We have all known hardship and sorrow
and loss, I am sure. Although we might not have known it the way Israel did.
The Old Testament book of Isaiah tells
us of the trials that Israel endured during the 6th century BCE when
they were invaded by a powerful enemy – the Babylonians. The city of Jerusalem
was protected by strong walls, but the Babylonian army was big enough, powerful
enough to wear them down.
They laid siege to the city,
surrounded it, trapping the Israelites inside. No one could go in or out. The
enemy waited. The people inside the walls went through all their food stores,
and the Babylonians waited. They waited until the people inside were starving,
and then they waited a little more.
Finally, they attacked. They trampled,
they killed, they set fires. They destroyed the holy temple. The temple that
Israel had built with the idea that it would last forever. But now it was no
more. It did not last.
The Babylonians took the Israelites as
prisoners and marched them off to Babylon.
Which is where they stayed for around 50
years. And the painful memory of that time can still be seen in some of the
scriptures that came out of that period.
But empires do not last forever; they come
and go, and eventually the Babylonian empire was weakened and destroyed by a
more powerful ruler. This ruler had a different plan for dealing with its
captive Israel.
The plan was to let them go back home.
To make them rebuild what had been torn down. And so they did, some of them, 50
years after they have been forced out, return to Israel. They are sent back to
rebuild Jerusalem.
The work of rebuilding is arduous,
more difficult than anyone could have imagined. Conditions were harsh in every
way. The people were still not free of oppression – it was just a different
kind of oppression.
Some decades passed, very little
progress was made, and the people’s resolve was waning. They fought amongst themselves,
and they turned away from God. The rebuilding they had accomplished seemed so
much less than what they remembered from the glory days of Jerusalem, before
the Babylonian invasion. What they had now was a mere shadow of its former
self.
And in the midst of this the prophet offers
them hope. Isaiah speaks to them of how God will set to right all things, and
it will happen imminently. The deliverance of Israel and judgment on their
oppressors. Things so glorious they…well, some might say the prophet went a bit
too far, because these things he speaks of, they defy credibility.
He is speaking to them about things
that last. And after all they have been through, that might have been hard to
imagine. But he gave them hope – hope enough to carry on.
The temple was rebuilt. The religious
life of Israel was restored.
Several hundred years later, there is
another new oppressor – the Roman Empire now. This oppressor had taken an
interest in the temple – they saw it as a fixer-upper. King Herod was keen on rebuilding
and refurbishing the temple for his own glory, rather than for the glory of
God. But it was indeed beautiful, and the people of Israel appreciated it. Worship,
study, sacrifices of all kinds still took place there; it was still the center
of religious life for the people of Israel.
But they clearly had a sense now of
how things could fall apart. And so they handled their relationship with Rome
delicately – treading carefully with the oppressor, so that they might not
interfere with their rituals and traditions. The priests, the scribes, the
Pharisees and Sadducees went to tremendous pains to maintain a peaceable
relationship with the Romans. If they manage it right, they thought, this
accommodation, this truce, it might just last forever.
And then Jesus steps up and tells them
it will not. This temple, it will not last forever either. The day will come when
not one stone will be left upon another. Once again, it will be left in ruins.
All thrown down.
But a people who have lost so much, so
many times, are alarmed when they hear this. No, they think. This cannot be. “When?”
they ask him, “How? What will be the sign?” Can they prepare for it? Can they
possibly avoid the calamity this time?
When Luke was writing, these things
had already happened. Those things that Jesus described – the destruction of
the temple – were already in the past. This beautiful temple, like the ones
before it, did not last.
As many times as we build glorious
monuments and as many times as we see them go down – in flames or in dust – we
persist in imagining that they should last forever. But they don’t. I have seen churches die – not
from enemy attacks, though. What happens now is that people drift away. Members
grow older and eventually die. New people don’t join. And one day there are two
or three people left, and they begin to wonder if this is the end.
We may find it unbearable, the idea
that a church could die, because we believe in eternal things. But sometimes we
confuse our forms with God’s everlasting promises.
Nothing made by human hands lasts, no
matter how good it is. Temples are destroyed, our church buildings might be
emptied, sold, and even torn down to make room for something else.
Nothing of human creation lasts
forever. Our steeples and bells, our stained-glass windows. Our pews. Someday
they will be gone.
None of our human ideas or preferences
last forever. Our orders of worship, our musical styles, the things about which
we say “we have always done it that way” – even these things will fade.
The church of Jesus Christ is not
immune to loss and hardship. Jesus warned his disciples that it would not be
easy, and if anyone tried to tell them otherwise, they had better run away.
They best not be led astray by anyone who comes along with false promises. But do not be terrified, he says to us. All
things on earth will come to an end, but this will not be the end because God’s
promises are everlasting.
Not a hair on your head will perish,
he says. By your endurance you will gain your souls, he says. For God is making
a new heaven and a new earth, and it will be filled with things of life and
light and joy, with good things to eat and drink, with peace, with love.
We see things end…we sometimes are
called upon to rebuild, to make something new, like Israel did after their
Babylonian exile. Like Jesus’ disciples did after his crucifixion and the empty
tomb. Things come and they go, and the Presbyterian Church USA will not last
forever, either, I assure you. But that is alright, because God’s promises are
everlasting.
Our church year is about to end. A new
Advent is about to dawn, with all its anticipation and hope. The vision of the
prophet, the promises of Jesus, these are our hope for all eternity.
Love…peace…joy…hope. These are the
things that last. Do not be terrified, because no matter what happens to all
our stuff, all our ways of doing things – we know: God’s promises are the
things that last.
Forever and ever. Amen.
Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash
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