Third Sunday in Lent – Year B (RCL) 2009
Exodus: 20: 1- 17 Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 1: 18 – 25; John 2: 13 - 22
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland, OR
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Exodus: 20: 1- 17 Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 1: 18 – 25; John 2: 13 - 22
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland, OR
Sunday, March 15, 2009
IN THE TEMPLE OF THE GODS
Let us pray: God of our Church we invite others into the midst of your temple – help us to remember that it is you we enshrine in this place. When we make a temple of our religion help us to tear down those walls and erect the true temple to the Gospel which you have called us to be witnesses of. We often gather our lives around our ritual – help us to guide our hearts to your message of hope and promise in the Word made flesh, Jesus the holy one who will suffer yet not yield; who will be tempted yet not succumb, who will die yet conquer death and live forever. Amen.
(SUNG) SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLING IN ME – GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT,
SETTING US FREE – HELP US TO LOVE, HELP US TO SEE
YOU ARE THE SPIRIT WHO MAKES US ALL FREE – YOU
ARE, GOD’S SPRIIT DWELLING IN ME.
So here we find ourselves in the 3rd week of lent – torn away from the Gospel narrative as we have heard it for the past several weeks – that is according to the Author of Mark’s version; and now thrust into the author of John’s telling of the good news of God in Christ. This is a distinctly different approach and understanding of the ministry and mission of the radical rabbi from Nazareth. The Intended audience is different and so, consequently is the order and telling of the events and situations of the three years of public ministry of the carpenter’s son. Events and places will be turned upside down in this evangelist’s telling of the stories – and for very different and intentional purposes.
All four of the canonical Gospel narratives recount the telling of the events which we encounter this morning – that is the clearing of the temple and the consequences resulting. The authors of the synoptic Gospels all place this event at the end of Jesus’ public ministry and use it as a significant impetus for the leaders; chief priest’s and scribes to push for the trial and eventual crucifixion and death of the Christ. The author of John’s Gospel however, places this event at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry – in fact it is the second principle event in Jesus’ public ministry by the author of John’s telling, occurring right after the marriage feast at Cana and the first of Jesus’ “signs” in the author’s vernacular. In this recounting of the Good News – as has become clearly evident from the prologue on – we are going to hear a different retelling of the events of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and we will have much more emphasis on the theology of the ministry of the Christ or what scholars call ‘Christology’ – than we had in the synoptic accounts where the emphasis was perhaps placed on the historical telling of those events.
In all four tellings, however, we do have this most jarring of stories about Jesus’ reaction to the desecration of the sacred ground in Judaism’s holy of holies, the temple of Yahweh. Picture this if you will, the chaos and confusion of the bartering and selling of sacrificial animals in the temple courtyard. Most scholars believe that at the Pascha feast the population of Jerusalem would swell from approximately 40,000 to somewhere around 150,000 people all crowding into the walled city to present the proscribed offerings at the temple. It was necessary that one present the sacrificial offering without blemish or imperfection; so bringing that animal with you on a long journey from Galilee at shortest to Egypt or beyond at longest would be difficult if not impossible. Hence the convenience of having those animals offered for sale upon reaching your destination would have been blessed. The opportunity to both sell and purchase in close proximity to the area where the sacrifice would be completed was tempting and convenient. It is believed that it was under the direction of the High Priest, Ciaphais that this practice became firmly established in the holy city. Jesus’ reaction, therefore, was probably not all that horrifying to those who witnessed it – they may, in fact, have been delighted to see it happen. Imagine, if you will, the embarrassment and frustration this would have caused Ciaphias and the Sanhedrin of the ruling religious caste. When we do it becomes obvious how this may have led to the strong desire to have this troublemaker finally eliminated. Into all of this confusion, stench and chaos of sacrificial lambs and money changers and business dealings of the “mechanics” of ritual religion – the object of God’s incarnation – thrusts the hand of reason and says: “wait, look at what you have done to my Father’s house….look at what a mockery you have made of the worship of God by placing all of the emphasis on the offering and not on the one to whom all is offered!’
