Lent 3 Year B

Lent 3 Year B

John 2:13-22

Wow! We are almost half way to Easter! Can you believe it? I love this time of year when we can actually start to feel things warm up and with the warmth, there is that rush of energy. And as we approach Easter, we start thinking of Easter Morning worship. I love all the flowers. I love sounds and the smells. And I love seeing families gathered together to come to worship.
I know for many families, Easter morning worship is especially important. It is a time for families to come together and a time to put on one’s best. We tend to dress better for Easter than for other worship services, and that is great! I especially love when the little children show-off they new Easter outfits. (Easter picture idea)
Usually, with all the extra people in worship, the Easter offering tends to be bigger. More people in worship usually equals more people putting money into the collection plate. I am pretty sure the vestry is not opposed to more money coming into the church!
But what would you think if, in the midst of all this normal activity on Easter Sunday, a madman from the street came running into the church? He comes running through the fellowship hall, throwing coffee cakes everywhere. Grabbing the collection plates tearing up all the checks and money. Smashing all the flowers and throwing the dirt on everyone’s new clothes. AND GET THIS! This nut expects us to believe that he was sent by God to destroy all of this and now he expects us to follow him!
Why would this madman come into our sanctuary and create all kinds of disturbances when nothing particularly unusual was happening? Why would he ruin our Easter celebration, the celebration where we were honoring and worshipping God and Jesus? What would provoke this madman to destroy so much?
So often, I think we hear the story of the cleansing of the temple and don’t give it much thought. We think it was a good thing for Jesus to be doing. He was getting all those evil people out of the temple. They were being offensive so then needed to get out of the temple. But we fail to consider what actually happened on that day back in Biblical times.
John, in the gospel, tells us that the Passover was near. Now all good Jews would go to the temple in Jerusalem for Passover. With all these people around, the temple would be quite busy. (We could think of this as the family coming home for Easter.) And the moneychangers? They served a vital function in the temple; the people could not use the coins of the Romans in the temple because the coins had the face of the emperor on them and that was considered a graven image. So for coins to be given in the temple, the Roman coins had to be exchanged for other coins. So the moneychangers were providing a service vital to the temple. With out the moneychangers, there would be no donations to the temple. With Jesus disrupting the moneychangers, there would be not offerings given at the temple on that day.
The same would go for the people selling animals. The pilgrims that traveled to the temple would have difficulty in bringing livestock to the temple. So the sellers were providing a valuable service for the pilgrims, they provided animals for the required sacrifices. With the disruption of the people selling the animals, no sacrificial animals would not be available and the people would not be able to make their Passover sacrifices.
Now, imagine the anger, dismay, offense you would feel if someone came into our midst and began to trash our church here at St. Swithin’s in the Swamp. We would probably not be too happy with the person. Actually we would probably be trying to prevent the guy from leaving while someone was busy calling the cops.
Now, transfer this feeling onto the people of Jesus’ day. Imagine that you have traveled a long distance, across the desert, to get to the temple. You packed up your family and a good chunk of money so you could worship properly at the temple. Now also imagine, that after going through all of this, the whole worship service was disrupted by some madman brandishing a whip. I think you can get a feel for what it was like to be one of the people in the temple when Jesus came running in with his whip.
Why should Jesus do this? Why would Jesus want to disrupt the excitement and the worship that was part of the Passover festival? If you think about it, tearing up the temple is not a very good way to win friends and attract followers. If I were to come running in here on Easter brandishing a whip and tearing things apart, you would be looking to send me to a mental hospital -- or jail -- rather than cheering me on for doing God’s work.
To use such shock tactics, Jesus had to be quite sure of himself. He had to know what he was doing was going to cause some big problem with some people. But he also would know that his actions were sending the message that a different way of interacting with God was in the works.
At the temple, people would present their sacrifices to the priests and the priests would make the sacrifice for the people. It was through the priest that the people would have access to God. Through his actions, Jesus was telling the people that there was a new authority. The temple and the priests and the Pharisees were not the authority any longer. The institutionalized practices in the temple were no longer to be looked upon as the only way to God. A new way was literally crashing through into their midst.
The practice of ritual sacrifice was turning the temple into something that it was never meant to be. In order to fulfill the requirements of the law, the temple was becoming a place of commerce. In order to gain God’s favor, money needed to be changed and animals needed to be bought.
But Christ was redefining the temple. No longer would animal sacrifice need to occur, Christ himself would become the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. No longer would an animal be sacrificed on the hope that the sacrifice would be pleasing to God. Christ was the ultimate “Lamb without blemish,” the truly pleasing sacrifice to God. Jesus, in a way that was pretty hard to ignore, was ushering in a new age.
As we continue on our Lenten journey, have we stumbled over some of those things that get in our way of finding God? Have we discovered the merchants and moneychangers that prevent us from being in the presence of God? Have we found those things that seem necessary but in actuality only preserve our distance from the one thing that is truly important?
Finding these things in our life is one thing, clearing them is another! We can understand the resistance the people had in the temple, we can understand how we would feel if the madman were to rush through our congregation. Be we need to realize that the madman is Jesus, the one we claim to follow! The madman is presented as an example we are to follow! The madman gives us an example of how we can start anew.
Now this can be scary, Jesus is running through the temple doing a fair amount of damage. We may not really want to have this kind of damage done to us! How can this be helpful? But we need to remember that Jesus is NOT destroying the temple, he is clearing the things that are getting in the way of the temple functioning properly. When Jesus comes to help us clear the temples of our lives, it may feel like our lives are being destroyed. However, we need to realize that Jesus did not hate the temple, and Jesus does not hate us. In trying to clear the temple, Jesus was returning it to its true purpose. In clearing our lives, Jesus is once again trying to return us to our true purpose. Just like we may not understand and fear the madman in the temple, we may be confused by the actions of Jesus in our lives. But this clearing is only for the best.
This clearing is not something that we must do on our own, though. In the temple, we can assume that the people didn’t even realize that the merchants and the moneychangers were getting in their way of experiencing God. It was when Jesus came whipping through, that change began to happen.
Jesus will help us! If we ask, Jesus will help us to find the places where the things of life are coming between us and our experience of God. But I have to warn you! When Jesus starts to clear your temple, you may not like it! When Jesus starts to clear the way for a true relationship with him, we may rebel at the things that are disrupted. Yet, if we remember as with the temple, the discomfort of the disruption is only temporary. After the disruption comes the transformation of our lives. After Jesus clears our lives, we will find that the sacrifice has already been made in Christ and that it is a truly pleasing sacrifice to our God.

