In the season of Lent, we spend time focusing
on events that led to Jesus’ crucifixion.
Jesus knew he had a limited time to reach the people with his message.
Therefore, he did more and more things that drew attention to that message.
Some of those things Jesus did were so upsetting to the people in charge of
Jerusalem they began to look for excuses to arrest Jesus. Listen now to the
story of one of the actions Jesus did that led to his arrest, as we read John
chapter 2, verses thirteen through twenty-two:
Scripture John 2: 13-22
When it was almost time for the Jewish
Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
In the temple courts he found people selling cattle,
sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.
So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the
temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money
changers and overturned their tables.
To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of
here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”
His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for
your house will consume me.”
The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can
you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I
will raise it again in three days.”
They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this
temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”
But the temple he had spoken of was his body.
After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled
what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that
Jesus had spoken.
Here
ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Let
us pray…
Message Beautiful Law
Jesus was not a happy camper when he
walked into the Temple courts a few days before his final Passover on
earth. He was very aware he was running out of time – Jesus knew there
were people in power who were threatened by his message, so threatened that
they were looking for ways to eliminate him. And, when he walked into the
Temple in the days leading up to Passover, Jesus walked into a chaotic mess. In
that day and age, faithful Jewish people were required to worship in the Temple
during the major religious festivals. Worship included sacrificing animals. An
exploitative economy had grown up around the Temple where people had to
exchange their money for temple coinage, incurring an exchange fee, and then
use their temple coinage to purchase at a premium animals for sacrifice from
the exclusive animal dealers in the Temple. There were many steps each
worshiper had to take and many expenses each worshiper incurred in order to
“properly” worship in the Temple…Lots of roadblocks were in place.
And, these roadblocks were contrary to what
Jesus stood for and taught. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said: “My house
shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” For
the Jewish people of Israel, the Temple was the place they came together to
worship God. Jesus didn’t want any obstacles to stand in the way of the people
who wanted to worship – he wanted everyone to have access to God – even if they
were poor, even if they were low-born, even if they had unsavory pasts, even if
they were viewed as the wrong kind of people to be there.
Sometimes, we also create barriers
for people to worship. When we look around our church, our architecture alone
is a barrier. There are people who are not comfortable entering a building that
looks so obviously like a traditional church. When Trinity was built in
the 1860s, it made sense to have the sanctuary on the second floor. But, having
to walk up stairs or use a stair-lift is not something all people can or will
do. Some people can’t hear very well in this space, despite our microphones.
Some people can’t see very well in this space. Some people find our pews
incredibly uncomfortable.
There are other, more subtle,
barriers that keep people from coming to worship. If you are someone who
struggles with knowing how to read, being handed one of our bulletins and
hearing that you need to look up things in the hymnal may be a barrier for you.
Speaking of hymnals, many people can’t read music and find the way songs are
laid out in our hymnals quite foreign to them. People who struggle with
addictions may find it alarming to be offered a tray of wine when we celebrate
Holy Communion. We unintentionally create barriers during our worship
services that cause people to struggle once they have come to worship.
But, a big barrier for people who
are Christian curious is that we have a cultural assumption that once you
become a Christian, you have to be perfect. No more mistakes, no more
misbehavior. In a world full of temptations, Christians apparently have to
restrain themselves from them all – no more junk food, no more rock music, no
more staying up late. Ned Flanders on the early seasons of the Simpsons
comes to mind – he was religious, friendly, and kind, but annoyed Homer because
Homer could never live up to his perfection.
At a funeral a few weeks ago, I
heard the guests joking around that they were surprised God didn’t strike them
dead when they walked through the doors of the church….these jokes point to our
cultural attitude that in order to come to church, you have to be perfect. We know
perfection is impossible. But, we still try to live up to our New Year's
Resolutions or give up so many things for Lent that we are only eating carrots
and lettuce for the six weeks.
We need to remember that the
perfection we strive for is impossible without God and God’s grace. God doesn’t
expect us to be perfect – instead, God asks us to strive for transformation. We
can always do things better, little by little…but perfection is not ever going
to happen.
We also need to promote the reality
that Jesus came for everyone, the holy people and the broken people. Church is
for people who have made mistakes and are striving to get things right…we are
trying to become better. We are working to do things better all the time.
Our responsibility is to work to
reduce barriers for people to join us here ...here at worship at Trinity
Christian UCC in Skippack PA. We need to invite our friends and family to join
us here. When they do, we need to help them understand the things that we are
doing during worship – when do we stand up, when do we sit down, where the
prayer of Confession is in the bulletin. As a community, though, we also need
to think about eliminating some of the barriers that are keeping people from
joining us in this particular place. I don’t think we will install an elevator
next week or give up liturgy that includes reading prayers together, but we
need to work to make our spaces as welcoming as possible and our worship
service not strange to people who haven’t been here before.
Jesus didn’t appreciate barriers
making it difficult for people to worship God. Let us work to get rid of the
barriers we create, whether they are literally discouraging people from coming
to worship here, or if they are attitudes about Christians that make people feel
they can’t be perfect enough to be followers of God.
May we do so with Love as our
guiding attitude today and all days. Amen.
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