No "Jack" In The Box
Lent 3b, March 11, 2012 (John 2:13-22 with Exodus 20:1-17 in the b.g)
Where is God? I want you to have a conversation with your neighbour – and this isn't just to be a philosophical one (although philosophy in and of itself isn't bad). But I want this conversation to also be experiential – where do you experience God?). And then let's hear some of those experiences.
Listening... (some reflection back)
I would like to pick up on 2 of the 3 lessons this morning in terms of my question. Have a look at the first lesson. It is from the book of Exodus. The book of Exodus is all about coming out, or more appropriately being brought out. The Hebrew people are delivered by God through the leader Moses from slavery. They are sent on their way (eventually due to their lack of trust) to a land of promise.
Now that journey was not easy for them! I suspect that most journeys are not easy for us either: the journey down our mother's birth canal; our journey from childhood to teenage- hood, from being teenagers to adolescents, from adolescents to adults – and then through our adulthood to becoming older and eventually elderly and then dying. But – and here's a key BUT – who is with those people on their journey? Who is there delivering them, listening to them, seeking to guide them – even giving them law, not for death BUT for life. That's right – GOD IS WITH THEM.
And by extension who is with us, or wills to be with us on our journeys: each and everyone of them? That's correct, the Lord, our God, also wills to bring us out of whatever slaveries we are experiencing – guilt, fear, anxiety, obsession, addiction, anger, hatred, apathy. God wills to lead us through all of that, to new life. God is God! By God's grace we can trust God.
Which delivers us to our Gospel lesson. See this box (show them a large cardboard box). How would you like to live there? It's a ridiculous question really – although some people near and far use boxes a bit larger than this for shelter from the elements. What I am attempting to do today is to use this box as a symbol. So, what could we fit into this box? Do we ever attempt to fit God into this box or some kind of box of our own making? (Pause)
The Gospel for this day is very interesting. Here we are encountered by Jesus who is anything but meek and mild. All four Gospels record an account of Jesus being upset at what's going on in the temple. The Synoptic Gospels - Matthew, Mark and Luke record this event near the end of Jesus' ministry. In fact they show this event (dubbed by some commentators as the "cleansing" of the temple) as one of the contributing factors towards Jesus being arrested and eventually executed. In Matthew, Mark and Luke Jesus appears to be upset while in the temple because the moneychangers and those allowing such transactions have changed his Father's house from a house of prayer for the nations, transforming it into a "den of robbers".
But John, ah John, marches to the beat of his own drummer. John locates this event almost at the very beginning of Jesus ministry. In John's Gospel Jesus not only casts the money changers out of the temple, but becomes very angry, even fashioning a whip of cords to drive out the money changers, the sheep and cattle and overturning the moneychangers' tables. In John Jesus tells those in charge of the doves to get everything out of there. Jesus doesn't want his Father's house to be a market place.
What are we to make of this? This very angry Jesus who overturns table and brandishes a whip of cords? Where is God now? Who exactly is God? The Jesus meeting us here is anything but meek and mild anything but a hummed "what a friend we have in Jesus" by a campfire.
John tells us that the "Jews" – in John that is often a code word for those Jewish people who are opposed to Jesus or even the religious leaders of the Jews who then were opposed to Jesus. Remember: Jesus is a Jew – and all of the earliest disciples were Jewish. So this code word isn't intended for us to think of all Jews, when John writes "the Jews". Hear it carefully then, 'The Jews then said to him, "what sign can you show us for doing this?"' Jesus responds, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
You see, those religious leaders were attempting to put God and also Jesus in some kind of box. The box of their day was called the temple. In some ways, as far as "boxes" go, the Temple wasn't a bad box at all. God had commanded, in terms of life giving for all the people, that the people remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Part of such "remembering", of that keeping holy, had been worship which included the eventual development of a temple, where there were sacrifices made for sin, offered to God. Initially some of those proceeds were forwarded to the hungry and poor. Yet over time, some of this had been lost. Over time the letter of the law had somehow gotten in the way of the spirit of the law.
Jesus is not being literalistic here when he speaks of destroying the temple. To be sure even that majestic temple was eventually destroyed, not ever to be raised again. But in that moment Jesus is speaking of the temple of his body. Jesus speaks truthfully – oh, so truthfully, but in a metaphorical mode. Destroy his body and in three days he will be raised again.
In reality Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection bring God to us and us to God. There is no longer any need for sacrifice, for purchasing an element or an offering to be given to God. How we understand Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection is an ongoing revelation and development – leading us beyond any all "boxes". God is God. We are part of God's creation, special, wonderful, rebellious, although sometimes blind, even deaf to the wonder and mystery of God. We are frequently tempted to try to grasp God, even to see if we can't place God in some sort of box of our own choosing. BUT there is no box big enough- not our minds individually or collectively, not our churches, or even our Scriptures. Oh yes, these things may allow us to be pointed to God, to glimpse God, but they cannot and do not contain or limit God. Luther reminds us, the Scriptures are the cradle of Christ, the very Word of God.
Where is God? What a question! This is a question that can only be fleshed out in the living of our lives as individuals and in communities. Where is God? St. Paul was convinced that he knew all about God in his earliest days. Then Saul/Paul went about violently attempting to bludgeon or silence any and all who disagreed with him.
But on Paul's journey to Damascus, God seeks Paul out and blinds him. In doing so God shows Paul his own blindness. The very one whom Saul/Paul was persecuting is the Lord Jesus. Paul needs time away now. Then after that time away, some of it being spent very likely with other followers of Jesus, Paul claims to proclaim only one thing – that God is in Christ crucified. There in Jesus' crucifixion is the power and wisdom of God. There God is with us and for us, with and for all creation.
Where is God? May God open our eyes to see Jesus in our midst: in the suffering, the dying, the rising, the struggles and the joys of people and creation. May we follow Jesus realizing that He is ahead of us, with us, seeking ever to open our hearts and minds.
Where is God? Ah, open our eyes Lord that we may see, trust and follow! Amen.