Sermon - Third Sunday in Lent

Exodus 20.1-17
1 Corinthians 1.18-25
John 2.13-22

Biblical text can mean different things depending on what lens you read it through. It is interesting to read John’s account of Jesus’ action in the temple amid our current economic environment. Our culture is engaged in the moral reckoning following a long time of confusing what we have and what we do with who we are. We are dealing with the consequences of having given moral value to wealth and moral credence to the wealthy whether they deserved it or not.
All four canonical gospels include the story that biblical scholars refer to as the “cleansing of the temple.” John’s account is different from the other three in that he places the story chronologically at the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Mark places it in the week before Jesus’ death and Matthew and Luke do the same. The fact that it is in all four books is an argument in favor of its being based on events that actually happened. The fact that John records it as well as the other three gospels suggests that the incident was sufficiently important for the story to have been very widely known – not just from a single strand of tradition about Jesus. But it is also possible that John simply knew of it from the works of Matthew, Mark and Luke.
But it is difficult to imagine exactly what happened. The temple mount in Jerusalem encompasses about 35 acres. At the times of the great Jewish festivals there would have been thousands of people engaged in all kinds of activity within that area, and people constantly moving in and out. One man’s action, however heartfelt or disruptive could not bring every bit of activity an area of that size to a halt. But there are so few stories of Jesus that are recorded with the consistency of this one across all four canonical gospels. It is contrary to the evidence to imagine that Mark created it from his own imagination for his gospel and the other three simply liked it well enough to carry it on into theirs.
It was typical of the Roman government to use local authority to establish control of conquered territories. The empire would give the locals enough latitude to keep their people under control to minimize the expense and effort required to hold the territory. The local authorities would be rewarded for doing what the empire wanted done. In Jerusalem, the high priests and other temple authorities were in collaboration with the empire. Rome appropriated the resources of conquered territories, allowing the local authorities a small measure of it in exchange for their cooperation. This system left about 98% of the population in a condition of economic hardship. And they lived in fear of violence from the Roman authorities who tolerated no challenges to their power or that of their local collaborators. The temple authorities may very well have believed that they were helping to assure the faithful religious practice of their own people. But at what cost?
The logical conclusion is that Jesus’ action in the temple was a challenge to the high priests and other temple authorities who had profited from collaborating with the empire at the expense of their own people. Jesus’ behavior would not have escaped the attention of the Roman army and it may well be that this incident in the temple, whatever, it really was, is the event that motivated his arrest.
Regardless of the details that underlie this story, it is timely to understand it as a criticism of our human tendency to let the pursuit of money and privilege creep into our lives and distort their real meaning. We have made a religion out of money in this country for the last three decades and now we are seeing the results. Earlier this week the NY Times re-ran a column by Judith Warner that had originally appeared last fall. In that column she describes the experience of coming of age in the 1980s and choosing a career doing something other than just making heaps of money. She and her husband live near New York with their two daughters. She writes about the two of them wondering whether the decision to work in creative fields rather than finance was irresponsible because of the limitations it places on the resources they are able to provide for their children. She notes the daily grind of living in that rarefied economic subculture where anyone who isn’t (or wasn’t) fully engaged in the pursuit of money for its own sake was considered a fool. Now we’ve discovered that what they were chasing was only an illusion. Many of them probably told themselves that they were doing it in order to assure the well-being of their families – to give their children everything they needed for a good life. But at what cost? Judith Warner writes about expecting to feel vindicated when the financial services industry collapsed. But it didn’t turn out that way. There was so little meaning there that even seeing them get their just deserts offered very little satisfaction. The effects of the economy’s rise and fall may not have been quite so extreme around here, but as I talk to all of you, you are feeling it. Your work hours limit your time with your children and families. Households in our church have been affected by layoffs and the diminished value of retirement savings. During the last several months, people seem exhausted and depleted – not wanting to do anything but get through the next day.
I’ve been trying to get a sense of what all of this could end up meaning. The belief that we would be better or happier if we just had a little more money in the bank or a few more things in our possession was a distraction from dealing with the reality of who we truly are – human beings who cannot perfect ourselves and our lives through our own efforts and accomplishments. Now, that illusion has been shattered. There is nothing left to chase; nothing to distract us from the real work of being human: honoring our God, making sense of our lives, building relationships and living well in community. Today’s Old Testament lesson is a time-honored starting point for that effort and this is a good a place as any to undertake it.
This week, even if you are feeling exhausted and fearful, connect with someone else who is worn out with worry or fear. Take action in support of someone who has been hurt by the economy. Watching millionaire swindlers being hauled off to jail on television was never going to give anyone a sense of justice being done. What could make things right is the reality that underlies the commandments and today’s gospel lesson: our ability and willingness to engage our sense of who and how God created us to be – here and now, in the wreckage of a culture and an economy that worked very hard to convince us we were or should be something very different. When you go out from here today, do it resolved to live in a manner that expresses your love for God and neighbor.