St. Andrew’s Pictou, March 19^th 2006 Lent III

 

Beyond All Religious Systems

 

Exodus 20:1-17

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

John 2:13-22

 

Life happens!

 

There is no doubt about it: Life just happens, and whatever we believe or whatever we do, it just keeps happening.

 

Because life keeps happening, we need to deal with it to some degree; the degree is different for every single one of us for every reason under the sun. Some of us are brilliant at 9 years of age, while others seem slow at 30. So whoever we are, or whatever age we are, it might look like we are always running to catch up to someone else; it always seems that someone is ahead of us in the life game.

 

One way that we could have a more level playing field is to see what seems to work; what works in the area of human coping strategies. In fact we could just ask ourselves the question “What are the core elements and issues of the human experience that each person must face?”

 

The three texts today give us a cosmic overview of four great realities:

-the Jewish law we know as “The Ten Commandments,” first given by God at Mount Sinai,

-the greatness of Greek wisdom or philosophy,

-the cultic worship of temple life in ancient Israel,

-and the passion of Jesus Christ.

 

You might remember that Pilate asked, “What is truth?” It is helpful to know that “Truth” has to do with “relationship,” so we find that the four great realities are… related.

 

Imagine that! The four great realities in today’s texts are related.

 

Long before we memorized horoscope trivia, there was a time when all Christian children memorized “The Ten Commandments.” Now you could have a trivia game and find out how many Commandments an adult could actually name.

 

Consider #1: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other God’s before me.”

 

Today we reject authority, but Jewish Law Commandment #1 says that “…you shall have no other Gods before me.”

 

We are not to make any idols: we are not to put anything in the place of God as the paramount reality in our lives, yet as a culture we spend millions and millions of dollars doing exactly that. It might look odd to us that some religions have multi-gods but we have more idols than you can shake a stick at: money, celebrity, some kinds of feminism, political correctness, gambling, cars, trucks, and on as far as you want to go.

 

All of those commandments, not being jealous of other people’s things, not stealing or killing, all of the commandments together have just one goal: they seek to position each of us in the context of right relationships with God and each other.

 

In the reading to the church at Corinth, Paul is taking two polarities and saying that the cross of Christ is the lowest of the lows for the Jews and a movement that had no respect for Greek philosophy: the cross was therefore foolishness to the Greeks.

 

The exact same thing is true today: many see the Christian faith as being irrelevant to their lives; irrelevant that is until something happens to destroy their idols:

-the Gospel message is hokey until youthful vigour turns into sickness or death,

-the cross of Jesus seems quaint until you fall on your knees at your own cross of grief,

-the Bible stories seem like they are way off there until the events of life bring them home to roost,

-until human betrayals and self styled religion fall apart, the cross of Jesus seems like an historical museum-piece from the past.

 

I saw on TV the other evening a man holding his new born daughter in his heavily tattooed arms. He said that the only thing permanent in life are tattoos and his new daughter, so he rushed over to have her names tattooed on his wrists of what he called “my” daughter. It appeared to be a sort of bonding experience with the guy that did the tattoo and they had a big hug when the names were added. I as wondering what the mother of the child thought as she seemed to be an invisible participant having provided this child. I was thinking that her comfort and support might come before his race to the tattoo parlour, but it seemed that she had fulfilled her task. This man had been adopted as a child, so his daughter was the first time he had a blood relative that the knew.

 

In a way this was a touching story, but I can only shudder to think what will happen if something disturbs the veneration of his worship as it so easily can. The father called this girl, his angel. How do you parent “an angel?” Can a child live out their childhood as an angel and what will that expectation do to them? How will the mother compete with an angel? He may develop other names for her.

 

I remember a man coming to me about his wife who he had treated as an angel because she was so good. He was so taken by her goodness and seeing her as angel that (as sick as this sounds) he even bragged to other men that they couldn’t seduce his angel.

 

When she disappeared one day and he called the police with regards to her disappearance, she was found in a motel room with another man and he was totally devastated by the personal pain and humiliation of the disclosure along with the whole police force as witnesses to his “fallen angel” in a way that he never dreamed possible.

 

 

“For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”

 

The temple in Jerusalem was the central place and act of worship to the one God.

 

“This vast courtyard was one of the meeting places of the ancient world. In those says there were about three million Jews in the country and about four million spread across the Mediterranean world. Anyone who could possibly afford to come to the Temple did so. As soon as the visitor climbed the vast steps and entered the courtyard, he had to buy something to make a sacrifice. Prices were high, and the only money that was accepted was the local currency, the shekel. Every visitor had to change money. The rates were exorbitant. The treasury of the Temple was one of the ancient world’s great banking houses.

 

In this scene Jesus is disgusted. Disgust turns to anger, and anger turns to action. Obviously he makes quit a disturbance.

 

He is not dismissing the worship of the Temple. He is not attacking the spiritual tradition that has formed his whole life and will remain in the hearts of the first generation of his own followers as long as they live in or near Jerusalem. He is attacking the perversion of this ancient and glorious tradition: Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!

For Jesus this is a sacred place, the dwelling place of God. The Jews who gather around him ask, What sign can you show us for doing this?”   O’Driscoll p. 25, 26.

 

Jesus Christ gives them the answer: he does a play on the work Temple: “Destroy this temple and I will build it back in three days!”

 

The people of course think he means the great building, but he is talking about himself.

 

Destroy Jesus and he will come back in three days.

 

They did and he did!

 

All of these readings point in one direction and that direction is Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus Christ is a judge beyond all religious systems: beyond the Jewish systems, beyond the Christian system, beyond Christian philosophy and ethics, beyond Christian Churches and courts, they are all under the judgment of Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus Christ is the One who was born, suffered, died, and rose to bring them all into being.

 

You and I and all the things I just mentioned are only as good as we can be Christ-like, because in his birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection Jesus Christ is a reality beyond all religious systems.

 

Life happens and will continue to happen, but in following Jesus, in truth we will be able to have the freedom to live our life in peace, find our true goals in life, receive the healing we need, our hope and the promise of eternity.

 

AMEN                      Rev. Alan Stewart