With college basketball’s March Madness
starting soon it makes me think about all that goes into making a game
happen. Not only do you need players, coaches, and refs, but
countless other things like lights, buzzers, scoreboards, cameras, and video
streams, to name a few. But imagine with me if someone came into a
game with a giant pair of hedge trimmers and cut all the electrical cords - the
lights would go out, the scoreboard go black, the cameras stop
filming. If something like that happened we wouldn’t say that the
person who did it was “cleansing” the basketball arena. We’d say
that he had stopped the game.
In the same way that you need electricity in
a basketball stadium, you need cattle and sheep, doves and money changers for
people to worship in the Jewish temple. And it is into this arena,
the temple in Jerusalem, that Jesus enters with his own type of hedge trimmers
- a handmade whip, in this case - to cut the cord and stop the temple
game. The gospel of John tells us that, “Making a whip of cords,
[Jesus] 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.”
What’s going on here? Well, the
gospel of Matthew, Mark, and Luke tells us that Jesus is cleansing God’s temple
from corruption, accusing the sellers of turning this holy place into a “den of
robbers.” But the gospel of John has a slightly different take on
what’s going on. Jesus isn’t quibbling about shady business practices,
but calling for a dismantling of the entire system of sacrifice. The
big issue here is - where is God actually located?
Now back in Jesus’ day good and faithful Jews
would answer that God is in the temple. That the divine literally
dwelt within the walls made of brick and mortar. The temple was kind
of like God’s house, but it seems that he had a terrible case of agoraphobia
because he never left. People had to come to him in the temple. But
you couldn’t show up empty handed. The Jewish law required that all
worshippers come with some type of sacrificial
offering. That’s why all those animals and money changers were
in the temple in the first place. They provided what was necessary
to be in God’s presence.
So when Jesus stops all of that everyone was
shocked, not only by his actions but by his words. "Destroy
this temple,” he says, “and in three days I will raise it
up." No one knew what he meant by that. It didn’t
make any sense. Only with hindsight did the disciples realize that the temple
Jesus was talking about was his own body. That Jesus was giving a
new answer to the question, where is God? No longer was God in a
temple made of brick and mortar, but a temple of flesh and blood. In
Jesus’ was where God was most present.
But even that didn’t turn out to be the final
answer. For at the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry in the gospel of
John he prays for something more, “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you,
may they (all my followers) also be in us...I in them and you in
me.” Now it’s hard to keep track of who is in whom, but what it’s
all about is a mystical, mysterious being in one another - God in us and we in
God. And after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension that prayer
is answered by the Holy Spirit. God is now everywhere...and in
particular in each one of us. The temple of God, where God is most
present, is truly made of flesh and blood, our flesh and blood for the temple
of God is found in you. And in every other person - no
exceptions.
I pray we already know that. Yet
sometimes it’s hard to remember. Certain circumstances may prompt us
to ask, “Where is God?” But know this any where, any time, any place
provides a chance to encounter the God of grace that loves us beyond all
measure. When you share food with someone who is hungry,
that’s the flesh and blood temple of God. When you are in the
hospital with someone you love, that’s the flesh and blood temple of
God. When you work for justice and peace, when you keep watch with
the dying, when you forgive someone who’s hurt you - all those times and so
many more are when the divine is present in the flesh and blood temple of
God. Now if we’re lucky we are aware of it in the moment, but other
times, maybe even most of the time, we recognize those holy encounters only
with hindsight - just like the disciples did in our story
today. They didn’t get what Jesus was doing or saying as he made a
mess of the temple. It was on the other side of the resurrection
that they were able look back and see what had been true all along - that God
had been with them in the flesh and blood temple of Jesus.
And here’s something else you probably
already know. That is that you don’t have to be in church to find
God. But before you rush out those doors and I never see you again -
and then I’ll terribly miss you - let me say that I believe coming together on
a regular basis to worship the God of love helps us to more fully be the flesh
and blood temple of God out in the world. For when we come together
in church as members of the Body of Christ it is a special time where we pray
for each other, encourage one another, and sometimes even challenge each
other. When we go it alone in our relationship with God, it’s
remarkable how often God starts thinking exactly as we do. Being
part of a community guards against our tendency towards narcissism. It’s
been said that finding God in nature all by yourself, well, that’s
easy. The real miracle is finding God in the company of people
who are just as annoying as you are, and as I am. But here at church
we get to practice all that, practice looking for and learning to do the work
of God so that we are better at it when we go out in the world during the rest
of our week. For the world keeps asking the question, “Where
is God?” And we are called to answer in both what we do and what we
say that God is with us, always, in flesh and blood.
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