November 17, 2013 – Luke 21:5-19
Luke 21:5-19
A House of Living Stones and Living Gifts
26th Sunday after Pentecost [Lectionary 33C] – November 17, 2013
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Before I was called to First Lutheran Church,
another pastor was asked if he’d be interested in the call.
He drove past the building and drove around the neighbourhood and
decided there was no future here.
I was recalling this story the other day to one of you and
the thing we found most shocking of course was this:
that the pastor didn’t even take the time to meet the people of First Lutheran Church.
The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, the church is not a pile of bricks:
the church is the people.
When I came and met the people of First Lutheran, I could tell that this was a community that
had been nurtured and cared for and stewarded well for many, many years.
I found the Spirit of the living God alive and well here.
And I loved the people.
And the people thought God had a future for them here. And so did I.
The disciples are wondering about the future this morning in Luke’s Gospel.
They’ve finally made it to Jerusalem with Jesus.
It’s the last week of Jesus’s life.
He’s just finished teaching in the temple and watching people give their offerings to
the temple treasury.
And as he gathers with his disciples, they remark on the size and grandiosity of the temple.
They are simply in awe of the building.
And it’s easy to understand why.
During Jesus’ lifetime, the temple had been renovated.
Herod built huge walls enclosing the temple area:
in Jesus’ time, the walls enclosed an area of 36 acres,
which is the size of seven high school football complexes with
quarter mile tracks surrounding them.
The Wailing Wall is all that remains of those walls and it is 187 feet high,
the height of a 12 storey building.
These walls were painted with gold and its courts paved with white marble.
It was widely regarded as one of the wonders of the ancient world and it was accomplished,
of course, at tremendous cost.
The foundations stones were massive and you understand the impression it must have made.
This is place that looks like it has a future. It’s an impressive building.
But Jesus: as I’ve said before, Jesus is just not impressed by such things.
He looks at the disciples and says, “You see these stones?
the day is coming soon when not one of them will be left upon another.”
See, Jesus is not talking about the end of the whole world in the Gospel reading:
he’s talking about the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem being laid waste.
And it was. Jesus is smart, right? He can see which way the wind is blowing.
He knew the desire of many Jews to rise up in violent revolt against the occupying Romans.
And 30 years after Jesus died, they did.
And, in reprisal, in the year 70, the Romans utterly destroyed the Temple and
slaughtered many of Jerusalem’s inhabitants.
And although it may not have been exactly the end of the world,
I’m sure that’s exactly what it seemed like to many.
But Jesus is saying the end of the building isn’t the end of God’s dream for this world.
He’s saying it’s not the end, because the end of the building isn’t the end of God’s people.
Jesus knows the biblical story well enough to know that God didn’t want the building –
the temple that Solomon built – all those years ago.
Jesus knows the biblical story well enough to know that what God wants is not
a building of dead stones,
Jesus knows the biblical story well enough to know that what God wants is what the
First Letter of Peter calls a house of living stones.
Jesus knows the biblical story well enough to know that what God wants above all is
a people, a community, that builds a place that is unlike any other place:
a house of living stones.
Jesus invites the disciples to consider this morning that a house of living stones is something
the Romans cannot destroy,
because it is the Spirit of God that is at work in the people,
and that is something that cannot be torn down.
There will be wars, but the house of living stones cannot be destroyed by war.
There will be earthquakes and famines and plagues and even typhoons,
but the house of living stones cannot be destroyed by these things.
There will be arrests, and harassment, and persecution,
and in our culture tremendous indifference,
but the house of living stones cannot be destroyed by such things.
There will be betrayal – even by family, even by friends – and there will be death:
but the house of living stones cannot be destroyed by such things.
Through the character of its people and by the grace of God,
the house of living stones will endure.
And it will be a witness – this house of living stones – to our true end,
to the true thing God has in mind: not death, not destruction, not grief;
but healing, and reconciliation, and life.