(SUNG) SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLING IN ME – GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT,
SETTING US FREE – HELP US TO LOVE, HELP US TO SEE
YOU ARE THE SPIRIT WHO MAKES US ALL FREE – YOU ARE,
So here we find ourselves in the 3rd week of lent – torn away from the Gospel narrative as we have heard it for the past several weeks – that is according to the Author of Mark’s version; and now thrust into the author of John’s telling of the good news of God in Christ. This is a distinctly different approach and understanding of the ministry and mission of the radical rabbi from Nazareth. The Intended audience is different and so, consequently is the order and telling of the events and situations of the three years of public ministry of the carpenter’s son. Events and places will be turned upside down in this evangelist’s telling of the stories – and for very different and intentional purposes.
All four of the canonical Gospel narratives recount the telling of the events which we encounter this morning – that is the clearing of the temple and the consequences resulting. The authors of the synoptic Gospels all place this event at the end of Jesus’ public ministry and use it as a significant impetus for the leaders; chief priest’s and scribes to push for the trial and eventual crucifixion and death of the Christ. The author of John’s Gospel however, places this event at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry – in fact it is the second principle event in Jesus’ public ministry by the author of John’s telling, occurring right after the marriage feast at Cana and the first of Jesus’ “signs” in the author’s vernacular. In this recounting of the Good News – as has become clearly evident from the prologue on – we are going to hear a different retelling of the events of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and we will have much more emphasis on the theology of the ministry of the Christ or what scholars call ‘Christology’ – than we had in the synoptic accounts where the emphasis was perhaps placed on the historical telling of those events.
In all four tellings, however, we do have this most jarring of stories about Jesus’ reaction to the desecration of the sacred ground in Judaism’s holy of holies, the temple of Yahweh. Picture this if you will, the chaos and confusion of the bartering and selling of sacrificial animals in the temple courtyard. Most scholars believe that at the Pascha feast the population of Jerusalem would swell from approximately 40,000 to somewhere around 150,000 people all crowding into the walled city to present the proscribed offerings at the temple. It was necessary that one present the sacrificial offering without blemish or imperfection; so bringing that animal with you on a long journey from Galilee at shortest to Egypt or beyond at longest would be difficult if not impossible. Hence the convenience of having those animals offered for sale upon reaching your destination would have been blessed. The opportunity to both sell and purchase in close proximity to the area where the sacrifice would be completed was tempting and convenient. It is believed that it was under the direction of the High Priest, Ciaphais that this practice became firmly established in the holy city. Jesus’ reaction, therefore, was probably not all that horrifying to those who witnessed it – they may, in fact, have been delighted to see it happen. Imagine, if you will, the embarrassment and frustration this would have caused Ciaphias and the Sanhedrin of the ruling religious caste. When we do it becomes obvious how this may have led to the strong desire to have this troublemaker finally eliminated. Into all of this confusion, stench and chaos of sacrificial lambs and money changers and business dealings of the “mechanics” of ritual religion – the object of God’s incarnation – thrusts the hand of reason and says: “wait, look at what you have done to my Father’s house….look at what a mockery you have made of the worship of God by placing all of the emphasis on the offering and not on the one to whom all is offered!’
(SUNG) SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLING IN ME – GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT,
SETTING US FREE – HELP US TO LOVE, HELP US TO SEE
YOU ARE THE SPIRIT WHO MAKES US ALL FREE – YOU ARE,
GOD’S SPRIIT DWELLING IN ME.
How tempting that can be – to become so enraptured by the trappings of religious ritual and its beauty and tradition that we loose focus on the very reason why we gather to offer our worship in the first place. It is in our nature as humans to attempt to limit and proscribe the form and feature of the Divine – so that we can contain it within our limited scope of understanding and comprehension. How could we do otherwise? How can we describe that which is indescribable? How can we conceive of that which is unconceivable? The temptation is great to limit the power of the limitless one – and so we will build our temples to contain the uncontainable power of the Divine.
I do not believe that Jesus’ actions in the retelling of the cleansing of the temple are meant to provide us with an example of polite behavior in the midst of ecclesiastical abuses. Jesus is making very strong statements in view of the abuses of the religious leadership of 1st century Palestine. While we do not sell sacrificial animals and allow for the exchange of currency of the realm in our Church vestibules – I believe that we also have some things to learn from Jesus’ indignant response to those who would seek to transform God’s house into a place of commercialism and commerce. The abuses of religious “professionals” in our own time who use the “temple” of mass media as a personal means for monetary or political gain would do well to remember the lessons of the cleansing of the temple and the extent of Jesus’ indignation and anger against those who show little to no respect for the holy ground on which we tread.
