Belonging - Protecting Our Interests

Scripture: Mark 13:1-8

Mark 13:1–8 NRSV

1 As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” 2 Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” 3 When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” 5 Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. 6 Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. 7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8 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.

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Our Investments

How many of you shared your gratitude this week? How many of you felt a stronger sense of belonging after you shared that gratitude?

Our perspective and God's perspective are vastly different most of the time.

We know Jesus tells us not to worry, but we all do it anyway. We worry about money, we worry about our health, we worry about our families. We worry about our community, our nation, and our world, and we usually fixate those worries on specific people and places. We think about our favorite leaders and the challenges they face. We think about the prominent buildings that stand as symbols of our faith and our deepest values. At the end of the day, we know we are not supposed to worry, but we do it anyway.

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At the end of the day, our worries show our true loyalties.

Destruction

As they neared the end, the focus of the ministry grew more upon Jerusalem than the rest of Israel. Jesus and the disciples had spent most of their lives in Galilee, away from the big city. Drawn into the city sights, King Herod's fortress, his palace, and the Temple he had rebuilt were probably some of the most amazing pieces of architecture they had ever seen.

While they probably had seen them before, during Passover journeys to Jerusalem, it was different this time. This time they were here with Jesus, the Messiah, the King who had finally returned to rule. This time they looked at those great structures and thought to themselves... that might be my office one of these days. So, let's show a little gratitude for those great facilities we are hoping to inherit.

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Now, the Jewish people were no strangers to prophecies of doom and gloom, but the ones they shared the most often were the prophecies foretelling the doom of their enemies. Or perhaps the Jews who were unfaithful. Jesus surprised them by giving them a prediction of the doom of those famous buildings they were admiring. There are bible stories about the things we build becoming idols and God knocking them down. Maybe that was part of this prediction. I think it goes beyond what these buildings were and represented. I think God allowed these powerful places to be destroyed, including the Temple, because it wasn't working. It wasn't bringing people into relationship with God, and God wanted His people to wake up and realize they were falling away from Him.

The destruction of the Temple was not a precursor to the destruction of the faith of his people. It was the consequence of the destruction of the faith of His people. Not a punishment, but a consequence.

What's the difference?

The difference is in God's intention. The Temple, and the Tabernacle before it, were not a special gift for a group of people God loved more than anyone else. They were ways for the people of God to build and grow a relationship with Him. When the people gave up a relationship with God for a relationship with the Temple and traded their relationships with each other to try to look better than one another. It was a show, and all the people believed "the show must go one". But Jesus thought differently. To Jesus, the show had simply become just another distraction to draw people away from God.

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Distraction

The disciples were worried. Even though they were from Galilee, they had a lot invested in these major institutions of Jerusalem. This was not the first time God promised to destroy the Temple either. The prophet Jeremiah had predicted its destruction, which had already occurred. They knew it was possible because they were standing outside the Temple of God 2.0. They wanted to know when this destruction was about to happen so they could be prepared.

What they did not understand was that it was not a situation that could be avoided. Again, this was a consequence, not a punishment. Dr. Witherington pointed out that this scripture is a good description of how Jesus is BOTH "the stone the builders rejected" AND "the cornerstone" of God's house. Jesus is the most important piece missing from the Temple, and every other piece has to align themselves to Him. That means every brick of the Temple needs to be moved.

But you and I, with our post-Easter perspective, know that this is not about bricks and stones. It is not about buildings. It is about people. Every person who filled a function in that Temple, from the high priest to the widow with her two-penny offering, had to realign themselves with Jesus if they were going to truly be the people of God. Jesus used the phrase repent and believe. Without that willingness to change and follow Jesus today, not just yesterday or once upon a time.

While we try to reflect on where we stand with Jesus, everything else will try to distract us. Like that cats on cleaning day, we run and hide when God's heavenly vacuum cleaner comes to redeem the world around us. Everything tells us to run or hide when we hear about wars, natural disasters, and chaos all around us. We hear each other saying, "Surely we must be living in the end times." These must be the signs.

But those signs happened back when Jesus was here on earth as well. In fact, many of them happen all the time, at least somewhere in the world. So, rather than following the disciples and trying to figure out the specific details of how the world will end, we might think of following Jesus instead. Jesus tells us not to be alarmed by those distractions because they are just the beginning of God's work to redeem our world.

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God's Investment

Easier said than done right? Well, our worries show us and the world what is really important to us. What do you worry about?

The disciples were worried about their places and their culture being destroyed by outside forces. Jesus told them that He would rebuild it all in 3 days, which astounded everyone. They didn't understand that He was going to rebuild it with Himself as the first stone, and each of the disciples as the next stones in the Temple. Peter finally understood that much later and wrote about it in his letters to the Church. But they did not understand the first time they heard it. The House of God, the Family of God, would only exist if everyone were in their proper places, in right relationship with Jesus and each other. That is what we are. People get together and follow Jesus together and you have the Church, whether they have a building, or are meeting together online, or anywhere else.

We don't have a problem getting together. We have a problem getting together and filling that time with what Jesus is calling us to do. We have our own agendas, which sometimes seem more fun. When we don't follow Jesus, we end up creating a church in our own image instead of God's. If we are not careful, we end up becoming the very people leading others astray in Jesus’s name. When that happens, God removes those stumblingblocks, and us with them if we have become stumblingblocks ourselves, and we get worried, and we show that our true belonging may have been to ourselves and the things we have made, rather than to Jesus and the people He is making us into each day.

So what do you worry about?

I do not worry about these cold nights and the people who don't have a place to live, but I will lose sleep when the heat goes out in my own home.

I don't worry that the divorce rates accelerated all over the world these past two years, but I'm very worried about a particular friend going through a rough family situation.

I am not worried about communities all over the world that have little to no church presence in them, but I have people I pray for every day who are living without knowing Jesus.

My life and my worries are very centered around me. I'm learning to live a life centered around God. I wonder, if our lives were truly centered around God, what would we worry about then?

God worried about us enough to do more than worry. He sent Jesus to shake our world up and help us realize that the things we were doing and making were not saving us, whether we wanted to admit it or not. When the ground is being overturned underneath our feet, it doesn't necessarily mean our end has come. Sometimes it means it is time for a new planting season and God is tilling the soil. God is working that soil and getting ready to invest new seeds in it again.

Are you ready to BE God’s investment, new seeds, in God’s new planting season?