Texada Island United Church

What About Peter?

24/4/2022

Matthew 26:31-35 (Good News Translation)
Jesus Predicts Peter's Denial

31 Then Jesus said to them, “This very night all of you will run away and leave me, for the scripture says, ‘God will kill the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
32 But after I am raised to life, I will go to Galilee ahead of you.”
33 Peter spoke up and said to Jesus, “I will never leave you, even though all the rest do!”
34 Jesus said to Peter, “I tell you that before the rooster crows tonight, you will say three times that you do not know me.”
35 Peter answered, “I will never say that, even if I have to die with you!”
And all the other disciples said the same thing.

Mark 16:1-8

Jesus Has Risen

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.
2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.
5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.
7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

What About Peter?

So, Easter Sunday, (Alleluia), What happens?
The women go to the tomb and there sits an angel (just sitting there; waiting) who tells them “Jesus the Nazarene isn’t here”

Here they were all worried about even getting into the tomb, and their reality is the stone has already been rolled away and an angel awaits them. Jesus isn’t there at all, and they are told to go and tell the other disciples and Peter that they are to go back to Galilee. The women leave but they are so frightened they don’t tell anyone what they saw (and hadn’t seen).

That’s one ending there are others even within the Mark tradition: one in which Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene who then goes and tells the other disciples who do not believe her; one manuscript has the women “reporting to those around Peter”, with no mention of disbelief. Some endings have Jesus appearing, rebuking them for their disbelief and sending them out.

It’s interesting, isn’t it; this singling out of Peter. Peter who vehemently on at the supper on Passover denies he could or would ever deny Jesus, who explicitly says he would die with Jesus if he had to.

Yep, that same Peter who a little later when Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane can’t stay awake. After Jesus is arrested and taken to the Temple to meet with the High Priests, teachers of the law and elders (the Sanhedrin and Scribes ), Peter follows and stays in the courtyard with the guards warming himself at their fire.

Peter is concerned, he wants to know what is happening with Jesus, he hasn’t run away and hidden himself- yet. When things start getting dicey though, when the accusations begin to mount up, when…

  The high priest tore Jesus’ clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?”
  he asked.  “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?”
They all condemned Jesus as worthy of death.Then some began to spit at him;
  they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, “Prophesy!”
  And the guards took him and beat him. (Mark 16:63-65)

Peter is still there, he is still a witness to all that is happening, then…

  While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest
  came by.  When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him.
“You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus,” she said.
  But he denied it. “I don’t know or understand what you’re talking about,” he said,
  and went out into the entryway.
  When the servant girl saw him there, she said again to those standing around,
  “This fellow is one of them.”  Again he denied it.
After a little while, those standing near said to Peter, “Surely you are one of them,
  for you are a Galilean.”
Peter began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know this man
  you’re talking about.”
Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered
  the word Jesus had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows twice you will disown
  me three times.” And he broke down and wept. (Mark 16:66-72)

This is the same Peter who is singled out from all of the other disciples for the women to go and tell about the empty tomb. The same Peter who in the alternate ending has the disciples gathered around him.

What to do with these two sides of Simon Peter, Cephas, the rock upon which the church is built? What do we do with a Jesus who is not in the tomb but risen?

I think they come together in this moment, they are what we call really human, what it is to be human. What it is to disappoint ourselves and others, what it is to forgive ourselves and others because that is the example we have here.

Peter denying Jesus (even with a foretelling) must have disappointed Jesus in his hour of need, but with the empty tomb Jesus makes sure that the good news of new hope, the good news of new life, the resurrection of forgiveness is announced to all the disciples, and especially, especially to Peter.

The tomb springs with second chances. The empty tomb, is God’s answer to the crucified Christ (hence the angel as indicative of the presence of God), resurrection is the answer to
a Roman Empire imperialistic action (the crucifixion) meant to subdue and discourage hope.

So where do we fit in? Where does our world fit in when all this happened 2,000 years ago?
I don’t think we are very different from Peter and the disciples and the women going to the tomb that Easter morning. And I don’t think the world we live has changed significantly from the time of Imperial Rome.

