The Coming King

Sermon from March 29, 2020

Mark 13:1-31

         Last week amid all the news swirling around about the corona virus there were other news stories that kind of got missed. Perhaps the biggest story was the bad flooding in the southern part of Ohio. I-71 in Columbus was closed down, and in Licking county the roads washed away. Locally the flooding took a tragic turn. The first of these tragedies happened near the town of Stillwater where an elderly lady saw someone on the road ahead of her bypass the “Road Closed” sign and drive through the water rushing across the road. While the first driver was fortunate to have made it through, the elderly women who followed them found out how fast things can happen. She knew she was in trouble and she managed to call for help but by the time rescue crews got to her the flood waters had washed her car off the road and she lost her life in a tragic error of judgment. The second story similar to this one was about a young man in his twenty’s who went out in his pickup truck to look at the flood waters. He also did not heed the warnings and his truck as well as his life was swept away in the swirling flood waters which had to be respected.

         I’ve prayed for the families of these people who have lost their life and what hits me is that both of those death were avoidable. There were warnings to be heeded, the power of flood waters to be respected yet tragically in a moment the lack of good judgment caught up those who chose to do otherwise. The reason why I think about these two stories is that they are a real life example of heeding the warning signs. This also is what Jesus is teaching his disciples and us from our scripture for today.We need to heed the warning signs that affect our faith. Jesus is giving warnings, warnings that are to be heeded and not ignored. What is at stake is judgment, that moment when the truth of the wisdom of our decisions becomes the truth of our eternity. During this season of Lent as we travel on with Jesus, heading ever nearer to the cross, the thought of carrying our own cross, the need to suffer for our faith can affect our resolve to stay close to Jesus. In our modern times with so many comforts, so much ease, to suffer for believing in Jesus is something that causes us to protest, to seek ways to avoid the pain which is the cost of our love for Jesus. As Paul wrote to Timothy, his dear brother in Christ, “All who desire to live a godly life will be persecuted” This is a similar thought to what Jesus teaches us in the fifth chapter of Matthew, that the kingdom of God is for those who are willing to be persecuted for that kingdom. This is why we need to remember the joy that is before us, just as Jesus did. It was this joy, this is why Jesus endured the suffering, the pain, the shame of the cross and this is why we also can follow him on the road to the cross. This joy is the life we one day will experience, the resurrected life described in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews, where the writer of Hebrews gives us this beautiful picture “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to more angels than you can count, gathered at the festival, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous are perfect and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” When we anchor our life on this hope and joy then we like Paul we can say that our afflictions are light and momentary compared to the eternal weight of glory which is beyond  all comparison. This eternal gathering of all the saints is why when Jesus gives us warnings, when he puts up “Road Closed” signs on paths we should not travel on, we will heed those warnings because we will stop at nothing to get to our destination.

         Our scripture story begins with a simple observation by one of the disciples of Jesus as they were walking out of the Temple one day.The disciple commented to Jesus, “ Look Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” Jesus replied “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be one stone upon another that will not be thrown down!” We have to pause right here to imagine the shock the disciples must have felt when they heard these words of Jesus. The disciples were a lot like us in that we put great permanence in man-made wonders. We just always expect that the Eiffel Tower will be part of the Paris skyline, or that Big Ben will be marking the time for the people of London. If you were to tell the people of these cities that someday in the not so distant future that those structures would be destroyed they would be appalled and would not believe such a thing could ever happen. So, it must have been for the disciples. Yet this possibility for the Temple, that it could be utterly destroyed, had always been there right from its construction. In the ninth chapter of First Kings, we read how God warned Solomon, the king who had built the Temple, “If you turn aside from following me you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and statutes that I have set before you but go and serve other gods and worship them then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them  and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight….and this house will become a house of ruins.” So the warning as to the fate of the Temple was there right from the beginning but what must have kept the people of Israel from completely buying into the fact that God might actually do such a thing is that the Temple was so incredibly beautiful, so awe inspiring that it was hard to believe that God would actually discard such a work of wonder.

         The disciples upon hearing these words of Jesus that this Temple was going to be destroyed were of course intrigued and they wanted to know just when this event was going to happen. Jesus begins by telling his disciples that they were to let no one lead them astray as many would come and say that they were the Messiah. So, what Jesus is telling his disciples is be sure that you are fully grounded in the gospel message, that our faith in God is a desire for God’s presence not his power. These false messiahs were messiahs who preached that god’s kingdom would come through violence not servant love. It is this thought of violence which led Jesus to speak of wars and rumors of wars. Jesus knew the Temple authorities who were itching for a fight with Rome, they were those who were spreading those rumors of war. They had bought into the worldly way of thinking that the way to deal with enemies is to destroy them and then keep someone else from destroying you. This is why there are wars and rumors of wars and why nations rise against nations. These are nothing special; this is how things have always been. There have always been earthquakes and famines and the point Jesus is making is that the disciples were not to be alarmed; this is simply how life is in a broken world. Yet out of this brokenness the birth of a new age will begin. Why did Jesus say that that the birth pains would begin? The birth pains would begin because of the disciples and their witness and work. This is what would cause a new age to begin to emerge out of the brokenness of the old age. 

Yet to bring about a new age amid the old age would be much like a mother birthing a child; there would be pain and struggle until the baby is born but then there would be much joy. So it would be also for the coming of the new age the disciples would be bringing about. Jesus goes on to tell his disciples that they had to have their guard up because they would be handed over to the councils, to the governors and kings, to be beaten and to suffer for their faith and testimony. Their example of the new age emerging in among the old age would bring those who had invested in the old age, its way of using violence and power to achieve their goals, to question what they were doing. Yet to those who lived under the oppression of these cruel masters who dominated through their lust of power and violence, the news of a new age was amazing good news. This is why Jesus goes on to tell his disciples that gospel must be preached to all the nations, the Gentiles, those who hungering for the hope only found in the one true living God and in the Messiah who lived a life which showed the power of the presence of God. This power Jesus had would come to be experienced by the followers of Jesus through the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is this the Spirit, this intimate connection with the very heart of God this is why the disciples were told to not be anxious; they were to know that the God who gave them life and the God who keeps their life safe was closer to them in the moment of trial than at any other time. This God was the real one that was on trial and it was he that would speak through those who had placed their trust in Him. This God would be their true Father and those who did his will would be their true family. This truth is what they had to hold on to when their earthly families turned on them, when their fathers who cared for them and taught them suddenly fought against them; when the brother they had been so close to was now a hated enemy; or when their dear mother who had loved and cherished them would no longer allow them to come home. This hatred that the disciples would experience would be painful and costly but Jesus tells them to not forget why they must continue in the way of the cross no matter what the cost. What had to be be the motivation for this counter-cultural lifestyle was that they did it all the sake of the name of God. It was the very reputation of God that was at stake. God’s name, his essence, his character, is that our is a God of steadfast love and faithfulness. How would the world come to know that the one true living God is a God who has always led with love, who is always faithful, whose actions toward people never depended on their actions toward him but were instead the outcome of the unchanging nature of his character? This is why the disciples had to endure suffering, persecutions and rejection by those closest to their hearts all so that through their life, through loving even those who hated them,  doing so faithfully in every moment, through this witness the world would see in them a living example of the one true living God who lived in them.

