Jesus Cleans House

I was the preacher at a local retirement home yesterday afternoon. They asked for a longer sermon than I usually preach, but it was well received and I thought I'd share it with you. Hope you like it! (Some historical and theological information taken directly from rockies.net, zionism-israel.com and JStor.org websites.)

Exodus 20:1-17
Psalm 19
I Corinthians 1:18-25
John 2:13-22

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, *O LORD, my strength and my redeemer. Amen.
This story of Jesus and his anger, yes anger and physically acting on that anger, sounds like a great deal of chaos in a holy place, doesn't it? We will look at what was going on and why Jesus did what he did.
But first, let's start out with our Old Testament reading of the Ten Commandments. As those of us who study the Bible know, these rules we call the Ten Commandments were far from being the only laws of the Hebrew people, but they are the first we come to in the Bible, and the ones we Christians focus on.
From a 21st century perspective, we can look at these commandments in four groups. The first three deal with the worship of Yahweh as the only invisible, holy God who makes a claim on the Israelites as their Savior. The next two, on the Sabbath and the honoring of parents, focus on economic and family aspects of life. Rest is necessary for productive labor and the family is the fundamental unit of human society. The next three have to do with the life of the family or individual in the larger community. They deal with such basic realities of human society as the sanctity of life, of marriage and sexuality, and the respect for property as an extension of persons. The last two are of a social nature speaking of truth in the law courts and honoring the rights of others.
It is strange how we view laws as things that hinder our happiness rather than as something designed to maximize it. Any parent, worth their salt, can tell you that they don't make up rules just for kicks, just to be arbitrary. They make up rules to keep their children safe and to enhance the peace and harmony of home and family life. The Law, the Ten Commandments are "cords of love," fences if you will, demarcating healthy boundaries. When we truly follow these rules with our hearts interpreting them fully, our lives engender a freedom which allows us to live in peace and harmony with God and one another.
A disclaimer here, I don't usually spend much time in my sermons teaching history, but I found the following information so interesting, I want to share it with you.
By the time of Jesus, the temple had been around for a very long time. It had existed in various forms: the first construction by Solomon, then its destruction during the Babylonian wars and its re-construction after the Hebrew people returned from exile. During Jesus' lifetime, King Herod had made dramatic improvements, even over and above the splendor of the original plan. And over those millennia many laws had been set up about how the people were to act and be when in the temple, where they could and could not go within the temple precincts.
Sacrifice of animals was an aspect of almost all religions in the ancient world, and the worship of the Hebrew people was no different. Gifts of the best lamb or kid of the flock, and a portion of the best produce of the fields or vineyards was what they gave to God. We must not forget that only a portion of that gift to the temple was burned on the altar. The remainder was used for food for the priests and their families. It was a way of supporting those who devoted their lives to interceding with God for the people.
Before there was a temple, from the Book of Exodus, we read, "When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his soul to the Lord when you number them…half a shekel…the rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less…And you shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall appoint it for the service of the Tent of Meeting; that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your souls." This tax was to cover the expenses of the Levites, the priests who devoted their time caring for the tent of meeting, worship and sacrifices, to provide a livelihood for them and their families.
From then on, every Hebrew male over the age of twenty was expected to make an obligatory donation of a half shekel for the atonement, for the sacrifices. At the time of the Temple's construction, this modest sum allowed all Jews, of all economic levels, to participate in the building of the Temple. After the construction was completed, they continued to collect the tax for the purpose of purchasing the public sacrifices and other needs of the Temple. The collection began every year on the first day of the month of Adar, which was probably in late January, and it ended on the first day of the month of Nissan, in the spring.
Now most of the money to be found in Jerusalem was Roman coinage, which had the head of the emperor stamped on it. The temple authorities, in obeying God's word concerning idols from the Ten Commandments, would not accept any coinage which had the image of a person on it, because they considered it blasphemous. And so, bankers set up their stalls outside the temple, to exchange the coinage of Rome for silver shekels and half-shekels from Tyre, which had no such images.
