Community That Lasts

Based on Mark 13:1-8

One of my favorite bends in the road is in northern Kentucky on I-71 northbound just before you get to the Ohio River. If you are driving at night, it is a bonus. As you go around the bend you suddenly find in front of you on the other side of the river the spectacle of downtown Cincinnati all lit up. Usually when you are driving toward big cities you see the skyscrapers from a distance. But with Cincinnati you are just driving along and then there it is in front of you. It always puts a smile on my face, and I am struck by the beauty of the skyline of those buildings.

I remember when I got to visit Great Britain. For someone who grew up near a city founded at the end of the 19th century in a state that was founded at the beginning of the 20th, everything over there was so old. We toured a church somewhere in England that had worship services held every Sunday in the sanctuary since 1058. Oak pews that were hundreds of years old. The indentations in the stone floor where generations of priests had stood behind the altar. It took my breath away and I marveled at all that had happened in that holy sanctuary.

Recently, Kim and I were walking on Gay Street over to the Palace and we walked past someone who had his phone held up like he was filming the tall buildings around us while talking to someone on the phone about them. His eyes were wide. For him, it was so cool to be walking in downtown Columbus that evening. We assumed he must be from the country or some small town and that this was his first time in the big city. Kim and I giggled about it. But I remember walking around with my head looking up the first time I visited Chicago or New York City. Being at the top of the Sears tower and watching clouds float by below us was amazing. Standing next to one of the World Trade Center towers, looking up, and not being able to see the top of the building because it went up so high was dizzying. These are impressive structures, skyscrapers. City skylines at night are beautiful. Being inside buildings that have been used for 1,000 years is memorable.

Jesus’ disciples were doing the same thing as they walked around the Temple with Jesus. It was an impressive structure. The walls were constructed of large and thick white stone blocks. The east side of the Temple was plated with gold. Being built on the top of a hill, people could see the Temple from miles away. And when the sun rose, and the light was reflected by that gold plate the brightness would make you have to avert your eyes. It was an impressive structure, and rightly so because in the holy of holies it was understood that God was present. Some believed the Temple to be the literal center of the universe. The building was built to impress. And the disciples were duly impressed.

But Jesus didn’t seem impressed as they walked away toward the Mount of Olives. Jesus said to his disciples, “You are impressed with that building? One day every one of those stones will be pulled to the ground and that building won’t be there anymore.” Oh, to have been there in that moment to see the expression on the faces of the disciples. To say that the Temple, that impressive edifice, the place where God lives, would one day be torn down must have been very concerning to those disciples. So much so that later some of them meet privately with Jesus so he can tell them what to look for before the end of the world because only in the end times would the Temple be destroyed.

We do get attached to our buildings. We all remember the horror of watching the collapse of the twin towers, not only over the loss of so many lives but the shock of seeing those buildings come down in billows of dust. The thought of the White House or the U.S. Capitol building having potentially met the same fate that September morning is disturbing. We expend resources and do the best we can to maintain the church building we are currently in even though it is a burden and takes a good bit of our resources. We do it because we feel we need a church building to function as a church. We need somewhere to gather, a sanctuary space that is beautiful, that helps us worship. So many holy moments have happened inside these walls. These structures are important to us.

Jesus challenges us to instead focus on building and maintaining community instead of building and maintaining structures. Jesus didn’t seem to be too concerned about maintaining property. There was that person who once asked to follow Jesus and Jesus responded that foxes have holes and birds have nests but there is nowhere for the son of man to lay his head. In other words, to follow Jesus meant to be always on the move and staying wherever someone would let you. Jesus never said no to a dinner invitation, probably because he didn’t have anywhere else to go to get something to eat. The main point I’m trying to make though is that Jesus was focused on two things: sharing his message and building a community of disciples who would continue to share his message after he was gone. Jesus was building a community of relationships, not a community of structures. And when he blew off the impressive structure of the Temple by telling the disciples that it would be destroyed someday, he was letting them know that their energy and focus ought to be directed at building something that won’t be destroyed and that would be a community of relationships.