But I believe in the resurrection hope that Jesus’ Good News is Good News to and for us. I believe in redemption, that we are all capable of change, living giving, love giving change. That we all need to forgive ourselves and others and that we all need forgiveness; we need to be liberated from all the things that keep from us from being the loving, compassionate human beings God created us to be. God who knows us by name and cares for us.

And, I believe we make a difference in the world, as Christians. We have the example of the resurrection, which makes a difference to how the disciples and followers of Jesus, live out their lives and their faith in the teachings of Jesus the Christ. Peter and the rest of the disciples don’t go back to their old day jobs., they become preachers and teachers and healers, spreading the Good news to people who sorely needed to hear some Good News in and for their lives.

We live in a world dominated by powers not that much different from Rome, we can see it most vividly in the aggression by Russia against the Ukraine but our world is always under siege. Territory, resources, money, power dominate the world stage even as many work for peace, equity and climate change. Our earth groans and people suffer (not so different from 1st century Judah) our Good News is that the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross is not the whole story, that’s not the end of the story, there another story going on and it is filled with hope and peace and joy.

The resurrection is what Peter lived into, his denials of Jesus were not the end of his story, his mistakes did not define him, the resurrection allowed Peter to see and live into a future where Simon Peter, Cephas, indeed becomes a rock upon which the Way of Jesus is founded.

Thanks be to God.   Amen

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Easter 2022

17/4/2022

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Today is Easter. Alleluia!
The celebration of the resurrection.
The festival of hope.
The promise of new beginnings.
The dance of faith
The song of joy.
The music of gladness.
The hymn of love.
Hallelujah!

Mark 16:1-8 (Good News Translation)
The Resurrection

After the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices to go and anoint the body of Jesus.
2 Very early on Sunday morning, at sunrise, they went to the tomb.
3-4 On the way they said to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” (It was a very large stone.) Then they looked up and saw that the stone had already been rolled back.
5 So they entered the tomb, where they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe—and they were alarmed.
6 “Don't be alarmed,” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is not here—he has been raised! Look, here is the place where he was placed.
7 Now go and give this message to his disciples, including Peter: ‘He is going to Galilee ahead of you; there you will see him, just as he told you.’”
8 So they went out and ran from the tomb, distressed and terrified. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

Reflection

Being Easter Sunday, I’ve being thinking about the resurrection. Now I’ve got to say that I love Easter: it’s a joyous occasion- it’s well – it’s the most important day of the Christian calendar.

But we all have these tremendously divergent interpretations of the resurrection. So for the last few weeks – maybe longer, maybe years – I’ve been really trying to understand what other people are saying about Jesus, about Passion week, about the resurrection. I’ve listened to lectures, read books and papers- I kind of feel like I it’s either so mystical and spiritual and complicated that maybe I just don’t get it ………or that it’s so simple that I can’t believe it when faced with the simple facts.
There are lots of people on either and all sides. There is no one right true interpretation of the resurrection but I do feel like I’ve gotten closer to what makes sense to me today.

Now I’m not going to give you a play by play of the gospel for today – I want to focus on what it means for our lives and, I think that has to start with the cross.

I think that while not everyone believes or understands the resurrection, everyone understands the cross. The cross is where we spend a lot of our time. It’s our everyday lives over time, lives that are necessarily tinged with disappointment, sadness, illness and disease and death. It’s not the life we wish for our kids but it is life – it is what helps them and us grow and mature.

The cross where Jesus was stripped of all that gave him comfort and position – by that I mean Jesus was Jew, he belonged to the Temple, a rabbi, a healer, a prophet, he was a man with family and friends, he is taken out of Jerusalem, out of divine blessing , ousted from the city, and there stripped naked and nailed to the cross and left to die.

I was sent one of those pictures of Christ on the cross yesterday from a cousin wishing everyone Happy Easter – and there is this Jesus pale and lovely, angelic and nailed to the cross and I thought – is this what people see when they think of Jesus nailed to the cross; that somehow it was a pleasant, lovely event.

It wasn’t – you know that, I know that, no more than the gas chambers of Nazi Germany were happy places, or the trenches of WW1 were anything more than lonely, fearful places and wet besides, or any war or violence done to humanity in anyone’s name is somehow more than what it is – violence.

