Sermon by Felicity Thompson, Seminarian, 3/3/2024
Third Sunday in Lent
Our lesson today is a great story that has multiple meanings and I would like to start by putting it in our context: Jesus is in Jerusalem to celebrate the holiday. He enters the Temple. Let’s walk with Jesus into this sacred space. Stay with me as we look around. This space where we worship, this space where we acknowledge all phases of our lives, this space where we come to pray in community has been transformed. The pews have been haphazardly pushed up against the walls, to make room for merchants who are selling sacrificial animals - cattle and sheep for those who can afford it and doves for the least of these.
By the way, none of the stalls are neat and tidy. It looks like a war zone. If I could, I would first suck my teeth, and because I’m extra, maybe roll my eyes. As my grandmother would have said, “Can you believe this!” I know she would go further with, “and to add insult to injury” as I notice money changers exploiting pilgrims. Jesus had to get everyone’s attention, so he turned some tables. He turned some tables adding more confusion to the chaos filled space.
Now imagine if this story was on Instagram or TikTok and I’m an influencer who has followed Jesus from the small towns into Jerusalem, the commentary might go like this, “As Jesus arrived in Jerusalem for Passover, he headed to the Temple. As soon as He walked in, Jesus stood taking in, the loud noise, the smells of domestic animals, the cooing and fluttering of pigeon wings, the merchants and money lenders. He assessed the situation, then started throwing everybody out. Maybe the last time we met Jesus giving this much attitude was when He called the Syrophoenician woman a dog! Where was the faith in this scene? As Reverend B.W. Smith reminded us, “Watch them dogs! Who in the hell left the gates open?” Jesus kicked over the tables of the high interest bankers, the loan sharks, and the check cashers. Jesus tore down the makeshift fences to let the animals loose. He opened the cages to set the pigeons free — shock and awe! He didn’t let anyone carry anything out. He turned around and faced those standing …, “Get these thugs in ties and businessmen in suits out of here. You have turned my Father’s House into a marketplace and a den of thieves!” Just like that, Jesus disrupted the status quo!
A couple of years ago, the Barna Research Group gathered data on what we already notice: “Church attendance is declining by generation, regardless of childhood church experience. However, the decline is steeper among adults who did not go to church as a child. Among adults 55 and older who attended church regularly as a child, two-thirds still attend regularly (68%). That proportion drops to just half (53%), of adults under 35 who were churched when young.
Just less than two out of three adults (63%) who were churched as children take their own children to a church. That’s double the proportion among adults who were not churched and who now have kids of their own.
Attending a church appears to be more a function of one’s personal experience when young than a sense of responsibility to one’s own children. Friends, the bottom line is, folks are not attending church.
So what type of churches are preferred? Denominational loyalty has remained unexpectedly strong among those who attended church in their early years. (That’s not my experience, but that is the data this group collected.) Tracking the religious behaviors and inclination of teenagers for two decades has revealed “millions of teenagers are involved in church related activities each week, but their motivation is relational rather than spiritual. Some say churches need to revamp their ministries to reflect the unique cultural customs and expectations of the new breed of young people. What have you noticed? What do you think?
”There is a deep disconnection between Jesus and the church. The church is seen differently from Jesus. Jesus is perceived as loving, positive, prophetic, inclusive, loving, a leader, admirable and a champion for the poor - and this is among most youth whether they identify as Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and other non-religious.
The same youth who were asked about church used the words: hypocritical, etc. Young people see the church as the exact opposite of what Jesus came to teach. They see the loan sharks, unscrupulous money changers and thieves who benefit from being in the church and want nothing to do with it. They see a church that says one thing and does another. They say the church should be a place where we are filled with love, compassion, prayer, laughter, healing. They say the church should be a place of forgiveness, liberation, friendly, inclusive, and approachable. Instead, some feel the church is non-inclusive, corrupt, a negative force creating barriers.
As the mother of millennials, I am not surprised at these comments. Their sassy friends have told me some people were in church but not in Christ. So they just learned to come to church but stay away from church folk, not Christians, church folk. There is a difference - church folk know how to smile in your face and rip you apart as soon as you walk away. Let me give you an example. Church folk say things like this: (1) I prayed whether I should say anything to you (2) I prayed over this (3) I say this in love (4) You know I love you (5) I’m not trying to get in your business. Church folk are a trip!
As we follow Christ, we notice Jesus has had several conflicts with church folk on the way to Calvary. Remember church folk told Jesus He was healing on the wrong day. They told him, you can heal on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Sunday, not on Saturday; definitely not on the Sabbath! Please don’t heal on the Sabbath. Anytime Jesus had a conflict, there were church folk with religious pedigree who did not want Him to do the work He was sent here to do.
And here comes Jesus, a young, brave, and intelligent Jewish man speaking against Caesar, discussing the obvious, speaking against the Empire. So here we are watching a scene in a Temple that is under the control of the Roman Empire.
Jesus moved like a Navy Seal into territory He was not expected to move into and took the people with Him. You see the Temple had become a place for the Empire, the Roman Empire, to spread their propaganda. Several years before this, there was conflict between the Maccabees and the Persians. And the powers that be made sure this conflict would not happen again where the common people worshiped.
