23 Pentecost Yr C Proper 28 Nov 13 2022

23 Pentecost Yr C Proper 28 Nov 13 2022

Malachi 4:1-2a, Psalm 98, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, Luke 21:5-19

 

So, it was a fabulous trip to the Holy Land, so much to process and so much to say about it, so many photos! So many sites to see. One of the things we heard over and over again was from a historical and archeological perspective. What you see are Roman ruins, with churches built by the Byzantines over the ruins, those altered into mosques, changed back to churches. All with, tradition suggests that this is the spot where ….. the cross was, or maybe it was over there, or this is the spot where Jesus’ body was laid, or where Mary and Elizabeth met, or where Mary gave birth, or where the Samaritan woman met Jesus at the well, none of that can be known for sure. 

 

But, does it change anything? You see, what I really experienced was incarnation, the reality of Jesus, for me, is not in the place where Jesus is, or Mary, or Elizabeth, the place is Holy, the place is amazing, and I am so thankful to have gotten to go to this place. The place where Jesus is, is in the people. 

 

The people who I was traveling with. Danielle, the young parole officer whose faith in ex-offenders gives me hope. Clara, the 80 year old retired teacher who reminded me of the everready bunny, Rebecca, my roommate who recently had a knee replacement and who was bound and determined to keep on going. Tom, who is so generous, who didn’t know a stranger and whose baby died in infancy and whose wife died a few years ago. Billie Jo, Megan, Sarah, Natalie, Elise, all young, brave, fierce, pastors negotiating being women in a world where people continue to prioritize men. 

 

The people who made this such a rich experience, our bus driver Mahood, who cheerfully drove us to every site to see, and who had to leave us a couple days before the end because his wife was in the hospital. Lama, who spoke so passionately about the archeology and history, and who got us into every site and guarded our place in the line. Rena, who is a dean at an Arts and Music university in Bethlehem and who believes higher education is the key to peace. And our guide, the Rev Dr Karoline Lewis, who keeps our focus on the women who accompanied Jesus on the way. 

 

And the people of Palestine, and the people of Israel. Within the walls of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, there continues to be one to two deaths every day of Palestinians who stand up for their right to live there. People live in a walled city, through which they cannot pass freely. 

 

Although the sites are amazing, being in the Holy Land for me was not about the buildings or the sites, but about the real presence of Jesus in the people, because it is people who follow Jesus, not buildings, not even sacred sites. And that, I believe, is what Luke is showing us today. 

 

Just as following Jesus and being church is not about the building. We may be unabashedly proud of our building, but we know that church is something else. Church is God's work in the world, church is people who profess God's love for them and for all, church is body and bread, blood and wine, church is forgiveness and reconciliation, church is people who agree and disagree with each other, church is messy and beautiful. Church is all of the above.

 

And it is these things that we hear about in Luke and in Isaiah today. Luke writes, "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down." 

 

We need to remember that this good news was told after the events of Jesus' life and death. The events are already known to the author, they tell of what happened, not of what will happen. The temple in Jerusalem which was the place where God lived, was destroyed. Not one stone was left upon another. So in the story, the people are asking Jesus, what does this mean? What does it mean to not have a place for God to live? What does it mean to not have a place in which to worship God? The destruction of the temple was life changing for the Jews, but in this story Jesus is reassuring them that all will be well, do not be afraid. 

 

We live in that place as well. Here is our church building, and we love it and take care of it and it is beautiful. Humans do this over and over. We erect a beautiful building, and eventually it is the building that becomes important, and we become afraid of losing it. And our focus shifts from doing the work of reconciliation and healing that God calls us to, to keeping the institution alive, we become afraid of dieing.

 

But God calls us to live, God calls us to love, God calls us as agents of resurrection. The new heavens and the new earth are being created right now, and we are agents of that new creation. We have a part to play. Our job is to bring the love that wins to the world so that the world will know God's love and be transformed. As we do that, the world turns, the world turns toward love and away from hate, the world turns toward wholeness and away from fracture and fragment.

 

It's messy though, it's not this or that, one or the other, black or white, good or bad. Just like it's not only about heaven or hell at the end of time. It's about living fully and completely as God's new creation right here, today. And that is not clear or certain. God reveals Godself on the path we are on, and it is our job to pay attention, and to help the one who is walking next to us, to give them our coat if they need it, to share our food. We will fall down, every one of us. Whether it's because we turn our ankle, wear ourselves out, or goof around too much, we will fall down. It is those who accompany us on the journey, our church, who help raise us up again, and show us the way forward. How we are with one another on the road matters. How we respond to the challenge and joy of the journey matters. That we share the challenge and joy of the journey matters.

 

So we find ourselves today, after an exhausting couple of years, feeling like the stones keep tumbling down. So much of what we thought about our world and our church seems to have changed, maybe even ended, and it's hard to find the hope in our future together. All of us together must imagine a new way. We must imagine the ways we can be God's word of mercy, compassion, charity, and justice in our world. God's word matters, our words matter. 

 

The Good News is that we are followers of Jesus. When we were listening to Rena Khoury, a dean at the university for Palestinian students, we heard a story of pain and oppression. We asked her what she thought we could do about that when we got home. She said work for justice. Take the right action, have courage, be bold. You and I have all we need, stand up for those who don't. We are the church, not this building, not even the holy sites. Give your love, your forgiveness, your mercy, your compassion. Use your words wisely. Speak love into the world, speak forgiveness into the world. Speak on the behalf of those whose voices are silenced through fear and intimidation and violence. And don't go it alone, we are the church. We are all on this rock together, and none of us get off of it alive.

 

God is at work with us. God is already about healing and reconciliation that changes the world. Jesus is really present with us, in and through each other. We are living the reality of the new heavens and the new earth. We are living the reality that God loves us and all of creation so much, God walks with us in this life making us new, transforming our sadness into joy, our pain into hope, our death into life.  Amen.