The second Temple in Jerusalem had only recently been completed by Herod the Great. It was an impressive building complex as well as the centre of Israel’s religious life. Yet, like the prophets of old, Jesus foretells the Temple’s destruction as an initial, impending form of divine judgement and the beginning of the all-encompassing and dramatic and deeply mysterious process of God’s renewing the world. This process is as inevitable as it is necessary and the faithful are not be surprised or dismayed at the end of the world as they know it, because God has something better in mind. Instead, they are to be aware–and hopeful.
How do you understand “the end of the world”? How do you feel about it? Why might others feel differently? How do you live with this possibility in mind?