Sermon: 7th March 2021 – 3rd Sunday in Lent
Text:
1 Corinthians 1:18-25 – The true church
The
Ten Commandments play a foundational role not just in the life of Christians
but in society also. But it depends from which angle you look at them as to
whether you truly appreciate them or not. From one angle they might appear
restrictive.
You
know how it goes – Christians are party poopers and kill joys – you can’t do
this, you can’t do that. Always critical and judging of others. But from a
different angle they appear as a blessing protecting us from harm. For example
– you shall not steal is as much as a commandment that protects us from others
stealing our property as it is a direction to us limiting our behaviour. But is
that all the Christian Church stands for? Is that the sole purpose for our
existence – to ensure that people do the right thing and refrain from the wrong
thing? Of course not.
The
Christian Church is to be where people are able to find a relationship with
God. When Jesus comes into the temple today he is furious that the people are
misusing the temple for what its purpose was intended. The temple, like the
church today, was where people found their relationship with God. Again, as in
previous weeks, Mark’s gospel is rather brief in its narrative but from
Matthew’s Gospel we hear what Jesus said to the people misusing the Temple: My
house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers. Prayer
is our communication in our relationship with God. Jesus saw the temple as a
house of prayer – a place where people come to be with God. A place of peace
and serenity but it was anything but that when Jesus arrived. And we also know
that the temple, because of Jesus’ death is no longer the physical building
where people gather, which is what Jesus meant when he said he would rebuild
the temple in 3 days. Likewise the church, in today’s understanding, is not the
physical building where Christians gather but rather it is the gathering of
Christians together irrespective of where we meet. Remember Paul’s teaching –
that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Hence Jesus comment –
wherever 2 or 3 are gathered there I am in the midst of them.
In
the early church Christians would gather in homes – in smaller groups. As the
church grew it became necessary to build purpose built buildings to gather
Christians together and somewhere along the line the church building became our
understanding of the church. And as we saw during the height of the pandemic we
had to rethink our understanding of church because our church buildings were
closed for public gatherings and we therefore thought our churches were closed.
We
discovered ways to connect through zoom and YouTube but that didn’t really help
those who didn’t have that technology. We also struggled with the idea of
whether consecrating the bread and wine through that technology was valid or
not – and we are still trying to understand that and whether that excludes
those who don’t have that technology or don’t feel comfortable with it.
So,
as you can see, we are moving in a direction that is challenging our
understanding of church and community especially when we have challenges still
ahead of us even though restrictions have been eased. Limits on numbers. Many
not comfortable returning. Possibilities of further lockdowns. People whose
health is compromised. And when you consider that our church buildings mostly
remain empty for the week except for around 2 hours a week we are challenged to
perhaps rethink – what is church. Perhaps part of our problem is that we have
associated the church building with the church to the point that the bigger the
church the more successful and blessed we believe we are. Even to the point
that those who do not attend church we have considered as lapsed Christians –
simply because they are not in the church building on a Sunday.
As
a result we have often times been more concerned about building up our numbers
rather than building up our faith. And I know that a lot of this has to do with
finances. The more we can get into our church buildings the more offerings we
can receive. But are we falling into the category of what Jesus encountered
today. Their temple had become a place that was focused on money first. The
money changers had entered the temple in order to exchange the roman currency
which was considered unclean to temple funds. And, as a result, have we focused
more on human strength as signs of success in the church rather than God’s
strength.
When
we look at churches side by side – and we see a church that gathers a thousand
on a Sunday compared to a church that gathers under a hundred – don’t we start
to ask – how come they are so successful – what are we doing wrong. Paul warned
against that reminding us that God’s weakness is more powerful that human
strength. Remember Jesus’ telling us about the poor widow who put into the
temple treasury – the church offering – 2 small copper coins – while the rich
put in thousands of dollars – and he proclaimed that she put in more than all
the rest because of her faith in God. Is it time for the church to look again
at what it means to be church? To look again to what it means to be community?
I
don’t know what the answer is but I do know that I have been called to serve
you with Word and Sacrament and to preach Christ crucified – which is the power
of salvation to us who are being saved. That’s not saying at all that our
Sunday church gatherings here are not important but if this pandemic has taught
us anything it has taught us to think again about where the church is – who the
church is and why the church is.
Where
is the church? Our Lutheran Confessions say that wherever the Gospel is
proclaimed and where the Sacraments are administered according to the Gospel –
there is church.
Who
is church? You are the church. You are the body of Christ. You are the temple
of the Holy Spirit.
And
the why question of the church. To proclaim Christ crucified, the power of God
to save. So let us look to see how we can let Christ rebuild this temple to
reflect his image and be the true body of Christ to us and the world.
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