Growing up, I was friends with two brothers; they were a year apart, one a bit older and the other a bit younger than me, so we did a lot together. The older brother went into the Marines.  He wanted to challenge himself. The Marines are rather good at that and they excel at molding teenagers into warriors.

So he went off to Marine boot camp.  He was gone 12 or 16 weeks and he excelled. He was named the outstanding recruit in his platoon.  Then he came home on leave.

That first morning home, his younger brother snuck into his room in the middle of the night and started screaming like a drill sergeant at his sleeping brother.  “On your feet you so and so,” that sort of thing.

The Marine sprang immediately to his feet, ramrod straight, just as he had been trained.

The younger brother thought this was hysterically funny, for just a moment, until he quickly realized that his brother had been trained for hand-to-hand combat – and he was quickly begging for mercy, which thankfully came swiftly.

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Do you remember the good old days?  We didn’t have to lock our doors.  We could run around the neighborhood barefoot with little fear beyond sand spurs. Why, some say even our politics were civil. I don’t quite believe that.

Certainly some things were better, but other things were worse, far worse. By many measures the world is a safer, healthier and more prosperous place than it has ever been.

Yet, we have an abiding sense of things having been better once upon a time just the same.  However good things are, we know they could be better.

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Jesus’ disciples were in awe. (Luke 21:5-19) The Temple at Jerusalem was an amazing place, a wonder, famous across the ancient world. It was on par with the Parthenon in Athens and other ancient wonders.

This was actually the second temple, rebuilt according to the ancient specifications 4 or 5 hundred years earlier. About 50 years earlier King Herod had begun a massive renovation and expansion of the temple grounds with various courtyards. Although the actual Temple itself was a bit smaller than our sanctuary, the Temple complex was enormous and went on for hundreds of yards of courtyards and gardens, all dominating the city skyline. 

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