Mark 13:1-8 (NRSV)
The Destruction of
the Temple Foretold:
13As he came out of the
temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and
what large buildings!’ 2Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one
stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’ 3 When he was sitting
on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew
asked him privately, 4‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all
these things are about to be accomplished?’ 5Then Jesus began to say to them, ‘Beware that
no one leads you astray. 6Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will
lead many astray. 7When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed;
this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8For 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.
Inspiration for this sermon comes from the commentaries by J C Ryle
and William Barclay.
My text this morning is written in Mark
13.5:
5Then Jesus began to say to them, ‘Beware that no one leads you
astray.’
The disciples were just like us –
easily taken in by impressive sights – not least wonderful architecture. By all
accounts, Herod’s Temple was a marvel of architecture and wealth and it had
been a feature of great significance for hundreds of years. Jesus prophesied
its destruction.
This is a well-used passage when
referring to the end of time and is controversial because it often becomes part
of the package of those who become obsessed with it. J C Ryle writes: “Chapters
like this ought to be deeply interesting to every true Christian … The rise and
fall of worldly empires are events of comparatively small importance in the
sight of God … are nothing in His eyes by the side of the mystical body of
Christ …” It was good and interesting for me to read Ryle say this, this
because I have to confess that passages like this, are not my favourite and
this is one of the reasons why the discipline of following the Lectionary is so
good for me. So what is Ryle’s contribution that makes it – in his opinion –
such an important passage? The disciples’ admiration for the splendour of the
Temple gets an unexpected response from Jesus who ‘… expresses no commendation
of the design or workmanship of the gorgeous structure before him …’ Ryle’s
exposition continues. The true glory of any place of worship has nothing to do
with its physical presence and splendour; but in the faith and godliness of its
members. It is interesting to note that, even though Jesus, the Jew, knew that
the Temple contained the Holy of Holies, the golden candlestick and the altar
of burnt offering – all central to Jewish worship at the time - Jesus could
find no pleasure in looking at what was obviously a magnificent building! The
same holds true for Christians and churches today: what matters is that God’s
Word (written and living) and His Spirit are honoured – that is all.
Yet today, Christians are often still fixated
on buildings. Ministries are diluted because people refuse to close churches
and chapels that have long since been not viable and millions are spent on the
restoration of impressive piles, when people are starving and going in need.
We are naturally inclined to judge
things by their outward appearance. Ryle continues:
We are too apt
to suppose that where there is a stately ecclesiastical building and a
magnificent ceremonial, - carved stone and painted glass, - fine music and
impressively dressed ministers, there must be some real religion. And yet there
may be no religion at all. It may be all form and show, and appeal to the
senses. There may be nothing to satisfy the conscience, nothing to cure the
heart.
The ministers might be ignorant of the
Gospel and the worshippers may be dead in their trespasses and sins. Sadly this
is true in many places.
What matters is that Christ be preached,
the Word of God is expounded and that Christians live lives of holiness as they
are transformed in love by the Holy Spirit. I can identify completely with what
Ryle is suggesting here: “ … the meanest room where Christ is preached, at this
day, is more honourable in his eyes than the cathedral of St Peter’s at Rome …’
if the Word is not faithfully preached and the lives of those present are not
living letters to be read of all. It goes without saying that the opposite is
also not true. As Ryle adds:
There is no
true religion in having a dirty, mean shabby, and disorderly place of worship …
But let it be a settled principle in our religion, however beautiful we make
our churches … It has no glory if God is not there.
I have mentioned this before, but one of the most beautiful
places of worship I have ever attended was the ‘Motherwell Cathedral’ made of
throw away, rusted wrought iron, in a squatter camp outside Port Elizabeth in
South Africa. It’s Cross and furnishings were fashioned from material from the
rubbish dump – but it was spotlessly clean and lovingly maintained. God was
there, more than the Cathedral I left behind. In Ryle’s words, ‘… the humblest
cottage where the Gospel is preached is lovely and beautiful …’
Jesus then went on to intimately expand
on his prophecy of the end times to his inner circle, this time including
Andrew. Jesus was aware that, before the end of time there would be heresy. And
it was early in the history of the Church that heresy arose.
