It’s March! And even in a pandemic that means basketball, especially here in North Carolina. I remember in seminary I lamented when there weren’t enough hours in the day to both watch the tournament games and complete assignments. My Greek professor who had been at Duke in the 90s was sympathetic because she had to balance grading and games, too.
That professor, The Reverend Dr. Mary Hinkle Shore, is now the Rector and Dean of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina, our Lutheran seminary here in the southeast. And she reframes today’s gospel so that we can better understand what is happening in John’s telling of this familiar story that is often titled, “Jesus cleanses the temple.”[i]
In her reframing, Dr. Shore recalls being on a college campus outside the basketball arena and seeing a semi-tractor trailer there. She describes the scene: generators running, electrical cords winding snakelike to the building, vans with camera crews setting up. A beehive of activity, clearly preparing to televise a game. Whether you are picturing the Dean Dome or Cameron, you can feel the energy and excitement pulsing through the air.
But into this scene, she suggests, we imagine someone with a giant pair of hedge trimmers suddenly cutting all the cords. The lights in and around the arena go out. The scoreboard goes dark. There is a hush, and then an uproar.
Dr. Shore proposes we wouldn’t say that the person had “cleansed” the arena. We might say that they had stopped the game.
The story of Jesus showing up in the temple courtyard and overturning the tables is in all four gospels, but the synoptic gospels put it after his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and by including quotes from Isaiah and Jeremiah, those accounts imply that Jesus was focused on exposing corruption among the moneychangers. It is also the event that antagonizes the religious officials into plotting his arrest and death.
But in John’s account, this event takes place very near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, just after the wedding at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine. In John’s gospel, this won’t be the event that seals Jesus’ fate; that will happen with the rising of the dead man Lazarus in Chapter 11.
In this gospel, Jesus is angry, but it’s not only the possible exploitation that vexes him. The focus here is reorienting God’s people to the presence of God, and even suggesting that the temple itself is not necessary.[ii]
As Dr. Shore writes,
Jesus brings temple activity to a standstill in order to point to another holy place altogether…In John’s gospel, the body of Jesus is the new “holy place.”[iii]
The gospel urges us to pay attention to the ways that the divine and the human meet. Last week, we heard how Peter was too focused on human things. The worshipers and moneychangers in the temple have fallen into that same pattern and even created barriers to worshiping God.[iv]
Here we are reminded to see God embodied in the person of Jesus who takes away all the barriers we construct and erases all the boundaries that shut people out, welcoming everyone to him. The presence of God is no longer hidden or reserved, to be rationed out by religious authorities.
As Martin Luther wrote in his “Heidelberg Dissertation”, “The law says, “do this” and it is never done. Grace says, “believe in this, “and everything is already done.” [v] The glory of God is revealed in Jesus, and we are reconciled to God through him.
By next Sunday we will have been out of the sanctuary, our holy house, for one full year. And while there is a lot to miss about that and it is a lament, I think it also helps us reframe this text this Lent.
Celtic Christianity defines “thin places” as “those places …where it feels like the distance between our finite and material world and God’s eternal and spiritual reality collapses and becomes thin.”[vi] Certainly, holy places like sanctuaries are thin places, but thin places may also exist as a waterfall at South Mountain, or a starry night. Or perhaps the thin place where you experience the Holy is watching the flames in a firepit, hearing a piece of music, or sitting in silence.
These liminal places are the places where we can hear God more clearly and be transformed by God’s love.
In today’s gospel Jesus shows us the way to experience God in him. So, where are the places where God meets you and shows you Jesus?
Let us pray.
Good and gracious God,
We give you thanks for your Son Jesus who reveals your glory and presence to us.
Help us remember that your grace has already accomplished all that we need.
Show us the way to see You in the world around us, every day and in every place and make us zealous to share your love and mercy with everyone we meet.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Amen.
[i] The Rev. Dr. Mary Hinkle Shore. “Commentary on John 2:13-22.” Workingpreacher.org. Luther Seminary.
[ii] The Rev. Dr. Karoline Lewis. “Commentary on John 2:13-22.” Workingpreacher.org. Luther Seminary.
[iii] Shore.
[iv] Sundays and Seasons Resources. Lent 3B.
[v] Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, 2nd. Ed. Timothy F. Lull (Ed.) 60.
[vi] David Lose. “A Thin Place Every Place.” In the Meantime. Davidlose.net
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