Sermon for March 4, 2018
Lent 3B – RCL
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus
went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and
doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords,
he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also
poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told
those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making
my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written,
“Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign
can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and
in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been
under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?”
But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the
dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the
scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Today’s Gospel lesson is a story that we probably all know only
too well. It is story that we probably
know better form the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. In their version this story happens just
after the Palm Sunday story and the triumphal entry of Jesus into
Jerusalem. This story is the one that,
along with that heretical triumphal entry – the one where Jesus enters the city
like a messiah – it is all these events that taken in total finally push the
authorities over the edge to demand Jesus’ death.
Today we have the joy of the story as told by the evangelist
John. The evangelist who makes it clear
from the very start of his Gospel that Jesus is not just another itinerate
Rabbi but the very word of God, the very essence of the creator come in human form. John places this story at the beginning of
Jesus’ public ministry – not near the end.
John’s gospel account has Jessup claim his authority at the very
beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
It is so tempting to take the placement of this story and compare
it to the placement in the other gospels.
It is so easy to try and make a theological argument as to why John’s
placement is important compared to the others.
But so what! What does that have
to do with lent and with our lives. How
does this Gospel lesson help prepare us during this Lenten period for the
yearly remembrance of the crucifixion and resurrection?
While I could happily take this sermon in the direction of a
hermeneutical exploration I am afraid that, while interesting for some, would
leave many folk cold. What struck me this
week was the juxtaposition of the reading from John with the beginning of the
reading from Exodus this week: “You
shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in
heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them…”
Using this lens perhaps we see Jesus calling out people for
worshiping idols. The idols of the rules
that required money to be changed so that the picture of Caesar was not on it
in so that they could buy pure animals to sacrifice to God for their sins. The idol of not recognizing the God of
creation that is right before them and, dare I suggest, not recognizing that
the God of creation is right before us?
In this placement of Jesus’ cleansing the temple at the beginning of his
ministry perhaps we are called to look at cleansing our own temples during lent
and looking inward to see what we place as idols in our lives!
Contrary to the commandment to not worship idols we all have a
tendency to create and worship idols.
What are your idols? Is security
one of your idols? Either physical
security or economic security? Do we
operate out of a place of scarcity where we cannot even imagine there being
enough to go around. Do we operate out
of a place where we have to hold onto our recourses tightly even if that means
pricing other people out of the housing market?
Do we worship the idol of security is such a way that we fail to
interact with other beloved children of God?
Do we value living in safety over providing for those in need? My husband tells the story of growing up in
one neighborhood where the neighbors did not interact. Everyone came home in their cars, pushed the
button to open the electric gate at the bottom of their driveways, pushed the
button to open their garage doors, and then drove in and closed all behind
them. They might as well have installed
a moat to keep out the unclean and their enemies. There is no community in such places. Instead people worship an idol of perceived
safety. An idol of safety where we close
ourselves off from encountering God in our neighbor. An idol that prevents us from recognizing the
beauty of all of Gods creation.
Perhaps we worship at the idol of technology. It is certainly easy to let technology
overtake our lives these days. We can
sit for hours in front of cable news or in front of our computers and smart
phones and obsess over all that is wrong with the world. We can enter into our own echo chambers on
social media that lead us to demonizing those who hold different positions that
we do. Of course, I am on the right side
of the gun debate. It is those crazy
people who want to… well you can fill in the blanks. Both sides in the gun debate can easily
digress to the point of demonization.
Technology can let us escape into a world of fantasy or it can help us
connect to other people. It can far too
easily become an idol that we worship.
What other things in our lives can we turn into idols? Do we turn food into an idol? Alcohol?
It is easy to worship at the foot of many idols that cloud our vision
and dampen our hearing to the point that we no longer see or hear God in the
world about us.
Jesus’ cleansing
of the temple can be a reminder that even those things that we do supposedly to
prepare to worship God can be turned into idols. Jesus’ cleansing of the temple can be a call
for us to cleanse our own temples of idols so that we can be prepared to see
and hear our God. God can and does
appear to us in ways that are both subtle and not so subtle.
Lent is a time where we are called to cleanse ourselves of the
idols that prevent us from seeing and hearing God. We are called to examine our lives to see
what idols we worship at the expense of seeing God’s work in the world about us. We are called to redirect our idol worship to
allow us to see and hear God in our lives.
Can we redirect our idol worship in ways that allow us to see the person
who is without shelter as a beloved child of God and worthy of respect? Can we redirect our idol worship to see those
we disagree with politically as beloved children of God?
Lent can also be a time where we can examine our institutions and
see where the institutional idols are preventing us from seeing God. Jesus’ in the cleaning of the temple can be
seen as clearing out the institutional idols that are keeping people from
actually seeing the presence of God in their midst.
Cleaning institutional idols is hard work. It can be particularly hard because we love
our institutional idols. Unfortunately
the church is full of institutional idols.
Idols that we don’t even see but that can drive people from our
institutions faster than Jesus could overturn the tables of the money
changers. These idols include clericalism,
sexism, ageism, and racism. They include
scandals of abuse and every other human failing that occurs outside of our
churches because they can and do occur within our institutions. Our churches can become virtual country clubs
where we only worship with like-minded and economically similar people. Places where we, in subtle and not so subtle
ways, shun those less fortunate. Places
where we only pay lip service to the second half of the great commandment – the
commandment to love God and to also Love our neighbors.
Lent can be a time when we look at the idols we create in our
churches and in our governments and look for ways to cast down those
idols. Look for ways where we can
overturn the tables and open our eyes to the work that God would have us do.
If we can identify and work on casting out our idols we may be
able to welcome God back into our lives.
When we work at casting out our idols perhaps we will be able to find
those thin places where the presence of God in our lives is more acute. Places where, for whatever reason, it is
easier for us to hear and see God at work around us. Perhaps if we cast out our idols we will be
able to recognize that God came to us as the incarnate Jesus to show us a
different way. God became incarnate to model
for us a different economy. An economy
that does not need money changers and sacrificial doves for us to access
God. God came to show us that the
heavenly economy is upside down from our economy.
Jesus walked this earth and did wonderful and surprising healings
and casting out of demons and tearing down of idols. Those idols where so entrenched in society
that in a few short years the religious authorities and the empire worked to
get rid of the trouble maker Jesus. They
conspired to find a way to kill the Love that came down on Christmas. They conspired to hang Love on the
cross. But we know the end of the story –
as Jesus said in today’s Gospel that Love will not die but after three days
that Love rose again to prove once and for all that no matter how many idols we
make. No matter how much we surround
ourselves with walls. No matter how hard
we try to exclude and tear down God’s good creation. No matter what we do we cannot kill the
love.
God became incarnate in the person of Jesus to pursue us and to
invite us to become God’s partners.
Partners to help in turning over the tables of the money changers that
still exist in our churches and in our societies. To turn over the tables of the money changers
that exist in our hearts. And to become
partners in creating a culture and a society – and indeed a church – where the
love of God and Love of neighbor are indeed the great commandment by which we
order our lives and our institutions.
During this Lenten season we are called to identify the idols
that we use to separate us from God. The
idols that prevent us from being partners in bringing God’s dream of a
different economy to our society. Lent
is a time to cast out the idols and to repent – to turn around – and be ready
to welcome the risen Christ once again on Easter.
Amen.
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