My sermon text for Sunday is Matthew 21:12-17. I figure it must be an important text, because it shows up in all four of the Gospels. In it, Jesus comes into the temple, and seeing that it is not being used for its intended purpose, turns the tables. He calls the people back to their original intended purpose of prayer and ministry.
Have the church gotten away from its intended purpose? N.T. Wright says that Jesus turned the tables because he's been healing the sick in the Temple - that's not what the Pharisees wanted. In turning over the tables, Jesus is making room for everyone to experience God's grace. Has the church become a stumbling block for God's grace to work? Are we so fixated on maintaining the current body or membership that we cannot die to ourselves? Are we so intent on having a certain style of worship that we forget that worship isn't about us? Is the church really reaching the lost and the least? What would Jesus say if he walked in to our church today? Would he turn the tables on us, or say "Well done, good and faithful servants?"
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3 comments:
Good question Jay. I've thought about turning over the tables before, but then their would be no one left to pay my salary! Ugh! I don't know. I don't think he would be impressed with our level of commitment, but I think he might be a compassionate teacher that led us closer to true worship. I don't know. Maybe he would be a whip-wielding judge.
By the way, in John, the cleansing of the Temple happens in chapter two, nearly 3 years before the crucifixion. In the Synoptics, it happens in the last week of Jesus' earthly life. Conservative Bible scholars say he overturned the tables on two separate occasions. I'm not firmly commited to any stance about it. What's your take?
Good thoughts, everyone! I think many churches need to turn the tables - or turn inside-out, which is an equal engagement in acts of piety and mercy. Some churches engage in neither...some only in works of mercy, and some only in works of piety. It is the rare church that engages in works of piety and mercy equally, and in abundance!
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