It was most likely a shekel of Tyre that Jesus and Peter used to pay the Temple head tax (a half shekel each): From Matthew 17, you may remember the story of the coin in the fish's mouth, when Jesus tells Peter: "Go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money. That take, and give unto them for me and thee" Moreover, Tyrian silver coins probably comprised the thirty pieces of silver infamous for the payment to Judas Iscariot for Jesus' betrayal.
However over time, over hundreds of years, these money changers moved from being outside the temple, to doing their work on the stairs at the entrance, to eventually moving into the outer courts of the temple. The people who were selling animals for sacrifice had done the same thing. It must have been total chaos in that place. Yet somehow, this movement happened so slowly that the priests of the temple paid no attention to the fact that commerce was happening in this holy place devoted to worship. And not only was that commerce not even-handed, it had become usurious, the marketplace had become a place of greed.
Jesus was incensed - and rightly so! He, who loved his Father above all, could not abide what was happening in his Father's house. So he took off his belt and wreaked havoc upon those who had denigrated the holy places. He cleaned house. He knew the laws of the temple, as well as the laws His father had given the people, and he believed they should be followed.
Isn't this what Jesus did throughout his ministry? Although this is the only time we see him angry and physically demonstrative, his entire ministry, all the words he said, were calling people to clean the houses of their minds, and see the law in the way God meant for us to see it. He said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill." He wanted us to realize that the laws were meant to be read in the recesses of our hearts and souls, which brings joy and peace, not followed blindly as rules and strictures, which have no life in them.
This marketplace within the temple, had become a place of greed: does it not sound a lot like our world today? It appears that our nation has been consumed with commerce and greed. Certainly our country as a whole, and many who have been in control of our major monetary institutions, have been consumed by it. And it has impacted the entire nation. Our economy has been turned upside down, just like the moneychangers tables were upset by Jesus.
Now I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression. I do not believe that God has in any way impacted the national and world economy. What I do believe is that greed, and conspicuous consumption among our society at large has brought down our house of cards. Many of us built our lives on a foundation of sand rather than rock, and lived our lives as though our debts would never have to be paid. There are also many of us who have lived within our means, and yet now find ourselves caught in these bad times by unexpected illness, or from placing our savings into the hands of people we trusted who were untrustworthy, or the failure of financial institutions we depended upon.
Since most of us are on fixed incomes, living on our savings, pension plans, and investments, there may be some here who have succumbed to fear and worry. We have all seen our investments shrink in value, and it's hard when we don't feel we have control over what's happening. So what do we do in this time of cleansing, this season of Lent which is happening in a time of change? What can we do to brighten our days and calm our worries?
I would suggest to you that we look to the words of Jesus, and change our hearts. Look to the words of our Psalm for today, remember that God loves us, and that the law as Jesus fulfilled it is a way out of fear and a portal into joy and peace.
Rather than dwelling on what may go wrong, worrying over what may happen in the future, look around you and see where you might spread Christ's love. Stepping out of the focus on our own concerns and looking for ways to increase the joy of others, takes us into a place where Christ's light shines forth into the world, and his peace will begin to dwell within us.
Is there someone who tends to eat alone, or spend little time in company with others? Even if you've tried before, invite them again to join you and your friends. I've been told that this is a mighty friendly place, and that's certainly what I've experienced. Yet there is always more. How frequently do you personally go down the hall to the nursing wing, without a specific destination in mind? Might there be people down there who don't get visitors? Someone who is so frail that they cannot speak or perhaps even open their eyes? Simply going into the room and holding their hand for a moment, whether they can respond or not, is a way of spreading God's love into the world. A quick smile and "how are you?" can make someone's day.
In whatever way we can, Jesus calls us to embody God's love. When we shine that love out into the world, it is reflected back into our lives, tenfold. As the Psalmist said, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork." How can we, as people of God, do any less? Amen.