Humans have a great ability for wishful
thinking. Many people today do this – they claim, for instance - that there is
no God because they do not wish there
to be a God because it suits their lifestyle. They make outrageous claims that
science has proven that there is no God, even though the most respected
scientists in the world today are saying that there probably is! If the Big
Bang is true as the origin of everything, then the choice is either it all happened
by chance or someone or something started it off. “Chance” – philosophically
speaking – requires more faith than belief in God – even if at a minimum as
deist God. Even Professor Richard Dawkins – the great anti-theist of our time –
admitted on Channel 4 television to Mark Dowd, the producer of that fantastic
documentary, Tsunami – where was God
? – that a deist God is probable. But people want to do as they please – and the
fact of God makes this uncomfortable for them. So, one of the great heresies of
our day is secularism – and it has been found wanting. Possessions, status,
position, wealth and all the other trappings of a Godless society have been
shown to be empty and meaningless. Our ethics seems to be dominated by the 11th
Commandment – “Thou shalt not be found out!” The whole idea of been accountable
– even if no one else knows or finds out – is uncomfortable; the idea of
judgement – is unpopular because people do not want to be held responsible.
People disregard the idea of the Second Coming of Christ and judgement because
they don’t want to live in a way that holds them accountable if no one finds
out. These truths are uncomfortable and they would prefer to ignore them.
This leads to the second cause of
heresy, the establishing of a religion that suits
people, a religion that will be popular and attractive. To do this, it
needs to be watered down. As William Barclay writes: “The sting, the
condemnation, the humiliation, the moral demand, have to be taken out of it ...
It is not our job to alter Christianity to suit people, but to alter people to
suit Christianity.” Some of the Churches in the world have courses that are
very popular, because they offer quick fix solutions to some of the great moral
dilemmas of our time. There are those that simply quote bible passage after
bible passage as the answer – and their churches are full to overflowing -
boasting thousands upon thousands of members. It is these that people like
Dawkins can tear apart – in fact, even my Year 9 class at the grammar school
could do the same. We should never be impressed by numbers alone, though we
should all rejoice at true revival, but as Jesus was constantly doing with his
first disciples, we must make clear the cost of discipleship.
Heresy also comes from trying to be completely intelligible: Yes, we are
under a duty to try to understand our faith, but it is also true that we are
mere finite, contingent beings and the God we seek to know and understand is
infinite and we will never fully be able to understand Him and His ways. This
means that any expression of our faith that is ‘… neatly stated in a series of
propositions and neatly proved in a series of logical steps like a geometrical
theorem is an impossibility and a contradiction in terms … As G K Chesterton
said, “It is only the fool who tries to get the heavens inside his head, and
not unnaturally his head bursts. The wise person is content to get his head
inside the heavens. “’ Barclay concludes that “Even at our most intellectual we
must remember that there is always – and will always be - place for the
ultimate mystery before which we can only worship, wonder and adore.”
Tertullian put it this way: “I believe, because it is impossible.”
Why is it that people claim that the
existence of suffering, war, natural disasters – and all the other realities of
human existence – make them challenge God’s existence. From the earliest time,
Jesus has told us that this is going to be the case. The truth seems to be that
the cause of suffering in the world rests at the door of the peoples of the
world, and not God for even natural disaster only devastate and cause suffering
because the rich are unwilling to cater for the needs of the poor by providing
them with the means to deal with these things effectively.
It
is time to offer the peoples of the world the undiluted and liberating Gospel
of Jesus Christ – free of the trappings of tradition – whatever form it takes –
because the secular heresies of the 20 and 21st Centuries have been
found wanting and there is a hunger for the Gospel once more. I believe we need
to act in such a way so as to enable those who have rejected the Church and its
teachings to find credibility in what we have to offer them. We need to beware
of watering down our message and seeking to cater for the lowest possible
denominator in worship and teaching. To do this we need to address issues that
matter to them and not be so fixated on those things that matter only to us and
that are not germane to the Gospel of Christ. We need to make a stand for
justice and oppose small-mindedness and bigotry of any sort – because it is
these squabbles in the Church that put those outside off, relegating us to
being a dated irrelevance. And we need to begin with redeeming in their eyes,
the nature of God as revealed in Jesus Christ, who, as the embodiment of love, and
who gives us a way of living that unites us to God in the power of the Holy
Spirit. We need less religion – especially that which detracts us from our
responsibility of living and proclaiming the Gospel - and more of a focus on
following Christ in costly discipleship, being aware of the many distractions
that will tempt us away from this task. As Jesus warned:
‘Beware that no one leads
you astray.’
Amen.
