Don't Change All of Your Plans for Tomorrow

This week’s Gospel text in Mark 13 seems to be almost prophetically timed. With a 7.0 magnitude earthquake outside of Japan, the tragedy of all that has happened in Beirut & Nigeria, and the most recent terror attacks in Paris…
Unfortunately, this isn’t a one time occurrence. I have the blessing of serving in an office where each and every day, I hear news round the world – the 18,000 unaccompanied minors running from South Sudan to Ethiopia and Uganda (unaccompanied because there is no way to know whether parents are dead or simply hiding). The beautiful people of India hurting more and more every day with the new government in power. What of our wonderful family in Pakistan? The list goes on and on and on… Let alone the things that fill our streets and nation right here at home.
But to you all who are pastors contemplating changing their sermons entirely or to the youth worker who is planning Bible study or the volunteers… Please hear the words of Jack Gilbert - "To make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the devil."
As social media fills your day and you are tempted or swayed… Please don’t throw all of your hard work and preparation out the window. Don’t misunderstand – please address what’s happening in the world. Please pray for our brothers and sisters world-wide. While changing your Facebook profile picture en mass will speak volumes, do more than that. Find a way to send emails, letters and prayers overseas. Work with NGO’s to stand with others who fight this fight every day. Truly pray without ceasing. To quote another brilliant man: “Love Does.”
If we simply focus on the evil, those who perpetrate these things will be pleased, for we are playing into their hope. Address the situation, but please do not simply focus on the rumors of wars and wars, but rather preach the Gospel. Speak the victory of the defeat of sin and death at the cross. That the empty tomb is real.
In the beginning of Mark 13, the disciples ask a strange question of Jesus. Seemingly out of nowhere, the disciples remark at the beauty of the stones of the temple. The echo of Scripture resounds over us as we hear that we are the living stones being built up to be the temple of God. This strange but apocryphal question springs forth from the disciples – almost as if they don’t realize that they are speaking of the fact that you and I will be torn down and be rebuilt through the death and resurrection of Christ.
You cannot experience God without the other members of the Body of Christ. Faith is made whole in community. The shekinah glory dwells in us. Living stones. If one stone shakes, the whole wall shakes – we are all affected. Our family in Paris, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Pakistan, Beirut, and here in the United States. But we are built on the cornerstone that is Jesus Christ, the solid foundation. Sometimes we forget that we all need each other to be the church. As we are torn down, may we not forget that. That beauty will rise from the ashes so that even these stones will cry out.

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