Lent 2 Year B

Lent 2 Year B Mark 8:31-38

While reading the gospel lesson for today, a thought about my family came to my mind. I grew up in a family where there were acceptable emotions and unacceptable emotions. Now I don’t think I am especially weird in this; in fact, I think this is the case in most families. In my family, it was ok to be happy, but it was not ok to be sad, angry, or upset. Happy was a feeling we could share, but to express any of those other feelings was met with social censure.

Now it may seem odd that the gospel reading would bring this memory to mind. It may seem like it has come from left field. And, quite frankly, that was my feeling when it first went through my mind. But being a psychologist at heart, I decided to follow the thought through.

What dawned on me was that the same dynamics that occurred in my family were occurring in the gospel reading. The merry band of Jesus and the disciples were going along having a great time until Jesus drops a bomb. “Oh, guys, did I forget to mention? I will be persecuted, have to go through great suffering, and eventually be killed.” Talk about sharing something that is NOT at all happy and joyful.

So how does Peter respond to this? Does Peter take in the gravity and truth of what Jesus is saying and reflect on how this will impact his life? Does Peter see the truth of Jesus’ statement and appreciate the strength it took to make such a bold proclamation? No, Peter does not want to hear such things. Peter does not want to hear that the life he is currently living can be so quickly changed. So instead of hearing the truth of what Jesus is saying, he pulls Jesus aside and basically tells Jesus to shut up.

Now, Jesus could have paid attention to what Peter was saying. Jesus could have thought, “Maybe Peter is right. Maybe I just need to have an upbeat attitude and things will be better.” Or Jesus could have thought that maybe he shouldn’t say anything because to say something unpleasant is causing Peter to have a bad day. But Jesus didn’t do that. Jesus didn’t let Peter’s fears get in the way of his mission. Even if it was something that the disciples did not want to hear, Jesus does not let that stop him from saying what is important.

