Third Sunday in Lent (Year B)
It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14He found in the temple those who were selling cattle, sheep, and doves, as well as those involved in exchanging currency sitting there. 15He made a whip from ropes and chased them all out of the temple, including the cattle and the sheep. He scattered the coins and overturned the tables of those who exchanged currency. 16He said to the dove sellers, “Get these things out of here! Don’t make Abba’s house a place of business.” 17His disciples remembered that it is written, Passion for your house consumes me.
18Then the Jewish leaders asked him, “By what authority are you doing these things? What miraculous sign will you show us?”
19Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up.”
20The Jewish leaders replied, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days?” 21But the temple Jesus was talking about was his body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered what he had said, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Other readings: Exodus 20.1-17; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 1.18-25
Gathering Prayer:
Holy One, creator of the stars and seas, your steadfast love is shown to every living thing: your word calls forth countless worlds and souls; your law revives and refreshes. Forgive our misuse of your gifts, that we may be transformed by your wisdom to manifest for others the mercy of our crucified and risen Savior. Amen.
I was recently a guest on Rick Fry’s podcast, Inside The Man Box. During the conversation, I made a controversial statement about the “Church.” I said something along the lines of, “Jesus never intended to start another religion; especially the religious business institution we call the church.” The church of the New Testament (the Greek word for “church”, ἐκκλησίαν, means “a called out assembly of people”) met in each other’s homes, sharing meals, and “having everything in common” (Acts 2.42-47; 4.32-37). That’s not what we have today.
Today, we have a religious business. There’s a “board,” salaries, budget meetings, bills, power struggles between different entities (depending on the stream of Christianity), and a constant pressure to “get more people in attendance.” And, of course, giving. There seems to always be a sermon — or a series of sermons — on tithing or the next “building fund raiser.” In other words, we’ve done everything Jesus said not to do — we’ve made God’s house a place of business.
And I find it sickening.
We have people struggling to make ends meet, especially during this pandemic, but church “leaders” are always begging for more money. I remember a travelling evangelist who came to a church we used to attend. He was there about a week and preached every night. Of course, each evening a “love offering” was collected to support his ministry. The last night, though, we were told a “little secret;” not enough money had been collected and the evangelist wouldn’t be able to move on to the next city to do “God’s work.” Of course, the evangelist also had their own private plane!
That was one of the big turning points for me. I remember thinking, “Why doesn’t this guy get a job like the apostle Paul? Does he think he’s better than Paul?” I was, of course, thinking of 2 Thessalonians 3.7-8, where Paul wrote, “[You] know that you ought to imitate us. We weren’t idle when we were with you. We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so we would not be a burden to any of you” (NLT).[2][3]
Certainly, some of our churches do great work for others — food pantries, daycare, after school programs, AA, etc. — but that’s all part of the religious business. And if we’re wanting to get picky here, the people selling sacrificial animals in the Temple were most likely doing so at a profit. Just like churches today who offer “rentable” places to meet or charging for daycare, religious business institutions are making a profit “to keep the lights on.” Granted, it might not be much of a profit but it’s a far cry from what the New Testament church was like.
This all happened, of course, when Christianity went from being a persecuted Way of living and being that had to meet secretly to a state sponsored religion. When that happened, it adopted all sorts of things that it shouldn’t have, like the ones I mentioned above. During this Lenten season, maybe one of the things we can ask God to help us with is to get back to following The Way of Jesus instead of the religious business institution.
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In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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[1] Scripture quotations marked (CEB) are taken from The Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible. Used by permission.
[2] Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation, Inc. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
[3] See also Acts 18.3; 20.34; 1 Corinthians 4.12, 1 Thessalonians 2.9.
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