March 3, 2024

by | Mar 3, 2024 | sermons

Scripture Reading: John 2:13-25 

13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found  people selling cattle, sheep, and doves and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a  whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, with the sheep and the cattle. He also  poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who  were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a  marketplace!” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume  me.” 18 The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” 19 Jesus  answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said,  “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three  days?” 21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22 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.

23 When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because  they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them,  because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to testify about anyone, for he himself knew  what was in everyone.

Sermon  

  1. When I got the assignment to preach about peace during Lent, it led to the realization that this would mean addressing violence. So, when I saw the story of Jesus turning over the tables of money changers, I thought, well, here’s something that fringes on violence, and it’s coming from Jesus.
    1. This is odd, because Jesus is called the Prince of Peace, but here, he clearly loses his cool (see Caravaggio’s 15th C. painting of this scene!)
    2. Instead of bringing peace, he creates chaos
    3. It might be a stretch to call his action in the Temple violent
      1. maybe a little property damage, a few loose doves, probably some animal  dung to clean up; but nobody seems to get hurt
      2. However, it is definitely a disruption in the normal flow of life in the Temple during Passover week.
  2. This story is told in all 4 gospels, but it’s a little different in John:
    1. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, it comes right after Jesus entry into Jerusalem for his last visit, the one that will lead to his arrest and crucifixion;
      1. Those writers portray the turning of the tables as a catalyst moment when Jewish leaders think, “It’s time to arrest Jesus, he’s going too far.”
      2. None of those gospels explain exactly why Jesus throws a fit,
      3. the money changing and purchase of animals was all a routine part of the Passover festival, necessary for making the ritual sacrifices
    2. Some scholars have speculated that the merchants were exploiting the poor by the way they did business and Jesus was calling them out on that
    3. And this is probably a good guess.
  3. But John’s gospel deals with this story differently:
    1. He puts it in chapter 2, the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, right  after the first miracle at Cana.
    2. So it’s a way Jesus is actually introducing himself to the people of Jerusalem! Not as a healer or wise teacher, but as a disrupter!
    3. And in John’s gospel, the reason for the disruption is explained a little more;
    4. When the leaders ask him what signs he can show that he has authority to drive out the money changers, he says: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 
    5. John helps us out with his interpretation: Jesus is talking not about the  physical building of the Temple; it’s a metaphor for his own body;
    6. How his body will be destroyed, and three days later, resurrected.
    7. Later, after his death, the disciples would remember this saying and others they didn’t understand while he was still living.
    8. They would see a line from truth to truth, in Jesus’ words and actions. And that line would lead them to believe in the resurrection.
  4. But there’s another important detail to remember when we hear this story
    1. John’s gospel is dated around 70-100 AD, the same time the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans.
    2. It was the second time in history the Jewish temple, the holy of holies, was toppled and burned.
    3. Much of the Jewish population of central Judaea was essentially wiped out
      1. Its people were killed, sold into slavery, or forced to flee;
      2. so, another diaspora
    4. This is where a story of violence is being told between the lines
    5. John doesn’t mention the Temple being destroyed, but everyone listening to him knows it has happened.
    6. So Jesus’ words here, about destroying God’s temple, are prophetic words.
    7. And the story is now being told through several lenses:
      1. the story of the temple building being dismantled
      2. the destruction of the Jewish community in Jerusalem and the change that  came with that
      3. And the arrest and execution of Jesus
    8. All these things are being dismantled, torn down, burned, struck down, killed.
  5. But this is not just a story of destruction; there is also the hint of something mysterious that will be rebuilt.
    1. The scene of overturning the tables could be seen as a symbolic dismantling of the whole temple system with all its sacrifices and institutional trappings.
    2. And its Jesus doing the dismantling, not Rome!
    3. He may be imagining different kinds of temple and sacrifices,
      1. Of spiritual gifts of energy and creativity
      2. material gifts that alleviate poverty and inequity,
      3. the sharing of resources for the common life
      4. Jesus is imagining a different kind of worship entirely than the form  practiced in the temple, which was in part about maintenance of the institution itself!
    4. The new temple would no longer be in a physical place
    5. It would be carried everywhere the people went in diaspora;
    6. It would be worship celebrated in homes among families,
      1. in synagogues built in the villages people fled to
      2. and house churches created by the Christians;
    7. It would not be built by bricks and mortar like the Temple, but by God gathering  people as “living stones” and connecting them with the mortar of divine purpose.
  6. Through history, we have experienced again and again the building up and breaking down of faith communities.
    1. And it usually happens in slow motion
    2. In our era, we see it in the slow but steady decline of the institutional church –
      1. the loss of members, with their creative energy and money;
      2. the loss of real estate: everywhere I go, I see empty church buildings
      3. And there is a moral decline, too; the Church has lost its way
      4. The corruption of Christian teaching to sell a particular worldview or political agenda
        1. The recent rise of Christian Nationalism, for example,
        2. Or the “prosperity gospel”
      5. Lots of misuse of Christian teaching!
  7. We, the current generation of church people are caught between the breakdown of our beloved 20th century models of Church and new models we haven’t clearly seen yet.
    1. We can see that Jesus is still here, in our beautiful, old sacred spaces,
    2. But he is disrupting things: clearing the clutter, trying to drive out institutional maintenance and heretical practices;
    3. He is letting our younger generation, our doves, fly free;
    4. letting the disillusioned cattle wander out the front door.
    5. Still, hopefully, he is giving us space for something new and unknown to emerge
    6. This is very uncomfortable for those of us who like the order and clarity of the 20th Century model of Church.
  8. Here at Lyndale, I feel this tension and ambiguity about the future.
    1. You want a positive, shared vision;
    2. But there is tension:
      1. you want to be a place where deep spiritual friendships can flourish; but also where new people are welcomed in
      2. You want a place where those who are aging can be cared for tenderly; and you do that well!
      3. But you also want to create a bigger place at the table for children;
      4. You want to reach out to the neighborhood; but you are also aware that some of your neighborhood is not geographical,
      5. You have a demographic neighborhood in the LGBTQ community;
      6. You love the social justice work of the Center for Sustainable Justice, but I sense you’re afraid that ministry may in some ways compete with a more traditional model that has grounded you for decades.
    3. You sense change all around you, and you are wondering: How can we change and still be Lyndale if we lose this thing or that thing?
    4. It’s possible that talking about your future is hard because it may lead to conflict among you; the fear that you will have to choose one model of ministry over another.
    5. I encourage you to try to hold gently the tension between alternate future visions;
    6. I believe that if we listen to God, God makes a little way forward,
      1. That way is made one step at a time; one prayer or conversation at a time.
      2. It requires putting aside ego and certainty
      3. And listening to God and each other
  9. When the table is set back upright, when the bread and wine are set before us, it may look different than it used to.
    1. But I believe we’ll discover that God has made room there for the most important  ministry to happen.
    2. And that we will have enough bread and love and vision to carry it out.
    3. God did that for Jerusalem, and God can do it for us.