The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 2nd Chapter
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
I would like to be able to tell you that this Gospel lesson today is about Girl Scout Cookies. I’d like to tell you that this Gospel clearly forbids Girl Scouts, Brownies and especially Daisy Scouts (because their cuteness is impossible to resist) from selling me cases of Samoas. I’d like to tell you that because, I have no self control and can only eat Samoas by the box. So, I’d like to tell you this lesson is about evils of selling addictive cookies covered in lavish amounts of cocoanut-y, chocolatey goodness in church… but I can’t, because this lesson isn’t really about that at all.
In Matthew, Mark and Luke’s Gospels this story at the end. This rampage in the Temple square is part of what motivates the authorities to arrest Jesus and have him killed, but here in John’s Gospel, it's at the very beginning of the book. My dad was a career Air Force officer and he always said when you give a briefing you first tell them what you are going to say. Then you say it. Then you tell them what you said. With these actions… Jesus was beginning his briefing. He was telling the world what he was going to say with his whole life.
Jesus was telling the world that he was about pulling down barriers and turning over antiquated ideas that kept people separated from one another and from God. The Temple was the place Jewish people came to get right with God. But over the years, it had also become a place where human relationships got flung apart. Men could go here, but women had to go over there. Jews could go here but Greeks had to stay there. The clean could go here, the ritually impure had to be way over there. To make matters worse, just the practical requirements of getting an animal all the way to Jerusalem for a sacrifice, favored the wealthy. The wealthy could afford to just simply buy the best animals right there on the spot. The poor could not. The wealthy could pay to move to the head of the line. The poor could not.
When Jesus cleansed the Temple he was showing the world the character of his whole life’s work… which was leveling the playing field so that EVERYONE could come to God on a level and equal playing field. It’s the same thing St. Paul talks about in our second lesson for today. There, Paul focuses just on equalling the difference between Greeks and Jews but in Galatians, Paul uses the long form of the same list and says, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” As quickly as the world sets up one table for some people and a different one for others, Jesus will be there to turn them over.
Now, of course, not everyone was super excited about Jesus’ idea to change things around. The wealthy Jewish men who’s great, great, great grandfathers had built this Temple by carrying heavy stones, in the snow, uphill, both ways… THEY thought it was fine just the way it was! Thank you very much! “Jesus, we’ve always done it this way!” “Doing it THIS way is beautiful... it's part of our identity!” “Jesus, doing things differently, letting others in, changing the order of what goes on here... You're asking us to give up a part of who we are!”
And you know what? They weren’t wrong. Jesus WAS asking them to change. To do things differently. To give up their privileged position of being the only ones who could easily connect with God. For them… that was scary. It was scary because human nature whispers in our ear and tries to convince us that if I share this thing that’s so important to me with someone else, that means there’s going to be LESS of that important thing for me! And that little, whispered voice makes a bit of sense because if I have a bag of potato chips and give you some, then I have less chips for myself. If I slice up a pie and give you a piece, that’s one less piece for me. If one church joins with another church then your church is going to want a say in how things go and I won’t have as much power as I had before.
That little voice says “you won’t have it like you’ve always had it.” It says, “You’ll have to do it differently and everything will be LESS than what it used to be!” That little voice is hard to resist because for so much of what we experience in this world that little voice is right. But here’s the thing Jesus knew as he crashed his way across the Temple square… God’s love, compassion, forgiveness and presence doesn’t work like potato chips, pecan pie or power.
God is different. When we share a handful of the forgiveness and grace we first get from God with someone else, there’s still an entirely FULL BAG of God’s forgiveness left over for us! When we take that love we get from God and cut it into slice after slice after slice after slice and give it and share it and give it and share it wider and wider and deeper and deeper… when we look back… that pie plate is ALWAYS still FULL of God’s love… an endlessly powerful procession of pie for us and for all of creation!
Folks, I’m here to tell you… I am the poster child for the fear of scarcity. My “not having enough” button is the size of Montana and I’ve lived in Montana… believe me… it’s huge! But when it comes to God’s love, God’s grace, God’s forgiveness and God’s care for us. There isn’t a limit. We need not worry that there will be less for us if we join with Jesus and turn over the tables and throw open the doors. We don’t need to fret that there won’t be enough. We don’t need to play the games of this world and constantly jockey for positions of privilege, power or place. Because ALL that we have comes to us as a gift from God. May we let down our guard, open the doors, flip over the tables and share all that we've been given with the world. Believe me, after we’ve shared it, there’s still plenty more where that came from. Amen.
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