March 15 2009 PUMC
The cleansing of the temple
this is powerful scene
and it is one of those events that made it into all four of the gospels
that alone should tell you how significant..or maybe controversial this was
in fact it becomes part of the trial against jesus
according to Mark
they accused Jesus of saying he could destroy the temple made with hands
and build a new one
not made with hands in three days..
You heared echos eof that inthe gospel from john that we read this morning
of course we understand this to be a reference
to the temple of the risen christ
Jesus Christ ..and the community of the risen Christ .....that is our new temple
Mark also says
that this is the reason
that the religious authorities
started looking for a way to kill Jesus ... get if of him
now hes gone to far
hmm
I suppose that when you start criticizing religion.. now thats where you get in deep trouble
that’s tue isnt it...has your relgion been criticised recently
do you think if I started criticizing your beleifs and your practices
you might get defensive ..even hostile
or if I started to make too many changes here at park church..
.really shook things up..confronted some things
I bet you would start looking for away to get rid of me...call the ds maybe..
well
lets not go there
back to the scriptures
.... imagine the situation..... Jesus is doing this in the temple
understand
this is not in the inner part of the temple
but its on the temple grounds
its all temple area
so still
is Jesus going into this most holy place
the religious center of it all
the pride and joy of Jerusalem
and he is doing more than talking and criticizing
he ‘s lashing away with this whip
Tables are getting knocked over
cages are getting opened
the sacrificial livestock
and the sacrificial pigeons or doves
are getting driven out..
Maybe running around loose
someone chasing them
trying to catch them
and coins are falling and rolling around on the stone floor

Jeus is shouting
He even quoting scripture
something about a house of prayer
being turned into a market place
or even a den of thieves..
Well the money changers are there
just doing a religious service you could say
theyr e helping out with the temple procedures
what jesus is stopping is
..business as usual..
These are the daily operations so to speak
these people are allowed to be there
Money changers for example..
You gotta change those idolatrous, impure, roman coins
roman coins
have graven images on them
you cant make an offering or pay the temple tax with those
pagan coins
any foreign
coins
have to be turned into Jewish coins
so you can make the right offering
somebody has to provide that service..you need money changers.
And if your there for a sacrifice
you want to buy one locally ...you cant alwsy bring one along from another country..
Buy it when you get there
make sure you’ve got an animal thats been inspected and approved..
.certified to be clean
thats up to code
you don’t give God some scrubby old sick animal
something blemished for an offering
you get a good one
God deserves the best
this is all jsut a part of doing religious business
but Jesus
must have felt that the nature of it all
maybe the motive
maybe the effect
or
the spirit was wrong
yes there was abuse
maybe people we were getting overcharged or cheated
especially during the high holy days
business went up
it was a supply and demand market
get the pilgrims or tourists so to speak

well it happens..
maybe it was the idea of manipulating a profit out of peoples spiritual needs
taking advantage of peoples guilt or fear..or deepest needs
(I think I’ve seen that happen a few times in church history .
I don’t want to name some famous tv preachers..or big time evangelists..but I have some suspicion)

or maybe iti s simply the idea that
you could market your way
into the presence of God .
That you could buy your influence with God
pay for your sins
buy your peace
buy your forgiveness somehow
Somehow your relationship had to be brokered
it didn’t seem right
.we could get into layers of symbolism and interpretation and speculation
The gospoelesson today said zeal for Gods house is consuming him:
fulfilling the scriptures
but what was Jesus doing and saying ?
what was the problem
the corruption
what was he righteously angry about?

it would be interesting to do that interpreting...and studying
but im not sure if it would be faithful today ...
And to what Jesus was doing,
if we only t talked about the situation back then
it always easier to talk about the situation back then... talk about "them"
it seems to me
that
if we dare
If we dare ...then we might ask Jesus to come into our temple
into our places of worship
into our religious centers
into our religious practices
into the sanctuaries of the church
come here to park church
maybe even into the temple of our own hearts
come in my soul place
and help us see through the business as usual patterns
that maybe we don’t see anymore
maybe there are ways that we have lost sigh of the goal or missed the point
it does happen
remind sme of the story about a westerner
who went to the east to get some spiritual wisdon
so he went and found a spiritual master to teach him
he became
a disciple
in a group that lived a life of extreme poverty
they believed that all you nended was a loincloth and begging bowl
so he started this new simple life
that went on for a couple of years
studying and praying and learning the disciplines
by then ..the
spiritual master was very pleased with the man's progress
he said
Im going to he let you go on your own now
and Im going to be up in the mountains on pilgrimage
so the master left.
This man was living in a little brush and stick shelter where he slept at night
he was doing ok
.
One day,
he discover that the rats had eaten his loincloth some time in the night
he was very embarrassed
as he went out to beg for anew one
he had to use his begging bowl as a modesty cover.
The villagers were nice enough to give him a new loin cloth,

