33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2021b

Old Testament - 1 Samuel 1:4-20

New Testament - Mark 13:1-8

 

An Advance Guard

 

INTRODUCTION: So just over a month ago, on October 9th at 2:30 am to be exact, one of Las Vegas’ iconic buildings was brought crashing to the ground. 

 

Yep. The famous Tropicana hotel and casino was demolished in less than 30 seconds after more than 2,000 pounds of explosive were ignited in a controlled sequence. 

 

The reason for The Tropicana’s demolition? Well, in case you haven’t heard, the Oakland As, who are moving to Las Vegas, are going to need a new stadium to play their baseball games. And the Tropicana, it was decided, was located at just the right spot. So if all goes to plan, the As will be playing in a fancy new stadium by, I believe, the start of the 2028 MLB season.       

 

The Tropicana, of course, is hardly the first casino to be brought to the ground in Vegas. Always seeking to innovate and evolve, Vegas has become well known for demolishing buildings. Since 1993, The Dunes, The Landmark, The Sands, The Hacienda, and The El Rancho are just a few of the casinos that have been brought tumblin to the ground so newer, fancier ones could then be built.        

 

And so over the years a whole new reason to visit Las Vegas has developed. Sure, people go to Vegas to gamble. But they also now flock to Sin City whenever a building is going to be demolished.  

 

For the Tropicana demolition? Standard room rates hit $700 bucks a night in various other casinos around Vegas. The Mandalay Bay Casino hosted an implosion party with views from its rooftop being offered of the event. There was even a light and fireworks show just before the implosion of the Tropicana with 550 drones! 

 

So Vegas is known for more than just gambling. It’s also become quite adept at demolishing buildings. 

     

ONE: Of course, ever since humans started constructing buildings - from the pyramids, to ornate medieval cathedrals, to 70 story downtown high-rises - well, buildings have been falling and crumbling. Sometimes they fall because of wars, other times it’s the slow and relentless wear and tear of Mother Nature, and yes, sometimes it’s humans who bring them down in the drive for something new, better, and grander.      

 

Jesus, of course, also knew that buildings fall and crumble - including, even, the Temple in Jerusalem.  Walking by the Temple with his disciples and on the way to the Mount of Olives, Jesus’ followers are rightly impressed. With a perimeter circumference of ⅔ of a mile, marble walls standing 150 feet high, numerous marble columns in the outer court 40 feet high, and two gates standing forty-five feet high (one of which was covered in bronze), the Temple and its surrounding complex was an impressive sight.

 

But Jesus, it turns out, has a long view of things. As the disciples marvel and gape at the Temple, Jesus announces even the Temple someday is going to be a pile of rubble. “Sure, it is an impressive building,” says Jesus, “but even it will one day come crashing to the ground.” 

 

Peter, James, John, and Andrew, for their part, want a timeline from Jesus. “Teacher,” they ask, “tell us when such a thing is going to happen.” 

 

To which Jesus famously responds, “Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will deceive many. When you hear of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 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.” 

 

TWO: Of course, we can’t forget such dire and bleak talk from Jesus is actually meant, believe it or not, to be good news. 

 

Sure, TV preachers and others hyped up on wrath love to latch on to such language from Jesus with their own fiery words about the end of world and God’s fury. They read Mark’s passage for this morning and immediately start talking about the horrors of the world and God’s coming judgment. 

 

But such talk, as far as I am concerned, is a fundamental misreading of the New Testament, and even the Bible as a whole. For again and again, we are assured in the Bible that God is busy recreating the world for the good, rather than the bad. 

 

Oh...make no mistake. The world as we know it will one day no longer exist - that is for sure. But in its place, by the grace of God, will be a new world. A world in line, finally, with God’s wishes and long held intentions for us all.              

 

There is a great story about a church that was on a mission trip in Honduras. One night, while gathered around a fire, the group started discussing their favorite Scripture passages. What passages, they were asked, brought people the most comfort?

 

Someone, of course, mentioned John 3:16. Someone else claimed it was Psalm 121. And still another person said it was the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. 

 

When it was a small Honduran woman’s turn, she said through a translator, “I love the words, toward the end of Mark’s Gospel, where Jesus tells his people the Temple will be destroyed, the stones of the Temple will be thrown down...there will be wars and revolutions, and everything will be burned.”

