Pentecost 23
I watched an ABC programme this week about the reconstruction of Norwich Castle, in East Anglia, a favourite city and place in my childhood. Originally the refurbishment of this Norman building was meant to take 3 - 4 years and cost just over $13 million pounds. It was finally completed in 2025 after 7 - 8 years and cost $30 million pounds. The whole building had been deconstructed and then rebuilt, and as original Norman construction emerged from centuries of decay and more recent rebuilds, the refurbishment was adjusted, some things had to be redone, and differently, and always to absolute exactness for fit and truthfulness for the original building. The building is now admired as an outstanding example of Norman architecture, of skill and extraordinary crafting by stonemasons, carpenters, blacksmiths, weavers, embroiderers and painters.
Norwich Castle had been built soon after the Norman conquest of England, in 1066. It was built as a ferocious statement of power, wealth, colonisation and oppression; extending influence over the region and far beyond East Anglia. An unmistakeable claim about the Norman certainty of permanent occupation and power. Local peasants were forced into building it with bonded serf labour, and taxes exacted on the local people and landowners to pay for this Norman symbol of oppression and control.
I thought of this story while I listened to Jesus responding to those around him as they commented on the beauty of the Jerusalem temple, its construction, the visible wealth and power on display, and the statement it made about the importance of their faith. Jesus’ response was very different. Instead, Jesus controversially told his followers the temple was going to be destroyed, ‘so not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’ (Luke 21:6). This would have been a horror and a dire prophetic warning for everyone listening. A traitorous statement to his people, faith and God.
Jesus’ prediction about the temple, continue his scathing commentary in Luke 21:1-4, about the poor widow putting all she had into the Temple’s treasury while those with power and wealth liked to parade around in fine clothes and have the best seats in the synagogues and at banquets. The hypocrisy of their behaviour is evident to those watching, and the contempt of the rich people for their poor neighbours was corrosive. Jesus pointed the wealthy out to his listeners; with his brutal description: ‘They devour widows’ houses’. (Luke 20:47)
Jesus was speaking with great courage about about a temple which in his view, had lost its way. Its leaders no longer spoke to God about God’s people nor had a concern about them. The building had become instead, a monument to humanity’s reflection about the desire and covetousness of wealth and power, held in place by institutional greed, corruption and overwhelming human folly. Jesus realised God was no longer known or seen in the temple.
In Isaiah, 65:17-25 we have an alternative prophesy and vision for God’s faithful people, when they are losing heart. It is a beautiful, extraordinary hymn of hope and praise to God; as Isaiah speaks about the new Jerusalem and God’s dream and hopes for all of us.
‘They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat;…they shall not labour in vain or bear children for calamity…’ (Isaiah 65:21-23)
God tells us plainly, those who are marginalised and despised, ignored and seen as disposable, will not always be slaves or serfs, living in poverty on poor wages while building the wealth of the rich. In God’s plans, the poor and dispossessed will build houses for themselves and afford to live in them, their health will be good as they can eat what their fields produce and share it without being taxed out of existence. They will not have to live off the gleanings of the field. God will ensure the world’s abundance is available for those who are struggling now. This is good news indeed.
Jesus is reminding us God’s peace has been broken. The consequences of humanity’s hubris emerge from the violence and breakdown of our relationship with God. Instead of turning to God, we turn to violence to get what we want; and as always happens, we lose our way. There will always be wars and insurrections, warns Jesus; nation will fight against nation, and there will be famines and plagues because we continue to destroy rather than build, kill rather than give life. Christians will be persecuted, because our message of peace, of good news will be seen as subversive, radical, unrealistic. God’s peace is a challenge to the human powers and principalities as they wrestle for superiority and oppression. In such times, we offer another way to be, share, love and live in community, in peace, in God’s creation.
Jesus tells us because of this good news we will be handed over to the authorities. Jesus names both the religious authorities and secular as he calls out the places of accusation and punishment, synagogues or churches, and prisons. We will be attacked because of our commitment to peace, to Christ, to justice and hope. Our good news will be life changing for those who listen and respond, while those who do not want hope to spread, will try to close it down and prevent God’s justice from being shared.
In the darkest places of suffering in this world, in the rubble of broken buildings, temples and bombed shelters, God is present and God’s mercy and compassion are unending. We are reminded not to get distracted by wealth, power and the violence which goes with acquiring them when it is not shared equitably or compassionately; when we have forgotten God requires mercy, not sacrifice. Finding the balance in our world today, consistently discerning God’s will and being accountable for the way we use God’s generous abundance and sharing it with everyone, is our challenge and our joy.
Let us hold in our hearts the hope God has for all of us and share it with rejoicing and delight, with those around us. While monuments pass away, God does not; and God’s loving presence in our lives and throughout God’s creation, hope lights up our dreams and shares with gladness our love for one another, for God and all God’s creatures.
The Lord be with you.