Not One Stone Left Upon Another - 11/13/22

Sermon Nov 13, 2022 "Not One Stone Left upon Another" (Luke 21:5-19)

Have you ever had an experience that totally devastated you? Things were going along just fine, and then WHAM! Something happened, which turned your world upside down. Maybe it was something that you did. Maybe it was something that was done to you. During it, you weren't sure that you were going to make it. Yet you did, thank God! You endured! And you were never the same: you were better; you were wiser. 

In our New Testament lesson today, Jesus predicted some difficult times ahead, terrible events that would result in the destruction of the temple, Judaism's holy place. Jesus called for endurance. And in a time of Covid, of warfare, I believe that Jesus calls the same for us.

I would like to pursue this thesis this morning: Difficult days demand endurance! Difficult days demand endurance!

This is certainly what Jesus was telling the disciples. Jesus was in the temple complex in Jerusalem. He had acted in temple, driving out the merchants. He had taught in the temple. And now he predicted the destruction of the temple. It is important that we understand the importance of the temple in Jewish life. My former student Wil Gafney writes in her ground-breaking book Women's Lectionary, "It may be difficult for Christians to understand the import of the temple in Jerusalem and the aching wound of its loss. It may not be an overstatement to say that the temple represented a physical manifestation of Immanu-El, God with us" (A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year W, p. 320). In Jesus' day, there was only one temple, and that was in Jerusalem. Jews all around the world worshiped weekly in local synagogues, but once in their lifetime they would make a pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem. The temple was a holy place. It was where God resided. Of course, Jews believed that God was everywhere, but in a special way, God resided in the temple in Jerusalem. 

Solomon built the Temple in the 10th century BC—in other words, about 1000 years before Jesus. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in the 6th century BC. It was rebuilt later in that century. By the time of Herod the Great, the temple had fallen into disrepair, so Herod expanded it and renovated it.

Jesus lived in the first third of the first century. He predicted the destruction of the temple, which happened at the beginning of the last third of the first century. In other words, Jesus ministered around 30, and the temple was destroyed in 70, during the first Jewish revolt. Palestine was ruled by Rome. Although Jews lived in their homeland, they did not rule their homeland. Rome ruled, and they ruled through local rulers, such as Herod Antipas in Jesus' day. He was governor of Galilee. He had been installed by the Romans. Jews revolted in 66, and that revolt was effectively put down when the Romans destroyed the temple.

When the temple was destroyed in 70, it was never rebuilt. On the temple mount today stands the Dome of the Rock, which is a Moslem Mosque. Near the temple site stands a model of the temple. So when you see contemporary photographs of the temple, it is not the temple as such but the model. The Western Wall, however, still stands, which is called the Wailing Wall, and you have perhaps seen pictures of that wall.

Jesus predicts that the temple will be destroyed, but not before other things happen. There will be false Messiahs, wars, insurrections, earthquakes, famine, and plagues. The disciples will be tried before kings and governors, something which is depicted in the book of Acts, Luke's second volume. But the disciples will have an opportunity to testify, but they don't need to prepare a defense because Jesus will give them words and wisdom--wise words, wordy wisdom. I remember when I was teenager active in the youth group at Second Baptist Church, Liberty, MO, the question was often raised, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"   Fortunately, I was never hauled into court for that or any "crime," I'm pleased to say. But testifying is important for Luke. Just before Jesus ascends in the beginning of Acts, he says, "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). What is your testimony? What is your witness? How do you testify--among your family, in your neighborhood, at your job, and here at your church. How do you testify? How do you endure?

What, then, does our passage say to us today here at First Baptist Church of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, on this Veterans Sunday 2022? I would like to repeat my main idea: Difficult days demand endurance. Difficult days demand endurance. We are in some difficult days right now. But we will get through. Just keep on keeping on. Keep the faith, baby--and old people too! As Martin Luther King paraphrased Theodore Parker, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Love wins! Love wins! You're going to get through it. Hard times don't last! On Facebook, ABCORI's own Kathryn Palen shares beautiful pictures and inspirational quotes. This week she quoted Liz Chase: “Hope is not pretending that troubles don’t exist. It is the trust that they will not last forever, that hurts will be healed and difficulties overcome. It is faith that a source of strength and renewal lies within to lead us through the dark into the sunshine.” Several years ago, when I was teaching at Howard Divinity, I served as a panelist for a discussion of the production of Thornton Wilder's "The Skin of Our Teeth." Perhaps you have seen this play. All these catastrophes happen: an ice age, a flood, and war. Each time the humans think that it is the end of the world, but each time they begin again. One of the characters Sabina says, "That's all we do—always beginning again! Over and over again. Always beginning again." Perhaps you know what that's like, to begin again. Maybe it was after some catastrophe: a fire or being fired or a war or a terrible accident or the death of a loved one. You made it, though, you made it. You're here. Maybe you didn't think that you would make it, but thanks be to God and thanks to your family and friends, you made it!

Perhaps some of you remember the 1978 single "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor. It has been covered by many singers, so everyone here maybe has heard it in some form. You may not know the story behind the song. Gaynor had recently been dropped by her record company. Soon after she was paralyzed and had to have spinal surgery, which laid her up in the hospital for three months. And she wore a back brace for several more months. After a few years, her old record label called her to record a song that one of their producers had written. Gaynor said, "They said, 'We think you're the one that we've been waiting for to record this song that we wrote a couple of years ago,' " Gaynor explained. "When I read the lyrics, I realized the reason they'd been waiting for me to record that song was that God had given that song to them for them to set aside, waiting for [God] to get everything in order for me to meet up with them. And that song was 'I Will Survive.' " It has become an anthem for survivors of domestic abuse, for the gay community, for anyone who has been pushed to the margins of society. Karen Grigsby Bates of NPR writes, "Set to a driving beat, its message is one that anyone who hears it can claim as their own. It is an anthem for people who have survived whatever life has thrown at them." (https://www.npr.org/2019/09/24/763518201/gloria-gaynor-i-will-survive-american-anthem)

Friends, you have survived. You are surviving. You will survive. Even if treasured buildings, relationships, communities, institutions do not survive, you will. You will. All that is required of us is to endure! As Paul wrote, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom 7:25).

And all God's people said, "Amen."