Pentecost 24, Proper 28, 2004:

Three fellows had grown up together and remained the best of friends. All three were highly successful. One had become a surgeon, another had become an engineer, and the third had been elected to Congress for several terms. They always met for coffee on Saturday morning when they could arrange their respective schedules. On one such occasion they were having coffee and somehow the subject of which profession was the oldest came up.

The surgeon said, "Eve was created from Adam’s rib. That was clearly a surgical procedure."

The engineer said, "Before Adam and Eve were created, order was created out of chaos. That was clearly an engineering job."

The congressman said, "Yes, but who do you suppose created the chaos?"

We have survived another election process and I pray we will learn not to violate the 11^th Commandment: "Thou shalt not take thyself too seriously."

In Luke’s Gospel for this Sunday, the disciples and those following Rabbi Jesus have made their way to the outskirts of Jerusalem. Across the Kidron Valley they gazed at the temple and marveled at the grandeur of it. It was a miraculous piece of engineering and would shine like gold in the reflected sunlight. Those in the party remarked at such stateliness. Then Rabbi Jesus spoke to them. "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down."

What an incredible thing to say! He was correct, of course. Not too many years later the temple is destroyed and the people scattered. It would take nineteen hundred years for the people to return to their homeland. Only something called "the Wailing Wall" would be still standing when they did return.

Jesus made the comment to teach certain things about the Christian life. He could read the signs of history. People might have missed the approaching disaster, but Jesus saw what was about to happen. Jesus was looking at things through the eyes of God and that is always 20/20. He was also completely honest with his hearers. This is what you can expect if you decide to follow me and this is not the easy way but the way of heroes. He promised that those who decided to follow him would never have to meet tribulations alone. Christian throughout history have shared that in those times of torture and imprisonment, even those times when they awaited death, they were aware of the presence of Jesus the Christ. He shared with them that they would share a safety that no threat on earth could change. "Not a hair of your heads will perish." That’s not a physical promise, but a spiritual one. Obviously, many have lost not just hair but their whole heads. He is talking about the fact that people who walks with Jesus may lose their life but can never lose their soul.

So, what is behind this passage? Why would Jesus make such a dire prediction? We have to look at certain teachings that every Jew would know. Time was divided into two distinct periods. There was the present age, popularly seen as evil and beyond redemption and leading to destruction. The age to come was seen as the golden age of God and of Jewish supremacy. Between the two was the day of the Lord, which would be a time of upheaval and destruction, leading to a new age. It would be a day of terror. It would come suddenly, like a thief in the night. The physical world would be shattered. The day of the Lord was the dominant theme of religious thought in the days in which Jesus lived.

Then there was the prophetic voice of God foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem. In 70AD Jerusalem did fall and terrible was the destruction thereof. The Roman armies first cut off the city from the outside. The people were reduced to barbarism in order to try and live. The historian Josephus reported that as many as one million people died and another one hundred thousand was taken into captivity. The nation was obliterated, the Temple was burned, and the long struggle to return to nationhood began.

Also, there is the whole concept of the Second Coming of Jesus. Jesus understood that he would return again and the early church waited and expected that to happen. Before the Second Coming there would be many false Messiahs claiming to be the awaited one. Do not be led astray, Jesus reminded his hearers. That warning would apply not just to a person, but to a political system, an economic system, or a philosophy as well.

Finally, there is the statement by Jesus that his followers would undergo persecutions, torture, and hardships. For the first three hundred years of the Christian experience that was very much the reality. The report about the First Council of Nicea indicated that clearly 60% of those who attended bore on their bodies the marks of such persecutions. Many walked with a limp, from having their legs broken. Many had been blinded. Others bore scars from being burned or stabbed. All had relatives and friends who had been killed. They came to fight for the establishment of the orthodox faith. They had paid a great price.

We need to heed the warning in this Gospel. Our security will not result from a fail-safe system or a star-wars shield or a building. Our life will not be made easier by adopting a false Messiah of some particular political persuasion. Our security is finally a spiritual one. It is through our endurance that we might gain our souls.

Remember that God is faithful and we are loved more than we can ever know. Chaos may seem to surround us, but the one who has redeemed us for God is the one who says to the storm, "Peace, be still." It is that voice that promises that not a hair on our heads will perish. That’s enough for me. Amen.