Saturday, November 14, 2015
Sermon for Pentecost 25
Proper 28 B ~ November 15, 2015
Holy Trinity & St. Anskar
Not one stone will be left here upon another;
all will be thrown down.
+In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity,
If you look at the back of the dollar
bill, you will see the Great Seal of the United States, whose reverse includes a
truncated pyramid topped with an all-seeing eye. The pyramid represents the New
World Order, of which the motto speaks, and the Eye is God’s, overseeing our
building of the just society on earth, under the other motto: approves our undertakings. While it is debatable
whether these features were drawn from Freemasonry, in the not-so-secret lore
of that society, the pyramid stands for the Temple of Solomon. The Temple, in
turn, represents human society. It is truncated because it is unfinished. Our calling
is to finish it – or at least to continue its construction under the All-seeing
Eye of Providence, according to the rational principles represented by the
architect’s instruments, the square and compass. Such was the optimistic
outlook of our Founding Fathers: God is the Great Architect, and we are in the
process of fulfilling His plan. He approves
our undertaking.
Today,
we hear from the Gospel less encouraging words about the Temple, still under
construction when Jesus said that it would not be completed, but destroyed –
not a stone left on stone. By the way, if you google the Western Wall, you can
see the stones to which our Lord referred. They are enormous. The wall is the
first few courses of the foundation of the Temple rebuilt by Herod the Great, like
many successful tyrants, one of history’s great builders. The Temple of Herod
was bigger than anything else in the Roman Empire, aside from the pyramids of
Giza. To say that it would be completely
torn down was outrageous.
In
another visit, our Lord seemed to identify His own Body with the Temple: destroy this Temple and in three days I will
rebuild it. That saying has been one of the sources of the notion that
Christianity replaces Judaism. Christ’s Body replaces the Temple. Vatican II
repudiated this doctrine, and St. John Paul II acted out the repudiation by
praying at the Western Wall, touching the very stones that Jesus said would be
thrown down. Well, they were thrown down when the Romans destroyed the Temple
in A.D. 70, but that doesn’t mean that Judaism was superseded. Christ as the
Living Temple – destroyed and then rebuilt in three days – is the extension of
the Covenant to all flesh, not its replacement.
In
the apocalyptic passage that follows today’s Gospel, Jesus refers again to the
Temple. Don’t worry too much about rumors of wars and natural disasters, but
when the Abomination of Desolation is set up where it ought not to be, then look
out! This Abomination – or sacrilege – refers to the intention of the Emperor Caligula
to erect his statue in the Temple. He was killed by his own personal guard
before he could do so, but the meaning is clear: human power seeks to supplant
divine. Although built for divine glory, the Temple itself can be defiled and turned
against God. Then it will be destroyed.
So
what about completing the Temple, as the Masons suggest? What about a new world
order of which Providence approves? Better be careful! I think that’s one
lesson from today’s Gospel – even the grandest building in the Empire, which
they are still working to finish, will soon be thrown down. If the Temple
stands for just society on earth, the unfinished pyramid can mean either that
it is under construction or that it is being demolished. However reasonable
they may seem to us, we had better not confuse our plans and projects, with the
Kingdom of God. They might instead turn out to be the Tower of Babel. Unless
this Temple really does stand for ever-increasing justice in human society,
Not
one stone will be left … upon another; all will be thrown down.
AMEN
MARANATHA
COME, LORD JESUS!
