You can listen to this sermon here
Gate Pa – Year B 3rd Sunday in Lent, 2024
Readings:
Psalm Psalm 19
First Reading:
Exodus
20:1-17
Second Reading:
1
Cor
1:18-25
Gospel: John
2:13-22
What I
want to say:
Last week we
talked about “carrying our cross with some examples of “martyrs”. Then read
about MLK Jr, and some of his experiences with his father – living the truth
that he was created a man in the image of God. Carrying our cross can be as
simple as this.
In light of that
explore Exodus 20 – 10 Words – not as something to be done to earn God’s
approval, but given to people already brought out o slavery with God’s presence
in their midst – in clouds and tent of meeting.10 Words taught them to live as
people marked by God’s compassion and generosity – displaying that justice,
mercy, aroha for all – Blessed to be a blessing
John portrays
Jesus as one step further – not marked by God’s compassion and generosity, but
God’s compassion and generosity enfleshed! He is God’s compassion and
generosity.
Read John 2 and
John’s “Temple Incident” in light of that, remembering that when John is
written there is no temple! Jesus is not superseding the temple – the temple is already gone
Through the
crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, we are God’s compassion and generosity
in our place
What I want to happen:
How do we embody God’s compassion and
generosity in our lives.
The Sermon
1.
Introduction:
Last
week we spent time thinking about Mark’s story of Jesus
-
Near Caesarea Philippi
-
Place built by those who
o
won world through military might and violence
-
Rebuilt in honour of Roamn generals and Caesars
o
Won world again through military might and power
-
“Who do people say I am?”
-
Conversation with Peter
Then
he teaches that he will be crucified
-
Another conversation with Peter
Summarised
what Jesus was saying with
-
Way of God
-
Not way of violence and military might, power
-
Way of Aroha
ð is to love God by loving our neighbour as we love
ourselves.
This way is very disruptive
of powers of this world
Will bring
a response from powers of this world
Will bring
a response and Jesus will be crucified
Jesus says “All who want to come after me must
say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.
All who
want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because
of me and because of the good news will save them.” (Mark 8:34+35).
We told stories
of some who had
-
Stood with God’s disruptive work
-
God’s Way of Aroha
-
stood with suffering
-
Archbishop Janani Luwum
o Paid price.
Went home
and listened to biography about MLK and Malcolm X by James Cone
-
Martin’s
experiences of racism in south growing up
-
power of church provide shelter
-
place of resistance to Jim Crow and its insistence
that Negros were nobody
“God, African
American Christians claimed, could make the crooked roads straight and the
rough places plain. They believed that God builds you up when you are torn down
and props you up on every leaning side no matter what white said about blacks
or what wicked laws they enacted against their humanity. The people of Ebenezer
believed that God had bestowed upon them a “somebodyness” which had been signed
and sealed by Jesus’ death and resurrection. That was why they sang with great
enthusiasm and prayed with much thankfulness for what the Lord had done for
them." (Martin and Malcolm and America: A Dream or a... by Cone, James H)
“somebodyness”
Made me rethink taking up the cross
Faith as resistance to inhumanity
But to live “somebodyness” was dangerous
Daddy King would not bow to the inhumanity of Jim Crow
One story he was stopped and policeman said “Boy, show me your licence”
To which Daddy King replied – pointing at his son, Martin
“He is a boy, I am a man”
He was living the truth of his “somebodyness”
that he was created a man in the image of God
- Risked beating
- Arrest
- Lynching
Realised that for many carrying their cross for is simply day to day living
Simply living being somebody
- Living their somebodyness in God
Wonder where in this land and around world – people living this truth
Where do we see people living the truth of somebodyness
- Truth of being made in image of God
- In the face of being called nobody
2.
10 Words
As
we wonder that
we
are offered some interesting texts this week
First
is 10 commandments in Exodus
(slightly
different from Deuteronomy version)
Decalogue
or 10 Words
Wonder
how we read these
Rules
to obey to earn something?
Or
avoid punishment
These
are given to people already brought out of slavery by God
-
Not deserved that through obedience to any code
God
simply acted out of compassion and mercy
Taken
these nobody slaves
Made
them somebody
In
this story God is present in their midst
-
in pillars
-
ark and tent of meeting.
-
Eventually temple
We
might say that to live these 10 words was
-
Live as somebody
-
in the presence of God
Not
just anybody
10
Words taught them to live as people marked by God’s compassion and generosity
-
displaying God’s justice, mercy, aroha for all
-
or as covenants of Genesis 12 and 15 state
-
Blessed to be a blessing
Temple
and system of sacrifices were set to remind People of God
God’s
presence in their midst
-
Shekinah
God’s
glory which was to mark their lives
God’s
glory made them somebody
-
different from all other people
This
is the way of God
God’s
disruptive way
God
standing with the suffering
-
naming them as somebody in God
That
leads to the cross
3.
John and the temple
Troubling
story of Jesus in temple in John
Not
where it is in other gospels
Different
story from synoptics
Reason
for Jesus’ outrage is not stated
It
is implied that it is much more than just corruption
-
More at stake here
When
John is writing Jerusalem is destroyed
-
Temple is no more
-
There is no temple
-
Which for his Jewish Christian community that is a
problem
-
First Christians were good Jews
What
is John doing in his gospel and in this story?
John
portraying Jesus not just as fully somebody
-
Somebody living God’s compassion and generosity
-
As 10 words show
not
marked by God’s compassion and generosity,
He
is God’s compassion and generosity.
he
is God’s compassion and generosity enfleshed!
THE
somebody who shows us how to be somebodies
Read
John 2 and John’s “Temple Incident” in light of that,
Jesus
is not superseding the temple –
-
Jesus was good Jew
-
In Jerusalem for Passover
-
In temple to prepare for Passover
-
Zeal for this house and all that house stood for
consumes him
-
He is not setting himself over and above the temple
in this story
As
John says he is writing this
After
resurrection
After
destruction of temple
John
and his community remember Jesus’ word and actions in light of that
Jesus
becomes God’s presence in their midst
-
Shekinah
God’s
glory which makes these nobody fishermen and others
-
Somebody
-
different from all other people
Temple
is gone
Jesus
in now the location of that glory
I
think John goes further as says
Through
the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension,
In
power of Spirit
we
too enflesh God’s compassion and generosity
-
physical manifestations of divine presence of generosity
and compassion
Pray
this prayer as pour water into the wine
“As
this water mingles with this wine
So
may your divinity mingle with our humanity
Your
humanity mingle with our divinity
That
we may be drawn into the eternal Dance of Love
And
be icons of your justice, compassion and generosity.”
Maybe
add
That
we may truly be somebody
Jesus
reminds us
To
be somebody in God is dangerous
As
it was for Daddy King
MLK
Jr
And
so many others still today
How
does lent help us in all this
Offer
Rodney Aist – Course Director at St George’s in Jerusalem
4.
Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTZ5cuEz1kk&t=880s
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