Daniel 12:1-3; Psalm 16; Hebrews 10:11-14(15-18)19-25; Mark 13:1-8
The Rev. Drew Brislin
In the name of the one Holy and Undivided Trinity, Amen.
Like many of you I have moved several times over the years. As I was thinking about my childhood growing up in Selma, I thought about the different homes we lived in. I know from being told by my parents that when I was born, they lived in a trailer. A couple of years later we moved into a house on Woodrow Drive in Selma. My brother Allen was born while living there. A couple of years later my grandfather would purchase a lot on Crescent Hill Drive in Selma and along with one of his best friends would build a house where we would move once again. While living in this house my brother Dan was born. I don’t remember the trailer, I have vague memories of the Woodrow Drive house, but it is this home on Crescent Hill Drive that would be the house where my brothers and I would grow up. It was this house that would become synonymous with home. It was surrounded by woods that were extremely good for building forts yet close enough to friends that we could ride our bikes and meet up at various places in our small town. Little did I know that when I would move off to Tuscaloosa for college so many things would begin to change. While in Tuscaloosa, my parents would decide to get divorced. The house would be sold and a year later it would catch fire from an electrical malfunction and burn down. Every now and then on the few occasions that I return to Selma, I will drive down our old street recalling wonderful memories growing up and passing that lot where my childhood home stood. It is now overgrown with trees and bushes with only a dogwood tree remaining that I remember my grandfather planting near the road. So often we associate physical structures with our own personal origin stories. I am sure many of you probably have a childhood home that stirs those same feelings, or you may think of Ascension or some other church as that place that stirs up so many memories of special events in your lives or recalls past relationships.
Those feelings that we associate with home are the same feelings that called the Jewish communities of Jesus’ day to worship at the temple. It is the temple where the priests stood day after day offering sacrifices to God to cleanse the people of their sins. The temple was where God was to be found and approached only by the priests. This was the understood way of being in relationship with God, however, as the saying goes the author of the letter to the Hebrews moves from preaching to meddling this morning. The writer of Hebrews is inviting us to do a little Christian meddling this morning by challenging this young community and subsequently us to review our relationship with God that has gone through a major change because of what Jesus has done. The Christian mystic Julian of Norwich tells us that Jesus endured the most suffering he could on the cross for us and that his love is so great for us that he would endure even greater suffering if he could, yet what does the once and for all sacrifice mean for us? Jesus lived and healed the sick. He brought the dead back to life and forgave sins. He endured the passion, was crucified, rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven. Jesus did all these things and yet nothing seems to have changed for this community of believers. This young community is asking, and I think we are still asking today how do we as followers of Jesus
order our lives around God if not around sacrifices and offerings that are made in physical spaces like church buildings? I think it begins with gathering. Freedom from temple sacrifice was not freedom from gathering. The work that Jesus calls us to is the work of building up of the whole community of the faithful. Holiness isn’t about living under rules but about living in relationship with one another and with God. So, what does this type of living look like? I think it looks like a life lived in confidence before God that is not crippled by guilt or fear. It is a life lived in a hope that pushes against our outward circumstances and is rooted in the faithfulness of God. It is a life lived in community where we excite, incite and stir each other up to fulfill our baptismal vows. It is a life lived in solidarity growing in our acts of love toward one another seeking to serve as Jesus serves us. It is a life lived with a sense of urgency as we await the day of judgement that always comes. A day that comes and is always marked by God’s redeeming love for his creation. God is not found in church buildings, but you and I are. Church buildings give us beautiful spaces to gather. It is in church buildings and for us as Episcopalians in our liturgy praying common prayers that we find God in one another.
As the season of Pentecost begins to wind down many of our lectionary and daily office readings have been apocalyptic in nature. It is so easy for us to hear these readings and take in this imagery and think we are talking about the end times, but I would challenge us to try and take a different point of view. In a world of already, but not yet. In a world in which it so often seems that so many things are trying to pull us apart, let us remember that this is precisely when we are called to gather and encourage one another. We have the courage and strength to do this because we no longer are required to visit the temple to engage God. What Jesus did on the cross and in the sending of the spirit, changed our relationship with God. Our relationship has undergone a paradigm shift and God’s resting place has moved from the temple and into our hearts. We no longer need to search for the house of God because God now resides in our hearts. We find God when we gather for worship and fellowship.
Over the years this has been the growth of my knowledge and understanding of home. Moving from apartment to apartment in college to my first home with Allison, to seminary and finally to Montgomery, home has been where my heart is and that is with my wife, our dogs and those loved ones who gather with us. When I drive past my old homestead on Crescent Hill Drive, I am filled with nostalgia but that is different from feeling lost or misplaced. My life with my family gives me a sense of belonging. It is here with them and with all of you that I find the Divine. My communal life with all of you gives me a community of believers in which to engage the work of building up the body. We are not merely spectators of God’s work or simply recipients of God’s grace, we are active participants in God’s saving work in the world and we do that work together.
Amen