We have to have a right understanding of what Jesus is telling his disciples in his first section of teaching so that we can understand just what he is speaking about in the rest of what he teaches them is going to happen. Jesus begins with a saying that comes from the ninth chapter of Daniel. Jesus tells his disciples that thy re to be ready to run when they see the abomination of desolation he is speaking of  something that is unholy that when  found in the sanctuary of God will render it unfit for worship. What Jesus is referencing here is the coming of the Roman army that Israel will fight against in 70 AD. So what Jesus is speaking about is that when the disciples see the Roman army standing in the Temple this is the time to get out of Jerusalem because the presence of God is no longer going to be associated with the Temple or the city of Jerusalem which surrounded it.They were to flee because otherwise they may be tempted to rush in and join those who were fighting the Roman army in order to save what had been symbols of their holy faith. There would be false messiahs and prophets who would try and convince the followers of Jesus to take up the sword and fight but again the disciples had to understand just what was at stake when they did so. What was at stake was the very name of God, his reputation. What kind of God would the world see testified in their actions if they lived by the sword just like all of the rest of the people living in the old age? This is why the disciples had to flee just run and get away, get away from the voices crying out for them to join a lost cause even though those voices were people of their own heritage.

Throughout this teaching Jesus has been referencing many Old Testament prophecies. From Hosea, Jesus brought forth the warning to those who were pregnant and nursing in those days because it would be harder for them to get away when the judgment came. The hope that the Lord had shortened the days in order that the elect would be saved was written of in the sixty fifth chapter of Isaiah. Jeremiah spoke of the coming of false messiahs. Most importantly in the thirteenth chapter of Isaiah we read of how the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light, the sun will be dark as its rising and the moon will not shed its light. This is exactly what Jesus tells his disciples to expect when the Roman army came marching on Jerusalem. We have to wonder why is Jesus us in thee scriptures to teach about the fall of the Temple and Jerusalem? The reason becomes clear when we find out that what Isaiah was writing about was the fall of Babylon. Isaiah knew that when Babylon, the world superpower at his time, fell that it would be a cosmic event that would shake the very foundations of earth. So in using this prophesy from Isaiah Jesus is telling his disciples that Jerusalem is the new Babylon. This is who the disciples, the new Israel, need set free from. It was Jerusalem who was now the enemy of God’s true people. God’s true people, the true Jerusalem, were those who followed Jesus, those who loved even their enemies, faithfully loving no matter the circumstances of life. Just as Isaiah had prophesied that Israel had to escape and flee from Babylon now Jesus is telling his disciples that they are the true Israel and they had to flee Jerusalem which because of its sin was no better than Babylon.

The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple was a visible and tragic witness to the fact that God had turned his face away from those of the people of Israel who refused to place their faith in Jesus. This is what has to be remembered when we read of about the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. I am indebted to a great theologian by the name of N. T. Wright who has helped understand some of these difficult passages of Mark. What he teaches is that when Jesus speaks about the Son of Man coming is that in the original prophesy from Daniel, the Son of Man is coming from Earth to heaven not the other way around. In the seventh chapter of Daniel we read of this vision God gave to Daniel one night while Daniel was in exile in Babylon.Daniel saw coming on the clouds of heaven one who was like the son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented to him. This is what Jesus was speaking of when he tells his disciples that they would see the Son of Man coming on the clouds, not coming to them but coming before the Ancient of Days. The term “Son of Man” means simply a human, as in a representative person who was a person as God had always meant his people to be. Jesus was telling his disciples that he was this person and if there was any doubt that he was the one chosen and anointed by God, that his message of  steadfast love and faithfulness was the right way to live, the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem should forever put an end to those doubts. The destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem was a sign from God that his way was not the way of the sword, of violence against ones enemies but rather the very way of God. God in his love makes the sun to rise upon the good and the evil and he has makes it rain upon the just and the unjust. This is the true way of God, the way of Jesus, the way of the cross. This is why Jesus is the Son of Man because this is the way that God created people to bear his image. To bear the image is an idea in ancient days that was a term of royalty, of a king seeking to put his imprint of his rule throughout his kingdom. So for people to bear the image of God meant that God’s people were to reveal heavens justice and righteousness upon the earth. To bear the image of God meant to bring the earth, over which God ruled, into perfect harmony of heavens order. This is the petition Jesus teaches us to pray that  “God’s kingdom come, his will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” When the Temple was destroyed and Jerusalem overrun this was to be a sign to the world that those who had said they were doing the will of God by fighting against Rome in order to set up their own kingdom, it is these people that  God declared were not his people. These people who had paraded around acting all pious putting on a good show for all to see were in fact nothing more than wolves in sheep clothing. With the fall of the Temple and Jerusalem the truth was revealed, the sheep’s clothing fell off and the people who had called themselves the sheep of God’s flock were exposed as nothing more than ravenous wolves with an appetite for blood. 

         So, the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem revealed the truth about the authorities of the Temple and Jerusalem but it also vindicated the truth about Jesus. With God’s rejection of the people of Jerusalem, God was declaring that Jesus and his followers were the true Israel people who worthy of bearing his name. Jesus as the Son of Man, the true person God had always intended was, according to the prophesy of Daniel, was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom shall not be destroyed.When the people of Jerusalem saw their kingdom destroyed by Roman forces in 70 AD they had to realize that theirs was not the kingdom endorsed by God. When they saw the followers of Jesus grow in numbers despite being beaten and murdered, being rejected by their families, thrown out of synagogues despite all the wrath people could bring against them and their numbers flourished the evidence was clear whose kingdom was God’s true kingdom.  

