"From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Mark 13:24-29
Last week I was getting ready for my day when I heard, no felt, what I would have to describe as a “whump.” The Georgia Dome, a giant building in which I had watched football games, Olympic sports, and been to a few concerts (most notably The Rolling Stones) was imploded. I am sure a lot of you have watched the above video a bunch of times. Watching stuff like that get blown up is pretty awesome.
What is funny about that, though, is that one “temple” got flattened right next door to a new one. We are accustomed, in our time, to blowing up stadiums when we get tired of them and building new ones. Out with the old, and in with the new. We have explosives able to destroy “temple” like buildings in a matter of seconds and trucks and workers able to haul off the rubble in relatively little time. I wonder sometimes, then, what “temples” do we have in this world that feel, much like the temple in Jerusalem must have felt for Jesus’ followers, as if they will be around forever?
It’s not a huge leap for us to see why Jesus goes off on a rant in Mark 13 after being asked by one of his disciples what would happen to the “awesome stones and buildings” of The Temple of Jerusalem. Jesus kicks of the rant by predicting, “Not even one [of those stones] will be left upon another. All will be demolished!” (13:5, CEB). For his friends, this sounded like nonsense. How could something as mighty as the Temple ever be destroyed?
About 80 years after Jesus lived on earth,in fact, Roman armies came in and leveled that very temple.That temple was the center of the universe for people back then. Jesus wants his followers to see that all “temples” will fall eventually. Everything on earth is susceptible to time and the forces of nature and history, and that our only constant on earth is change.Whether or not he could see the future, Jesus knew the future.
Yet, even in the midst of change, he says, there is constantly new life flowing in to this existence. “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.” Even as time marches on, new life is always happening.
One source of h anxiety tension and grief for human beings is that we are uncomfortable with time and change. We get so caught up in our grief about what is passing away and our anxiety about what is yet to come that we do not notice new life appearing around us. Truly, we could spend all of our time fretting about all of the things beyond our control. Yet, when we do, Jesus is telling us, we miss much life and resurrection taking place- right now. As we kick off Advent, then, let us all take time in the day-to-day to find Jesus already alive in our lives and in the world we live in.
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