“Some people were talking about the temple and the beauty of its fine stones and ornaments. He said, ‘These things you are gazing at–the time will come when not one stone will be left upon another; they will all be thrown down.’ (Luke 21:5-6, REB)
Twenty-three years ago I slapped my hand on the Romanesque wall, exposed by renovations, of Chester Cathedral and said to my host, this is the church Anselm knew. There has been a church on the site since the eighth century. The building now is Gothic in style, but that is wrapped around an earlier Romanesque structure. And so I knew that back when “Cur Deus Homo” (Why a God-Man?) was hot off the copying desk, its author, Anselm the Archbishop of Canterbury, was visiting, the wall he would have touched was the wall I touched.
Ten years ago I placed my palm against a large well-worked stone in Jerusalem. It was the Western Wall, foundation stone of the third Temple, built under the direction (and the lash) of Herod the Great, just before Jesus was born. Despite our Savior’s words of prophecy, not every stone fell away from every other. The Romans, when they came in destructive fury, left a few standing, just a few. They are the largest and oldest and best-fashioned of the stones in the wall. Though I doubt the soldiers of Titus spared them out of respect for the stone masons.
Stones last. Sometimes they are repurposed: they become spolia, salvaged or stolen from an old ruined (mostly) building and put to new use. Churches in Rome have pillars from pagan bath houses. Churches in Spain have stones that were once in mosques that were once churches.
Sometimes they stay where they were put, for a very long time. Sometimes they are in ruins, evocative of earlier, lost ages, and forgotten rituals.
Stones last. But not forever. And they don’t matter anyway. That is what Jesus tells us. “The Lord is faithful” - the steadfast love of God : that is what endures.
By your endurance you will gain your souls (NRSV)
Or– By standing firm, you will win yourselves life (REB)
Or– By holding fast, you will gain your lives (CEB)
Or– By your perseverance, you shall gain salvation.
(Luke 21:19)
Do you remember the persistent widow from a gospel a week or two ago, how she persisted? And in persisting, she demanded justice against her opponent, or as the King James would say, to be avenged against her adversary. (Luke 18:1-8)
Jesus calls his followers to endure and hold on in the midst of persecutions and says that by so doing they will save their souls and their lives.
Early in the passage, he talks about what to do when someone says to you follow me because I am the one. I am the one who can save you and the time is near. He says don’t go after them, don’t follow that leader, that false leader.
That is part of saving your soul, not to be seduced by false messiahs, false leaders.
Today’s psalm ends with this verse: ‘In righteousness shall he judge the world, and the peoples with equity.’ (98.10)
What does that mean? Are there other ways to say it? You can also say, he will judge with saving righteousness.
You can say, he will establish justice; you can say, he will bring salvation and that that is his victory.
And all of these other ways of saying it remind us that it is the Lord who is our king. Christ, the king.
In the early days of Christianity within the pagan Roman empire, all you had to do to be convicted of treason was to say that Jesus is Lord —that Christ is King, not the emperor.
And that is who we turn to, as our judge for the people who receive this message. It is joy to the world for the Lord to win himself the victory, for the Lord to win salvation. For him to come and judge the Earth means that we will be vindicated, that he will establish a saving righteousness with equity and justice.
That is a pretty different sense of judgment from that of the persistent widow’s unjust judge who seemed simply to be awarding the victory to one side or another in a dispute.
In the justice of God, salvation and righteousness are established for the world among all people.
But it is for us to step out of that tight frame of jurisprudence that simply chooses a winner between opponents in a lawsuit and it is for us to step into a larger world in which justice rolls down like waters and the day of salvation is at hand. (Amos 5:24)
“But before all this occurs, they will take you into custody and harass you because of your faith. They will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will provide you with an opportunity to testify. Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance. I’ll give you words and wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to counter or contradict.” (Luke 21:12-15, Common English Bible)
What would I say if I were hauled up before the magistrate to defend my religion? First of all, it doesn’t seem likely; after all I’m not a Christian in Baghdad or Bahá’í in Tehran or Muslim in western China or Buddhist in Tibet.
And what would I have done that might make them think they could convict me of being a Christian? Have I been comforting the bereaved, visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, or standing up for justice? Have I been doing those things? Have I been encouraging other people to do those things? Or is it guilt by association with people who do those things?
After all, I did sign that “Bear Witness Now” letter along with 100 other pastors that said, this is what Christianity is about, and included three main points.
And those points were about compassion and justice and charity. About God’s love for all people, God’s love for creation, God’s particular love for the poor.
● “For God so loved the whole world”
● “God created the world and called it good”
● "For the least of these”
John 3.16. Genesis 1.4,10,12, 18, 21, 25, 31. Matthew 25.40, 45.
Maybe that's enough to get me busted. I hope so, cause I haven’t done a whole lot else. Nothing to stand out. Then again, what does stand up? How would we know?
There’s a story about an old Scottish pastor reflecting back on his life who worried that he’d never really had his words or his ministry turn someone’s life around; except maybe, he thought aloud, maybe that little Davy Livingstone. David Livingstone, you may know, devoted his life to a very dramatic ministry in Africa, missionary, physician, explorer, and anti-slavery crusader.
Maybe we won’t know what would stand up in court, if we were brought before kings and governors. Maybe we would slide by because of the modest nature of our commitments. Maybe we would. Maybe some of us will have to stand up and stand out, because of the nature of the gospel. Of the gospel, not our own bravery or detachment or internal virtue. Because he calls.
He calls us. As he called Nicodemus, and Andrew and Peter, and Matthew. And a blind beggar no one knows the name of. Of Mary and Martha. And of that saint we sang of, on All Saints, that we met at shops or at tea. (Love that.) Because the saints of God are just folks like we—
https://chestercathedral.com/about/heritage-culture/the-building-and-its-history
https://www.mezquita-cordoba.com/en
Lesbia Scott, “I sing a song of the saints of God”, Hymn #293, The Hymnal 1982, page 515. [https://hymnary.org/hymn/EH1982/page/515]
[https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Livingstone]
https://www.bearwitnessnow.org/
May the Lord direct your hearts towards God’s love and the steadfastness of Christ.
(2 Th 3.5, REB)
JRL+
