3rd Sunday in Lent
March 8, 2015
Exodus 20:1-17; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; John 2:13-22
This morning we continue our Lenten series on “Becoming
the Beloved.” It is a process of being
taken, blessed, broken, and shared and during Lent it is appropriate to focus
on brokenness. With that in mind, we
have our Gospel lesson today about when Jesus flips out and flips over
tables. This story is one of my
husband’s favorites. He likes to be
reminded that when asked, “What would Jesus do?”, getting mad and overturning
tables is an option. However, it’s not always the most appropriate
response or the most productive response.
It’s also kind of surprising that the Jewish leaders don’t respond in
anger themselves. Instead, they
simply ask Jesus for a sign and question his authority to overturn the tables
and drive the vendors and money changers out of the temple. Jesus responds with a hint to his coming
death and resurrection, which, of course, goes right over everyone’s
heads. So, let’s look at what Jesus is
getting mad at: why are there people selling cattle, sheep,
and birds and why are there people exchanging money at the temple?
The beginning of our passage tells us that Jesus went
up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover at the temple. This is an annual feast and it’s the reason
why we think Jesus’ public ministry lasted three years: because there are three
separate times in the Gospel of John where John tells us that Jesus went to
Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover at the temple there. Today’s reading is the first time. And when you went to the temple, it was
customary to offer a sacrifice to God, usually an animal from your own
herd. Even Jesus’ parents offered a
sacrifice of two doves or two pigeons the first time they presented Jesus in
the temple, to fulfill Old Testament law.[1]
But what do you do if something happens to the animal before you get to
the temple? Or if you don’t have any
livestock? That’s why there were people
there selling animals. And much like an
ATM today, if you didn’t have the right currency or needed change, that’s why
the moneychangers were there. Except
unlike today’s regulated system, these moneychangers exchanged money at rates
favorable to them and charged exorbitant fees.
And that’s why Jesus is so upset and yells, “Stop making my Father's
house a place of business!”[2]
God’s house isn’t a place to make money; it’s a place to worship. Now I realize that we are selling Easter
flowers in preparation for the upcoming celebration of Jesus’ resurrection and
I’ve thought about how that’s different from these folks selling animals to be
used in worship. The main difference
seems to me that we do not sell Easter flowers in order to make a profit; we
sell them at cost simply to have flowers to decorate our sanctuary for Easter
Sunday. In contrast, these animal
vendors and moneychangers are there at the temple simply to further their own
businesses. They are not there for God;
they are there for themselves.
It is human nature to act selfishly and look
out only for Number One. Another word for selfishness is greed. We want
more. We never have enough. It is not
possible to have too much. More is always
better. Jesus tells a story about an
extra-greedy person and it goes like this:
“A
rich man’s farm produced a big crop, and he said to himself, “What can I do? I
don’t have a place large enough to store everything.” So he said, “I know what
I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I can store all
my grain and other goods. Then I’ll say to myself, ‘You have
stored up enough good things to last for years to come. Live it up! Eat, drink,
and enjoy yourself.’” But God said to him, “You fool! Tonight
you will die. Then who will get what you have stored up?”[3]
We
often call this the parable of the rich fool and it’s reminiscent of last
week’s Gospel lesson, in which Jesus said that you can’t gain the whole world and
keep your soul. What the rich man does
actually seems wise from the standpoint of the world. Store up the banner crop and sit back and
enjoy yourself! You deserve it! That’s what our society would say. But God calls him a fool and we are reminded
that God’s wisdom is not human wisdom and his ways our not ways. In fact, “the foolishness of God is [still] wiser than human wisdom.”[4] And God says it is foolish to be selfish and
greedy, to hoard and not share, to look out only for yourself.
Greed has its
roots in fear, in particular the fear of scarcity. We keep things for ourselves because we are
afraid that otherwise we don’t have enough.
