Mark 13:1-8
Proper 28 (33) - Year B
In United Methodism we have distributed our Temple to Nashville, Evanston, New York, Washington and other places. This trick won't do us any better than the one Temple in Jesus' time. Even a distributed temple will come tumbling down when we try to substitute security for ministry and power/personality for integrity/thinking.
This dear denomination is going to come down because, as John Wesley warned, we have been more intent on getting all we can get and storing away all we can store away but not giving all we can give. That internal surplus takes the soul unto itself and can be shaken loose only in earthquake loud ways of reshaping our responses to the world.
We can view all this commotion and change in the very negative way of destruction crying out "Woe! Woe!"
We can, alternatively, view this, not as a time of starvation, but as a hearing the "Wawl! Wawl!" of a newborn's cry in the midst of the blood and pain of birth.
"Woe!" or "Wawl!"? The choice of how we respond to the stimuli around us is very important work.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/november2003.html
Look! What a large Enemy!
It will take a trebuchet to do in this large an enemy. One smooth river stone or five stand no chance.
Look! What a large Temple!
Nothing could ever bring down such stability. No number of armies with the biggest siege engines could prevail here.
What fantasies we conjure as we face fears and attempt to continue our present course. In both cases we exaggerate our situations. We are at one and the same time too weak and too strong.
Take a second and third look. G*D as rock is an interesting image. G*D enlarges on the way from sling to forehead, becoming irresistible. G*D reduces so temple walls can be stepped over and be no barrier, becoming approachable. G*D as rock is no static image, but is as transformable as any Living reality.
= = =
lead me astray
please
from solid falsehoods
told with volume enough
to fool all the people all the time
lies that grow
rumor so seemingly so
plausible to irresistible
small lie masquerading
as big truth
lead me astray
from popular memes
so believable everywhere
and all too repeated
in sanctuary space
having connected with god
our least fears
are projected large
upon innocent
children and strangers
of all sadness
this grieves most
unquestioning
big lies hold sway
in holy space
resolution
a willingness
to be provoked
to love
not lie
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html
The destruction of the Temple in 70 CE becomes but the first of the birthpangs of new life after Mark's abrupt ending of fleeing women. Another reflection on the significance of Temple destruction, written about the same time as Mark or just after, is found in the Apocalypse of Baruch (Syriac) [also known as 2 Baruch], Jeremiah's scribe and prophet in his own right.
Regardless of which Temple destruction is portrayed, note the perspective of how the presence of G*D is not taken from the outside but hidden deep within the earth. The destruction is self-imposed. Life-in-fullness will depend on how you look at destruction. We are called to not pay overmuch attention to various destructions, but to continue living as though a new birth were already present and celebration for its presence directs how we participate in living fully.
As we come to the end of this long season after Pentecost, may you see beyond and stand hopeful in the midst of fear and destruction. May you continue to hear whispers from earth and creation regarding the presence of G*D. This stance will hold us well as we enter into another time of detached expectancy.
2 Baruch - Chapters 6-9:
(6:1) And it came to pass on the morrow that, lo! the army of the Chaldees surrounded the city, and at the time of the evening, I, Baruch, left the people, and I went forth and stood by the oak. (2) And I was grieving over Zion, and lamenting over the captivity which had come upon the people. (3) And lo! suddenly a strong spirit raised me, and bore me aloft over the wall of Jerusalem. (4) And I beheld, and lo! four angels standing at the four corners of the city, each of them holding a torch of fire in his hands. (5) And another angel began to descend from heaven. and said unto them: 'Hold your lamps, and do not light them till I tell you. (6) For I am first sent to speak a word to the earth, and to place in it what the Lord the Most High has commanded me.' (7) And I saw him descend into the Holy of Holies, and take from there the veil, and holy ark, and the mercy-seat, and the two tables, and the holy raiment of the priests, and the altar of incense, and the forty-eight precious stones, wherewith the priest was adorned and all the holy vessels of the tabernacle. (8) And he spoke to the earth with a loud voice:
'Earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the mighty God,
And receive what I commit to you,
And guard them until the last times,
So that, when you are ordered, you may restore them,
So that strangers may not get possession of them.
(9) For the time comes when Jerusalem also will be delivered for a time,
Until it is said, that it is again restored for ever.'
(10) And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up.(7:1) And after these things I heard that angel saying unto those angels who held the lamps: 'Destroy, therefore, and overthrow its wall to its foundations, lest the enemy should boast and say:
"We have overthrown the wall of Zion,
And we have burnt the place of the mighty God."'
(2) And they have seized the place where I had been standing before.(8:1) Now the angels did as he had commanded them, and when they had broken up the corners of the walls, a voice was heard from the interior of the temple, after the wall had fall saying:
(2) 'Enter, you enemies,
And come, you adversaries;
For he who kept the house has forsaken (it).'(3) And I, Baruch, departed. (4) And it came to pass after these things that the army of the Chaldees entered and seized the house, and all that was around it. And they led the people away captive and slew some of them, and bound Zedekiah the king, and sent him to the king of Babylon.
(9:1) And I, Baruch, came, and Jeremiah, whose heart was found pure from sins, who had not been captured in the seizure of the City. (2) And we rent our garments, we wept, and mourned, and fasted seven days.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html
I've been off lection task for a week plus. I come back to find the stones of scripture and tradition seeming larger than before my break. How can they be addressed with such small resources as reason and experience? Where is an entry spot into some larger meaning they represent and cover at the same time?
There is comfort in hearing that they are not so huge. My fears make them larger than life but the reality is that not one word of scripture or stone of tradition will remain to block what is aborning. Both the scripture and the tradition record where we have been in our search for meaning. They report a portion of our journey, but are not predictive of what's next. Moving into and through a next good dark night will mean raging against residual luminescence. As the poet says:
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,Beware. Many will claim to be a voice of tomorrow while consolidating today under their control. Many will discount new birth out of fear of the discontinuity it brings in its wake. But the end of yesterday is but the beginning of the birthpangs of tomorrow. There is no easier way through.
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
What a welcome back - large stones that aren't. How disorienting; how hopeful.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/11/mark-131-8.html