Do you want to be the church here?

Text: Mark 13: 1-8

“Look teacher, what big stones and what large buildings”
That phrase always reminds me of little Red Riding Hood arriving at her Grandmother’s house to find the wolf in bed and saying
What big eye’s you have! … And the wolf replies, ‘All the better to eat you with.’

It also makes me think of those interviews on National Radio with experts in IT who tell us all about the latest computer technology with wide eyed and undisguised enthusiasm… you must visit this website and download this technology… its such an exciting new idea… I’m no luddite, I’m a regular facebook user. Sometimes it’s hard not to be impressed
What big stones, what large buildings!

Perhaps the most significant change to Christianity after the conversion of St Paul came at the time when Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity (and the whole Roman Empire became officially Christian. Everybody, or nearly everybody, was deeply impressed. Clearly this was an act of God. Clearly this was the new wave of the Spirit and as the struggling and persecuted church they felt called to ride this new wave. It seemed almost inevitable that only the most masochistic and luddite of Christian bishops would resist change. Surely God is now at work through the government and the state. Far be it from us to stand in the way of God’s mission. I doubt they were modern enough to think that change is always for the better. But it must have been very hard to be a ‘nay-sayer’, nevertheless.

Long before Constantine, Jesus was standing with his disciples at the entrance to Herod’s temple – a massive symbol of the alliance between Rome and the Jewish people. A deeply ambiguous symbol for Pharisees and your average loyal Jew, but nevertheless size apparently matters and it was hard not to be impressed by the grand dimensions of the Temple.
What big stones, what large buildings!
Jesus is not impressed, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down. From Jesus’ point of view, the world he knew was on the way out… He had become more and more convinced of it, just as he was more and more convinced that he would be killed. What was apparently impressive, had very little to do with the kingdom of God that was in his bones and that he expressed to everyone he met and sought to form in the lives of his disciples.
Jesus was distinctly underwhelmed by the things others took so seriously.

What do you do when the world you know is going down the toilet?
What do you do when the church you know is going down the toilet? What do you do when young people are not beating on the doors to come in? Does it worry you? Do you remember what big stones made up the church of your childhood?

What did Jesus do with his sense that the world of faith in which he lived was falling to pieces?
It’s a very interesting question… Jesus knew that the kingdom of God was not in the big stones, nor even in the organization that the big stones represented. The kingdom of God was not defined or determined by what was ‘effective’. It was not something that needed an army to defend it. It was not something kept in place by a police force. It wasn’t even something that required church regulations and structure. If Presbytery were to collapse tomorrow like the big stones of the temple, would Jesus mind?
I suspect Jesus response would be similar to what he said to his disciples in our reading “Do not be alarmed”. Many will come in my name and say ‘I am he’…. I have the solution. Nations will fight against nations. That’s what nations do. Nations live by their enemies. Trouble is coming.
Do not be alarmed there is another way… sitting alongside, in the midst of the big stones. And when the big stones fall, living in the rubble around the big stones.
When the Roman Empire was destroyed and years of wars killed millions and famines swept Europe like even Africa hasn’t seen… what survived were little communities of Christian, monastic communities who found simple and structured ways to love one another and live their life centered on worship.
There is a link… Jesus knew that nation and religion would be the death of him… Jesus also knew that his disciples would suffer at the hands of nation and religion, that things would get worse.
We too live at the end of an era, I think. We live at the end of a time when people thought that things would only get better. Christendom became modernism and in that era Jesus vision of things getting worse seemed a bit of an embarrassment.
But whether things seem to be getting better or worse… Jesus knew that the things that impress us are a lie, a temptation. The big stones, the power, the technology, national identity… are a distraction, a temptation, the ultimate end of history is not achieved by these.
Christians know that… because their faith begins when the ultimate end of history invades the present time… God raises Jesus of Nazareth and the future, the resurrection for which we hope… is not some distant future, but is present now.
We live no longer by what our power and government and technology can achieve – sure we contribute to government and technology… but we don’t put our faith in it. We don’t trust it to make sure the future turns out alright. Like Jesus we are underwhelmed by the things other people take so seriously.
Because if Jesus is right… then on many levels, not one stone will be left on another. We live in a kind of waiting… responsiveness, shaping our community around the peaceful self-giving life of Jesus of Nazareth. We cannot carry the future, we must be content to be carried by the future… the future which has already invaded the present in the life of Jesus.
Not far from here, there was a small congregation of a dozen or so people wondering if it was time to pack up shop and close down their little church. The minister gathered them and asked them a simple question. He didn’t ask them whether they wanted the church to still be here for them. He didn’t ask them if they still wanted to be a member of church. He didn’t ask them if they wanted to attend church in the future. He didn’t ask them if they should close or sell the building or amalgamate with others. He didn’t ask them whether they wanted the church (whether it be the people or the building). That wasn’t the question. He asked them this question:
Do you want to be the church here?
Do you get it? Not do you want the church to be here… Do you want to be the church here?… And he sent them away to think about it for a week. It was not a quick easy question. To think about what their real desire was….
The church didn’t close down… things have never been the same there.
Last week our homework was to think for a week about how God has been generous to us. This week our homework is to ask ourselves this question. Do you want to be the church here? This is my request to you… for you prayer and your thinking.
If you have any questions about this question please ring me up or drop into the office and talk.
Whatever you do please forget about those other questions.. Forget about whether you want the church to be here, or whether you want to attend church… let the big stones fall down, if they do fall down and the institutional structures fall to pieces, and focus instead on this question in prayer for a week.
Do you want to be the church here?

Bruce Hamill (St Clair and Green Island 15.11.09)