Opening Prayer
Truth be told, Jesus,
There are lots of tables that need
overturning in our lives.
Beneath the veneer of
respectability, the tidy rows, and neat regulations
hide dark
addictions and angry judgements, hungry greeds and heartless rejections.
We know the pain—and so do those
around us— of keeping up the facade.
What a relief
it would be to have it all upset, smashed, scattered, destroyed.
So, perhaps, Jesus, today you could
pay us a visit,
and help us to
radically rearrange the furniture of our lives.
Amen.
They came into Jerusalem. After
entering the temple, he threw out those who were selling and buying there. He
pushed over the tables used for currency exchange and the chairs of those who
sold doves. He didn't allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He
taught them, "Hasn't it been written, My house will be called a house of
prayer for all nations? But you've turned it into a hideout for crooks."
The chief priests and legal experts heard this and tried to find a way to
destroy him. They regarded him as dangerous because the whole crowd was
enthralled at his teaching.
I am angry this week.
The surging pandemic…more shootings of people of color…the continuing Asia and
Pacific Islander hate…mass shootings…the ongoing uncertainty of the future of
the UMC. Then you add climate change, partisan politics, crazy US congressmen,
Qanon, and all the rest. I am angry.
Growing up I was told that a “good Christian” person didn’t get angry. That you didn’t allow for such a base emotion to be expressed. After all, we follow Jesus Christ the bringer of peace, the mender of divisions, the alternative to the violent empire of Rome. The serene and passive, compassionate and calm Savior who shows us that we are to overcome our animalistic responses, like anger, with forgiveness and empathy.
I confess that I never quit got this. I was often told that one of the unique things about our faith is that we follow someone that was fully human and fully divine. That Jesus was a human like me, with the same emotions. And when this passage about the Temple money changers and merchants was read, I really got confused about anger and its appropriateness as a Christian emotion.
In our four canonical Gospels (the ones in the Bible) there are only 18 events, stories or situations that appear in all of them. Of these eleven are Holy Week scenes and three deal with historical moments – John the Baptist’s story, Jesus’ baptism, and the beginning of his ministry. That leaves only 4 other events or stories or situations: Jesus feeding the crowds, Peter’s confession of faith, Jesus being anointed by Mary and, you may have guessed it, the Cleansing of the Temple. Of the events, stories, or situations that are contained in all four Gospels this is the only one where Jesus is reacting to a situation where things have gotten so sidewise of their original intent.
I think Jesus was angry when he entered the Temple and saw what was going on. The Holy was made mundane, the intent of sacrifice was being subverted and the entirety of the nature and reason for worship was being missed.
The Temple as the residence of God on earth made it a holy, sacred space and to have the activities of the marketplace happening within that holy residence would have been a violation of Judaism’s theology of hospitality and home. It would have been a profaning of the sanctity of home and hearth.
The theology of sacrifice being narrowed down to commercial transactions would have stood in direct contrast to what was meant by the acts of sacrifice. The thing, the amount, the quality of it were not what was important, it was the heart of the person, their intent, their desire to right a wrong or offer thanksgiving and praise by making a hard choice or a serious commitment that had an impact on their life.
To have the activity within the space of worship be somehow narrowed down to transactions – you exchange your money to make your financial offering acceptable, you buy the correct animal to offer the orthodox offering – misses the meaning and intent of worship. Worship is moments of thanksgiving and praise. It is not a prescribed formula as much as a heartfelt expression. Completing ritualized activity in the correct way to guarantee an outcome are not the point. Praising and thanking God are.
Jesus was angry then and I think Jesus is angry now for similar reasons. Life, holy and sacred to God is seen by our world as expendable and the holy is made mundane. Loving God and neighbor means possibility sacrificing what is good for me and what is mine for the common good, but we focus on what is best for me and mine. Worship is thanksgiving and praise to and for God and God’s gifts given to me and us all, but we see it as something that is to make me happy, to make me feel good.
Not taking the pandemic seriously, kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed man for 9+ minutes, violence by police against people of color, racism and hate toward anyone, mass shootings, and all the rest should make us all angry and we should turn over the tables and drive these things from the holy residence of God – our hearts, minds, spirits, and the blessedness of creation and the holiness of human relationships.
I think we need the angry Christ to be our icon for this time – we need to remember that Christ stood against economic oppression, greed, and all that we would erect to keep things comfortable for some at the expense of others. Yes, we need an angry Christ, and we need to be angry too.
Closing Prayer
Tilt the scales,
O God of the mustard seed:
That the poor shall see justice.
Share the feast,
O God of Eden’s abundant garden:
That each crop may fetch a fair price.
Upset the tables,
O God of the upside-down Kingdom:
That the least can benefit from their
trade.
Open our eyes,
O God of life in all its fullness:
That we may learn to walk the way of
your son
tilting, sharing, upsetting this world.
Not satisfied
until the products we bring to our
table
Give a better deal, to all who hunger
for one.
In His name, Amen.
~ posted on the Fairtrade Foundation website. http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/get_involved/campaigns/fairtrade_places_of_worship/fairtrade_churches/ideas_for_worship.aspx
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