This is the sermon manuscript from the sermon preached on the weekend of the third Sunday of Lent. The Gospel text is John 2:13-22.
His ministry was just beginning. Jesus was just getting started. This is strange to consider when we are drawing so close to the end of his earthly ministry here in Lent. When we are drawing ever closer to his death and resurrection. In the other Gospels this temple event takes place after Palm Sunday, right before Jesus is arrested. But not in John. Today’s story takes place right at the beginning. Jesus has managed to call a few disciples; he has changed water into wine at a wedding in Cana. Jesus was just getting started.
Now when the Passover was near, John tells us, Jesus went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover and upon entering the temple he finds the whole scene to be well, a barnyard. The temple of God, the dwelling place of God on earth, the religious center for those of the Jewish faith, for Jesus himself, has become a barnyard; this will simply not do.
So Jesus goes on a bit of a tirade, turning tables, chasing cattle, sheep, and presumably people, with a whip made of chords. He turns to those who were selling the doves and yells, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my father’s house a market place!” Because that’s exactly what the temple had become; a market place.
And it had to be. In the system of sacrifices of the Jewish faith you needed certain animals, and folks traveling a long distance were not about to drag a pristine first born calf half way across Judea. So whatever the people needed to offer as a sacrifice, rams, doves, or grain, they bought at the temple. This was a pretty typical scene and it was not going to change. It was too engrained in the life of the people. The original purpose of the temple had shifted; the relationship with God that was centered in the temple was no longer the focus. And for Jesus, this simply won’t do. Something has to change.
And for John, this is the point, something is about to change. This story is at the beginning because it demonstrates that Jesus has comes to change the relationship between God and God’s people. This story is often called the “cleansing of the temple,” but for John this is not an accurate title at all. Remember what Jesus says when the Jews ask him for a sign to explain his little tirade, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” John tells us that “he was speaking about the temple of his body.” His body? It is only after his resurrection that the disciples realize what it is that Jesus is telling them. Jesus has not come to cleanse the temple. He has not come to set the temple back on track. Jesus is telling us that the temple system will no longer work, the time of the temple is gone, God is no longer in the temple. God is doing something new through Jesus Christ.
Remember how John begins his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and lived among us.” God is present in Jesus and Jesus has come to reveal God to the world. Jesus is the new relationship God has with the people of the world, all people of the world, and Jesus has come to show us what this new relationship looks like. Just a few chapters later Jesus tells the Samaritan woman, “the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” And why will the place of worship change? Because through death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, God is present to all believers of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. God is no longer confined to the temple. God is present to all believers no matter where they are gathered, be it in a temple, a church, or a sports arena. God is present wherever the people are, especially where the people are, right where you and I are in the ebb and flow of our daily lives.
What I am trying to tell you friends is that you don’t have to come to church to experience God. This building, the brick and concrete and carpet and stained glass and pews and hymnals, do not contain God any more than the temple in Jerusalem contains God. God does not live in a physical space, God lives in the people.
Now I realize that I may have just lost some of you. Some of you may be thinking that you could have just as well have stayed in bed this morning, or gone out for a round of golf, or beat the Baptists to the buffet line, but that’s not what I am saying at all. What I saying is that where we understand God to be affects the way we live our lives. If we understand that God is present only in the church building, or in the temple, then we encounter God only in those places. We miss everywhere else that God can be, and is, present in our world.
In college I was involved with a group called Aggie Lutherans and my junior year we took a trip to Germany. I can remember standing in an alley way in Wittenberg Germany outside the church where Martin Luther preached for 20 plus years of his life. It was Luther’s church, the Martin Luther, the spark of the Reformation. Of all places in the Lutheran world, it must have been a holy one; God had to have been present there! But the funny thing was we were locked out. We had arrived before our guide and having planned to have a brief time of worship before departing Wittenberg, we decided to begin before time slipped away. So we gathered in a circle. We held hands, we prayed and we sang songs, we read scripture and we celebrated the Lord’s Supper. There in the midst of an alley way, outside of the locked church, God was present among us; in the joined hands of college kids who were having their lives changed. God is where the people are. God is where we are on the paths of our lives.
God is here with us now, not because we are in this building, but because God promises to be present when we gather in God’s name. We have to be careful not glaze over what we know about Jesus. Because we live after the resurrection Jesus has already ascended into heaven. But he left us with the promise that the Holy Spirit would continue to be present with us, persistently reminding us of what Jesus taught and drawing us into a relationship with God. Our community gathered at worship is one of those places where the Holy Spirit is moving. Through the scripture read and the Word proclaimed and preached we hear the presence of God and our lives are opened to where God is at work beyond these doors. Through the water and Word of Baptism, through the bread and wine of the table, we taste and touch the presence of God in our midst and are strengthened to go out into the world and experience God in all of life. So we can join in where God is already at work in our world.
So where do you experience God? As a disciple of Jesus Christ, where do you encounter God in the ebb and flow of life? Do you look for God beyond these walls? Remember, where we understand God to be greatly affects the way we live our lives. If we understand God to be in our homes, in our relationships, in one another, then we treat the world a differently. As a Vicar, one of the tasks I typically do on a weekly basis is to make hospital visits; it’s part of the life of ministry. For me, sometimes the only way I can find the strength to walk into the hospital room, whether for good or bad news, is because I know that God is already there. As a husband I know that through the joys and the stresses of life God is in my relationship with Katie. I understand that God is a part of who we are and I treat our relationship like God is there with Katie and me as we walk through this world. Where we understand God to be affects the way we live our lives. Through Jesus Christ, God is present everywhere believers are in this world. God is out there dear people, just waiting to be discovered. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, may you discover God in the ebb and flow of your lives.
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