As I said, when Jesus told the disciples that the temple would be destroyed, that prompted in them some curiosity about when the end of the world would come because that’s what the destruction of the temple would be like…the end of the world. They wanted to know what else to look for that would serve as an advanced warning so they could get themselves mentally prepared for what would be happening next. Everyone wants advanced warnings, from what the weather will be like in a few days to when will be the destruction of the planet, so that we can prepare.

Instead of talking about signs, Jesus first talks about false leaders who will lead many astray. These false leaders make claims about themselves that are not true. But desperate people will follow charismatic leaders who make boastful claims about themselves and who seem to have a plan to ease their desperation. We see this happening all the time. When the disciples brought up the scary topic of the end of the world, Jesus’ first concern was to talk about false leaders.

Leaders gather followers and they build a community. It has become a truism. A leader without and followers is just someone going for a walk. Leaders need people and together they build a community of relationships. But what kind of community is it? What holds it together?

These false leaders make it about themselves. They claim that they are the saviors, that they can fix it, that they have the answers, the solutions to your problems. They claim that they can lead us in fighting back against our enemies who are trying to take something from us. These false leaders say that they will protect you and keep you safe from all the evil in the world.

One false leader in particular went by the name of Bar Kochba, which means in Hebrew “son of a star.” He led the Jewish revolt against the oppressive Roman empire that ultimately led to the destruction of Jerusalem, including the temple, around 70-72, about 40 years after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. More modern examples would be Jim Jones and David Koresh. There are many cults that have come and gone. There are always people who are willing to follow one of these cult leaders. But cults come and go. And in the case of the cults of Jim Jones and David Koresh the end is abrupt and deadly.

What so many of these leaders have in common is that they say they can read the signs of the times and know how the world will come to an end. They can answer the question that the disciples asked Jesus. You want to know the signs of the coming of the end of the world? These false leaders have answers for you. These are the leaders, the ones who can answer those questions and claim that they can lead us through to the other side of destruction, that Jesus warns his disciples not to follow.

In the end, all these false leaders distract from what should be the main focus. Rather than predicting the end of the world, fighting back against the enemies, protecting the community from the evil outside world, the focus should be loving God and loving your neighbor as you love yourself. That is the kind of community that Jesus was building. Not to focus on building impressive structures. Not to focus on who can answer our questions about the signs of the times and who will keep us safe from the evils of the world. The focus should always be on loving God and loving neighbor.

After warning the disciples about not following the false leaders who make it about themselves and focus on the wrong question, who focus on interpreting the signs of the end times rather than focusing on loving God and neighbor, Jesus speaks about these signs of the end times by describing what is common to the human experience since the dawn of humanity: war, earthquakes, and famines. How are these signs of the end times? People have always fought each other. Earthquakes happen naturally. Famines, either as a result of natural causes or as a tool of war, is nothing new. Why does Jesus point to these common sources of human suffering as signs of the end?

Jesus says that these common forms of suffering are but the beginning of the birth pangs. That is so evocative that Jesus brings in the experience of childbirth with this talk about when the end will come. Childbirth is a natural process. There are visible signs that a woman is pregnant. Although, I have learned the hard way never to assume that a woman is pregnant. You witness the signs. And when the time comes for delivery, there is a great deal of pain. But the pain is tempered with the anticipation of new life. And it is a natural process that unfolds. It is not to be resisted or controlled. Birth just happens.

When the disciples asked Jesus about the signs of the end, Jesus’ response was to tell them that there is not anything really to know or to resist or manipulate. The end will come. The new life that God is making possible will happen. What the disciples need to do is trust the process and instead focus on loving God and loving neighbor.

This is the community that we build as followers of Jesus: a community that loves God and loves one another. By building and maintaining this community, we can trust that we can endure war, earthquakes, and famines. We are building a resilient community. This community of Jesus followers will endure long after the communities of false leaders fade. As we live together focused on loving God and loving neighbor, we trust that the process God has initiated a long time ago will unfold and that in due time there will emerge new life, even a new world.