Sanctuary
a sermon based on Luke 13:31-35
by Rev. Richard Gehring

             Today in Jerusalem, one can see the remains of an imposing wall built by Herod the Great as part of a massive temple renovations project.  That temple stood for less than 100 years before being destroyed by the Romans.  For centuries, the one wall was all that could be seen from the once glorious temple complex.  While recent archaeological digs have uncovered more traces of Herod's renovation, that Western Wall remains the most revered site in all of Judaism.  It is quite an experience to visit there on Friday evening when the courtyard in front of the wall fills with worshipers gathering for Sabbath prayers.

            Just above this wall, on top of what the Jews know as the Temple Mount, are two more places of worship.  These are Muslim holy places built on the very site where the ancient Jewish temple stood. According to Muslim tradition, it was from this mountain that the prophet Mohammad ascended into heaven and received the Koran from God.  And so this place is revered as the third holiest site in all of Islam.

            It is this contrast of competing claims between two religious and cultural groups that is central to the Middle Eastern conflict today.  There are Israelis willing to give up all occupied territories and even to withdraw the Jewish settlements in these areas, if it means real peace for their nation.  And there are Palestinians who would settle for autonomy over these fairly small and scattered parcels of land if it would bring an end to the violence.  But the one issue over which seemingly no one is able to compromise is the fate of Jerusalem.  The city holds such an important place in the history, culture and religions of both peoples that neither is willing to allow the other control of it.

            This reverence for Jerusalem and conflict of perceptions over it is nothing new.  It goes all the way back to the time when David captured the city from the Jebusites and made it his capital.  Ever since then Jerusalem has been the most important city in the world for Jews.  And ever since then there have been competing claims about the meaning and purpose of that city.

            Jerusalem, was, of course, the capital of Israel when it was a unified and independent kingdom under David and Solomon.  And when the kingdom was divided, it remained the capital of the southern nation of Judah.  For more than 400 years the descendants of David sat on the throne in Jerusalem and ruled over an independent Jewish state.  When the Babylonians conquered Judah, they first deported the members of the royal family, a staggering blow to the nation.  but the final, crushing defeat came when the city of Jerusalem itself was destroyed.

            In the time of Jesus, there was no independent Jewish state.  Nor was there a descendant of David on the throne.  Judea was a small province of the mighty Roman Empire, ruled by a Roman governor.  Furthermore, Jerusalem was no longer the capital.  Herod had built a new city on the coast named Caesarea and moved the capital there around the time Jesus was born.  Still, the city of Jerusalem held tremendous significance for the Jewish people.  It was a reminder of their proud history, a symbol of their independence and grandeur in the past.  It was place of refuge for them from the Roman world.  For Jerusalem remained a thoroughly Jewish city in spite of its occupation by Rome.

            A crucial part of the Jewish identity of Jerusalem was, of course, the temple.  The first temple, built by Solomon, was destroyed by the Babylonians.  The temple was replaced some years later when the Jews were allowed to return to their homeland.  But the resources available to them at that time were relatively meager.  While the second temple was certainly quite functional, it was not nearly so elaborate or grand as Solomon's had been.

            By Jesus' time, however, this had changed.  Under Herod the Great, a massive renovation project was begun.  The courtyard surrounding the temple was greatly enlarged.  Great ramps and walkways provided easy access to the temple.  And the temple itself was completely refurbished.  The renovation began nearly 20 years before Jesus' birth and continued for another three decades after his death.

            It was this temple, more than anything else in Jerusalem, that gave the Jewish people their unique identity.  For the identity of the Jews was as God's Chosen People, and the temple was regarded as God's special dwelling place.  It was here that the people came to offer sacrifices and prayers.  It was here that the priests sought God's will for the people of Israel.  It was here that Jews from all over the world came to celebrate the great feasts of their faith and to recall the acts of God on behalf of their ancestors.  in short, it was at the temple in Jerusalem that God's presence was most keenly perceived.

            But the picture that Jesus presents of Jerusalem in today's passage is something quite different.  he does not regard it as a place of refuge or a place where God's presence is especially made known.  Jesus identifies Jerusalem as the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to it.  Jesus recognized that conflict and the violence that came out of the reverence for this distinctive place.  He realized that the special significance attached to Jerusalem was at times used as an excuse to persecute and oppress those who were different.

            There is, you see, a dark side to placing too high of a regard on a particular place.  for once someplace is identified as special or holy, then there will certainly be those who believe it their duty to maintain that sacredness, to protect the place from those whom they regard as a threat.  The irony is that it is in this act of trying to protect the holiness of a place that some of its special nature is lost.

            Let me give you an example of how that happened at the temple in Jerusalem.  The priests decided that only Jewish coins would be accepted to pay the temple tax required of all Jews.  The reasoning behind this rule was quite sound.  Many foreign coins had images of other gods on them.  To accept these coins would be a tacit recognition of those gods.  It would be a denial of the Jewish understanding that there is only one true God.  It would come dangerously close to violating the command not to make any graven images. So it made sense that only Jewish coins would be accepted in the temple.

            But what ended happening under this rule was just as unholy, if not more so, than accepting coins with images of foreign gods would have been.  As Jews from distant lands came to Jerusalem, they needed to exchange the coins from their native lands for coins they could use to pay their temple taxes.  To meet this demand, money changers had set up shop in the temple courtyard.  There Jewish pilgrims who may have spent their life savings to travel to the Holy City found themselves paying exorbitant exchange rates so that they could meet their religious obligations.  The money changers were able to run a rather lucrative business as the foreign travelers had no other options.

            It was this practice that Jesus to say, "It is written `My house will be a house of prayer'; but you have made it a `den of robbers.'"(Luke 19:46)  These words which accompanied his cleansing of the temple when he arrived in Jerusalem proved to be the final straw for Jesus' adversaries.  Within a week they had him put to death because his ministry was a challenge to the way things were the way they had set it up.   So in the name of keeping Jerusalem and the temple holy, the authorities committed the most unholy act imaginable.  They killed the Son of God.

            Jesus was correct in identifying Jerusalem as a city that kills prophets.  And still he went there.  Why?  Did he have some sort of death wish?  Was it an act of sheer suicide?  Not at all.  His motivation is made clear in our text today.  No sooner does he denounce Jerusalem as a prophet-killer than he adds, "How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"

            These are words of compassion, not judgment.  They are words of mourning, not anger.  Jesus wants for Jerusalem the very thing the religious leaders claim to want as well.  He wants it to be a holy place, a place of refuge.  He wants it to be a place where God's people can come to find safety and reassurance instead of violence and oppression.  He wants to take the people in his arms and shelter them.  he wants to love them as his own children,  but they repeatedly reject that.  Still it is out of his love and compassion that Jesus continues on to Jerusalem and to the cross.  Ultimately his hope and his goal is to create a place of refuge, a place where God's presence will be made known.

            And in a sense isn't that what we have come here to find?  We come here seeking a place of shelter.  We call this place where we gather for worship the sanctuary—the same word we use to describe an area where animals are protected.  We come here seeking to meet God and to know of God's presence with us.  But like the religious leaders of Jesus' time, we all too often sabotage our own efforts.  And rather than the church being a safe place it becomes a threatening place.  Perhaps that's because we are looking for the wrong kind of refuge.

            Some come to church seeking a place to hide from the world.  They want a place to escape from the cares and worries of life They'd like the church to be a place where they can retreat to just get away from it all, a place where they don't have to think about all the problems of the world, a place where they can just relax. They are looking for some sort of religious resort or spiritual spa.

            But church should not be a vacation from the rest of life.  There is certainly great value in getting away from all the pressures and stresses of everyday life.  But the purpose of coming to church should always be to help us go back to our everyday lives, not to escape from them.  Worship needs to be more than a time when we turn off our minds and seek some sort of emotional high.  Worship of God requires thinking deeply and feeling deeply.  Becoming aware of God's presence means that we also become more aware of God's creation.  Worship should be an act which heightens our sense rather than dulling them.  So being a part of the church means being open to more involvement with the world, not escaping from it.

            What, then, is the refuge, the sanctuary which the church has to offer?  What is the shelter that we find when we allow ourselves to be gathered under God's mighty wings?  If we cannot find escape from the cares and sufferings of our world, what good is the church?  Well, it seems to me that the value of being a part of the church, the value of being a follower of Christ, is the identity which it gives us.  We are no longer just any people.  We are God's people, and we are not alone.  We have God as our constant companion.  That doesn't mean that nothing bad will happen to us.  But it means that when bad things do happen, we have someone to turn to.

            And it should mean that we have other people to turn to as well.  The church should be a refuge in the sense that it should be a safe place to come.  This should be the place where we can share our deepest secrets and our darkest fears.  Perhaps it's not realistic or even psychologically healthy to try doing that with an entire congregation.  But there should be someone here with whom we have that freedom, that safety.

            The problem we run into is that we have not understood precisely what the Jewish leaders of Jesus' time also failed to grasp.  They tried desperately to protect the Jerusalem temple and ended up destroying it.  We all too often do the same with the church.  We try to protect the holiness of the church by setting certain subjects off limits because they are too worldly.  So we can't talk, for example, about sexuality.  We can't talk about family violence.  We can't talk about the conflicts and disagreements that we have with one another.  And we certainly can't talk about any doubts we might have because we think that talking about any of these things might lead us to somehow defile the sacredness of the church.

            But in reality these prohibitions often have just the opposite effect.  For if these are not safe subjects to discuss, then those who are dealing with these and many other issues no longer find sanctuary in the church.  Frankly, that probably includes most of us.  If the church is not a safe place to talk about something then it has ceased to be the church that Christ intended.  For Jesus still longs for us to be gathered under his wings and to find shelter.  And we still refuse to be gathered in.

            But if we come together seeking shelter rather than escape; if we come with the intention of finding God's presence in one another; if we come with an attitude that provides safety for others, then we, too, shall find safety.  We, too. 

Amen