Wartburg Theological Seminary Chapel
August 18, 2010
Norma Cook Everist
Texts:
Jeremiah 25:30-38
Psalm 82:
Luke 19:45-48
There are so many ways to approach this Luke text. So many ways to approach the temple scene that day
Enter with Jesus:
He began to drive out those who were selling things there saying, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.’”
This entrance is, I believe, overused. It’s the “Let’s-show-that-Jesus- got-angry-just-like-we-do” door. Yes, there is conflict in the church, and sometimes a peaceful people is devastated. But God’s righteous judgment is for the sake of the weak and needy (as our Psalm says) so they are not robbed under the guise of religion. We rob the text when we use it to justify our own anger by trying to prove confrontation was Jesus’ preferred form of dealing with conflict. We forget the many times he purposely avoided conflict , because his “time had not yet come,” or when he brought together those who would have been enemies by standing with the outsider.
There are other entry points to this text, to the temple scene that day:
Enter with Jesus:
“Everyday he was teaching in the temple”
Jesus the teacher. He taught, and in the temple. He taught in a place where his teachings were often not welcome. He kept at it. Not, let’s go find another flock, another church. He kept teaching, every day, in the temple. Teaching when people heard and when they did not And Jesus also taught out on the road, meeting people where they were in all conditions of life. All Christian education is parish education, with doors of the temple/church wide open. So how and where and among whom are you called to teach?
And there are two other entry points to this text, to the temple scene that day.
Enter with Jesus:
The chief priests, the scribes and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him.
This is a door to the text we might like to bypass. They kept looking for him. From time to time there will be people out to get you. Maybe there already have been. I know, sometimes it is paranoia. But, sometimes it’s real. Or turn the text around, go through the door the other way: If truth be told, we may be trying to look for a way to kill someone else, nicely of course.. From childhood on . Someone is jealous. You. Me. Someone is getting too much attention. Someone’s a threat. Quite honestly I don’t know what to do with a person whom with my gifts, abilities I seem to threaten. They were out to get Jesus. The religious leaders. Yes. In the faith community. Yes.
In the following chapter: One day as he was teaching the people and telling the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came with the elders “Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Entrapment.
……but they did not find anything they could do,
It didn’t work. But not for not trying. But this is only chapter 19 of Luke’s Gospel.
And a fourth way to enter this brief text:
Enter with Jesus:
For all the people were spellbound by what they heard.
Nice door.
All the people spellbound
“I’ll be glad to enter this door with you, Jesus”
Ah, someday perhaps people will be spellbound by what I preach, hang on my every word when I teach, wait outside my office to sit and talk with me. Now that’s ministry.
You are way ahead of me, aren’t you? As nice as that all sounds, it has the ring of the temptations of Satan….
And Jesus knew that too.
So what is your approach to this text? Which door? It depends from which direction you came this day.
The text is here. We encounter the living Word in Christian community We encounter the text and the text encounters us.
My house shall be a house of prayer…….in the midst of our experience of the church, sometimes being like a den of robbers, the Christ will come and cleanse so that it can be a place of prayer.
Everyday he was teaching. The call to consistency, faithfulness, commitment. Christ teaches us something new every single day of our lives. Teach us Lord that we may teach,
They kept looking for a way to kill him. The forces to block ministry in Christ’s name will be there. Which ones? And from what direction will they come?
BUT they did not find anything they could do.
Well, they did…… but for us, living on this side of cross and resurrection, the killing is not ultimate.
The people were spellbound by what they heard. Spellbound? Maybe not always. Maybe not ever. But the Word will not return void. The Word is alive. The Sacraments are life-giving. The people of God are vital….and people long to hear the life-changing good news
This text is about so much more than an excuse to get angry.
It is about truth in face of exploitation, faithful teaching in dangerous places, and in the face of forces that would kill us, the spellbinding power of the Word. Amen.