So, the Roman Empire made sure the religious authorities only allowed preachers in the Temple to preach on what would keep the people passive and subdued. They preached on things that didn’t matter and gave false expectations but they would not preach on the obvious - poverty, apathy, the homeless, the hungry, sexism, gun violence, taking care of the elders, racism, and religion. Does that sound familiar? These leaders in the Temple were there to give the people a message to make them feel good. The typical message was not to help them follow God’s commandments and do good. The message was to keep them in their place. Stay in their lane.
Jesus had just left Bethany and Bethpage, two poor communities. We know He likes traveling, healing, and teaching among those who are in the shadows and have no one to advocate for them. Jesus is always there among them to show us and teach us. Jesus was sent to pay attention and in turn have us pay attention to the poorest of the poor. Now He is in Jerusalem, where the property prices are high. You see, supposedly, this is where the upper echelon live.
As Jesus is moving among the people, He encounters the leaders of the Temple. What Jesus is trying to let us know is that the church is the problem, and the church is also the solution. Jesus is showing us that we are our worst enemies, and we are our best hope. When we are truly church, we are transformative, affirming, loving, forgiving, and liberated.
Most of us have seen the church at its worst. For centuries, the church has supported and benefited from oppressing others. Either through slavery, sexism, racism, feudalism, colonialism, and the same church has done some great work.
Formerly enslaved people were nurtured in church. The underground railroad had some stations in the church. Political parties and other organizations met in spaces like churches. St. David’s Episcopal Church has AA meetings in church, yoga, quilting, Plarning, drive through ashes, Care of Creation (with our gardens), movies, gun buybacks, a food pantry, Friday Fish Fry and so many other occasions to bring the community together, in church! That’s how we do things, we are followers of Christ, we’re not church folk, we are Christians!
I know there have been times when I thought I would have lost my mind, if it hadn’t been for somebody who reached out to pray with me. I can remember several times, every single time, it was someone who I met in church. As we sit here this morning, we can remember good things someone in church has done for us. When you were about to give up, the Holy Spirit led somebody to call, just at the right time, someone who might have said, “I don’t need to know what’s going on with you right now. I see you and I am praying with you”. If we didn’t have a strong spirit filled community in the church, we would not be where we are. Do you believe that?
Whether it was in the 60’s when Detroit burned from racial conflicts, or today when we stand with our neighbors right here in Southfield, Oak Park and Dearborn. Our Jewish, Palestinian, and Middle Eastern brothers and sisters. The church may not be perfect, but when the church connects with the power of the Holy Spirit - amazing conversations take place. When the church reaches out into the community, we make connections that grow our spiritual family. When the church connects, through prayer, with the power of the Holy Spirit, God moves among us in incredible ways and extraordinary things happen. When the people of God pray … we become Ninja Warriors, we become Special Forces!
I don’t know if anyone here has had this experience, I see many Christians this morning, so I am sure you have - have you had the experience in the church that you knew someone who knew Jesus, and because of their relationship with God, it kept you on the path. Because of their relationship we have been able to get through our challenges and truly experience joy. I am glad we have some of those mothers and fathers, our elders in Christ who recognize the power of God. They are the followers of Christ who have kept us in their minds, during Bible study, late at night praying for us, when we have been out in the streets acting like fools. And God has used them to keep us close to Him.
I am happy there are people who recognize the power in the church. In today’s gospel, Jesus is upset. He is upset with the church, not because He doesn’t like the church. He is upset because He loves the church. You are not that passionate about someone unless you have deep love for them. To get everyone’s attention He displays righteous anger as he drives out the merchants and money changers by dramatically overturning their tables.
What is Jesus trying to tell us here? Sometimes our ministry is replaced by a market mentality! Whenever we have a ministry with a market mentality, we lose our Holy Spirit power to do the transformative work within the community that God has placed us. That’s behaving like church folk and not following Christ like Christians.
The cleansing of the Temple is symbolic. It’s a metaphor for cleansing our soul and restoring authentic worship. We believe God is everywhere, we believe God is right here in this Temple, this church. That symbolizes our heart. We should keep it clean, pure and dedicated to God and God alone. By driving out the merchants, Jesus demonstrates us symbolically driving out all forms of greed, corruption and other sins of the world.
Even after all this, the Jews ask Jesus to prove His authority. So Jesus gives them something to think about, saying, “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” They did not know Jesus was not talking about the physical Temple but about His own body. The statement foreshadows his death and resurrection. The statement affirms Jesus is divine and it also affirms His role, to die, the ultimate sacrifice, to save humanity. So, let’s examine our own lives. Let’s examine our hearts. Are there areas in our lives contaminated by sin and selfishness? Have we allowed the world to take us away from God? Let us listen while we meditate and pray during Lent, listen to Jesus’ reminder to cleanse our inner temples, get rid of all the things we know shouldn’t be there and dedicate ourselves to God.
For me, this is a powerful reminder of the importance of integrity, spiritual integrity, the sacredness of prayer and the importance of worship. It has never been cool to be church folk.
Let us recommit ourselves to God, strive to keep our hearts pure, knowing that true worship comes from a soul that is consecrated to God alone. Let’s be Christ-like. Let’s be prayer filled Christians as we walk with Jesus to Calvary.
Amen