Mark 13:1-8

18 Nov. Mark 13:1-8 –  Keeping Buildings in Perspective

The temple into today’s gospel is more than just a building in Jerusalem, more than the place of worship. It was the center and anchor of Jewish life and culture. It was the place where God lived. At the same time, the weak and the poor were exploited to pay for the building. We all build temples – personas, relationships, beliefs, institutions, roles, reputations, dreams - with the idea that these great structures will provide our life and world with meaning, direction, identity, security, value, and order. And as we build them, we have a tendency to build in systems and structures that oppress, exploit and marginalize people.

My individual temple was carefully built of hard work, achievement, education, competence, the church, and my European ancestry. My temple provided me with both position and power, and with an inordinate amount of voice and the ability to consume a huge amount of resources. Our country’s temple was built on the pillars of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. At the same time, our economic system depends upon a certain level of chronic unemployment to keep wages low, and we are faced with the reality of systems such as institutional racism.

How can we choose to remember that God lives in human beings, not in buildings? How can we bear witness to the reality that God’s Kingdom is diametrically opposed to structures of exploitation and injustice, especially those built in the name of God? How can we use Jesus’ description of the temple’s destruction to remind ourselves and others that his way, the way of the cross, is so contrary to exploitative power structures that the two can’t coexist?