When the Center Does Not Hold John 2:13-17 Saint Marks United Methodist Church, Charleston, WV Third Sunday of Lent (March 4, 2017) 13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade. 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for your house will consume me. The first Sunday in Lent began with a Gospel text, you will remember, where Jesus was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of [heaven] is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel. (Mark 1: 13-15) It was in the wilderness time for Jesus and the Season of Lent for us is an echoes of Jesus time in the wilderness that prepared Him (and prepares us) for the recognition of the good news: the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand. The symbol that has appeared in the bulletin each Sunday of Lent shows the marriage of these two kingdoms: the Kingdom of Five Senses (what we can experience with our senses of sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling) and the Kingdom of Heaven. The one is pictured as being vertical and the other horizontal. When we accept the good news, that Jesus came to reveal, we live right there at that intersection of the two parts of the cross, right there where 1
the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of the Five Senses come together. hold. But sometimes as in today s Gospel lesson the center does not I was reminded of that concept when the center does not hold from a good Irishman s poem, The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939): Turning and turning in the widening gyre [ˈjī(ə)r] The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Yes I am reminded by this 99-year-old poem (written three years after the 1916 Easter Uprising, that unsuccessful and yet somehow successful bid for Irish Independence) that some things are still the same as they have been for a long time. Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. The center cannot hold, when the World of Five Senses gets separated from the Kingdom of Heaven when the good news gets perverted and relationships become topsy-turvy. 2
It seems that way today in so many ways (yes?) as it seemed to this Irish poet a century ago, AND as it seemed to Jesus (in today s Gospel Lesson) when he went into the Temple on that day of preparation for the Passover. lesson: There are two things I feel confident in saying about this Gospel (1) When the whole Temple worship procedures began, it began with the right idea. Making sacrifices to God began with the recognition of the right idea -- NO, the RECOGNITION OF THE RIGHT RELATIONSHIP. God is Creator; we are the creation. But somewhere along the way, the center failed to hold, the right idea got perverted, and the relationship got mixed up. Worship lost its proper meaning, and the creature became more important than the Creator. People began to matter more to themselves that the God whom they were supposed to be worshipping. People came to church to see what they could get out of it. People came to church to be entertained. People came to church only if they got something out of it for themselves. People came to church only if they had nothing better to do. People came to church only if their children did not have some other activity to do People came to church saying, What have you done for me lately, God? spiral. The center failed to hold. Things were caught in a downward 3
(2) JESUS CLEANED HOUSE. He stripped away the perverted tool of worship -- that had once been a good idea -- and went back to the basics. Basics like: God is God. We are not. Worship is meant to remind us of the proper relationship between Creator and Creation. Worship is not intended to entertain or merely satisfy us. In the other three Gospel accounts of this event, Jesus says: MY FATHER S HOUSE SHALL BE A HOUSE OF PRAYER. It is in prayer that we get back to the basics. It is when we pray, and remember that God is God and we are not, that the CENTER HOLDS. It is then that the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Five Senses are REJOINED in proper relationship. LENT IS A TIME FOR HOUSE CLEANING. We need to strip away all the extra stuff -- some of which we are quite accustomed to -- so that we can be readjusted, like a good chiropractic treatment, into the right relationship with God. Are there customs and ideas here in our country, our state, and our community, with which we are so comfortable that we have lost sight of the right relationship with God? Are there customs and ideas here at Saint Marks with which we are so comfortable that we have lost sight of the right relationship with God? Are there customs and ideas in our families with which we are so comfortable that we have lost sight of the right relationship with God? 4
Are there customs and ideas in your personal life with which you have become so comfortable that you have lost sight of the right relationship with God? I cannot answer those questions for you. Only you can answer them for yourselves. One of the hard lessons that PREACHERS HAVE TO LEARN is also one that we need to try to teach the flocks entrusted to us: WE DON T NEED TO MAKE THINGS HAPPEN; WE JUST NEED TO MAKE THEM VISIBLE. The center does not seem to be holding today. We can see far too much chaos all around. We can see far too many examples of people not in proper relationship with God or with one another. We can see far too many examples of people not even trying to listen, but only trying to shout above the other voices. Does Jesus need to come in and shake things up, AGAIN TODAY, in order that they may be made right? When the center does not hold, things gets out of kilter. When the center does not hold, the Creatures see themselves as more important than the Creator. They begin to think, It s all about me. What can you see? What do you need to do, to restore the center, to allow God to empower it to hold in YOUR LIFE, in YOUR FAMILY, in YOUR CHURCH, in YOUR COMMUNITY, STATE and COUNTRY? Does Jesus need to come in and shake things up, AGAIN TODAY, in order that they may be made right? In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN. 5