My Brother's Challenge

A few weeks ago as my older brother and I were finishing a holiday lunch together, he took a corner of the restaurant bill and wrote something on it. He then handed it to me and said, "Write me a sermon on that." I looked down and the scribbled words were "2 Kings 6:29." Well, a little sister, no matter how old, cannot resist a gauntlet when it is thrown to the ground! And, at that moment, I had no idea what the verse was about, so that made it easier to say that I would get back to him with it.

When I got home and opened my Bible, these were the words: "So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, 'Give up your son and we will eat him.' But she has hidden her son." Needless to say, this is a lesson in NOT pulling a single verse out of context! But I had to send him something. Here is what happened in my mind and prayers:

In the Episcopal tradition, we read lessons from the Old Testament, the Psalms the letters (epistles) from the New Testament, and a Gospel reading each day. It is very rare than in any of these readings there would be one sentence pulled out from a story. Rather, entire passages are read in context so that the people have a fuller understanding of the circumstances of the story and the meaning of the passage.

That said, I believe it is important to look at this entire story and to at least get a feel for what surrounded this woman's story of cannibalizing her own child. It was a time of siege in the capitol city of Samaria, and people were starving. We have all heard stories of cannibals, usually in the early exploration days of South America and deepest Africa. In Bible days, and even up into the 16th century, pagan cultures sacrificed their children to the gods.

We must recall as a part of this tory, the place of children in the society of the time. Women generally gave birth on an almost annual basis from the age of 13 or 14 until they died, or reached the age of menopause. Babies were sold to those who were infertile, or if the family was destitute and couldn't find anyone to take the child, infants were "exposed to the elements" -- left outside to die, when the family knew they couldn't care for the child. However, it must be stated that the Hebrew national has always treasured its children, and considered it a "mitzvah" -- a blessed requirement -- to bear children and raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It may be that this small aside in the story was put there to explain how dire the circumstances were in the city during the siege.

The Donner Party is a 19th century example of survival by cannibalism, and in our own lifetime is the South American soccer team whose plan crashed in the Andes. In these cases, they ate the flesh of their friends who had died. A different, and perhaps less gruesome story than this one we find in 2 Kings.

Although we would like to believe that every mother adores and would die for her children, this is a high standard that our particular society has developed from our knowledge of the teachings of Jesus. Our most fundamental and strongest instinct is for survival: after survival comes preservation of the species, which means taking care of our offspring.

When everyone around us is dying, and our children are withering away before our eyes, it is hard to believe that God will provide. This woman may have dearly loved her baby but realized that if she died, her baby most assuredly would also die. If she herself survived, she could have other children. We can't know what torment this woman was in or how her mind was working.

We can only look at the entire story and see that God was working it. Had she only kept her faith for a few more days, both mother and baby might have survived. Surely in times of war and famine, not all do survive. It is our faith and hope that as we live through horrors such as these, that a remnant will survive to carry on our beliefs. God is always present, and in that knowledge we can only say that this is a lesson about living in hope. No matter how dire the circumstances, as people of God we continue to strive to live in faith and hope, follow the teachings of Christ.

A Blessed New Year

Yes, the economy is in a major world of hurt, and many people are worried. Are you? I think we all tend to be a bit anxious, wondering what's going to happen. But do we ever know what's going to happen tomorrow, or even an hour from now? 

Truth lives in the knowledge that each moment is new, not just this beginning New Year. When we are aware of that, we can celebrate each moment, just like many of us celebrated the birth of 2009 at the stroke of midnight last night. Each moment we are here is a gift, and a glorious one at that! So, let go of the anxiety over what might happen in the future, and give thanks for the gift of the present. Look with hope and joy and great thanksgiving for the dawn of the new day. May each of you experience many blessings in this New Year!

Thanksgiving Prayer

Last Thursday at our monthly Convocation clergy lunch, my friend Fr. Robbie was called on to bless the meal. He had just walked in the door, and he obviously had not expected to pray at that moment. However, without missing a beat, he prayed a prayer that brought all of us to quiet contemplation that continued for a while after the prayer was completed. I offer it (or words similar) for your use. I believe I will pray this prayer for the rest of my life. Blessings to all, Rev Jude

For food in a world where many go hungry,
For shelter in a world where many have no place to lay their heads,
For family, friends and colleagues in a world where many walk alone,
We thank thee, O Precious Lord.