We don’t share our food, because then we might go hungry. We don’t share our extra coat, because we might
need it. We don’t share our time and our
skills because we believe that we need them for ourselves. And when we don’t think we have enough, or
we’re afraid of losing what we do have, then we break even more of the ten
commandments. We’re not just breaking
the first commandment by putting money and things ahead of God; when we think
we don’t have enough or we might lose what we do have, then we steal, then we
lie, then we cheat, then we kill, then we want what our neighbor has. These are all actions born out of fear. But Jesus says, “Do not fear. Take courage.
I have overcome the world.”[5] If we take courage, if we do not live in
fear, then we know that there is enough.
Or if we do not know, then we trust and live in faith, that there is
enough. As Jesus says, “your heavenly
father knows that you need all these things.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness…” and how’s the
song end? “And all these things shall be
given to you as well.”[6] Seek first God’s kingdom, keep those first
and second commandment to have no other gods before God and to not make any
idols, either, and God will take care of you, he will make sure you have
enough.
And this is how we combat our human tendency toward
selfishness: by taking care of what he
has entrusted to us and sharing it with others. Now, there are two sides to this. When I was diagnosed with rheumatoid
arthritis a few years ago, I had to learn that self-care isn’t selfish. I have to take care of myself or I’m no good
to anyone, including myself. I need to
make sure I eat fairly healthy and get enough rest (or as much rest as a 2 ½
year old and a 6 month old will allow).
There are things I do have to do to look out for myself and take care of
myself so that I’m in a position to share.
We only get one body this side of heaven. We are to take care of ourselves, and we are
to share ourselves. Same thing goes for
everything else God has given us. We are
to take care of our church building, and we are to share it, like we do with AA
and other groups. We are to take care of
our families, and we are to share them.
We are to take care of our talents, which means to develop them, and we
are to use them and share them. We are
to take care of the money God has given us, and we are to share it. One of the most faithful ways to do that is
to give some back to God each week. It’s
a regular reminder that “our” finances are not ours, but gifts from God. If you’re not in the habit of regular giving,
I encourage you to try putting something in the plate every week, even if it’s
just $10. $20 might be easier, since the
ATM dispenses those bills more often, and that’s where Lee and I started as a
married couple. I was in the habit of a
tithe, beginning back when I was in middle school and first started
baby-sitting. My mom had me sit down, write
out the amount I earned, and move over the decimal place and that amount went
into an offering envelope the next Sunday.
My husband was not in the habit of regular giving, much less giving 10%,
so we started by just putting $20 in the offering plate each week, learning
that even by giving that much to God, he still took care of us. We
gradually increased it so that by our 4th year of marriage, we began
giving 10% of our joint income. Giving
10% can be scary, and yet we know God honors it and will take care of us. We know we can live on the other 90%, even as
our expenses have gone up with two children.
Sacrificial, proportionate giving is what God calls us to in order to
not be selfish with our money. 10% or
$20 a week may not be the right number for you.
Pray and figure out what is. But
a one-time event isn’t living selflessly; it just means that at least once you
got over your fear of not having enough.
Regular sharing of your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your
service, and your witness are what God calls us to, and what each of us
committed to in our membership vows.
Jesus got mad because the vendors and moneychangers were
using God’s temple for their own financial gain. They were greedy and they were afraid of not
having enough. But God has already
provided every blessing that we need.
It’s funny, I went to look up just where that verse is so I could cite
it. It’s from 2 Corinthians 9 and turns
out it’s part of a passage Paul wrote about giving:
“Remember
this saying, ‘A few seeds make a small harvest, but a lot of seeds make a big
harvest.’ Each of you must make up your own mind about how much to give, not with regret or out of a sense of duty.
God loves people who love to give. God can bless you with everything you need,
and you will always have more than enough to do all kinds of good things for
others.”[7]
Don’t be selfless reluctantly and don’t do it out of a
sense of obligation. But if you’re ready
to share, if you’re ready to overcome that fear of not enough, then that is the
promise to hold tight to: “God can bless you with everything you need, and you
will always have more than enough to do all kinds of good things for others.” Thanks be to God. Amen.
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