CEC Breaking News! The Bishop is coming, the Bishop is coming!
… We will celebrate Morning Prayer led by Mrs. Jane Barnett November 24.
… Father Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist December 1st, 15; 24th
… It is time for our annual giving campaign. Pledge letters and cards have been mailed. If you did not receive a letter and pledge form and wish to donate for 2020, please contact Mrs. Brenda Funderburg at bfun@me.com All donations help us continue our mission in
… The Rt. Rev. Bishop Jacob “Jake” W. Owensby will visit us on Sunday, December 8th to celebrate with us. A luncheon is planned for all to attend. Jim & Brenda Funderburg volunteered to organize our Luncheon with the Bishop. A sign-up sheet for ‘what to bring’ is in the Parish House. Or, you may contact Brenda or Jim directly at bfun@me.com.
Father Riley's homily:
23 PENTECOST, PROPER XXVIII - C- 19 LUKE 21. 5-19
If you have been fortunate enough to visit the holy city of
It is a most sacred place to the Jews of the world. Hundreds visit it every day to pray. Thousands of annual visitors, many who are non-Jews likewise come from all over the world to write their prayers and petitions on small bits of paper, roll them up, and insert them in the cracks and crevices of the ancient wall.
I have been fortunate enough to have stood next to the wall and prayed on two separate occasions. Each time I tried to visualize what the temple, in all of its grandeur, must have looked like in the time of Jesus. I can only imagine how a first time pilgrim to the holy city and to the temple mount must have reacted when they saw it gleaming in the mid day sun.
Jesus’ own disciples may or may not have ever made an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem as the law required and thus may be viewing it for the very first time as they sit opposite the temple treasury and watch the people come and go. If so, their remarks contained in our gospel reading for today in regards to its beauty are understandable. “…how it is adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God,” they marveled.
Then, Jesus shocks them when he says, “As for these things which you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” Naturally, they asked when, and how?
This passage from Luke has its parallel in Mark, and Matthew and is often referred to as the “little apocalypse,” a reference to the end time. Thus, even today, when people either read it or hear it, they want to know when and how the end will come. They get caught up in the detail of what Jesus is saying about the natural and human disasters and miss what is really important.
Jesus stresses over our not being deceived by false messiahs and predictions of when and how all of this will eventually take place, in order to keep us from being carried away by all of that. Yet, it is easy to see why many today want to point to current wars and rumors of war, famines, diseases, earthquakes, fires, and floods, etc. as “signs” that the end is near.
However, Jesus says before the signs of nature and man’s inhumanity to man that will accompany the end occur, we who call ourselves Christians will be persecuted for our faith. That is the “sign” that we need to pay attention to. And yes, it is happening throughout the world today. However, not yet, on the scale Christ is referring to in today’s passage.
We don’t like to think about it happening here, but Jesus says it will, but when it does, we are not to despair rather we are to see it as an opportunity to witness to our faith. We are not to worry for the words of our defense will be given to us when the time comes. Christ promises that by our perseverance we will be saved.
The story of the first generation of Christianity - the time between the resurrection of Jesus and the fall of the temple - bears out these prophecies, which Jesus presents to his disciples as they sat opposite the temple treasury and admired the temple’s beauty.
The destruction of the temple was complete in the year A.D. 70 by the Romans. All that remains today is that portion of the western wall that continues to draw thousands each year to pray.
How easy it is for some Christians to be caught up in the beauty of a building. I have to admit that I have been the rector of more than one church, and listened to more than one vestry focus their energy and efforts on maintaining the building rather than expanding the mission of the church.
In addition, I have heard countless Christians who never tire of remarking of the beauty of the stain glass windows and other appointments of the church to which they are members of, to the point of distraction.
The great cathedrals of the world, which in most cases took hundreds of years to build, were done so to reflect the glory of God and to inspire genuine worship. If you have ever visited one of these, you see how easily one can be awed by their beauty. Sadly, many of them are virtually empty on any given Sunday today as are many of our own churches in this country.
The beauty of any sacred space, at least for me, has always been in my reflecting on how many prayers have been said in that place. How many tears have been shed in grief and sorrow, as well as joy? How many Eucharists have been celebrated to the Glory of God in Thanksgiving for the means of grace and the hope of glory?
Some of my most memorable moments as a priest have been when I had the opportunity and the privilege to celebrate the Holy Mysteries in the ruins of ancient churches in
The beauty of those spaces was reflected in the stones that were scattered about and in my realizing that early Christians worshipped there. Although no structure remained, I was still awed and humbled knowing that I was standing on holy ground once dedicated to the glory of God.
Buildings and even remnants of once magnificent structures, no matter how holy they may be or once were, remain only as silent witnesses.
The witness our Lord is referring to in today’s gospel, however, is anything but a silent one rather one made manifest by the promise that Christ himself will give us the words when that day comes. That “day” will precede the “signs” so many wish to be able to recognize as bringing on the end time.
Between now and then, our witness to the world is in our daily living based on the promises of God in Christ. In our prayers, our worship, in our reaching out to meet the needs of those less fortunate than ourselves, and especially in our not growing weary in doing what is right, as
These are precious promises, to be learned ahead of time and clung to in a moment of need, so that by our learning to hold fast to them we may be able to persevere in our faith, and at the last day be found worthy to stand before Him who is our light and life, the very hope of our calling. AMEN+
(readings: Malachi 4:1-2a; Psalm 98; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19)
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