November 4th -Day 65
Mark 13.1-31
W return to these difficult passages so often associated with the End Times. When we considered them in Matthews
Gospel we reminded ourselves that -though Scripture can speak into all kinds of settings- it was probable that as
Jesus spoke, he had in mind the destruction of Jerusalem and the persecution that would be unleashed under the
Roman Emperors. The Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70. 'Not one stone here will be left on another,
everyone will be thrown down'
Last week we were in Dublin and spent a good part of the week in some wonderful historic buildings. We stood in
the Post Office in O'Connell Street which was the centre of the Easter Uprising in 1916 and saw the bullet marks in
the stonework from the attacks that day. We visited Killmainie Gaol, hundreds of years old, filled with history and
story. Ancient buildings tell stories. Sometimes the destruction of ancient buildings tell stories too. In the past
decade we have seen some wonderful ancient churches destroyed as militants move across parts of the Middle East.
Churches in Damascus and in Mosul. Ancient buildings filled with tradition and story and faith. But, just as the story
of the Jewish people lives on after the destruction of the Temple, so we pray, the stories of our Christian sisters and
brothers live on after the destruction of their great buildings.
The story does not die with the building.
The faith is not extinguished with the bulldozer.
And just maybe - and I know that this is peripheral to the main thrusts of this passage - we need to remember that
our faith story too can outlive the buildings we have become attached to. Our faith is not destroyed with the closure
and sale of buildings. The church is not ended by the removal of a building. If there is a message from this passage it
is surely this: whatever happens, God is there and leads us through.