The 3rd Sunday in Lent - Overturned tables or stable tables??

John 2: 13-22

Rarely do I tell a joke at the beginning of my sermon—actually I use very few jokes in any event.  It’s too easy to keep chuckling about the joke mentally and letting your mind wander.  But I’m taking the risk today, because this the perfect joke for Lent.  It’s perfect in that it frames the tension of between our fears of judgment and our faith.

Here it is:  The worship service has ended. The priest stands in the front doorway, shaking hands with parishioners as they leave. A mother, father and son have come down the steps and are walking away, perhaps to their car or to coffee hour in another building.  The child tugs on his dad’s sleeve to get his attention.  Then he asks, “Just WHEN were you going to tell me about hell?”

In medieval times we know that the church offered the faithful indulgences to free them from a certain amount of time in purgatory and prevent them from going to hell for their sins. Of course, these indulgences were sold to raise money to support the church. In Judaism from ancient times and in other religions, too, animals were sacrificed as a way to express one’s faith, garner favor with the divine and feed the leaders of ritual practices. By the time of Jesus, people were asked to contribute money as well.  The problem with the Roman coinage could be described as violating the second commandment about making idols.  The coins had Caesar’s image, a sacrilege if brought into the inner courts of the Temple to pay the temple tax.

The Protestant Reformation changed the way we understood the salvation of humanity.  Martin Luther, a leading reformer, taught that humanity was not earned, but given by God without merit by good deeds on our part.  He said it was God’s free gift of grace through faith in Jesus Christ as our redeemer from sin. Heaven is gained, and hell can be dodged through our faith.

Given Jesus’ prophetic anger at those merchants who assisted pilgrims and worshippers to meet the requirements of their religious expression—which by the way is in all four gospels—perhaps we should pause to think about our religious expression.  How do we understand appropriate religious expression? Why do we do we express ourselves in these ways?

Today I’d like to use the image of a table to answer these questions.  Since sometimes we call the altar a table—and since the altar in our worship space looks like a table with supporting legs—I think we can make this image work for us.

Religious expression that would be pleasing to Jesus might be seen as a “stable table” supported at each corner by a leg.  If one of those legs is missing, it becomes an “unstable table,” perhaps not collapsing immediately, but in significant trouble. I am calling these four legs:  covenant law, the life-affirming ethical and moral practices in our society, worship in community, faith in God’s lovingkindness.

The first leg is covenant law, seen in the Hebrew Scriptures, called the Mosaic covenant.  Our first reading began today: “God spoke all these words [of law] . . .” God’s law was a gift to the Israelites to show his care for them.  Entering into covenant with God by trying to obey these words would lead both the Israelites--and us--into a close relationship with God and into healthy relationships with other people, which then will lead to abundant life.

The second leg is life-affirming ethical and moral practices in our society today.  Some practices, which appear in the Bible, such as slavery, were acceptable for thousands of years, but have now been condemned. We have come to understand that we should consider every other person as worthy of our respect, although we don’t always manage to do this. We remember our baptismal covenant includes these questions: “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?  Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of EVERY human being?”  We know we should treat each person as worthy of God’s love and our care.  We should work to structure our society so that all people can access the abundance with which many of us are blessed. These “corporal works of mercy” do not earn us salvation, but through them we gratefully respond to the blessings we have received.

The third leg is worshipping God in community. You have come together here at St. Nicholas this morning to pray to God, to sing praise to God, to experience the presence of God in the blessed bread and wine, and to support our brothers and sisters in their journey of faith. I believe God finds joy in experiencing the love we show when we worship together—love for God, and, yes, for each other as well.

The fourth leg is faith in God’s lovingkindness—chesed is the word in the Hebrew Scriptures. Acting out of this love for us, God became incarnate in Jesus—became truly human.  For our sake Jesus endured crucifixion out of love. He overcame death through the power of God’s love. We cannot see God as long as we live here on earth, but our faith in God’s loving presence allows us to face whatever life throws at us. In the end God’s loving grace will keep our sins from having the last word.

So how stable does our table seem to be today?  Are we trying to obey God’s covenant law in a way that reflects the loving way God intended it?  Are we also trying to follow the life-affirming ethical and moral practices in our society? Are we eager to worship with others? Are we able to cling to our faith in God’s lovingkindness despite life’s difficulties? 

When we are able—with God’s help—to discover how to keep those four legs attached to our table of religious expression, then that “stable table” will become God’s altar in our hearts. And, yes, Jesus will be pleased!