November 15, 2009 - Proper 28, Year B (RCL)
The end of the year is coming, not just the end of the calendar year, but even sooner
the end of the Christian year.
In just two weeks
we’ll begin the new cycle
getting ready for the birth of Jesus
in the season of Advent.
Next week
we’ll celebrate the feast of Christ the King,
celebrating the reign of the resurrected Christ for all time.
And so traditionally this week
we begin to look towards that
with a gospel reading
about the signs that the end is coming,
signs that Christ will return.
And those signs are not good - wars and earthquakes and famines. Signs
that we’re all familiar with,
signs
that tear our hearts with sorrow.
But it’s easy to get caught up in the dramatic part of the story
and forget what comes before.
The disciples
are with Jesus
in the temple.
It’s not long since
his arrival in Jerusalem
on the back of a donkey,
on the day that we call Palm Sunday,
and Jesus is kind of a celebrity.
People keep coming up to ask him things, though it seems like maybe they’re not so much interested in learning for him
as trapping him. He’s been talking about taxes,
resurrection,
and what the most important commandment is,
love the Lord your God,
and love your neighbor as yourself.
And they’ve seen people parading in
to deposit their money
in the temple treasury,
their tithes and offerings, and the widow giving
all she has.
And then, as they’re heading out to get some food,
the disciples turn back,
and begin pointing to the temple building.
And say,
“Look at that temple.
Isn’t it beautiful? All that stone work.
Aren’t we lucky
that this place
is the center of our worship?”
And Jesus,
well he’s about to give up.
After all this time,
three years traveling and teaching and healing,
then the last few hours
of quiet conversation
and the first thing they say
is “Look at the building! Isn’t it beautiful?”
As if they haven’t heard anything that he’s said
for the last three hours.
And Jesus’ response?
“It’s not going to last.
It’ll all be
destroyed.”
And what he doesn’t say,
or at least, isn’t recorded,
but maybe thinks,
is something along the lines of
“You idiots. Haven’t you been listening
to anything I’ve said?
It’s not
about
the temple.
That’s done.
God is doing something new here.
Pay attention!”
And I kind of wonder
if it’s not something similar
that’s behind our new Testament reading today.
Because how it begins
is with a reference to the temple,
or at least,
to the ceremonies
that take place there.
“Every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But [...] Christ [...] offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins.”
It begins with the temple,
and then begins
to take it away.
Because it’s not the temple
that’s at the heart of Christian faith.
We don’t need its sacrifices any more.
The temple is done.
The whole system
of sacrifices
that shaped Israel’s worship,
that the temple was built around,
they’re over.
And with them,
the temple.
Because there’s a new heart
to faith with God,
a heart
that is Christ himself.
And it is Christ
who has become our sacrifice,
Christ
who opens our way to God.
Building can be beautiful,
but they’re not the heart
of our faith.
Christ is.
And because of Christ
we have direct access
to God.
We can talk with God
any time, any place.
But that’s not the end of the story.
Because although we have access to God any time, any place,
the reality of being human
is that sometimes
life is tough.
Sometimes things happen
that challenge our faith.
And because of that
we need each other.
We need each other.
In today’s New York Times,
there’s an editorial by Bono of U2.
Back in the early 90s
the band was in danger
of breaking up.
And they improvised a song,
inspired in part
by the falling of the Berlin wall.
One love, one blood, one life
You got to do what you should
One life with each other
Sisters, brothers
One life but we're not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other.
But it’s not just that we need each other;
we get to support each other.
Being together
is a privilege.
Which is why the writer to the Hebrews
encourages them
to meet together.
“And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.”
Yes, we can pray to God
on our own.
But that’s not the way God intended it,
it’s not the way Jesus intended it.
After all,
when Jesus travelled around, preaching the gospel,
he didn’t just say his thing
and then move on;
instead
he called people to follow him,
drawing together a group of followers, a community,
not just the twelve apostles
but many more,
supporting, encouraging one another,
learning, praying
together.
It’s tempting to think
we can do this faith thing on our own.
But we can’t.
And so the writer to the Hebrews writes,
“Don’t neglect to meet together, as some do. But encourage one another.”
Why?
For two reasons.
First,
because Jesus invites us.
It’s like we have a personal invitation
to the most important party
on earth.
Jesus says, come hang out with God.
All we have to do is show up.
Come, get together week by week, worship God.
So the first reason to meet together
is because Jesus has invited us
and leads the way
to God.
And the second
is because by being together
we encourage one another.
You know how it is.
When you do something alone,
it’s easy to get discouraged, especially when thing are tough.
Life is a whole lot easier
if you don’t have to go it alone.
For most of the last couple hundred years
there’s been a tendency to think about faith
as an individual thing.
I believe in Jesus.
I need to receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior.
I go to make my communion.
But that’s not the way scripture, or even our church,
have traditionally understood Christian faith.
Faith is something we do together. It’s about being part of a community.
Of course, part of it is individual - each of us has to work out
for ourselves
what we think about Jesus and God.
But Christian faith has always been about what we do together, about being part of a community. Baptism isn’t just about our individual commitment; it’s about being welcomed into the church.
Because of it, we belong to one another.
And of course, the thing we do most often together
is to worship,
Sunday by Sunday
And just like life in general,
faith is a whole lot easier
if we don’t try to go it alone.
So the second reason to meet together
is because we belong together. We are a community.
And when we get together,
we encourage one another, we strengthen one another.
It’s something that our new bishop reminded us at our Diocesan Convention yesterday,
we need each other.
We can’t do this thing called faith, we can’t do this thing called life
on our own.
We need each other.
This time of the year
we talk a lot about stewardship.
And it’s tempting
to talk about it
as if it were only
about money.
But stewardship is about more than money. It’s also about how we use our gifts
and how we use our time.
Yesterday
Bishop Larry talked about how when his son was a teenager
he had no problem with putting aside the time
to drive him to a sports meet
two hours away.
But when it came to church stuff, somehow, even as a priest,
he found it hard to make the same commitment
for church things.
And as he said, his son was never going to be a professional sports player.
But he would, God willing, be Christian, the whole of the rest of his life.
Being good stewards of our time
means choosing
to commit
to coming together
to worship God. Week by week by week.
Spending the time
to get to know God,
encouraging, carrying
each other.
Because it’s we,
not stones or wood or glass
who are the church.
The people of God,
called to be faithful.
Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.
© Raewynne J. Whiteley 2009