This is a reflection for Safeguarding Sunday for two rural Warwickshire churches where there is a clergy vacancy. The readings for the day, the 2nd Sunday before Advent, Daniel 12:1-3 and Mark 13:1-8
‘What large stones and what large buildings!”
You can almost hear the disciple’s jaw dropping at the sight of the wonderful temple building. If he’d had a camera on him he’d have taken a photo. He might have even taken a selfie and posted it on his insta account!
WOW
That was the popular view – to be amazed at the structure of the temple and the institutions of Jerusalem.
But Jesus’s response is very different. He’d been inside the temple and seen for himself. In fact, he’d only just been in the temple – the verses of today’s gospel come immediately after he’d watched the widow give her last pennies into the treasury inside the temple and it made him see the temple and its structures differently.
We normally use that passage to encourage generous giving. Give like that widow. Instead of it being an example of generous giving it really is an example of exploitative abuse by a hypocritical institution.
Hear what Jesus said: “Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honour at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers.” (Mark 12:38-40)
He’d seen it for himself – all those large stones and imposing buildings so loved by pilgrims and tourists – they were built off the backs of vulnerable widows. Religion built up with injustice can’t stand – not one stone on top of another.
Mark’s gospel was most likely written in AD69, during the Jewish revolt against Rome. In the background would have been recruiting agents trying to enlist people for the war effort. The revolt was to regain sovereignty and freedom from Rome.
To parody today’s political parlance it was “to take back control” and “make Israel great again”. The aim was to restore their fortunes – but if things were restored there would still be the scribes being hypocritical and abusing the widows. The old structures would still be in place.
Everything had to come down – as it did the year after Mark wrote his gospel, after Titus was dispatched by Rome to put an end to the rebellion. After five months of pitched battles Jerusalem lay destroyed with the temple burned to the ground – not one stone standing on another.
Jesus had seen it coming. He was concerned for his followers. He knew it would be the end of the world for most people to see their city ruined and their temple destroyed. Their whole identity was so wrapped up in Jerusalem and the temple. He told them not to be alarmed when these things happen, when war comes, when earthquakes shake us or when famine strikes, because none of these things are the end. They’re not the end, they are “but the beginning of the birth pangs” if we allow them to be.
All sorts of things can be the end for us. Some of us may have had moments in our lives which we thought might be the end – grief, suffering, depression, disappointments which we thought we would not have survived. But with God on our side, at our side, as midwife, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit we have found faith restored, hope renewed. We’ve made that journey to hell and back, living through what we thought would be the end of us.
What Jesus is trying to do is help his followers see through all the rumours of disaster (destruction of temple, war, famine earthquake etc) to the promise of beginning again with the power which makes rebuilding possible in a world which seems to be ending and where everything seems broken.
Today is Safeguarding Sunday. This is timely in a week where the structures of the Church of England – with all their fine stones and large buildings have been shown to be woefully inadequate for safeguarding people against those wolves who come among us in sheep’s clothing in search of prey. The regard and admiration people may have had for the Church of England is in tatters because of the failures in protection and reporting.
The scandal that prompted the resignation of the Archbishop this week, and which is likely to trigger the resignation and sacking of others is a scandal of the elite. John Smyth was an elite judge in an elite movement to recruit elite boys from elite public schools to train them for elite leadership in the church which they would have kept elitist.
One of the most telling phrases about Archbishop Justin’s part in all of this has come from a friend in a Facebook post. He thinks “the problems that Archbishop Justin had in his ministry really all stem from the fact that as a disciple of Christ he found it too difficult to distance himself sufficiently from the establishment in which he was born and raised. We all struggle to outgrow the environments that shaped us. Unfortunately, in his case, it would appear he could never leave behind a fundamental respect for temporal power.”
It’s all very sad – some of you may have known Justin and benefitted from the gifts of his ministry when he was in Southam from 1995 to 2002. He has asked for prayer for himself and his wife Caroline.
Too often we see institutions intent on protecting their reputations at the expense of those who have become suffering victims within them. We saw that in the Post Office scandal
Too often we protect our own personal reputations in spite of the suffering caused by our harm and neglect. But when we do we get in the way of God whose whole mission is to protect and redeem the victims of abuse and injustice. We mustn’t be afraid of upsetting the status quo, or damaging reputations or even the dismantling of whole structures. Sometimes buildings need to be toppled from the top down so that there can be regime change.
So much in the church is imposing – including the stonework. But so much of what is imposing is also intimidating. Many have suffered in silence not daring to raise their voice. Others have known that it would be a waste of time reporting their concerns. The culture of entitlement, protectionism and deference needs to be dismantled wherever it is found. That is difficult for anyone raised within the culture of establishment.
This is what the call to discipleship is – to come away and accept a regime change by turning to Christ and accepting the regime of God. The toppling of the stones so admired for generations is nothing to be alarmed by. It’s not the end. It’s the beginning.
Sometimes things need to end for God’s work to begin. Sometimes things need to end, in the words of Daniel, leaving “some to shame and everlasting contempt”, so that God’s work of safeguarding his creation can begin, again, in the words of Daniel, when “those who are wise [in the way of God’s kingdom] shall shine like the brightness of the sky and those who lead many to righteousness will be the real stars, for ever and ever.
In this context we pray. For this purpose we work and pray, as in this prayer for Safeguarding Sunday:
Dear God,
help us to be a church that
loves, welcomes, protects.
Listens, learns, serves.
Repents, restores, transforms.
Values, cares, believes.
God of Justice and compassion, hear our prayer.
Help us, heal us, guide us, we pray.
In Jesus name. Amen.
November 17th 2024
Daniel 12.1-3
12 ‘At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.
2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.
Mark 13.1-8
1 As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’
2 Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’
3 When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately,
4 ‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?’
5 Then Jesus began to say to them, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray.
6 Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray.
7 When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come.
8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.
Grits and Grains 