And the cross is important because it is at this point in time that Jesus himself cries out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.”

“May God, My God why have you forsaken me? How often have those words been your words? How often have we felt abandoned, lost, lonely, on the edge of despair- some of us more than others but no one gets to live life untouched by sadness and grief and even once is memorable.
It is at this moment when Jesus cries out, when we cry out that, when God is no longer out there, a superhero who could swoop down and save Jesus and save us – a that moment Jesus shows us the way.

It is only at that moment when God stops existing out there, outside of us – something and some being that will somehow satisfy us and fill our emptiness, those empty spaces which make us uneasy- and somehow give meaning to our lives. It is at this moment that the resurrection shows us the true face of God, and that face is the face of love.

If we look back to the Good Friday scene there is this strange verse that takes about the temple curtain being torn in two -ripped apart - have you ever wondered what the significance of this is?

This curtain separated the holy of holies from well everything, it separated God (Yahweh) from people - and no one -no one went into the holy of holies except for once a year to do some , I'm guessing here, cleaning maybe and the chief priest would then be under so much danger that they would tie a rope around his waist so he could be dragged out in the event of something unforeseen happening.

So here is the curtain being torn in two - letting God out, letting people in, the curtain which separated us from God no longer works !
This is resurrection!
This is the God we call “Abba”
This is what Paul tells us later on is love.

If I were to say to you that God is love, you would say to me so what else is new! But when I say Resurrection is about the revelation of that love it sounds a bit strange doesn't it? Yet it makes sense- if we focused more on the love that God is, maybe we would find that our experience of God is that much more.

We always want to say that God is out there, up in heaven, the Jews secluded God in the holy of holies, so glorious - and inaccessible was God. But if God is love well then we don't really talk about love as out there- secluded and put away do we? - love does not have existence - love is.

Love is like light- we don't see the light, the light enables us to see, we see what the light illuminates. Love does not exist in itself.

Love is not beautiful in itself, but it allows us to see and interact with the beautiful, the sublime, the wonderful in our midst. So you become wonderful to me, and you become beautiful and our time spent together becomes meaningful. Love is not meaningful in itself, only in relation to something else. So it gives meaning to people and events and places.

So with Jesus on the cross we have this whole new paradigm - a new way of understanding God. And with the understanding the resurrection is truly good news and new life.

It is a way of life, of loving life and loving people and loving who you are whatever is happening, whatever the circumstances. Christianity is a way of life. And the resurrection is THE event of Christianity.

The point at which something different is happening with people, with the mystery we call God and the relationship between the two. God is love is like shorthand for this new thing that is happening, taking place in the disciples lives and in our lives. God IS love so that when we love we are participating in this mystery, this greater love, this all encompassing love.

Jesus understood that God is love.
Paul understood that God is love.
And that love was given human form and content and life in the person of Jesus the Christ.

Alleluia.
Today is Easter, Resurrection Day
Let us all rise with Jesus today
Let us rise and be love as God is love.

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Palm Sunday 2022

10/4/2022

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Matthew 21:1-11 (NIV)
Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King

1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
5 “Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’]
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.
7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.
8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”
11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Matthew 21:28-32
The Parable of the Two Sons

Jesus said to the Chief Priests and Elders:
28 “Now, what do you think? There was once a man who had two sons. He went to the older one and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 ‘I don't want to,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. 30 Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. ‘Yes, sir,’ he answered, but he did not go. 31 Which one of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The older one,” they answered.
So Jesus said to them, “I tell you: the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John the Baptist came to you showing you the right path to take, and you would not believe him; but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. Even when you saw this, you did not later change your minds and believe him.

Reflection
(N.B. The use of the word Kin-dom instead of Kingdom is deliberate to emphasize that God's Kin-dom in the here and now is centered in community rather than hierarchical authority and status)

We always get to choose.
Who are we going to be today?
Who are we going to be like today?
Who are we going to follow today?

You know, well, I guess you do know by now, that I really like Jesus. I am fascinated by him and his disciples – I feel like Mary in the story of Mary and Martha, not because Martha would want me anywhere near her kitchen but because I would probably want to sit near Jesus and learn from him – and I have so much to learn.

