I recall a woman saying to me once, "I’m glad my mother isn’t alive today to see this." Since the social hall was busy with activity I wasn’t quite sure what she was talking about so I responded, "See what?" "This!" she said, "Coming to coffee hour is like going to the mall. Girl scouts are selling cookies. The Guild is selling cook books. What’s the youth group selling, T-shirts?. The social group is selling tickets for a bus trip..." I interpreted her litany by saying, "In other words I should make a whip and drive them all out of here." "Exactly," she retorted.

"Take these things out of here.!
Stop making my fathers house a marketplace."

There is no way you can compare cookies sales after worship, or the selling of raffle tickets, etc., to the kinds of transactions which were taking place in the temple’s court yard in this morning’s gospel story.

Our fund raisers don’t equate to the merchants and money changers who were financially raping the people who were coming to worship. Jesus was angry because the market place had become so cluttered with merchants that it had become very difficult and at times impossible for worshippers to enter into the temple, to do what they had come to do, worship.

Jesus’ anger was compounded by the attitude of the religious leaders. They saw nothing wrong with it. So what if worshippers were inconvienced at times and unable to enter the temple because it was blocked by merchants. The presence of money changers and merchants, provided a convenience, a service for the foreigners who had come to the temple. After all, the foreigners would need to exchange their foreign currency into temple money. They would need to buy certain animals to make an appropriate sacrifice offering.

This convenience did not come cheap. The religious leaders were charging exorbitant fees to exchange currency. They were charging absurd prices for animals. The merchants and religious leaders were being dishonest and greedy. They were exploiting the people who had come to fulfill their religious obligations.

This is why Jesus was outraged. Jesus was disgusted by their motives and their actions. They had made God’s house a place of profit, NOT worship. Insulted and irrated by what he saw, Jesus yelled,

"Take these things out of here!
Stop making my Father’s house a market place."

Having hurt the religious leaders in their pocket book, they challenged Jesus’ authority for doing what he had done. He answered their challenge saying;

"Destroy this temple and in three days
I will raise it up."

Jesus makes a very important transition here. He identifies the temple of God has being not just a building of brick and mortar. Jesus identifies the temple of God as being made of flesh and bones. In other words your body is a temple of God.

1st Corinthians 6:19,20 states;
"Do you not know that your body is a temple?
of the Holy Spirit within you,
which you have from God?
....So glorify God in your body."

Jesus was angry because they defiled the temple of God, with their attitudes, their thoughts and their actions. If He could have beaten those attitudes out of them like He chased the merchants and money changers out of the temple, He would have. Reality is, Jesus couldn’t, so Jesus was appealing to them, as He appeals to you and me. It is time to clean house. To rid ourself of actions, thoughts, motives that defile the temple of God.

Unfortunately our lives all to often resemble the temple court yard. Crowded with all sorts of demands. Demands of careers, family, community, recreational interests, household responsibilities, civic duties, it goes and on and on. Bottom line is our business blocks our pathway to God.

We don’t have time for God. We don’t have time to be as the Psalmist encourages us to, "To be still in the presence of God." We don’t have time to have conversations with God. We don’t have time to hear what God has to say. We don’t have time to love God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our strength.

Why is it that we don’t have time?

Because we choose to spend our time encamped in front of the tv to watch our favorite sit-com, soap opera?

Because we choose to fill our lives with gossip, bitterness, lies, love of money and power?

Because we choose to come to church to make professional contacts or because it is advantageous to our business?

Is it possible that Jesus might be just as angry with us, for crowding Him out of our lives?

"Take these things out of here."

I am reminded of the story of an elderly gentleman who called the TV repair shop complaining there was something wrong with the picture. It was all blurry. When the repair person came to fix, the TV he didn’t see anything wrong with the picture. So he asked the gentleman, "Exactly what is wrong with the picture?" "What’s wrong with you?" said the gentleman, "Can’t you see how blurry it is?" The repairman looked, and again he saw nothing wrong with the picture. So he asked, "Forgive me for asking, but do you wear glasses?" The gentleman said, "The doctor told me I should wear them for looking at things far away, but I don’t need them to watch TV.

The TV wasn’t out of focus, it was the viewer who was.

Everyday, you hear people complaining, that the world is going down hill. People aren’t friendly anymore, no one cares about their neighbor, the values of our youth today, time is passing faster, they are so busy. The demands of today are causing increased stress, anxiety, increased number of heart attacks, ulcers.

What is wrong with the picture? Is it the picture or the viewer? Have our priorities become as screwed up as the religious leaders in this morning’s gospel lesson.

It is time to clean house.

"Take these things out of here."

And think on these things:

"Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Whatever you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace will be with you." Phillipians 4:8,9

Try it and see what a difference it will make.

AMEN

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