Living in coronaviriusworld 254: Third Sunday in Lent, WInter lingers on..

 3/5

RBG visits our local Venezulean coffee shop

On Saturday, the NewYork City Presbytery held its fifth "virtual" meeting. And after all this time, there are still serious glitches. The Moderator running the meeting vanishes into cyber space and as Moderator Elect, it falls to me to step in and take over.  So much for our rehearsal and carefully worked out script.

Our family from across the country enjoys our weekly gatherings in my mother's ZOOM room.  If we get the last meeting of the day, we can usually stretch it beyond the allotted 15 minutes. Its the most we've all been in the some place at the same time since her 90th birthday party almost 3 years ago. But I still want to know when I can go see her in person. 

the "Relics"

Pat O

After four months,  Bar 9 has opened up for live music again.  I have to go do that. It takes getting used to.  Maybe it can last this time.

3/6

And the Beverley congregation gathers on "conference call" once again...here's what I had to say:

SO it’s that time of year when we start to get a little impatient. We’re stretching towards spring, but you still wake up and it’s under 30. The winter will linger…I spent five days in Florida…I’d get up first thing and put on my shorts and t shirt and walk for half an hour in the sun and then sit and have my breakfast by the pool. I fully intended to keep my prebreakfast walks going when I came back home but the first morning I woke up and it was 25 degrees, I’m like, uh, nooo….we’re straining towards spring…winter lingers on..

We’ve had our vaccinations or are waiting for our vaccinations, or just trying to figure out how to get them. We open more an more and yet…still….I sat in ballparks at 20% capacity …everyone in masks…no cash handling…only cards...we’re back but we’re not and just saying we are, like Texas or Mississippi, doesn’t make it so..we’re straining for spring…winter is lingering on…yesterday was our 5th virtual Presbytery meeting…

We begin to get impatient…

Well…talk about impatient…let’s talk about Jesus…in today’s gospel lesson, he flat out loses it.  He walks into the temple, turns over tables of money changers, scatters their coins and drives out all the sheep and cattle with a whip!  What happened to gentle Jesus meek and mild?

This is one of the few gospel stories that is in all 4 gospels. SO you figure something like this had to have happened. But check out the differences…they matter. In the other gospels, this event happens at the end of Jesus’ ministry, after his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. And becomes the kind of last straw that seals his fate with the religious authorities. 

In John, it’s at the very beginning of his ministry, right after he turns the water into wine at the wedding at Cana in Galilee. It's is this “cleansing the temple” that defines his ministry. 

Note a couple of other things…he drives out the cattle and sheep, not the people.  In the other gospels, he accuses the vendors of cheating, of creating a den of thieves in the temple. But not in John. What’s going on?And why is he so mad?

First, what are they doing? Any good worship service at the temple requires sacrificing animals, actually a sheep. But for those of lesser means, a dove will do.  And to pay for these, people can’t use they regular money because their empire money has portraits of Caesar on it, not kosher, so they have to trade their empire money for temple money. If the temple is going to exist at all, they need people doing these jobs. The gift shops are needed. 

Again, why is Jesus upset? Not because they are dishonest.

First, there is the issue of exploitation. The cost, even just for doves, was just too high.

Second, this whole system of sacrificing animals puts a barrier between the people and God.

And finally, peoples' desire to be in relationship with God has become monetized and is being used for material gain.

In John, Jesus is not saying they are being dishonest, he’s saying the whole idea is wrong. You don’t need to be killing animals to make God happy. You don’t need special rituals or even a priest standing between you and God, And you sure better not be trying to sell a connection to God. 

In a sentence, Jesus is saying you don’t need the temple. 

They don’t understand what he’s saying about the temple. Which leads to a conversation of classic misunderstanding. It's taken 46 years to build,  He’s going to do a complete reboot in 3 days?

What Jesus is saying is at the very center of what we celebrate at Christmas, the incarnation. God becoming human. And if God is present in Jesus, if God abides in Jesus, that’s all you need. Don’t need no temple. Nor St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, St.John the Divine,Riverside, 5th Avenue Pres or Brick. You just need Jesus. Follow me? No wonder he upset people.

Certainly from Oral Roberts' prayer cloths, endowed stained glass  windows, we keep finding ways to sell peoples’ desire to get close to God. 

So I’d like us to ask some questions of ourselves on this Sunday.

1. What tables would Jesus overturn today? Can you name them?
2. What barriers do we put up between people and God?  How can we begin to deconstruct them?
3. To what extent has our church been monetized, that is, what happens when a church is completely dependent on rental income, say? 
4. Jesus drives out the sheep and cattle. The vendors remain. Probably pretty shaken, but still there. What happens next? What does he say to them? Could we find ourselves comfortable worshipping with money changers and animal sellers? Catholic priests? (Rabbis? Imams?)

This message is especially valuable in coronavirusworld. We don’t need to be in our building to feel close to God. We can see each other on screens and hear each others’ voices over the phone and can feel God’s presence in our midst.

Jesus has done a radical thing.  He’s taken away every barrier between us and our God. We don’t have to go any special place or perform any special ritual…God is with s…Jesus is all the temple we need..

During our season of waiting…during our season of straining towards spring, towards release from the captivity and exile of covid, let us seek to remove any barriers we may have place between our self and others, our self and knowing that our house and every house can be the house of God if we only can be open to it. Jesus is all the temple we need. ‘

Amen…..

Our family gathers from across the sea again. My oldest son is growing more and more restless with Germany's complete lockdown. For fewer and fewer discernible reasons. Texas looks more appealing to him all the time. We can't believe it's been since a year ago August since we've seen our grandchildren. 

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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.