But after few days
rats ate that one, too.
And he had to go beggin again
Actually this happened
several more tiems
and the disciple had enough of this embarrassment
So he got himself a cat.
That took care of the rats,
but the cat was pregnant
and pretty soon he had several cats
and they needed food
so now
when he begged for his food
he had to also beg for milk
for his cats as well.
And this was cutting into his mediation time
"This won't do," he thought.
"I'll just get a goat
so I can have some milk."
Tha t will solve my problem and simplify my life
So he traded off some of the better cats
to get a goat
it wasn’t much of a goat
but at least now he had milk for the cats
and he wouldn’t have to beg so much
but then you know
he couldnt just let the goat go wandering off
causing trouble in the village ...goats can cause trouble if they are loose
He had to tie it up
so now
he had to go get grass and feed for the goat
and the goat also turned out
out be pregnant
now he had even more goats to take care
and he had less time to do any praying and meditating
So he decided to grow some plants to feed the goats
just a little garden
But that was using up his time..watering and weeding..and all that.. so he decided
to hire a worker
to take care fo the goats and also take care of a little garden
And the worker could could use as that garden for his pay
maybe work on shares
that worked out very well
but it turned out to be more than one person could handle
so he added another worker because the operation got a little bigger
well he didn’t have time to manage the workers..


so he decided to get married
and let his wife take care of the workers
of course you cant have a wife living in a little brush house
so he had to build a better house


several more years went by
After a time,
the disciple became the wealthiest man in the village.
One day The guru
,his old master was traveling by there
and stopped in.
He was shocked to see that his student was now living
in the nicest house in the whole village
with servants and luxuries
"What is the meaning of this?"
he asked his disciple.
How did this happen
"You won't believe this,
sir,"
the man replied.
"But there was just no other way I could keep my loincloth."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
that is a parable of our situation
I think that happens in the church again and again and again


adjustment,, distractions,, business.... Complications........
...................we have added on a lot from the time Jesus
traveling around with some disciples
or Paul meeting with some people in there homes
sharing their possession
praying and studying together and doing good.
..loving others
welcoming the tax collectors and the sinners .... and the foreigners
reaching out to the left out..
..livng the way of the cross
not the way of Rome with it opulence and power..
But the way of the cross
the servanthood life
forming this christlike community

I wonder if Jesus or Peter or Paul
would look at the church today
and hardly recognize it
and would wonder ... What happened

Do we ever look at the way the church is today
with our layers of institutions
and rituals and building
and wealth ..hierarchies...
and systems and rules ..
and personality issues and pet causes and turf protection...
..misguided loyalties..our patriotisins and our ideologies

Did we just get used to it being this way
. business as usual ...its always been that way
......................

do you ever personally look at how we practice and interpret
the Christian life today
and the way we live
Can you see Jesus the master saying
what happened here
how did you Christians get so rich
and comfortable
and busy with all these other things
how did you get to be so divided
from each other
how did you get so distracted
into these political debates and ideological labels
while you ignore the need s of people

disconnecting from the poor
how did we get so locked into our narrow views of judging who is right and who is wrong
How did this happen
How did we get so complicated..
....
wel what do we do?
do we have to go back and just recreate a primitive First century ..barebones chrsitinaity.....(soem people think thats the answer)
Do we leave all the church stuff behind.. ? Soem chruches pride themselves as beng non denominational..as if thats more pure....I don’t think so..

don’t misundersant me..
we need to adapt
grow
Organize in new ways to be in ministry

we need tools and resources to do that with
we need systems..
we needs institutions..we need money..
we need talent. We need plans.. We need levels of basic maintenance
................................
But do we lose the purpose in the process?

We cant afford to do that..!
we have to know our mission
.our purpose ,our spirit..we need that in every congregation.. here in you

why ..again
because Business as usual..without the main purpose
is becoming a barrier ...
There was recent survey that said
the percentage. of people who call themselves in some way Christian
has dropped more than 11% in a generation
heres a quote I pulled out of the report
"In a nation that has long been mostly Christian
, "the challenge to Christianity … does not come from other religions but from a rejection of all forms of organized religion,"
you hear that?
our business as usual..is now turning people away
it needs to be reexamined
we are not being seen as a house of prayer for all people

Maybe Jesus is trying to sweep the church clean ...trying to tell us something ..as painful
as controversial as it might seem..(the tables are being turned in the church ..are we going to accept the change)
..like it or not.. Chrsitianity is now in a time of re-formation
Can we pray...reform us..and cleanse us... Jesus ?

Will our churches dare to listen to those
who can see
something more than our business as usual routines

I am excited by several things happening in the United Methodist church these days
I think jeus is cleaning us ..re-newing us..
when we practice the gospel imperatives being highlighted here in the Minnesota conference
do you know what they are ?
To cultivate spiritual vitality
and to reach new people for Christ
..............................
Or I think of the Three Simple Rules
the general rules from John Wesley
that are being re discovered again
first do no harm
do good,
stay in love with God
thats going to help clean up our business as usual thinking
or another thing that is happening
is is called Re think church
and you will hear more about that latter
but lets see church as a verb
something you do .not just something that you go to


all these are tools..
to help us be true to the purpose and the spirit..and the vision of Jeus Chrsit
;lent is a time to ask ourselves
Are we alive to the spirit of Christ?
..living in the world changing power of Gods love!
are we keeping our life in Christ... alive "as a prayer for all people"!!

we are the spiritual temple of God
.and anything that keeps us away from that..
well
maybe we need to check it out
and clean it up.
.but first let the cleaning start here..
Cleaning the temple here
maybe that is precisely why we read this lesson of the cleansing of the temple
in the soul searching
house cleaning season of Lent...
..