So, here Jesus and his disciples are coming into Jerusalem for the Passover week celebration commemorating the Hebrews' liberation from slavery in Egypt and the “passing over” of the forces of destruction, or the sparing of the firstborn of the Israelites on the eve of the Exodus. Jesus prepares by asking his disciples to obtain a donkey and a colt; – nope- I don’t know why both, but it fulfills a scripture passage from Zechariah 9.

The Coming of Zion’s King
9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
    Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
    righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
    and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
    and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
    His rule will extend from sea to sea
    and from the River bto the ends of the earth.
11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
    I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.
12 Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope;
    even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.
13 I will bend Judah as I bend my bow
    and fill it with Ephraim.
I will rouse your sons, Zion,
    against your sons, Greece,
    and make you like a warrior’s sword.

There’s a lot riding on this colt and donkey. That’s Jesus, he heals those who need it, he talks to Samaritan woman (and men), in fact he talks to everyone: priests, Scribes, Pharisees, rich young men –(clean); tax collectors. Caananites, prostitutes, bleeding women, gentiles, - (unclean);
fishermen, carpenters, farmers, housewives, and political activitists and social reformers - who knows; he teaches in the temple and on hillsides and by lakes; he preaches that the Kin-dom of God is here, right now and we are in it and the Kingdom of God is to come and we are invited.

We think he is the Messiah and will lead us out of our misery! Hosanna – save us from our oppressors! Blessed be the one who comes in the name of the Lord! He will save us.

Who of us, if we were part of the Israel worshipping the one, true God; Yahweh would not be in the crowd that day welcoming Jesus into the gates of Jerusalem.

Jesus welcomed – invited everyone into the Kin-dom of God. Jesus was also a truth – teller, he didn’t candy coat it to make it more palatable. So when he tells the Parable of the Two Sons to the Chief Priests and Elders in the Temple later that same day, he was telling a truth and they knew it and they didn’t like it.

After all, it’s not like they hadn’t heard of John the Baptist, they knew, but if you think Jesus is harsh – John the Baptist was way harder. I know we get this image of long lines of people just waiting to be dunked or baptized in the River Jordan but they reality was probably much shorter lines and John really did, by all accounts, call people to confess and repent; and that means sackcloth and ashes and fasting, and if you looked like you had maybe stashed away a snack or two, I don’t think John believed you had really repented. John had conditions and John never came to Jerusalem or went anywhere, really; people came to him. And those priests and scribes from Jerusalem, I doubt if very many of them ever showed up or stood up for John the Baptist. After all one man yelling about the Kingdom of God coming was not worth upsetting the “peace” they had with the Roman authorities.

But Jesus, Jesus carried John’s news of the Kingdom of God coming far and wide, he travelled, he met people, he called them over, he talked to them, he listened to them, he told them stories that contained truths that could change their lives, he healed their hearts and minds and bodies. He challenged them to follow him, and to live into a relationship with a loving and caring God.

And they responded when he showed up in Jerusalem at the beginning of the Passover celebration. Here is our Messiah, just as we have been promised, the ordinary people shout, and you can bet there are Roman soldiers keeping an eye on everyone entering the city: keeping the peace. Then, while the disciples and others gather round listening to Jesus, teaching in the Temple, the Chief Priests and Elders come to question Jesus about what he is doing and intends to do; they too are keeping an eye on the peace in their city.

Jesus answers their questions by telling them two parables, and then he says:

43 “And so I tell you,” added Jesus, “the Kingdom
of God will be taken away from you and given to
a people who will produce the proper fruits.” 44
45 The chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables
and knew that he was talking about them,
46 so they tried to arrest him. But they were afraid of
the crowds, who considered Jesus to be a prophet.

Jesus dares to tell the Chief Priests and Scribes stories, dares to unmask their righteousness to their face, dares to question their authority in their own temple, dares to judge them!

You can understand they are not happy; their position, their authority, their understanding with the Roman authorities are all being threatened by this one man with his rabble of people shouting :
“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
   Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

And the solders aren't happy having to report to their commander that these people are shouting about an heir to King David kingdom, They are shouting about someone saving them. They are shouting that their God blesses this man. There is a growing crowd around this man Jesus.

