— A Sermon by Robert W. Prim —
23rd Sunday after Pentecost; November 17th, 2019
Luke 21:5-19
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One day people were standing around talking about the Temple, remarking how beautiful it was, the splendor of its stonework and memorial gifts. Jesus said, “All this you’re admiring so much – the time is coming when every stone in that building will end up in a heap of rubble.”
They asked him,”Teacher, when is this going to happen? What clue will we get that it’s about to take place?”
He said, “Watch out for the doomsday deceivers. Many leaders are going to show up with forged identities claiming, ‘I’m the One,’ or, ‘The end is near.’ Don’t fall for any of that. When you hear of wars and uprisings, keep your head and don’t panic. This is routine history and no sign of the end.”
He went on, “Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. Huge earthquakes will occur in various places. There will be famines. You’ll think at times that the very sky is falling.
“But before any of this happens, they’ll arrest you, hunt you down and drag you to court and jail. It will go from bad to worse, dog-eat-dog, everyone at your throat because you carry my name. You’ll end up on the witness stand, called to testify. Make up your mind right now not to worry about it. I’ll give you the words and wisdom that will reduce all your accusers to stammers and stutters.
“You’ll even be turned in by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. Some of you will be killed. There’s no telling who will hate you because of me. Even so, every detail of your body and soul – even the hairs on your head! – is in my care; nothing of you will be lost. Staying with it – that’s what is required. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry; you’ll be saved.
(Eugene Peterson’s “The Message”).
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Don’t judge us. We do not do it all the time. When our children are home, either one of them, we don’t do it. Don’t judge us. When our children are home, either one, we eat together as a family at the kitchen counter or dining room table. When the children are away, however, Anne Forrest, my wife, and I will sometimes take our suppers into the living room and watch a recorded episode of House Hunters on the Home and Garden Network. Anne Forrest is not much interested in watching the news and it is good for me to take a break; so, we watch people looking for homes to buy. It is a pleasant distraction.
Except for once this past week. We sat down to salad and pizza and the show was about a successful woman, a pilot, in her mid-thirties looking for a home on Daniel Island near Charleston, SC. She had nearly a million dollars to spend! I could not identify with this woman and not just because she had so much money to spend. She had been through a divorce and this home was to be her bachelorette pad. I know they play roles in this show but she was very picky. She was, in my opinion, annoying; she was painfully privileged.
It wasn’t until I started writing the sermon that I realized why I could not identify with her, and it wasn’t that she was wealthy and persnickety. As I was working on this sermon about the destruction of the Temple, I realized the woman of the show made me sad. She was masking the broken-ness of her heart by looking for a shining, exterior object to make her feel better. It won’t work; I know it won’t work. I’ve tried it. Maybe she will live on a sugar high for a few months, but her broken interior cannot be fixed by a fancy home on the exterior.
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(By the way, being a preacher can ruin even the most innocuous of entertainment!)
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Here’s why this relates in my mind to what is before us in Scripture today. Jesus was speaking with a group outside the Temple. This was the Second Temple after the one built by Solomon (which had been destroyed by the Babylonians). The Second Temple was rather modest in its original state, but Herod the Great, a name he gave himself, had remodeled it and made it truly grand.
Josephus, the first century Romano-Jewish historian, wrote this about the Temple… Josephus was someone who actually saw the Temple before it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. … not long after the time of Jesus … Josephus wrote this:
The exterior of the building wanted nothing that could astound either mind or eye. For, being covered on all sides with massive plates of gold, the sun was no sooner up than it radiated so fiery a flash that persons straining to look at it were compelled to avert their eyes, as from the solar rays (Josephus, The Jewish War, 5:207-208; as used in The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. IX, p.399).
Herod the “so called” Great did that renovation. This was the same Herod who had slaughtered innocent children out of fear of the birth of Jesus who prophesy said would be king. Herod’s son, Herod Antipas, was the power hungry and immoral king who had John the Baptist beheaded. There was rot and broken-ness at the heart of this family and they tried to cover it up with gold on the Temple that would compel an onlooker to avert her eyes from the reflection.
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Here’s the point once again:
No exterior thing could make up for a rotting interior spirit.
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One day people were standing around talking about the Temple, remarking how beautiful it was, the splendor of its stonework and memorial gifts. Jesus said, “All this you’re admiring so much – the time is coming when every stone in that building will end up in a heap of rubble.”
