Do you remember this little rhyme? “Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people.” Too often we have associated the church building as representing the “church”. In the past year, if we have learned anything at all from the pandemic, it is that the “church” is not a building. Having been unable to physically meet in our church building only served to reinforce the statement many of us have said before, “The church is not a building.”
So, then, what is the “church”?
I think that is a question that lots of churches, denominations, and ecclesiastical bodies are struggling with right now. Though it is not a “new’ question, it is a question that has been pushed lately with more urgency as the pandemic has amplified the fact that it is not “business as usual”. No, it is not as the “church” is struggling and folks are wondering if the “church” as we know it is going to survive in a way that is recognizable to those who claim to be the faithful. It is a big question.
I want us to think about this as we explore our scripture reading for this morning as we make the spiritual journey through this season of Lent trying to understand our own faith and understanding its impact on our lives. Our reading deals with Jesus clearing the temple courts in Jerusalem of the vendors and moneychangers. You know the story . . . Jesus shows a little less than the normal restraint one expects from him as he fashions a whip out of cords, turns over tables, and generally gets testy with those selling. He exclaims to them: “Get out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” We get it . . . Jesus is not happy with what is happening in this sacred place.
We also know that those who witness what happens question where he gets the “authority” to do what he is doing. What gives him the right to upset the apple cart and the way that things have always been done . . . to disrupt the economy of it all? To which he responds rather cryptically, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
Of course, that statement seemed ridiculous to those who heard it. Everyone knew that it had taken forty-six years for the temple to be built into what it was in that present moment . . . so, yeah right! Jesus was going to rebuild it in three days! A ridiculous idea . . . ridiculous statement. But, like everyone else let in on the secret from the writer of the Gospel of John, Jesus is speaking metaphorically. The writer tells us that he is not speaking about the actual temple, but of his own body . . . this would be the temple that would be built in three days. And, to emphasis that point, the writer tells us that this is how the disciples end up understanding it once Jesus is raised from the dead.
Good, sound theology. I am not going to argue with this interpretation as it has been found acceptable for generations of the faithful from the beginning. Yet, at the same time, I am also not going to deny that there are many levels and understandings of the words that Jesus spoke. And, that the faithful must explore all the layers of Jesus’ words and actions to get at the heart of what he means. With this being said, I think that we step into the idea of Jesus’ words being pointed at the “temple” . . . the symbolic representative of the so-called “church” of his day . . . and, that his statement of “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” is a challenge to those in power and control of the sacred.
Apparently, the vendors and moneychangers holding shop in the courtyard of the temple goes against how Jesus envisions the faithful and how they conduct business and life. As we always say when preaching or teaching this passage, the vendors and moneychangers were advantageous in the treatment of their customers often taking advantage of them. Many of those who were taken advantage of could not afford being fiscally gouged. This was wrong as far as Jesus was concerned . . . wrong for many reasons, but most of all that it kept people from freely worshipping God. Yet, we also like to throw in there a little background knowledge that this corruption was not limited to those in the courtyards hawking their wares . . . there was also the black market business being conducted out the back door of the temple where the priests were taking the sacrificial offerings and selling them for consumption and pocketing the profits. Throw on top of that the general understanding that we derive from the gospels, the so-called “church” of Jesus had lost its way, became enamored in the politics and power of the time, and forgot its focus of serving the people.
Based on that . . . I must wonder if Jesus wasn’t implying that the “church” as they understood it needed to change. His statement fits . . . look at how the “church” changed after he was raised from the dead. Remember, Jesus did not come to destroy the law but to enforce the law as God desired it to be . . . to establish God’s Kingdom. What we see happen after the resurrection is nothing less than a reformation within the “church” of that time . . . a reformation that continues to this day as we deal with the question of “what is church?”
Someone posed the rhetorical question to me about which church Jesus would attend if he were suddenly to come back. It is something to ponder, but I am not sure that there is a certain answer that will satisfy everyone. I believe there are no churches that would entice Jesus to join. I say this because I do not think that Jesus was even thinking about this idea of “church”. In fact, Jesus never spoke of “church” as we understand and practice it. Never did he mention “church” in the words that he spoke. Others like the Apostle Paul do in the epistles of the Bible . . . but, Jesus does not.
The building we call “church” has come to prioritize “worship” . . . the gathering of the faithful for praise and thanksgiving . . . the fellowship that is shared by those gathered . . . as the central purpose of the “church”. And, as good as that is, that is a minor part of what “church” is about. Unfortunately when we embrace that the word “worship” only represents such gatherings then we diminish the words and challenge of Jesus when he tells us that we are to “love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength” . . . in other words our whole being and lives are thrown into the equation of being faithful and worshipping God. Worship is more than gathering to offer praise and thanksgiving . . . to fellowship among the faithful. Worship is how the faithful choose to live life.
As important as it is for the faithful to gather and worship through praise, thanksgiving, and fellowship . . . would that be enough for Jesus? One of the things about the pandemic, even though it makes the faithful question what it means to be a “church”, it has shown us that the “church” is not dead. Worshipping God has taken on new forms during the pandemic . . . people are discovering new ways to show their love of God and others without the need of a “building” and “structure” of “church”. If anything, the pandemic has pushed the urgency of needing to discover other ways of worshipping God in the broader sense of that word. The walls have been crumbling for some time now, and Jesus is urging the faithful to go ahead and tear them down . . . the embodiment of Jesus will rise from the rubble. The Kingdom of God will come.
During this season and journey of Lent we are challenged to explore our faith in the presence of Jesus, his life, and his call to follow him. Daily we are challenged to consider all the aspects of our faith and how we live . . . to weigh it against the model we have been given in Jesus. Is it stacking up? Is it working? Are we really following in the footsteps of Jesus? And, if not, are we willing to tear down the walls and change . . . change in the way we understand worship? Are we willing to contemplate what it is that God is calling the “church” and us to be considering the pandemic and the sweeping impact it has upon us all? Whatever we choose to do, we must remember that it is no longer “business as usual”. The “church” is not a building . . . it is the people—individually and together—serving the Lord with their whole being and lives to bring the Kingdom of God into existence and practice.
The journey continues . . . traveling mercies for us all. Amen.
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