The Good News that Jesus spreads about the Kingdom of God has certain people on edge and the social, political, religious and economic balance in Jerusalem is unbalanced because the Good News includes and welcomes all those the social political religious and economic eltes want to exclude.

The Good News gives faces and names to all those who considered to be expendable and faceless and nameless except for tax and physical work purposes. The Good News invites people in, and gives everyone a place at the table where they will be fed with living water and nourishing bread. The Good News invites you to a place where God blesses you and cares for you and loves you and knows your name.

What a day Palm Sunday is! A day of rejoicing, and happiness, that sets in motion the upcoming events of Passion Week: the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday and the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross on Good Friday. We have a long way to journey this week.

Our hope, our assurance, our faith is that we do not travel alone.

May it be so.       Amen

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Lent 5

3/4/2022

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Jeremiah 31:31-34 (Good News Translation)

31 The Lord says, “The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant.
33 The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34 None of them will have to teach a neighbour to know the Lord, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Mark 10:17-31 (NIV)

17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honour your father and mother.’”
20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.
31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Reflection

Lent is a period of time when we are given a space of time to think, to reflect, to ponder those things which we usually dismiss. You know things like sin, regret, times when we refrained from acting or speaking, all those things we should have done, I don’t know about you, but it is beginning to dawn on me, that as I get older the less I feel I should interfere, intrude, and the more I am aware that I should. It’s a conundrum!

I’m kind of like the rich young man without the rich part. I want to do good, to do the right thing, I want to have a close relationship with God but….I’m not willing to give up anything – not possessions, not ideas, not friends, not anything! and that is exactly what Jesus tells the rich young man to do. Give it all up: status, money, houses, parties, friends, family, good restaurants, for who knows what following Jesus. The rich young man didn’t even stick around to hear what else Jesus had to say about the impediment riches can be because of our attachment to them or hear Peter, one of Jesus’ own disciples, worry about his future.

Peter, along with his brother, Andrew, were fishermen and the first two disciples called by Jesus and as Peter explains; they left everything and everyone to follow Jesus. They were the first two people who put their faith in this man, Jesus. They did the right thing, he did the right thing; and now Jesus is telling them getting into the Kingdom of God is no easy thing and even harder for the rich.

Does it surprise you? Ah, probably not, you’ve heard this scripture passage before and we hardly ever associate ourselves with the rich young man; we’re not rich enough, we wouldn’t have turned our backs on Jesus and walked away, probably a good thing we weren’t there and Jesus isn’t telling us what to do to have eternal life.

But I don’t think it is any easier for us today, separated by all these centuries, if anything, as a society, we seem to confer more respect and wisdom on rich people than they deserve. Thinking that if they have been able to amass riches then they must be doing something right, if they have been able to gain fame and fortune they must have some secret formula and if we could just get it, then, we too will be respected and wise – oh yeah, and rich. What is it about stuff and money that claims our hearts and minds and impoverishes our souls?

What do we truly desire? There always seems to be something on my list and usually the Kingdom of God or eternal life is not at the top. And yet for the disciples, especially Peter, it is a burning question: “Who then can be saved?”, “We have left everything to follow you!”
Today, we live in what we call a secular age, a time when we cannot take for granted that religious questions are important, or at least important in the way they were up until about 500 years ago. And yet, I think some of the questions (and answers) still linger: What gives my life meaning and purpose? What is real? What is important? What is the difference between right and wrong? What is right and wrong based on? What happens when I die? Well, there’s always lots of questions. And who we are, what we believe helps frame the answers.

Being a Christian helps make some of those answers easier, at least, I have some frame of reference for the answers, I have scriptures to lean into and study, I have practices that help me listen for God’s word for my life, I have companions on the way – that’s you by the way, and I have Jesus as a guide.

My quest might not be for eternal life like the rich young man, but I yearn for that deeper, richer life I know is available in Christ. Jesus’ experience of God as “Abba” paves the way for us to have a relationship with God. When Jesus announces the arrival of the new covenant as he breaks the bread and pours the wine at the Last Supper (Luke 22:19-20) he echoes the passage we heard from Jeremiah this morning:
33 The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this:
  I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God,
  and they will be my people.
  34 None of them will have to teach a neighbour to know the Lord, because all
will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and
I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

The old covenant, the Mosaic laws and the 613 laws in Deuteronomy were superseded, when in Matt. 5:17 Jesus says: “I have not come to abolish the Law (of Moses) or the Prophets but to fulfill them”. This new covenant was always waiting in the wings from the time of Jeremiah, Jesus was the longed for and long awaited Messiah ushering in the Kingdom of God and a new vision of Israel’s relationship with God.

