Sermon for Sunday based on Luke 13: 31-35. Recently, there have been news reports on the problems with smog in Beijing, China. On the internet it is even being called: "airpocalypse!" Of course the problem of smog is not new. For example, I remember flying into Beijing with my family in 2008. As we approached Beijing Capital International Airport, we flew into this dome of light brown that sat like a translucent lid over the buildings, muddying much and discoloring everything. But, once we had landed, and once we had traveled into the city, the dome of smog became largely invisible, but I still could remember what it looked like and smelled like.
Smog is not limited to China. I have travelled to many large cities including in this nation and it wouldn't be long before summer hits and we will have our own ozone warnings. So, I am conscious of the muck we are breathing.
Yet, to be honest after I have been a community for a while, I tend not to notice; I have even been known to fill my tank on ozone warning days here in San Antonio. Over time I tend to forget unless it gets really bad. For example, we were there in Beijing for several days, and by the time we left, I'd forgotten all about the smog … until I see the papers.
In our gospel today, we have several interesting images. Not only do we have Pharisees warning Jesus, which kind of blows our stereotype of Pharisees being supposedly all "bad." We also have Jesus using a female image as a mother hen which explains part of the words of our benediction we have been using the last couple of weeks: …. "Christ our Mother shelter you and carry you."
Yet, we also have another image. It is a small one but an important one and is a biblical metaphor that translates easily to our culture today. Jesus laments over Jerusalem and says, "See, your house is left to you." In both New Testament Greek and modern English, the word "house" can stand not only for a building but also for a family and community.
But let us not get ahead of ourselves. Let's go back; let's start from the beginning of our lesson. The lesson begins as I said, with some Pharisees passing along a threat from King Herod, whom Jesus would refer to as a fox. If you remember the house of Herod was tangled. The family line did not resemble so much a tree as a tangled ball of yarn. This Herod, to whom Jesus refers, is named Antipas and had other relatives called Herod as well, and their marriages, divorces and remarriages were not only often ill-considered, but were sometimes incestuous.
Although the House of Herod was more like a soap opera, and they were very much disliked in their own land, the family of Herod was by and large actually greatly admired in the larger Roman Empire. For example, an earlier Herod --- Herod the Great --- for instance, had saved the Olympics around the year 12 B.C. by providing for their funding. Herod the Great had left behind many great architectural works, including substantial improvements to the Temple in Jerusalem --- so impressive that it caused one of Jesus' disciples to marvel: "Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!"
Jesus, however, knew about the coming desolation and replied, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down." Jesus was right, of course, and eventually, that desolation would become all too concrete. In A.D. 66, about thirty or so years after the death of Jesus, the Jewish population rebelled against Rome. The empire could not allow that revolt to succeed, and so in A.D. 70, Roman legions under the future emperor Titus retook the city and destroyed much of it, including the temple, which has not been rebuilt to this day. But that is all in the future.
Return to today's words and you will notice that Jesus does not limit his words to the house of Herod, for Jesus likely was thinking about the brokenness in the whole city of Jerusalem and actually the country; the failure by many to love God with their whole hearts and love their neighbors as themselves.
What does this all mean for us? It is not much of a stretch to apply "the house left to us" to our lives. Our unattended lives --- one littered with missed opportunities, broken relationships, repeated procrastinations, and a lack of empathy, un-kept promises, false starts, yielded-to temptations, selfish priorities and the like -- can quickly become a forsaken "house."
And it is pretty easy to find desolate-house-type lives in the news. For example, a song by Roger Miller called Husbands and Wives, high on both the country and pop charts several years ago, told of a partnership breaking down, and began, "Two broken hearts -- lonely, looking' like houses where nobody lives." And think of any one of the celebrities or politicians or yes, even big-name religious figures that destroyed their families, lost their positions, ruined their reputations and betrayed those who trusted them because of some act of infidelity or gross selfishness. For example, in the last 30 years in the evangelical Christian circles we have the rise and fall of the House of Armstrong, the House of Swaggart and House of Haggard.
So where does that leave us? Jesus words "See, your house is left to you" is not only a reminder that improper or deferred maintenance is always bad for relationships, and that includes our spiritual ones as well. But also a reminder that in this season of Lent, an unattended spiritual house can yield a life where God is supposedly welcome, but where God refuses to abide because the place is a spiritual dump where God is ignored by the occupant -- so ignored, that the occupants do not even notice when the Lord is no longer there.
Now there are those like an atheist for example, who might hear Jesus's words and say, "So be it. I'm on my own in this world and that's just fine." In fact, there are others who may say it is not one of unhappiness but of contentment.
That being said, I believe that most people do not want to be left on their own in this life, and if they were, they'd recognize that condition as one of desolation at times.
So when Jesus said to Jerusalem, "Look, your house is left to you ...." What might it mean for our lives? We could go around and blame the world as many do. But, I think we need to remember that we keep our spiritual houses from becoming desolate by tending our relationship with the Lord. We can't keep telling the Lord "later" or "someday" and expect that to keep the relationship strong. Instead, these words of Jesus are to me the words of one who loves the children living in this bucket of smog; a Jesus who pauses at a sufficient distance from my city to see the filth before plunging in himself.
For I hear the love in Jesus' voice as his plane descends into the brown air, his eyes watering not from smog, but from sadness. We are the people of Jerusalem. Jesus cries for us. The good news is this: Jesus sees the poison of our world, and he enters anyhow. "See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'" Are we ready to say "Blessed…?" Amen.