March 11, 2012 - Third Sunday of Lent

Do you remember what we do on Palm Sunday? We come into church with palms held high, or if we're at a more formal liturgy we march with Palm Branches all around the property, and sometimes around the block, and we sing "Hosannah!" Do you know why?  The reason is in today's Gospel. Jesus was the focus of some sort of "parade" or "procession" that the Church calls His "Entrance into Jerusalem," but if you listen closely this is how the Bible describes it: "People "ran along behind Him and along side Him," haild Him, saying, "Hosannah to the Son of David," and they threw lulavs and palm branches in His path." Now, take out the religious language, and what do you have? You have people shouting and throwing things as a part of a "political action." Why political? Because they are calling Him "Son of David," in other words, "King!" And the result is that the "parade or procession" whatever you want to call it--the Romans called it a "riot," an "uprising," reached the Temple precinct  and resulted in damaged property. The Gospel calls it "the cleansing of the Temple," the Romans called it vandalism. So people backing a new leader, running, shouting and throwing things, and destroying property! This was "the event" that convinced the Romans that He, or someone who was in charge of this "riot" had to die. And the crucifixion--Good Friday--follows closely on this event. That is the story of 3 of the Gospels--Matthew, Mark and Luke.

 

BUT, today, we are reading from JOHN'S Gospel. And John MOVES THE STORY! MOREOVER, he EDITS it! In the story we read just now, there is NO procession, no running, no shouting, no hailing a new leader, no throwing things--NO THREAT to ROME and the political order at all. Rather, Jesus just waltzes into the Temple area one day and upsets the tables of people who are selling animals for sacrifice, there, and accuses them of turning God's worship space into a market.

 

First I want you to see the difference in the stories--do you see that? NO hullabaloo, no riot--just something quiet, something profound, and people let it happen! One man does this, who could easily have been overpowered--but He wasn't.

 

Second, I want you see WHERE the story has been moved to. In John's Gospel it doesn't introduce the Passion Story of Jesus' death and resurrection, rather, IT INTRODUCES JESUS TO THE WORLD. It is in Chapter TWO of John's Gospel. At the very beginning! In chapter one of John's Gospel, we read: "In the beginning was the WORD (the plan, the blueprint of God for all creation), and the "WORD" was with GOD, in other words, in the Divine Mind, the Divine Nous, "and the WORD WAS GOD, and the world became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory...full of Grace and Truth." The witnesses line up: John the Baptist makes a confession of who Jesus is, and the Disciples choose to follow Jesus because they "see" in Him something strange--a Power that grabs them. THEN comes chapter 2, and we have the introduction of THE LOGOS--THE WORD--THE ETERNAL LOVING PLAN OF GOD--THE INCARNATION OF GOD to the world, in two episodes: the wedding at Cana, and the "cleansing of the Temple."

 

We are not asked to think about Cana, today, but rather about the "cleansing." What is there about this event that allows it to "SHOW the world" exactly Who and What God is? A lot of ink has been spilt talking about Jesus condemning the sacrificial system of Judaism--but He didn't. In fact all the Gospels report Him teaching there often, telling lepers to "give the sacrifice" demanded. He praises the widow who supports the Temple with her offering as a most worthy daughter of Israel. In fact, IF you are familiar with 2nd Temple Judaism, you know that today's Gospel did NOT take place "inside" the Temple building, itself. "In the Temple" means in Greek, "within the sacred precinct." No Jew EVER made a barn out of the Temple--an animal was taken inside only for sacrifice. What was happening with the selling of the animals was happening OUTSIDE--on the "placita" in California language! WHY??????

 

The Temple sold animals as a convenience. People came for sacrifice from all over the world, and from all over Judah and Israel. To try to bring an animal any distance in an era before "trucks" with shock absorbers, was a REAL task. They got bruised, they got cuts and then, they were not "worthy of sacrifice," for they were called "blemished." SO, as a CONVENIENCE--to make sacrifice possible for people--the Temple sold sacrificial animals. Jesus did NOT condemn that, either! He did NOT say, stop sacrificing! He did NOT say stop selling sacrificial animals as a help to people. He said, STOP MAKING THE FATHER'S HOUSE A MARKET. The "issue" (as we say today) was WHERE the selling was taking place. Why?