Monday musings

Today is my birthday and the most wonderful gift is being birthed! Our church web site has been wonderful, but I didn't know how to operate or update it, and needless to say, it is WAY out of date. For my birthday, my son has rewritten the web site, updating everything and making it so that I will be able to update it myself. Or, if not, he says he'll do it for me once a month! I'm quite excited. We're not there yet, but within a few days curious people and even parishioners(!) can get information about our mission in the burbs.

On Saturday, we'll be feeding the workers on a Habitat for Humanity house. Most of our people are unable to actually climb up on roofs, etc., so we fix lunch for those who do -- making sure they have plenty of calories to burn while swinging those hammers! Then on Sunday, the Right Reverend Dena H. Harrison, Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Texas will be coming for confirmations. I just got a call that our new sign may be shipped tomorrow. There's a possibility it could be in place for her visit -- wouldn't that be wonderful? We have two confirmands, and one person being received into the Episcopal Church. It's going to be an exciting week....

I Sing a Song of the Saints of God

I sing a song of the saints of God,
patient and brave and true,
who toiled and fought and lived and died
for the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
and one was a shepherdess on the green;
they were all of them saints of God, and I mean, God helping, to be one too.

They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
and his love made them strong;
and they followed the right for Jesus' sake
the whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
and one was slain by a fierce wild beast;
and there's not any reason, no, not the least,
why I shouldn't be one too.

They lived not only in ages past;
there are hundreds of thousands still.
The world is bright with the joyous saints
who love to do Jesus' will.
You can meet them in school, or in lanes or at sea,
In church, or in trains or in shops or at tea,
for the saints of God are just folk like me,
and I mean to be one too.
(Lyrics: Lesbia Scott)

This is definitely one of the reasons I love being Episcopalian! I love this song, and I'd never heard it as a Baptist. We will be singing it this morning, as we celebrate All Saint's Day. Technically, on the church calendar, All Saint's was yesterday, but we are given the freedom to "translate" this feast day to the following Sunday, so we go for it at St. Paul's. We will be praying for the saints in glory. We will read a necrology, listing all the names of family, friends and church members who have died this year.

We lost a faithful church member this week -- Newt Millen, a wonderful man who was 90 years young. We will be celebrating his life in a memorial service on November 14th. I am remembering so many who are now with the saints, and giving thanks for their impact on my life.

Who do you give thanks for today who is no longer with you, except in spirit? Give God the glory for all those wonderful people, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who loved and nurtured you -- and continue to bless you from heaven! May you have a joyous week...

Are You Worried Yet?

The following is the sermon I preached last Sunday. The scriptures from the Episcopal Lectionary for that day were: Exodus 32:1-14, Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23, Philippians 4:1-9 and Matthew 22:1-14, The problems we've been seeing in our economy have hit some of our parishioners pretty hard, and I felt called to reach out to them, and perhaps to you, reminding us all of God's love for us, and his saving grace and care. May God bless and keep you all.

Are you worried yet? I think we all feel some undercurrents of concern about what’s going on in the country today. In fact, there are more than a few of us who are downright scared. It’s no longer a matter of simply waiting for the elections next month and then everything will work out. Though we want to believe that if our candidate wins, changes will be made and our discomfort will dissipate: the economic downturn will somehow turn around and we’ll all be okay. But until that dream actually comes true some of us are having sleepless nights, and stomach pains, fearing what will happen next with the sunrise of each new day. Will we lose our home? Is my job going to be there next week? The shoes you bought for the kids when school started are already getting tight, and the slight reduction in the high price of gas somehow doesn’t make up for all the increased prices we’re seeing in the stores. It’s been eighty years and more since our country saw the kinds of problems we’re seeing today, and it’s easy to become frightened of this unknown and shaky chasm of a world that seems to have just opened up before us.

The Israelites were worried too. They were out in the wilderness and Moses their leader had disappeared up on the mountain in the clouds filled with thunder and lightening, and they were full of fear. I see a connection here between them and us, and I want to point it out: They, in their fear, grasped onto something to alleviate their unrest, their disquiet: and the thing they grabbed onto wasn’t God – in fact, it was GOLD: an idol of a calf made from gold -- it was wealth they worshipped. Isn’t everything better and worry banished if you have a surplus of shekels, plenty of gold, the luxury of a big bank account? For surely, having enough money to ward off the wolf from the door will result in happiness and freedom, right? Well, the Israelites found that the golden calf may have been the occasion for a party, but it did not bring lasting comfort and peace.

