3rd Sunday in Lent: March 11, 2012

3^rd Sunday in Lent: March 11, 2012

John 2: Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Preacher: Pastor Carrie B. Smith

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

I rarely watch the morning news shows anymore, having grown tired of hearing about the latest ways to stay thin, the season’s hottest new look, and the toys my kids will be begging for this Christmas. But a few days ago I found myself trapped in an armchair, weighed down by a cat, and therefore had the opportunity to take in all the “most important” news of the day.

That particular day, these were some of the top stories:

A clothing company in the UK has been selling men’s pants with a label inside featuring these cleaning instructions: “Dry clean only—or give to your woman. It’s her job.”

Forbes magazine’s newest female billionaire is the woman who invented Spanx undergarments (men, if you don’t know what these are, just ignore this part of the sermon.)

A soccer mom in New Jersey has been busted for running a brothel out of her home.

A notorious radio personality became a top story after using a string of nasty names and lewd comments to describe female college student.

Oh…and Snooki is having a baby.

Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem, the news is that Jesus went a little crazy in the temple, after finding it had been made into a marketplace.

This week’s Gospel text usually lends itself to a fantastic sermon opportunity on Christian consumerism and how we misuse our modern day temples. But this week, what screams out to me from television, from radio, from billboards, and from political pundits, is how the temple of the human body (and in particular, the female body) has become a marketplace.

According to Genesis, we are all Imago Dei, made in the image of God:

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:27)

And according to 1 Corinthians 6:19, we are temples of the Holy Spirit:

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19)

Scripture also says that Jesus himself abides in us, as we abide in him. Furthermore, our bodies are not our own, but have been bought with a price, and should therefore glorify the body.

But instead of being glorified or honored as temples, our bodies have become marketplaces. Moneychangers have moved right in, appropriating sacred space and making it their own.

Women’s bodies in particular sell everything from blue jeans to toilet bowl cleaners. Those annoying pants labels I mentioned, sexist as they are, achieved just what they were designed for: a few angry protests from women, and tons of media attention. Sara Blakely has made a billion dollars selling us special underwear—underwear that promises to shape us into more perfect versions of ourselves (because we all know our bodies are wild animals to be tamed, not temples of the Holy Spirit!). That New Jersey madam made millions selling other women to high-profile businessmen through her suburban brothel. MTV is rightfully concerned with how much money it will lose, now that a pregnant Snooki won’t be enticing viewers with her usual Jersey Shore partying. And as for the political pundits who use women’s bodies and women’s health as pawns in their game? They hope to use our bodies to buy a few votes.

All of this misuse of the human body seems so normal and such an everyday part of our lives that we may wonder: “What’s the big deal? Isn’t this just the way the world works?”

But then we turn back to Scripture and to that scene where an angry Jesus clears the moneychangers out of the temple:

The Jesus we meet in the temple isn’t gentle Jesus, meek and mild. This isn’t the little Lord Jesus asleep in the hay. This is Jesus, angry prophet, driving out every last one of the moneychangers, dove-sellers, and cattle rustlers with a whip of cords in his hand. In his zeal to clean up the place, he even overturns tables and pours money onto the floor.

What angered Jesus so much was arriving at the temple of the Lord—the dwelling place of God and the holiest spot in Jerusalem—and finding that it had been invaded by businessmen with their own agendas. This wasn’t just a falafel stand at the entrance of the temple or a lemonade stand at the entrance of a church. These were folks who had moved right in to sacred space, ignoring the presence of God in favor of making a profit. “Take these things out of here!” Jesus shouted. “Stop making my Father’s house into a marketplace!”

You see, a temple isn’t just a building. It is the dwelling place of God. It is holy ground, and a sacred refuge. A temple isn’t intended to be a place of commerce or of unholy transactions.

If you had walked into church this morning and were greeted with signs announcing “This sermon sponsored by Microsoft” or “All communion wine offered by Gallo Wineries”, or even “We use only Dasani brand water in our baptismal font”, you might feel a similar outrage. It’s easy to understand how this kind of commerce has no place in a house of worship.

But if our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, made in God’s image, and if Jesus himself abides in us, then it also offends God when human bodies are used for personal profit.

Jesus was consumed with zeal for his Father’s house and cleansed the temple of the moneychangers who had invaded it. Today, we are called to the same zeal wherever we see sacred spaces, holy places, and especially human faces being used, abused, and destroyed.

Wherever women are raped, human sex trafficking is tolerated, or blatant sexism is a joke; wherever the right to receive health care for our own bodies becomes a matter of politics; wherever the female body is used as an advertising gimmick; wherever black bodies are lynched, undocumented bodies labor for our benefit, or child soldiers are used to fight an unholy war—Jesus calls us to zealously speak out and actively overturn the tables of injustice. Every human body is made in the image of God, a temple of the Holy Spirit which deserves to be treated with reverence and honor.

Followers of Jesus are called and empowered to speak out as he did in the temple that day. We can do much to change the way human bodies—male and female, young and old, white, black or brown—are treated.

But when Jesus challenged the abusive systems in place in the temple that day, he also issued a prophecy: “You may destroy this temple, but in 3 days I will raise it up.” Those in power thought he was talking about the building. Even the disciples didn’t understand until later what he meant.

Of course what Jesus was prophesying was the cross and his own death. He knew where he was headed. He knew that to speak out against the powers and principalities which made the temple a marketplace, kept food from the hungry, and kept poor people in the gutters, was to write his own death warrant.

But he also proclaimed that the cross wouldn’t be the end of the story.

Jesus promises that wherever temples are destroyed, God will bring new life and resurrection. The cross of Christ is our promise that God will always bring life out of death, freedom out of oppression, hope out of despair, righteousness out of sin, and love out of hate. We glory in the cross, which is our promise that God restores relationships, recovers innocence, heals bodies and cleanses temples. For the message of the cross is foolishness for those who are perishing, but for those who are being saved, it is the power of God!

This is God’s Good News for all those who have suffered rape, abuse, bullying, or persecution of any kind. It is Good News for those who have seen addictions or cancers move in and invade their bodies. The cross is God’s Good News for every person whose body has been into a marketplace, used for profit instead of honored as a dwelling place of the divine.

Because of the cross of Christ, we can not only speak up when we see human bodies being defiled—but we ourselves can also stand in the shadow of the cross, and say to the powers and principalities who would dishonor our bodies:

“No matter what you say about this temple…no matter how you desecrate it or try to destroy it…no matter what you do to this place where God the Father dwells…It will be raised up.”