 

Because this was the area that in earlier ages had been known as the "Court of the Gentiles." This was where Gentiles--non-Jews--could come to worship the God of Israel. In the ancient world, people did that--they entered a city, and they made an offering to the god of the place--and so, this was the area they could use--they couldn't enter the Temple, itself, for only Jews could do that--but they couldn't stand outside, in this area reserved for them, and make an offering. About 150 years before Jesus was born, Syrians had defeated Jerusalem for 3 1/2 years, and put a statue of Zeus in the Temple, and offered pigs there! After the liberation war, that drove them out, and the reconsecration of the Temple, which Jews celebrate as Chanukkah, a law was passed that NO Gentile could go near the Temple area at all--it was their "TSA" laws--their national security in action. So.................this area, this open space was UNUSED. What do YOU do with unused space? Look in your garage!!!! You FILL it! So did they! They used it to sell the animals for sacrifice.

 

Jesus is "cleansing" this area. Do you see what that means? HE IS OPENING UP THE TEMPLE, AGAIN, TO BE A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLES! The Logos, the WORD of God, the "blueprint" of God's mind is that ALL are brothers and sisters under the One God, and Jesus' message will be a message for ALL, to bring all to the God of Israel, the One, True God.

 

The first reading wants you to know that that ONE God Who authored you, Who brought you forth in love, and Who is with you every moment of your life--that God Who "danced your birth" has made a claim on you. We live a "commanded life." Our lives are NOT just our own to do with as we choose. They are to honor the One God (commandments 1 through 4) and they are to honor the image of God in every other human being (commandments 5-10). If our lives give honor to God and honor to others we will know peace. May we all find His peace this Lenten season. And may God bless you all.+

 

March 4, 2012 - II Sunday of Lent

We have readings that focus on sacrifice and seeing. Abraham goes to the mount of Vision (which is what Moriah means in Hebrew), with a sacrifice in mind--his son, Isaac--only to "SEE" that that is not what God wants. The disciples SEE something deeper, more profound about Jesus on the Mountain of Vision and they want to "make some sacrifice" or "build a booth." They want to understand what God is asking of them through what they see.

 

The readings suggest that there is a relationship between "seeing" and "sacrifice." We have to first see what God wants of us before we blindly rush in OR we'll end up destroying what is most precious to us, only to find that such is not what God had wanted at all. Catholics need to hear this! We are so often filled with guilt, and think that whatever is the most obnoxious, difficult path possible is the very thing God want of us, and we often waste a lot of energy trying to do the difficult thing, when maybe that is not what God wants at all.

 

I suggest to you that there are two words in that dominate the discourse in the Bible about what God wants of us--God wants us to "LISTEN" and to "LOOK". We are to see and hear. Moses had to "look" for a long time at that bush before he realized it just wasn't an ordinary fire, but God beckoning to him. Elijah had to listen to lots of noise before he could distinguish the "still small voice." The work of spirituality--SOUL WORK--if you will, is cultivating the ability to see and to listen for God.

 

And to cultivate these skills, one does NOT go to a desert. One goes to where the sound is! We listen for those who REALLY need something--over the whines we all make! Most of spend a lot of time Kvetching about life--complaining about this or that--but now and then, we instinctively KNOW--we "hear" or "see" something to which attention MUST be paid. A child whose "crying" is off, or a spouse whose "silence is not normal," or a parent whose fear seems different, a co-worker whose desperation is too real to be ignored. THIS is how God beckons us--and it responses to LIFE that God wants of us.

 

I know you've always given up chocolate for Lent, and you've lost weight every year--it's been a wonderful diet plan-------------------but have you learned a thing about God or you? God wants our hearts--our ATTENTION... Did Abraham finally "get it" in today's reading? I don't think so.

 

Abraham always "heard" God asking him to do something "exterior"--go away from your nation, your people and your father's house to a land I will show you." And, so "off Abraham went." But the Hebrew could also mean "Abraham, go INSIDE, beneath the values of your nation, beyond the prejudices of your people, beneath, beyond and besides the expectations of your parent's and family--to find the REAL YOU." (But, Abraham couldn't hear that--so he took off for Canaan, and the rest is religious history.)

 

Here, he knows God wants him to sacrifice that which is so precious to him--so he thinks of his son--but God didn't want that--God wanted ABRAHAM--but, again, instead of asking "What do you want of ME?" Abraham hears a  ram caught by its thorns, and says, "AHA! THAT must be it!" But was it? The text is silent. I feel he, again, missed the opportunity to sacrifice his own will--his own heart. Had he "listened" deeply and "SAW" clearly, what would he have seen? He'd have seen his own family divided--he and Sarah apart from Hagar and Ishmael. He would have seen jealousy, bitterness--and he would have known what God wanted him  to heal.....but he settled for a ram that couldn't get away! Sort of like us, each Lent, settling for giving up chocolate or coffee or Diet Coke!

 

This season of repentance--of a gentle turning of the soul to its God--we are asked to Listen and Look at what is happening in our lives to see what God truly wants of us. My prayer is that we will have insight and wisdom so that our lives may be benedictions of goodness in our world. And may God bless you all.+