Do you want to hear part B
of last week? Again our reading tonight,
somewhat of a little bit of a dilemma.
Preach about the Ten Commandments, which is the first reading, or go into
the gospel and try to garner some beautiful thoughts about the temple. And really I think we can do a little bit of
both.
You know the Ten
Commandments really from the Old Testament, seems over the last several years a
lot of people bemoan the fact and say, “What happened to the Ten Commandments?” I know we don’t preach against all those
things. We don’t preach fire and
brimstone any more. We need a little
oomph you know to kick us in the rear end.
And we kind of over the last several years have preached more about a
God of love, of compassion, of mercy.
And yet you come to this gospel tonight and here’s an image of Jesus
taking a whip and driving people out of the temple. Really being angry.
And you know there is a type
of anger that should be justified. You
know if I’m driving my car and I’m out here at the corner of
So there is a type of
anger. When we see injustice being done
and when we see, as Jesus sees here in the gospel. Now in the gospel when the people came from
all over the world, the Jewish people, to offer sacrifice in the temple, they
used the Roman coins, and on that Roman coin was a symbol of Caesar, who for
the Roman people was considered a god.
But to offer sacrifice in the temple they had to buy animals so they had
to have money-changers there. They had
to take the Roman coins and change it into the coin of the Jewish people so
they could go into the temple and buy the animals and so forth. Well evidently what happened, the money
changers were making a good profit on the changing of the money as well as then
charging more for the sacrifices that had to be offered. So Jesus sees that and He says, “You screwed
it all up. You’re doing it wrong. You’re taking it from a place of prayer and
now you’re making it a way to make money and profit.” So righteously so He booted them out.
This gospel of John as well
as the other three gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke all have this story. John has it right at the beginning of Jesus’
ministry. This is only Chapter 2. The other three synoptic gospels have it just
before Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for the Passover meal and of course entering
into Holy Week will be His death and then the resurrection. So John is telling us, “This is a
tip-off. Jesus has come to replace the
old temple.”
We over 2000 years have time
to understand this passage as well, that Jesus is not only talking about His
own body as the dwelling place of God, He passes that on to you and me. You and I are this living temple of God. So if you and I are the living temple of God
maybe what we could do it reflect upon it this way. What are the areas in my life. Think of Lent as a time of renewal, as a time
of turning over the old tables and setting up some new ones. You want to grow. You could work this way.
I came up with five
different areas maybe that we might want to put something new into our
temple.
First of all: I will love things that are worth
loving. Watch our vocabulary. How many times do we say, “Oh I love to do
this,” or “I really love this kind of food.”
Well, do you really love it? We
love people. We love human beings, moms,
dads, children, brothers, sisters, friends, parishioners. So maybe this about that this way. What are the things that are really worth
loving in your life? Your family. Your faith.
God. Jesus. Friends.
Put it in the right perspective.
Enjoy other things but don’t love your car, don’t love your home. Appreciate it, take care of it, but love
people.
Secondly: Maybe a new table we could put up in our
temple, putting first things first. What
do I mean by that? Well, for you and me
as Catholics being here tonight, celebrating the Eucharist is a priority. For someone to say, “Well, I need to sleep in
because I’m tired”, or, “I have a soccer game to go to”, or “I want to go see a
sports game”, or “such and such team is playing and I need to be taking time
off for recreation”. Wrong—first things
first. Celebration of the Eucharist,
being here on a Saturday night or a Sunday morning is the A-1 priority. Put that first in our lives. We come as a community. Then all of the other things will have their
proper focus. When we come and celebrate
with the Lord in the Eucharist as we are doing tonight with all of these other
good people here, then you will go forth from this Eucharist tonight and again
love what’s worth loving. Your
family. Your children. Your other relationships.
Thirdly: Another new table maybe we could put up in
our temple would be what I call cultivating a spiritual insight. That reality that really flowing from the
first reading, from the Commandments.
The idea that all of us are made in the image and likeness of God. The fifth commandment, Thou Shall not Kill
really is talking about respect for life, a respect for every human being that
walks this earth. What’s my spiritual
insight? Do I see that every person that
God has put on this earth is somebody worth loving and respecting and
honoring? Do I honor my own temple, my
body? How to I take care of it? We could go into that first commandment. I am the Lord Your God, you shall not have
and strange gods before Me. I bet if I
walked into any of your homes here tonight I'm not going to see a shrine set up
in your house and a golden calf sitting there huh? Are any of you worshiping those kind of
idols? Probably not. But what are some of the other idols maybe we
set up in our lives? You know, money,
comfort, power, control, self-righteousness, greed? Those are idols. So I cultivate spiritual insight.
Fourthly: Another table we could probably put up in our
temples, in ourselves would be “I’ll strive for integrity of character.” What I mean by that is we would never do
anything to compromise who we are. We
are not going to take the cheap way out.
I’m not going to act this way with this person when I’m with my friends
and then when I’m with another group of people act an entirely different
way. Am I a person of integrity? As they say, “What you see is what you
get.” Or do I wear a mask? How do I act around my friends? Around strangers? When I’m alone or when I’m with a thousand
people? Do I compromise my
integrity?
Lastly I think a fifth, I
call a table, getting rid of something old, putting something new in would
be: I will take my time, my energies, my
talents and put them into things that are building up the community. Now we all have our own families, no doubt
about it. But we know that there is a
wider family of God out here. There’s
the parish family. There’s the families,
the communities of Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, Maple Grove. There’s the State of Minnesota. There’s the USA. And there’s the whole, wide world. What am I doing to participate in that? How to I volunteer? How to I give of my extra time—and who has
extra time? But what am I doing somehow
to build up this body of Christ, this wider temple of the Lord? Is there somehow I could try to do something
to alleviate hunger? Maybe work at
CEAP. Maybe join one of the parish
commissions. Join one of the
ministries. Maybe I could say, “I will
commit an extra hour each week or each month in praying for these needs, in
praying for the people who are struggling, in praying for the people who are
out of work. Or maybe I will join a job
club and try to help people find a job if I’m still blessed with my own job.” Somehow that I get out of myself to be more
concerned about somebody else. A great
table to build up.
So those are five simple
little things as taken from the image of the gospel, tearing down, letting go
of some old table and putting something different and new in its place. I will love people, not things. I would put first things first. I will develop spiritual insight. I’ll have integrity of my character. And then I will do something that benefits
the community outside of me, myself and I.
Wonderful things for us to
pray and work up, knowing that we do have power and strength of the Lord
Himself. Remember that everywhere you go
tonight, tomorrow, every day you bring the presence of God. Everywhere you go is holy ground, a sacred
space, because you are the living temple of God.
So treat your temple, honor
yourself well, in the same way you bring that honor and that respect to
others. The Lord is with us, dwelling
within us. This is sacred space in
everywhere your feet take you.