 

Initially, as you might imagine, everyone in the group was a bit thrown by the women’s reply. Until, that is, they learned she had lost three of her four children all before the age of five due to malnutrition. Well, the woman got it, didn’t she? She got that Jesus’ words at the end of Mark were actually meant to be good news. For God’s new world where little kids no longer die from starvation and diseases is coming.        

 

THREE: But re-creation, new life, well, that doesn’t happen easily, does it?

 

Nope. The old rarely goes down without a fight, does it? And the old world, the worn-out world? Well, it is especially good at putting up a fight, right? No wonder Jesus can talk about birth pangs and famines and earthquakes and nations rising up against each other. For sometimes things can’t be made new until the old is, well, finally vanquished once and for all.

 

And it’s not as if Jesus didn’t know that firsthand. After all, he ended up hanging from a cross because he spent his entire ministry preaching about God’s coming kingdom. “A new world is coming,” Jesus kept saying, only to have the old world say, “That’s what you think, Mr. Jesus. That’s what you think. Now hold still please; you’re making it hard for us to nail you to this cross.” 

 

No wonder David Buttrick liked to argue that every church should actually see itself as an “advance guard” of God’s coming promised new world. In the same way Jesus spoke of and gave expression to God’s new world, churches, says Buttrick, should do the same thing.

 

We should be a light on a hill giving visible and living expression to God’s coming new kingdom. We should, in other words, live in the world not as it currently is with all its old and worn out ways, but rather as God intends it to be.

 

We are to be forgiving, even though the old world often isn’t. We are to be merciful, even when mercy is hard to come by in the world as it currently operates. We are to be loving, even when hate is the first choice made far too often. And we are to be welcoming and hospitable, even though we live in a world with countless closed doors and hardened divisions.

                    

FOUR: For years the Russian Orthodox Church had lived peacefully with the czars who ruled that vast land.

 

In fact, some would even argue the church had become a little too chummy with the czars, since the church was frequently quick to give them its seal of approval with little reflection or thought. Lured by the power the czars possessed, the church had jumped into bed with them thereby giving up its ability to serve as a voice for God’s coming new world.

  

When the Communists eventually took over though, the church suddenly found itself in a tough spot. You see, in the Russian Orthodox Church, it was customary when the time came to celebrate the Eucharist for the priest to stand on the front porch of the church ringing a bell so that the entire village would know that the sacrament was about to begin. 

 

But when the Communists came to power, they outlawed public bell ringing as part of their effort to stamp out the church. But the Russian Orthodox Church, intriguingly, refused to budge. Perhaps, in the face of its persecution, the church rediscovered its calling to be a light to the world. And so the priests persisted in publicly ringing bells just before the start of the Eucharist.

 

And needless to say, it didn’t go well. Countless priests were jailed while still many others were murdered for daring to publicly ring their bells. But they persisted with their ringing anyway and the Communists, finally, had no choice but to give in. Even though the Russian Orthodox Church hadn’t always been what it needed to be, it was still acutely aware of its charge to proclaim God’s coming new world. 

 

FIVE: So one of the things I love about FPC Tullahoma is our bell tower and its chimes. 

 

And thankfully, others in the community also seem to enjoy them as well. Why, one day several years ago a check even showed up in the mail with a card and some words of thanks. If I recall correctly, the check was from a group of ladies who would meet at the Celtic Cup regularly and enjoyed hearing the bells ring while sitting outdoors when the weather permitted. Nice gesture, right?

 

But there are also others who aren’t too crazy about the bells. They are, it turns out, a nuisance and a bother to some. And admittedly, the volume at times has probably been turned up too high making the bells an annoyance. One guy, again several years ago, even stopped by the office one day asking if we would turn the darn things down a bit, which we gladly did. 

 

But being an intuitive fellow, part of me also wonders if the reason some folks don’t like the bells has a deeper, unconscious source. Maybe, just maybe, the bells aren’t a favorite for some because they’re ringing reminds them a new world is coming - a world of grace and charity and neighbor love for all. But before that new world can fully arrive, well, that old world has to finally die.           

 

CONCLUSION: Well, churches can sometimes spend a lot of time trying to figure out what they’re supposed to be doing. 

 

But to me? It seems pretty simple and clear. In a broken and worn out world, we are to be a living, tangible expression of God’s coming new world. We’re to be an advance guard of that world of grace, and charity, and love and mercy for all God’s children. 

 

So let us preach the good news. Amidst the earthquakes, charlatan preachers, famines, and rumors of wars, let us both share and be the good news. For a new world is coming. A new world is coming. 

 

Now to the ruler of all worlds, undying, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.