Opportunity to Tell
a sermon based on  Luke 21:5-19
by Rev. Randy Quinn

  It was in the fall.  That much I remember.  I know I was in High School – maybe it was my junior year; I don’t remember the exact year.  But I do remember the place.  It was at the Pioneer United Methodist Church in Walla Walla, Washington.  I’d never been there before and when I first entered the sanctuary, I was awe-struck.  Somehow that empty space had the ability to inspire me, filling me with a powerful sense of God’s presence.

When I left, I knew deep in my heart that God wanted me to become an Architect.  So when I graduated from High School, I enrolled in the School of Architecture at the University of Washington.  My hope was to design churches that would instill a sense of awe and mystery when people walked into the sanctuary – much like what happened to me on that September day.

Although I had to change my major before I graduated from college – because the Architecture degree took five years to complete and my scholarship required me to finish in four – I did stay in the School or Architecture, graduating with a degree in Building Construction.  I thought if I can’t design that church, I can at least build it.

(The truth is I now know that the church is not a building – but my calling still seems to be about helping to build or develop a church that inspires people.  But that’s getting a little off track.)

I tell you that because it was in college that I really began to acquire a love of Architecture – both old and new.  And it was that love that led me to a lecture about Architecture from an Anthropological framework – in other words, how buildings express and reflect the culture.

One clear example I remember from that lecture was an imaginary tour of European cities of the 15^th and 16^th Centuries where Cathedrals towered over every other building.  Then we continued the tour by thinking about the small towns we’ve seen where Courthouses and Libraries are the most recognizable buildings.  In some places, it’s the schools and universities that architecturally inspire us.  In some industrial cities, the factories give the skyline their distinctive flavor.  And in many cities of North America today, it’s the banks that attract our attention.

Anthropologically, those facts tell us what may well be the most important part of a given society.

In Jesus’ day, it was clearly the Temple that took center stage.  From all contemporary accounts, the gleam of the Temple was recognized from miles away.  The marble stones reflected the sun’s rays so that it sometimes looked like gold, sometimes looked like fire, but always instilled a sense of awe.

That Temple, Herod’s Temple as it is referred to, wasn’t actually finished until several years after Jesus spoke – but then it was totally destroyed by the Romans before the end of the 1^st Century.  In a clear fulfillment of what Jesus says in our text for today, not one stone was left on top of another (Lk. 21:6).  The central feature of early Jewish life – the most prominent feature of the city where Christianity began – was demolished.

In our text for today, that Temple is the backdrop for the discussion (Lk. 21:5).  From a distance it was impressive.  Up close, it was imposing.  And to those who saw it, it looked permanent.

But Jesus seems to be unmoved.  It’s only temporary, he says.  In fact, nothing of eternal value can be seen or touched; it is the eternal things that Jesus sees.  It is about the permanent things that Jesus speaks.

And what is permanent is God.

What is eternal is God’s love.

What will never change is God’s grace 

Fires.  Earthquakes.  Floods.  Tornados.  Hurricanes.  Tsunamis.  Drought.  Disease.  Famine.  War.  Persecution and oppression.  Prejudice and greed.  Political and economic turmoil.

All of them are present in life, and each will take its toll on our lives.  Some of us will experience more of the pain than others will.  But through it all, God will remain present.  God will bring salvation.

Jesus is telling us we don’t need to live in fear of these events.  He isn’t telling us to hole ourselves up and shut ourselves off from the world.  Nor is he telling us to pretend they’re not real.  Disaster will strike.  Death rules in this life.

And just as certainly, Jesus is not telling us to give in to the transitory nature of life and join the hedonists who tell us to gorge ourselves on the riches we can afford.  The scientists may be right that we are bringing the earth to an untimely end by pushing too many greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.  But that does not mean we should keep on living in a way that speeds the process up.

