Rev. Roland J. Wells, Jr. - Pastor

Epiphany 3 - January 26, 2003

Lessons: Psalm 69:6-21; Revelation 21:21-27; John 2:13-25

"One Clean Spot"

Introduction:

How many times has it happened to you- the kids make a little mark on the wall. No big deal. So you go to scrub the spot- and now, you've got one nice little clean spot- but you now see how the rest of the wall is dirty. And sometimes scrubbing won't do it. The color becomes uneven, and you end up repainting the whole works. One little dirt spot; one little clean spot, and pretty soon you see the extent of the whole problem.

When Jesus began his ministry, according to John's Gospel, he went into the temple, and began to clean it out. What was going on? How did this affect the rest of his ministry? What were the consequences?

I) The Background

The other Gospels tell of Jesus cleansing the temple at the end of his ministry. They tell it as one of the things that really stirs up a hornet's nest, leading to his crucifixion. John's Gospel tells of a different cleansing, this one at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry.

In OT times, God instructed the people to prepare the Temple as the one place on earth that people were to worship him. There and only there were sacrifices to be made. The Temple in Jerusalem was the only place on earth that God promised that his presence would remain. In Jesus' day, that's where sacrifices were made to 'keep' the moral law the LORD had given to Israel.

The Jewish people had come back from captivity in Babylon about 500 years before Jesus. They rebuilt a small temple, but they had been trampled under the feet of every world empire since then. They came back as vassals of the Persians. Then the Greeks defeated the Persians, and for the next decades, the Jewish people suffered immensely. The Greek leader Antiochus Epiphanus even desecrated the Temple by sacrificing a pig in it. The Jewish people rose up, and had a few decades of independence under the leaders called 'Maccabees." But their enemies became too strong, and the Jews invited the Romans to come and help them. That's like inviting a lion to come into your house to chase out a bear! The Romans were in charge during the time of Jesus. All of these influences fragmented he people, and watered down the power of the faith the Temple was the center of. The people were polluted. They needed to be cleansed.

And in the midst of all this, the Jewish people were fragmented into many political and religious parties and movements. As Jewish people moved all over the ancient world, it became harder and harder to gather for the appointed feasts, and if they desired to bring unblemished sacrifices, they pretty well had to buy those animals locally. It's hard to carry a sheep 1000 miles in a small boat! Or make it hike a thousand miles, and still be physically perfect enough for sacrifice. So, the Jewish authorities set up a market in the Temple to make available the animals needed for sacrifice. We can guess that these animals were high priced, maybe exorbitantly priced. But that's not told us by the Gospels. Some have suggested that the money changers were cheating people. But it doesn't say that either. They may have been cheating people, but all our text says is: (John 2) 14 In the temple (Jesus) found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!"

The Temple was a place solely for the worship of God. We have no idea if they were at all crooked. What's important is that all this commerce was going on in the place people were to worship. Bottom line. The temple was polluted. It needed to be cleansed.

But what was going on was the tip of the iceberg. The Temple was run by the high priestly families. They had become politically powerful, because their families had pretty much run things since they got back from Babylon. They had become very cosy with the Greek families of high standing. They were wealthy and powerful. They were allied with the Sadducees, a group who would be much like the liberal eastern mainline protestant establishment. All of these people had a lot to lose if some upstart stirred up political or religious trouble. The society needed to be cleansed. All of these things stood over and against Jesus.

Jesus came to this situation, and desired to make things right. He stepped into the situation at its most visible place that needed reforming. He walked into the Temple Walmart and began to tear the place up.

You can see why many were attracted to him. You can see why some, right away, hated him. He stepped into this one tiny spot and began to clean. And when he cleaned that up, it made it very evident of how dirty everything else had become. Once he had cleaned the temple up, all the powers that be, all of the religious emptiness of the day become very clear. But at the end, he didn't make a call to repaint. It was a call to repent.

II) Today

Today we live in a time when the church has more blemished spots, than clean spots on its wall. We see the church across America getting sick and weak. In the 1990's, there was not a single county anywhere in the United States that the percentage of Christians grew. In the core city, most of the mainline churches will close in the next decade, barring a miracle. We see the mainline church struggling with moral questions that they should never even think twice about. We've lost our mooring and our moral compass. The church needs to be cleansed. The church needs to be renewed.

We see the rise of thousands of 'warehouse churches' with very non-traditional worship. People are hungry to be taught and led. Our mainline churches are just beginning to wake up. Will it be in time? We can talk all we want about leadership and 'mission' but if we don't bring people to the Living Christ, we might just as well be organizing a Cub Scout pack!

So often I think it would all be so much easier if we just pulled out and moved our congregation to a nice little conservative denomination, where there is no confusion about what the Gospel and mission are all about. But they're not perfect, and each has their own factions and struggles. Then I think about our responsibility to the millions of other Lutherans in our denomination. Are we going to just throw them to the wolves? No, we're just going to keep turning out turned on young pastors to go out there and get the job done. We've already turned our half as many pastors in the last 15 years than some of the denominations have in their whole denomination! Change comes slowly, and the church needs radical cleansing. But our God is able.