         What Jesus was trying to impress upon his disciples is that even though it would often seem as if the kingdoms of this world were dominating and overpowering, often appearing to be invincible, what the disciples had to hold on to was that it was Jesus who had been given the everlasting kingdom.  The glories of a Jerusalem that would flaunt its power against God’s Son executing him upon a Roman cross would one day be thrown into the burning garbage dump, Gehenna, the very image of hell. The people of Israel were chosen to be the representatives for the people of Earth  whether for good or evil and this is what would be seen with the destruction of Jerusalem that those who oppose God one day all their efforts will come to nothing. Yet those who are willing to bear the name of God, to be people who in their dealings with others love with a merciful steadfast love, feeling  the pain of this world in the depths of their gut, and living this way day by day, these would be people rewarded by God. As Daniel continues in his vision in the seventh chapter of his book,  he sees that the kingdom and his dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole of heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve him and obey him.” The kingdom originally given to the Son of Man is now also given to the saints, God’s holy ones who know the Son of Man as the life that must be seen in them. God declares that those who live the life of the Son of Man will, like the Son of Man, be given the kingdom. 

         So, all of this is what Jesus meant by the the disciples seeing the Son of Man coming on the clouds. They may not physically see this happen but rest assured when the Temple and Jerusalem is destroyed that is when in heaven Jesus will be standing before the throne of the Ancient of Days, given the kingdom as God’s rightful king.When there will be no more doubt as to the truth of the kingship of Jesus, when his way is vindicated and proven true by an act that is seen in history, this is when God’s elect can be expected to be gathered into the presence of the king. The elect are those who know without a doubt that God is a God whose power is that he is free to choose and this God has chosen them. God has chosen them not because of their righteousness but because he is a God of steadfast love and mercy.This God has elected to come to them, the humble and desperate people, and has knelt before them, pouring out his life upon them to give them life. This is the God whose glory is his that he is always faithful even when we as his sinful people cannot be faithful. Yet, even though we know, in the light of God’s glory, how far we have fallen from that glory what we also find is that God favors us, delights in us and lavishes his love on us. It is this love, this perfect love, that casts out our fear and empowers us to become the true people of God, able to be people of steadfast love and faithfulness. These are the people God gathers together into the kingdom of his Son, a kingdom that his elect also call their own. This is what Jesus was teaching to his disciples. He did so because he knew how very difficult their life was going to be as people living out the life of the new age in a world still very much entrenched in an age that is passing away. Jesus, as he looked upon the faces of these men he loved knew the pain they would feel as the blows of the rods would hit their backs, as they would be chained in prison, the pain as loved ones turned away from them and considered them as good as dead. Jesus knew the temptation they would face as in that moment of suffering they  would want to react in violence, to seek revenge which was God’s alone to mete out. What Jesus hoped is that they would hold on to the truth, the way of Jesus, the way of the everlasting kingdom. The way of violence, the way of the Gentiles who lorded over the ones they ruled, the way of the Gentiles who only loved those who loved them, this way was on the way out. The way of Jesus, the way of those who followed in the way of God, blessing others, kneeling before them as a servant, being faithful and true to each other and delighting in the wonder of the people they encountered, loving these by pouring out their life as the greatest act of love, this is the way of Jesus. This is the way of the everlasting kingdom. This is the way of the cross; the way we are warned not to veer off of because as history reveals, to do so is disaster. We of course never want to suffer for our faith but Jesus has plainly told us that if they have persecuted him then we who followed him will also experience persecution. The question that only we can answer for ourselves is just will be our response to the suffering that will come from following Jesus? Will we demand our rights, will we demand our government come to our rescue, will we take our enemies to court? These are all accepted responses of our culture today but we have to ask are these accepted responses of the kingdom of God? When we suffer and are persecuted for our faith will we be able through the power and presence of God be able to follow the teaching of James who tells us to count it all joy my brothers and sisters when we meet trials of various kinds for we know the testing of our faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full affect that we may be perfect and complete. You see, God’s love is a steadfast love and how will we ever know if the love within us is a steadfast love unless we find that we can love in those times of trial, when love is hard, maybe impossible. What joy we will find when in those times when we discover that we are able to love through the power of God which is the presence of God with us. In that moment when we love when love seems impossible this is when we are most sure that God is with us, his presence pouring his life and love into us and his love is removing all fear. This is when we will also know that the kingdom of Jesus, despite all appearances, is the everlasting kingdom because when we experience this love we know that evil will not overcome us but rather we have the power in us to overcome evil with good. This was the hope of Jesus for his disciples and this is his hope for us. Amen!

Pastors Log Supplemental
I’m a huge Star Trek fan (and also a Star Wars fan, don’t worry!) and I always liked how Captain Jean Luc would always in the beginning of an episode have a Captain’s log to record what was happening at that moment on the Enterprise. Then later in that same episode you would here him say “ Captain’s Log Supplemental” This was a an addition to the larger log note he had first entered. Well, on this blog I have been mostly posting messages I normally give at Canton South Church of the Nazarene. These to me are my “Captain’s Log”.  In the course of writing these messages though I find that I have a ton of material that never makes the final cut of the message. For some reason people will watch a two hour Avenger movie but a two hour message on Jesus, well that’s asking too much. So, I thought, what can I do with all of this extra stuff I’ve dug up that does’t seem to have a home? Hence the idea of Pastor’s Log Supplemental, a little bit of extra stuff that I have come across doing the research on the message that I’m not sure what to do with. Here’s a good example of what I’m talking about. I have been studying the first five books of the Bible because I am intrigued by first, what it means for us to be the priesthood of all believers, and second, the connection between this priesthood and this idea of bearing the Name of God which by the way is much bigger deal than most of us know. So, as I am studying my way through Deuteronomy, I keep coming across this idea of clinging, clinging to God. This I found out is what was behind Jeremiah taking his underwear down to the riverbank and burying it for a while, to show that after it was rotted it would no longer cling to him just like the people of Israel no longer were clinging to God. Gives new meaning to Captain Underpants doesn’t it! So, just what does it mean to cling to God? First, I found that it is like what your skin does with your bones. This is is how tight we are supposed to be with God. I’m 58 and my skin is a little saggy but I still get the metaphor; we are to have a unity that is organic, and living. I began to be intrigued so I dug deeper.  I found that the Hebrew word for cleave is devekim. This is word is, I found a difficult word to translate. I found help from an author, Chaim Bentorah. In a blog post from April 9th, 2019 on his website chaombentorh.com, he writes this, that devekim is “the word for glue.  It is also a synonym in modern Hebrew for dedication toward a particular goal. Yet in religious Judaism it is attaching yourself to God in all areas of your life. In the state of devekut one hears the voice of God, receives direction from God. One lives in the presence of God and heart of God.  It is unifying all aspects of your life, body soul and mind with that of the heart of God.” Now what my mind thought is this: We often ask the question “Do you have Jesus in your heart?” But when we understand what cleaving to God means then the better question is this “ Are you in God’s heart?” Are all aspects of your life, your heart, your resources, the entirety of who you are is all of this united with the heart of God? Are you living every day in the presence of God? These seem to be so much greater questions than to ask if Jesus is in our heart, don’t they? If this is what it means to cleave to God then God has set the bar pretty high for all of us. May we live each day in the heart of God!

