Living in the Spirit
November 14, 2015

Scripture Reading: Mark 13:1-8

As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’ Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’ –Mark 13:1-2

Scholars believe that the book of Mark was written about the time of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem between 66 _CE and 74 _CE during the first disastrous Jewish-Roman War. The war itself, but particularly the loss of the temple, was a paradigm shift of great proportion. Think the American Revolution. The temple loss marked the beginning of the end of Christ followers being a sect of Judaism, and the end of temple worship. Survival was a driving force. As we see refugees pouring out of the middle east today, we get a glimpse of life in the last quarter of the first century during the establishment of the faith of Christians. Christianity did not only continue to exist it thrived.

Jesus’ warning about the transitory nature of the institutions we build still speaks to us today. I traveled through Turkey last year and was entranced by the various archeological sites I visited. As I walked through them I tried to imagine what life must have been like in such places. Recently as I was preparing a travelogue about my trip, I was struck by the fact that I could not tell one set of ruin pictures from another. Thankful that my camera’s memory had filed them in order of the dates they were taken, I was able to piece my presentation together by matching the trips itinerary to the dates of the picture files.

While our lives are tied in fond memories related to our church buildings, favorite holiday services, even the orders of worship, our life with Christ is not to be institutionalized. We do serve a living Savior, one who moves through the various shifts in our lives, major and small, and is with us through it all. What a wonderful Savior he is.

Prayer: Lord, our world is in such a mess it seems and in our day and our time we know instantly when terror and tragedy strike. Your love is the one constant that feeds our ability to respond as you taught us to love others. Keep our love fresh and alive as we journey toward your kingdom. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.