Jesus wasn't obsessed with cleansing the Temple just to cause trouble or bring judgement. He did what he did so that the Temple could be what it was created to be. When we build the church, we do that same sort of work. The church today needs a new vision, a new view of what it means to be the people of God, living out their faith. We may get our inspiration from an unexpected source.

III) A Future and a Hope From the Past?

In the early 1700's, the pietistic renewal had happened in Germany, and was spreading. The Reformation had come and gone, a couple generations had spent their time working out theologically what the Reformation meant- but the people were hungry for the experience of God. Pietism, a renewal movement that emphasized personal commitment to Christ, prayer, missions, etc. arose. A later expression of the movement was led by Hauge and others in Scandinavia. But in the mid-1700's, pietism took a different route in Germany, centered on a town called Halle. There pietism met up with the university. There pietism came under the influence of a Lutheran pastor and professor, August Francke. The movement that grew up around Francke was perhaps the most intensely New Testament expressions of faith in the history of the Lutheran church. They were a movement based on deep, personal faith in Jesus Christ with a strong emphasis on prayer. But they weren't just a movement of the heart- they simultaneously studied Bible and doctrine.

One word describes the movement: balance. They built up the church at home, and they re-ignited world missions, creating the first missionary movement in Protestant Europe. They not only had head and heart, inreach and outreach balanced, they also took that living faith and put it to work serving people. They invented the care of the blind, the deaf and the handicapped. The models they used became the basis of most community care for these individuals right up through today. They did their work within the Lutheran church, but they were never in the center of power. Renewal movements are rarely accepted by the churchly powers. Others criticized them, but they turned the church upside down, reaching the world and caring for those left out. Balance. Balance. They began to create one little clean spot, and it grew and grew and grew.

I believe that the church is about to be renewed. I believe that the renewal that will happen will be based on the city. I believe that the renewal will be strongly Bible-based and Spirit-empowered. It will be centered on helping the needs of people while simultaneously surrounding them with the Gospel- holistic. It will be local mission modeled after world-mission. It will be culturally specific and culturally savvy. If God has created a world where 75% of the population will live in cities by 2025, then we must be ready to reach that world. I believe God is creating a movement to reach those teeming, impoverished, young, hungry cities. To reach them, the Gospel must be proclaimed, taught and lived in balance. If the whole Gospel isn't there, the whole church won't grow. I think that the future of world Christianity will look a lot like Halle in 1750. There will be many clean spots in a world that's full of darkness and filth.

As we go to our Annual Meeting time this morning, we face a world that needs cleaning. We face a religious establishment grown cold, antagonistic to the Gospel and worldly. We see opportunity around the world and around the neighborhood on a scale that is mind-boggling. We see opportunities for our work here that are beyond understanding. But we believe that God is up to something. We believe God is going to renew his church. We believe God is up to something worldwide, and that the Twin Cities will play an important role in reaching that new world. We believe St. Paul's has been called to a crucial and key role in discovering and teaching that new future. We see the evangelical colleges coming together to embrace what we are teaching here. We see a movement forming in the Twin Cities to reach the nearly half-million immigrants, and St. Paul's is right in the center of that movement.

Do you believe God is able to renew his church again? Are you hungry for that? Do you desire to reach those half-million people Jesus? That's what's at stake. Do you desire to build a congregation here that will continue the tradition of being deeply committed, of rolling up its sleeves, and getting the job done? That's been our call for 130 years. Jesus says, 'Behold, I make all things new." He is. Are you ready? We've got work to do! We'll start, like Jesus, with one clean spot. But when Jesus is the one doing the work, that spot just keeps on growing. Invitation, Amen.

Epiphany 3 -January 26, 2003

PSA 69:6-21

Do not let those who hope in you be put to shame because of me, O Lord GOD of hosts; do not let those who seek you be dishonored because of me, O God of Israel. 7 It is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that shame has covered my face. 8 I have become a stranger to my kindred, an alien to my mother's children. 9 It is zeal for your house that has consumed me; the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. 10 When I humbled my soul with fasting, they insulted me for doing so. 11 When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. 12 I am the subject of gossip for those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me. 13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me. With your faithful help 14 rescue me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters. 15 Do not let the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the Pit close its mouth over me. 16 Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me. 17 Do not hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress--make haste to answer me. 18 Draw near to me, redeem me, set me free because of my enemies. 19 You know the insults I receive, and my shame and dishonor; my foes are all known to you. 20 Insults have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. 21 They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

REV 21:21-27

And the twelve gates are twelve pearls, each of the gates is a single pearl, and the street of the city is pure gold, transparent as glass. 22 I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 Its gates will never be shut by day--and there will be no night there. 26 People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

JOHN 2:13-25

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." 18 The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" 19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 20 The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?" 21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. 23 When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.