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John 2:13-22
I have to be honest, this gospel lesson makes me very uncomfortable, very nervous, very convicted. At our pastor’s Bible study on Tuesday, as we read this aloud, most of us hung our heads in shame at hearing this. We were very reluctant to talk about what seems to be one of the major issues in this story: Jesus’ anger that the Temple had become a place of business. If you’ll notice, there are no accusations of corruption here, Jesus doesn’t call the moneychangers a den of robbers or say that they are stealing from the people. Jesus gets angry because his Father’s house was becoming a marketplace, a place of business. I feel guilty. What would Jesus find if he came in to Hope Lutheran? He’d walk in the doors and find some books & CDs on sale, he’d see us selling groceries through Angelfood Ministries, he’d see a basket asking for money to offset the cost of coffee, he’d see tickets being sold for various fundraisers going on, he’d see a credit card machine sitting at our Welcome Center, he’d see a banner advertising an Easter breakfast, he’d hear a Temple Talk about our capital fund drive, and he’d see us passing the plates. All on my watch. On Pastor John’s watch. On all of our watches. We’re all in this together – and we’re all guilty. And Hope isn’t very different from any other church, which is why all of us pastors hung our heads. None of them could say they were innocent of this stuff either. There’s a children’s book out there that you may have read when you were a kid. It’s called The Berenstein Bears and the Messy Room. In this book, the children, the baby bears learn how sneaky messes are. Their room gradually gets messier and messier and Mama Bear keeps asking them to clean it up. Finally, one day, Mama Bear has had enough and just comes in and cleans it herself. The line that sticks out from the book is this: “When small bears forget to pick up, store and stash, some of their favorite things end up in the trash.” There’s several good lessons in this story, but here’s four good ones for us to remember: 1. Messes build up over time. Often we don’t even notice, but it is usually quite evident to others. 2. The longer we live with the mess, the easier it becomes to live with it. 3. The longer we live with the mess, the more difficult it is to do the housecleaning. 4. If we don’t clean up our messes, we’ll either lose something we love or they will destroy us – sometimes both. Now relate this to your personal life. This scripture passage isn’t just about the Temple or the church. The shame I feel about this passage isn’t just about our congregation, its about my own life. There is mess that has built up in my life, just as I’m sure there is mess that has built up in your life. What would Jesus see if he walked into you hearts, to those dark places where no one else sees and no one else has ever gone? What messes would he find building up there? Anybody else feel some shame? So where’s the good news in this? Let me offer a quote by St. Augustine to provide a transition here. He once said that “Hope has two beautiful daughters: ANGER at the way things are, and COURAGE to see that they do not remain that way.” An angry Jesus walked into the Temple that day and did one of most courageous things of his illustrious career as a human – he made a scene. He didn’t just make a scene. He got angry. He turned over tables. He threw people out. He made a whip. He even drove the animals out of the Temple. He probably had fire in his eyes and it was probably pretty scary. And then he does something even more courageous. He says, “Its not about the Temple. It’s not about this! Its about me!” Now, he didn’t use those exact words, but that’s the point he was making. The Temple folks had made it about the Temple and he needed to fix that. He was showing them that’s its all about God, its about himself – not the Temple. And his angry, courageous actions were filled with hope that things could be different. Through this story today, he’s telling us the same thing. His hopeful actions in this story remind us that its not about the Church – its about Jesus. Its not about me – its about Jesus. Its not about you – its about Jesus. He is our favorite thing that all of our mess is covering up. He is treasure that this congregation is really about. He is the reason for our existence as human beings – to know him, to love him, to serve him, to worship him, to be with him. Jesus is the reason that Hope Lutheran was started 40 years ago and is the reason that it still exists today. Jesus is the one who keeps us together, who unites us, who supports us, who forgives us, and who wants to come into each of our lives and clean up the mess that we have let build up. Jesus should be the only reason for our fundraisers. Jesus should be the only reason you give of your time in service. Jesus should be the only reason you put money in the offering plate. Jesus should be the only reason that you give to the Capital Fund Campaign. No other reason. Don’t do it out of guilt or shame. Don’t do it for Hope Lutheran. Don’t do it for me or Pastor John. Don’t do it so you can get something out of it. If Jesus doesn’t mean that much to you, then don’t give. If Jesus doesn’t mean that much you to you, then don’t serve. If it’s not about or for Jesus, then don’t do it. At our council meeting this week, Pastor John said something that really struck me because I had just spent all day studying this gospel lesson. At council we were talking about the Capital Fund Drive and, as with anything like this, there is always some resistance, people who have their reservations. Its completely normal, understandable, and expected. So as a council, we were just kind of touching base and trying to gauge the amount of negativity and fear in the air. As we were talking, Pastor John said, “You know, none of the resistance is coming from any of the new members, the folks who have joined since the last capital campaign. If there is resistance, it seems to be coming from folks who have been here for a long time.” As I got to thinking about that and wondering why, I came to the conclusion that maybe it’s because there is less mess for new Christians to sort through, less dust to wipe away. Maybe, for newer Christians, the favorite thing of Jesus is still the favorite thing. The treasure of Jesus hasn’t been buried. For them, Jesus is new, he’s exciting, he’s lifegiving, and in response to Him, they have no problem tithing or going above a tithe to give to the Capital Fund Campaign. In fact, many that I’ve talked are eager to give and be a part of what Jesus is doing here. It is their passion for Jesus, and Jesus alone, that reminds me what its all about. So for these last few minutes, let me just remind all of us, old and new Christians, what our favorite thing really is, who our treasure really is. Because this passage has one more characteristic of Jesus I haven’t talked about yet, one thing that binds him intimately to the God of the Old Testament, the God that many folks have a hard time with. What shines through more than anything else in this story, is the zeal that Jesus has for his people. His actions are just dripping with passion. Above all else, what we see in Jesus is a God who is deeply, passionately, incredibly, and irrevocably in love with us. Jesus is head over heals in love with you to the point where he’s jealous. He jealous of anything that comes between us and him. He wants nothing to separate us – not money, not business, not even the church or other Christians. All he desires is our heart and he desires our entire heart with every ounce of his being. It is his hopeful passion for us that gave him the courage and anger to shake up the Temple. It is his hopeful passion for us that shakes us up and wants to clean up those messes in our lives. It is his hopeful passion for you that gave him the courage and the anger to go to the cross, to lay his arm across that beam and receive the nails, to be hoisted in the air and hang there, being mocked and spit upon. It is his hopeful passion and love that led him to die for you and its his hopeful passion and love that brought him back from the dead. He, and he alone, is our treasure and the reason that we are here today. He should be OUR everything because we are HIS everything. Somewhere under all the mess of life, I hope you know this to be true. Amen.
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