The End of Marketplace Faith - The 3rd Sunday in Lent
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
March 03, 2024
Imagine seeing the Welcome Center and the entrances and the upper commons here at Grace full of cages full of birds and pens of lambs and goats and calves. Imagine people standing in line waiting to get money and another line to pay. And then a line to get into worship. If you're watching or listening at home, imagine this in the room next to where you are right now, or in your front yard. Wow.
The original intention was that you would return a part of what you had raised as your animals or crops, as a thank you to God for what you had been given. And there also offerings you made to ask for forgiveness. But since not everyone lived in Jerusalem where the temple was and the idea of traveling with the animal was really a burden. Or you lived in the city and didn’t raise animals at all. So an elaborate system developed for you to just buy an animal when you got to the temple. Sort of like Sheetz, but religious. But, since electronic transactions had not yet been invented, you needed actually money to buy things. And since no coins with the image of the emperor who called himself God were allowed in God’s house, you needed to exchange your money for “temple money” first. That was the moneychanging we hear about. And of course the moneychangers and the animal vendors wanted to make money and so what began as worship became a business.
Worshipping God was supposed to be simple yet profound, but it changed over time from being a reminder of God’s covenant promise to a law that was never the intention. And since you could not go into the temple unless you had a sacrifice, if you were too poor, or unprepared, you were stuck outside the gates. It would be like showing up at a Penn State White Out game without a ticket. It's not happening.
But God intended relationships not transactions. This is not limited to people. Can you imagine the noise and the smells at the temple? Does it seem holy to you? Imagine all the animals trapped in the process. Creatures who are trapped by misuse and dominion and distortion. The temple forgot how to be God’s house of prayer and source of hope and welcome and freedom. The exorbitant tithes and taxes were blocking out the divine, trapping creation along the way too. So Jesus shows up. And this scene unfolds where he has big emotions about how far people have distorted what God intended.
John places this clearing of the temple by Jesus at the beginning, just after his first miracle at Cana on purpose. Jesus’ actions are intended to embody a new proclamation. The temple is no longer the only place to meet God, but also this is a revelation of how God’s law of life is intended to be. Psalm 19, our psalm today captures this well. Both the law and creation are arrangements that are intended to live in tandem. Together. Because they are both gifts and they are both about relationship. Jesus shows up to free us in the face of people who either insist nothing can change or who are resigned that nothing will change. As the tables are flipped and the cages and pens are opened to free the other creatures too, the vision of God and power is liberated too. Christ is the source of divine power and how we meet the God who created us, loves us, and desires to restore us.
You see, God’s desire is never domination. The strongest physical action Jesus ever takes is to flip a table and crack a whip, done to get people’s attention. Because, let’s be honest, if we don’t have to change most of us won’t. And if we feel powerless, the only way we imagine change is someone more powerful than we feel is the change agent. This side of the cross while we are reminded that we do not have to follow a series of laws and tests to earn a reward in the hereafter, there is an equally important proclamation. It has to do with why we follow the commandments, God's law.
We follow the commandments to follow Jesus’ teaching. We follow Jesus because when we hurt, God hurts. When others hurt, God hurts. When creation hurts, God hurts. And God desires abundant life, not groaning and despairing. We follow Jesus so all creation can know true hope, by restoring where we have misunderstood. This is what it means to confess we, like those animals in cages at the temple, are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.
Today, even what the Old Testament called the heavens, what we call “Space,” is becoming so cluttered with our junk and our efforts to control it, some already imagine Mars is worth developing because this planet’s potential is exhausted. Paul will say in Romans that creation groans waiting for a new day. Because of Jesus we can do more than groan, we can be co-creators with God bringing the kingdom.
We can be distinct. In the words we tell every baptized person, we can live so that our light so shines, that others see it and want to know and glorify our God.
We can praise God for a world that though seriously endangered is still beautiful and made by a loving God. Where all the pieces of creation form one beautiful vision. We can be those who house God’s presence in the world. People who do not give up on this planet, on creation or on all the fellow people made in God’s image who are in this world with us.
But since we are surrounded by a world that does not value this distinctiveness, or this labor of love, we worship so we can pray. So we can be reminded of God’s vision of hope and grace, and be renewed in our calling. Jesus felt his work was urgent. Because Jesus showed up at the temple with zeal. I wonder if that is even a word we can fathom. Is zeal even on our radar? It's about being devoted, committed and feeling compelled.
I think we can feel that way when we long for what seems out of sync to be restored.
Let’s ask God to make it be so even as we know it won’t happen quickly without Jesus getting our attention too.
In God’s house of prayer we remember the “business model” of the world has shown its failings. We are not called to a marketplace faith. We are not called to a Sabbath-only piety. Jesus is not business as usual, protector of the status quo or the proper up-per of institutions that elevate comfort and complacency over justice and holiness. We know what is asked of us. Jesus is the center of this house of prayer that has power to make the kingdom real. But following Jesus is hard and it is sacrificial, and so we pray…
That Jesus will transform us so we can stop seeing other people and creatures and resources as commodities, numbers or statistics. Free us from our depending and defending of what ends up trapping us. Grant us wisdom and give us the courage to ask the hard questions-Like
Where do I settle for safe, casual or comfortable while others are being left at the gate of abundance? Where am I worshipping something more than you? May God help us to pray and help us to let go and believe because God wants so much more for us all. Amen
Gospel Text: John 2:13-22
13The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15Making 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. 16He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 17His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” 19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22After 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.
Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2024 All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
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