As
Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher,
what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see
these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will
be thrown down.” (Mark 13:1-2)[1]
Herod
the Great[2]
had hugely expanded the Jerusalem Temple to create, it is thought, some 35
acres of sacred space. Jesus’s disciples
are amazed at its magnificence. Jesus
comments: Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown
down. The army of Titus demolished it
all in 70 AD. To this day it has never
been restored.
Now…
to avoid overstatement… it was not the first time Jerusalem had been raped and
pillaged, and not the last, and it is always hideous. Such things are happening today… whether by
violence or by what the hymn Abide With Me calls change and decay… much
that was familiar and valued collapses and isn’t there any more… the church
life we knew and the practices of faith, what we feel is ordered society, politics
and morality, decency, we have the perils and panic of pandemic and mounting levels
of anxiety and risk, cruelty to children, dreadful distortions of religion. What with care and toil he buildeth /
tower and temple, fall to dust.[3]
But
neither is it apocalyptic. We do these
things – God doesn’t. God is not
punishing the world. Not the God in such
loving bond with Jesus that Paul can say Jesus is the icon of the invisible God. Paranoia about God and human events derives
directly from fear and ignorance... on which so many people seem wilfully to thrive. Our need is for a fresh understanding and
practice of faith in Christ, which is not a bolt-hole but appropriate to the kairos,
to the times we are actually in, the changes and the threats.
That
faith, many of us have come to see, has to be contemplative… a word which
already is having to be rescued from people wanting to distort and exploit
it. If there is one thing contemplative
life and prayer utterly depend on, it is seeing the ego, the Me, assume the place
where ego belongs, which is not in the illusion of control. For Jesus’s disciple it is what he called
leaving self behind, seeing the true self emerge, by grace, the self God always
saw and knew and loved. Contemplative faith rediscovers freedom, which
is service to Christ. It attacks the
roots of fear, fear of life and of death.
Mature
faith cannot be in denial about change, or be always trying to restore what has
served its purpose and is gone. Faith always
makes room for newness… as in the ringing words of Isaiah: Do not remember
the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs
forth, do you not perceive it? I will
make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert…[4] “I will make a way”… and soon, in Advent, we
will hear just that: In the wilderness
prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.[5]
[1] “What
large…!” ποταπός (potapos) in the Greek.
The English translation is anaemic – the disciple is amazed – it’s not
their size only but their magnificence.
[2]
Herod the Great, ruled Judaea 37-4 BC.
He was succeeded by his son Herod Antipas, who ruled at the time of
Jesus, 4 BC – 39 AD.
[3]
Hymn: All My Hope On God Is Founded (originally German by Joachim Neander).
[4]
Isaiah 43:18-20
[5]
Isaiah 40:3
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