The Power of the Presence of God

Sermon from March 22, 2020

Mark 12:41-44, Mark 14:3-9

         Well, here we are in the fourth week of Lent and I have to say that people are really getting in to the whole fasting thing this year. I mean, I drive by movie theaters and a lot of people have given up seeing the latest flicks for Lent this year. Not only that but you know I have also noticed that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of people frequenting the bars this Lent either so I say to all those who have chosen to give up going out for a drink, way to go. If that were not great enough it also seems that people are getting serious about the sin of gluttony because man, I see a lot of restaurant parking lots with hardly any cars in them. That is some serious fasting going on this Lent.

         Well, yes, I am aware that what I am seeing is of course not a serious focus on fasting during this Lenten season but rather a fierce attempt at all of us doing our part at social distancing so that we can as they say “flatten the curve” during this corona virus pandemic.The reason for this social distancing is the fact that the corona virus is so contagious. Just the other day I came across a great illustration that demonstrated in a powerful way why the disease control people are so concerned about this virus. What disease control wants to know is for every person who develops the disease how many will they give the disease to before they are no longer infectious? Well, for the corona virus the answer to that question is that number is three; one person get it and they can infect three other people before they are no longer able to infect anyone else. Now, that doesn’t sound so bad until you do the math. So, the first step is three, the second step is nine and the third step is twenty seven and so on. Well, if you keep working out the math in just fifteen steps there is a potential of fifteen million people who end up being infected. Just let that sink in for a moment. Now, as I pondered how profound this little thought experiment was, I couldn’t help but think of how we as Christians are to be contagious in another way. I thought of how Jesus tells us in the thirteenth chapter of Matthews gospel that we are to be like a little bit of yeast mixed in a large measure of flour and how that little bit of yeast soon is found throughout that large measure of flour. That little bit of yeast is no longer just that small amount but now is multiplying and growing and spreading until it fills all of that large measure of flour. So what was Jesus trying to tell us in this story of a little yeast growing in a large measure of flour? The point is that that little bit of yeast had to give itself completely, to lose itself in that measure of flour. Only by dying to what it was could that yeast become something more. This pouring out of oneself for the kingdom of God so that not only the kingdom but ourselves become something greater, this is what Jesus is leading us to do. This is truth found in our scripture for today.

        Our two scripture verses for today have much in common. In each we have a woman, who is giving extravagantly. Each is commended by Jesus for their willingness to give excessively. The difference between these two scenarios which may not be apparent is that each woman is giving to a different Temple. The widow, whose story is found at the end of the twelfth chapter of Mark is giving all she had to live on at the treasury of the Temple, the Temple made of stone, wood and gold which was the house of worship for all the people of Israel. Yet as permanent as this structure must have felt to all who worshipped there, Jesus warned them that the end of this Temple was near.When Jesus cleansed the Temple causing the daily sacrifices to come to a screeching halt, this was a prophetic demonstration that one day there would be no more sacrifices, no more worship within the walls of this Temple. The reason for this is subtly given in the account of the widows giving where we are told that Jesus sat down opposite the Temple treasury to watch people put their money into the giving box. Many rich people came and put in large sums of money. This sounds commendable but was it really? Or was their giving a means to make themselves look more honorable in the eyes of those who watched and listened as their large sums of coins clattered into the treasury box? Yes, it was apparent that they cared more about lifting up their own name instead of lifting up and bearing the name of God, and because the people of the Temple no longer were willing to bear the name of the Lord then the Temple itself could no longer be said to be the place where the name of God dwelt.

Yet, in stark contrast to those who were so obsessed with their own honor, there was a very poor widow who instead desired to honor God. She honored God by giving her very last cent. This honored God because it witnessed to her faith that she knew God as the one who had given her life and this God would keep her life safe. In her giving she gave out of this faith, lifting up the name of God, the name of steadfast love and faithfulness. Through her giving she knew God as a God whose love never fails; a God who remains faithful, from whom come all good gifts.

         Now, what may not be apparent, is that the woman with the alabaster flask was also giving her treasures to the Temple, the new Temple whose name is Jesus. This is what Mark wants us to understand as we read of this account of yet another extravagant giving by a woman. Mark wants us to comprehend just why it was that the Temple had to be destroyed and why Jesus the Son of Man was going to be raised from the dead to take its place. What is interesting is that when we discover the reason behind the Temples destruction we also discover the reason for this women’s extravagant giving.

         You see, what is very confusing when we think about the Temple authorities is that they appeared on the surface to be pretty good people. They were not people who were listening to the voice of their inner desires, that first temptation we learn Eve yielded to in the Garden after being tempted by Satan. No, these Temple authorities were people who knew the scriptures. They meditated on God’s word day and night. They seemed to understand the wisdom found in the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. 

         Not only did they appear to be people who were listening to the word of God but they also had the appearance of being people who lived by Biblical wisdom. This wisdom found in the second and third chapters of the book of Proverbs is that we are to be people who practice justice, righteousness and fairness when dealing with each other. In the third chapter of Proverbs we further discover that this way of dealing with others has its roots in the foundational actions of steadfast love and faithfulness. Throughout the Bible, steadfast love and faithfulness is the very name of God, his very essence, the unchanging character of the Almighty. So, when we treat each other with justice, righteousness and fairness what we are  in essence doing is bearing the name of God out into the world. We are acting toward each other as God has always acted toward us. This is is what the Bible defines as wisdom. This wisdom affects the course of our future because as we discover in the twelfth chapter of Daniel, it is those who are wise who will rise to everlasting life. Those who have chosen to not live by this wisdom will unfortunately rise to everlasting shame.

