Sermon for the 16th of November - Second Sunday before Advent

When I looked at the gospel reading (Luke 21.5-19) for today, the one we have just heard, my heart sank like a stone: Jesus really spells out to his disciples how tough it is going to be for them in the future. ‘Dreadful portents’ just about sums it up! There will be false prophets, pseudo-Messiahs, wars, insurrection, nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, great earthquakes, famines and plagues. Then, on top of all this, the disciples will have to endure hatred, betrayal and persecution – even from their own parents, siblings, relatives and friends – which will lead to their arrest, imprisonment, torture… and death. Who would want to be a disciple, let alone an evangelist after hearing all that? And yet… right at the end, Jesus assures them that not one hair on their heads will be harmed…

So, what are we make of it?

 Let’s go back to the beginning and see if that helps. It is no less shocking but, at least, Jesus describes the destruction of a splendid building, not harm to his followers. He predicts the utter and complete destruction of the most important and most sacred building in the city of Jerusalem: the Temple which housed the Holy of Holies. (You can see a reconstruction of what the Temple might have looked like on the front of your Order of Service.) And Jesus is right as, around 70 years from when he was speaking, it was razed to the ground by the Romans.

 This has led some Christians to conclude that the beautiful buildings, like the one we are in now, are not necessary for worship. After the early Christians did not have chapels, churches or cathedrals, they met in house-churches, as it were around the kitchen table in their own homes. But I hope you will agree that, although not essential, these magnificent edifices (including this one), that have been built to the glory of God throughout history enhance nor detract from the act of Christian worship. People have prayed, meditated, confessed, celebrated Mass and sung hymns in them for centuries and I don’t know if you agree but I think all this has a culminative effect. I don’t believe it’s fanciful to say that a sacred atmosphere is created. People coming into this church for the first time have commented on this feeling of peace. Even if they are non-believers, they sense that it is a sacred space. It is a place of sanctity, a place of worship, and also a place of community – as you will discover if you stay for a drink after the service…

 But to return to the stone building-blocks of the temple: Psalm 118 refers to ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone.’ And this is referenced by Matthew and Mark and in Acts and in 1 Peter2:4 it is referred to as ‘a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God’. As the 17th-century poet, orator and priest George Herbert wrote in a nod to alchemy: ‘This is the famous stone/That turneth all to gold’ (it is a line with which we are familiar as we sing it in the hymn, Teach me my God and King.) This ‘famous stone’ is, of course, Christ Himself.

 There are many references to stone in the Bible. Stone tablets, altar stones, memorials, boundary stones, precious stones, and large stones used to seal tombs. Stone is a hard and durable material perfect for constructing buildings to last but, when it is out of place, its qualities are neither useful or desirable. In the book of the prophet Ezekiel, for example, God tells the people: ‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.’ To be stony-hearted is, in one sense, to be dead. A hard look, Medusa-like, can turn us to stone, cold, solid and impermeable, not the warm-hearted, flesh-and-blood people we are meant to be.

 But we can also become living stones, essential building blocks in the body of the Church. Our bodies are, too, described as sacred temples of the spirit. The phrase ‘temple of God’ is found in verses in the letters to the Corinthians: ‘Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?’. Other related verses state that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and in the gospel of John, Jesus refers to his own body as a temple, when he says: ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’. He is speaking of the temple of his body, which will be resurrected three days after his Crucifixion. The Second Letter to the Ephesians reads: ‘…you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God’. This verse describes how believers are built together to become a holy temple. These verses teach that believers, the church, and the individual body are all considered to be sacred temples where God’s presence resides.

 So, out of the rubble of a destroyed temple of stone, another immortal one rises which neither the Babylonians, the Romans, nor the nuclear missiles of today can destroy.

Amen.