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The gathered group immediately asked Jesus when this would happen. For them the fall of the Temple would mean the end of time. Jesus was not interested in trying to predict when history would cease to be. Jesus warned against doomsday preachers and others who would try to build a following by making such proclamations. History would continue on with wars, uprisings, nations against nations, rulers against rulers. Even his own followers would find a rough road ahead; they would not be spared and might even have it worse than others by their willingness to stand up for Jesus. Jesus would have nothing to do with scaring up a following by saying that he could predict the future. His only prediction was that a hard rain was gonna fall and his followers would not be spared.
Jesus wanted to make a different point besides predicting the end of time with this group standing in front of the Temple. Jesus wanted them to build a rock solid and beautiful Temple within them not without. Jesus wanted the gold to be in their hearts, minds, and communities and not on some exterior building.
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God’s fortress is mighty but it resides not on some impenetrable hill but in our personal and communal hearts. This fortress of God’s promises are sure, come what may. We can stand upon them in difficult times and speak the truth of God’s love and grace and justice trusting that God has promised that we will not be lost to the God who knows even the number of hairs on our heads.
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Two stories to conclude. The first is a story out of the Hindu tradition and I told it a year ago; maybe it bears repeating. The second comes right out of the hymnal…
The sannyasi had reached the outskirts of the village and settled down under a tree for the night when a villager came running up to him and said, “The stone! The stone! Give me the precious stone!”
“What stone?” asked the sannyasi.
“Last night the Lord Shiva appeared to me in a dream,” said the villager, “and told me that if I went to the outskirts of the village at dusk I should find a sannyasi who would give a precious stone that would make me rich forever.”
The sannyasi rummaged in his bag and pulled out a stone. “He probably meant this one,” he said, as he handed the stone over to the villager. “I found it on a forest path some days ago. You can certainly have it.”
The man gazed at the stone in wonder. It was a diamond, probably the largest diamond in the whole world, for it was as large as a person’s head.
He took the diamond and walked away. All night he tossed about in bed, unable to sleep. Next day at the crack of dawn he woke the sannyasi and said, “Give me the wealth that makes it possible for you to give this diamond away so easily.”
(From The Song of the Bird by Anthony de Mello, pps. 140-141)
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Jesus wants his followers to build the diamond in our hearts and minds where nothing can destroy it or take it from us.
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Thomas Dorsey, born in 1889 in rural Georgia, was a prolific songwriter and an excellent gospel and blues musician. While a young man, Dorsey moved to Chicago and found work as a piano player in the churches there as well as in clubs and theaters. Struggling to support his family, Dorsey divided his time between playing in clubs and playing in the church. He came to be known as Georgia Tom and became such a success in secular clubs – particularly playing with Ma Gertrude Rainey and Her Wild Cats Jazz Band. This success led Dorsey to move away from church music.
At the age of 21, however, Dorsey had a nervous breakdown and was unable to play for two years. Once he recovered he tried to play just sacred music, but was rejected by many church pastors because his music had the rhythm of the blues. Dorsey said of this time in his life – I’ve been thrown out of some of the best churches in America.
Three years later Dorsey had another nervous breakdown, and when he came back to composing and playing he devoted himself to sacred music. In August of 1932, Dorsey left his pregnant wife in Chicago and traveled to be the featured soloist at a large revival meeting in St. Louis. After the first night of the revival , Dorsey received a telegram that simply said, “Your wife just died.” Dorsey raced home and learned that his wife had given birth to a son before dying in childbirth. The next day his son died as well. Dorsey buried his wife and son in the same casket and withdrew in sorrow and agony from his family and friends. He refused to compose or play any music for quite some time.
While still in the midst of despair, Dorsey said that as he sat in front of a piano, a feeling of peace washed through him. He heard a melody in his head that he had never heard before and began to play it on the piano. That night, Dorsey recorded this:
Precious Lord, take my hand,
Lead me on, help me stand;
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn;
through the storm, through the night,
Lead me on to the light;
Take my hand, precious Lord,
Lead me home.
(As told in Feasting on the Word, year C, volume 4, p.312)
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Jesus, standing before the golden Temple
that would soon fall,
wanted his followers
to place their hopes in God.
Jesus wanted his followers
to know that even in the times of being weak and worn,
even in the times of nights and storms,
God will take our hands
and lead us all home.
Amen.