         This Biblical wisdom stands in contrast to the worldly wisdom found in the third temptation that Eve yielded to in the Garden when she looked upon the forbidden fruit and she desired it in order to make herself wise. This is the wisdom of the animal kingdom where they desire to have their food to take and hide it away to secure their future. We see this as squirrels hiding acorns and nuts and dogs burying their bones. It is wise to them because at some day in the future they will have food if something hasn’t found it in the mean time.  This worldly wisdom stands in stark contrast to the wisdom of God who teaches us to take our resources and instead of squirreling them away, use these resources to practice steadfast love and faithfulness, to act toward each other as God has first acted toward us. This is true wisdom because only those willing to act this way in the here and now will get to experience the everlasting life of the there and then. Jesus called this laying our treasures up in heaven instead of earth.

                  Now, we know that Temple authorities at least in practice did believe that were people of justice, righteousness and fairness because they followed the Law to the letter. In fact, they even did more than the Law demanded just to be on the safe side. The Law as we discovered spelled out how the people of Israel were to bear the name of God in their community. They were to every year, take the first fruits of their produce and eat before the Lord with their family and friends in acknowledgment that God is the life give and the life keeper; they were secure with him as their king. They were to every third year give generously to the poor and in needy around them. God spelled it all out for them so that there was no question as to how they were to bear his name out into the world. The Temple authorities, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the High Priest all of them would have insisted if asked, that they had done all that the Law had called for and not only that they went further and did more just to err on the side of caution.

         So, if they were people who listened only to the word of God and if they in their observance of the Law practiced justice, righteousness and fairness in their dealings with each other, then why had they lost their faith in God to be their life giver? Why were they so possessed to make for themselves a life of their own choosing instead of receiving with gratitude the life God desired to give to them? Why was it that these people who should have been the closest people to God turned out to be the people who were plotting to kill his Son?

         The answer to this puzzle lies, I believe, in the third temptation that Eve yielded to in the Garden of Eden when tempted by Satan. When she saw the Forbidden fruit we are told that it was a delight to her eyes. What is being implied here is that Eve saw the fruit and she desired it, a desire the Bible calls lust, a strong, violent, impure longing.It is the kind of desire that is consuming, demanding, unsettled until satisfaction is achieved.It is this temptation that is so devastating to people who seem so close to God, those who appear to be listening only to the Word of God. It is this temptation that makes a hypocrisy of those who are following His wisdom of treating others with justice, righteousness and fairness. The reason why this is so is  the aspect of our motivation. What all of us must answer is this: Why am I doing all of this? What is my motivation for heeding the word of God, for treating others with the same love and faithfulness God has shown to me? Just what is it that we desire to receive for our obedience? If we yield to the temptation of lusting after what catches hold of our eyes then the reason for our obedience to God will be that, in exchange for our obedience, God will be for us the power we need to obtain the object for which we are lusting after. If this temptation of the lust of the eyes is left unchecked then God will be seen to us as a source of power that we can use to get what we long for instead of being the presence we desire more than any other.

         We see an example of how one can try and manipulate God to be the power to satisfy ones lustful longings in the story of Cain and Abel.  In the fourth chapter of Genesis we read of the story of Cain and Abel who bring offerings before the Lord. Cain, a grain farmer brought an offering from his crops. It is important to see what is not said in this description, most important aptly that what Cain brought was but just a mere sampling of what he had harvested. This helps us realize that what Cain has brought is an offering of just enough. When one is in a relationship with someone else for what they can do for you then the relationship will be marked by behavior that is “just enough”, just enough to get the other person in the relationship to do what you desire. This is what Cain was doing, offering just enough so that God would use his power to give Cain an abundant harvest. So, when we understand this then we also see that God was not being cruel when he rejected Cain’s offering but rather jolting Cain to an awareness that he was in fact attempting to manipulate God, to use him instead of love him.

         What a contrast was the offering of Abel. Abel we are told brought the firstborn of his flock and its fat portions; in other words, Abel brought his very best before the Lord. It is obvious that Abel desired a relationship of drawing close to God’s presence. In his sacrifice Abel was telling God that he knew God as his good shepherd who cared for Abel just as Abel had cared for this sheep upon the altar. Just as Abel had given life to this sheep he now asked for that life back to give glory to God.  In the same way, Abel understood that God had given him life and if at some point God would ask for that life to be returned for his glory then Abel was willing to make that sacrifice for God. Do you understand why God accepted Abel’s sacrifice? Do you see how vastly different Abels offering was from Cains offering just because their motivations for offering were so vastly different?

         Well, when you are consumed with lust for an object, whether that is an abundant grain harvest or a kingdom of your own making, when your hopes that the power of God will be behind your efforts are found to be mere delusions, the result is always anger at the realization that your lust will not be satisfied. God saw that Cain was angry and God came to Cain and pleaded with Cain “Why are you angry Cain? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Sin’s desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” You see lustful desire gives birth to sin, sin that also has a desire, a desire to take our very life. What Cain wanted from God was his power but what God gave to Cain was his presence, his pleading and hope that Cain could indeed overcome the lust that was consuming him. God knew Cain had the power already with him to rule over this desire that afflicted him. Yet God’s words were to avail because out of his anger toward God, unable of course to kill God, Cain killed the one closest to God. Abel’s blood cried out from the ground; Earth’s first sin. This helps understand why Abel is referenced in our Lenten verse from the twelfth chapter of Hebrews where we are given a great vision of the hope which lies beyond the cross of this age,  that of the heavenly city of Mount Zion, the city of the living God, to innumerable angels gathered at the festival, to the assembly of the first born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all  and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than Abel.” Abel, the first one declared righteous by God is  one who by faith still speaks to us calling us to be righteous. Jesus the righteous who by his sacrifice, his blood sprinkled upon us, seals our new covenant with, forgiving our sin, empowering us to be the righteous people we are called to be.

 The righteousness of Abel was that he desired God’s presence over God’s power. Fallen humanities idea of power is freedom without restraint. It is to be free to do what one wants, to have what one desires, to take hold of all that one’s eyes can see. This kind of power is nothing less than an infants willfulness demanding that the world reach the things just beyond its grasp. In an infant this demanding attitude is understandable. In an adult, this demanding attitude is not only foolish it is also dangerous.

God’s power though while free is constrained by his steadfast love. This is a love freely given and we experience the power of this love when God in his freedom chooses to be present with us. God chooses to not remain in the confines of heaven safe from the pain, suffering and hurting of this world. In love, God enters into our world to be present with us; this is his power.  In the sixty sixth chapter of Isaiah, we are told that the ones God is searching for are the humble, those whose longing and desire is for God to be present in a desperate way. When we are broken and longing for nothing more than God to be close to us this is most assuredly when God is present with us.

