The Jewish Temple in Jerusalem has quite a history. Jesus must have known about some of, if not all of what happened by the time he visited the place. The author of Luke's Gospel was almost assuredly aware of what happened following Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. Both Luke and Jesus were also very familiar with the imperial power dynamics of the Roman Empire and how early Christians and Jews alike were struggling to survive as citizens of that empire and along with being faithful believers God and God's eternal salvation.
Biblical & archaeological facts suggest that King Solomon built the First Temple almost 3,000 years ago. Egyptian & Assyrian military forces sacked and invaded the temple on a couple of occasions. Jewish rulers then reconstructed it only to have the Assyrians completely destroy the
about 400 years after Solomon first built it.
Ezra and Nehemiah began building the
2nd Temple around 550 years before Jesus was born. Greek, Hasmonean invaded and occupied Jerusalem for a few hundred years and then Herod the Great began a massive
construction project proclaiming his own imperial significance and dominion over Jerusalem. Jewish zealots revolted against Roman occupation about 30 years after Jesus' death and Roman legions led by Titus surrounded the city breached its walls, and ultimately
destroyed Jerusalem's Temple in 70CE.
All will be thrown down.
Contemporary Episcopalians don't know what it's like to have lived as an Ancient Jew or Early Christian. We have a
National Cathedral but few if any of us believe that God resides there. The state of our country's national security is not dependent upon preserving that building. However, few theologians or scientists predicted that a
5.8 magnitude earthquake would cause more than $20 million dollars damage just a couple of years ago. Such an earthquake had not occurred in that area since 1897.
We similarly understand what it is like to live in unpredictable times even as we strive to be followers of Jesus The Christ. We profess to be believers in his present-day and future salvation for us. We are not martyrs for our faith as Early Christians were. We are however becoming increasingly aware of the opportunities and struggles of being a small church in a contemporary context where fewer and fewer people attend church and all of us experience more and more demands for our time, talent, and treasure. The world is still a conflictual and challenging place to live.
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Read Bishop Breidenthal's address and view Julie Murray's wonderful Convention photos. |
It is in the midst of these stone-tumbling & faith-depleting times when Jesus beckons us to creatively and patiently focus our faith on him and God's Providence. Last weekend, Bishop Breidenthal encouraged Episcopalians in the Diocese of Southern Ohio to recall that "
We are well acquainted with individual sin and systemic evil, and if we are Christians, we still look to Jesus as our ransom." He furthermore
said "Jesus stands with us in our hatred and paralysis, and offers us a way out, both by his example, but more deeply, by standing in for us, doing within us what we could not do for ourselves. ... By identifying himself with us, and slowly but surely alchemizing our dross into gold, Jesus injects God's love back into the human race, disempowering systemic evil person by person." Jesus' salvation and God's reign does not remain in the rubble of secular circumstances or human concepts of power and dominion. God Reign is governed by Jesus' love and our willingness to abide within it and work with one another to reconstruct the pieces of our lives within ourselves and our world, one stone at a time with one another through Christ's presence.
