuel 1: 4-20; Mark 13: 1-8; Hebrews 10: 19-25
November 19, 2006
What is most important to you….giving meaning to your life?
Would someone know what is most important to you by how you are living…where you spend your time,
where you put your attention, how you spend your money?
What I am asking you to do is to think about what it is that serves as the touchstone in your life. Is the touchstone, the guiding principal, the central belief, one you can lean on to guide you? Does it empower you to see the deeper meaning in situations and help you know what to do minute to minute, joy to joy, challenge to challenge?
Will it stand the test of time?
Will it remain standing with you when everything comes crashing down around you?
Because….at some point the….temples…even the really good and worthy ones that have served you well in the past….well, those temple walls are gonna’ come a tumbling down….not because they are bad but because life doesn’t stand still…things change…you change…your needs and knowledge and knowings and desires change. The world changes (thank God) and so do you.
Will the falling walls of "the way it use to be" crush you?
Or, will you get out of the way of the past and step into the future?
You see, Jesus’ story today, and all the other versions of it in the New Testament, is not a story of apocalypse now…it is not an end of time story where everything is wiped out and nothing is left. No. God promised never to do that again…remember after the flood. The original hearers of this story in written form would have realized this….not only because they knew about Noah, but because the temple of which Jesus spoke had already fallen by then and they were still there.
This is a story of the eschatology of time…big words today…the words aren’t important but the faith concepts are! For Jesus, the end of time is about seeing what really is and isn’t, finding heaven on earth now, letting go of structures that no longer serve God (or you!) very well, and living into the new kindom on earth, the new heaven and the new Jerusalem before our very eyes. The end is the beginning….birthing pains!
The temples will fall. They must….for the good of all. So, for heaven’s sake, get out of the way of what no longer works in your life, in this church, in your community, in our country….because it must come down. So wake up and don’t just stand there! Don’t let life crush you as it comes tumbling down! Instead, move it! Seek what really lasts.
Jesus says stay alert so you don’t miss the boat…the tippe-canoe.
Stay alert so you don’t hold on to the old temples and miss the new boat…don’t hold on to the old temples so long that they come tumbling down on you and you get crushed.
You know that crushed feeling…when your heart turns over inside feeling sick?
Like when…a friend betrays you, a colleague one ups you, your child chooses poorly despite your best love, you thought someone else would save you and then they didn’t, when church lets you down, life dumps on you and it’s not your fault! …you know that crushed feeling as the walls tumble, as you miss the boat to deeper waters of understanding and meaning.
The question is: How does the faith community….Jesus’ disciples, Mark’s community of hearers, us today…how do we survive in times of collapse and turmoil? Jesus attempts to prepare his followers for times such as….these.
How does he prepare us? What does he say?
Jesus focuses on the issue of deception. It seems true that in times of turmoil people are more easily deceived because they’re panicked. Often we allow our fear and uncertainty to cause us to follow any claim or plan or leader that offers stability and speaks with authority…any port in the storm. After all, it’s much harder to stay in life’s tippe-canoe and ride out the storm than it is to head to the nearest port and take cover!
When you look at the safe temples, our safe organizations today…the safe ports if you will…the ones that are becoming major ports for people, aren’t they the ones which preach absolutes often using language of the past and images of the past…..and claim to know what’s happening and what to do about it as if there is only right way and it’s their way?
Where Jesus is open and affirming and inclusive, these others are often closed, absolute, and exclusive. They see things in terms of black and white where Jesus sees rainbows of choices. Be alert! Popularity and decisiveness are not necessarily hallmarks of wisdom or insight.
Jesus tells his followers not to be alarmed and not to allow themselves to be led astray because its darkest just before the dawn. We are to keep our focus on him…on the way he lives a personally powerful relationship with God…to follow his ways…not the ways of the world….the ways of the past….for the ways of the world will not last.
Birth pangs…Hannah’s and yours and the world’s! New creation. Jesus is preparing people for the much needed transformation. He warns us not to get too comfortable with the way it is and not to give in to the hopelessness of the way it isn’t! Gee…it’s like Jesus was the first Presbyterian…reformed and reforming!God’s promise can be trusted. This is not the end of time…there is no end time. The future is open and calls forth our best selves. No matter how bad it is now…trust there is more to come. Difficult times cannot outlast God’s faithfulness. Even in the midst of suffering, even in the midst of upheaval, rebirth and its hope are the ways of God. What lasts in this world are not impressive constructions of architecture and organizations meant to convey the reach of human power. Rome fell! What lasts is the ever birthing of God’s divine grace…that’s what lasts.
Jesus says stay alert and don’t be led astray. Keep your focus on the holy, on the community, on the ministry, on the well-being of your spirit. Take the long view. Really think about what it is that you really want to last…and worshipfully work towards it…put your energy and your time there!
Don’t let life crush you!
Gee…what is it that could crush you if you let it?
~What is that one thing that would crush you if you lost it,
or is crushing you now because you don’t have it?
~What is standing in the way of your being the person God created you to be?
An attitude, resentment, depression, denial, stubbornness, your view of time and money?
Are these crushing you?
~Take a moment…write it down in your bulletin if it would help you name it.
Scary to think about?
The end coming…scary?
Don’t fear fear; have the courage to be frightened, and to frighten others too….to provoke their goodness as it says in Hebrews
Don’t be fooled. We are living in apocalyptic times disguised as normal, and that is why most of us have not responded appropriately. The appropriate response is to see the temples, know the walls are falling, and live into Jesus’ eschatology…be a part of creating the new heaven and the new earth by working toward the only things that really last in life….love, relationships, justice, peace….God made really real.
You have to do something or you will be crushed.
You have to "Fall Into Grace".
Deep within, you know what really lasts. Put your energy there. Don’t be led a stray. Don’t become a one issue voter, a one fight and I’m not talking to you family member, not give to the whole of our ministry because of one ministry that troubles you….see the larger picture and stay in the tippe-canoe! The waters will calm.
You can let go of protecting yourself, clinging to the old temple walls, expecting the past to save you! You can…because…
God is with you.
What really lasts? God with you. Grace.
References about regarding "fear" from comments of Walter Wink on September 11 in the book The Aftermath, Northstone, 2002.
…Because, based within your faith, this is no ordinary fear. We’re called to a fearless fear, since it dares at last to face the real magnitude of the danger you are in if you continue to stand within the shadow of the walls of false temples. And it is a loving fear we’re called to, since it embraces fear in order to save not only you but the generations to come…yours personally and ours corporately.
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