SCRIPTURE: John 2:13-22
TEXT: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” THEME: Kicking out the market to be God’s agents. INTRODUCTION I like the illustration of preparing for Christmas by coming to a Christmas Eve candle lighting service, only to find that the pews had been taken out and craft fair booths were set up for last minute shoppers. The per booth cost, a percentage of their profits and the introduction of new people to the church were all part of a marketing strategy for Wailuku Union. This might have been how Jesus felt about the temple, when he arrives to prepare for the Passover only to find that it was filled with live animals, vendors and money changers. Expectations for a worshipful experience were shattered, as he fashioned whatever he could, to chase these violators of the truth out. SCRIPTURE I wonder if this blatant display of livestock and money changers is a warning to us, of the more subtle, insidious, attitudes of the marketplace that we carry, in the way we think about our faith? Pastor Wayne Ibara of Makiki Christian Church, shared a couple of articles from Alan Roxburgh about Neoliberalism. As far as I can tell, there is nothing ‘new’ or ‘liberal’ about this. This is a culture, based on the marketplace or economics (or greed). In it, we have our meaning according to our role to the marketplace. We have our value defined by what we can contribute to the marketplace. We have our worth by what we are able to get from the marketplace and the marketplace directs our actions and activities. So, when Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple, he is saying that this marketplace system is going to crash. Something else is going to replace the temple and be resurrected in its place. When you read things like Apple News on your phone, it can take you down rabbit holes of reading. I ended up reading an article on Vanity Fair about a fallen pastor from New York. Gifted in Music this pastor attracted Mega Church status with healing, fellowship, grace and a contemporary spin of Christianity. But the marketplace was deeply engrained in this American pastor. He didn’t practice what he preached. He abused his power over vulnerable volunteers and staffers. He was lured by prosperity, became an elitist, created an environment of cliques and favoritism with no diversity. He had a green room where he chatted with celebrities before the service but he had no interaction with his congregants. APPLICATION The market place is such a seductive force, and so much of how we think, if our eyes are not opened to its influences. As Jesus drives out the overt signs of the market from the house of worship, he predicts the temple’s destruction. How does the Resurrected Jesus replace the Marketplace worship? Alan Roxburgh calls the church “God’s Agents”, living counter to the culture of marketplace. This is where the Mega Church pastor got seduced, instead of serving, he wanted to be served. Instead of getting his value from God he sought value from the populist, celebrities, money, power and privilege. Instead of the stewardship of the gifts of God, he used a prosperity gospel as a disguised pyramid scheme for his wealth. Instead of relying on God’s direction and help, he followed the marketplace and counted chariots and horses (a reference to King David who disobeyed God and waged into battle on his own) to do what he wanted. At this writing of the Gospel of John, about 70 AD, the temple in Jerusalem was already destroyed. Jesus cleaning the temple in the second chapter of this Gospel may be addressing the question, “What do we do now that we are unable to worship in the temple?” Jesus invites us to worship God in a new way without sacrifices as payments for our sin (as a marketing transaction of goods for services). Instead, we are drawn into a relationship with God and welcomed as adopted children, into the family of God. There is acceptance, forgiveness, an inheritance, love, belonging, fellowship and community in this covenant. The rest of the Gospel of John spells out what this relationship with God and new worship looks like. Jesus and John the Baptist, identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God that signals Death to pass over us with resurrection. Jesus and Nicodemus where we are born again. Jesus and the woman at the well with living water and worship in spirit and truth. Jesus and the woman caught in adultery where we are not condemned but treated with love and compassion. This is so much more than just a debt reconciliation, of ritual sacrifice of animals as payment, so we can continue to do what we want. Being God’s Agent is not only about us and our status with God, but it is about joining God in what God is doing. It is keeping our eyes open to what God is doing and to those who are being ignored, or need help, or listening to, and hearing how God is calling us. This is not doing good works, although what we do is good. But it is a process of discernment; Studying the Bible and discovering truth, then by finding practical ways to put that truth into action. Prayer, talking story with God as we ask God to help others and ourselves. Lifting our eyes to see what God is doing, in our neighborhood, in the world, by reading other authors, listening to speakers, being in conversations with others, watching a webinar. We do all of this to help us to discern God’s call of us. Alan Roxburgh lifted up a few things caused by the prevalent Marketplace culture; The rich and poor disparity, where while the 1% have increased in wealth but the 50% have not seen an increase in wages. The Marketplace culture increases loneliness. Young people can no longer live where they were born and grew up. And there is anxiety, even in teens, as they think about their future and if there is a place where they will be able to afford or belong. Do you see that these are some of the answers, when our neighbors ask us why we are building these 40 rental units? It is because we want to provide a place for our children to live where they have grown up. If the rich are not going to give them an increase in their wages, we can combat that by providing them with a place that they can afford. We want to form a community that they can belong to with us as neighbors, in this great neighborhood, where there are spiritual homes where they can discover their worship of Jesus. New life, that can be integrated into our neighborhood, young life added to our already vibrant community. CONCLUSION I think I should have titled this sermon “Good News in the Hood’”. Short for neighborhood. I didn’t get that until now. I always thought it was the ‘hood’ that covered an engine on a car. Ha ha. But the neighborhood is our home and our home is a house. And Jesus is moving us from the perfunctory acts of religious people, to becoming a people who act according to the real faith that they have, in a living God, as their acts of worship. It is taking the God’s House into the streets, through the resurrected temple that Jesus builds in each of our lives, and gathered as the People of God. Breaking down the market place attitudes that control us, for building up the House of God to inhabit our thinking.
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