A new birth of creation still to come

Brad Sullivan

Proper 28, Year B
Sunday, November 15th, 2009
Emmanuel, Houston
1 Samuel 1:4-20
1 Samuel 2:1-10
Hebrews 10:19-25
Mark 13:1-8

Last week, we heard about the poor widow who put only two copper coins into the treasury of the temple while others put in vast sums of money. Considering that part of the purpose for the treasury was to take care of the widows, I spoke of possible problem going on with the temple in the first century, that the religion itself and had possibly become too important to the people, eclipsing God. Along a similar vein, we have another discussion in the reading today arising from a comment about the temple.

In today’s Gospel reading, immediately after the story from last week, some of Jesus’ disciples point out how wonderful all the buildings are. I can’t help but think they might be saying this in response to Jesus’ lesson in the temple. “You may say, Jesus, that the widow’s offering was great,” the disciples might have been saying, “but we wouldn’t have such wonderful buildings if everyone only gave a few copper coins.”

The disciples missed one of the points of Jesus’ previous lesson. They were still looking to the temple to find God’s glory. God’s glory, however, is not found or contained in buildings. Indeed, Jesus immediately tells the disciples that the temple will be destroyed. God would of course continue after the destruction of the temple. Ultimately, Jesus was saying, the temple doesn’t matter.

This was undoubtedly a big shock to the disciples who felt Jesus was the messiah and believed that the messiah would bring peace to Israel and that because of him, all nations would flock to Jerusalem, to worship in the temple. There were many prophecies which pointed this idea of peace for Israel coming through a messiah, an anointed king, and that as a part of this peace in Israel, the nations would no longer fight with Israel but flock to Israel to join with her. We find an example of this idea in the forth chapter of Micah:

In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills. Peoples shall stream to it, and many nations shall come and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Tied to this prophecy was the temple, the Lord’s house on the highest of mountains, mount Zion in Jerusalem, where the temple stood. There is little wonder, then, that the disciples held the temple with such reverence. “Look Jesus, God’s glory is all around us, see how important all these buildings are.” No, Jesus says, the buildings are not important. They’re helpful, they’re useful, but ultimately, God will get along just fine without them. Jesus was changing the disciples’ understanding of God’s glory and of the prophecies.

The ideas of God, of his glory, and of all the nations flocking to God for instruction were so much greater and more cosmic in nature than the disciples realized. Look beyond the temple. Look beyond the present situation. Look beyond your own lives. Nation will rise against nation, there will be earthquakes, famines, false messiahs. Things are going to get really bad, and things are going to remain in some sense as they always have been. “This is but the beginning of the birth pangs,” Jesus said.

That’s always seemed like a very discouraging verse to me. All these bad things are going to happen, and it’s just the beginning of how bad things are going to get, but that’s not what Jesus says. He calls all of these painful events “birth pangs”. If these events are birth pangs, then it would seem there is a birth to follow.

Looking through the prophets for use of this image of birth pangs or of a woman in labor, I found two general uses for the image of a woman in labor. In one case, people or nations were described as being in pain like a woman in labor. The term described terrible pain through which a nation was going to go. This often signaled destruction of that nation.

Another use of use of the image of a woman in labor also signaled bad times ahead, however, it also brought with it the promise of redemption. Again, we look at Micah 4:

Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pangs have seized you like a woman in labor? Writhe and groan, O daughter Zion, like a woman in labor; for now you shall go forth from the city and camp in the open country; you shall go to Babylon. There you shall be rescued, there the LORD will redeem you from the hands of your enemies.

This particular prophecy was fulfilled when Judah was captured and the people brought to Babylon, and then indeed, the people were rescued and brought back to Jerusalem. Notice the language of Israel being like a woman in labor brings with it the promise of new birth. Bad times are coming, and it’s going to hurt, like a woman in labor, but there will be a new birth, new life which will come to you as well.

Jesus, in calling the bad times ahead “birth pangs” was also pointing to a birth, to new life. Yes, bad times are coming. Yes, bad times will continue, but a new life is coming as well, and it isn’t only for Israel or for the temple, the new life is for everyone. This new birth that is to come is cosmic in nature, involving the whole creation, and God will bring about this new birth.

Paul writes of this cosmic new birth in his letter to the Romans:

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:18-25)

We wait with patience through the birth pangs. We’ve still got wars. We’ve still got famine. We’ve still got earthquakes, and we can add tsunamis and hurricanes to the mix. The birth pangs are still going on. The new birth, the new creation, God putting everything right is still to come. Part of Jesus’ warning about the birth pangs was not to be discouraged by the birth pangs. The temple will fall, Jesus said, but don’t let that discourage you. God has not abandoned anyone just because the temple has fallen.

In our own day, we may easily be discouraged when we see violence and wars, when soldiers shoot fellow soldiers, when the economy falls apart. We may easily be discouraged when people still take advantage of each other, when terrorists still kill innocent people. We may feel discouraged when we see continued division in the church and families breaking apart. We may feel discouraged by all of these things, wondering like the people of Israel, if God has forsaken us.

God has not forsaken us. He still allows us to harm each other, but these things are just continued birth pangs. God is greater than our wars. God is greater than all of our division and strife. God is greater than all of the problems we can imagine, and he will put them right. God is also greater than all of our temples and churches. God is also greater than all of our worship, all of our beauty. The glory and beauty and greatness and goodness of God are far beyond all that we can imagine. This is our hope. All of this will pass away eventually in the birth pangs, and something far more beautiful will be born. We don’t know when and we don’t know exactly what will be born. We don’t know exactly what the redemption of creation will be, but we believe it will be beautiful, and we trust creation and ourselves to God. Amen.