“In or Out of the Box”

Sermon from Sunday Mar.11, 2012

 John 2: 13-22

Evangelist Greg Laurie says, “Jesus did not command the world to go to church; Jesus commanded the church to go to the world. What a person does with this depends on if you’re “In or Out of the Box.”

Prayer:

Our gospel story today seems rather obvious. Jesus appears to be upsetting the apple-cart of church commerce. Indeed, Jesus is not happy about what he sees as the Temple priests profiting from the Passover Festival. And of course, we have taken a page from this story and interpreted it to mean the church shouldn’t be doing fund-raising either. I too have misgivings about church fund-raising efforts and how our culture seems to promote its use. And you need not look far to see it in action throughout our culture… ask any parent on how many times their kids come home from school with something to sell. Then the church does the same thing wanting to do something or go somewhere. Then… we get this story to guilt us…. But is this what’s going on here? Or is this nothing more than a huge fund-raising enterprise concocted by the Temple Priests to profit from?

Let’s look at a couple points I believe Jesus is doing here.

First… Jesus observed 3 Jewish festivals in addition to the weekly Sabbath observance.

-       Passover… Observed in Mar/Apr… remembering the Exodus.

-      Tabernacles… Observed Sept/Oct… celebrating the Harvest.

-       Dedication… Observed Nov/Dec… remembering the dedication of the Ark of the Covenant.

Passover is the basis of our story today. People would have come from all over to Jerusalem… it would have been in all likelihood a once or maybe a couple of times in a life-time pilgrimage for most people, and they would have not brought the necessary offering with them, thus the need to buy them, and the Temple Priests an opportunity to provide at a cost. The Romans also saw this as an opportunity to get their share as well by taxing the transactions.

Secondly and in addition, John’s version of the story is interesting as well. John places this story at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Matt- Mark- Luke have this story at the end of Jesus’ ministry. Also different, and this may just be semantics, but John quotes Jesus saying, “Don’t make my father’s house a market-place.” Matt- Mark – Luke say, “This is a house of Prayer” or perhaps Worship. In all the gospel cases, Jesus is very angry and uses his anger in a very human reaction against the priests.

Jesus is challenging the power structures of the Temple and the very religious institutions practices of which he is very familiar with. This…I believe is the reason the other gospels place this story near the end of Jesus’ ministry as to point the reasons for Jesus’ arrest and death. Jesus challenges the religious system because of its embedded rules and practices that took away from God’s mercy and grace. God was in the process of eliminating all the ritual and sacrificial action necessary for forgiveness… Though no one at the time knew nor would have understood it would be Jesus doing this. Jesus says, “Destroy this Temple and in Three days I will build it again.” I believe Jesus here is really saying that Temple worship may not be all that necessary… if fact doing this is a specified building isn’t what God intended… and John, who writes his gospel much latter than the others, is observing similar behavior in his community.

Oh no… you heard the pastor say, “You don’t need to go to church” to be religious. This is true… but the rules and rituals are what Jesus is challenging here… not being in church. Perhaps, as some theologians have postulated, this story may be at the beginning to point out that John’s community is putting Jesus in a box… thus the connection for us.

So the question for us is… are we “In or Out of the Box?” Have we wrapped our box of institutional systems and practices around our faith in Jesus? Have we like the Temple priests of Jesus’ day so ordered our Christian faith around a Temple church building or programs or other activities that we miss the opportunity to be the face of Jesus to a hurting world? Has the box this church building become most important?

Closing:

Where do you see God?

This might be a fun exercise… to share stories of where we see God. I would like to suggest that you write down your stories and post them on a bulletin board or even on the web site for people to see where you’ve seen God today. Perhaps, someone could prepare a bulletin board for you to post your stories on. It would be interesting to see us expand our gaze to what God is up to in this community.

Of course, it all depends if you’re “In or Out of the Box” and looking for what God is doing!!!

See You Out On The Road