My Michael is known to describe this event in the Gospel narrative as “Jesus gets mad, film at eleven.” I remember from my early religion classes from the good sister’s of St. John the Baptist that it was important to understand that Jesus’ anger was “justified” and not, in fact, sinful as our own human anger can be. Now, however, as I contemplate this level of frustration and indignation that the Holy One of God in Jesus the Christ expresses in this story, I am amazed at the humanity of the Divine carpenter’s son. Jesus is just plain fed up with the religious authorities of the time – and that righteous indignation comes hurling out of the meek and mild Jesus of our polite Episcopal understanding to demonstrate a person of passion and profound emotion around the sacredness of God’s ‘holy ground.”
This Jesus makes a whip, kicks over tables, destroys birdcages, stampeded cows and sheep, dumps out cash drawers of money changers and throws the rest of them out the door. It’s almost as if Jesus is saying, “stop making God’s house into a mega mall’ as that whip is cracked alongside their frightened and scurrying backsides. It is just about that time that Jesus’ disciples will remember where it is written, “passion for God’s house has consumed me.” That scriptural reference is from Israel’s “song book” the psalms and the author of that song knows well how Jesus’ indignation could have been so passionately fueled by viewing the commercialization of the sacred and holy ground of the temple of Herod’s making. In just a few years, that beloved temple would lie in ruin thanks to the Zealots and the Romans. If you couldn’t get right with God by buying a dove or a sheep, how could you get to God? If the sheep and animal sacrifices and the rites and rituals, the prayer books and the ’82 Hymnals, and the bread and the wine are not the way that we get to God and God gets to us, then how are we supposed to that?
Jesus will become the temple…I will destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up! What must have the disciples made of this claim by Jesus? Without the hindsight of what we know to be the end of the story, what sense does that statement make? How do you cling to a leader who will make statements like that which make no sense in light of what we expect from them? How could Jesus possibly destroy the magnificent work of so many that went into the construction of the Herodian temple of Jerusalem? Yet, they remained steadfast though clumsy followers of this madman who frustrated and confused them beyond all limits of their simple fisher folk understanding. Only after the events, which they lived out in Jesus’ earthly presence among them, would they be able to fully understand what the master was teaching them – that the temple Jesus spoke of destroying and raising up in three days was the temple of his Body in which dwelled God’s Holy Spirit. Yet they trusted, yet they had the stumbling faith to follow even when that following seemed dangerous and difficult. How blessed are we who will do the same. How then we will come to know that we are called to be the temple of God in which the Holy Spirit might dwell, and live and blow.
The road toward Calvary is getting more and more dangerous as we progress through these forty days of preparation and penitence. The ground is getting shakier and shakier as the foundations of our temple God move closer toward their fateful conclusion, the full implications of which we will never be fully able to comprehend. We remain as frightened and confused as the disciples did while Jesus walked among them. Our advantage, however, is in knowing how the story will turn out in the end. Our blessing lies in the fact that Resurrection will triumph over crucifixion. We know that as an Easter people; we struggle to accept that and remain faithful in the long frustrating days of lent. Be among us Jesus and shake our very hearts with your passion and righteous indignation at our religious pomposity. Jesus will purify God’s house and transform our little play church into the very Body of Christ. This Jesus will cleanse us until we shine like the sun. This Jesus will take our church and our fumbling and awkward attempts to worship and praise God, and transform them into a purified acclamation of the true God. So we pray:
(SUNG) SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLING IN ME – GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT,
SETTING US FREE – HELP US TO LOVE, HELP US TO SEE
YOU ARE THE SPIRIT WHO MAKES US ALL FREE –
How tempting that can be – to become so enraptured by the trappings of religious ritual and its beauty and tradition that we loose focus on the very reason why we gather to offer our worship in the first place. It is in our nature as humans to attempt to limit and proscribe the form and feature of the Divine – so that we can contain it within our limited scope of understanding and comprehension. How could we do otherwise? How can we describe that which is indescribable? How can we conceive of that which is unconceivable? The temptation is great to limit the power of the limitless one – and so we will build our temples to contain the uncontainable power of the Divine.
