Less
tragically, we periodically hear of people who are swindled out
of their life’s savings and led into the desert to await
a spaceship or a god who will take them up to heaven. Why are
there people so incredibly naive? Because they are frightened,
confused, and someone seems to offer an easy out. It was always
thus, even in Jesus' time and before.
The
Book of Daniel, from which the first lesson was read, was written
during the cruel reign of a Syrian ruler who had conquered Judea
and expelled all male Jews from Jerusalem. The Temple was vandalized
and the occupying army desecrated it. The future for Israel was
very grim and all hopes for deliverance seemed to have been dashed.
The writer of Daniel looked back on an earlier time, centuries
before, when Israel's existence had been in jeopardy also, and
told the story of Daniel and his friends who had refused to refute
their faith, who did not give up, but tenaciously held to God's
redemption in history. Their example ultimately did make a difference
in history, for it was the stories of Daniel that likely inspired
Judas Maccabeus to lead the successful revolt and cleanse the
temple again three years later. The feast of Hanukkah celebrates
this rededication of the Temple. The Book of Daniel tells Jews
of every age, hold on! The worst thing you can do is to believe
that the absolute end for people of faith has come and that God
's promises are lies.
The
Gospel passage of Jesus on the Mount of Olives warning of the
temple's demise certainly reflected the frightening last days
of Jesus in Jerusalem. It likely also reflects events of later
years leading up to the Temple’s destruction and even knowledge
of the final destruction of the temple in 70 AD. The final destruction
of Herod's great Temple was a terrible blow for both Jews and
Christians. Their subsequent histories have been profoundly affected
by it, but it was not the end for either Judaism or Christianity.
Jesus
didn't predict or encourage us to look for signs signifying the
end. Rather Jesus tells us that during whatever terrible times
occur in the present or in the future, when the earth's very foundations
seem to be shaken and in danger of crumbling, understand that
out of all this trauma, come the opportunities for a reformulated
or refocused vision. Note what Jesus’ reply tells us. Don't
believe it when in the midst of profound change and uncertainty,
someone scares you into thinking the end is near. There well may
be signs of the end of various venerable institutions, including
religious institutions, but among the signs of change are the
birth pangs of the new age to come.
We
don't think much of it today, but the invention of the printing
press shook the religious world to its foundations. That everyone
would be able to read and possess a Bible had enormous implications.
If everyone had a Bible, anyone could interpret it as one saw
fit. Yet in modern times we have learned to live with that. True,
anyone in Ithaca may start a church or call oneself a priest or
bishop and claim to have the true word of God. Yes, people may
be taken advantage of, but on balance few of us would want to
go back to the age of a formally established religion. Today the
internet poses a great challenge for truth. Anyone can spread
vicious rumors or opinionated ignorance with impunity. Librarians
and professors all know the dangers of so-called research that
is not really research at all, but snippets of undocumented statements
cobbled together. On the other hand, the internet has been a vehicle
for communication around the world beyond our highest expectations.
All
of this is to say that the enemies of faith are not the uncertainty
of dramatic or unprecedented change, but spirits of disillusionment
and resignation. Do not fear, the Gospel reminds us over and over
again.
