Doing religion wrong - 3/7/2021

 

Call to worship:

L: The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.

P: Disclose to us your foolishness, Lord, that we might become wise.

L: The weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

P: Reveal to us your weakness, Lord, that we might become strong.

A: Let us worship the Lord who, on Calvary, turned foolishness into wisdom, weakness into strength, and a cross of torture into a tree of life.

Opening Hymn:   How Great Thou Art   #77

1 O Lord my God! when I in awesome wonder
consider all the *worlds thy hand have made,
I see the stars, I hear the *rolling thunder,
thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Refrain:
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee;
how great thou art, how great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee;
how great thou art, how great thou art!

2 When through the woods and forest glades I wander,
and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
and hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze; [Refrain]

3 And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
sent him to die, I scarce can take it in;
that on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
he bled and died to take away my sin; [Refrain]

4 When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
and there proclaim, my God, how great thou art! [Refrain]

Opening Prayer:   

O God, the light of our life and the hope of our world, we come before you with clouded minds and restless hearts. We cannot make peace with ourselves until we make peace with you. So we pray that you will let the sun of your love burst upon us in all its glory. Let its raging fire burn away the shame of our sin. Let its healing warmth purify the motives of our hearts. And let its transforming light reveal the person in whose image you made us, that we might worship you as you are and serve you as we ought.

Epistle Reading:  1 Corinthians 1: 18-25

¹⁸ For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
    and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. ²² For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³ but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Children's Message (link)

Hymn:  In the Cross of Christ I Glory   #295

1. In the cross of Christ I glory,
towering o'er the wrecks of time;
all the light of sacred story
gathers round its head sublime.

2. When the woes of life o'ertake me,
hopes deceive, and fears annoy,
never shall the cross forsake me.
Lo! it glows with peace and joy.

3. When the sun of bliss is beaming
light and love upon my way,
from the cross the radiance streaming
adds more luster to the day.

4. Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure,
by the cross are sanctified;
peace is there that knows no measure,
joys that through all time abide.

5. In the cross of Christ I glory,
towering o'er the wrecks of time;
all the light of sacred story
gathers round its head sublime. 

Prayer of Dedication:

O God, who has endowed us with a thirst that only you can quench, a hunger that you alone can satisfy, and a restlessness that only you can still, we turn to you in adoration and prayer. We turn to you because there is no one else to whom we can turn. In you, we are confident of finding answers to our questions and quiet for our souls. In vain we have looked elsewhere for comfort. We seek you now, counting on your promise that mourners shall be comforted, the weak strengthened, the foolish made wise, and the crossbearers vindicated. We thank you, O God, not only for inviting us to call upon you in our time of need, but for receiving us as friends instead of beggars.   Amen.

Gospel Reading:   John 2: 13-22

¹³ The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. ¹⁵ Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” ¹⁸ The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰ The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But he was speaking of the temple of his body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Sermon Title:    Doing religion wrong (link)

The story of Jesus’ “cleansing” of the temple is found in all four Gospels, but as opposed to the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), where it is associated with the end of Jesus’ life; in John, it appears right after the telling of Jesus’ first miracle, turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana. John tells the temple story as a prophetic inauguration of Jesus’ ministry.

As we enter the story, the people are preparing to celebrate the Passover, which is an early spring festival remembering the time when God passed over the houses who had painted blood on their doors (signifying their faith in God) and the first born male in each of those houses was spared. This story is told in the book of Exodus. People traveled from near and far to take part in this festival, part of which, by law, required burnt offerings. Many of the travelers could not bring cattle, sheep, or doves with them and so they were in the temple purchasing the needed items in order for them to fulfill the law.

And then….in comes Jesus. Now I suppose that at some point, this mode of operation with the selling of animals and the changing of foreign currency into local money had become the normal and “everybody” was doing it. But when Jesus showed up at the temple and saw these arbitrary activities going on and He….well….He lost it.

Jesus saw all of these people buying and selling their faith and He was infuriated. How could they be getting their religion so wrong? They were merely going through the motions of acknowledging God instead of building a relationship with Him.

Now in their defense, they probably thought that they were doing the right thing according to the laws of Moses and everything they had been taught thus far. But here is one little detail that is not necessarily printed in the text. When this passage says the “Jews”, it is actually referring to the “religious leaders” of the Jewish community. Jesus saw the Scribes and the Pharisees, people who should know better, making money off of the poor travelers who had merely come to celebrate a long held ritual, and He was angry. And when the dust had settled from tables being overturned and livestock herded out, the religious elite demanded a sign from Jesus as to what authority He had for causing this chaos.

And Jesus told them to destroy this temple and then in three days He will raise it up again. And after a few guffaws, scoffs, and oh really’s, they responded with the fact that the temple had been under construction for forty-six years and was not yet complete. They were certain that Jesus would not be able to put it back up in its entirety in only three days. Of course, Jesus was talking in symbolism, referring to His own death and resurrection instead of just a building. 

This was only one incident of the conflict that Jesus had with the religious leadership of the time, but it was a very important one that set a precedent for His entire ministry. In essence, the leaders let the laws get in the way of why they believed. And then they used their ignorance to gain money and power for the church instead of building up their faith in an all-loving God. They were doing religion wrong.

So the question now is how do we do religion right? Remember that Jesus did not come to condemn the law, but to fulfill it. This fact, however, was just too much for some of them to understand or believe. When the signs were presented, they saw everything changing and that meant that they would have to change as well. 

The thing is, though, if you don’t change when you meet Jesus, then you missed the whole point. Doing religion right means having and then building upon our relationship with Father God and with His Son Jesus Christ who came into this world in order to save us from our sin and from ourselves while reconciling us with God. Ii say our relationship, because it is ours, yours and mine, a very personal thing; and the only way to know our Creator.

Amen.

Closing Hymn:  Take Up Thy Cross   #415

1. "Take up thy cross," the Savior said,
"if thou wouldst my disciple be;
deny thyself, the world forsake,
and humbly follow after me."

2. Take up thy cross, let not its weight
fill thy weak spirit with alarm;
his strength shall bear thy spirit up,
and brace thy heart and nerve thine arm.

3. Take up thy cross, nor heed the shame,
nor let thy foolish pride rebel;
thy Lord for thee the cross endured,
to save thy soul from death and hell.

4. Take up thy cross and follow Christ,
nor think till death to lay it down;
for only those who bear the cross
may hope to wear the glorious crown.