Pilgrim Uniting Church, Adelaide SA SUN 14-NOV-2021 - 11 AM Sermon Rev Dr Greg Elsden Pentecost 25 – When one of the disciples mentioned that he found the Temple most impressive, Jesus told them that it was going to end up as a pile of rubble. The religious leaders of the day had failed in their duty towards God and their fellow humans. An example of their failure can be found in the previous chapter of Mark's gospel, where we are told how a destitute widow had put the last of her money, two small copper coins, into the Temple treasury. The Temple had become a symbol of exploitation, and God would not tolerate its corrupt system. When four of the disciples asked Jesus about the timing of the Temple's destruction, he replied with an apocalyptic discourse. An apocalypse is an unveiling, a reality seen in a new way, uncovering a fresh insight in a way that has not been seen before. Disillusion is the loss of an illusion, which can be painful but is not necessarily a bad thing when it uncovers a lie. Things do fall apart, but rubble, ruin and failure need not be a sign of God's absence. Let's pull back the veil, opening ourselves to the wonder and delight of the mystery of God's presence among us, the presence of a God who cannot and therefore must not be contained. Mark 13: 1-8 Playing Time   –   21:53