Proper 28B - 2024
Sermon for Proper 28, Year B
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
The Rev. Andrew McLarty
In today’s Gospel, Jesus foretells the destruction of the great Temple in Jerusalem, a structure of unimaginable grandeur and stability. His disciples are shocked, but Jesus reminds them that even the most magnificent works of human hands are impermanent. What endures, he teaches, is not the stonework of human accomplishment but the steadfast presence of God in our lives.
Jesus warns us to be watchful, to be mindful of God’s presence. But what does it mean to watch? It is not a passive waiting but an active attentiveness to God’s presence, even when it feels distant or hidden. Sometimes, we experience Christ most profoundly after a time of trial. Like the disciples who would soon face Jesus’ death, we often find that tragedy strips away our illusions of control and reveals a deeper truth: God’s presence never abandons us. At other times, Christ’s presence is hidden in the mundane—daily prayers, small acts of kindness, or a quiet moment in nature. Watching for God is about cultivating the awareness to see Christ in all things, both extraordinary and ordinary.
But Jesus’ teaching goes deeper. He speaks of wars, earthquakes, and famines—signs of upheaval that might tempt us into fear or selfishness. Yet Jesus calls us not to focus on our own anxieties but to turn outward. The coming of the Son of Man, Jesus suggests, is not a distant event to dread but a transformation of the present. It happens when we, as a community, become watchful not for our own needs but for the needs of others. It happens when we see Christ in the hungry, the hurting, the lonely, and respond with love.
The destruction of the Temple was a profound loss for Jesus’ disciples, but it also marked the beginning of a new way of encountering God—no longer confined to stone walls but alive in every heart. Today, let us hear this call anew: to be watchful for God’s presence, to recognize Christ in trials and mundanity, and to build a world where we reflect the coming of the Son of Man by caring for one another. For when we do, we join in God’s enduring work of redemption, a work that no earthly power can destroy.
Amen.
