+ 25th
Sunday after Pentecost – November 18th, 2012 +
Guest preaching @ Trinity, Whittier
Series B, proper 28: Daniel 12:1-3; Hebrews 10:11-25; Mark 13:1-13
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
Stones. You can
polish, stack them, or skip them across water. Carve, sculpt or build with
them. Natural wonders and marvels. From the miners’ halls Machu Picchu – the
world over, the stones speak power and poverty, triumph and tragedy, fame and
folly, beauty and bane, wonder and woe, remembrance and ruins.
“Look,
Teacher, what glorious stones and what glorious buildings!”
Indeed they were. Herod’s great temple walls towered over 80 feet tall;
its ramparts seemed impenetrable. Herod spared no expense. It was said that…“He
who has not seen Herod’s temple has not seen beauty.”
It was magnificent and
majestic, feet of engineering. However, its splendor was short lived. Solomon’s
warning of vanity was ignored. You could count on two hands the years between
its completion and its utter destruction.
As his disciples
oggled the temple, Jesus, delivered yet another shocking prophecy.“Do you see these great
buildings? Not one stone shall
be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.”
And
just like the Titanic, pride was its downfall. For YHWH’s promises, sacrifices and
atonement of sins were no longer the center of the temple and the life of the
people. His house of prayer had become a den of thieves. The firm rock of God’s
Word had been undermined by the shifting sand of man’s opinion. The
righteousness of YHWH had been exchanged like a tax collector’s coin for their
own self-righteousness, a mere façade. It was no longer the house of the living
God, but a coffin.
Such
is the house that Satan builds: chaos, confusion and corruption. His
foundation is built on half-truths and twisted words; he sits on a throne of
lies. “Did God really say? If you eat of it you will be like God. Surely you
will not die.” This is not a mighty – but a crumbling fortress;
the stronghold of the gods of this world, but how it entices our flesh.
The Church is tempted
to erect the same kind of edifice today. How easy it would be to trade the Word
of God for the word of man. How easy it would be to sooth our itching ears with
prosperity and self esteem rather than our daily death and resurrection in Baptism.
How easy it would be focus on moral platitudes and entertainment rather than
the forgiveness of sins in holy absolution. How easy it would be to cater to
our desires and felt-needs rather than the Holy Supper that cures our greatest
need.
The building plans of
the world are broad and easy compared to the narrow way of the Kingdom of God. But
we’re left with no mansion…no safe haven, only a prison.
An endless slavery to sin, death and the devil. An impotent salvation.
Like
the three little pigs, we need something stronger than a house of straw and
sticks and even bricks. We need the chief cornerstone that can weather the
scorching arrows and fowl breath of the Big Bad Wolf. Such a Cornerstone you
have in the flesh and blood Jesus.
And
behold, something greater than the temple is here. Ironically, the most
glorious manner of stones were staring those disciples in the face, having a
conversation with them; Jesus, the Chief Cornerstone: a stumbling block to foolish
men but a refuge for sinners.
As Jesus left the
temple that day, the Glory of YHWH departed as in the days of Ezekiel. But God’s
glory was not gone. The temple was simply relocated in Jesus’ flesh. A new
Laborer and a new House of the Lord, located in all places and of all people, in
a carpenter’s Son, a baby. He who formed the foundations of the world was carefully
built, layer after layer of cells and sinew, in the Virgin’s womb. Then this New Temple was dedicated in the very
temple he was born to replace. And He taught in the temple accomplishing his
Father’s business.
Once again YHWH dwelt
in a tabernacle wandering the wilderness. He would atone for sins. He would
declare people holy. But the curtains were human flesh. The ark of the covenant
walked about with dusty feet. Gritty hands. Sweaty brow. This temple pulsed
with the holy blood of the Living God. And like a resolute contractor, Jesus
set his face toward Jerusalem determined to get the job done. Healing the blind
and deaf. Teaching repentance and forgiveness of sins. Setting the captives
free. And for all this, what did he receive? The praise and fame of men? “O
what glorious stones, Jesus.” No, he was despised and rejected by men, by his
disciples, by his own family – even by you and me.
Jesus fulfills his own
prophecy: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.” And
here is the life of the Church. Your life. Not in fame or glory, numbers or
power but in the brick and mortar of Jesus body and blood. In a new temple
framed with Roman nails and cursed timber. Jesus’ wounded hands and bloody arms
envelope you like a temple courtyard, surrounding you with his life-giving death.
His pierced side is your gate to paradise: upstream you go, through the font,
through Jesus’ death and resurrection t0 the Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world. His thorn punctured head
is the true temple mount where the Lord provides the sacrifice.
The Lamb goes
uncomplaining forth to his throne on Calvary, to be the priest and the mercy
seat for the sins of the world; to make atonement for all people by his blood;
to make for himself a holy people.
We
are God’s house of living stones;
Built
for his own habitation.
He
through Baptismal grace us owns
Heirs
of his wondrous salvation.
Were
we but two His name to tell,
Yet
he would deign with us to dwell
With
all his grace and his favor. LSB 645:3
Jesus is rejected by men and in his rejection
is your salvation. But in the ruins – up from the ashes – of Calvary’s
demolition stands your Chief Cornerstone.
He is crucified in humility so you stand before God and
boast in his salvation. For he has exchanged your self-righteousness for his
own perfect righteousness. He is rejected by men so that you might be given an
eternal home-coming, welcomed by the Father as sons and heirs. Jesus, the new
temple is crucified, dead and buried. But he was not destroyed. Jesus fulfills
that promise too: I will raise it up on the third day. The new temple still
stands.
Jesus sits on his
heavenly throne for you. The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. You
have come to the city with everlasting foundations, whose Builder and Architect
is Christ. And from heaven to earth Jesus comes, bearing your salvation in the
new temple of his body and blood.
So do not fear. Jesus
did not leave his church without building plans nor without laborers nor without
His promise: never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.
And the disciples needed
that promise. Everything Jesus said in Mark 13 came true in during their life: deception.
War. Famine. Earthquakes. Suffering. Persecution. Martyrdom. These were but the
beginnings of the birth pangs. And we still feel them. In this world you will
have trouble, Jesus says. The disciples knew trouble. We know trouble. But, fear
not, Jesus says, for I have overcome the world. His promise, his atonement, his
sending of the Holy Spirit, his forgiveness stands for you.
You are built, just
like his creation – out of nothing, into a holy dwelling, behold it is very
good. You are God’s living stones, hewn with pierced hands from the Rock of
your Salvation; You are cut from Jesus’ side, a redemptive quarry split open on
Mt. Calvary, the place where mercy and water and blood ever flows…into the
font, into the chalice, over your foreheads, into your mouths. You are his holy people, each one a member of
His body and a temple of the Holy Spirit.
And the Spirit continues
to breathe Jesus’ life giving death and resurrection into your dry, weary
bones. The Spirit trumpets Christ’s Word in your ears despite all the birth
pangs you hear and see around you. Do not fear; do not grow weary or faint. Christ
is your endurance to the end.
19 Therefore,
brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by
a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is,
His flesh, 21 and having
a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold
fast the confession of our hope
without wavering, for He who promised is
faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up
love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together, as is the manner of
some, but exhorting one another,
and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10).
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
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