The end of the building is not the end of God’s dream.
The stones of the temple will be thrown down, but the community of disciples,
the temple of living stones, will not.
The stones of the building will be thrown down, but the dream will not –
not by indifference, not by hatred, not by our own sinfulness, not by death,
and not by grief –
because the house of God’s dream is bigger than any of these things.
And this is very, very good news.
Luke notes that the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God.
Jesus invites the disciples this morning, I think, to consider dedicating
the stones and gifts of their very lives to God’s dream of
building a place that is unlike any other place, a temple of living stones.
This is challenging, and I think we can hear in this a challenge to steward our gifts well
for the sake of God’s dream to build a place here at First Lutheran that is
unlike any other place, a temple of living stones.
Jesus has been saying all along that being his disciple is going to be costly and difficult.
True, the church has bent over backwards to make itself attractive in the last 50 years.
The urge in a market economy is to sell Christianity at the lowest cost:
make it easy, less demanding, low cost, and low risk.
But Jesus – and you all know this – always says just the opposite.
Jesus is saying that we value what we give to – and that the more we give, the more we value it.
Jesus wants you to give your life and your time and your talents and your treasure to
something that is worth the wonder that you are.
We sometimes sell ourselves short, but Jesus never does.
Jesus knows you have what it takes to be part of God’s dream.
Yes: Jesus is calling you to discipleship and commitment and better stewardship of
your gifts this morning and he’s being completely honest about the cost of that,
and you have to appreciate that.
But he wouldn’t call you and invite you if he didn’t think you have what it takes.
Jesus knows you have a place here in the task of building a place that is unlike any other place.
Jesus knows you have a role to play in God’s mission to love bless heal and
set free this world and every person in it.
Jesus knows that your stone has an essential place in this house of living stones.
Jesus is inviting you into a life where good stewardship is part of your identity,
part of your self-understanding of who you are and who you were made to be.
Jesus is inviting you into a life where
you use your gifts and abilities on behalf of this community and its mission,
accepting sacrifice and inconvenience as part of the calling.
Yeah: discipleship comes at a cost.
But not answering the call to discipleship and stewardship also comes with a great cost:
it comes at the cost of meaning, it comes at the cost of belonging,
and it for sure comes at a cost for this world and our neighbours and this world God loves.
September marked the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
The Christian writer Jim Wallis noted that
while the civil rights movement had a lot to complain about in the 60s in the way that
whites treated blacks, King didn’t call his speech “I Have a Complaint.”
King didn’t want his people shaped by complaint, but by a dream, God’s dream:
God’s dream for peace, God’s dream for justice, God’s dream for cooperation,
and working together, and respect, and dignity.
This morning we too are invited not to complain, but to dream with God –
and be shaped by the dream, rather than by the complaint.
We have a dream at First Lutheran Church,
and the dream involves being God’s house of living stones,
a living house of people where the vulnerable of this neighbourhood are fed,
where hospitality is a value and all people are truly welcome,
where refugees are nurtured,
where the grieving are cared for and walked alongside of,
where there is a safe place for the children of this street,
where cooperation and
respecting the dignity of every person are core values,
where there is belonging, and meaning, and purpose, and healing.
We have a dream that every single person will find a place for their gifts to be
welcomed and exercised in the pursuance of this dream in this community –
this house of living stones.
Jesus knows this dream only becomes reality through cost and sacrifice.;
it cost him his life so that the dream might live.
Jesus knows firsthand that it is costly, but Jesus also knows that it is worth it.
And Jesus knows you have it in you to be shaped by this dream and that
you have what it takes to give yourself and all your gifts to this dream.
He knows that because at this table he will give you what it takes: he will give you his very self.
The thing is: the dream continues to cost Jesus.
Jesus continues to be a good steward of his life right at this table where he gives his life to you
Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.
And he will give you everything: his strength, his will, his heart, his life, his passion.
So together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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