{"id":1583,"date":"2024-11-18T11:39:27","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T16:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/?p=1583"},"modified":"2024-11-18T11:42:51","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T16:42:51","slug":"all-fall-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2024\/11\/18\/all-fall-down\/","title":{"rendered":"All Fall Down"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/All-Fall-Down-111824-11.25\u202fAM.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Sermon for the Locust Grove United Church of Christ of York, PA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">by Rev. James Eaton, Interim Pastor \u00a9 2024<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">26<sup>th<\/sup> Sunday After Pentecost\/B \u2022 November 17,2024<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=598894115\">Daniel 12:1-3<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=598894152\">Mark 13:1-8<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ring around the Rosie, Pocket full of Posies<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ashes, Ashes, All Fall Down<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Did you sing this when you were a kid? It\u2019s an old, old folk song. It makes me think of happy children dancing in a circle and giggling when they fall down. Some historians today believe it may have originated during the dark tide of the bubonic plague. The \u201crosie\u201d are the marks of the&nbsp; plague, the ashes are the thousands of corpses burned. Some estimates are that about half the people in Europe, 50 million, died in a period of seven years. Whole villages were depopulated and it took Europe over a hundred years to begin to recover. I know this is a dark way to start a sermon, but today our gospel reading asks us to look at what happens when things fall down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The poet William Butler Yeats asked this question in a piece called \u201cSecond Coming\u201d. The opening stanza reads,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Turning and turning in the widening <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/gyre\">gyre<\/a><br \/>The falcon cannot hear the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Falconry\">falconer<\/a>;<br \/>Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;<br \/>Mere <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Anarchy\">anarchy<\/a> is loosed upon the world,<br \/>The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere<br \/>The ceremony of innocence is drowned;<br \/>The best lack all conviction, while the worst<br \/>Are full of passionate intensity<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What happens when things fall apart? Why does God let things fall apart?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Surely the place to begin is with our central prayer, which begins, \u201cOur Father\u201d. Hosea compares God\u2019s love to a mother\u2019s love. Now every parent knows there is a fundamental dilemma in raising a child: there is what\u2019s right, what protects the child, yet there\u2019s a need to give that child the freedom to grow and make mistakes and learn from them. I\u2019ve seen this in my own parenting. When my older kids were young, we lived in a little village in northern Michigan. The kids could go off on their own and mostly did. I didn\u2019t worry too much. Then there was the day I got a call: Jason is lying down in the middle of Route 22. Now our village had lots of tourists in the summer, so we all looked forward to the time in the fall when they left and things were quiet. My son and two of his friends decided to celebrate this moment by lying down in the middle of the main street through town. It was just one of those dumb boy things. Of course, there was a long discussion about why we never, ever lay down in the street, a discussion that began with, \u201cWhat were you thinking? You could have been killed!\u201d. As I recall, his response was essentially, \u201cWell, we didn\u2019t think of that.\u201d As far as I know, he never did again. Should I have kept him home?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Throughout the story of God\u2019s people, there are dumb, lying in the street moments. When Israel decides it wants a king, for example, we hear in 1 Samuel 8 about all the terrible things a king will do. Nevertheless, Israel insists on a king and God, sighing I imagine, gives them one. Much of the rest of the Hebrew scripture is devoted to the terrible things that result. By Jesus\u2019 time, Palestine is a Roman protectorate, with a puppet king. Jerusalem is a big city up on its mountain. Over the previous century, the temple has been rebuilt into a huge structure. The rebuilding began in 20 BC and took about 40 years; it was still going on when Jesus and his disciples were there. Now these are guys from the rural north and I can imagine their reaction to seeing this temple. Mark says, \u201cAs he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, &#8220;Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!\u201d [Mark 13:1} It makes me think of the first time my mom took me to New York City and I saw the Empire State Building. Maybe you\u2019ve had the same experience: going to the big city, seeing the big buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The temple was meant to be a lighthouse of God\u2019s love and justice, but it had become instead a headquarters for the rich to oppress the poor. We see that weaving through the sayings of Jesus over and over again. So when the disciples are marveling at the towers and the stones, Jesus replies that it\u2019s all going to fall down. In reply to their comment, he says, \u201c13:2 Then Jesus asked him, &#8220;Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.\u201d [Mark 13:2] He goes on to say there are going to be terrible wars and conflicts. Everything is going to fall apart. Then he goes on to say something else: all of this destruction is not the end\u2014it\u2019s birth pangs, it\u2019s the beginning of something new. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What does Jesus finally say we should do when these things happen, when things fall apart? Keep awake. Stay alert. That message comes through parables, that message is explicit in this story. The verses we read this morning are part of a larger section which includes predictions of persecutions and concludes with a parable about the need for watchfulness. The final word: \u201cKeep awake\u201d [Mark 13:37b]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What this means is first, staying alert, watching for new ways to share God\u2019s Word, looking for ways to invite others into Christ\u2019s church. . I don\u2019t know what your experience here was when the COVID 19 Pandemic forced closing of churches. I know that where I was, we didn\u2019t handle it well. We hadn\u2019t kept up with the technology to share our services with over the internet, we didn\u2019t have active social media accounts, we didn\u2019t have the capability to stream anything. The technology was there; others used it for various purposes, but we were a very traditional church. It reminds me of an incident in a Massachusetts church in the late 1700s. Then, the new technology was Franklin stoves: heat right there during worship. I remember reading the minutes of Annual Meetings at a church in Chelmsford, MA, where year after year this was brought up, year after year voted down until finally it passed, at which point a Deacon who had opposed it said that he was sure God would find a warm place in hell for people who needed heat in church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Albany, we were much the same about steaming and online ministry for a long time. We missed the boat. We weren\u2019t alert to the possibilities; I think we often still aren\u2019t. We miss the chance to invite others, share with others. Some of you know that I post my sermons online weekly. What you may not know is that every week on average those sermons are viewed about 30 times. That\u2019s close to double the people who hear them here in this lovely place. What would it mean if we made a larger commitment to a digital ministry, to reaching out? We don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Keeping awake means keeping hope alive. Sue Monk Kidd\u2019s novel, The Invention of Wings, tells two parallel stories. One is a biography of the Grimk\u00e9 sisters, Sarah and Abigail. Raised in the early 19<sup>th<\/sup> century in the slave supported culture of Charleston, South Carolina, they became leading advocates of the abolition of slavery and later of full equality for women. The other story is fictional but just as important; it\u2019s the story of Handful, an enslaved girl given to Sarah Grimk\u00e9 at an early age, who grows up with a mother determined to seek freedom. For more than 20 years, she and her mother pursue various strategies until finally she escapes north, to Pensylvania and freedom. Along the way, she and her mother are beaten, worked, defiled but they never give up hope. We honor our history here in many ways yet how often do we talk about our hope? Shouldn\u2019t we be as focused on where we are going as where we\u2019ve been? No one would walk a path facing backwards; we know enough not to do that. But do we know enough to turn around and look forward to where God wants us to go as a church?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Keeping awake means keeping connection. We often miss how encouraging our presence here is to each other. I\u2019ve been here just about six months; already I can look around and see when someone is missing. I\u2019m sure you can do it much better. Over the years, I\u2019ve heard more excuses for why someone doesn\u2019t go to church than I can count. They mostly come down to, \u201cI didn\u2019t want to go.\u201d We seldom think: maybe I should go because someone else needs me there. One of the best things about this church is the way we honor connections. I never visit someone in the hospital or a nursing home that they don\u2019t have cards sent from other members. I never visit without hearing how important those cards and our prayers are to them. I know in my own experience how much it lightened me when I was sick and received those cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;Keeping alert, keeping focused on the future, keeping connection, these are all ways of keeping awake. They are the way Jesus tells us to respond when things fall apart. He says these are birth pangs. Now, I think it\u2019s a bit dicey for a man to talk about birthing. There are some things I\u2019m totally clueless about: why someone gets up one day and decides to change her hair color, how to put on eyeliner, how to clean so it satisfies Jacquelyn. Birthing is one of those things. So this week, I\u2019ve been asking friends who\u2019ve had babies about their experience. I got some truly answers, but the best of all was close to home. When I asked Jacquelyn, she told me about birthing May, how there was a young woman in the next room screaming, how it was busy in the ward. I asked her if it hurt and she said, well, yes of course but you don\u2019t remember the hurt, you remember the delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think that says what Jesus hopes. Yes, things do fall apart; yes, things are going to fall apart. Don\u2019t get attached to what looks impressive and big in this world. It\u2019s going to fall because only God endure forever. Yet when things do fall apart, remember: it\u2019s not the end, it\u2019s birth pangs. Keep awake\u2014alert, connected, focused on the future\u2014and know that beyond what\u2019s ending, beyond the birth pangs, there is the delight of God\u2019s presence waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__list wp-block-latest-posts is-layout-flow wp-block-latest-posts-is-layout-flow\"><li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2026\/09\/13\/finding-the-dry-ground\/\">Finding the Dry Ground<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2026\/06\/29\/crying-in-the-wilderness\/\">Crying in the Wilderness<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2026\/06\/09\/hello\/\">Hello?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2026\/06\/01\/aint-no-mountain-high-enough-2\/\">Ain\u2019t No Mountain High Enough<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2026\/05\/24\/future-perfect\/\">Future Perfect<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do we face times of crisis? Jesus says &#8220;Keep awake&#8221;. This sermon explores wha this means.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[101,39,146,3,130],"tags":[54,369,368,8,218,98,5],"class_list":["post-1583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-after-pentecost","category-exegesis","category-mark","category-sermon","category-year-b","tag-afterpentecost","tag-alert","tag-awake","tag-connection","tag-crisis","tag-hope","tag-sermon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1583"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1589,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583\/revisions\/1589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}