It’s Not About Bingo=

John 2:13-22<= /o:p>

Providence United Presbyterian Church

March 15, 2009 (Le= nt 3B)

Rev. Dr. Mary Jane= Hitt

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I grew up = in a church that didn’t believe in fundraising. Or let me rephrase that. They believed in fundraising, as l= ong as by “fundraising” you meant “tithing.” People gave a tenth of their incom= e to the church, and every penny that went into the church budget came through t= he offerings of the people. Even special mission projects outside the usual church budget were funded through offerings. =

But one of= my mother’s best friends, Wilma, who lived three doors down on the other side of Junior Avenue, attended a different church. = Her church held bake sales and spaghetti dinners and bazaars to raise money to = run the church and for the various mission projects that they supported. And Wilma would always tell my mom= about those events, and invite her to participate. But she would not! She was a p= urist (and, I’m afraid, a rather self-righteous purist, at that!) when it came to money and the church. If we didn’t hold fundraising dinners at our own church, she certainly was = not going to support such events at someone else’s.

But there was one thing on which my mother and Wilma agreed those many years ag= o: Protestants didn’t play Bingo! (Or, to be more precise, Protestant= s didn’t use Bingo to raise money for the church.)&= nbsp; Bingo was something Catholics did!&= nbsp; So we did not. To my m= om and Wilma, Bingo sort of brought to mind today’s gospel lesson. They were just waiting for Jesus to storm into a church Bingo hall with a whip in his hand, overturning tables = and scattering cards and chips and numbered balls all over the place and shouti= ng, “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”

But I’m here to tell you today that our gospel lesson is not about Bingo! It’s about somet= hing much more.

Now the story that we read together this morning is a familiar one, often refer= red to as the “cleansing” of the temple. Jesus had gone to Jerusalem to cel= ebrate the Jewish Passover, and when he got to the temple he saw, in the outer sec= tion of that huge facility, the usual scene:&nb= sp; There were animals and birds to be sold for the people’s sacrifices, and here were money changers who took the coins that people bro= ught and converted them into Jewish shekels, the only currency that was acceptab= le in the temple.

Now that was a completely normal temple scene in Jesus’ day. And if it seems odd to us that peo= ple would have to buy an animal to sacrifice, the system was actually set up to provide a service to worshippers. Instead of traveling many hours or even days to Jerusalem with your best cow in tow, not knowing for sure whether it would meet the standard of a sacrificial an= imal, people could simply buy an already approved animal when they got to the tem= ple. And, since you couldn’t use = coins with the emperor’s picture on them to buy your sacrificial animal, you needed money changers to convert your Roman money into shekels. It really made a lot of sense, if = you think about it. The temple wa= s set up so that these activities could take place in the outer courtyard –= the area where even non-Jews were admitted.

So the question before us today is this: Why did Jesus get so mad?&= nbsp; What was so infuriating that he effectively shut the temple down, at Passover (the very busiest time of the year), driving out the animals and birds, scattering the money changers’ coins and turning their tables upside down? Why would he act= so violently, setting the temple authorities against him from the very beginni= ng of his ministry, as John tells the story?

My mother would have had a simple answer to these questions: Jesus got so mad because you’= ;re not supposed to sell things in a place set aside for worship, she would have said. It was wrong two thousa= nd years ago and it is wrong now. End of story. <= /p>

Wilma would have had a more nuanced understanding: The problem wasn’t that they= were selling animals in the temple, she would argue. The problem probably was that they= were charging too much. So Jesus g= ot mad because the system was taking advantage of the people. The animals were too expensive, an= d the exchange rate was too low. So= meone was getting rich off the backs of the worshippers. So Jesus decided to clean up the m= ess – to “cleanse” the temple – to get it back on track= . That is how Wilma would have under= stood the story. Maybe that’s= how you have learned it, as well.

But I think there is a whole lot more to it than that.= I don’t really think this is about “cleansing” the temple. I think it is about destroying it altogether. Jes= us wasn’t just trying to get rid of some scoundrels who may have been ma= king a profit off of the system. H= e was challenging the religious system itself – he was turning it upside do= wn, just like the money changers’ tables – and in so doing, setting himself at odds with the entire religious establishment. He was declaring a new way of worshipping God – not the way of blood sacrifice, but the way of just= ice and service and love.

As Christi= ans, we have come to understand that, at least in part. We don’t perform animal sacr= ifices when we come to worship. We b= elieve that in the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are reconciled to God ̵= 1; that there is nothing more that needs to be done to win God’s favor.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'>

[And that, by the way, is why we Presbyterians don’t have an “altar” in our sanctuaries.&nb= sp; Oh, I know that we sometimes use that word to refer to the chancel or the communion table or the place where the Bible and candlesticks are locat= ed, but technically, we don’t have an “altar,” because an alt= ar is the place where a sacrifice is made, and we don’t gather to make a sacrifice.]

But back to the point of today’s Gospel:= Let’s not be too quick to let ourselves off the hook. No, we don’t gather here eac= h week to make animal sacrifices. We don’t have a bunch of cattle and sheep roaming around outside on the patio, or cages full of birds, or money changers in the narthex, ready to convert money with George Washington’s picture on it into more accept= able currency. That’s true enough. But I wonder . . . are there still ways in which the church of Jesus Christ is more like the temple establishment of Jesus’ day than we like to admit? I’m afraid there are, becaus= e in the years since Jesus lived, we who follow him have developed establishments – institutions – of our own.&n= bsp; And institutions just love rules.&n= bsp; For example:

· = In some chu= rches, only their own members may receive Communion;

· = In others, = only men may preach;

· = Some church= es require that your “dues” be paid before they will bury you;

· = Others requ= ire everyone, from richest to poorest, to give a tenth of their income to the church;

· = Some church= es play Bingo, and some wouldn’t dream of it.

And then there are the informal norms that develop in the institutional church, covering everything . . .

from how we dress when we gather to worship,

to who sits where,

to how we order the service,

to what kind of hymns we sing,

to what kind of instruments we use,

to how we include the children,

to how long the service should be.

There are oh, so many rules, both formal and informal, in the church of Jesus Chr= ist. No, we don’t sell animals for sacrifice, but we have our own ways of closing off access to our temples – of making sure that only those who follow the rules get in. We fall under the wisdom of the ma= rketplace, where you have to “pay to play” – not with money, not with sacrificial animals, but with obedience to man-made rules.

And Jesus will have none of it. Take those things out of here! he shouts. Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace! And so it is that Jesus replaces the wisdom of the world – the wisdom of the marketplace – with the wisdom of the cross. And in so doing, he turns upside down every barrier that would separate people from G= od.

Does that mean that we should try to worship together without any rules – without any traditions – without any behavioral norms? Of course not. That would be impossible. But it does mean this: We always have to test the rules o= f the church – my mother’s church, Wilma’s church, this church,= any church – against the wisdom of the cross. Because, to be blunt, Jesus didn&#= 8217;t die so that we would have a comfortable place to gather once a week to see = old friends and to enjoy the familiarity of worship with people just like us. <= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Jesus died so that the world might = be reconciled to God – so that the world might know the amazing love of God –= so that the world might live as it was created to live. No, it’s not about Bingo. The upside down good news of the G= ospel is this: Christ himself is our temple, and in that temple, all are welcome.=

Thanks be to God. Amen.

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