The Rev. Rob Fisher

St. Dunstan’s, Carmel Valley

Readings: Isaiah 65:17-25; Canticle 9; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit—Amen.

I spent my college years in a city called New Haven.  It was a troubled city with a heavy dose of urban blight, located on the southern shore of Connecticut.  It was up the coast of Long Island Sound from the wealthy Connecticut towns of Fairfield County where many New York City commuters lived, and it was down the way from coastal Eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island, with its coastal New England feel, with lobster rolls and charming old clapboard homes.

New Haven did not share in either of those worlds, and clearly the city had seen better days.  Although it has come up in recent years with urban renewal, back then it was pretty rough.

I had a friend who was mugged while riding her bike.  The guy who mugged her actually pushed her off her bike while she was riding in order to steal it from her.

Supposedly gunshots could be heard from the offices of the professors

At the center of town was an open square with three chapels in the middle called the New Haven Green, and on the corner facing it was a Burger King.  Behind the counter of the Burger King was an ominous sign with a number on it that could be changed, announcing how many days there had been since the last “incident.”

New Haven remained a proud old town, but it wasn’t a gentle place, or a model city in the eyes of most of the rest of Connecticut.

It was founded in the early 1600s by idealistic Puritans, who felt that the Massachusetts Bay Colony was failing to live up to its godly standards.  Those who came to New Haven had a goal of building a colony where God would be glorified, and a particularly Christian order would be kept.  Hence the name, “New Haven.”  Their vision for the new settlement was to create a new heaven.

In keeping with this dream, they laid out the town with streets forming a very large square, divided by streets into a perfect grid of nine equal squares.  According to local lore, this preconceived layout made New Haven the first planned city.  The layout still exists nearly four hundred years later, with the large Green still occupying the central square, Burger King and all.

The founders were striving for the perfection that they read about in the Bible, including the words from Isaiah.

For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;

the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.

But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating;

for I am about the create Jerusalem as a joy,

and its people as a delight.

…No more shall the sound of weeping be heard…

or the cry of distress

It’s a lofty thing to try and create heaven on earth.

We have been trying for centuries to do it.

The Jerusalem of Jesus’ day was another example of trying to bring the heavenly order of God into a city of men on earth.

***

The first Temple in Jerusalem was built by Solomon, and it was the center of religious life for the Jewish people.  It housed the Ark of the Covenant and was thought of as the place where God dwelt.  People came and offered ritual sacrifices to God there.  But when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem in 586 BC, the Temple was destroyed

During seventy years of exile, Solomon’s original Temple lay in ruins.  Eventually, when the people were allowed to return, they immediately set about rebuilding the Temple.  This period is called the “Second Temple Period.”

The time when Jesus was born was still considered the Second Temple Period, but then the Romans occupied the land.

King Herod was a king of sorts, serving under the Roman Empire.  His family had converted to Judaism a few generations before him, so technically he was Jewish.

But Herod was not a very good Jew.

You could probably say he was Jewish just like how Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is Christian, or how Domino’s Pizza is Italian

More than being a Jew or being a Roman, Herod was a politician, and he was ruthless.  (Some historians feel that he suffered depression and paranoia.)

He ordered the execution of many of his own family members when he felt it was politically necessary to do so.  He built pagan shrines to Roman gods outside of Jerusalem to gain the favor of the people there, and he used the taxes collected from the Jews to build them

Herod worried that no one would grieve when he died.  So he made an order that upon his death, a large number of notable citizens were to be rounded up and executed, insuring that there would be great lamentations.  (Fortunately, these orders were ignored.)

One of Herod’s greatest achievements was to completely rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.  He began the construction in 19 BC, so it was of course still new when Jesus was alive.

It was a feat of civic engineering.  Giant stones were cut out of a nearby quarry and set as a massive foundation.  Some of these stones were as much as 100 tons.

The humongous stone bricks were brought downhill from the quarry by oxen and lifted by cranes into place.

The Temple itself sat on top of the Temple Mount, and it was built of imported marble with beautiful workmanship so that gleamed over the city when the sun shined upon it.

It was the sort of thing that people would see and gasp: “How is this possible!

Pilgrims came from far away.  They would sometimes take a boat to Tel Aviv, and then a three-day journey over land to Jerusalem.  Upon arrival they would buy the animals from the animal vendors for sacrifice, and they would change their money from Roman to Jewish coinage.  There were a lot of business opportunities surrounding Temple worship.

***

When those in the company of Jesus saw the Temple and remarked at its beauty and grandeur, they were looking at Herod’s Temple.

They say, “Look at how it is adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God.”

But Jesus says, “the day will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

Interestingly, they respond not by asking why or how this will happen, but by the very practical question of when?  Jesus does not tell them when, but instead tells them not to be led astray

He describes many terrible events, including persecution and war.

Amazingly, after describing to them how they will be harmed or even killed, he then says “But not a hair of your head will perish.”

It’s an amazing statement because it reveals that what he says has a meaning that is deeper than literal.

Though harm may come to their bodies, endurance in faith will give ultimate protection from all danger

Knowing to whom you belong takes away the power from all threats.

It means that the Love of Christ is stronger even than death.

Eventually for all of us, our bodies will perish, but life in God is a life beyond the earthly one we have known.  It’s a life that is more sturdy even than Herod’s great Temple.

***

Other New Testament writers note that Jesus is speaking about his own body when he says that the Temple will be destroyed.  When Jesus dies and is resurrected, he replaces the Temple with himself.  God no longer can be thought to be contained only in the walls of stone and marble, within the Holy of Holies.  Instead, God is present to all in Jesus, and available in the offering of bread and wine.

We can no longer enclose God into any designated space made by human hands, no matter how lovely.

***

Barbara Brown Taylor, who is an Episcopal Priest and author, has recently written a book about this called “An Altar in the World.”  She writes about how the holy places of God are to be found all around us if we have eyes to see and ears to hear

She notices how people will regularly bless a meal with a prayer, but that we rarely think of blessing other things we encounter in life, and she suggests the practice of blessing ordinary things.  This is something that any of us could do.  She gives an example of walking in the woods, and coming upon a stick along the pathway.  You might say:

“Bless you, stick, for being you.

“Blessed are you, o stick, for turning dirt and sun into wood.”

“Blessed are you, Lord God, for using this stick to stop me in my tracks.”

She goes on to say that “the practice itself will teach you what you need to know. Start throwing blessings around and chances are you will start noticing all kinds of things you never noticed before.… One liability of pronouncing blessings out of doors is that it gets hard to walk on things. Once you become aware of the life in them, the kinship can really slow you down.

“The same is true of other people. The next time you are at the airport, try blessing the people sitting at the departure gate with you.”

The altar of God is not in the Temple, or even in the church.  It is in the world around us.

This altar here does a beautiful service of standing in, but what makes it holy is not the physical altar itself but God’s gracious presence which blesses it when we gather here with open and prayerful hearts.

The kingdom which is to come is a kingdom beyond anything we could create or even imagine.

It is for God to create, and for us to wait upon with faith.

—Amen.

Extra stuff:

Children’s sermon:

Talk about favorite places.  Talk about Disneyland.

My mom hated Disneyland, though.  She was the worst person to go there with because she always pointed out how fake everything was.

Any place can be the happiest place on earth because any place can be a meeting place for you and God.  The minute you stop and remember that God is near, and pray, no matter where you are, that place can be holy wherever you are.  You could be at the beach, or on a hike, or with your friends, or alone in your bedroom at night.  Try it out and see!