This idea of a God whose power is to be present with us is the heart of Aaron’s blessing, found in the sixth chapter of Numbers,. We have looked at several times on our Lenten journey, focusing on the fact thatGod is the one who blesses us and keeps us, the one who is gracious unto us and the one who gives us peace. What we have missed when this is all we have focused on is how God is present with us when we receive these blessings. The first act of being present with us is this act of blessing. The Hebrew word of blessing has its roots in the Hebrew word for knee, because to bless someone is to bend one’s knee, to kneel in order to present a gift. So, the image we are given is that the great king who reigns above comes to us with his knees in the dirt of our life bearing gifts for us. Yet, it is more than just giving a gift, it is a pouring out of oneself before another. This act of blessing is done for only one reason and that is to establish a relationship with another.This is what God is desiring we understand when He tells us that he blesses us.

The second thing we read is that God makes his face to shine upon us. God’s face shines with the light of his glory. Yet, we are left wondering just what is God’s glory? How can we define God’s glory? We get a clue from the book of James where we read in the first chapter, the seventeenth verse, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” Here James is teaching similar ideas to what we have just learned, that God blesses us, giving us every good gift from above. His face shines because he is the Father of light, meaning that in him there is no darkness, no turning; God is always true to his word. This same sense is found in the twenty third chapter of Numbers, the nineteenth verse, where we read “God is not man that he should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” God’s honor, his glory is that he is always true to his word; God always keeps his promises. This is is why his name is faithfulness, always faithful to the word he speaks. It is in the light of God’s integrity that we understand our fall from glory because we are people who are unable to keep our promises we make. We know the good that we should do; we can promise to love but that promise is quickly broken. There, face to face with God we are confronted with our own poverty of spirit feeling the pain and weight of our dishonor. Yet all is not lost because we read how God lifts his countenance upon us. This is an old Hebrew saying which means “to show favor.” God favors us! This means that God delights in us. The full expression of God’s favor is captured in a verse from the third chapter of the prophet Zephaniah where we read that God rejoices over us with gladness; he quiets us by his love. He exults over us with loud singing!” So, despite our lack of faith, God still delights in us, believes in us and promises to be present with us. His perfect love will drive out our fear so that our ability to trust will be restored so that we can become God and others can trust. This is the power of God’s presence. 

The Temple authorities desired God’s power because they desired to destroy those who caused them to suffer yet what they failed to realize is that by doing so all they would do is become just like the ones they longed to destroy, people who caused others to suffer. God offers his presence so that we become faithful people whose fear has been cast out by God’s perfect love. Then we will be people who can take on the suffering of the world, loving others so their fears are dispelled and they too can become faithful people who love and who no longer cause others to suffer. This is the way of Jesus. 

What we see in the woman who anointed Jesus was someone who copied the God who was present with her. She blessed Jesus, kneeling before him, pouring herself out before Jesus. She saw in his face the faithfulness of God and understood her own lack of faith. Yet in that same face she saw someone who loved her and accepted her and delighted in her. In Luke’s version of this same story, when others asked why she had given so lavishly, Jesus answered that those who had been forgiven much love much. This is the power of the presence of God. Others know when we have been in the presence of God; it is when we become like God, kneeling, pouring out, being faithful yet delighting in the wonder of the other. This is the way of Jesus. This is the way of the cross. May our lives show that this is the way we are traveling this Lenten season. Amen!

God’s Fruitful Vinyard

Sermon from March 15, 2020

Mark 12:1-12

         Wow, what a whirlwind of a week! What started out as a rumor of perhaps a  few confirmed case of corona virus in our area ended up in an avalanche of unprecedented closings and quarantines all in the hopes of better weathering the approaching storm. First, all large gatherings of spectators watching events were shutdown, then the activities themselves were cancelled until every professional and college sporting events were all shuttered. Schools, uncertain of how to carry on under the circumstances were soon given the mandate that they too were to cease activities and send the children under their care, home for the next several weeks. This meant all colleges, universities and public schools. Then the president addressed us on how we as a nation were going to fight the coming pandemic and one of the many measures was that there would be no allowed travel to and from many of the other countries of the world basically self quarantining ourselves on a national level. All of this, of course affects our economy and the lives of all those who go to work each day. It is just amazingly overwhelming the vast sweeping changes brought about by a virus that cannot be seen without an electron microscope.

         The real danger though may not be the disease associated with the corona virus but rather the fear and panic that has gripped the hearts of people since they first learned that this pandemic had hit our shores. I mean, what is with all the hoarding of toilet paper folks? With all of the closings of what could be considered the pillars of normalcy for our society, things like professional basketball or baseball games, the fun of March Madness or even the mundane trudging off to school, when all of these get swept away in order to keep the virus at bay then we feel a sense of disorientation deep within our souls and out of us comes fear. Fear is a heart issue, that place within us that is to guide us through life and if it is fear that is doing the guiding then it is not hard to figure out that our life will be in trouble. This is where God must enter into the picture because what we find throughout scripture is that one of God’s favorite sayings to his people is “Fear not.” My kids, a long time ago attended a VBS program that had as one of its figures from the Bible the person of Joshua. They learned the words that God spoke to Joshua as Joshua was about to go into the Promised Land and defeat the giants who dwelled there. Even to this day my kids can still sing those words, “Be strong and courageous do not be terrified for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” You see, when God tells us to fear not, to be strong and courageous, to not be terrified, he is not just saying for us to have a stiff upper lip. No, God is telling us to not fear for a very important reason and that reason is that God Almighty is with us. You see, what Joshua understood is yes, there were giants who lived in what was God’s Promised Land but what Joshua also knew was that his God was greater than any giant. So, as long as God fought the giants then the battle was victorious even before they started. This is what we must also must remember when we are feeling overwhelmed, swept about by so many unbelievable happenings unsure of how things will unfold that there is one who is greater than all of this and this one is with us to fight this battle for us. What we must do is instead of yielding to our fear is to instead tighten the grip on our faith. 

