11162022 – Luke 21. 5-19
There was a time when “the TEMPLE” was everything.
It was “THE” spiritual center for Jews.
It was the “ONLY PLACE” of sacrificial worship for a people that lived throughout the then, known world.
It was “A PRIESTLY INSTITUTION.” Holy-Sacred-Set apart.
It had a “CENTRAL PLACE” in the Torah, in the LAW, and in the culture. The Temple represented “the CORE” of Jewish beliefs and values.
It was WHERE “the HEART” of the people resided. There was no place quite like it on earth!
The TEMPLE had lasted FOR CENTURIES.
This WAS NOT the Temple of SOLOMON.
The “SOLOMONIC Temple” had long since been destroyed.
This was the SECOND Temple, the temple built under the watchful eyes of EZRA and NEHEMIAH.
This was the Temple that was quite literally under construction and reconstruction during THE ENTIRE LIFE of Jesus of Nazareth.
But as we know, temples come, and temples go…as does, everything else, we love and hold dear.
And I do mean, EVERYTHING.
We sometimes forget that LUKE (the Gospel) was not primarily written for a 21st-century Christian audience…ANXIOUS about THEIR FUTURE… anxious about TOMORROW…or anxious about OH, SO MANY THINGS…
Global warfare, plagues, confrontations, betrayals, and persecutions, seem to arrive with each successive generation.
There is SOMETHING almost innate IN US – we can feel troubled, uneasy, apprehensive, fearful, and distressed, in almost any age or era. It almost seems to be a part of our human nature and WHO WE ARE. A bunch of “worry-warts” we CAN BE and maybe, even…ARE.
And we can turn anything around – TO BE ABOUT US! (Including the HOLY SCRIPTURES!)
LUKES’ GOSPEL was specifically written for a “beleaguered and persecuted minority,” living under the thumb of Rome in the late first century.
When the TEMPLE ULTIMATELY FELL, Christians blamed the Jews, the Jews blamed the Christians, and Rome, well Rome, just persecuted EVERYONE! It was kind of “THEIR THING.”
The text that is before us is about THEN and not about NOW….
Luke was writing to those who had SURVIVED and were living in the AFTERMATH of the Temple’s complete and utter DESTRUCTION.
But the response of the Gospel – remains the same IN ANY AGE.
GOD is bigger than your social anxiety and ALL OF YOUR FEARS…the people of God are always to PRAY, TRUST, do what they can, do what is necessary, and be aware, be mindful, that “God has got you!”
He always has.
He’s got your back.
He’s got your heart.
He’s got your soul.
He’s got your spirit.
He’s got YOU!
This is meant to be a text of comfort, consolation, and reassurance.
God has GOT YOU!
It was never intended to be about the end of times or Armageddon, or about the Second Coming of Jesus.
People will read into things, what they want to read into them.
It was not written with the thought of nuclear armaments in mind.
The intended audience knew nothing of global pandemics or their causes.
But they did know SOMETHING about households divided, and families divided, and what the aftermath of the war felt like.
They knew about blood running in their streets and everything that they held dear, GONE!
They knew about family members, and loved ones, who were lost, perished, and suffered horrendous deaths.
They knew about families fleeing for the hills and becoming aliens in foreign lands and in the unknown, strange territories.
No matter WHAT goes on…no matter what is happening around you, God HAS NOT and WILL NOT abandon you.
So don’t YOU ABANDON HIM.
That seems to be the gist of the text, the underlying purpose behind it.
Change is always hard, no matter WHEN it occurs, first century or the 25th
century.
Nothing stays the same.
We may not like it.
We may resist it.
We may even try and deny it.
Our world continues to change.
The church is changing.
Our lives are changing…
Some do better with change than others…
HOW WELL – do you DO with change?
But at the very heart of the message, is our lives of faith.
We are to remain, to be constant, to be ever-vigilant and faithful, knowing always, that OUR GOD HAS GOT US…
And WE, are to turn to him in FAITH. Just remember, in all things, he’s got you!
God is our CONSTANT, amidst all the changes of this life.
Amen.