Abandoned Trust

Mark 13:1 ESV

And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!”

The building was large, made of red brick, with gorgeous stained-glass windows on the north and eastern wall, capturing the morning sun on this Sunday morning. Walking into the sanctuary was a pleasure to the senses. The Ceiling arched from the four corners of the room to produce a gorgeous vaulted ceiling. The curved pews sloped down to the pulpit and stage. The love of a generation was evident in the architecture and the accouterments in the building. A generation of Baptists had saved and sacrificed to build a building that could be used by generations to come to spread the Gospel. Built with size and grandeur, stunning in scope, and joyful in measure. They worshiped God and raised generations to follow them.

All the sounds and smiles were familiar to me. I knew no one, and had never seen them before, but they were the same dumb jokes and friendly smiles I had grown up with. Sweet men and women wanting nice people to Jesus. After the singing the missionary took the stage and told of all that God was doing in the women’s ministry that the church was supporting. Looking at the clock and noting she had gone over she offered to stay after and talk with any who would like to. Singing a closing song and the service was concluded. With handshakes, smiles, and a funny joke we proceeded to our car. I was left wondering if the church that built the building would desire the church that was inhabiting it.

They worked hard, they sacrificed (literally and figuratively), they gave up everything that they could rebuild the temple. They laid the foundations that others might build upon it (Ezra 3). Much would transpire between Ezra and Jesus walking beside the temple. The building would endure and be expanded upon until its destruction in 70 AD at the hands of the Roman legions. Apostasy and revival, neglect and restoration, faithfulness and ritual, all would have their place in the 585 years that it would serve the generations of Jewish worshipers. The builders would be overwhelmed to know that the messiah would walk amongst those very foundations, and they would be appalled to see their children reject the salvation he would offer.

From our Sunday morning church service, we would make our way down to the Amana Colonies. Learning of a group of people committed to life together. So much so that they owned nothing and would leave Germany to make a place for themselves with all the other religious outcasts in the Americas. They would toil and live until one day their flour mill blew up and burned down. With-in ten years of that event the colony would bow to the prevailing secularization and fold. They would endure but as individuals. As Kelly and I discussed the change we had to conclude that the trials and struggles of life had not destroyed the colonies. They had come with nothing built and sacrificed for it; they could do so again if need be. No, the issue was passing the faith along.

The generation that built the mills (saw, wool, and flour), that carved seven communities out of the Iowa landscape, simply was not the generation that had a mill fire. The new generation simply did not have the faith of the prior. The willingness to sacrifice and suffer for what they said they believed. And so, the building changed hands from community to individuals. A sacred trust had been given to future generations to steward the faith with. Buildings, land, infrastructure all to shepherd men, women, and children into the communal faith. They failed to do so.

As Jews for centuries would come to the temple, they too would eventually fail to recognize the feet of their Lord walking among the foundation stones. They would reject the faith spoken to them by the prophets, and recorded for them in the scrolls. And the temple also would burn down as Christ foretold. Christians faithfully go to beautiful buildings, singing the great songs of the faith, passing the form of faith on to their children in buildings entrusted to them to pass the seed of the faith. As we look at the blessings of generations that surround us, let us not quickly ignore the trust placed upon us by those saints who have come before. We have been blessed and given a sacred trust. Let us not abandon it, but seek more diligently to instill in all who would hear the news “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…”

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO