Sermon Text: Psalm 19, John 2:13-22
Third Sunday of Lent, 19 Mar 06
As many of you know, we had our church yard sale yesterday. If you stopped by anytime this week, you know that this place has been stuffed with stuff -- up till about 15 hours ago. And much of that stuff came from some of your houses and now has a new home in someone else's house. And now look -- all that clutter here is gone -- the storage room is cleared, the old Bereans classroom, the youth room, the halls, the fellowship hall -- it's all gone! It feels good to clear out the clutter, doesn't it?
Most of us have a lot of stuff. Way more stuff than we need. And this particular church is pretty good at recycling some of this stuff at our yard sales.
Can you believe that this scripture about Jesus clearing out the temple comes on the very weekend we have this big yard sale here? Just so you know, we are preaching from the lectionary this Lent -- that is this pre-selected set of scriptures for each Sunday that Christian churches use around the world. In other words I didn't pick this scripture out just because we had a yard sale yesterday.
But this scripture really isn't about selling stuff in the church. Some people like to interpret it this way. Like most of John's gospel, there is more to it than meets the eye. This story teaches us that that we need to do some decluttering. We need to clear out the clutter and focus on the essentials.
If you have a Bible with you that has little headlines or titles that break up the section, this story is commonly called "Jesus Cleanses the Temple." Such a nice, clean-sounding act.
But let me tell you, this is no gentle Jesus. Just read the scripture. It's all right there. It's Passover time which in John's gospel is always a big literary clue that this is going to be a story that in some way points to Jesus and his death and resurrection.
Jesus goes up to Jerusalem like the rest of the pilgrims for the Passover. There were huge numbers of them -- Josephus, a Jewish historian of the first century -- estimated as many as 2.7 million pilgrims. Huge numbers. When Jesus gets to the temple, he sees all these people selling cattle and sheep and doves, plus tables full of money changers.
Now you need to understand, this was not some yard sale set up at the local church. All this stuff was essential for the Passover Festival. Passover laws required that people sacrifice these animals -- and they had to be unblemished animals. There were Jews living under Roman domination all over Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. There was no way you could walk with your family, carrying a dove or a lamb from say somewhere like France and expect it to be unblemished (or even alive).
Plus if you were coming from anywhere that was under Roman rule, you had to wait till you got to Jerusalem to exchange your Roman coins for Jewish coins -- which is what you had to use to pay your temple tax. So this system was designed to help people who came to worship God during the Passover Festival.
So what's the problem?
What was it about the temple that caused Jesus to react so strongly? And he does. Just picture it -- it's all there right in today's scripture reading. He looks around -- grabs some leather cords, and braids them together to make a whip. Then he starts chasing them -- all those animals -- the sheep, the cattle -- probably a few of their owners too -- out of the temple. Think about the noise, the confusion, the riot this created. This guy Jesus is making a scene like they've never seen at the temple. And if that wasn't enough, he grabs the boxes of coins that the money changers have all set up and dumps them. Then he overturns their tables. I wonder what his disciples thought. Oh, no! Jesus has gone off the deep end!
So what's the problem? Why is Jesus so upset? In their attention to Passover, the Jews had forgotten the essentials -- what they were doing in the temple in the first place. The who, what, where, and how of worshiping God had become more important than the why of worshiping of God. The first two commandments are all about this -- have no other gods before me, and don't worship idols. Temple worship in this period had become idolatrous. The practices of the temple had obscured the purpose of worship.
The psalm we heard read says that it is all about God -- it's not about us. The heavens themselves proclaim God and God's glory. And all of God's laws are treasures -- designed for us. When we follow the law of the Lord, we stay within the sweetest of relationships with God -- which is the only way to live.
When Jesus loses his temper in the temple, is there something here for us to learn? As he does in John's gospel, in just a few verses, Jesus steps it up a notch and all of a sudden he's not just talking about temple worship. The Jews ask him for a sign and what they're really saying is who gives you the authority to do all of this? Jesus answers the question -- although the Jews don't realize it -- by talking about himself. Destroy this temple and in 3 days I will raise it up. In the kingdom that is coming, God is going to be known not in the temple in Jerusalem but in Jesus Christ who will be put to death and raised up again. What Jesus is doing here is challenging a religious institution that is so surrounded by rules and practices that it doesn't even see that Jesus is the sign from God.
The same thing happens with the modern church. Recently in a little book I have, I ran across a list of "Favorite Church Rules." They go like this:
It sounds funny, but this is the kind of stuff that clutters our purpose - gets in the way of why we are here (Thom & Joani Schultz, The One Thing: What Everyone Craves that Your Church Can Deliver, Loveland, CO: Group Publishing, 2004, p. 39). Clear away all the clutter of the modern institutional church, and the rules and the practices and the programs, and it comes down to one thing and one thing alone -- do you believe that Jesus Christ is your Savior and Lord and are you living and acting out of that belief?
Now it just so happens that this is the confession that we Disciples of Christ make -- in fact, it's the only confession we ever make. I am teaching a baptism and confirmation group on Wednesday nights, and we have talked about this statement that we say at our baptisms and when someone joins the church.
We had a new member join the church last week in Christian Expresso, Jerry Johns. That's the only question that is asked when someone joins this church: Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and proclaim him Lord and savior of the world?" This is our core belief as Christians.
But what does it mean to live and act out of that belief? Nearly 25 years ago, we moved to the Atlanta area, where we bought a house next to a colleague of Dave's from Georgia Tech. His wife and I struck up a friendship. She was very active in her church, talked about her prayer life, attended Bible study, and invited me to attend, spoke of Jesus easily -- as if she really spent her days with Jesus. She had problems too -- like anyone does -- but she had this relationship with Jesus Christ -- this life in Christ -- that was so authentic, so real. And I remember thinking this, years and years ago -- I want that. I want that faith, that trust, that relationship in Jesus Christ that my friend had. A relationship that guides every part of my life.
That's what evangelism is. It's seeing Christ in other people and wanting it for ourselves. It's having Christ in us and wanting to give it to other people. That makes evangelism both internal and external. We have to have this relationship with Christ in order to be able to give it away.
And this kind of evangelism is not to be confused with the sledge hammer variety of conservative Christians, which has made almost any Christian these days afraid to speak up about their faith. Real and authentic and effective evangelism happens when we are willing to share our faith stories with other people. And every Christian is called to be this kind of evangelist. We don't need fancy marketing or promotional techniques to sell people on the idea of Christianity because the Christian life has a power of its own - the power of attraction. That's how the early church grew. People saw this and they wanted it.
Think about it -- there was nothing that made sense about a religious movement whose leader was crucified. What made the early church grow was the fact that these earliest Christians had this deep relationship with Jesus Christ. "Abide in me," says Jesus in Johns' gospel -- and that abiding in Christ became a witness that was obvious to everyone around them. Even the pagans noticed, and they would say about the Christians: "See how they love one another . . . see how they are ready even to die for one another."
There was this love, this care for each other that is described for us in Acts 2:42-47. "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." And they shared everything. They would sell their own stuff and distribute it to all, according to need.
The early church didn't grow because the disciples put up a billboard in a strategic place in town. They didn't grow because of their music, or their worship order, or their children's program. They didn't grow because they had the coolest youth director or the best preacher.
The early church grew because the early Christians lived out their relationship with Jesus Christ in every thing they did everyday. In prayer, study, service, and worship. In work and in play. They lived out of their belief in Christ, and people saw that, and they wanted it for themselves.
I've been reading some lately from a book called "Rocking the Church Membership Boat: Counting Members or Having Members Who Count." With a title like that, you might guess that this author, Jan Linn, is advocating for change in the church. He contends that the weight of institutionalism has made the church compromise its integrity. He says that one of the meanings of the word change is to become "deeper in tone" -- to be about essentials not peripherals, about substance rather than appearance, about significance rather than success (Jan G. Linn, Rocking the Church Membership Boat: Counting Members or Having Members Who Count, St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2001, p. 87). Stuff like worship order, music styles, programs, and practices -- all this is can be just clutter that gets in the way of us seeing that it all starts with whether each of us is connected -- and stays connected -- to Jesus Christ. That's all and that's everything.
I know this because I've experienced this. I was ordained in this church on Sept. 14, 2003. The week before I was ordained, I went down to Camp Christian for a few days on a retreat. I figured I'd better talk with God and listen to God some before that big day. Well I did that, and what I heard over several days was one thing and one thing only. Stay centered in Christ, grounded in God. The only way I am able to do what I have been called to do is when I am doing it with Christ at my center. Whatever I do that flows out of that connection to Christ is real and witnesses to Christ. Anything else is just clutter.
That's the source of power for this church and any church. When we clear out the clutter, when we stay focused on our essential relationship with God in Jesus Christ, we become deeper in tone. We become the body of Christ - God present in the world. The church does not need a marketing or PR program. What the church needs is a body of Christ -- that's us -- deeply connected to Christ at its center. Connected through study, prayer, service, and worship. That kind of church is authentic. Real. And its power comes from attraction. People see something -- Christ among us -- and they say "I want that."
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