Good Morning Friends,
The setting for today’s lectionary reading is the days before the Passover and the final week before Jesus’ Crucifixion. Most likely Jesus was staying in the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany at night and going to the Temple to teach during the days. And one day he saw something in the Temple that really disturbed him. The behavior of the people in the Temple…the house of God was not right. It was all about revenue and not reverence. Jesus, in a rather courageous act, took the matter into his own hands and ran the Temple merchants off. And whether it occurred at the beginning of his ministry, as in the book of John or at the end as in today’s scripture or both, this cleansing would become of messianic relevance as an act not seeking reform as much as replacement of the Temple in our very bodies until his return. The chief priests could not stop him. Jesus could not be cajoled. His purity had become an offense. His demands were postulated by officials as ridiculous. The will to evil overwhelmed them. They were addicted. So today we analyze the meaning of the cleansing of the Temple and then consider what Jesus would think of the way people gather in pews on Sunday to remember why they are there. And we wonder, if Jesus came for a visit, to our Sunday service, Bible Study, prayer or zoom meeting, Would Our Worship Today Measure Up As Sweet Then Bitter?
Scripture: Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Mark 11:11 (NRSV)
Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, “Take it, and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth.” So I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. Then they said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”
Revelation 10:8-11 (NRSV)
Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; and he said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.” Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.
Luke 19:45-48 (NRSV)
One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.
Acts 16:16-19 (NRSV)
Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Philippians 4:8 (NRSV)
Message: Every moment of every minute in every hour of every day, we are thinking. We are even thinking right now as we approach the end of the liturgical year and the beginning of Advent. But the information overflow is difficult to manage and sometimes gets a bit messy. So too, we live in a culture where there is massive confusion about how to worship God. In some places, worship has degenerated into online entertainment which is at first sweet but also after a while can be bitter to our spiritual and emotional stomachs. In some ways it reminds me of the story of Paul casting a prophetic spirit out of a slave girl who is being used as a profitable seer by her owners. By casting the less powerful demon out of the girl, Paul witnesses the power of the God he worships. Because it occasions their economic loss, Paul’s deed enrages the girl’s owners much like how Jesus enraged the Temple officials. Worship has a way of becoming distorted. Worship has a way of pandering to the economic realities. For centuries, the Church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment but not so today. There is a cultural subversion of the Biblical faith often played out in the entertainment industry. Earthly entertainment and profit have a way of crowding out what is good. And the thing is that it can even seem ok at the time and only unsettles us once the reality has been digested. Too often it is a slippery slope. But it is perhaps not right to view all entertainment and technology as all bad. God has a way of redeeming things. The distortion of entertainment in worship is a complex problem. You see, Jesus raised a voice against the distortion of worship he found at the temple in Jerusalem because of what possessed the worshipers. And He certainly did something about the unholy worship there that we should take note of. True worshipers do not seek entertainment alone but transformation. True worshipers do not seek profit but to be released from the addictions of the mind. True worshipers want to worship in the power and spirit and truth that prompts in us a conversion of the mind and spirit so we might have a meaningful relationship with God. You see, Jesus’ cleansing of the temple is really a warning to all of us as well as a strategic move by Jesus to force the hand of those in power so that his journey to the cross would be set.
And So, there is a point when time runs out and perhaps, we are to think about it as the liturgical year comes full circle. And at this time each one of us should heed God’s counsel and examine our own ways worship of God that led us to the cross before it is too late. We really should not think that God will accept us and our worship simply because we go through the act of worship. God has done everything He possibly can to get rebellious humanity to turn from their sins and still they refuse, and so the pronouncement in today’s passage from Revelation is that there will be a time when the option of repentance is over. So, worship is serious business. Going through the motions in a worship service will not bring us forgiveness and fellowship with God. Communion is not fast food but a meditation of the heart drawing us into the Spirit of Christ’s Peace. We need to learn that true worship flows out of this relationship with God. And worship only thrives because we have faith in Jesus Christ and are repenting of our sins. So here is the takeaway for our situation: worship only becomes meaningful because we are thinking in a way that is honorable and pure and worthy of praise, and because we have learned to worship God in spirit and in truth individually. Friends, there is power in the worship experience when it is reinforced in our lives both as individuals and as a community. But the reality is that the judgment of God like false worship can seem at first sweet like when we think of the eradication of evil from the world. But how bitter the judgment will be when it comes if we have missed out on a relationship with God. Friends, God’s job is judgment. Our job is love. There comes a point where it would seem that repentance is no longer even an option. In other words, there is a point when time has run out. And when that point is, I do not know, but if you are tempted to think you have reached that point, the end of the worship rope, then be assured there is still more. As long as we still retain the knowledge of God’s love as well as ultimate judgement and our need to repent, the story will go on.
Pray that we seek ways to love to worship. Pray we examine our own worship of God and how it is both sweet and bitter. Pray that our worship is never boring. Pray we are zealous for the pure worship of God but not in its seeking fall prey to a dualistic view of reality. Pray we are passionate for inspired teaching of the word of God. Pray we worship in Spirit and in Truth. Pray we realize that worship begins and ends with the cleansing of our minds. Pray God’s blueprint for our thinking becomes a blueprint for our worship. Pray we realize that we are to become the Temple for God until Jesus returns. Pray the entertainment we seek strengthens our relationship with God and not just the bank accounts of gatekeepers and money changers. Pray we seek what is best for a strong relationship with God.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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