We have some interesting dynamics going on here. These are dynamics that we all deal with on a daily basis. Peter’s point of view is that of not wanting to deal with difficult situations. Peter does not want to hear that anything bad can happen. It is a kind of superstitious thinking: As long as nothing bad is said, nothing bad can happen.

However, Jesus has a different kind of dynamic going on. Jesus wants to tell the truth to prepare his followers for what is to come. Jesus is not saying this to rain on their parade but to help the disciples to deal with the valleys in life that are bound to occur.

But Peter does not want to hear this. Peter wants to think that everything will continue on just wonderfully. Peter does not want to hear what Jesus has to say. The problem is that even if Peter did manage to stop Jesus from speaking, it would not stop the situations from happening. Jesus was going to be persecuted and eventually killed. Whether Peter believed that or not was not going to change a thing.

I think our faith can often have this dynamic about it. I know that I especially feel it during Lent. Lent is the time when we hear Jesus talking about being persecuted and being killed. Lent is the time that we are to look at our own sins and realize that we often fall short of the mark. Lent is the time when we want to pull Jesus aside and rebuke him for all the negative things he is saying. Lent is just not a “happy feelings” kind of season.

Often we hear from people who hold faith up as this ultimate anti-depressant. They will say that all anyone needs to do is just have faith and everything will be great. If you feel bad, it is just because you do not have enough faith. You will hear tell that if you have enough faith, then you will have a new house, a new car, everything you ever wanted. And if you lack these things, then it is an outward sign of your lack of faith. You will hear people talk about how if you just have enough faith, then everything will be wonderful. But no matter who we are or how much we believe, something bad will come into our lives.

Because we have difficulties in our lives doesn’t mean that we are lacking faith. As it has been said: Into every life a little rain must fall. We just need to remember that because there is some rain in our lives doesn’t mean that we are doing something wrong. It also means that we should not feel ashamed of these difficulties. These are not signs that we are doing things wrong. Actually we may be doing everything right, it is just that there will be difficulties in our lives.

Jesus’ response to Peter shows us that we are to face our difficulties directly and honestly. We are not to pretend that there are no difficulties. We are to truthfully acknowledge the difficulties that are present.

And if you have learned anything about my sermons, you should be expecting a big “HOWEVER” about now. So here it is!

HOWEVER!

We are to follow our savior and take hope in our savior. Our savior met ridicule, rejection, and even death. He met them all straight on and honestly. But these trials didn’t keep him down. Even death did not keep him. He overcame the trials of life. He overcame death and the grave. He overcame the worst the world had to give him. He met these challenges honestly and through faith overcame them.

And this is the example he gives to us. He asks us to follow in faith. He asks us to honestly face the difficulties that are before us but to continue on in faith. Yes, Jesus does call Peter “Satan,” but we need to remember that Satan was the tempter. Peter was tempting Jesus to deny the reality of his fate. Jesus was telling Peter to get behind him because that is the proper place for a follower.

Peter was running out in front of Jesus. Peter had other plans. Peters plans probably sounded pretty tempting. But Jesus told him to get behind. Jesus told Peter to follow. Jesus was telling Peter that the proper place for a disciple following in the footsteps of the leader.

When our lives become challenging, it is really easy to want to run in front. It is easy to want to deny the difficulties. It is easy to want to tell Jesus what should be happening. But Jesus tells us to get behind and to follow. The one who called us into the family of God continues to look after us.

Unlike my human family, in the family of God, we can acknowledge that there are difficulties in life. We can acknowledge that things may not be going the way we would like. But we can also acknowledge that we have a savior who will lead us and support us.

We may not want to acknowledge the difficulties. We may not want to deal with the tough times. But we are not left alone during these times. Like I said last week, during Lent we are asked to go on a journey. Life, too, is a journey. The one thing that we can count on, as in our Lenten journey, our journey through life will lead not to a full tomb, but to an empty tomb with our Savior waiting to hold us in his arms.