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Elma United Methodist Church |
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From Veal to Zeal |
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Elma United Methodist Church |
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From Veal to Zeal Dan Shelly Elma United Methodist Church March 19, 2006 (John 2:13-22)
I’m always intrigued to see how our weekly Scripture readings so often work together to create an ongoing conversation that meets the real questions of faith that arise within our daily lives. Last week in the Gospel of Mark we heard Jesus tell all those around him, “If you want to be my followers, here’s the cost, you need to let go of the comfortable life you’re living, pick up your cross and follow me.” And that raised up for me the image of Veal Calf Christians. Christians who throughout their lives are raised on nothing but milk, a message of Cheap Grace requiring no response. They never get beyond the walls of their stalls. They never have the opportunity to grow and strengthen in their Christian walk. Instead, these words of Jesus challenge us to get out into the world with our faith – grow and stretch as we follow Jesus. Then this week we get a view of Jesus that is so often overlooked by modern Christianity.
Jesus comes into the temple in Jerusalem, he comes to the very center of religious worship and practice for the nation of Israel, the Holiest of Holy places, and instead of quietly preaching and teaching his message of God’s Love and Forgiveness, God’s Peace and Healing, what does Jesus do? He fashions a whip from strands of rope and proceeds to lay into the merchants and vendors in the outer courtyard. Driving out the sheep and cattle, overturning the tables filled with the special coins used only at the temple. Can you imagine the chaos he caused? Coins clattering all over the pavement and cattle and sheep running everywhere as people dove to reach for the scattering money while at the same time trying to avoid Jesus’ whip. This had to be Chiapas the High priest of the temple’s worst nightmare coming true. Just when religious pilgrims were coming into Jerusalem from throughout the nation to celebrate Passover, when their gifts and offerings would begin to fill the temple treasury and allow them to operate for another year, here comes a rabble rousing prophet from the countryside with a large rag-tag band of followers and they’re challenging the status quo. They’re challenging the very system that pays the priest’s salaries and keeps peace between Israel and the Roman authorities.
Jesus is questioning the whole religious system and his question is – what does this have to do with following God’s Spirit? What does this huge institution have to do with our call into relationship with God and with our neighbor? The whole setup is an abomination to God and a mockery of true spirituality, love and relationship. We’ve forgotten what we’re supposed to be about and instead turned God’s house into a marketplace where we make a profit off of people who are seeking spiritual guidance and comfort. This is the Scripture that follows for us right after Jesus tells us, “let go of the comfortable life you’re living, pick up your cross and follow me.”
It provides an image and in insight into Jesus that is so often overlooked by the church. We see images of Jesus calling the children to his side and blessings them, we hear Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount which tells us the Meek shall inherit the Earth, Blessed are the Poor and the Peacemakers, and we hear Jesus portrayed as the Lamb of God – gentle Jesus meek and mild who was cruelly put to death for our sakes. But the traditional Christian church, the church that became the state religion of Rome in the 300’s and which for centuries kept kings and empires in power, waged war in the name of religion, and built cathedrals that dwarfed the splendor of the temple in Jerusalem, this church tends to overlook Jesus the young and fearless prophet who challenged and called out to reform the religious system of his day. The Jesus not portrayed in Scripture as a meek and gentle Lamb of God, but as the Lion of Judah – the fiery preacher who challenged everything about the established religious order of his day.
In fact, it was very interesting putting our bulletin together for today. We have a large collection of Scriptural bulletin covers but not one of them references this image of Jesus. We also have a huge collection of religious clipart and once again there were no images of this Jesus. This Jesus not just filled with compassion, but also filled to overflowing with passion. As our scripture today tells us, “Zeal for his Father’s house consumed him!” When you get rid of the watered down image of Jesus that is so often presented to us by established church, the Jesus we encounter in Scriptures is passionate, incredibly charismatic, and probably more than a little dangerous. It’s no wonder he attracted such a large crowd of followers. Many of them were probably waiting to see what was going to happen when Jesus finally came to Jerusalem and challenged the established religious authorities. They were waiting for him to start a revolution that would overthrow the established order and liberate those who were living in bondage.
And I suspect that this is the Jesus that many of the historic church reformers such as Luther, Calvin, and John Wesley encountered as well. It was this Jesus who invited them to step outside the walls of their stalls, step outside the confines of the religious system they were raised in, pick up their crosses and follow him. It is this Jesus the peasants of Central and South America encountered in the 1970’s who empowered them to speak up against political systems that used the combined power of the established church and state to brutally oppress them. And it’s THIS Jesus who invites US to grow from Veal to Zeal – from Veal Calf Christians, quiet and complacent never questioning authority or causing trouble, to Zeal Filled Christians, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and on fire to find and follow God’s leading for our lives.
It’s radical and heady stuff when you really begin to dig under the surface and encounter the young and fearless prophet Jesus who calls all of us to accountability for our lives and who encourages us to seek not only peace but also justice for God’s world.
So the question now becomes, where are you going with this Pastor Dan? What are you asking us to do? Are you asking us to challenge the authorities here within this our own Christian nation? Are you asking us to speak out against oppression wherever we find it in the world? As Christians are you asking us to speak out against preemptive strikes and unjust wars? Are you asking us to put ourselves on the line and work for real reform and justice within the world’s economic systems, or work to reverse the massive ecological damage we have done to God’s gift of the Earth – the very Mother who sustains us and our future generations? Or work to meet the needs of those without housing, without food to eat or proper healthcare? And challenge the systems that cause this misery in the world? What exactly are you asking us to do Pastor Dan?
My answer to that is both simple and hard. It’s simple because what I’m inviting all of us to do is to encounter and learn from this hidden Jesus, this young and fearless prophet who calls us to work for peace and justice within our lives and within our world. This Jesus who so threatened the establishment, in his own time and in ours, that he was put to death, and even when the grave couldn’t hold him, was covered up by an image of gentle Jesus meek and mild. That’s the simple part.
The hard part is not my message, but Jesus’ message to us. The hard part is Jesus’ call to “let go of the comfortable life we’re living, pick up our crosses and follow Him.” What does that mean to you and to me? It’s different for each of us, and the bottom line is that each of us has the choice, the Free Will, to follow or not. But during this time of Lent, this time of prayer, fasting, and reflection. The invitation to all of us is to come to know this hidden Jesus, this passionate and fiery prophet consumed with Zeal, and let Jesus show us where we’re to be about our Father’s work in the world.
In the Scriptures, Jesus promises that he has gone to prepare a place for us that where He is we may be also. And you’ll know that place when you honestly look for it. It’s where your deepest passion meets the World’s deepest need. |