         This is why I believe that this Lenten season is a season that is made for a time such as this. As we have said before, we are looking at Lent this year as a pilgrimage, a journey that leads us to Zion as depicted in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews where we read this beautiful description of our resurrected hope “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festival gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” What an amazing portrait of heaven and Earth together in a great festival of love, worship and celebration, of victory over death, of life evermore. Now, what we cannot forget is that the writer of Hebrews begins his writing on this resurrection hope in the eleventh chapter of his letter, the section often referred to as “The Faith Hall of Fame.” There, in this chapter, person after person is brought forth from the pages of the former Testament and their testimony of faith is heralded by the writer of Hebrews. There we read of the faith of Abel, the faith of Noah who built the ark before the rains came and of course there is the story of the great faith of Abraham and Sarah who though childless were promised by God that one day they would be the founders of a great nation and on that promise, they believed. Yet, the writer of Hebrews continues, these great examples of faith did not receive all that God had promised them which may catch us a bit off guard. The writer of Hebrews explains “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted then from afar, and having acknowledging that they were strangers and exiles on the Earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland…as it is they desire a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” This city God prepared for our patriarchs of faith is the one we are headed to this Lent and it is the city of the heavenly Jerusalem, Mount Zion and to get there requires faith, a faith that may not receive all that God has promised us in the here and now but a faith that can see these promises one day fulfilled in the heavenly country.

         It is this faith, a faith that trusts in the promises of God even if those promises are not received in the here and now, this faith is surprisingly a very important element in what appears to be a little story Jesus tells his audience about a vineyard, its owner, the tenants who are put in charge of said vineyard and the abuse of the owners servants and the murder of the owners son at the hands of those the owner trusted to farm his vineyard. Now, to us it may not be apparent but this story of a vineyard is an ancient one in the lore of the people of Israel. Found in the fifth chapter of Isaiah, Isaiah records a song for the one he loves and the vineyard which his love has planted. The one he loves is of course his God and the vineyard as we listen to Isaiah’s song is the house of Israel. Isaiah tells of how God had a very fertile hill where he dug the soil and cleared it of stones and planted his ground with choice vines. Isaiah continues saying God built a watchtower in the middle of the vineyard to guard his vineyard and God carved a wine vat out of stone all in anticipation that his grapes would yield the finest of wine. All seems so perfect until we hear Isaiah say the tragic words “But it yielded wild grapes.” So what was God to do? His vineyard had had not produced grapes that he could eat or turn into wine, so what was he to do? So what God decided to do is to tear down the thick hedge that kept out marauding animals so that they could come and devour and trample down the worthless grape vines. No longer would he prune those vines or hoe the weeds but instead he would just let the briers and the thistles take over. Now, what Isaiah was getting at in this song of the vineyard was that the house of Israel was very much like a vineyard in that God had taken the people of Israel out of Egypt, out of slavery and brought them into the Promised Land and planted his people there for a reason just as one plants a vineyard for a reason and the reason is that both will produce what the one who planted them expected. The person who plants a vineyard does so in the hope of harvesting sweet abundant grapes that can be turned into the finest of wine. In a similar fashion, God planted his people in the Promised Land so that his people might demonstrate God’s wisdom that he taught his people, how to live with justice, righteousness and fairness. Isaiah writes that God looked for justice but behold what he found was bloodshed.God looked for righteousness but behold an outcry from people being oppressed. It was that God’s own people, the very people God had delivered out of Egypt when they were oppressed themselves as slaves to the Pharaoh, these same people that he had entered into a covenant with where God promised to be a king who would watch over the nation of Israel all this he had done so that in return these people would bring him honor. As Isaiah writes further in the fifth chapter of his book, “the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.’ So, through their deplorable behavior, the people of Israel were bringing dishonor upon the reputation of God and Isaiah is telling his people that this is why God was going to bring armies from the east, the armies of Babylon to carry the people of Israel into exile. Isaiah foretold that this would happen to his people so that when the day arrived they would not somehow believe that their God was in some way too weak to prevent Israels enemies from defeating her and destroying her city and her Temple. No, God was still all powerful, almighty; what would happen would be because God had ordained such calamity to come upon the people of Israel because they had broken the terms of the covenant that God had made with his people when they were brought up out of Egypt by God’s all powerful hand. When the people refused to do what they had promised then God would no longer be for them the king who would keep them, be gracious unto them and give them peace as heard in the High Priestly blessing found in the sixth chapter of the book of Numbers. Instead, they would experience fear, loss and conflict so that they knew first hand the consequences of their actions.

This is the story that Jesus is referencing in his story and Isaiah was one of those servants, Gods prophets, that God promised his people he would raise up out of the people of Israel as recorded in the eighteenth chapter of Deuteronomy. These prophets were those people that God put his words in their mouths. The prophets were to speak to the people of Israel the very commands of God. So, when Jesus tells us that God sent his servants and the people of Israel beat them struck them and killed them the implication is that all of this happened to the prophets because the words they spoke were the very words of God, the very commands of God. This gives us a clue to the underlying problem in the story that Jesus is telling, a problem rooted in the refusal of God’s people to be true to the life that they had Promised God they would live, a life that would bring God honor and glory.

We get a better understanding of what this God honoring life looks like from looking at the covenant relationship the people of Israel had with God. The people of Israel entered into this covenant with God and both parties had obligations which were spelled out in the covenant, a covenant which we know as the Ten Commandments. In these Commandments, God as the great King agreed to do three things for the nation of Israel: he would give them life and keep safe that life; he would be gracious to them giving them everything necessary for a good life; and he would give them peace. So, what we find in the Ten Commandments is that God would be their source and protector of the life of the people of Israel. Once every seven days, the people of Israel were to stop from their efforts to acknowledge that it was not their efforts but rather the action of God which gave them life. This was known as keeping the Sabbath. The people of Israel were also to acknowledge that the life that they had had come about and was kept safe because of a father and a mother; God insisted they should be honored. God also demanded that the people of Israel be people who revered life because the source of their life was a holy God. This is why revenge was to be left up to God for only the God who gave life could legitimately take it. This is also why they could not murder because God had promised to keep their life and if someone took a life they made God out to be a liar.

God not only gave his people life but he also gave everything they needed to have an abundant life. God provided men with helpmates, their wives, so to take another person’s husband or wife would be an affront to God. God also provided all the resources a person needed for life therefore to take what God had provided was to in essence take from God himself therefore they were not to steal. God also by his actions in a person’s life was giving that person a life of honor so if someone defamed another person they were actually destroying a work of God. All these things a person was given for life by God were acts of God’s grace, gifts from heaven above.

God also desired his people be contented with the life he had given, the life he had provided everything necessary for a good life. It is just make sense that God would hope that his people be content with the life they have, that they would live a life of peace where life was all that God had created it to be. This is why God commanded that people were not to covet another person’s wife or another person’s property.