The Old Covenant had been a blessing for the Israelites. It provided them with laws to govern their behaviour. It promised them spiritual and material and even military blessings if they obeyed that law and remained true to the covenant. God even instituted in that covenant the office of high priest so that the people would have someone to offer sacrifices on their behalf and represent them in the presence of God. That old covenant provided a sacrificial system in which the blood of bulls and goats at least temporarily enabled them to remain in fellowship with God. The Old Covenant under Moses was filled with grace, mercy, and love.

Jesus carries this tradition forward, in Mark 14:22-24, at the Passover meal with his disciples,

22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread,
and when he had given thanks, he broke it
and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it;
this is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given
thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank
from it.
24 “This is my blood of the new covenant,
which is poured out for many,”

The New Covenant is filled with grace, mercy and love and a direct relationship with God. That maybe didn’t sound like such a big thing when Jesus was around with the disciples and the Temple stood as sacred ground for all the Jews. But by 70 CE, about 35-40 years after the death of Jesus, the Temple is totally destroyed by the Romans and the Jews dispersed or put to death. The Temple system is gone, and the rabbinic-synagogue system remains in place to this day.

There is still a place within Judaism for Jesus but his words and example, Jesus the Messiah, prophet and teacher spread much wider into the Gentile world. His followers in the first two hundred years after his death became known by and called themselves many names: the Way, Brothers and Sisters, Enslaved of God, the Body of the Anointed, most were people who identified with the traditions of Israel and often thought of themselves as Paul says: a branch grafted onto the root of Israel.

They all identified themselves as followers of Jesus the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, they all saw themselves as part of the New Covenant, and they all understood themselves to be children of the One Holy God of Israel, who says in Jeremiah: "I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people."

As Christians, this Word is for us; from a loving God, full of grace and compassion. We are people of the New Covenant, followers of Jesus, giving life to the Good News of the gospel in a world that needs our witness and our prayers.

May it be so.      Amen

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Jesus Overturning Tables!

27/3/2022

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Matthew 21:12-17 (GNT)
12 Jesus went into the Temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the stools of those who sold pigeons, 13 and said to them, “It is written in the Scriptures that God said, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it a den of thieves!”
14 The blind and the crippled came to him in the Temple, and he healed them. 15 The chief priests and the teachers of the Law became angry when they saw the wonderful things he was doing and the children shouting in the Temple, “Praise to David's Son!” 16 So they asked Jesus, “Do you hear what they are saying?”
“Indeed I do,” answered Jesus. “Haven't you ever read this scripture? ‘You have children and babies who offer perfect praise.’”
17 Jesus left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

Reflection

Jesus overturning the table in the temple- in the outer courts of the magnificent Jerusalem temple – the premiere place of worship - so significant that the Jews travelled days to come to the temple for the Holy festivals – this story is so important it is told in all four gospels.

Now people who like their Jesus to always be nice and kind and compassionate, you know the kind of Jesus who doesn’t rock the boat or make waves or antagonize anyone, this isn’t the story for them. Because this Jesus is angry!

Now I’ve heard sermons where the anger, the shouting, the running of men and calves and sheep are minimized – like maybe Jesus only overturned a table or two and just shouted to make a point but when I read that story in John you can see there is no way Jesus didn’t clear those people out, there is no way that the priests in the temple’s inner courts didn’t hear the ruckus going on outside their domain, there is no way Sanhedrin weren’t alerted to the fact that Jesus, that teacher, that wandering healer who was attracting lots of attention from the people was creating a hellabaloo within the walls of their temple.

John 2:13-16 (NIV)
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle,
sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.
15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”

So Jesus is not meek and mild today, he is outraged , he is overturning tables piled with coinage from all over the empire and beyond. But I’m guessing the prevailing idea regarding that outer court in that time was you had to do it somewhere and you needed to buy the goats and calves and sheep and doves for sacrifice when you were coming from far away – the work of the temple depended on this – all of it. The work of the temple depended on it.