I do not believe that Jesus’ actions in the retelling of the cleansing of the temple are meant to provide us with an example of polite behavior in the midst of ecclesiastical abuses. Jesus is making very strong statements in view of the abuses of the religious leadership of 1st century Palestine. While we do not sell sacrificial animals and allow for the exchange of currency of the realm in our Church vestibules – I believe that we also have some things to learn from Jesus’ indignant response to those who would seek to transform God’s house into a place of commercialism and commerce. The abuses of religious “professionals” in our own time who use the “temple” of mass media as a personal means for monetary or political gain would do well to remember the lessons of the cleansing of the temple and the extent of Jesus’ indignation and anger against those who show little to no respect for the holy ground on which we tread.
My Michael is known to describe this event in the Gospel narrative as “Jesus gets mad, film at eleven.” I remember from my early religion classes from the good sister’s of St. John the Baptist that it was important to understand that Jesus’ anger was “justified” and not, in fact, sinful as our own human anger can be. Now, however, as I contemplate this level of frustration and indignation that the Holy One of God in Jesus the Christ expresses in this story, I am amazed at the humanity of the Divine carpenter’s son. Jesus is just plain fed up with the religious authorities of the time – and that righteous indignation comes hurling out of the meek and mild Jesus of our polite Episcopal understanding to demonstrate a person of passion and profound emotion around the sacredness of God’s ‘holy ground.”
This Jesus makes a whip, kicks over tables, destroys birdcages, stampeded cows and sheep, dumps out cash drawers of money changers and throws the rest of them out the door. It’s almost as if Jesus is saying, “stop making God’s house into a mega mall’ as that whip is cracked alongside their frightened and scurrying backsides. It is just about that time that Jesus’ disciples will remember where it is written, “passion for God’s house has consumed me.” That scriptural reference is from Israel’s “song book” the psalms and the author of that song knows well how Jesus’ indignation could have been so passionately fueled by viewing the commercialization of the sacred and holy ground of the temple of Herod’s making. In just a few years, that beloved temple would lie in ruin thanks to the Zealots and the Romans. If you couldn’t get right with God by buying a dove or a sheep, how could you get to God? If the sheep and animal sacrifices and the rites and rituals, the prayer books and the ’82 Hymnals, and the bread and the wine are not the way that we get to God and God gets to us, then how are we supposed to that?
Jesus will become the temple…I will destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up! What must have the disciples made of this claim by Jesus? Without the hindsight of what we know to be the end of the story, what sense does that statement make? How do you cling to a leader who will make statements like that which make no sense in light of what we expect from them? How could Jesus possibly destroy the magnificent work of so many that went into the construction of the Herodian temple of Jerusalem? Yet, they remained steadfast though clumsy followers of this madman who frustrated and confused them beyond all limits of their simple fisher folk understanding. Only after the events, which they lived out in Jesus’ earthly presence among them, would they be able to fully understand what the master was teaching them – that the temple Jesus spoke of destroying and raising up in three days was the temple of his Body in which dwelled God’s Holy Spirit. Yet they trusted, yet they had the stumbling faith to follow even when that following seemed dangerous and difficult. How blessed are we who will do the same. How then we will come to know that we are called to be the temple of God in which the Holy Spirit might dwell, and live and blow.
The road toward Calvary is getting more and more dangerous as we progress through these forty days of preparation and penitence. The ground is getting shakier and shakier as the foundations of our temple God move closer toward their fateful conclusion, the full implications of which we will never be fully able to comprehend. We remain as frightened and confused as the disciples did while Jesus walked among them. Our advantage, however, is in knowing how the story will turn out in the end. Our blessing lies in the fact that Resurrection will triumph over crucifixion. We know that as an Easter people; we struggle to accept that and remain faithful in the long frustrating days of lent. Be among us Jesus and shake our very hearts with your passion and righteous indignation at our religious pomposity. Jesus will purify God’s house and transform our little play church into the very Body of Christ. This Jesus will cleanse us until we shine like the sun. This Jesus will take our church and our fumbling and awkward attempts to worship and praise God, and transform them into a purified acclamation of the true God. So we pray:
(SUNG) SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLING IN ME – GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT,
SETTING US FREE – HELP US TO LOVE, HELP US TO SEE
YOU ARE THE SPIRIT WHO MAKES US ALL FREE –
YOU ARE, GOD’S SPRIIT DWELLING IN ME.
Amen.
Amen.
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