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 11^th 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 21^st 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.