And Jesus’ outburst is threatening the theo-political balance, the balance, of course, which was advantageous to the sellers and aristocrats and the priests. The balance which included Herod and the Pontius Pilate, you could call it an agreement, where some benefitted and wanted to keep on benefitting and others well, they were taxed, and overcharged, and warned to keep the balance, to keep the “Pax Romana”: the Roman Peace. The kind of peace that is kept by crucifying offenders very publically, usually just out of town by the roadside, as a warning to people entering the city: This is what happens when you disturb “our peace”, our balance of power!

Jesus’ outrage is concentrated and focused, the Jerusalem Temple, where he would have gone with his family for all the high holy days, this sacrosanct holy place had been invaded and changed into just another place for commerce and money making.

The Temple was a place of prayer, built to honour (and in some ways contain) the one true God of the Jews in the Holy of Holies; the innermost and most sacred area of the Temple, accessible only to the Israelite high priest. Once a year, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would enter the square, windowless enclosure with a rope tied around his waist, just in case he would die upon meeting God, and then the idea was that the other priests could pull him out. The enclosure contained the Ark of the Covenant- a symbol of Israel’s special relationship with God, and the priest would burn incense and sprinkle sacrificial animal blood. By this act, the most solemn of the religious year, the high priest atoned for his own sins and those of the priesthood.

But was Jesus just swimming against the tide here? Is his prophetic voice to bring prayer back to the temple proper just lost in what must have been a lot of swearing that day?
Money changers scrambling for their coins, sheep and goats running all over the place, men shouting, people with cages trying to make their way to safety away from this madman.

And then, in the Gospel of John, Jesus is challenged by the Jews (we don’t know which Jews) but they want to know:
18 …, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
The Jews just laugh at Jesus’ response and say it had taken forty-six years to build the temple. In Johns’ gospel we are given an explanation that Jesus is here referring to his body and the resurrection in his answer of three days but given what is happening in other gospels like Matthew, I’m more convinced by Jesus’ actions than John reading into the incident after the fact.

In Matthew, Jesus, who is still in the temple starts healing people and children start shouting and in come the chief priests and Scribes to restore order and figure out what is going on.

This story is quite a revelation, isn’t it? It makes you stop and start thinking. If Jesus is outraged shouldn’t we be outraged when our churches become less than what they should be?

Then of course, we get to the really hard questions, like what are our churches for?

Jesus knows what the Temple is for and that allows him to know when that has been transgressed. The temple court was a house of prayer, it was where people and since this was an outer court: all people Jews and non-Jews could come to pray, the temple was a place where Jews would worship and meet God, a place Jesus calls “his Father’s house”. The temple was where teachers- rabboni and students and disciples discussed and questioned scripture, where people would gather to hear what a teacher had to say. The Temple was the place where sacrificial ritual and liturgy gave meaning to life itself, where Jews properly expressed and confessed their allegiance to Yahweh.

But Jesus, prophet, teacher, preacher, beloved child of God
does this amazing thing: In John he is questioned about his authority to do what he has done: which is take back the temple for God, in Matthew the question is answered even before the chief priests and the scribes come on the scene to question Jesus. Jesus heals. And by whose authority could he heal, could he even attempt to heal in the Temple of Jerusalem but by God’s own authority!

So, what should our churches be about in this world? If we follow Jesus’ footsteps on that day: we are making room for prayer: for bringing our concerns and joys and sorrows, we are praying for the whole world, for our families and communities and for ourselves, nothing is too lowly or lofty for our God to hear – we don’t need the right words for prayer, all we need are open hearts.

We are making room for worship, for music that touches our minds and our souls, for ritual and liturgy that comforts and strengthens us, as faithful followers of Christ, grappling with all the anxieties that our world brings.

We are making room for preaching, teaching and questioning, for sharing our faith, our experiences and our understanding of God and what it means to live in God’s world.

We are making room for healing, for reconciling, for moving toward a future where we not only say we are brothers and sisters in Christ but we become more and more the children of God we were created to be.

May it be so. Amen

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