Rather Jesus is suggesting we watch with a calm sense of authority about the events of the world and wait with a sense of hope.  He says we can proclaim the good news in the midst of the bad news.  We are being invited to celebrate the truth that lies beneath the stories we hear.

This week, for instance, we heard that scientists have discovered a new dinosaur beneath the desert sands of North Africa.  It was a fascinating find, filled with new kinds of questions.  But the bones weren’t there forever.

Jesus reminds us that this is our opportunity to tell people that God was here before the dinosaur was born.

Some day, according to some of those same scientists, the sun will implode and there will be no way to support life on earth.  But we know God will still be present.

Jesus warns the people to not become too concerned with the things they can see, but rather to focus on the reality that lies beneath and behind the events of life.  It really is like the placard that used to hang in my grandmother’s kitchen and now hangs in my office.  I’ve mentioned it before.  It says,

Only one life

‘Twill soon be past

Only what’s done

For Christ will last

But Jesus doesn’t tell us what to say.  In fact, he says not to prepare our statements in advance (Lk. 21:14).  But that isn’t to say we aren’t to be prepared.  Paul tells us to be ready “in season and out” to bear a witness to God’s faithfulness and love, always ready to tell about God’s grace and our salvation (2 Tim. 4:2; Eph. 6:15)

Jesus says we don’t need to prepare the specific message since he will give us the words to speak (Lk. 21:15).  But that doesn’t mean we can be undisciplined or lackadaisical about our faith.

In his book, Blink, (Little, Brown and Company, 2005) Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of an improvisational comedy troupe called “Mother.”  He tells about their delightful on-stage performances that are done without scripts.  These unscripted plays are different every night.  I’ve not seen them perform, but here is what he says about one of their plays[1]:

At no time as the narrative unfolded did anyone stumble or freeze or look lost.  The action proceeded as smoothly as if the actors had rehearsed for days.  Sometimes what was said and done didn’t quite work.  But often it was profoundly hilarious, and the audience howled with delight.  And at every point it was riveting:  here was a group of eight people on a stage without a net, creating a play before our eyes. . . It involves people making very sophisticated decisions on the spur of the moment, without the benefit of any kind of script or plot.  That’s what makes it so compelling and – to be frank – terrifying.

It sounds like improv at its best, so it may seem ironic to learn they also have long rehearsals.  How do you rehearse for something that has no script?  Well, he says, you practice using the “rules” the comedy troupe has adopted for their plays.

Their comedy works, not because they have mini-scripts in their minds before the beginning of a performance, but because they know how to interact on the stage.  And that takes practice.

In a similar way, I think we can prepare for the opportunities we may have to tell the good news of Jesus Christ – even if we don’t have a well-defined script.

Ø      We prepare for the circumstances by looking at the world around us and seeing where God is being revealed.

Ø      We prepare by reading the scriptures (regularly) and hearing what God has to say about things that are eternal.

Ø      We prepare by learning to recognize what our culture values.  We can look at Architecture, for instance, and see what current idols are vying for our attention.

When we are properly prepared, we can speak like Jesus did about the eternal truths of God’s power and love, about the incredible promise of grace and salvation.

We can also learn from what Jesus doesn’t do.  When he tells about the coming destruction of the Temple, he isn’t trying to scare us.  He doesn’t coerce people into believing his message.  Rather he finds a way to share the truth with confidence.

Ø      The truth that God is bigger than anything we have ever seen. 

Ø      The truth that God’s Kingdom includes more people than we can ever imagine.

Ø      The truth is we can recognize God at work in the everyday events of our lives, as well as in the newsworthy events of our world.

Today may be your opportunity to tell about God’s love.

If it isn’t, today may be another opportunity to search for signs of God at work.

Either way, whether we see evidence of it or not, the truth remains that God is here.  Whether we accept it or not, God’s salvation is available.  And I don’t know about you, but that fact fills me with awe.

Praise be to God.

Amen.

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[1]  p. 112.