Sunday
11/18/18 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “All will be thrown down”
Old Testament
Scripture: 1 Samuel 2:1-10
New Testament
Scripture: Hebrews 10:11-25
Gospel Lesson:
Mark 13:1-8
Welcome again my brothers and sisters, my friends, on this
our Twenty-Six Sunday after Pentecost. Twenty-Six Sundays after the Holy Spirit
moved and the Christian Church was born on the day of Pentecost, nearly
two-thousand years ago.
With this said, and I don’t know about you, but sometimes I
have been guilty of trusting in something too much. Maybe it was a baseball bat
that I thought would never warp, break, or tarnish, and it did. Maybe it was a
winter coat that I was sure would last forever, and it didn’t. Sometimes things
that are big or small can be things that we put way too much trust in.
For example, on April 15, 1912 the RMS Titanic, which was a
British passenger liner sank to the bottom of the ocean (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic).
Many of us have seen the movie “Titanic” with Leonardo DiCaprio that was
released in 1997. This movie depicted the beautiful almost 883-foot long
Titanic in all of its beauty and its splendor. The movie then depicted it
sinking to the bottom of the cold ocean, after hitting an iceberg, as many
died. From the poorest to the richest, many of them died.
A
quote that has been incorrectly attributed to the Titanic, meaning it was never
a published statement, was that “God himself could not sink this ship” (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/sinking-the-unsinkable/).
While this quote was never published or recorded, I am confident that some
people might have thought things very similar to this. The Titanic was a grand
ship, and many put their confidence in that ship above all else. Yet it sank,
and it still sits today where it sank in 1912.
Well for those of you who haven’t heard yet, a replica of the
Titanic is being built presently, and it will sail in the coming years. Here is
what one article that I read says:
“A replica
of the Titanic could embark on its maiden voyage by 2022 and eventually follow
its doomed predecessor's original route from Southampton to New York, the company
behind the "Titanic II" project says. Clive Palmer, an Australian
businessman and chairman of Blue Star Line, announced the revival of the
project in September following years of delays due to financial constraints”.
“The new
Titanic, which will cost about $500 million to build, could hold 2,400
passengers and 900 crew members. Palmer told Cruise Arabia and Africa that the launch date for the
ship had been pushed back from 2018 to 2022, 110 years after the original hit
an iceberg and fell to the ocean floor. If all goes according to plan, Palmer
said the ship will travel from Dubai to Southampton before making the journey
across the Atlantic”.
"The
ship will follow the original journey, carrying passengers from Southampton to
New York," Palmer said in a statement last
month." But she will also circumnavigate the globe, inspiring and
enchanting people while attracting unrivaled attention, intrigue and mystery in
every port she visits"
(https://www.cbsnews.com/news/titanic-clive-palmer-blue-star-line-southhampton-new-york/).
Now, as far as I have gathered, the level of confidence and
maybe even arrogance around the first Titanic ship does not seem to be as high
this time around for Titanic 2. Out of curiosity though, how many of you would
want to go on a trip on Titanic 2? Further, how many of you would go on Titanic
2 even if the trip was free?
The story of the original Titanic has
a connection to our gospel of Mark reading from this morning, in that we should
not place our trust in a ship, or in the case of the gospel reading for this
morning, a building. We love our homes, our buildings, but our trust must be
first and foremost be in God, not in a ship, not in a building, but in God.
Now this scripture that we have for
this morning, is found of course in the gospel of Mark, and it also in the
gospels of Matthew and Luke. This scripture is often called the “Olivet
Discourse,” as we have a glimpse of a minor apocalypse of sorts. This portion
of this “Olivet Discourse” reminds us that we will suffer some before the
return of Christ, before the fullness of the kingdom of God comes into being (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivet_Discourse).
Now this scripture takes place at the
Temple in Jerusalem. Many other Jewish houses of worship are sometimes called
synagogues, but the Temple in Jerusalem is called the Temple. It was the holiest,
the most central, and the closest place on earth to the living God. It is the
place that housed the Ark of Covenant, which held the Ten-Commandments, the
place where the high priest was, and the place where the animal sacrifices and
special giving occurred.
Today in Jerusalem, all that remains of
this once great temple, is the wall that runs through a small part of
Jerusalem. Many call this portion of the outer wall, the “Wailing Wall”. You
can go to this portion of the wall to pray, to put notes in the wall, and this place
is considered the holiest place on earth to devout Jews. Well like the Titanic,
the Temple was destroyed.
Let’s hear again what the gospel has
to say this morning. It says once again speaking of Jesus:
“As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to
him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus
asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here
upon another; all will be thrown down” (Mk.
13:1-2, NRSV).
Jesus is saying that the mighty and
beautiful Jewish Temple in Jerusalem that included many buildings will be
destroyed. This temple which was considered to be one of the great wonders of
the ancient world. The gospel then continues on and finishes by saying about
the destruction of the temple:
“When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the
temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will
this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?”
Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many
will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many
astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must
take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there
will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs”
(Mk. 13:3-8, NRSV).
In the rest of this gospel reading, Jesus is speaking both
about the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and also how the world will
look before he returns in glory. This is to say, Jesus is saying things will
get bad before the temple is destroyed, and that things will get rough before
he returns in glory, to judge the living and the dead. Jesus sometimes spoke in
dualities, or two things in one statement.
So did the temple in Jerusalem get destroyed? Of course it
did, because all that remains in the city of Jerusalem today is the “Wailing
Wall”. That massive wall of large white stones that people pray at, stick notes
in, and feel closer to God at, is all that remains of the great temple that was
once in Jerusalem. I wonder if anyone when Jesus was alive ever said, “Even God
himself could not destroy this temple”. We know whatever was or wasn’t said
about the strength of Titanic, it didn’t end well, as the fate of the temple
didn’t end well either.
Well most of
know that the Titanic hit an iceberg and sunk, but what of the Jewish Temple in
Jerusalem? Well here is what happened, as the Jews lived under Roman
occupation:
“In 66 CE the Jewish
population rebelled against the Roman Empire. Four years later, on
30 August 70 CE, Roman legions under Titus took and destroyed much
of Jerusalem and the Second Temple. The Arch of Titus,
in Rome and
built to commemorate Titus's victory in Judea,
depicts a Roman victory procession with soldiers carrying spoils from the Temple, including the Menorah” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Temple).
So the
Romans under Roman Emperor Titus destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus said
that this would happen in this morning’s gospel reading and about 40-years
later it was in fact destroyed. In the process the “Ark of the Covenant” that
had the Ten-Commandments was lost, as were all of the other treasures. Once
again, all that remains today of temple is the outer wall, the “Wailing Wall”.
It would be the equivalence of your house burning down, but your metal fence
surviving. So temple was destroyed as Jesus said, but some of the fence
remained. Jesus said this morning in the gospel of Mark once again of the great
temple:
“Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be
left here upon another; all will be thrown down” (Mk. 13:1-2, NRSV).
Sometimes we put our trust in ships, things, temples, or the
economy, but nothing is certain. When our last economic recession hit in 2008
for example, many of our economic leaders in this country had said that our
economy was “too big to fail”. They were wrong.
While we love this church building and
while we hope to have it for many years to come, the real gift is Jesus. The real
power is Jesus. We come here to worship, but the only thing that is certain is
God and His Kingdom.
I can’t imagine what it was like
recently for some folks in California who thought that they had great security
in their homes and possessions, when forest fires, in what seemed to be instant,
took everything from them. Maybe in 2006, and again in 2011, folks here in
Sidney felt secure and safe, and then the floods hit.
I am not saying any of these things to
create fear, but instead, like Jesus was telling us, put your hope, your faith,
and your trust in the things of God, not the things of this earth. This is not
always easy to do. By the way, once again who wants to go on a trip on the
Titanic 2?
We are also this month, in our season
of stewardship. In this season of stewardship I am often asked to give the
sermon that I jokingly call the “Sermon the Amount”. You know that sermon where
the pastor gets angry and shouts at you, and tells you that God wants you to
give 10-percent of your income to the church? Many of us know this sermon all
too well, and we don’t like it do we?
Let me put it this way then, I believe
that everything we have and own is God’s. Our talents, our drives, our gifts,
and every possession we have is because of God, so everything therefore we have
is God’s. Jesus tells us to put our trust in him and not in worldly things.
It’s a challenge as a church, because we are called to praise God and to bring
people with God’s help to the saving grace of his Son Jesus Christ. Yet it does
take resources to do the ministries of this church. Unfortunately we have to
pay the utilities and other costs, just like you and many others have to.
So if we start with the idea that everything
is God’s, then I would tend to think that we choose to give of our time, our
talents, and our resources to things that we believe in.
Something I believe in for example,
that I have seen many commercials for lately, is St. Jude’s Children’s
Hospital. How many of you think that St. Jude’s is a good thing to give to?
I have found in this now my seventh-year
of ministry that when we believe in something we give to it. While God is the
only thing that is eternal, and while everything we have belongs to him, do we
believe in what this church is doing in Sidney and in the world? Do we believe
in our pastor, our leaders, and all the people of this church? Do we believe
that we are a growing and a strong family of believers that boldly loves each
other, Sidney, and the world, in the name of Jesus Christ? Do we believe in
what this church can continue to be and become? I don’t know about you my
brothers and sisters, but I give for those reasons, not because an angry pastor
in a $2,000 suit told me to.
Like the Titanic, the Temple in
Jerusalem, and Disco, nothing is guaranteed. Everything we have is God’s, and I
find that when we see something or are a part of something that looks like God
we give to it and support it. I also find when something looks far from God, we
don’t support it.
Knowing that nothing is this world is
certain other than God, may we pray about and consider how we wish to support
this church and its ministries in the year to come, knowing that this building,
our homes, and our possession are not guaranteed. Amen.
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