Nov. 13, 2016
Isaiah 65:17-25
Luke 21:5-19
When it comes to the church’s annual pledge campaign the most important reminder that I have to offer is this: when we give to the church we are giving to one another. We are not simply covering expenses. We are giving really important, life-giving gifts not to an organization or institution, but to people, to the people around us.
A former parishioner reminded me of this when I asked a group of members to pray for the church. After a bit of quieting and centering time I asked the group to envision the church. I asked them to make their way through the church covering it all with prayer, blessing each space with God’s love.
When the prayer time was over I asked them to describe the experience. I expected to hear descriptions that matched mine: seeing the sanctuary and asking God to bless it, moving into the social hall and feeling the Spirit fill the room, heading into the nursery, and the classrooms, and the offices, blessing each space, transforming the space into a temple of God’s presence.
One guy responded, “Maybe I did it wrong. When you asked me to pray for the church I didn’t see a building at all. I just saw people. And, instead of making my way through rooms I made my way to each person and I asked God to bless each one.” I like his version of the prayer better than my own.
When I give to the church I’m giving not just so that my kids can go to Sunday school, but so that other people’s children can go as well. I’m giving not just to pay an electricity bill, but to give us a worship experience where we can encounter God together. I’m giving not to pay for heat, but because the heat gives us a place to meet so that we can study and grow together, plan the running of the church together, have a 30-hour famine, or yoga for cancer survivors, or Taize prayer together, or fellowship space to reconnect with friends after a week that has perhaps left us feeling a bit unconnected. We give because what we are building here matters; we give because it makes a difference to the people around us and beyond us.
In our gospel passage today Jesus says to those who are admiring the temple, “As for the things you are admiring, the time is coming when not even one stone will be left upon another. All will be demolished.” Part of the message here is that the building serves the people, not the other way around. In fact, the real temple, the real home of God, the real playground for God’s activity is far more enduring than a building. The real temple is the people, and when we give to the people and for the people we are giving to and for the work of God.
A group of us are reading Adam Hamilton’s little book called, “Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity.” His premise is that we are built for generosity; we are created with an innate need for giving. Our ability to give, in fact, is at the heart of our ability to have joy. But, there are some factors at play in our lives that get in the way. One factor that he identifies is called, “Restless Heart Syndrome.” And, the primary symptom of RHS is discontent. The moment we acquire something we hardly have time to enjoy it before wanting something else. We keep seeking satisfaction in consumption, but that effort only leads to greater hunger.
Hamilton says that there are some things that we are meant to be content with and some things that we aren’t. But, we’ve confused the two. He quotes the Scottish philosopher James Mackintosh who wrote, “It is right to be contented with what we have, but never with what we are.” To clarify, Hamilton writes, “it is a positive motivator to be discontent with our moral character, our spiritual life, our pursuit of holiness, our desire for justice, and our ability to love. These are areas in which we should continue to grow and improve, for we are meant to become more than we are today. We are meant to yearn to know God more, to cultivate a deeper prayer life, to pursue justice and holiness, to love more, etc.” The problem is that we tend to be content with our involvement in pursuing justice in the world. We tend to be content with our level of righteousness. We tend to be content with how much we love others… Generally, we are satisfied with those things that deserve more of our time and attention.
Likewise, those things we should be content with are the very things we find ourselves hopelessly discontented with. Most of us, for example, experience discontentment with our stuff – our homes, cars, televisions, gadgets, clothes, and a whole host of other things. We buy our dream home, and two weeks later we notice that the kitchen isn’t quite right and the appliances really don’t meet our needs and the builder’s-grade carpet isn’t quite nice enough. So the moment we move in, we begin thinking about the improvements we’d like to make. We’re just not completely happy with the house of our dreams. Then there’s the car we couldn’t wait to buy…”[1]
The solution, Hamilton says, is to find satisfaction in giving; it is to reclaim the joy of giving and of tying ourselves (and our identities) to the work that God is doing to offer hope, and love, and life to the people of God’s world.
Jesus’ talk about the temple this morning quickly turns into a talk about end-of-times turmoil. “There will be wars and insurrections. Nation will rise up against nation. There will be earthquakes, and famines, and plagues. You will be persecuted for your faith, betrayed, hated, and even killed.” All this must happen before the glorious end happens.
Currently, depending on the source you choose there are at least 10 official wars going on around the world. On Nov. 5 there was a 5.5 earthquake in the pacific ridge and on the previous day there was a 6.3 on the Chile/Argentina border. Over three quarters of a billion people around the world are currently malnourished. And, thousands of Christians are killed every year because of their faith – over 7,000 last year.
You might argue that all those signs that Jesus was talking about are currently happening. You could argue that the end has come near. And, in some ways, you would be right. In Jesus Christ, in the coming of the Messiah, in God made flesh, something of God’s final victory has broken into the world already. The conclusion of the story is “new creation and resurrection”, and in Jesus Christ the conclusion has begun. We are living now with both the already and the not yet, and we have a choice to make about where we will position ourselves on the spectrum.
As I mentioned last week, half the country was going to feel radically disappointed by whomever our country chose for its next president. You may feel all the more concerned that our world is coming to an end. You may not, but either way the call is for us to hear anew the words that the profit Isaiah shared with us this morning, “I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. Be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating;… for the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox. They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.”
Now is the time to “testify,” as Jesus says in Luke. Now is the time to witness. Now is the time for the people of God – republicans and democrats or whatever you are– to join hand with God and to commit anew to the new Jerusalem, the new temple that God is creating, to a kingdom of peace, to a kingdom of hope, to a kingdom of love.
Let’s work together to create something beautiful to give to each other, to give to God – a people, a family, a church that will be a blessing to this world in which we live.
[1] Page 56.