One day Solomon decided to humble Benaiah, his most trusted minister. He said to him, "Benaiah, there is a certain ring that I want you to bring to me. I wish to wear it for Sukkot which gives you six months to find it." "If it exists anywhere on earth, your majesty," replied Benaiah, "I will find it and bring it to you, but what makes the ring so special?" "It has magic powers," answered the king. "If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy." Solomon knew that no such ring existed in the world, but he wished to give his minister a little taste of humility. Months passed, and still Benaiah had no idea where he could find the ring. On the night before Sukkot, he decided to take a walk in one of the poorest quarters of Jerusalem. He passed by a merchant who had begun to set out the day's wares on a shabby carpet. "Have you heard of a magic ring that makes the happy wearer forget his joy and the broken-hearted wearer forget his sorrows?" asked Benaiah. He watched the grandfather take a plain gold ring from his carpet and engrave something on it. When Benaiah read the words on the ring, his face broke out in a wide smile. That night the entire city welcomed in the holiday of Sukkot with great festivity. "Well, my friend," said Solomon, "have you found what I sent you after?" All the ministers laughed and Solomon himself smiled. To everyone's surprise, Benaiah held up a small gold ring and declared, "Here it is, your majesty!" As soon as Solomon read the inscription, the smile vanished from his face. The jeweler had written three Hebrew letters which stood for"Gam zeh ya'avor" -- "This too shall pass." At that moment Solomon realized that all his wisdom and fabulous wealth and tremendous power were but fleeting things, for one day he would be nothing but dust. (folktale - Jewish wisdom literature: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_too_shall_pass) I want you to hold onto that story and I will get back to it in a minute.There is a tradition for pilgrims to the Holy Land.Those who bid them safe journey and send them on their way frequently give the pilgrims bits of paper or images to take with them, often writing their prayers on them and asking that they be placed in one of the crevices in the Western Wall, a place set aside for prayer inside the Old City of Jerusalem.It is a powerful experience to walk along and touch stones that might have witnessed the Holy couple bringing the infant Jesus to the Temple to be circumcised and named where Simeon and Anna recognized him and gave thanks for him.The stones might have seen Jesus teaching in the Temple, or perhaps the procession of palms before the Passover or the trial and execution of Jesus.Who knows?But it is an ancient place and one where generation after generation of Jews, Muslims, and Christians have come to pray.And it is these walls that were the object of the disciples awe today in our passage from Mark.Look Jesus – look at the massive walls, look at the great buildings, my, they are strong and beautiful.But Jesus saw through the façade of greatness that bricks and mortar offer and said to his disciples, “these buildings will not last forever, they are not immortal, they are nothing compared to the incomprehensible length and breadth of God’s Kingdom.In time, all of this will crumble before your eyes.” This is one of those teaching moments for Jesus.He is seated on the side of the mountain, overlooking Jerusalem.The temple in all its splendor is spread out before them.For sure, just a few years after Herod the Great had made the expansive changes to the Temple and tried to recreate it in all its original magnificence – it must have been an over-powering sight. And in fact what it stood for may have been even more overpowering.That elaborate structure of stone and mortar was the symbol of Jewish greatness, of all the power of Yahweh gathered into one place.It was said to be the place where God dwelt, the Holy of holies.The place where prayers were to be offered, sacrifices made, and from which God’s favor was granted.It was also the symbol of power and might.Where judgment was made, where taxes were paid, and where the few got more and the many got less. Throughout Hebrew scripture runs the thread of hope that the evils of the world, poverty, hunger, grief, pain, captivity will be overcome by God in some great upheaval called the Day of the Lord.Peter, James, John , and Andrew pick up on the metaphor that Jesus is offering and ask him “when will that day happen.When will God come and destroy all of the grandeur of the kings and rulers and establish God’s Kingdom.That is what is underlying this conversation between Jesus and the disciples.Jesus is trying to impress on his disciples the inevitability of the end of the world as we know it – the power structures, the bricks and