This was first used at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on November 16, 2003, and again (with some Very minor changes as to dates…) at the Wanda (IL) UMC on November 15, 2020.

The Scripture is from Mark 13: 1-8…

       As a teenager, one of my very favorite things to do, whenever I visited my grandparent’s farm in the Ozarks, was to go on long hikes through all of the hills and hollers on and around their farm. Now, it is true that I did this, to some extent, almost every time I was there, regardless of the time of year. But the best time was after cold weather had settled in… there was far less danger of an encounter with ‘deadly’ reptiles and other fear inducing animal life. So it was that on one of my visits there over the Christmas vacation, I came across the remains of an old, abandoned farmstead a few hills over from their place.

       What had caught my attention, as I came into what had obviously been a clearing at one time, though it was now dotted with small trees, was a huge stone chimney and fireplace standing, at first glance, all by itself. As I drew closer to it, I could make out the remains of a stone foundation, and on closer examination, most of the stones, including those in the chimney, showed signs of ash and burn marks. Since there were also the burned out husks of an old stove, bed, and other metal objects within the stone circumference, it was easy to deduce that the home must have burned down and the place abandoned… and judging by the diameter of the trees growing up inside of the foundation, it had to have been thirty-or-forty years before! As I began to look around the clearing with a sharpened eye, I could make out the wooden remains of a number of outbuildings… I seem to recall seeing the roof and partial wall of an outhouse sitting askew in the weeds, and perhaps a few sticks of rotten lumber jutting up enough to suggest the outline of a small shed near to the house.

       After exploring the area for a bit, trying to pick up clues like I thought Sherlock Holmes might have done, I used them to further speculate as to what had happened and just how these people had lived, back then. After a time, I started making my way back home… and then I saw it! All of my deductions had led me to believe this place had been abandoned long before any modern mechanization had occurred, and yet, as I walked past what I first thought was just a pile of rocks, I saw a big brass ball on the end of some kind of stalk, pretty well buried by that pile of rock. My first thought was that it was a gear shift or operating lever of some kind, and I wondered if I had stumbled upon some ancient piece of machinery that had sunk into the soil and been buried by time. I reached down to grab a hold of it and pulled up something that I didn’t remember ever having seen before. It was a thin piece of metal formed in a loose ‘s-shape’ with various small metal brackets along its edge and a huge false-brass ball on one end! As I had pulled it out of the dirt, another one just like it came into view, so I pulled it up as well and headed back to the farm.

       Once there, I was told that they were horse hames, those pieces of metal that attach to the side of a collar to attach the reins and harness to. And I had picked up two for the same side! If I had the other two, I would have two matched sets… as it was I didn’t have anything! So, since I still had about an hour of daylight left, I headed back to the sight. Once there, I could just make out, in gathering twilight, the shape of a foundation… the stones where I had found the first two must have been a corner post. I searched as best I could, but there was absolutely nothing else above ground… everything, it seems, had been buried over time. All I could see was a few old bits and pieces of leather sticking up. Wait a minute… leather! Leather? …Harness? I grabbed a piece and started pulling… and it was a long piece! Around and around I walked, following it as it snaked up out of the ground until… pop… up came what I was looking for. That was one! But, pulling all of that up had disrupted the soil in the area, and I saw another piece of harness. I repeated the process until… pop… up came another one! The only thing was, these two were a matched set of their own… and I never did find the mates for the first two that I had found!

       As best as I recall, it was later that spring when I had a chance to revisit that site. After making a brief re-examination of the area to confirm my earlier deductions, I decided to explore still further, and headed down that hill away from grandpa’s and into the valley that followed the stream below. Since streams are always a good path to follow (you can always find your way back along them!) I headed downstream alongside of it. After a bit, I came to what appeared to be a road that headed into a thicket of trees, though it seemed obvious to me that no wheel had traversed it in some time. Electing to follow it into that stand of timber, I came upon an entire town! It had been abandoned for some years, as well, but you could still see the signs for the general store, the blacksmith shop, and several others! Since it was the spring of the year, there was no way I was going to get off of that road and explore those buildings… I felt vulnerable enough standing where I was! But… from where I was I tried to absorb all that I could… I tried to envision the people that had been there at one time… I tried to picture in my mind the lives that they must have lived… the trials and hardships… and the joy and the love! Why had it been built there? Why had it been abandoned? Those that I asked when I returned knew nothing of it! It was as if it had never existed. And, as my life was making some important changes during that time as well, I never had an opportunity to return and research further. The world will never know!

