Doug and I had all our things packed, maybe 20 boxes of books, 10 boxes of assorted other things a sampling of furniture; enough to fill a small U-Haul. We were moving from the apartment of his internship on the North side of Chicago to the apartment of my internship in Lakeville Minnesota. Doug's two closest brothers had come down from Minnesota to help us load and drive up. In return we were giving them the grand tour of the big city. Perhaps Doug was a bit heavy handed in his portrayal of the savvy city dweller. Maybe they just wanted to be an embarrassment to us but I remember Rod and Dan rolling down the windows of the car and climbing half way out the windows to ogle the buildings of the magnificent mile. "Wow look at that one!" Can you just catch the top of that! They'd say as they slid back and forth across the back seat drawing the attention of all the sophisticated city business people and shoppers.
I can imagine how Jesus felt. He had just had quite a confrontation with the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees in the temple. He had just been taking the temple officials to task and challenging in no uncertain terms the practices of the institution. It's as if his disciples hadn't been registering his message when, as they leave the temple, they gape open mouthed at the beauty and the size of the building. "Look teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!" Even though they'd been following him for a couple of years their attention to his teachings was suddenly belittled by the magnificence of what they were seeing. Who can blame them? They were after all just like tourists. Most of them fishermen from little villages that had nothing, really nothing to compare with this.
For one thing the temple was really quite new. The temple had been destroyed in and Herod, the governor the Romans had appointed chose to give this great political gift to the Jewish people. This most imposing edifice was part of Herod's strategy to gain control of the Jewish population by building them this beautiful building. And it was impressive. Its dazzling beauty dominated the Kidron Gorge. Even the rabbis who had little respect for King Herod remarked, "He who has not seen Jerusalem in her splendor has never seen a desirable city in his life. He who has not seen the temple in its full construction has never seen a beautiful building in his life." Herod expanded the stone platform surrounding the temple itself to the size of 24 football fields. There were spectacular gateways and arches. The workmanship of the masonry was distinctive; smoothly cut edging with a flat boss in the center. The temple itself was gleaming white with extensive gold overlay. No wonder the disciples were awestruck. Who wouldn't have been impressed with such a temple? It was considered in its day to be one of the architectural wonders of the ancient world.
However, Jesus responds in a startling and unsettling manner. He does not praise the temple as a place of worship or commend his disciples for being spiritually touched by the beauty of God's temple-house. No, Jesus acts as if he is looking at a pile of pebbles built by children in a playground. "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another, all will be thrown down." And we know that it was. No, the temple didn't just slip into disuse people losing interest. The paint didn't have a chance to peel, the mortar didn't dissolve to the point where the stones worked their way loose, the roof didn't have a chance to leak and general shabbiness did not have a chance to set in. No in 70 A.D. probably only about 35 years after Jesus spoke these words the Romans came in and destroyed the temple. Not one stone remained on another. Buildings are transitory. Even the most beautiful buildings will succumb. The kingdom is not built on buildings but as it says in 1st Peter on the living stones. "Come to him a living stone, chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones let yourself be built into a spiritual house." (2:4) The living stones become the kingdom of God.
I can't get the picture out of my head. Actually it's different picture each time but it is the same picture. It might be Doris Johnson in Red River South Dakota as she stands before a pile of soggy furniture, knee deep in the floodwaters that have hardly receded saying. "No, I don't think we can recover any of this. The house is pretty much soaked The mud is a foot deep on the ground floor but we're okay. We'll be okay. The picture might be Jaun Garcia, his mobile home a crushed mess in the background, the result of terrible hurricane winds. As he's interviewed he says, "My family is safe. That is the only important thing. We are safe." In our heart of hearts we all know that that picture is true. The buildings can come and go. The stuff can be bought and sold. That's not to say we don't worry. We can be anxious. The disciples were. Tell us when it will be they say. How will we know when these terrible things will occur? What should we look for?
You know this season of the church year is called "ordinary time". It is the many many weeks when the church is just doing its church thing. The weeks come and go without festivals--ordinary time. This lesson, like Jesus teaching of the disciples is to zap us out of ordinary time, to catch us off guard with the possibility of the extra-ordinary. There will be challenges; there will be fearful occurrences. There will be trials and tribulations. And to this Jesus says "Do not be alarmed, do not be led astray". " Keep the faith", if you will.
One of my pastoral journals had an article this week, which quoted the work done by a business consultant Paul Stoltz. (web site http://peaklearning.com) You've heard of the IQ, Intelligence Quotient and more recently people have been talking about the EQ Emotional Quotient. Well Paul Stoltz says there is something called the AQ, adversity quotient. How much can you allow for and accept, indeed even grow and thrive through adversity. I won't pretend that I've studied his work or probed his theory but the idea was intriguing to me. An adversity quotient?
Doesn't our faith have something to say about our adversity quotient? Jesus is telling his disciples that there will be adversity, just as we know there is adversity. Do not be alarmed by it. Don't be surprised. Keep the faith. Buildings will come and buildings will go. The kingdom is built on the living stones who are the believers and on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
Amen.