mortar, and yes the suffering and pain - coming to an end, but what Jesus offers us is a way of living in preparation.He pleads with the disciples and for us to endure. Jesus tells us to beware of those who come with pat answers to our questions, who claim to know the mind of God.In this first of several Sundays where we hear Jesus warning us about end times his message is pretty clear.This world as we know it is not going to last forever, at some point God’s Kingdom will be established and there will be an accounting for us.But we are not to waste our time, wringing our hands over such Tribulation, neither or we to climb back under the covers and go back to sleep.The message here is one of caution.There will be lots of people offering a lot of advice and claiming a lot of insider knowledge.There will be wars, famines, suffering on a massive scale, but that is just the beginning.OK now I sound like a Southern Baptist preacher.Well maybe so but Jesus does not paint a particularly pretty picture for us today.This Tribulation thing is a bit unsettling. It is unsettling for me, because this talk of end times does not fit comfortably into my faith.For one thing Christianity to me is not dualistic – that is it is not about a simple battle between good and evil.Satan is not the antithesis of God.Satan (at least as depicted in Dante and Milton was a angel, created by God but fallen because of his own selfishness and greed.God is supreme, there is no power that challenges God.Evil is a turning away from good, a parasitic drain on life, a loss of the center focus on love.And for goodness sakes we Christians hold that there is nothing in this world that cannot be redeemed by the self-giving love of Jesus.And if you want to go back further than that in the story of the flood God promises not to ever use violence to destroy mankind again. But the fact is scripture does tell us that history as we know it will someday come to an end.There will come a day when the patterns of life that we hold familiar will be supplanted by the rule of the Creator.Nothing in this world is permanent.No monument or building, no law or symbol of all that we are can change the coming of God’s Kingdom.For those whose life is easy that is ominous news for sure but as the rabbinical tale makes clear, it is good news indeed for those whose life is full of hardship, pain, grief, and suffering. The question that Jesus wants us to ask ourselves is are you awake or are you asleep.Do we come with a profound knowledge and faith in God’s love and care?Do we hold to a hope and resilience that will endure the test of time?Or do we come as people who have postponed making a commitment to the Living Christ?Do we come as casual or barely there Christians?Today’s lesson is a wake up call to stewardship of ourselves and of God’s creation.If we walked downstairs and saw a yellow sign on the floor that said caution wet floor – I don’t think I would go carelessly past it. Last week Brent preached about commitment.He admonished us to share all that we have to share, to recognize that the needs of someone else might just be greater than our own needs.I really do believe that he is right on.This wake up call that Jesus gives us today is about how we live each day of our lives.Not worrying about end times, but being aware of our mortality and recognizing that how we live our lives today does make a difference. In just a few moments we will all make a statement about our commitment to God’s work here at Trinity.Some will jump in the deep end and some will wade out into the kiddy pool, and some will turn away because the water is too deep or too cold or too hot or too full of chlorine.There are lots of other options out there that compete for our attention, lots of voices claiming to hold the answer or to contain the wisdom that will endure the test of time.But Jesus tells us to be cautious of where we place our faith.For sure the bricks and mortar of the church will fall away with the rest of the temporal things of life, but the community of faith, the gathering of those who would serve the Lord with their heart and mind and soul – these are the ones who endure.These are the ones who know that the only thing that is eternal for us is love – that which we receive from God and that which we give to others. Today marks the end of our study of Mark’s Gospel.Gospel scholar Lamar Williamson notes that every Gospel writer leaves us with a message.John calls the church to love one another.Matthew and Luke call the church to mission to those who are marginalized, the “other” person in our midst.For sure those are daunting challenges, but he says perhaps the most daunting challenge for us in our fast paced, “in control” culture is this one left my Mark:“Beware… keep awake, be ready, …the one who endures to the end will be saved”.Amen