In 1970 singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell woke up one morning in a hotel in Hawaii. It was gorgeous. “I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance," she noted. "Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart... this blight on paradise."

In response, she penned Big Yellow Taxi, one of the hallmark songs of her age. "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot with a pink hotel, a boutique and a swinging hot spot. Don't it always seem to go,” she says in the chorus, “that you don't know what you've got till it's gone?"

Or, as today’s sermon asks, What lasts? What really lasts?

Neville Presho thought his solid stone, mid-19th century house would certainly last, if not forever, then at least for the rest of his life. Away from home on business for months that stretched on for over a year, Presho had given his keys to a neighbor to keep an eye on the house while he was away.

The neighbor, it turns out, let some construction workers live in the house while they were rebuilding a nearby hotel. The construction workers left flammable material in the house which then mysteriously caught fire. No one knows who--just as mysteriously--gave permission for Presho's stone house to be completely torn down. Nor does anyone know for certain who--mysteriously--gave permission for Presho’s now-vacant lot to be turned into a parking lot and septic tank for the nearby hotel being reconstructed by those same construction workers who lived in Presho’s house and left flammable material in it which, mysteriously, caught fire. But, there you have it! All Presho himself knew was that, upon coming home from a year away on business, he scanned the horizon, vainly looking for a house--a solid, centuries-old house--that was no more!

What lasts? What Joni Mitchell sang about, Neville Presho experienced! They paved paradise and put up a parking lot!

But maybe we need to revise Joni Mitchell's song! While it's true that, “You don't know what you've got till it's gone,” it's also true that “You don't know what you've been placing your trust in till it's gone!"

In the Wednesday morning Bible class we've been reading Luther's explanation of the First Commandment from the Large Catechism. The reason we've been doing this is because there's probably no better place to learn what it means to have a god.

You see, according to the fascinating insight found in the catechism, everybody has gods, even atheists or agnostics!

How could that be? Here's how Luther explains it. “A god is that to which we look for all good and in which we find refuge in every time of need. ... That to which the heart clings and entrusts itself, is ... really your God.”

Luther knows he's got to give us some concrete examples. What does all this mean? Luther says, “Many a person thinks he has God and everything he needs when he has money and property; ... It is the most common idol on earth.”

I don't know about you but I never imagined that I worshipped idols. I imagined I always and only believed in God! But do you know what? Taking a cue from Joni Mitchell’s song, "You don't know what you've been placing your trust in till it's gone!"

Do I feel as safe and secure in my world as I did before the stock market and real estate markets crashed? Do I feel as safe and secure when my bank account is empty as I do when it's full? Where have I been placing my trust? Where have I been seeking safety and security? As Luther says, “Many a person thinks he has God and everything he needs when he has money and property; [but] ... It is the most common idol on earth."

Or as Joni Mitchell might have said, Sometimes you don't know what you've been placing your trust in till it's gone.

What lasts?

You can hear the note of admiration and awe in their voices as Jesus' disciples leave the Temple in Jerusalem with Jesus. After nearly 50 years of expansion and renovation, the Temple was truly one of the wonders of the ancient world.

“Look, Teacher,” one of his disciples said to Jesus, “what large stones and what large buildings!”

It looked like it would last forever. It looked like Neville Presho’s formidable stone house! But what lasts? What has permanence? Where can look--what can we rely on--for refuge in every time of need?

Jesus’ disciples thought it was the Temple. They thought it was their religion as they had understood it up until that point. The Temple was God’s home on earth. As long as that Temple was there, God was there. In that, they had been taught; in that, they could trust. “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!”

In thirty years it would all be torn down. Not one stone would be left upon another!

What lasts?

There are two directions this sermon could now go. Either we could focus on those things in which we have falsely placed our trust--things like the trust the disciples placed in the permanence of the Temple and in their understanding of religion--or we could focus on discovering--or rediscovering--what truly lasts in this world.

Let’s do that! Let’s focus on discovering--or rediscovering--what lasts!

As we all know only too well, what lasts is not our money or our property. What lasts is not our health, our beauty, or our strength. What lasts is not our accomplishments. And, most obviously, what lasts is not our luck.

What lasts is God!

Sure, you probably knew that. Sure, you probably even anticipated that this was where this sermon was heading. But do you know it here (in your heart)?

Sometimes you don't know what you've been placing your trust in till it's gone! And now might that time for you. With the changes and disruptions that our world has been experiencing, maybe you’re realizing--as I’ve been realizing--that you’d been placing your trust in people or things that you thought would last but which do not. Maybe you’re realizing that, without knowing it, you’d been trusting in something other than God. Whatever. Now is the time to place your trust--or to renew your trust--in God, who truly lasts.

Luther said it well: a god is that to which we look for all good and in which we find refuge in every time of need. But what that means is that it isn’t what we say we believe in that shows who or what God is for us. It isn’t by joining in the recitation of the Apostles Creed that demonstrates our allegiance.

It’s what we do with our heart. It’s who or what we place our trust in and find refuge in every time of need. As Luther well says, “That to which the heart clings and entrusts itself, is ... really your God.”

So, what lasts? Who or what can we reliably place our trust in without fear of going bankrupt or disappearing?

God lasts. The real God lasts. The God in whom Jesus placed his trust--and his life--lasts. Jesus’ disciples admired the seemingly impregnable stones of the Temple and thought they would last forever.

They did not. Nor did the disciples’ understanding of God last either. God didn’t change, but their understanding of God changed--and needed to change!

So it is with us. Sometimes you don't know what you've been placing your trust in till it's gone. And now might that time for you. That to which the heart clings and entrusts itself is really your God. Entrust it--or re-entrust it--to the God revealed by Jesus.

That God lasts! In Jesus’ name. Amen.