So, God the great king promised to provide life, a life where God would provide all that was needed for a good life, a life that was all that God created life to be. This is what God in his covenant relationship with Israel promised to provide to the people of Israel. Now, what the people of Israel promised to do according to the covenant that they had entered into with God was two things. First, they were to worship God alone. They were to have no other gods that they would bow down to and serve; God alone was the one who would be worthy of their service, the one voice that would direct their life The second command was that the people of Israel were to bear, or carry the name of the Lord and when they bore or carried the name of the Lord out in the world, wherever they would go, this name of God, his very essence, his character of steadfast love and faithfulness was to bear fruit in their lives as actions which bore the stamp of steadfast love and faithfulness. When we read that we are to not take the name of the Lord in vain, the meaning of the word “vain” in the Greek is “to not bear fruit, ‘ as in a person who goes go seek fruit on a tree or grapevine and finds none.This is why this understanding should be of interest to us when we listen to Jesus’ tell us a story of God and his vineyard.

So, the people as they lived their life were to demonstrate mercy, grace, to have a long fuse on their anger, and their lives were to abound with steadfast love and faithfulness, all those qualities which are the essence of God’s name. One can never forget that in a covenant relationship the reputation of one partner is bound up with the reputation of the other. So, the reputation of God was dependent on the actions of the people he had promised to be faithful to. In Deuteronomy 14:22 through Deuteronomy 16:12, God spells out just what it meant or the people of Israel to demonstrate steadfast love and faithfulness, a life that would bring God glory and honor. Every year they were to take  a tenth of what the produced and eat this produce in the presence of God as an act which reminded them that it was God who gave them life. Every three years they were to take a tenth of what they produced and share their produce, their life, with the foreigner, the one’s passing through their land, those who had lost their Daddy’s, and the women who had lost their husbands, these who were in need of love and faithfulness were to find it in their neighbor. At the end of seven years, all debts were  to be released, a time to let the continually impoverished get a new chance on life.The whole thought behind these actions was that they were to look out for those who were falling through the cracks, the poor  they encountered on their way. They were to open up their hearts, open up their hands and give to them sufficient to their need. In the seventh year they were also to give those who served them a chance at a new life, setting them free but to not let them go empty handed but give to them abundantly so they can have a good start to their new life.

         Now, it seems like we have strayed far from our story about the vineyard but what I have described from Deuteronomy is the fruit that God’s vineyard was to produce, a community where steadfast love and faithfulness abounded. What produced this harvest of fruit is that the owner of the vineyard gave them life and kept their life. The people of Israels first concern was not the concerns of their life because they had a God who was the King and ruler over their life, a God who gave abundantly so they could have a good life, a God whose desire was that his people be content and experience peace. This is why they were freed to instead focus on bearing the name of God out into their communities, bearing the sweet fruit of steadfast love and faithfulness. Yet, while creating a community of steadfast love and faithfulness was a great result of the covenant that the people of Israel had with God this was not the ultimate goal of their relationship. The ultimate goal is heard in a prayer that King Solomon prayed at the dedication of the first Temple built in Jerusalem. On the day when the glorious Temple was dedicated, King Solomon prayed, “Likewise, when a foreigner who is not of your people, Israel, comes from a far country for your name sake, for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched hand, when this foreigner comes and prays toward this house, hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all the peoples of the Earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.” Do you see why God commanded that his people bear his name and that his name produce fruit in the life of his people? When people live together in a life marked by steadfast love and faithfulness people are going to talk about it because such a life is a marvel and a wonder that only God can create. The country of Israel sits at the crossroads of the Middle East so it is on display for people from all corners of the world. Those who traveled through Israel, these were the people God wanted to influence through the lives of his people. The foreigners would see the peoples actions and want to know the God who had inspired them and their eyes would turn toward the house of this God.  The hope is that those so intrigued by the life they saw would want to have that life and so they would pray, cry out to God and God in his mercy would answer them and speak to this one who is not one of God’s people, and God would tell him of his mercy, his grace, his steadfast love and faithfulness; this is what it means to know God’s name. In the prayer, Solomon prays that these foreigners who would come that they would fear God which if you meditate on it, means that they were not afraid for their life when they encountered God but rather they were in awe of the life of God, a life he is willing to give to those who ask for it. This means that the foreigner would come to know God as the giver and keeper of his life, that he would come to know God as a gracious God who gives all that is needed for a good life and he would know God as the God who desires his people be content, to know the peace of life as it was created to be. Then this foreigner would worship the one, true living God and go and bear the name of this God in the community where he lived, bearing fruit, the fruit of a life marked by steadfast love and faithfulness. This is what is all wrapped up in the hope of Isaiah, found in the fifty sixth chapter of his book, where God tells Isaiah “my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.”

         Yet, this dream of foreigners coming and praying toward the Temple because of the name of God being carried out into the world, this was not evident when Jesus strode into Jerusalem to inspect the Temple. The Temple authorities, those who were the tenants in the story Jesus told of the vineyard, were people who wanted to take the kingdom by force. They desired to kill Jesus, the very Son of God, all so that they might bring God’s inheritance, the people of Israel, under their influence. By their actions they proved that they no longer had any faith in God to give them life and so instead by their own efforts they would make a life for themselves. No longer did they trust God; their faith in God to keep and protect their life was no longer evident. This is why they longed to go to war with Rome, taking lives, hoping in doing so they might keep their own. The good life to them was taking all you needed by force, even taking from their own parents and unsuspecting widows and the result of such a life was a life of quarrelsome conflict. This is the life they lured the people under their influence to believe they were created to live but nothing could be further from the truth. This is why Jesus told them in no uncertain terms that the Temple which stood in Jerusalem would one day be destroyed because the people who worshipped there no longer bore the name of the one true living God and therefore the Temple no longer was a beacon of the name of God.

         Yes, these Temple authorities would hand Jesus over to be crucified yet Jesus knew his heavenly Father had granted him life and would keep his life and on the third day the whole world knew this very truth. As Jesus had faith in his Father to give and keep his life, to give all that he needed for life and that the love of his heavenly Father was his certain peace, the life of Jesus is a life  of mercy and grace, a life that is slow to get angry, a life overflowing with steadfast love and faithfulness. Jesus is our new Temple that we pray towards and remember in fearful times to hold on to our faith in the God who has given us life and who keeps our life safe, a God whose grace has given all we need for a good life and a God who desires us to be content and find our peace in him. May we hold fast by faith to this truth, today and always! Amen!