Sermon for March 3, 2024     Third of Lent                “Believing Takes Time”

Jesus is not in a bad mood, he is just annoyed that this sacred place is used for deceit, slander and questionable practices by everyone. And yes even the temple officials who really ought to know better. So Yes Jesus is annoyed.

In chapter one we have the opening of the Gospel ‘in the beginning…’, then the testimony of John, calling of all the disciples, a wedding in Cana and now the dignified angry scene in the temple. It sure did not take Jesus long in John’s rendering of the Gospel to create scene. So, even though we aren’t ready for this, here we are, cleansing the temple before we get to the teaching or healing or storytelling that we love so much. It’s almost as if Jesus – according to John – has an agenda, and it begins with worship. No, wait, it begins with right worship. Not right in form or structure, not right in genre or setting, but right in intention. Right in presence. We spend a lot of time worrying about the songs we sing and the words we say when we design worship, and we should! These are important matters. But here in the second chapter of John, Jesus is concerned with our hearts when we come to worship.

The text then says ‘the Jews came to him’ and here we need to be cautious because John is not referring to all Jews but rather specifically the Jewish Temple leaders. One would think the response would be outrage, call the police, get him out of here. But no, they come and ask for credentials. There is something going on here, unspoken or even unseen that makes the temple leaders to suspect that Jesus may just be a prophet. The proof of that is prophets do signs. So the question ‘what sign do you do?’. The answer is ‘tear down this temple and I will build it in three days’. I imagine they all looked around at the magnificent stone structure and smirked.

I can forgive the temple leaders for going ‘all literal’ at this. When brick and mortar are the corner stones of your thinking, imaging the spiritual, the mystical, the realm of God is nearly impossible. Jesus has changed gears in a hurry and no one is keeping up. It was not until after resurrection that the disciples understood what Jesus was talking about. It took the disciples about three years to figure it out. So don’t feel to guilty if you are still learning and discovering new things about Jesus, God and faith.

Maybe that’s the key for us as well. Worship is about Resurrection. We are being raised up as we gather and sing and pray and commune together around word and sacrament. So, we are asking the question about what we do when we gather: “What will raise us up?” What honours God first and lifts the people into God’s presence when we come together as the body of Christ? What distracts and demeans ought to be avoided. What elevates and gathers in is where we need to be. We live in a world that can destroy the body and the soul. If we are to stand against that which tears down, we need to consider how we are building up.

In the teaching today Jesus is demonstrating that it is vital to clear away the distractions that keep our hearts and minds on things that are not God. In Jesus day, like ours, greed, consumerism, not tending to the poor or sick or hungry. The Temple leaders wanted to follow the Law and yet turned a blind eye to abuse when profits were soaring. Then as today Jesus is drawing our focus back to worship and having our hearts, minds, body and soul tuned into Jesus.

We have to be alert to distractions from our true purpose of worshiping God and building up the body. It doesn’t always have to be as obvious or sinful as preying upon the people through money changing or greed. Yet, we keep alert to those distractions, nonetheless. Here in the Lenten season, we are looking toward Holy Week and Easter all the while preparing for those events and reveal the true glory of God and God’s great love for all.