       In today’s verses, The Life Application Commentary tells us, “Jesus and the disciples were leaving the temple when one of the disciples remarked on the incredible beauty of it. Although no one knows exactly what this temple looked like, it must have been magnificent, for in its time it was considered one of the architectural wonders of the world. This was not Solomon’s temple — it had been destroyed by the Babylonians in the seventh century B.C.  This temple had been built by Ezra after the return from exile in the sixth century B.C., desecrated by the Seleucids in the second century B.C., reconsecrated by the Maccabees soon afterward, and enormously expanded about fifteen years before Jesus was born by Herod the Great

The temple was impressive, covering about one-sixth of the land area of the ancient city of Jerusalem. It was not one building, but a majestic mixture of porches, colonnades, separate small edifices, and courts surrounding the temple proper.  Next to the inner temple, where the sacred objects were kept and the sacrifices offered, there was a large area called the Court of the Gentiles (this was where the money changers and merchants had their booths). Outside these courts were long porches. Solomon’s porch was 1,562 feet long; the royal porch was decorated with 160 columns stretching along its 921-foot length. The disciples gazed in wonder at marble pillars forty feet high, carved from a single solid stone. The temple’s foundation was so solid that it is believed that some of the original footings remain to this day. The Jews were convinced of the permanence of this magnificent structure, not only because of the stability of construction, but also because it represented God’s presence among them”

       Can you imagine how inconceivable the destruction that Jesus was describing must have seemed to the disciples? By some accounts, some of these stones were 50 feet long, 24 feet broad, and 16 feet in thickness! And yet Jesus is telling them that not ONE will be left on top of another!

       To my mind, there are two things that we need to learn from this. The first is that there is no thing on this earth that is permanent! Everything that man has done and believes is so magnificently great will disappear in the blink of an eye on the scale of time. Even the earth itself, and the universe that it hangs in, will not last forever! Only God’s love… and the reward of heaven… and His justice… the turmoil of eternal damnation… are permanent! We MUST keep our attention fixed on that which lasts forever!

       My second point is this… We mere humans do not know… CAN not know… what tomorrow may bring. We can’t even ever be sure that there will BE a tomorrow!

       The people who built that small town I discovered in the hollers of Missouri built it for the future… the future of prosperity that they envisioned would come to them and their descendents. And they built well in anticipation of that future… that fact is attested to by the fact that the buildings were still intact when I found them, how many years later! But, no one can predict what tomorrow might hold. And the prospects and profits that these forgotten people had hoped for and built on never materialized. The people disappeared… and the only remnants of those hopes and plans were these empty buildings! And since this was all fifty-some years ago, I would imagine that even they are gone, now!

       The Life Application Commentary points out that in the last part of our verses this morning, “Several disciples chose that moment to ask two curious questions: When will these things that Jesus has told them about happen? What will be the sign? With his answers, Jesus prepared his disciples for the difficult years ahead. He warned them about false messiahs, natural disasters, and persecutions. But he also assured them that he would be with them to protect them and make his kingdom known through them. Jesus promised that, in the end, he would return in power and glory to save them.

Jesus’ warnings and promises to his disciples also apply to us as we look forward to his return:

• “We must be ready.” We never know when He might return. Also, we never know when we might run out of time!

• “We must continue to proclaim the gospel.” This is what He told us to do… we can never rest from this task until time as we know it does indeed stop!

• “We must endure great trials.” As long as we live and breathe on this earth, Satan will be working to discourage us. It is because of Satan’s work… sin… that we are forced to endure theses things!

• “We must wait patiently.” It should not matter to us if Christ returns this afternoon, next week, next year, or in the next century. We must live everyday in His name, and celebrate the life that we live for Him!

One of my commentaries wraps it up this way… “Jesus warned his followers about the future so that they could learn how to live in the present. Jesus did not make these predictions so that we would guess when they might be fulfilled, but to help us remain spiritually alert and prepared at all times as we wait for his return. We must live each day close to Christ, always mindful that he is in charge of the timetable.”

Are you living each day close to Christ? If He were to walk in those doors at the close of today’s service, would you be ready for Him? Because, the truth of the matter is… He just might!