Our epistle for today, from Paul’s letter to the Philippians gives us some heartening news. He tells us that even when we don’t have enough…even in times of hardship and sickness and trouble: “The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” And he tells us to rejoice. His words are literally, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”

I sometimes wonder, do we Christians really know how to daily, moment-by-moment, rejoice? Oh, I think we do a really good job liturgically, having a bang up good time at Easter --- but what about our living into the wonder and excitement and sheer amazing JOY that should be ours every hour of every day? Are we truly in touch with how much God cares for us, and if so, shouldn’t that manifest itself in our lives with a deep abiding peace and great joy?

Now, I know I can’t get away with ignoring the parable for today from the book of Matthew, as difficult as it is. There is a way to tie all of this together, so let’s go to the gospel and seek out the message for us there.

Most of us have heard the explanation that those who refuse to come to the wedding banquet are the lawyers and scribes, the Pharisees and the Saducees who were given the opportunity to meet and listen to Jesus but could not get past their belief that the letter of the Law was the only way to God. First off, they believed that to have relationship with God you had to be a Jew, circumcised and ritually clean, and then you had to follow all the rules and regulations in the Torah. Their minds were not open and so they could not see any other way and they did not accept his teachings. Though Jesus was sent first to the Jews, many did not embrace him and his message of God as Love. So his salvific grace was poured out on all the people of the world, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, saints and sinners: to anyone who would believe. This applies to us today, as surely as it did when Jesus said it. Christ’s love is offered to any and all – everyone is invited to the banquet.

But what about that poor man who didn’t have a wedding garment? This is the part of the parable where most of us, and I know I am one, have great difficulty. This is not our loving, accepting Jesus. The Jesus I know and follow wouldn’t say to bind someone hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness just because his attire was incorrect! Surely not: but maybe, just maybe, he is explaining something a bit deeper than clothing – perhaps something we do to ourselves. I feel confident that whoever this person was in the story, he went to the wedding festivities thinking he was doing the right thing: he’d been invited and had taken his place. He was there; he made the decision to accept the invitation. But perhaps he didn’t decide to be fully present to what was really happening, and perhaps that's what the wedding garment is all about. Perhaps he was there, having accepted the invitation, but his attitude, his garment, was one of sackcloth and ashes, rather than the spirit of joy that should accompany a wedding party. If the kingdom of heaven is like a wedding banquet, as children of the kingdom our natural attitude is to be peaceful, carefree, and full of joy – it’s party time all the time!

The more time and attention we pay to our relationship with God, the more we rely on Him, the more we are given that understanding of abiding – of living – in joy. Nobody has to have a closer walk with God. He has given us all the invitation and we can choose to accept it or not. You can walk alone if you choose to. You can choose to come to the wedding banquet and dance, and sing, and rejoice with all your heart. Or you can come to the wedding banquet and act like it’s a funeral if you want to. But why would you?

Remember Paul: that angry, frustrated, premier persecutor of Christians and anyone else who did not follow the letter, the jot and tittle of the Jewish Law? He had been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of Jesus, and when he was writing his letter to the Philippians, he was experiencing the words he wrote about living in joy. Paul had this attitude of living in joy when he was in the midst of other Christians and being well cared for, and when he was in pain and torment from physical ailments, and when he was in prison being beaten and maltreated for the faith. He, who had found a deep abiding joy through his awareness of being loved by God, tried every way he knew how to remind other followers of Christ to remain in that state of loving joy. When we can do that, when we can remain aware of how God cares for us, the worry and fear dissipate and blow away like so much smoke. It’s not a “pie in the sky by and by” sort of attitude, it is not that we don’t have to continue dealing with the hard decisions, it is simply and purely the blessing of knowing that as St. Julian of Norwich put it, “All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” And as Paul tells us today, “Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me…and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

So, try not to worry. Turn your concerns over to Him who will always guide and guard and keep you. Pay attention to the good, the amazing, overwhelming love in which He holds you. Rejoice in that love, share it with others, in His good time, all shall be well. Amen.